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Throughout the book, Nation, by Terry Pratchett, stereotyping others comes up again, and again.  The English stereotype the Islanders as Savages, and the Islanders stereotype the English as "trousermen," as greedy, mean people.

"…Now, can we get on with things before we get eaten, for goodness’ sake?"  Daphne’s grandmother (a trouserwoman) says this when talking about the islanders.  Many English people view the Islanders as all savage cannibals.  Although there are islander tribes that practice cannibalism in the story, this certainly wasn’t one of them.  However, it would be a stereotype to say that all the trousermen view the Islanders like this.  Daphne did at first when she pointed the gun at Mau, but she quickly learns the truth, and shares it with her father, the King.

The Islanders also stereotype the trousermen.  Milo and Pilu were skeptical of Daphne when they first arrived on the island, and they had lots of experience with trousermen from being on a boat with them for a while.  However, when Daphne helps Milo’s wife with giving birth, they gain respect for her.  They no longer think of her as a greedy Hooty Tooty English girl.  The other people who arrive at the island are skeptical of her at first, they all gain respect.  Some trousermen who visit the island are greedy murderers like First Mate Cox, but the Islanders realize that they are different from others.

Although the Islanders and Trousermen have their stereotypes, they usually come around and realize that there are many different types of people from each society.  Even the snobby Trouserman grandmother warms up to the Islanders when she helps the toothless Mrs. Gurgle (as Daphne calls her) with chewing her food.  Throughout the book, stereotyping other does come up, but the truth is usually resolved.

Response to Question # 4 from Nation Discussion Guide.

Silent Spring is a book about the danger of pesticides and DDT by Rachel Carson.  She talks about a lot of incidents where humans ignorantly tried to control pest with pesticides and just made things worse.

In some cases, humans were even killed or became seriously ill from being in sprayed fields or touching the nozzle of the hose used for spraying. 

In one case the forest service sprayed a forest with DDT to kill off the pest spruce budworm, which were causing harm to the spruce trees.  But, with the spruce budworm controlled, the spider mites no longer had the predator and they multiplied.  They became more of a harm to the forest than the spruce budworm ever were. 

This is only one example of how pesticides are bad for the environment, and how trying to control pests can make things worse.

The book, Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin, is about 16 year old Liz.  Liz dies in a bicycle accident.  Then, she discovers that when you die you go to Elsewhere.  Elsewhere is just like Earth, except instead of getting older you get younger until you are 7 days old and get sent back to Earth to be reborn.

Liz makes several friends, including her Grandma Betley and Boyfriend Owen.  Things get complicated when Own’s wife from Earth dies.

I like this book because it gives an interesting new perspective on the afterlife, and how maybe, it’s not so different from Earth!

This book is about a girl named Camie Morgan, who goes to a spy school.  One of her best friends, Macy, is the daughter of the future Vice President.  When people attack Macy and Camie on a roof top, they realize that maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with the elections!  Maybe it has to do with them being Gallagher Girls.

I like this book because it is my dream.  I think it would be positively the bestest thing ever to go to a spy school like Cammie’s.

This book is about Gigi, a girl who is incredibly good at computers.  Gigi’s parents died when she was very little.  She goes to a special school for people who are incredibly good at stuff and have no family.

There, she quickly makes a  new family.  And before long she is sent on her first mission – modeling.

I liked this book because it combines spying with the world of fashion.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon is a thrilling adventure set in New York City during the 1940’s. In this story Joe Kavalier and Sammy Klayman struggle with self liberation. Chabon did an exceptional job in portraying different ways people can escape reality.

Joe is a suave Jewish young man who grew up in the Czech Slovakia during World War II. He also excels is drawling and performing escape acts like Houdini did. When he arrived in NYC he was overwhelmed by the traffic and the blinking lights and the possibility that he too could make it big in the comic book industry. Sammy is Jewish as well. He is a loud mouth and has big dreams of making his fortune in the comic book industry. They work together in writing the comic book, The Amazing Midget Radio, which is about the superhero “The Escapist.” Many things that happen to Joe and Sammy deeply affect them and completely change their lives. One important thing that occurs is when Joe meets Rosa Luxemburg and falls in love. Rosa is Joe’s inspiration for one of the comic book character, Luna Moth. Prior to meeting Rosa, Joe was depressed because he missed his family back in the Czech Slovkia. By dating Rosa he kept himself from thinking about his family. Sammy often questions his sexual identity. He falls is love with Tracy Bacon but eventually turns him down after being sexually abused by another man.

It is very likely that the reasons behind Chabon writing an escape novel has to do with him enjoying escape himself. As a child, the author Michael Chabon loved comic books. This is what inspired him to write the adventurous, comic book derived novel Kavalier & Clay. He especially enjoyed Captain America and The Hulk. He deeply admired Jack Kirby, the author of both comics and had planned on interviewing him for his book but Kirby died before Chabon could. He can use the comic books that he loves so much as a method of escape from the real world.

The original book jacket was designed to look like The Escapist defeating a villain. It is supposed to look like an old comic book. Notice how the picture is done in dots and notice the way the artist drew the movement of the superhero beating up the villain? This is how comic books looked back in the day. The book jacket symbolizes the world of comic books a world in which you can escape from reality into stimulating supernatural worlds.

I believe that the main theme of this book is Escapism, but not just freeing from a physical hold. The main character in the comic books that Joe and Sammy writes name is The Escapist. Joe escapes from the Nazi infested Prague in a coffin. Sammy metaphorically escapes from himself. He has a polio-stricken body and he is not sure about whether or not he is homosexual. Sammy tries his best to escape himself by marrying Rosa, Joes lifetime love, while Joe was away in the army. He does this to escape his questionable homosexuality. He wants to change himself and in a sense escape from himself. He succeeds and this is what makes the book at least a bit interesting.

This book was very long and got a bit tiresome after a while. I do not recommend this book to younger audiences because it is difficult to read and has some inappropriate things in it. Some parts of the book can be very dull while other parts can be exciting and trilling. Because I tend to be a slow reader the book bored me, but I can imagine it thrilling to a fast reader. This book could act as an escape route for the reader. It would take them from the 21^st century and deposit them into the New York during the 1940’s. Over all, it depends on whether you are a good fast paced reader in which case go ahead and read the book, or a slower paced reader in which case you might not want to read this. This is the type of novel that has a great storyline but what you get out of it will depend on what type of reader you are.

Click here to buy this book!

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The book "New Boy" by Julian Houston follows a common theme of many teenage level books: breaking the system.

In "New Boy", Rob Garret is a southern black boy attending an all white high school in the north.  This is during the time when there is still segregation in the South. He is the first and only black student at the school.  While Rob is struggling to keep his honor roll in the North, his friends are organizing a sit in at a store that practices segregation in the South.  Rob returns south so that he could participate in the sit in by handing out flyers in front of the store.

Like in "Little Brother", "Hacking Harvard", and "1984", Rob and his friends fight the system.  Since the whites had decided that the blacks were lower than them, then they could not do the same things as them.  Blacks had to sit at the back of the bus.  Blacks couldn’t eat or even sit at the coffee shop in stores.  Well, to deliberately sit at the coffee shop and wait until you’re served when you’re black?  That’s fighting the system!

Rob also learns that racism takes place in the north also, only it’s different.  Carrot, a popular bully who goes to high school in the north, does not bully Rob.  But, he does bully Rob’s friends.  They endlessly bully Vinnie because Vinnie has bad acne.  They throw shaving cream bombs in his room at midnight and hide dog crap in his closet.  They even segregate the bathroom by putting up signs that say "Vinnie’s toilet" and "Vinnie’s sink."

Dom is a poor Jewish Italian who lives in Napoli.  When his mother puts him on a boat headed to Ellis Island all Dom wants is to go back to his family in Napoli.  He just needs to find a way. 

Although he knows next to nothing about New York he listens and observes.  Its also helpful that his mother gave him a pair of nice shoes which helps him because people think he is rich.  He meets people and makes many friends because he is so nice and helpful and honest.  But Dom still wants to get home. 

So he and his friends Tin Pan Alley and Gaetano open a sandwich shop with the help of Grandinetti a fresh produce seller and a trusted friend of Dom.  They discover that they can buy a long sandwich for 25 cents and sell a quarter of it for 25 cents.  Before long people begin to trust their business and he’s selling thousands of sandwiches. 

He earns enough money to go home but he no longer wants to.  He has built too much trust and so many friendships.  Because Dom has become The King of Mulberrry Street.

The book, Paint The Wind, by Pam Munoz Ryan, is about a girl, Maya, who has been living with her no-nonsense Grandmother (on her dad’s side) since both of her parents died in a car accident.  She is practically imprisoned by her Grandma who absolutely hates Maya’s dead mom.  She bars anything with any relation to her mom from the house.

Maya yearns to learn more of her mother, and the horses that her mom deeply loved.  When her grandma dies a sudden death, Maya is sent to live with the family from her mothers side.  Her grandma had always called them dirty hillbillies and that’s why she never took Maya to see them. 

Maya learns that almost everything her grandma taught her was wrong.  She learns to understand other people, like her cuz in Payton who acts very annoying but when she gets to know him she realizes now nice he is.  She learns to love her Grandpa Moose, Uncle Fig, and Aunt Vi.  And she learn to trust Artamasia, her moms horse.  When the horse and get caught in a storm and are forced to live in wilderness they bond like glue. 

Maya learns to be a better person and she learns a big lesson in life, to live a little.

The Willoughby’s are a truly old fashioned family.  They even find a baby on their doorstep.  The children – Tim, Barnaby A, Barnaby B, and Jane – all decide that they should be orphans.  They begin conducting a malevolent plan to get rid of their parents.  The plan included sea voyages and pirates.  Little do they know that their parents are also conducting a truly diabolical plan to get rid of them that includes an odious nanny, and a real estate agent.

Manny classic stories, including Mary Poppins, Huckleberry Finn, and Polyanna, make an appearance in this story.  Things including villains, odious nannies, abandoned infants, long lost relatives, and late –life romance declare this story an “old-fashion” parody.