Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for February 02, 2011

But that’s the only part she’s going to read now…

Good luck on that hunt!

Maybe I should read it……………

That trick works only once, Gramma.

The_JAM - well she has to find them first…

Age and Treachery will ALWAYS Overcome Youth and Skill.

LOL! Brilliant. By the time Holly realizes she’s been had….she will be interested in the book and won’t be able to stop reading.

Suckered into that one……….

Sex waaay back then isn’t the same…but she was the precursor to the issues that women have this very day….

ladyfingers86: Shakespeare’s FILLED with sex and dirty language - read “Much Ado About Nothing” keeping in mind that “Nothing” was a euphemism for sex back in Shakespeare’s time: it, and “Taming” are probably his dirtiest works with LOTS of double-entendres.

Too bad they’re not reading “The Catcher in the Rye”-the whole book is pretty much a statement to rebellious, angsty, and outcast teenagers like her.

This tactic also works very well with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales…. AND it true!

Slooow down, Holly, and really enjoy it. All of it.

With grandma sneaky suggestion, will Holly be able to stay with the book?

ROTFL!! Thanks for the first laugh today Jan.

And received wisdom says “only boys, Holly’s age, are interested in sex”. Guess that old saw has been shot down!

In re yesterday’s discussion:

So, English class should include only books the students like? Should math class abandon algebra if no one likes it? Should U.S. History include only those parts that students like?

English class should be filled with beautiful, interesting, & well-written texts. Reading such texts increases one’s mental acuity, broadens one’s knowledge of our own & other cultures and of people, and sharpens one’s taste for beauty.

After high school, you can read anything that you want or, like most Americans, nothing at all.

I love to read!

If in doubt, appeal to her hormones!

If in doubt, appeal to her hormones!

I’m 4 chapters in now and I have to agree the writing is really good, but that’s meta-level enjoyment. I’m still not convinced the story speaks to kids/teens Holly’s age.

If it had been required reading for me, I’d probably have gotten through it without having to force myself (because I did a lot of reading back then), but if it had been for enjoyment I probably wouldn’t have finished it, saucy bits or not.

I read a ton of books in high school, classics and modern fiction, but I found Jane Eyre long and slow when I read it at age 16 – so I don’t blame an unmotivated 13-year-old for not wanting to read it!

BakaBard, I haven’t read any Shakespeare since high school, but I do have “Shakespeare’s Insults”. The bard was a bawd!

BrianCrook, yep!

Hey.thats how my grandmother got me to read the bible.(begottens)

No offense to any english majors out there but, I got about half way through Wuthering Heights and stopped. I could NOT stand all of the complaining!

Granny, you sly silver fox you!

You young people are so innocent;-P When I was Holly’s age I could find stimulation in an unabridged dictionary- seriously!