My mother teaches high school ceramics. Each year the art department puts on a show in the student gallery. Students make artwork in multiple different media depending on what they are studying. The theme for this year is, “It was a Dark and Stormy Night.” My mom is challenging her ceramics students to find a piece of literature that they can illustrate in clay. She is looking for titles and authors of works of literature that could be used as inspiration for her students. She would like to give them a list of things they can pick from. Her definition of literature is something that was put into print, not something a panel of people has determined is worthy of that title.
Some examples would be The Cat in The Hat by Dr. Seuss where the cat really is a scary creature to the children because he is breaking all the rules, they are going to get into trouble and he refuses to leave, or the wicked stepmother in Cinderella, not to mention the witch in Rapunzel. But she is not limiting this to classics from the past.
To thank you for helping out my mother I am willing to give at least one copy of Once Upon a Time: A Collection of Classic Fairytales by Brothers Grimm and Kevin Tong to someone who provides the title and author of a piece of literature that could be used as inspiration for a high school student.
This is open wherever Book Depo ships (print) or wherever Amazon or Barnes and Nobel (digitally). The giveaway will close on Sunday the 9th with the winner announced on Monday the 10th of Sep.
Thank you again,
E_
The one “classic” I think can really make a student consider all types of ideas was required reading when I was in High School and is Don Quixote by Cervantes.
I think the last stanza from the song The Impossible Dream from the musical (Man of La Mancha) from the 1970’s could be a catalyst to get them thinking of possibilities especially today with so many of our veterans who have returned with not only physical problems but also dealing with the aftermath of the situations they faced. I think this also could be a catalyst to talk about and express through writing and art the situations of the homeless and unemployed who are facing such hardships today.
“And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star”
I’d recommend “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. As it’s about a ruined statue, you could probably do a fairly literal representation, or you could take it somewhere new, but it definitely lends itself easily to ceramics!
Also, it’s a short poem, so any student who hasn’t read it could easily do so.
Here’s the full text of Ozymandias:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.
Oh how fun!
Dark and scary nights were made for Dragons. Growing up I adored the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, specifically the first book Dealing With Dragons. It has a strong young woman who stands up for herself, and an unconventional dragon who gets under your skin and makes a home there. Of course the students could make one of the villainous dragons for the Dark and Scary part. =)
The Grinch from the Grinch stole Christmas
The wicked witch from Snow White
Voldemort from Harry Potter
The first thing that came to my mind was Edgar Allen Poe’s THE RAVEN, Also though, the witch from Hansel & Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, the wolf from Little Read Riding Hood, the Phantom of the Opera….that’s the best from me right now, lol.
The Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales is my all time favorite. Considering Snow White, it has a stepmother, (the dilemma of a child not accepting a mother not his/her own), wicked queen who hate the heart of a deer or boar (cannibalism, if it was really a human heart), and dwarfs warning Snow White not to talk to strangers (Stranger/danger and accepting gift from stranger. Isn’t that what we try to teach our children?)
Another is Aesop’s Fables. Stories that have lesson plans.
I totally agree on the cat from The Cat in the Hat as being scary. As a kid, I always thought Dr. Seuss characters were creepy.
Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat and The Masque of the Red Death.
Cthulhu from H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of the Cthulhu” (and other of his short stories).
The Grendel from Beowulf.
The button-eyed ‘Other’ mother from Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.
Gage Creed, the infant son (bringing back the dead comes at a price) from Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery.
The scarecrow from Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle. Maybe it’s just me but I thought it was scary at the beginning.
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I don’t want to be entered in the giveaway but thank you 🙂
GAME OF THRONES or indeed the entire series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE by George RR Martin. Characters & worlds that are creatively & brilliantly depicted.
The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Even The Hunger Games 🙂
This sounds great!! Id love to read it! Thanks for sharing and for the great giveaway!
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