I am just starting to read this book with my year 7 students. It is by far one of my favourite books and I recommend it to everyone (I even gave it to my year 12 A Level group!). At the beginning of the year I also gave it to Mrs Russell who has now read it with her year 7s also. Every time I read it with a group of students, I begin each chapter by exclaiming with excitement, 'I love this chapter! It's the best one! You're going to love it! It's great!'... And actually, having taught it about 10 times now, I've always been right - you guys do seem to love it...
I'd love to hear what you at BSG all thought about it. Which episode/story was your favourite? What about the characters? Do you think it would work well as a movie? Why/why not?
My English teacher is Ms Walsh and she already read part of The Daydreamer to us. I must say, I'm really enjoying it so far! We did some character analysis, as well as a brief summary of the first story/chapter, The Dolls. I like how the author included some humour in the story to make it entertaining, but also conveyed the story well enough for us to actually understand the events happening in the book and to keep it moving. He - the author - had written it in such a way that it made me feel like he was talking directly to the audience; it was almost as if he was verbally telling us the story instead of writing it.
I can't say which story is my favourite yet, as I haven't read all of it, but I can say that my favourite character is Peter Fortune. He's the funniest out of all the characters, mostly due to his frequent daydreaming, but also because I can relate to him; like him, I often like to be alone and I do daydream sometimes in the bus or at home. A word of reassurance to the teachers: I usually put the daydreaming part of my brain into the back of my mind at school, so you don't have to worry about me drifting off in the middle of class! I believe it would work really well as a movie, as daydreamers usually have vivid imaginations. That means that it will be an enjoyable experience for anyone when they actually see all of Peter's daydreams come to life right before their eyes!