Blog 1: Lars and the Real Girl

What are your first reactions to Lars and the Real Girl? What is interesting about the setting, the characters, the costumes, etc.?

Blog 5: Pobby and Dingan

What does Ashmol agree to do for Kellyanne? What do you think about this agreement? What does Mr. Dan Dunkley think about it? In the last line of chapter 12, Mr. Dan says that the preacher will think he's "doolally." What do you think "doolally" means?

Blog 4: Pobby and Dingan

Who is Peter Sidebottom? Why do you think Ashmol's mother is looking at his picture in the middle of the night? How does Ashmol feel about this man? How do you know? Why is this moment so significant?

Blog 3: Pobby and Dingan

Blog 3: Is Ashmol's plan successful? How so?

Blog 2: Pobby and Dingan

Blog 2: (NOTE: For this blog you will have to read about one page aloud). 

Chapter 2 moves the plot forward. What happens? What do you notice about the narrator's use of the word and, particularly on page 20? Read this page aloud as though you are an actor performing a monologue. Comment on the experience of "playing" Ashmol. How does performance help you to understand his character?

Blog 1: Pobby and Dingan

 


What are your first reactions to the story? List at least 5 observations about the world of the narrator. Who is his family? Where does he live? What is interesting, unique, and/or surprising about him?

The Aquarium, by Aleksandar Hemon

In "The Aquarium," Hemon describes feelings of expansion and, alternatively, compression. For example, he describes the period after Isabel is diagnosed as after: "spreading out, like an exploding twinkle star, into a dark universe of pain." Give another example of expansion and/or compression. Think about Ella's experience, as well as the narrator's. Consider the source of the title: "The Aquarium."