YAL and the cultural connection: using the tall tale “The Birth of Pecos Bill” as a starting point to reflect upon values and traditions

by Angélica Santi 

Now, everyone knows Pecos Bill was the best,
The neatest cowboy in all the West.
But Bill was also the tidiest, cleanest,
The plain best dressed
Hombre to wear a well-pressed vest
Of buckskin on his manly chest.
Pecos Bill was the best,
The best in the West.
(from “Pecos Bill Cleans Up the West)

Throughout history people have told stories about their heroes. In America, tall tales were first told by settlers who made their homes in the American wilderness. According to the Oklahoma Children’s Theatre,  

A tall tale is a special kind of hero story because the heroes of tall tales are "larger than life". They are bigger or stronger than real people. They solve problems in ways that are hard to believe. This makes tall tales fun to read. Each group of workers-cowboys, loggers, railroad and steel workers-had its own tall-tale hero. Having a superhuman hero with the same job somehow made their lives easier. Perhaps it gave them strength or courage to do their difficult and dangerous work. (Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, 2006) 

Pecos Bill, a heroic cowboy born in the 1830’s out of the imagination of southwestern people, is one of the most famous American legends that passed on through generations in the oral tradition. As many oral tall tales from an unknown author it was later retold by S. E. Schlosser, an American author who loves storytelling and has produced and developed a website devoted exclusively to American Folklore. Among the most beloved folk characters, Pecos Bill is a favourite to many of those people who dared to venture into the wild. “The Birth of Pecos Bill” in particular, tells the story of Bill, a young cowboy, who is born the last of eighteen children to a Texas pioneer. As soon as he learns to crawl, he has the misfortune to fall down from his parents’ wagon when they are crossing the Pecos River. He is brought up by coyotes and truly believes he is one of them. He grows to be so tough a baby that he uses a knife as a teething ring and also plays with other wild animals. Sixteen years later he is found by his brother, who has to convince him that he is human. Having achieved that, they return to civilization.  In later tales, he takes part in many adventures,

“…teaching gophers to dig postholes, killing snakes by feeding them mothballs filled with red pepper and nitroglycerin, and roping whole herds of cattle at a time. He rode everything in the West, including a mountain lion and a cyclone. He invented the branding iron to stop cattle rustling and the cowboy song to soothe the cattle.”(as cited in “Pecos Bill”, The Handbook of Texas Online, 2011)

Bill’s story continues to develop and he even gets married to a girl called Slue-Foot Sue, who is as determined as him. To end the saga, Pecos Bill's death is controversial. Whether he dies drinking a mixture of fishhooks with whiskey and nitroglycerin or laughing at men who called themselves cowboys he still exists in cowboy folklore as an extreme example of resistance, courage and creativity to solve problematic situations that develop in cowboys’ typical lives. Although the standard way of thinking about tall tales and legends is that they are part of children’s literature, this particular saga is starred by a teenager-like character, a typical feature of Young Adult Literature. It can be used in the ESL classroom to raise awareness of traditions and values, simultaneously entertaining readers. This well-known hero can be inspiring to teenagers who are always looking for a role-model while having fun.

Folklore, tall tales and YAL

Defining Young Adult Literature is not an easy task. The dean of the College of Education and Human Development at Radford University, Robert C. Small studied the books that attracted teenagers during 1920s-1950s and was able to summarize some characteristics that appear in them. According to Small (as cited in Herz and Gallo, 1996), some characteristics that are unique to Young Adult Novels are:

• The main character is a teenager.

• The main character is the centre of the plot.

• The teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature and independent.

• The actions and decisions of the main characters are major factors in the outcome of the conflict.

In “The Birth of Pecos Bill”, he is sixteen years old when he is found by his brother [after having fell down from his parents’ wagon when he had just learnt to crawl]

“Pecos Bill plumb forgot all about his real family, until the day he turned sixteen and his older brother came along... The ol' cowpoke took one look at Pecos Bill and knew he'd found his long-lost brother...” (Lines 17-21)

Holly Koelling, a referent in YA literature points out that most teenagers at 16 have not yet constructed an image of themselves, that’s why they experiment mood changes and can have sudden reactions. According to her, they can 

“often place themselves in the hero’s role and fantasize about it, which can produce an idealism that leads to a positive action in life or an idealism that mistakenly produces a sense of strength and immunity to the consequences of life… they can be emotionally mercurial, rapidly changing from a mature calm to juvenile display…”(Koelling, 2004)

Depicting a typical reaction of a teenager, Pecos Bill does not agree with his long-lost brother at once. He refutes the claim that he is his brother more than once,

“‘See here, ain't you Pecos Bill, my little brother?’ demanded the cowpoke of Pecos Bill when he came jumping over a giant log to run about in the field and howl at the full moon.
‘Don't think so,’ said Pecos Bill. ‘I'm a coyote! Listen to me howl!’ Pecos Bill let out a horrendous shout and scampered about the field on all fours. He scared the herd so bad that the long horns almost stampeded.
‘You stop that!’ Bill's brother shouted after he got the cattle calmed down. ‘And tell me this; how come you ain't got a long bushy tail if you're a coyote.’
That was a tricky question. Pecos Bill thought about it for a long time.
‘I got fleas,’ he volunteered. ‘And I howl at the moon!’
‘Everybody in Texas has fleas and howls at the moon. That ain't no excuse,’ said his big brother. ‘Anyhow, you can walk upright like a normal person and you can talk too. That ain't what a coyote does.’
‘I guess you're right,’ said Pecos Bill.” (Lines 22-35)

Pecos Bill’s actions are also essential in the resolution of the various conflicts that develop in the story, as this passage demonstrates,

“Pecos Bill began to realize that the cowboys needed some new tricks to help them cope with them stubborn longhorns…so Pecos Bill invented the branding iron…Then he noticed that the other cowboys were having trouble making the wilder cows behave… so he invented the lasso to help them tame the wild cows.”

The sensitivity and drive that Bill shows by inventing these devices can be very appealing to teenagers, as it is acknowledged in Small’s work, as well as the fact that by inventing them Bill is helping his cowboy friends to solve many conflictive situations I the different stories.

Considering the points stated above, “The Birth of Pecos Bill” can be considered YAL literature as it contains many features that make it appealing to teenagers. 

Traditional Values and Cultural Awareness 

“A tall tale, by definition, is a story that the narrator himself does not believe but which is supposed to fool the naïve listener. In the United States, tall tales were passed on to the city dweller in a straight-faced manner for the purpose of presenting ‘true’ pictures of life in the nineteenth century Wild West... Tall tales achieve their comic effect by illustrating the incongruity between sober narration and fantastic and exaggerated elements in the stories themselves. They often feature two protagonists whose character traits are frequently interchangeable: the Roarer, a bragging, swearing, hard-drinking brawler; and the Yankee, a quick-thinking trader who is a rogue beneath a bland exterior. Although most of these stories feature a hero, some of them merely describe phenomena, such as corn that grows so fast it knocks people down, or food that rains down from the sky. An essential trait of tall tales--and all folk literature--is their diffusion. These tales are spread from one generation to another by word of mouth, and eventually, they are recorded” (as cited in Kotarba, 2001)

Folklore and tall tales often provide opportunity for discussion and thinking, and also for comparison, both with another story or historical event or with a current situation a student is undergoing. Young (2004) indicates that "traditional literature has served to educate about the creation of the world, the history of its people, and the moral values a particular culture holds dear…In the past, traditional stories were once presented to adult (and sometimes child) audiences, but they have become a major part of children's literature during the 19th and 20th centuries…. The criterion for selecting a traditional tale might depend on the reader or audience who would be enjoying the tale…” (as cited in Rice, A and Liang, A.). 

The dialogues in “The Birth of Pecos Bill” depict the traditional way in which pioneers used to speak. For example, 

"See here, ain't you Pecos Bill, my little brother?"
…
"You stop that!"…"And tell me this; how come you ain't got a long bushy tail if you're a coyote."
…
"I got fleas," he volunteered. "And I howl at the moon!"
"Everybody in Texas has fleas and howls at the moon. That ain't no excuse," ... "Any how, you can walk upright like a normal person and you can talk too. That ain't what a coyote does."
…
"'Course I'm right. I'm your big brother and I outta know,"...
"It's about time you stopped foolin' around on the prairie and became a cowboy like all the rest of us."

There is also a cultural connection through the different events that occur in the story. An example of this is that Pecos Bill is raised by coyotes, a species that is typical of the southwestern region. He also invents the branding iron and the lasso to help the cowboys deal with the stubborn bulls, which are everyday activities for the people living in the same region.

Literacy Development through YAL

It is a common belief that YAL “has the potential to soften the resistance of students who have decided that they have no need of literature, or for that matter, no need of school”(White, 2000). In order to get students to read anything, teachers should be able to choose the most motivating pieces of literature that fit within their curriculum design. Taking that into account, a successful result can be expected as adolescents often react in a positive way to literature that fits within the YA rationale (Featherstone, 2009). 

Discussion

Covering many of the standard YAL characteristics, the use of “The Birth of Pecos Bill” with pedagogical purposes will offer an excellent opportunity to engage adolescents in reading for pleasure as well as exploring values and traditions because it provides action and entertainment, using a young character to depict customs and regional traditions. 

Many of the activities that Pecos Bill is engaged in, such as dealing with messy bulls or helping cowboys in their daily routine, depict in a humorous way the typical harsh life that southwestern people had to go through at the beginning of the nineteenth century. To reflect upon this will give students an opportunity to relate to History, when comparing the different ways of life then and now, or to Geography, while talking about the different animals that inhabit this region as well as its climate and topographical characteristics. It can also be used to point out the different values that are portrayed in the story: courage, creativity, assertiveness, independence, and the not-so-good attitudes, such as the lack of fear.

Essentially, by being entertaining and packed with action, “The Birth of Pecos Bill” can be an interesting story to be used in the ESL classroom. Encompassing YA literature features, an enjoyable and stimulating character and curricula-connected content this story can become a useful tool for teachers and an inspiration to students. 

References

• Featherstone, Kate (2009). “The Transforming Power of Young Adult Literature”. The ALAN Review, Volume 37, Number 1, p. 7-11.
• Handbook of Texas Online "PECOS BILL," at http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lxp01. Retrieved October 8, 2011. Texas State Historical Association.
• Koelling, H. (2004) Make sense of teens as growing people and as readers. Classic Connections: Turning Teens onto Great Literature. Westport CT.
• Kotarba, Polly (2001). “American Tall Tales: Values and Videos” at http://hti.math.uh.edu/curriculum/units/2001/02/01.02.04.pdf. Retrieved October 12, 2011. Houston Teachers Institute.
• Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, “Pecos Bill and the Ghost Stampede” at http://www.okchildrenstheatre.com/Pecos Bill.pdf. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
• Rice, Amie, Liang, Angel, “Choosing High Quality Children's Literature/Traditional Literature” at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Choosing_High_Quality_Children's_Literature/Traditional_Literature. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
• White, Elaine J. (2000). "Young Adult Literature as a Key to Literacy." The ALAN Review, Volume 27, Number 3, p. 52-54.

Teen readers’ choices: An analysis of teen students’ reading preferences within a pedagogical framework

by Angélica Santi and María Silvina Rago

Lord! When you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life.  Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book.  ~Christopher Morley

Students in general, particularly teenagers, undergo many changes during their process of maturation. This changes result in new preferences as regards literature as well. This paper will describe students’ preferences as regards different literary elements. According to Holly Koening,

“Teens like to explore the unfamiliar, they like to learn, they like to escape. Many teens like to challenge themselves to “read ahead” of their level-both technically and experientially.” 

To obtain data about students’ reading preferences we conducted a survey with two different focus groups. We chose students attending public schools in the western area of Greater Buenos Aires. Students of 11 or 12 years of age were part of one of the focus groups. The other focus group ages ranged from 15 to 17 years old. This survey deals with different literary elements or a variety of features concerning characters, genre, type of text and preferred story-endings. An analysis of the results will help teachers choose reading material when preparing their lessons. It will also add some understanding of teens as developing beings and save time to teachers who are planning to start a reading programme. 

Theoretical framework

What is your favourite ending in a story? What kind of genre do you like most? What about the main character? Do you prefer a human being or a talking animal? Any measurement tool has its own built-in biases, regardless of rigorous attempts on the parts of its creators to remain objective and the collected data can be interpreted in many ways.  But asking these questions to teens themselves we can determine their likes and preferences and from there, we can then look for books that deal with all aspects of adolescence. This is a tool of great help when trying to establish a connection with them.

According to psychologists and educators, the term adolescent has been defined as the stage that starts at the onset of puberty  and finishes at the end of physical growth. But this growth is not only physical, it is also emotional and intellectual and, even if changes are little noticeable on the outside, they might be dramatic in the inside. During this stage, concepts of personal identity and selfhood are formed in dialogue with society, with language and with other people, and while this dialogue is happening, ideas about and representations of subjectivity pervade and underpin adolescent fiction. 

Teens as growing people have particular interests and personal emotions. Of course, each individual develops at his or her own pace depending on many factors – genetics, cultural values, upbringing, socioeconomic status, etc. – but as this development takes place within a larger construct, they share a common workload in their growing-up process. 

Therefore, as future educators of young adults, the first thing we need to have in mind is the fact that teens have their own choices and preferences. Most importantly, their experiences need to be taken seriously. Only when able to understand they are in a constant process of maturation, can we benefit considerably from interacting with them. Taking into account their concerns will lead us to select the appropriate material for them. 

Methods

In order to analyse the preferences of young adults at the moment of reading we elaborated a short questionnaire to conduct a survey on two groups of students attending public schools situated in lower middle class suburbs in the western area of Greater Buenos Aires (See Appendix I). These students were from different schools, twenty students from primary school and twenty more from secondary level of education. Students’ age ranged from 11 to 17 years of age, being them separated into two focus groups. For the sake of clarity we will call them Focus group 1- students of 11-12 years old, and Focus group 2- from 15 to 17. Both focus groups were allowed to answer freely according to their reading experience. Each question in the survey was formulated in order to obtain data to be analysed both qualitatively and quantitavely. These questions refer to several literary features such as characters, genre, story-endings and main character’s personality. 

Results

Collected data can be interpreted in different ways. At this point, it is important to mention that using young adult readers within a classroom context do not truly turn teenagers into readers. They might be able to fulfil the task of reading any text if they are told to but avoid even the sight of a book during their leisure time. Even so, this research demonstrates that when it comes to reading, both focus groups have agreements and disagreements, similarities and differences.

Poems, newspapers and fables were the most widely chosen among focus group 1, being poems the most voted with 23%, 18% for newspapers and 14 for fables. Within the same topic, focus group 2 chose novels and short stories most, getting 26% each of them. Poems were the third choice, with a 22 %.  

Horror books were among the most voted by both focus groups. The interesting point in this case is that this genre got a 44% in focus group 1but only 22% in focus group 2.

Tragic and happy endings disputed the first place for preferred type of ending in focus group 1, with a 33% and 30% respectively whereas in focus group 2, 50% chose unexpected and 20% uncertain endings.

When it comes to type of character and their personality, both focus groups agreed, preferring a teenager protagonist, giving focus group 1 a 44% and focus group 2 a 69%. Focus group 1 also gave 28% to adults, and 24% to animals and focus group 2 put adults in the second place with a 31%. As to main character personality, both focus groups also placed the adventurer type in the first place, with a 21% in group 1 and 47% in group 2. The brave kind got also a 21% in group 1 but the reflexive got the second position in group 2 with a 41%. 

The graphs and charts that follow illustrate these findings:

11-12 years old

What do you like reading?

Fairy Tales 0

Fables 3

Novels 1

Short Stories 0

Poems 5

Magazines 2

Newspapers 4

Any of the above 1

Other 6

What type of books do you prefer reading?

Horror 14

Science Fiction 4

Romantic comedy 1

Comedy 5

Thriller 4

Historical Novel 0

Biographies 3

Any of the above 0

Other 1

What kind of ending do you prefer in a book?

Tragic 9

Happy 8

Uncertain 2

Disturbing 2

Unexpected 5

Any of the above 1

Other 0

¿What kind of main character do you prefer?

Animal 6

Teenager 11

Adult 7

Any of the above 1

Other 0

  

¿What type of personality do you like in a protagonist?

Heroe 5

Superheroe 1

Shy 3

Reflexive 3

Adventurer 9

Brave 9

Any of the above 1

Other 0

15-17 years old

What do you like reading?

Fairy Tales 0

Fables 1

Novels 6

Short Stories 6

Poems 5

Magazines 2

Newspapers 0

Any of the above 0

Other 3

  

What type of books do you prefer reading?

Horror 5

Science Fiction 2

Romantic comedy 6

Comedy 5

Thriller 3

Historical Novel 1

Biographies 1

Any of the above 0

Other 0

What kind of ending do you prefer in a book?

Tragic 1

Happy 1

Uncertain 4

Disturbing 1

Unexpected 10

Any of the above 3

Other 0

What kind of main character do you prefer?

Animal 0

Teenager 11

Adult 5

Any of the above 0

Other 0

¿What type of personality do you like in a protagonist?

Heroe 0

Superheroe 2

Shy 0

Reflexive 7

Adventurer 8

Brave 0

Any of the above 0

Other 0

Discussion 

Koelling (2004) concedes that at the onset of puberty, students’ identities are in a state of flux and they are in the process of forming close personal friendships, revolving around competitive comparisons in all areas of their lives. The data obtained throughout this survey confirms Koelling’s stance. In the first place, regarding type of reading and literary genre, results clearly show that 11-12 year-old students’ choices vary widely, from typical children’s preferences, such as fables or horror, to others more proper of the teenage stage, such as magazines or biographies . Secondly, when it comes to character features, many of them still choose animals and heroic or adventurous personalities. Finally, the type of ending students prefer most at this age period are either the tragic or the happy one. 

By the time students reach the last stages of teen development, their thought and reasoning are ready to deal with more abstract situations where logic can also be applied. They are more inclined to experience relationships within different social environments and they are no longer afraid of going beyond their known world. Humour is also a new component of their world, as well as romance. The results of the survey confirm this as students of 15 to 17 years old chose, for example, unexpected story endings. Concerning type of text and genre, short stories, novels, comedy and horror were the most preferred ones. The type of hero that students claim to prefer is the adventurer adolescent one. 

Taking these preferred characteristics into consideration, wise teachers will make their jobs easier by choosing material that will simultaneously teach them and amuse them, and perhaps encourage some of them to experiment with new features.

References

• Herz, Sarah (1996) What is young adult literature anyway? Can it be any good if students like it? From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature and the Classics. Chapter 2. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Koelling, H. (2004) Make sense of teens as growing people and as readers. Classic Connections: Turning Teens onto Great Literature. Westport CT.
• McCallum, R. (1999) “Introduction: Subjectivity, humanism and children’s literature” Ideologies of Identity in Adolescent Fiction: The dialogic construction of subjectivity. New York: Garland.

Appendix I:

¿Qué te gusta leer?
 Cuentos de hadas
 Fábulas
 Novelas
 Historias cortas
 Poemas
 Revistas
 Diarios
 Cualquiera de los anteriores
 Otro
¿Cuál? ______________

¿Qué género literario preferís?
 Terror
 Ciencia ficción
 Romántico
 Comedia
 Suspenso
 Novela histórica
 Biografías
 Cualquiera de los anteriores
 Otro
¿Cuál? ______________

¿Qué tipo de final preferís?
 Trágico
 Feliz
 Incierto
 Perturbador
 Inesperado
 Cualquiera de los anteriores
 Otro
¿Cuál? ______________


¿Qué tipo de personaje principal te gusta más?
 Animal
 Adolescente
 Adulto
 Cualquiera de los anteriores
 Otro
¿Cuál? ______________

¿Qué personalidad te atrae más en un protagonista?
 Héroe
 Superhéroe
 Tímido
 Reflexivo
 Aventurero
 Valiente
 Cualquiera de los anteriores
 Otro
¿Cuál? ______________

¿Te acordás de un libro que te haya gustado mucho?
 Si
 No

¿Cuál?  Título: __________

Abortion in YAL: exploring its value among teenage readers and its pedagogical implications

Angélica Santi, María Silvina Rago

Teen pregnancy and abortion is becoming a serious concern in western societies. Although statistics about this matter are difficult to compile, the Guttmacher Institute has been dealing with this issue for four decades in order to advance sexual and reproductive health through an interrelated program of social science research, policy analysis and public education designed to generate new ideas, encourage debate and promote new policies . In 2009 this Institute used data collected during the 90’s to show comparatively how industrialized countries could reduce teen pregnancy and abortion by learning from other countries with lower rates. The study attributes the latter countries more parental and governmental support of teenagers by providing information about and access to effective contraception and adequate health services. These efforts are also reinforced through education as those countries with lower rates try to prevent teenage pregnancy through education about sexuality and contraception. 

In ‘‘Abortion among Young Women and Subsequent Life Outcomes’’ David M. Fergusson, Joseph M. Boden, and L. John Horwood support the assertion on educational outcomes noted in the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy fact sheet. They conclude, ‘‘In general,  there is a clear need for further study of the social, educational and related outcomes of the decision to terminate a pregnancy so that women may be properly informed of the potential consequences of this [abortion] decision for their life course.’’ 

From an educational perspective, teachers usually place their focus of attention in developing literacy skills and disregard the importance of students to understand themselves in relation to the complexities of their own world. One way of reversing this is by using adolescent literature as a means to meet their needs. Teens need a safe place where they can examine, through fictional characters, the choices they make and the lives they lead. They need to discover and formulate values and opinions and learn to tolerate others by discussing all sides of relevant issues. So, to help teenagers find themselves and improve their intellectual processing abilities it is necessary to study the need for treatment of abortion (among others) as a theme in YA fiction. Furthermore, it is important to mention that teachers should make use of literary resources that provide students with an honest view and address the realities of teenage life. 

In this respect, the story Sparks Fly Upwards deals specifically with this topic. Written by Lisa Morton, this story is about a woman who is forced to abort, her inner thoughts about that issue and the moral rules that govern her actions in accordance with the zombie –controlled society she is immersed in. Controversial as it may seem, this theme is pedagogically appropriate because students can benefit from reading and discussing it. Morton considers that many writers who have dealt with the theme of zombies overused sex as a taboo topic. So when she thought about writing a zombie story of her own, she asked herself what taboos were left that could be dealt with in a zombie tale. “My answer was political ones,” Morton said. “It’s hard to imagine a more heated political topic than abortion, and when I thought of combining that with a tale of survivors carefully rationing out their resources, it all fell into place.”  The theme has not received any greater representation in the last decade, leaving teens who hve abortions or are considering abortion without much literature to help them think the issue out. 

Similarly, the young protagonist of Sparks Fly Upwards faces a dilemma when she becomes pregnant. Knowing that the leader of her community will not allow the pregnancy to continue, she still expects some miracle to help her get through the situation without aborting. But as the community cannot afford an extra mouth to feed, she is forced to undertake a dangerous journey to an abandon clinic that is being guarded by a group of anti-abortion zombies. She tells us about this: 

“Afterwards, in our own bungalow, Tom and I argued for hours. We both got crazy, talking about leaving the Colony, building our own little fortress somewhere, even overthrowing Doc Freeman… but I think we both knew it was all fantasy. Doc Freeman had been right again-we did have Jessie, and maybe in a few more years the time would be right for another child.”

This quote clearly shows the main character and her partner do not desire an abortion. A study conducted for the Center for Population Options, Washington, D.C. (CPO) by authors Rebecca Stone and Cynthia Waszak, concentrated on adolescent knowledge and attitudes about abortion . They reported that negative attitudes toward abortion were balanced by the promotion of choice. Stone and Waszak also found out that teenagers lacked knowledge about abortion and related laws. They expressed erroneous and anecdotal evidence about abortion more often than sound knowledge, portraying the procedure as medically dangerous, emotionally damaging and widely illegal. This is also portrayed in Sparks Fly Upwards:

“I was thinking about the time I had to go to a different clinic with my friend Julie. It was before I started you, diary; in fact, I started you about the time Julie disappeared with most of the rest of the world. So I've never written any of this down before.
Julie had gotten pregnant from her boyfriend Sean, who split when she told him. Abortions were legal then (this was a long time ago), but could be costly, and Julie, who was still going to college (as I was), had no money. She went to her parents, but they threw her out of the house. She thought about having the baby and putting it up for adoption, but she had no health insurance, wouldn't be able to afford the actual birth, and regarded overpopulation as the end of the world. This, obviously, was before the deadheads arrived and clarified that issue.
So I'd lent her the money, and agreed to go with her to the clinic. She made the appointment, worried about it so much she didn't sleep the night before, almost backed out twice on the drive there and all so she could be confronted by the fine Christian citizens of Operation Soul Save.”

A strong sense of confusion is portrayed in these passages. The same confusion Stone and Waszak found in the teenagers they interviewed as well as a great amount of ignorance in medical and legal matters. This knowledge gap could easily be bridged by using stories like Sparks Fly Upwards as a triggering resource within a classroom context. Stone and Waszak also found that teenagers were eager to discuss abortion and wanted to learn all they could about the issue. However, they had not been given many opportunities to explore, discuss, and ask questions. Most importantly, Stone and Waszak found that they may have been the first adults to talk with these adolescents to discover their opinions, rather than to convince them of a particular point of view. They found adolescents' opinions about, and knowledge of, abortion had not been considered by adults. These and other responses by the young adults interviewed point to a serious lack of correct information about abortion. Instead, information often reflects anti-abortion sentiments or generally reinforces sexist attitudes. The responses also show the inability of these adolescents to consider outcomes of their sexual activity. However, doubting the intelligence of adolescents is a mistake. From the pedagogical point of view of education, teachers should make sense of teens as growing people and as readers. Each teen should be thought as a developing being, whose interests and skills are in constant process of change. Of course this development is dependent on many factors but it definitely takes place. They live in a real world, where they have been displaced, neglected, treated with suspicion and ignored as thinking, capable young people. Educators and writers have a responsibility to address even the toughest emotional and controversial issues in the lives of the young adult readers. Lisa Morton’s Sparks Fly Upwards is one example of this important task. Its responsible and professional use in the classroom can enrich the literature lesson as well as benefit those growing human beings we call teenagers.

• The Guttmacher Institute. Retrieved July 14, 2011, from http://www.guttmacher.org/about/index.html
• Alters, S. M. (2010). Teen pregnancy and abortion. .Abortion: an eternal social and moral issue (pp. 71-89). USA: Cengage.
• Ferguson, D.M. (2007). Abortion among young women and subsequent life outcomes. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 39(1). Retrieved from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/psrh/full/3900607.pdf. DOI: 10.1363/3900607
• Retrieved from http://www.johnjosephadams.com/the-living-dead/stories/sparks%20fly%20upward.pdf, July 18, 2011.
• Banker, D. Too Real for Fiction: Abortion Themes in YA Literature. The ALAN review. Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/fall95/Banker.html, June 30, 2011.

The Prince of Nox (review)

Kathe Koja

(Review by Angélica Santi)

“His name was Death; the yang to birth's yin and he had gone through it heedless as a tramp, stunned by plain sensation when he should have been most aware.”

In this edgy short story, American author Kathe Koja deals with the intense emotional rollercoaster of a super clever zombie using a third person to give a detailed account of his doings and feelings, from his initial transformation to his final moments.

This ingenious device gets the avid reader stuck to the text, as eerie sensations collide in his mind, while Koja’s meticulous writing style provide a wide variety of vocabulary and language.

A must-have for those enthusiasts of this genre.

TT Show (TV show proposal)

Dear Sir / Madam,

We are pleased to write you in order to put under your consideration our new project, entitled “TT Show”. It has been developed taking into account teenager’s needs and interests.

The format of the show is based on a contest. The contestants will be casted several times according to their skills in different artistic categories. The prize will consist in a full scholarship to the best institution for artists. The assessment will be carried out by famous teenagers. The participants chosen by the jury will be exposed to the decision of the audience, who will cast their vote via mobile phones.

We are convinced that the combination of a stimulating competition for young people and the participation of the audience as a central figure in the destiny of the contestants will appeal to teenagers. “T.T Show” is a solid project which can be attractive for teenagers and young adults who want to express themselves artistically. We, as a group of young producers, see the necessity in the Argentinean television network to have an space to share our young people‘s artistic abilities. Therefore, we consider the best way for that to happen is by carrying T.T Show out.

With the purpose of providing you with detailed information about this project, we would like to have the opportunity to arrange a meeting.

At your disposal for further explanation and looking forward to favourable  response.

Yours faithfully.

About talking houses, tricksters and the power struggle

by Angélica Santi

“Houses don’t talk, you know!”, writes Linda Hayward at the end of “Hello, House!”, her simple retelling of one of the "Tales of Uncle Remus", a well known collection of oral tradition folktales compiled by the American journalist and writer Joel Chandler Harris .

Probably an adaptation of the African cunning rabbit[1], Brer Rabbit, the clever protagonist of “Hello, House!” as well as of other two-thirds of the “Tales of Uncle Remus” and a supporting character in most of the rest, is regarded by some scholars as the best-known trickster in American literature[2]. Throughout this story he manages to outwit Brer Wolf, one of his usual victimized opponents, with complex simplicity. He does so in such a way that readers are almost compelled to reflect upon his doings. And out of this reflection various authors have considered Brer Rabbit as “a revolutionary black figure” from African American traditional lore[3].  More precisely, through this particular story, the power struggle, typical of colonial times, is depicted in a new and improved manner, one in which Brer Rabbit comes out victorious in what could be thought of as a “brain beats muscles” situation.

Historically speaking, the people from the colonies underwent many abusive situations in the relationship with their colonizers. Also within this category, African American slaves needed trickster stories to pass on their experience and knowledge without provoking the dominant white society. And most frequently, these stories focused on oppressed weak characters that used previous experiences and had all their wits about them in order to take advantage of their powerful opponents[4]. Uncle Remus, the protagonist of the mentioned tales, is a vehicle through which this purpose is accomplished using Brer Rabbit and his counterparts with considerable significance.  
However, as feeble as they may seem, tricksters don’t pretend to carry a moral tone. In order to be successful, they would not stop to think about right or wrong. They would come up with any prank to deal with the crisis. Similarly, Brer Rabbit achieves his main objective, to fool his enemy, by performing a trick that best suits the circumstances through lies, stealing, injuring, betraying, humiliating, even murdering. In the case of “Hello, House!”, Brer Wolf is really humiliated after falling for Brer Rabbit’s trick. Another tale places Brer Rabbit at the bottom of a well, a hapless victim of Brer Fox, and develops in Brer Fox rescuing him from the well by asserting that the moon reflected in the water at the bottom of the well is really a block of cheese. Brer Fox jumps into the other water bucket, descends into the well, and, in the process, enables Brer Rabbit to rise to freedom.

Being at ease during stressing times is another interesting aspect of this character’s personality.  It is the perfect complement to brains and the cherry on the cake in Brer Rabbit’s temperament that, together with sensibility and wits, leads him to take the dominant role in underprivileged conditions. This emotional-rational combination is perfectly pictured in “Hello, House!”: Brer Rabbit does not panic when he comes back home and sees the door open. Instead he calmly inspects the surroundings and finally comes up with the brilliant culminating idea of making Brer Wolf believe that the house would talk.

In trying to find a way out of the oppression, the enslaved peoples found it impossible, under that social context, to parallel their masters’ power. They had to get the most out of their cultural wisdom and did so by trickster stories like “Hello, House!”, which contains underlying serious comments of the injustice they had to endure and whose leading roles are performed by animal characters that carry considerable significance. When placed in the stereotypical situation of the weak against the powerful, the weak characters, who represent the black minority, use brains, intuition and prior experience to find a smooth way out of the conflict and outwit the strong ones representing the more educated, resourceful white society.

[1]Harris, T. The Trickster in African American Literature. Freedom’s Story, TeacherServe. National Humanities Center. Retrieved October 25, 2010 from http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1865-1917/essays/trickster
[2]Kemper V. eNotes.com. 2006. The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus. Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, Revised Third Edition. Salem Press. 1998. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://www.enotes.com/complete-tales-uncle-remus-salem/complete-tales-uncle-remus
[3]Cochran, Robert. (2004, March 22). Black father: the subversive achievement of Joel Chandler Harris The Free Library. (2004). Retrieved October 25, 2010 from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Black father: the subversive achievement of Joel Chandler Harris-a0117188856
[4]Harris, T. Op.cit.

Phineas and Ferb fight against holidays’ boredom and win audiences

By María Silvina Rago and Angélica Santi

“Hey Ferb, I know what we’re gonna do today!” says Phineas Flynn, one of the main characters in the TV series Phineas and Ferb. This line, simple as it is, originated an achievement in children’s programming and caught the attention of 10.8 million viewers when it was first broadcast as a preview on August 17, 2007. The series deals with the adventures of two stepbrothers, Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher, who expect to get the most of their 104 days of summer vacation. Each episode depicts uncommon situations which occur in everyday contexts, performed by the intelligent yet sometimes impertinent stepbrothers. Combined with a great variety of musical rhythms, the result is a well-thought scheme, which can be the reason why this animated series has largely succeeded among children and adults. 

Every day, they start an eccentric new project, being closely watched by their teenage sister Candace. Her misadventures while trying to bust them constitute a parallel subplot in the show’s storyline. But towards the end, everything vanishes magically or ends up in destruction before their mother can find out what Phineas and Ferb have been up to.

To add even more spice to the story, the authors thought it necessary to include another subplot. In it, the boys’ pet, Perry the Platypus, has a life of its own. He’s a secret agent for an animal organization and fights against a lunatic scientist called Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, whose primary goal is to take up the tri-state area, which is the place where Phineas and Ferb live. 

Humour, as in most of cartoons, is the basic tool the series creators, Dan Povenmire and Jeff Marsh, use to make the story a success. Each episode is full of gags, jokes and repeated lines. Their intention is not to write for children exclusively. They also try to have fun themselves, and believe  that children can always have the opportunity to ask an adult when necessary[1].

One of the features that surely attract younger audiences is the visual aspect of the programme. The main brightly coloured characters are made up of geometrical shapes: Phineas’s head is a triangle, Ferb’s is a rectangle, and Candace and her friend Isabella are half circles. This has the clear purpose of facilitating the drawing of characters. 

Making it even more appealing, the episodes devote some minutes to singing and dancing as in a musical comedy. There is no defined music style but a wide variety, from 16th-century madrigals to Broadway show tunes[2] . The catchy music is a key feature that engages kids, teens and, why not, adults. 

What might have also made the show so popular among older audiences is the constant mentioning of old movies, TV shows or famous people from the past as well as endless pop cultural references – Star Wars, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Frankenstein, James Bond and SpongeBob Squarepants, among the most mentioned. All inserted in the two eleven-minute segments of each episode.

“Hey, Phineas, What'cha doin?” is one of the running gags that provide a great deal of fun. The same fun the authors had when thinking about this project [3] and the same fun Phineas and Ferb look for when developing their extravagant ideas. This combination of comedy, mystery, mischief, wittiness, simple geometric graphics and lovely tunes is simply irresistible for children and the pop cultural comments definitely make adults look forward to joining them in watching it.

[1] Marjorie. "Phineas and Ferb: Music, Mischief, And The Endless Summer Vacation". 411 News. http://www.resource411.com/411Update/Issue/Articles/Story.cfm?StoryID=1020. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
 [2] Strike, Joe. (February 1, 2008). "From Swampy & Dan Emerges Phineas and Ferb", Page 2.". Animation World Magazine. http://www.awn.com/articles/production/swampy-dan-emerges-iphineas-and-ferbi/page/2. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
[3] Strike, Joe. (February 1, 2008). "From Swampy & Dan Emerges Phineas and Ferb", Page 2.". Animation World Magazine. http://www.awn.com/articles/production/swampy-dan-emerges-iphineas-and-ferbi/page/2. Retrieved September 5, 2010.

First Love, Last Rites

Written by Ian McEwan
Vintage Books - 2006
Paperback – 157 pp.
(Review by Angélica Santi)

First Love, Last Rites is Ian McEwan’s first collection of short stories as well as his first published work. Available since 1975, these eight very different and sometimes shocking short stories are connected by the main themes of death, obsession and sex combined with a secondary theme of youth and adolescence, always from a male point of view. The author’s changing style can be considered a powerful device to appeal to a wide audience, although some of the stories are inexcusably disgusting. I recommend it for those who want to explore McEwan’s world from the beginning.  

An unusual alarm (by Angélica Santi and Florencia González)

It was a sunny day at Ant Town. The Red family was enjoying their breakfast before going to work. Suddenly they heard the alarm. It usually signaled the beginning of a new working day. But today it was something different. A group of collectors, who were in charge of providing food for the community, had brought some tasty and unknown delicacy. However, it turned to be very dangerous, because it had been prepared with a new poison made by humans to destroy the ant colonies.

The alarm set off when these tricky devices exploded, causing death to many of the area personnel. After the commotion, the whole family discussed at home what had happened. The father said, “I’m sorry for the victims’ families”. “What’s wrong with that?”, said little Red Ant. “It makes room for new people.” “You are right”, replied the mother, “The colony is really crowded.”

Some days later, they heard that the Queen had decided to turn the place of the massacre into a monument to remind the new generations of the danger of experimenting with new attractive stuff and to preserve the traditions.