Goodreads=Good

The other day I posted a few discussions on Goodreads under the Children Literature group. I was surprised that people replied!

This was the original question I posed to the group discussion:

What do you think of this story?
I am focusing my research on relationships between humans, and in comparison to the ones created in this story, they can have either extremely positive effects or very negative effects on children in the public education system.
What are your thoughts on the relationships formed in this story?
Is it worthwhile to research today, or is it simply a story?
What makes it worthwhile?


Within the same day two people commented. I liked their posts, not necessarily for their answers, but mostly for the spark their answers created in me.


Chandra responded saying, "I read this one with my daughter fairly recently and I definitely don't think it's irrelevant at all. The story is still powerfully effective in helping children explore difficult themes (fear, death, loneliness) and developing empathy and understanding for others.
But you say you're focusing on the relationships between humans in this story? Hmmm, that's a tough one since the primary relationships are among the animals - Wilbur, Templeton, Charlotte, the Geese, etc. The only human relationships depicted are those of the Arable family - Fern and her parents and brother and the Zuckerman farm folks and they're very much background characters. Or am I misunderstanding your intent and you're studying all of the relationships in the story and applying/comparing them to real life human relationships?"


Later Cheryl responded to my questions, and I must say I loved the new light she brought to the table. She wrote, "Since the animals are so anthropomorphised, they hardly count as animals. I mean, Wilbur is a boy about Fern's age, Charlotte fills the role of an aunt or a mentor, Templeton is like a crotchety uncle or neighbor.
Of course the animals' life cycles are so accelerated compared to the humans' lives, the animal/human r'ships change over the course of the story. Fern originally cares for Wilbur as if he's an infant, but by the end of the story he's more mature than she is. Yet they both do grow & learn wisdom."


Cheryl's comment about how the animals' life cycles are accelerated made me wrinkle my brow at first. She is right! That is why this story can teach so much in just a few short pages. In fact, the audio version is only 3 hours long, but since the relationships between the characters, whether it be friend or motherly basis, develop and end so quickly, the reader can easily relate, respond and learn from White's "children story".

Goodreads or Badreads?

A few weeks ago Dr Burton asked me to write a post about Goodreads, a social networking site for readers. I smiled and agreed, but deep down inside I was not happy. When he asked how I was liking Goodreads I may have stretched the truth a bit. I said it was alright, and I liked that I have been able to connect with old friends and coworkers through the site. Currently that was the only positive I had to say about Goodreads, so it has taken a while for me to do some research on this site so I could deliver a positive post about the site. Dr Burton probably thought I had just forgotten to do as he had asked, but, also, two weeks later I am delivering his requested post on a site I pretended to like more than I did at the time.

Goodreads is a social networking site and library combined. Here you can keep track of what books you have read by shelving them, rating them and giving reviews; you can also mark what books you are currently reading and, my personal favorite, what books you plan to read. The site recommends books and you can search books, but, according to the creator of the site, you mostly find books you want to read or discuss books with friends that you find either by searching, linking Goodreads to your yahoo, gmail, hotmail, twitter and/or facebook.

At first I didn't like Goodreads. In fact, I started an account over a year ago, but I puttered out and hadn't been active for months. I was a little annoyed when I was asked to reactivate my account for this class because I don't particularly like this site. I felt like I couldn't find anything, there wasn't much on there and I wasn't active enough on the site to actually have it matter. However, since being asked to frequently use this site, I have discovered all that Goodreads can do. There are discussion forums that I frequently search for people discussion either Charlotte's Web or other children stories like it. I have also enjoyed getting back in touch with old friends' bookshelves. I also didn't realize how popular much press Goodreads has received over the years. They have a steady stream of publicity that has spread the word about Goodreads.

I didn't give Goodreads the best shot the first time, but this time around I spent more time becoming familiar with the site and all that has to offer. Anyone that reads and is interested in expanding and organizing their personal libraries should really give Goodreads a test drive. Be patient with the site, explore and use the tools available and you'll learn to like it despite any initial problems you may have with it.

Goodreads.com
Press Information
What is Goodreads?
How it works