I feel as if I’d be gipping Eragon if I didn’t at least say that my thirteenth book was a complete guilty pleasure - but it's not the book I'd recommend out of my 13 books read this semester. I'll still give it a bit of a review here though and then reveal my recommendation at the end of this post. Since I was a teen, I was always attracted to a bit of fantasy and I had been meaning to pick up Chrstopher Paoloini’s trilogy for quite some time – ever since I heard he wrote the novel and got it published when he was 19 – a feat that I’m a bit jealous of.
I found this book to be a little less well written than I had hoped – compared to other YA fantasy novels I’ve come across, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I enjoyed the mythic themes that run through the course of the narrative: orphaned protagonist who goes on a quest and becomes a hero, but it was just all a bit too predictable. It’s the type of book, though, that I would have loved as a teen because through living the story of Eragon via the book I could have the adventure, recognition, and skill that he had, but lacked while my awkward body grew and I attempted to fit in at school. I could see why Eragon, the character, would appeal to a lot of YAs – outsider picked from obscurity to do great things. I’m hoping the second book in this trilogy though would be a bit more original.
As for the book that I would recommend – it would have to be Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan or Persepolis. I think both of them are very important pieces of YA literature that would provide for students a diverse perspective on ‘being’ that they may not have considered before. It could lead to some great class discussions, extension activities, and, hopefully, an expansion of worldview.
I found this book to be a little less well written than I had hoped – compared to other YA fantasy novels I’ve come across, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I enjoyed the mythic themes that run through the course of the narrative: orphaned protagonist who goes on a quest and becomes a hero, but it was just all a bit too predictable. It’s the type of book, though, that I would have loved as a teen because through living the story of Eragon via the book I could have the adventure, recognition, and skill that he had, but lacked while my awkward body grew and I attempted to fit in at school. I could see why Eragon, the character, would appeal to a lot of YAs – outsider picked from obscurity to do great things. I’m hoping the second book in this trilogy though would be a bit more original.
As for the book that I would recommend – it would have to be Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan or Persepolis. I think both of them are very important pieces of YA literature that would provide for students a diverse perspective on ‘being’ that they may not have considered before. It could lead to some great class discussions, extension activities, and, hopefully, an expansion of worldview.