Collect Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids, And The Bond Of Reading Edited By Lawrence Goldstone Distributed As E-Text

are like puzzles,” write Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone, “The authors ideas are hidden, and it is up to all of us to figure them out, ” In this indispensable reading companion, the Goldstonesnoted parentchild book club expertsencourage grownups and young readers alike to adopt an approach that will unlock the magic and power of reading.


With the Goldstones help, parents can inspire kids lifelong love of reading by teaching them how to unlock a books hidden meaning, Featuring fun and incisive discussions of numerous childrens classics, this dynamic guide highlights key elementstheme, setting, character, point of view, climax, and conflictand paves the way for meaningful conversations between parents and children.


“Best of all,” the Goldstones note, “you dont need an advanced degree in English literature or forty hours a week of free time to effectively discuss a book with your child.
This isnt Crime and Punishment, its Charlottes Web, ” I love their take on discussing books with kids! I used to teach middle school English, so helping kids discover elements like plot, setting, characters, and theme is nothing new to me.
But I love the way they approach it! And Im ashamed to say that I didnt know the fully accurate definitions of protagonist and antagonist until they explained them in this book.
They really encourage children to peel back the layers of a story, to find what the author was trying to say, and to think critically about both the message and the way the author presented it.
I really wish Id read this book while I was still teaching, but Im looking forward to using their methods as I homeschool my own children! Being both a newly passionate reader and a homeschooling mom working her way out of a job, this book was an amazing and encouraging read.
The authors recount their parentchild book club journey giving numerous and specific examples of titles, topics, conversations, and methods of discussing good and great works of literature.
Who would have thought we could introduce literary criticism to parents and their young children at the same time I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of this work: “You wouldnt believe someone who said it didnt matter what your child ate as long as they ate something, and then fed them candy all day.
Reading is no different. ” In the end, this is a summarily engaging and helpful book, You just might be tempted to begin a club of your own, Quick to read, but gives you lots to ponder, Great insight into how to get children to critically think about literature, I tried to read this very quickly to pick up some ideas to use in our family, but not make too much of it all, I feel like our family is fairly inclined to read and interpret, I have huge issues with the notion that there is only one way to interpret a story a deep seeded resentment from middle/high school, But there were decent suggestions in here that were worthwhile, And I appreciate the book recommendations, I learned about this book from a podcast on the Read Aloud Revival website, which too has great book recommendations, This book takes you through protagonist and antagonist charactersit's deeper and more subtle than I ever realized, how to discover a fiction author's reason for writing a book, how to run a parent/child bookclub, AND a bunch of individual books that they love to read with elementaryage school kids and why I really love booklists.
I didn't know Jack London was a socialist, These authors say that Buck going to be head of the wolf pack was London's way of saying that employees are suppressed and kept from being who they really are by their employers.
THe title refers to their very first bookclub being about Mr, Poppers Penguins. I missed the fact that what made Mr, Popper different from his sleepy town is that he had a dream, There's a lot of great discussion that can go on around that, I missed it entirelywondered why so many people liked it, I hope I can read and think differently about fiction having read this book, Returned unfinished. It seemed that after the initial few chapters explaining how they got into parentchild book groups, each chapter was about a particular book, I skimmed the one about The Giver, because I really, really did not like that book, They very simply, yet thoroughly, analyzed the plot and problems and implications, I was impressed. I will definitely be checking this book out again, and the blueprint for understanding a book will stay with me, Highly recommended. Ever wanted to start a book club

Never know what questions to ask your children to get a deeper discussion from the books they're reading

Want to know how to deconstruct any book and teach any child to become a "book detective"


This is your book.
Such an easy, fast read packed with literal examples and discussions that you can apply to walk yourself and anyone else through a book to glean depth and a broader understanding.
The beauty of this book is truly in the application, Applying the concepts from this book will really do more than just give you a wellinformed reader, The application of this book is sure to change lives, how we interact with our children, how we view stories, authors, movies, and even how we choose to act in life.
It really is all about applying this book, I would highly recommend having these conversations with your children or perhaps with yourself,
My starting bias is thatnd graders are still learning to read and should be allowed to read books for enjoyment, That having and grader do literary analysis would be a good way to squelch burgeoning love of reading, The authors argue otherwise. However, the basics of literary analysis are also taught in school, so not sure why kids need an adultled literary analysisbased book club Seems like English class outside of school.


I prefer having more open discussions with my kids about what they are voluntarily reading, To let you know where I'm coming from, I'm a homeschool parent, I studied literature in college, and I'm a writer, And this book made me want to run headfirst into the nearest wall,

The Goldstones' premise is that when an author writes a book, they start out by thinking of some moral lesson they want to impart, then create a plot around it.
If kids are trained like dogs to sniff out the protagonist, antagonist, setting, climax, and other stuff that makes me sleepy, they can then peel all that away to find this object lesson.
Or something.

As a writer, let me tell you that this is crap, Books are not a mystery with a single correct answer tucked away inside for children to find like the prize in a Crackerjack box, They're stories. Messy works of word art that mirror life and make us feel things, All the things, if a book is particularly good,

Sure, they'd be much easier to teach if, like the Goldstones claim, you could sort them neatly into checklists using supposed clues left by the author and then find the shining, perfect moral in the middle, but they just don't work like that.
And no, I won't be shutting down my daughter's questions about her books if they "lead to dead ends or superficial observations" that don't "make steady identifiable progress," like they advise.
The idea makes me feel vaguely ill, in fact, I also won't be following their advice to never let my daughter read books that aren't really hard and don't provide fertile ground for handy charts, I mean, heaven forbid she enjoy a good story without having to come up with "insights about character, plot, and even the author's motives, " And let me tell you, no one can know the author's motives, Half the time, even the author has no idea, Stories that are created because the author had some kind of motive to teach kids a lesson usually suck, If I want someone to beat me over the head with morality about something or other for several hours, I'll call my mother,

Also, for some sick reason the authors feel the need to give away the ending of every book they discuss, so if you haven't read one of them yet, skip that section.
Love this idea of a Book Detective book club, Wish I was taught to read and critique books in this way, I've always had troubles taking a book to the next level after comprehension, I love how the children and parents participated together and opinions accepted as equals, A wonderful way to develop a love of learning and close relationships between book and child, parent and child, and adults and child, I am so inspired now use the tools provided and share with family and friends, Great insight and help in discussing books with young children, The youngest grade that the author had discussion with was second graders, She gives great examples throughout the book about leading book discussion with gradesand even three examples book of different grade levels at the end, This is a great read for parents of public school and homeschooled children as well as public and private school teachers, She approaches book discussions and digging in deep to the literature as a detective, which I think kids would

love, as the author has proven with her own experience.
You can read all of my reviews on my blog gt sitelinkCoverCoverMom Blog

,Stars

This was a very interesting little book about a husband amp wife team that run book clubs for parents amp their children,   The Goldstone team encourages book club members to be "book detectives" and work on breaking down books into their elements characters: protagonist vs antagonist, setting, themes, etc.
to really dig into what the author was trying to convey with the books they read,

The authors go through and talk about a selection of the books they frequently utilize in their book clubs in detail laying out questions they frequently ask amp how they get members to think like a "book detective.
"  I would like to warn readers that Deconstructing Penguins includes spoilers of all the books discussed, so if you do not want to be spoiled for these books, you might not want to pick this up.


I did think this would be a beneficial book for ELA teachers, librarians, parents, or youth book club leaders to pick up,    I really loved the idea of a parentchild book club as a way for parents to not only bond with their children, but also allow parents to instill a love for reading in their children.


My only criticism of the book would be that I STRONGLY disagree with the Goldstone's on their opinion on which books children should be reading.
. .

"What children read is important,   The theory that it doesnt matter what your child reads as long as he or she is reading something is plain wrong, "

I strongly disagree with this statement,   I subscribe to the theory that it doesn't matter what your children read as long as they are reading, whether that be graphic novels, comic books, sports magazines, etc.
  The whole point is to instill the love for reading into children so that they will grow up to be lifelong readers,   Allow those comic books and graphic novels to be gateways to fiction novels,   Allow sports magazines to be gateways to nonfiction books, I need to read this again,


An EXCELLENT resource for learning how to discuss literature with children, I had borrowed this from the library, but I'll be ordering my own copy which says a lot about how much I value its message!, .