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I am having my students practice visualizing when they read. We have read some good character and setting descriptions from Harry Potter and The Secret Garden. I need some more really good descriptions that paint a clear picture of a character or a setting in a book. Any ideas?? The kids are elementary age.
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I read your example as "Harry Potter and the Secret Garden" and it had me scratching my head trying to figure out which volume in the series that was before I realized they were seperate books
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In A Wizard of Earthsea, there was a wonderful scene when Ged first got to the Wizarding school. Le Guin just lists off a bunch of items in the room. It was just a bunch of nouns. But it was really effective for me visualizing the room.
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quote:Originally posted by GaalDornick: I read your example as "Harry Potter and the Secret Garden" and it had me scratching my head trying to figure out which volume in the series that was before I realized they were seperate books
I might have finished The Secret Garden, if there had been more Potter in it.
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The absolute best visual imagery I have read in a book has to be from Gabrielle Hamilton's chef memoir "Blood, Bones and Butter."
You could perhaps get creative with your excerpting, but elementary school students absolutely should not read this book. Or even try to find it on their own until they are 18.
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*wincing because the alt-titles people are suggesting don't make sense - the titles only combine nicely if the second book begins with "The"*
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Okay, the only one that didn't really make sense was "Harry Potter and the Slaughterhouse Five"
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Thanks for the suggestions. Sorry I wasn't very clear with the title...actually, I'm not sorry, I was quite entertained reading them.
Those books could be great creative writing prompts..."Harry Potter and the..."
Some early-reader/writer friendly titles might be: "Harry Potter and the Magic Treehouse" "Harry Potter and the BFG" "Harry Potter and Captain Underpants"
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Harry Potter and the Vogon Poetry Harry Potter and the Sixth Doctor Harry Potter and the Fish Speakers Harry Potter and the ADHD Grecian Godspawn Harry Potter and the AD Carry Harry Potter and the Crystalline Entity Harry Potter and the Mandalorian Clone Harry Potter and the Encounter Suit
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quote:That was my favorite. It has a nice ring to it. [Big Grin]
The reason it didn't make sense was because the second book title actually has to have "the" as the first word, in order to get parsed in the hilarious fashion that the OP did.
Just saying "Harry Potter and the X" is a different joke, which... well, I'm not gonna say your enjoyment is wrong, but I think it's more clever to find pairs of book titles that actually parse into fun phrases, rather than picking random neat Xs.
(for example, it wouldn't be "Harry Potter and the Game of Thrones", it'd be "Harry Potter and *a* Game of Thrones")
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In terms of the original question, what about The Phantom Tollbooth? I haven't read it in a while, but I remember the character descriptions in it being fairly vivid.
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J.K. Rowling is going to write another sequel in which the recently graduated Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts and engages in a torrid whirlwind affair with Professor McGonagall.
It's going to be called Harold Potter and Maude.Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Speed: J.K. Rowling is going to write another sequel in which the recently graduated Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts and engages in a torrid whirlwind affair with Professor McGonagall.
quote:Originally posted by Jake: In terms of the original question, what about The Phantom Tollbooth? I haven't read it in a while, but I remember the character descriptions in it being fairly vivid.
Yeah, that book rules.
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