Novel Series Journals

ENGL 102

Children's/Young Adult Novel Series Journals

As the syllabus notes, you are responsible for keeping a journal of your reading as you make your way through a popular novel series for children or young adults. The expected length of this journal is in the 6-10 page range. You must complete both parts of the assignment below to be eligible for full credit.

Part 1: The Reading Journey (4-6 pages)
A journal, like a diary, is something into which you make a number of written entries. For your reading journal, you should expect to make a minimum of four entries per book; some will want to make several more entries. The four per book that are required include:

a pre-reading entry, in which you should discuss your prior knowledge about the book (gleaned from the book cover, conversations with people who have read it, etc.) and what you expect of the book (predictions about plot, or tone, or theme, or ???). This entry is likely to be the briefest.
two or more in-the-middle-of-reading-the-book entries, in which you might discuss any literary elements you notice (like point of view, tone, possible themes, recurring ideas, stylistic elements, etc.), discuss the book's characters, and comment on how well you like the book as a reader. You should also make note of anything that you find confusing in the book, as well as form some predictions about what might happen next.
A final entry following completion of the novel, in which you will likely record your final thoughts about the book. You might also want to use this space to remark on how accurate your predictions were (it's quite likely that many of them will have turned out to be incorrect--don't worry if that's the case), and who would be likely to enjoy this book.

Part 2: The Reflection (2-4 pages)
The second part of the Journal asks you to reflect on the reading of the novels after you've completed them all. The reflection component asks you to do some analysis of the novel series in an attempt to provide a coherent, reasoned answer to one or more of the following:

How do you account for the popularity of the novel series? What aspects of the texts are appealing? To whom does the writer seem to be writing? How are that target population's needs met by the books? Do you think that the books merit their popularity?
Consider the novels as artifacts of contemporary culture. How do the books reflect current beliefs and values? What do they tell us about life at the time the books were written? What do the books want readers to think and talk about?
Analyze the "work" done by the novel series--that is, examine the ideology of the texts. What ways of thinking are propounded by the books? What ways of believing do the books seem to encourage? What assumptions do the texts make about the society they portray, the characters they depict, the readers they target?

Note: Your journal is due on the date listed on the syllabus. Because the reading of several novels is involved, please begin this process early in the semester.