Showing posts with label Short Stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Short Stories. Show all posts

“The Fruit Bowl Project” by Sarah Durkee

“The Fruit Bowl Project” by Sarah Durkee is an unusual book about a class writing project motivated by a famous rock star.

When the kids in Ms. Vallis’ eighth grade writer’s workshop learn that rock superstar Nick Thompson is come to speak with them they are thrilled. Suddenly writing seems a lot more exciting.

When the day finally comes and Nick Thompson actually walks in the classroom door it seems too good to be true. Of course the kids have a lot of questions about Nick’s music career and other subjects, and Nick answers them. But then he guides the kids back to the subject at hand: writing.

According to Nick Thompson the songs he writes are like a bowl of fruit. Just like a million artists could all paint that bowl of fruit from a different perspective, even a simple subject can be covered in an infinite number of ways through the power of writing.

Nick challenges the class to write a story in any style that they want. The plot is simple: a boy drops his pencil while taking a test in school. As he picks up the pencil he bumps a girl’s arm and the girl is very angry at him because he joggled her arm. The girl accuses the boy of dropping his pencil so that he could bend over and cheat by looking at her test. Later that day the boy tells his friend a joke that is so funny it makes him spew milk out of his nose all over his lunch. Both boys throw away their lunches.

The plot seems boring and totally simple. The children are incredulous. Is this the best that Nick Thompson can come up with? But then Nick Thompson tells them the point of the project. You can make any subject interesting. You just have to choose a unique perspective, just like the artists that are all painting an image of the same bowl of fruit but from different angles.

So the children of Ms. Vallis’ class embark on the Fruit Bowl Project, a project that will have exciting and fantastic results.

I really enjoyed “The Fruit Bowl Project” by Sarah Durkee. The book’s introduction is fairly short. Readers don’t get much of a chance to meet and bond with the characters. However, in the large view the point of “The Fruit Bowl Project” is not the characters, the students who will be the writers. Rather the focus is on their written work.

More than half of “The Fruit Bowl Project” is devoted to the finished product: a volume of forty-nine different pieces written about the same event. Among the eclectic results are raps, poems, sonnets, monologues, screen plays and musicals, newspaper articles, fairy tales, interviews, cross-examinations and horror stories.

Sarah Durkee must have had fun writing “The Fruit Bowl Project” and it comes through in her writing. The idea of portraying one simple event in so many different ways is simply genius and very inspiring as well.

I highly recommend that all young readers or aspiring writers experience “The Fruit Bowl Project” by Sarah Durkee.


Inkweaver Review Rating:
★★★★Plot
★★★★Characters
★★★★★Presentation
★★★★★Overall
Inkweaver Review 2010-11-09T08:00:00-06:00

“Firebirds Soaring,” edited by Sharyn November

“Firebirds Soaring,” edited by Sharyn November is a wonderful anthology of original speculative fiction from Firebird Books.Book Cover Art for Firebirds Soaring by Sharyn November

“Speculative fiction” is a term often attributed to Robert A. Heinlein. This term includes all writing about worlds that are unlike ours, including such genres as science fiction, fantasy, utopian and dystopian fiction, and apocalyptic fiction.

In “Firebirds Soaring” readers will find a variety of stories ranging in length from a few pages to almost one hundred pages. The stories also range in subject matter, covering all manner of fantasy worlds from all manners of time, from tens of thousands of years in the past, to far in the future. Contributers are some of the finest fantasy and science fiction writers on the market: Christopher Barzak, Clare Bell, Kara Dalkey, Candas Jane Dorsey, Mike Dringenberg, Carol Emshwiller, Nancy Farmer, Nina Keriki Hoffman, Ellen Klages, Marco Lanagan, Louise Marley, Nick O’Donohoe, Chris Roberson, Sherwood Smith, Nancy Springer, Jo Walton, Elizabeth E. Wein, Laurel Winter, Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple, and Marly Youmans.

Throughout “Firebirds Soaring” the individual stories are decorated by beautiful vignettes. My personal favorite was the very last story entitled “Something Worth Doing.” In this amazing creation writer Elizabeth E. Wein develops a strong a brave girl named Kim. When Kim’s older brother is killed in a tragic accident, she is irate at the way everyone remembers him as never applying himself to anything. Before his death Kim has been planning to stop his escapades and get serious by joining the Royal Air Force. He only lived long enough for his application to be accepted. By posing as her brother she joins the RAF and manages to make it through flight school. Soon she finds herself flying single pilot Spitfires over England defending the island from the invading Germans. All along Kim is motivated by a drive to make sure her brother is not remembered merely as a boy who wasted his life.

The entire effect of “Firebirds Soaring” is simply amazing. The stories have a scope and feeling behind them that gives the anthology as a whole great depth of expression. This worthy anthology is a must read for every fantasy lover.


Inkweaver Book Rating:

Plot

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★★★★★Overall

Inkweaver Review 2009-05-17T14:07:00-05:00

“Shelf Life – Stories by the Book,” edited by Gary Paulson

“Shelf Life – Stories by the Book,” edited by Gary Paulson is a collection of ten original short stories about how books and writing effect people. What stood out to me most in this innovative collection was the array of different writing genre's presented.

Ellen Conford starts the collection with her story “In Your Hat,” a humorous anecdote about a book review that brings comeuppance upon a practical joker.

Margaret Peterson Haddix continues the book with “Escape,” the story of how a girl who lives with her mother in a homeless shelter comes to understand why books are so important.

“Follow the Water” by Jennifer L. Holm is a science fiction story about a young girl on Mars. The conditions that she must experience are nothing like the fantastic descriptions in the science fiction stories that she read about the Red Planet!

“Testing, Testing, 1...2...3,” by A. LaFaye is about how a boy finally discovers how to do well in school thanks to a magic book given to him by the woman next door.

Gregory Maguire contributed “Tea Party Ends in Bloody Massacre, Film at 11,” the tale of a young tomboy girl who subdues her taste for horror fiction to please her mother's society neighbors.

“What's a Fellow to Do?” by Kathaleen Karr is the story of a young pickpocket during the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The tale has a decidedly remote connection to the Bible story of Moses, but it was still included.

“Wet Hens” by Ellen Whitlinger is the tale of two girls who form a friendship thanks to a book that they both read when they were young children.

“The Good Deed,” by Marion Dane Bauer is about a girl who volunteers to read to a blind woman. At first she just thinks of it as a job until she realizes that what she is doing should be more than a duty.

“Baracole for Paper and Bones,” by M.T. Anderson is a horror story about a deserted ship. The ship's logs, journals, and all records should explain where the crew and captain are, but instead they each tell a different story, with a different terrifying ending.

Finally, “Clean Sweep,” by Joan Bauer explains how a book helps an old woman to make peace with a sister that she had a falling out with many years ago.

“Shelf Life – Stories by the Book,” is quite a fascinating collection of book based stories. Some of them are better written than others, but all together they stand as a solid collection with varied genres and messages that stand solidly. Best of all, sales of this book benefit ProLiteracy Worldwide, to help promote reading skills for everyone.

I would recommend “Shelf Life – Stories by the Book” to readers who love books.

Inkweaver Book Rating:


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Inkweaver Review 2009-02-19T10:10:00-06:00