Tag Archives: character
Fahrenheit 451: The dystopian future that’s become our present
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. 165 p. New York: Ballantine Books. 1953. Guy Montag is a third-generation fireman in a world where firemen are fire starters. An alarm gets raised, and Guy races to the reported site and burns every book on the premises. Book ownership has been outlawed. Literature, with its challenging concepts and provocative …
A Separate Peace: Tragedy and redemption at a boarding school during WW II
John Knowles. A Separate Peace. 236 p. London: Secker & Warburg Books.1959. Did you ever have a friend who was so beautiful, so popular, so winning, that it was painful? Gene Forrester is so envious of his roommate, Finny’s, attractiveness and athleticism that it clouds his reason. He begins to believe that Finny is sabotaging …
The Quarreling Book: Picture Book on the Contagiousness of Negative Behavior
Zolotow, Charlotte. The Quarreling Book. Illustrated by Lobel, Arnold. 30 p. New York: Harper & Row. 1963. Confession: I own a worn, first edition of this book. The lime green cover measures 5 inches by 6 inches. For a small book, it makes some big points. The Quarreling Book is less about quarreling, and more …
The Giving Tree: Picture Book about Selfishness and Selflessness
Silverstein, Shel. The Giving Tree. 54 p. New York: Harper & Row. 1964. Is unconditional love a good or bad thing? How much should someone sacrifice for someone else? Everything? These are the kinds of questions that The Giving Tree poses to readers. In Shel Silverstein’s spare text and illustrations, a loving relationship between a …
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Picture Book on Coping
Viorst, Judith. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. 28 p. New York: Atheneum. 1984. Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair and the day goes down hill from there. Everywhere Alexander goes, everything he does, turns out badly. He complains bitterly and threatens to move to Australia, but no one …
metlibrarian 