Sept. 7, 2011
Dear Students,
I have been reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. It has been made into a motion picture, but I haven't see the movie. When I first read the title I thought it would be about elephants. Was I wrong! So far there hasn't been a single elephant in the story. It has been about life in a circus. It takes place around the time of the depression I think. The story starts out in the present and has a series of flashbacks to the circus. I like how the author makes these transitions.
I was surprised at the number of people who were involved in running a circus. There were hundreds and it takes two trains for them to travel from town to town. The story is very well detailed. I can picture the scenes as they happen. Gruen has an interesting way of using language and helps her audience sense some things she doesn't want to come out and say. Yesterday I saw a new word, bawdlerizing (p.109). It means to expurgate prudishly. In other words, to censor talk or writing to leave out inappropriate or crass content.
The main character is having a hard time getting used to the circus, but I think he is really excited by it. It seems totally different from the life he used to lead. I think he will eventually learn to love this life. I'm glad he's able to use his vet skills even though he couldn't graduate from Cornell. Some of the characters make me feel sad. They don't seem to fit in even in the circus which has a lot of strange people.
I am still in the first half of the book. I can't wait to read more.
Sincerely,
Ms. D
Other samples:
Journal letter examples taken from In the Middle by Nancie Atwell.
Dear Ms. A,
I've been reading A Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and also the stage version of the story. Just to see what Anne Frank was going through was miserable. She was “growing up” with the same people every day! I think she got to know them a lot better than she would have if they weren't in hiding, her mother especially. That sudden change, going into hiding, must have been hard.
It amazed me how much more they went downstairs in the book than in the play version. And it seems so much bigger in the book. It also told a lot more about her feelings, right up until the end. It must have come suddenly- to see the police come in and arrest them.
Sincerely,
J.J.
P.S. I think she would have been a writer.
Dear Ms. A,
I have a lot of poetry books now that I'm going to try this weekend. I'll definitely mark the poems that speak to me so I can photocopy them for you. One poem that I think we should read in class is “Bummer” by Michael Casey. I love that poem; it's one of my most favorites. I'm not sure why, but it definitely gives me goose bumps each time I read it, especially the last two lines.
In Cold Blood is good so far. I like how Truman Capote switches back and forth from chapter to chapter with different people's points of view. The first chapter was the hardest for me to get into because of all the description. But in a way that's good because the setting is pretty important to the story.
What genre is this anyway?
Sincerely, Martha