Lore vs. All Thirteen - Apples and Broccoli

 Here we go! We’re the second group mostly out of QE, nearly all first time Smackers. Round 1’s matchup was Lore vs All Thirteen. It’s rare that we see each other in person during the week, mostly due to scheduling/size of our building, but it’s been fun to see one another's reactions in passing in the hallways.

Initially, we were confused….How were we supposed to compare two distinctly different texts? It’s not apples and oranges so much as apples and broccoli....Both are good for you, but they wouldn’t be compared unless it was under some arbitrary match up (like the Smackdown). Naturally, we fell into the trap we warn our students not to do - judging a book by its cover, and/or our preconceived biases about the genre. Lore was the one most of us naturally gravitated towards, with its intriguing Medusa-inspired cover and hints at Greco-Roman myth inspired action yet to come. In a way, it was the more comfortable teen dystopian ‘you know what you’re getting’. Conversely, with All Thirteen, the textbook-like appearance, both in dimensions and - wait, is that colour photos? - was an unexpected pick...and then we found out it was non-fiction. What’s revealing about this is it forced us to confront our own biases with how we approach and select texts, both for ourselves and our students. Us ‘teachers’ were now back in the position of ‘readers’. 

But this blog isn’t like one of those book reports where the student waxes poetic about the cover, and you’re left wondering if they actually read it :) 

Lore fits comfortably within the YA dystopian genre. This is the novel you recommend to kids who liked The Mortal Instruments series/Cassandra Clare books, or The Hunger Games series. However, the twist here is that the characters and their world is embedded in Greco-Roman mythology. On the one hand, this was a fresh twist on the dystopian genre, and the readers in our group with a strong background in the area had a ton of fun seeing familiar gods become more fully developed characters than we often see in their original myths. On the other hand, there are a TON of characters to contend with, and if a reader does not have that background, it’s likely they’ll be significantly less invested in it. Allegory, allusions, the hero's quest - this novel has it all and would pair very well with a mythology unit. Pro’s included a strong female protagonist, a good ‘hook book’ into what’ll likely be a book series and/or movie, and a lot of action (once you get past the halfway point). Con’s included too many characters, too soon, making it difficult to connect to them right away, and half the novel feels like exposition before the ‘payoff’ action sequences (but they are hard hitting and exciting!). General consensus seemed to be that if you were already interested in mythology, this is great...but if not, there are other books awaiting on the shelf.

All Thirteen was an altogether different experience. Layout alone, it presents like a text book geared towards tweens: narrative passages, photos, sidebars, technical detail pages, etc. Initial response was more muted and uncertain - the same skepticism as being forced to read an ‘assigned’ book. Boy were we wrong! All Thirteen follows the harrowing experiences of the Thai boys soccer team trapped in a cave in 2020. Written with a Western audience in mind, what sets it apart is the sensitivity towards Thai culture, and the overall sociocultural context, which it gently instructs its readers. Similarly, the boys are part of a team, but more importantly, individual kids, whom you can’t help but feel invested in. The pictures and site notes really enhance the reader's connection to the text. It would work quite well as a cross-curricular text within science classes. Although at times it gets bogged down in technical details, what could easily have become a dry play by play account (where let's face it, most readers already know the outcome) instead becomes a moving narrative about the power of hope, the importance of the bonds we share to our non-blood families, and faith. In a world where shortly after covid physically isolated us, this one hits particularly strongly about the story of people all over the world coming together with a shared goal. 

 

In conclusion, it was not unanimous, but our winner for the round is All Thirteen. What’s surprising is that when faced with two books on an ersatz shelf (well, the table in the principal’s office with the metaphorical apple and broccoli), this is the one most of us would have ignored due to our own biases towards non-fiction. Lesson learned, and let's go Round 2!