It's by CDoug.
I read this novel recently in preparation to teach it to a Year 7 English class, and it really didn't capture my imagination to the same extent it seemingly did the critics. I found its structure very repetetive; the amount of chapters ending in 'and then he looked the stars' made it a fairly unengaging read, and 40 chapters for a 130 page book led to far too many climaxes in a book where in honesty not too much happens. Tom's escape, housing and rehabilitation could have been narrated far more succinctly.
I appreciate that it is intended as an allegorical novel for youngsters, but I really think that the twelve-year-olds I will be reading it with this term will struggle to warm to it, as did I.
Okay, okay, it's a fair cop, I wrote the book he's talking about, but...good grief, where do I start?
Well, with some facts, perhaps. Cold Tom doesn't have 40 chapters. None of them end with 'and then he looked the stars' (as a matter of fact only three of them mention stars at all).
In any case, how can a book have too many climaxes if not much happens?
Okay. That's the mini-rant.
The BIG RANT is about the standard of the...I suppose I must be generous and call it English.
This is a teacher? A teacher, with a responsibility to teach children?
Good grief.
And God help us all.
Word To Use Today: review. This word comes from the French revoir, which means to see again, from the Latin vidēre, to see.
See again? Sometimes I just wish reviewers would look at the flipping book once!
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