Brief
Consider the importance of books to you both personally and within a broader global sense.
First of all, think back to the earliest books you came across as a child, through your teenage years and early adulthood to where you are now. There may be half a dozen books which stick in your memory or are important to you in some way. There may be many more than that. It may be an early reading book, a particular image or short rhyme which helped you recognise letterforms. It may be the distressed metallic silver cover of a Salinger novel you read as a teenager, or the book you bought on impulse after work one day, seduced by the tactile quality of the cover.
Identify these books in your learning log, use photographs and annotation to create an illustrated list documenting the books that are important to you, for whatever reason.
Now, connect your influential books to those with a more global reach. Identify seminal works that have informed or challenged some of the areas you have identified. These may be scientific, artistic, historical, political, geographic, fictional, poetic or religious texts. For example, a book from your childhood could connect to other seminal children’s books by association, such as Heinrich Hoffmann’s Der Struwwelpeter / Shockheaded Peter (1845) or Charles Perrault or the Brothers Grimm. Likewise a book featuring dinosaurs might connect to Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species. When we appreciate the breadth and influence of books, we begin to appreciate the extent of a book’s potential impact. Books carry and communicate ideas; powerful messages can be contained within seemingly innocuous bound paper pages. In your learning log, create another list of books, with accompanying images and annotations, which you believe to be more globally important, but connect to your first list in some way.
Earliest books I came across as a child:
Daddy long legs
“Daddy long legs” tells the story of a young girl, Jerusha Abbott, who has been raised in an orphanage. Being the oldest of the pupils, she has to work hard for her pension, helping to take care of the other kids. Despite the sad and boring life she leads, she is a cheerful and creative person and has a talent for writing.
One day, one of the trustees of the orphanage reads one of the essays she has written for school, talking about her life as an orphan child, and it impresses him so favorably that he decides to pay for her to go to college, believing that she has potential to become a writer. But he sets a strange condition: Jerusha must write a letter to him every month, telling him about her life and her studies, but she must never expect any letters from him in return.
Jerusha has only had the chance to see this mysterious man once from the back, and the only thing she knows for sure about him is that he is very tall. With just that fact (And the powerful imagination that characterizes her) she creates her own image of her benefactor, as well as an affectionate nickname to address him: Daddy long legs.
This “Daddy long legs” becomes the confidant of Jerusha’s joys and sorrows, and an implicit help to fight against “the petty hazards of the day”, as she calls them. Daddy long legs is never seen by his protegee, he never writes her back, but he finds a way to be present every time she needs him.
Of course, in the end, Jerusha manages to meet her Daddy long legs. And she gets a big surprise!
Little women
“Little women,” tells the story of four young sisters during the years of the American Civil War. Their father is serving as a chaplain for the Union Army, far from home, while the girls stay at home with their mother.
The sisters are quite different from one another:
Margaret “Meg”, the older sister, wants to make a good marriage so she can live without worries, preoccupied only for enjoying herself. She is the most beautiful of the sisters and works as a governess for a rich family, a job she does not like. When the story starts she is seventeen.
Josephine “Jo”, of fifteen, dreams to be a great writer and travel around the world to have adventures. She is a tomboy and does not take great care on her aspect or manners, but she has a big heart and a cheerful disposition. Not remotely interested in anything that can be considered “ladylike”, Jo’s sharp tongue and short temper usually get her into trouble. She assists her old and grumpy great-aunt March to help her family financially.
Elizabeth, also called “Beth” or “Little tranquility” by her father is a shy girl of thirteen. Too timid to go to school, Beth stays at home and is taught by her father, and after he is gone to war, she tries to teach herself as well as she can. She is in charge of many housework activities but loves to play the piano more than anything else. Unlike her sisters, all who have dreams and plans for the future, Beth only wishes to stay at home and help to take care of the family.
Amy is only twelve, but very conscious of her own importance. She wants to be an artist when she grows up and is very good at drawing. Amy gives very much importance to her aspect and her biggest trial in life is her nose, which she does not consider pretty enough. Her manners and little airs can be petulant at times (Much to Jo’s irritation) so her mother and sisters try their best help her to correct herself.
Accompanying the March sisters’ adventures we found characters as endearing as their neighbor, rich Mr.Lawrence, his grandchild Laurie, Mr.Brooke, Laurie’s tutor, and of course, the beloved “Marmee” always willing to give help and advise to the ones who need it.
The novel centers in the troubles, dreams, and aspirations of the girls. The first part of the story shows their pass from childhood to adulthood, while the second, published sometimes under the title “Good Wives” allows us to see each one of them trying to cope with the responsibilities and desitions of the adult world and find their way in life.
Michel Strogoff
Michael Strogoff, a 30-year-old native of Omsk, is a courier for Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The Tartar Khan (prince), Feofar Khan, incites a rebellion and separates the Russian Far Eastfrom the mainland, severing telegraph lines. Rebels encircle Irkutsk, where the local governor, a brother of the Tsar, is making a last stand. Strogoff is sent to Irkutsk to warn the governor about the traitor Ivan Ogareff, a former colonel, who was once demoted and exiled by this brother of the Tsar. He now seeks revenge: he intends to gain the governor’s trust and then betray him and Irkutsk to the Tartar hordes.
On his way to Irkutsk, Strogoff meets Nadia Fedor, daughter of an exiled political prisoner, Basil Fedor, who has been granted permission to join her father at his exile in Irkutsk; the English war correspondent Harry Blount of the Daily Telegraph; and Alcide Jolivet, a Frenchman reporting for his ‘cousin Madeleine’. Blount and Jolivet tend to follow the same route as Michael, separating and meeting again all the way through Siberia. He is supposed to travel under a false identity, posing as the pacific merchant Nicolas Korpanoff, but he is discovered by the Tartars when he meets his mother in their home city of Omsk.
Michael, his mother and Nadia are eventually captured by the Tartar forces, along with thousands of other Russians, during the storming of a city in the Ob basin. The Tartars do not know Strogoff by sight, but Ogareff is aware of the courier’s mission and when he is told that Strogoff’s mother spotted her son in the crowd and called his name, but received no reply, he understands that Strogoff is among the captured and devises a scheme to force the mother to indicate him. Strogoff is indeed caught and handed over to the Tartars, and Ogareff alleges that Michael is a spy, hoping to have him put to death in some cruel way. After opening the Koran at random, Feofar decides that Michael will be blinded as punishment in the Tartar fashion, with a glowing hot blade. For several chapters the reader is led to believe that Michael was indeed blinded, but it transpires in fact that he was saved from this fate (his tears at his mother evaporated and saved his corneas) and was only pretending.
Eventually, Michael and Nadia escape, and travel to Irkutsk with a friendly peasant, Nicolas Pigassof. They are recaptured by the Tartars; Nicolas witnesses Nadia cruelly insulted by a Tartar soldier and murders Nadia’s assaulter. The Tartars then abandon Nadia and Michael and carry Nicolas away, reserving him for a greater punishment. Nadia and Michael later discover him buried up to his neck in the ground; after he dies they bury him hastely and continue onwards with great difficulty. However, they eventually reach Irkutsk, and warn the Tsar’s brother in time of Ivan Ogareff. Nadia’s father has been appointed commander of a suicide battalion of exiles, who are all pardoned; he joins Nadia and Michael; some days later they are married.
The influence
I should say that l’m not a professional reader. After getting married and having children, the most book I read was about parenting and recently I am reading more books about Graphic Design.
However when l read My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst, which was about the Suffragette movement, It reminded me of little women. Reading the little women as a child gave me the encouragement and hope as a woman that I can be whoever I want.
All those three books that I read as a child and a teenager was all about being strong and following your dreams and being determine about your aims and ambitions. They really helped me to improve my ability to control my life and follow my dreams.
References
- Owlcation (Mar 24, 2021): https://owlcation.com/humanities/Book-review-Daddy-long-legs-by-Jean-Webster (Accessed 10/10/21)
- Owlcation (Feb 27, 2019): https://owlcation.com/humanities/Book-Review-Little-Women-by-Louisa-May-Alcott (Accessed 10/10/21)
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Strogoff (Accessed 10/10/21)
Maryam: OCA Graphic Design 