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Popular Fiction
Teachers of English have a
habit of concentrating on the classics in defiance of a growing
trend to assign pop fiction. Teachers of English, along with the
literary cognoscenti do not treat the likes of Stephen King seriously.
According to them pop fiction in any form is no substitute for the
classics. "Struggling readers, who may not read the whole novel,"
are told that they will "learn much more by tackling a classic."
To adopt this view is to ignore
the potential of popular fiction to engage student imagination and
help them develop their language skills. Popular fiction has a power
that should not be dismissed.
After thoroughly researching teenage reading and
leisure habits Sarah
Boland initiated a process which would encourage students
to read. She determined that when students are encouraged to make
multi media and art in response to novels they are more likely to
read.
Everyone who was involved with the Pop Fiction
project which bought 'To Love
Veronica Bee' to LaTrobe Secondary
College can only agree. The multi media and art which came from
this project was quite extraordinary.
More Pop Fiction Projects
New, exciting Popular Fiction projects, following on from the highly
successful work on To Love Veronica Bee,
will be taking place at LaTrobe Secondary
College, Reservoir East Primary
School and Preston East Primary School.
During Term 2 students will
present art work and multi media related to 'Magic
Beach' by Alison Lester. Then, during Term 3 they will work
on the juvenile novel 'Nathan Nutboard Hits
The Beach', by the acclaimed Anthony
Eaton, author of 'The Darkness', 'A Kind of Dreaming'
and 'The Girl Who Lived In A Cave'.
Keep an eye out for progress
as students work on this during term two and three. You can expect
to see some wild beach holiday inspired multi media and artwork
emerging.
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Veronica Bee at LaTrobe Secondary College
Check out the Popular
Fiction Hip Hop Music feature that was completed by LaTrobe
Secondary College students. Students made altered vinyl covers and
wrote lyrics about To Love Veronica Bee. They cut their singles
at the Experimedia Centre in Melbourne's State Library. Graphic
artist, Greg Blakey has designed this exciting cyber DJ studio where
student tracks are played.
Rummage
through the archives of the Popular
Fiction Project, To Love Veronica Bee,
which was undertaken at LaTrobe Secondary College during Term 1
and see how students from Year 7 right through to V.C.E. were engaged
in a wide range of fabulous projects.
Popular Fiction's Sarah
Boland is interviewed at Soul Food. As a part of that interview
she has writen a fabulous,
fun, short story especially for the Soul Food Community and
provides readers with an opportunity to win a Crumpler Bag.
Popular Fiction's Sarah Boland
interviews
Heather Blakey with the view to tapping the creative force behind
Soul Food.
Read To Love Veronica Bee.
In our new generation, many teenagers
have no interests in books whatsoever, thinking that they are boring
and such a waste of time. Even the most popular books like the Harry
Potter series, are left in the bookshelves, sitting there, waiting
for someone to read them. Sadly, teenagers spend more time with
their mobile phones, sport, videogames and many other things. Now
these things are affecting their reading skills, even their spelling
skills.
The books can't be left sitting there,
so some brilliant people came up with a very good idea to take books
to a whole new level; where teenagers would be interested in reading
it. The idea they came up with was "Pop Fiction". One of the soon-to-be-many
pop fiction books is called "To Love Veronica Bee", written by Sarah
Boland.
At my first glance of this book,
I thought it was going to be the same as the other books that I
had failed to read completely. But, like what they say, "You can't
judge a book by its cover."
This story is about a girl named
Veronica Bee. She had the perfect life in the right place: she had
a friend she could count on; she doesn't have to worry about her
school; she has 2 horses and big dreams. But it all went down the
drain when her mother had decided to move to Kew in Melbourne. Of
course, leaving your best friend and your beloved horses is a hard
thing to do. It is still a big mystery to her though: why do they
have to move? There are many things that she still didn't understand,
and her older sister Penny seems to know what's going on. And her
mother and father fight a lot more often. Now it's up to her to
solve this mystery. Will she be able to put the pieces of the puzzle
in place? Or will she forever life in a life of complete mystery?
This book is like no other. I think
that this book would be perfect for teenagers to read because it
has a modern feeling to it. Teenagers don't like boring stuff and
do not like reading the same thing all over again, so maybe, pop
fiction books like "To Love Veronica Bee" might give them interest
to read again.
I would really advise people to read
this book.
Nina Diaz from 7P LaTrobe Secondary
College
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