Are you ready to do some jabberwalking? Or to head out on a cruise to ‘Ship-Trap island’? Some dangerous game hunting perhaps (as for me, i would stay out of the last two choices above and pick jabberwalking myself!)
And while you are here, if you are feeling lucky, go ahead and enter the Lucky Leprechaun giveaway on my blog here!
For the Short Story Reading Challenge – Deal Me In 2018, here is my pick for last week and my list of selected reading for this year’s challenges can be found here.
Week 12 Deal Me In The Card: 8 of Diamonds (and finally in my shopping cart – the Alice cards deck – you can check them out here)
The Selection: This was a wildcard and I ended up with the short story by Richard Connell – The Most Dangerous Game – this was my son’s pick from his reading at school for me. You can read it here.
Description: (from GoodReads) The Most Dangerous Game features a big-game hunter from New York who becomes shipwrecked on an isolated island in the Caribbean and is hunted by a Russian aristocrat.
My Thoughts: As I read this short story, it reminded me of ‘The Lord of the Flies’, of ‘And Then There Were None‘, of ‘The Hunger Games’, of dystopian lore in general, of ‘The Twenty One Balloons‘ (there the natives of that island where the shipwrecked main character finds himself are definitely friendlier!), and yet, it stands apart as well from all these stories it reminded me of. And that is enough of a hint (or spoiler) for this short yet brilliant read.
My son now loves to discuss books and stories he reads with me and I have in the past few weeks read many of the short stories they are reading in school (including ‘Button, Button‘ by Richard Matheson, this story here, and a couple more whose names I cannot recall but I am glad to have read and glad my son is reading them, and even though he is reading these as part of school reading, he is actually enjoying them and asking me for more recommendations from stories I have read(and that makes me feel so good!).
Well, back to the story now: A diabolical genius villain with a loyal giant of a manservant, a fallen-off-the-yacht clever master hunter, a dreaded island known as ‘The Ship-Trap Island’ – these elements along with the fact that the villain’s ennui means he is now hunting the most dangerous game in the world make this story a truly sinister read, and worth your time (and of course, it is a short story, so go ahead and read it!)
To Sum It Up: As I said before, a truly sinister read!! (so for older readers – high school and older)
Jabberwalking – March 13, 2018by Juan Felipe Herrera (Author, Illustrator)
Description: Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Mexican-American Poet Laureate in the USA, is sharing secrets: how to turn your wonder at the world around you into weird, wild, incandescent poetry. Can you walk and talk at the same time? How about Jabberwalk? Can you write and draw and walk and journal all at the same time? If not, you’re in luck: exuberant, blue-cheesy cilantro man Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the United States, is here to teach you everything he knows about being a real-life, bonified, Jabberwalking poet! Jabberwalkers write and speak for themselves and others no matter where their feet may take them — to Jabberwalk is to be a poet on the move. And there’s no stopping once you’re a Jabberwalker, writing fast, fast, fast, scribble-poem-burbles-on-the-run. Scribble what you see! Scribble what you hear! It’s all out there — vámonos!
Starting off with words from Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, this book talks about finding poetry everywhere, in everything you see, do, hear, feel – in short – in using all your senses and scribbling down (literally) the words that pop out of your brain and convert them into poetry; and you can do it – on the move, wherever, whenever, scribble down your thoughts (even if and especially when they don’t make sense!) – and then use those treasured scribbles, polish them down to precious poetry!Herrera’s words dance across the pages, they whisper, scream, jump up and down (most likely with joy!), move between planets, play with doodles and drawings and scribbles, and share space with stories from his life of his journey to becoming who he is today, and draw you in to simply – CREATE!So, come on, vamanos, let us all go do some jabberwalking!! Not yet, you say? You want to read the book first? Sure, in that case, see you all later, as for me, I am going to do me some jabber-walking-dancing 🙂
Reading Level: Ages 8 – 12 (and all those who love wacky poetry, creativity, and words that zip zap and zoom all over – so, well, all ages!)
Reread Level: 4.5/5Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an advanced digital review copy of Jabberwalking (and through this, helping me discover this wonderful gifted poet laureate)Linking the book to What are you Reading? From Picture Books to YA at Teach Mentor Texts and for my Net Galley Edelweiss challenge for the year
I will pass these along to my grandson. Thanks for the recommendations.
thank you Roy.. the short story is for older readers (high school and above) while the book is for all ages, according to me 🙂
Somehow I had never heard of The Most Dangerous Game. It sounds like the kind of book that might really interest my oldest son. Thanks for sharing and have a GREAT reading week!
Shaye, Thank you for your comments and visits always! This is a short story (and my son just finished reading it for his 9th grade reading)..
I love how your son picked the story for you to read for a wild card! What a great idea!
I’ve read this story before, but remember very little about it except the basic plot. It’s a reasonably “famous” story though and I think has been frequently anthologized.
I don’t know how old your son is, but maybe you should get him to do a “guest post” for one of your stories some day… 🙂
Jay, thank you for the suggestion, I will use this comment to inspire him to write for me (he is in high school and the guest post thing is something I have been asking him to do for me:) )..
I love the most dangerous game! It is one of my favorite stories from high school
Thanks so much for the interesting reading recommendations!! I had never heard of these before…
Great that you are discussing books with your son. I am going to read the most dangerous game. Sounds like a good story.
Jabberwalking sounds unique & interesting.
I never heard of this so I find it quite interesting. Thanks.
This looks like a great book to read. I and my daughter love to read St Clares..