Blog #7 Trailer

Here's our trailer for I Am Number Four

Blog #6 Readicide

Gallagher brings up many interesting ideas as he talks about Readicide. His points really make you think about the two types of reading: for school and for enjoyment. I believe that Readicide is a major problem. Schools give us these books that are literary fiction, filled with a bunch of content that we don’t understand and feel as if it is our duty to know what it means. They go on to teach us how to comprehend these boring books from ancient times. What’s the point of it? In our real world job, nobody is going to need to know about Shakespeare’s religious metaphors and the figurative language in Macbeth. That doesn’t fuel our imagination or make us any smarter. It simply helps us read old books. This in my opinion is completely and utterly useless. It’s like we’ve been scarred as readers. After reading a literary fiction book in school and having an awful time analyzing every single sentence trying to figure out its’ meaning, we’re NEVER going to want to do it again, especially not for our own enjoyment. No one will say, “Wow, I loved having to figure out every little detail in Romeo and Juliet, I’m going to go read even more Shakespeare.” That’s unrealistic if they think that’s what students do. Some people don’t even read due to the emotional process they were dragged through at school. The people who do read, read genre fiction. Books that they enjoy reading, which they wouldn’t mind having to annotate or do projects on. They read books that inspire and excite them, not bore them to death. We learn valuable lessons from these books rather than knowing the difference between an allusion and symbolism. But, since the joy of reading a good book was killed by our education system, nobody would know the bliss of reading a good book that you can read by yourself and actually enjoy.  

Book One Project

Thirteen Reasons Why: Tapes & Map

If you’re craving more 13 Reasons Why, today is your lucky day. We have the perfect thing for you. We are now offering a copy of Hannah’s tapes to extend your relationship with the book. You can listen to these tapes to really connect with Hannah on a different level. Also you’ll be able to feel the same emotions as Clay did when he listened to them.

In 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Hannah Baker leaves behind 13 explaining why she took her life. The novel follows Clay Jensen and his experiences as he listens to the tapes and tries to figure out how he fits into Hannah’s story. While the audience is reading they can use the copy of Hannah’s tapes to follow along with the book. Instead of just reading, “But now, I hope you understand. My world was collapsing,” you can hear it in Hannah’s own voice. This product offers all 13 tapes read by a 16 year old girl who can portray the emotion Hannah would have had while recording the tapes to make it more legitimate. Along with the tapes you will also receive a map of the town and pictures of the places Hannah talked about and Clay visited. When Hannah says, “Our first red star can be found at C-4,” you can use your map and pictures to enhance the reading experience. So, in the story when Clay goes to, “E-5… The best ice cream and the greasiest burgers and fries around. Rosie’s Diner,” you can visit it with him to have more of a visual understanding of what he’s going through. You can even look at pictures of the seat where Hannah waited for Marcus to show up. This takes the book to a whole new level of reading. It will submerge you in the story and get you lost in it even more than before, which is exactly what the fans are looking for.

This idea will work because people who read this book love emotion and this opportunity gives them even more. It’ll make more people want to read it because it’s different from a normal book. A lot of people want more than just a simple read. They want something more exciting, and the tapes do exactly that. Also, the tapes, maps and pictures will cause the fans who have already read it to read it again. They can grow even fonder to the book and the author. Fans are going to want more from the author and buy more of her books. 

All in all, this package of the 13 tapes and the map with pictures, will attract new readers and makes fans fall even more in love with 13 Reasons Why.

Adapting I am Number Four into a movie

          Some challenges the director would face in the recreation of I am Number Four into a movie would be adding more dialogue. The book has a lot of moments where Number 4 is thinking about things and not really talking outloud. The director would have to find a way to have more talking and interraction going on rather then him just dwelling on his own thoguhts. He'd also probably have a hard time capturing all of the book into a two hour film considering it is a pretty lengthy book that takes place over a period of time. He'd probably have to fast forward through a lot of parts in the book.
       
          In adapting this book, it's really important to keep most of the characters considering there isn't that many. Most of them contribute to the story a lot and would take away from the plot if they weren't in it. You also need to keep a lot of the fights that go on because they have a large importance to the novel. They are what make the book so excititng. Also, you'd definetly have to keep the relationship between 4 and Sarah because that adds something to the movie to make it attractive to both genders and not just have constant fighting going on. It also adds more conflict.
       
         There are some things you could get rid of that don't matter to the story are the part where 4 and henry have the long road trip to Ohio because it's pretty boring and meaningless. You could also take out the parts where 4 is training in his backyard becaus nothing important happens and it wouldn't take away from the plot.