ALAN Workshop-Gordon Korman

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ALAN Workshop-Gordon Korman

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ALAN Workshop-Gordon Korman

Korman wrote his first novel in seventh grade. He got a B+ on the assignment and a contract with Scholastic. Korman feels that there is a lack of recognition and respect for YA authors and YA fiction.

In some of his recent books, he's been playing with classic storylines because reviewers had compared him to Hemingway (a hack) and Fitzgerald (not a hack). Jake, Reinvented is a retelling of the Gatsby story while Son of the Mob is a modern Romeo and Juliet story. The books ask "what if" questions and allow Korman the chance to go back and play with things from the original novel as well as allowing students another way of entering the story. In Jake, Reinvented, high school boils down to pure popularity, and the story becomes a reinvention of self to attract notice.

We should be teaching humor in school. What do we use more often? The ability to recognize foreshadowing or a sense of humor? Humor should be part of the curriculum. How many books do we teach in school are funny? How many that we teach have a dead dog, a single plot point driving the story?

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Last Updated April 11, 2011

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Korman wrote his first novel in seventh grade. He got a B+ on the assignment and a contract with Scholastic. Korman feels that there is a lack of recognition and respect for YA authors and YA fiction.

In some of his recent books, he's been playing with classic storylines because reviewers had compared him to Hemingway (a hack) and Fitzgerald (not a hack). Jake, Reinvented is a retelling of the Gatsby story while Son of the Mob is a modern Romeo and Juliet story. The books ask "what if" questions and allow Korman the chance to go back and play with things from the original novel as well as allowing students another way of entering the story. In Jake, Reinvented, high school boils down to pure popularity, and the story becomes a reinvention of self to attract notice.

We should be teaching humor in school. What do we use more often? The ability to recognize foreshadowing or a sense of humor? Humor should be part of the curriculum. How many books do we teach in school are funny? How many that we teach have a dead dog, a single plot point driving the story?

Click here for the next session's notes.

Click here to return to the NCTE Convention Notes Homepage.