Marked: A House of Night Novel
I was first drawn to this book because it has been called " the Harry Potter" of this generation so naturally I was intrigued. Marked is the first installment in the House of Night series. With Marked being the first book in a ten book series, I felt it spent a lot of time developing the setting and basic information.While this book does have a building, climax, and fall I would call it the "building book" to the house of night series.
Marked is essentially the story of Zoey Redbird and her ever changing life. Zoey is a normal high school student when "out of the blue" she is Marked to become a vampire. Zoey almost instantly develops intricate neon blue tattoos on her face and neck; marking her a vampire. She is then forced to attend The House of Night , where she undergoes the change from fledgling (youth vampire) to an adult vampire.The change from fledgling to vampire is not always successful and many die. Because many children do not survive the change the House of Night was found to aid this transformation. While attending the House of Night Zoey discovers she is not a normal fledgling, but has an affinity for all five elements: water, fire, wind, earth, and spirt. Zoey's powers set her up for praise from the faculty and ridicule from the popular students. Aphrodite, the leader of the Dark Daughters ( a school ritual club) invites Zoey to join their group, in hopes of controlling Zoey and her new found popularity. Zoey then joins the Dark Daughters and attends her first ritual. During the first ritual Aphrodite fails to control the spell and the ghosts of past vampires almost kill the entire group. Zoey uses her Nxy (god) given powers to regain control of the ritual and saves the lives of the entire group, including her human boyfriend whom "snuck in". Having saved the day and in conclusion of this book, Zoey is made the new leader of the Dark Daughters and the enemy of Aphrodite.
Too be Continued . . .
I believe this book would be most appropriate for middle and high school. There are a lot of made up vocabulary words that might confuse younger readers. Also the romance and violence would be inappropriate for young readers. In my class room I would have the students read the novel, then compare moments in Zoey's life to their own. I think this book can relate to middle school students in various ways. For example Zoey is troubled with young love, bullying, adapting to a new school, disappointment from her family and the over all stress of high school. To develop my students writing skills I might have them write themselves into the house of night novel. The students would be able to express their problem in a safe "non-fictional" environment. Over all its a great book for teenagers and has the potential to get kids involved in reading.
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteI liked hearing about this book in class because it was different from the others we have discussed. I think that it holds an aspect that the older kids would love to read. I also think that your point in class about seeing the underlying racial background. I would really struggle to find a place in curriculum for this however I think that it would be a great book to have in a class library.
Amanda
I think this would be an excellent fantasy book for kids to read and get into the enjoyment of reading. From what I've heard, the Twilight books were not very well written, so I'm interested to see if these have a higher vocabulary and plot line reading level; from what you've told us it does! I would love to turn this into a lesson plan!
ReplyDeleteI love novels that get kids reading while angering parents at the same time. Harry Potter was deemed inappropriate reading from religious perspectives. My point is that by incorporating this type of book into the classroom we, as teachers, should be ready for parent concerns.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great book! I think the series as a whole would wonderful for older students to get their imaginations started and keep their interest in reading. I think a big challenge for teachers is to keep students intrigued and I think this book could help keep their attention and would help to motivate them to read and to really get into books. I think relating the book to a writing assignment is a great idea and giving them chance to be part of the book is something I feel the students would really enjoy doing.
ReplyDelete