Saturday, June 14, 2025

Reading with Tim (our second year!)


Literature of retellings 

(Summer reading!) 

By the Skin of Our Teeth by Thorton Wilder 

[Note: great intro piece! With wit and wisdom and a great deal of fun, Wilder brings the Antrobus family to the stage. They hang on through the eons although plagued by the ice age, great flood and wars of the 20th century. What will come next?] 


The literature of the story and space  

Mythology, poetry and sacred writings 

Linda Sue Park A Single Shard (children’s literature) 

Dave the Potter poetry (Slavery and literature // pottery and poverty)

The literature of recovery/text loss/ask Tim [where there has to be reimagining]

Optional: opportunity to work with Mrs Walsh and terra cotta 


The King Must Die by Mary Renault 

Paired with Theseus Myth (Green’s Tales of Greek Heroes)


The literature of the macabre, gothic (and of saints) 

Edgar Allan Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado”

The Complete Short stories by Flannery O’Connor (TBD selection)


Optional: Viewing of Poe short stories at JMAC November 12 

Optional history: saints coexisting at the same time as Poe in Philadelphia and Baltimore

The literature of place  

Russian Fairy Tales by Aleksandr Afanasyev

The Cherry Orchard or Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov 

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card 


Optional history: Russian Century: A History of the Last Hundred Years by Brian Moynahan 

Optional: opportunity to work on art project with Mrs Traylor 


The literature of the English master retold 

Grendel by John Gardner

Paired with Beowulf (perhaps the new 2020 translation here, unless objections)? 


Hamlet by William Shakespeare 

Performance of Hamlet (JMAC on April 14th) 

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard


Optional: performance of Hamlet at JMAC

Literature of Saints - retellings reprised 

The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain 

Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw 


Optional idea for writer’s teas - rewrite or retelling 2x throughout the year 

Optional year end field trip - Mark Twain’s house, Connecticut 


Calendar: 





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