How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids Paperback – 23 April 2013

A must read book for the young readers. My student loves it <3

Good book for ur kid that’s going into AP English.

How to get more out of stories?How to be better aware of why the narrator specified the season of the year?Why a particular scene struck you that much?Why you seem to already know a character of the most recent novel you got? Thomas C. Foster wants to tell you what he thinks is most helpful in getting more engaged and more enchanted with stories. This book is not academical in any sense (besides being written by an academic and being true)— fitting with the title, the author maintains a very conversational tone, quite engaging, that makes the book really easy to read. He gives lots of examples, and even though you may not be familiar with Oedipus or Green Eggs and Ham, you will always get what he is explaining. The best characteristic of this book is how well organized each chapter is: all of them are really concise and short, most being 6 pages long, explaining how some aspect of a story can be a symbol of something else (like, how the weather can be a symbol of the emotional state of the character; if a character is angry and gets in the rain, he will probably get angrier (and wetter); the narrator wouldn't mention the weather if it weren't affecting the characters and the story), and then the author gives specific examples of novels that contain the symbols he is explaining and how they deepen the meanings. But even though being so approachable and well written, there's a caution to be made: there is one chapter where the whole point is about sex, and three more mentions throughout the book. Maybe not for kids, rather for adolescents. Finally, ending the book in great style, there is a case study: a whole short story is given in the last chapter, and then the author takes the interpretations of symbols he had been explaining so far and apply them to the story we just read. It is great to see it in action. As for the material aspect the book: Nice margins, great font size, kind of cheap paper but it doesn't interfer in the reading. All in all, the book indeed helps those who want to get an introduction to better understanding and appreciating all kinds of stories, and does so in very friendly, bite-sized chapters.

Recommended by another teacher... enjoyed this as a personal and professional development tool.

Umm, people, this book is clearly for adolescents and younger teens, which is why there are mentions of *GASP* "fooling around" and sexy vampires. (Not to mention the fact that "fooling around" doesn't necessarily mean sexual shenanigans.) If anyone has actually READ Stoker's Dracula, it's obvious that vampirism is sensuous and sexual, along with the parasitism of the upper class. Sheesh. Why else is Twilight so popular with today's teens?Part of understanding literature is understanding metaphor, tropes and allusion to older works, which is why the reading list at the end is not full of today's teen hits, dear ones. While The Hunger Games is thrilling and enjoyable on its own, it takes on a deeper resonance if you understand it sprang from the tradition of Quest stories, from the Arthurian legends and The Canterbury Tales to LOTR. It's the journey, not the destination.Parts of the book could have been clearer, I agree. The introduction is a bit disconcerting, as it seems to start in the middle of a class discussion, and it takes a moment to get ones bearings. That can be a great start for a novel, but maybe not for a book on literature where expectations are different. The opening story of Kip Smith does seem a bit dated, but as Vietnam was the last war underage teens could feasibly sign up for, what with today's checking of birth certificates in triplicate, it was probably unavoidable.Overall, a great guide to decoding literature for teens. Not for eight year olds, but they don't exactly clamor to read Shakespeare and Henry James, do they?

Worth reading and passing onto your younger high school student. Teachers don't seem to have time to go through this stuff anymore and I know my kid missed a lot of the basics for English. This book doesn't teach everything about English, but it definitely gives enough information to get kids thinking and interpreting some of the basics in what they are reading. No regrets with this purchase.