Sunday, January 20, 2013

Life ain't Always Beautiful

So I just finished The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan and must say that I was pleasantly surprised.  The basic plot is a boarding school kid gets a gift from the boy that had his room last year.  It turns out to be CDs that tell the story of a tragedy that took place the previous year, which is supposed to help this year's kid (Duncan) write his tragedy paper: an epic assignment dreaded by every senior at the Irving School.

I was surprised at how driven I was to find out what was going to happen next.  I should probably note that I did not READ this book, but popped it on my Kindle and used the text-to-speech feature to have it read to me.  Definitely the right approach, by the way.  I would solidly recommend that you find a way to listen to this story.  It gives you the sense that you are hearing Tim's story unfold exactly the way Duncan does. 

I think this would be great to give to high schoolers and then MAKE THEM DISCUSS IT!!!  They'll learn some great literary terms and might actually care what a tragedy or tragic event is if they read about it this way instead of having Shakespeare as the only inspiration.  4 out of 5 golden earbuds to Ms. LeBun.  I had a great time listening.

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