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| Bertie and Jeeves (Wikimedia) |
Note: Like Holmes and Watson, Jeeves is a capable problem solver, and his follower Bertie writes the "adventures" down. But here, the follower is technically the boss!
Get Ready: How do you feel about servants? Are they "second-class" citizens, or are they equal to their bosses?
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| The shepherd boy David plays the harp for troubled King Saul (Wikimedia) |
Note: No one in the history of Israel made a bigger splash than King David. Here is the story of his unlikely rise to power.
Get Ready: Do you think a country needs a monarch (king or queen), president, etc.? Or is a military leader good enough?
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| At home in the bunkhouse (Gutenberg) |
Note: Quick: What did Robert Louis Stevenson write? Would you be surprised to learn he wrote about his personal travels?
Get Ready: Have you ever visited an interesting place and then written about it--even a postcard? What sorts of things did you (or would) write about?
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| The mouse frees the lion (Wikimedia) |
Note: Who doesn't know--and love--the fables of Aesop? These simple tales contain a wealth of wisdom. Plus, they're entertaining!
Get Ready: Do you believe that only "the great" can be useful to others? What about the humble people, with lowly positions in society?
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| Adventure, Feb., 1912 (Gutenberg Australia) |
Note: There was a time--before television, even before movies--when people got their entertainment from weekly and monthly magazines--stories we still read today. Here's one.
Get Ready: How important are symbols--flags, patriotic songs, and so on--to you?
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| Keawe is out of spirits (Wikimedia) |
Note: This story throws some twists into the old "genie in a lamp" motif. Fascinating!
Get Ready: The age-old question: if you could have anything, what would you wish for? And at what cost?
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| (from a German wiki) |
Note: The Grimms published over 200 stories--most of which we never hear about, even though some, like this one, are really great!
Get Ready: What do you think of a lover who puts unfair conditions on his or her partner?
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| Harvey Cheyne Jr. is pulled into a fishing dory (Wikimedia) |
Note: Rudyard Kipling is famous for stories in exotic settings--India, for example. But this one happens mainly off the coast of Canada and New England!
Get Ready: Within reason, do you think children should be given anything they ask for, and allowed to do anything they want to? Why or why not?
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| Left to right: Horse, Sandy, Monkey, Tripitaka, Pigsy (Wikipedia) |
Note: Great books often lend themselves to a deeper way of reading. Let's see how that works with this popular Chinese novel.
Get Ready: Are you familiar with the Chinese novel (or Japanese TV show) about the Monkey King?
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| At his fall, "Satan first knew pain..." (Wikimedia) |
Note: Can Satan in any way ever be considered a hero? The answer of some literary scholars is YES!
Get Ready: What characteristics make a hero a hero, and a villain a villain?
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| Lady Charlotte Guest (Wikimedia) |
Note: One person--and a 19th-century woman at that!--is responsible or bringing us some of the earliest prose stories about King Arthur written down in what is now Great Britain.
Get Ready: How many languages do you speak? Do you wish to learn any more? Why or why not?
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| Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine as Maxim and Mrs. de Winter in the Hitchcock adaptation (Wikipedia) |
Note: The suspenseful novel Rebecca has a Hitchcockian twist at the end. No wonder Hitchcock made such a successful film of it!
Get Ready: What would you do if you learned you had a painful, fatal illness?
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| Scrooge and Marley: together again (Wikipedia) |
Note: Like any good book (or film), Dickens's A Christmas Carol never gets old, and we can find something new in it each time we read it. Let's zero in on the often-forgotten character of Jacob Marley: the fourth ghost.
Get Ready: What would it take to convince most people to change their bad habits?
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| Rhiannon as Pwyll first saw her (Wikipedia) |
Note: The Welsh myths found in The Mabinogion contain many wonderful stories. This is one of my favorites.
Get Ready: If a friend asks you for a favor, would you say "yes" without knowing what the favor was? What would you do for a stranger?
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| Street scene, Dublin, 1900s (Wikimedia) |
Note: Dubliners is the most accessible of James Joyce's fiction, and contains 15 superb short stories.
Get Ready: What phase of life are you in (adolescence, middle age, etc.)? What challenges do you face that are typical of that age?
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| An Itneg village (Wikimedia) |
Note: I love this Filipino tale, in which a lazy man succeeds with a little (or a lot) of help from his friends.
Get Ready: Is it okay to be lazy if you're clever enough?
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| Edward Bear is bumping down the stairs on the back of his head... (Gutenberg) |
Note: Winnie-the-Pooh--whose prototype lives today at the New York Public Library--is probably the world's most famous stuffed toy. Let's learn more about him.
Get Ready: Did you have a favorite toy (or other oject, like a blanket) that you dragged around when you were a kid?
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| Elsie Leslie Lyde as Little Lord Fauntleroy, painted by William Merritt Chase (Wikiart) |
Note: To a certain generation of Americans, "Little Lord Fauntleroy" inspired a way of dress; for the next, he inspired ridicule.
Get Ready: Is there a past fad in clothing or hairstyle that today is commonly made fun of?
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| Left to right: Simeon, Ivan, and Tarras "the fat" (Gutenberg) |
Note: This moral tale, itself simple, teaches the virtues of simplicity. It's also fun to read!
Get Ready: If you could have one wish at this very moment, what would it be?
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| Anne Frank's passport photo, taken two months before she and her family went into hiding.(Wikipedia) |
Note: A young girl's diary brings home the horrors of World War II in a way that few other books have.
Get Ready: Do you keep a diary (or have you ever)? Do you think it could be helpful to future historians?
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