The 1917 Revolution-News of the World, Opinions and Rants and Raves of All Sorts

Paulsen's classic novel

I just finished reading a book called The Winter Room by a childhood memory named Gary Paulsen.  Sadly enough, no, I have never read Hatchet.  I tried to write my own review but it just didn’t work.  So here is the review that Carol Hurst wrote and published in K-8 Teaching Magazine.

“This is a brief, intense novel with incredible descriptive scenes. As a young boy and his older brother Wayne grow up on a farm in northern Minnesota, we are witness to vivid scenes of farm life. In the bleak winters Uncle David tells stories in the winter room (a room only used in winter) of an almost mythological logging past. The boys doubt the truth of his stories and say so, thus hurting David so much he stops telling stories. It is only when the boys sneak into the barn to watch Uncle David and witness his incredible control of the axes that they begin to believe his stories are true and convince their uncle to resume the storytelling.”

This book really struck me.  A book that was written for much younger readers than me really hit a nerve.  There is a big problem in America.  I think that we as a people have forgotten the stories of the old, the legends, tall tales, fables that have so much merit and are incredibly uplifting and unifying during these times of stress.  These stories unite us; we are born with them in our blood.  Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, the legendary life of Davy Crockett.  Who do kids have as heroes now?  Gone are the days of Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, Evel Knievel, George Washington and Pocahontas.  Children look up to the likes of Britney Spears, steroid-ingesting overpaid athletes.  Did Washington cut down the cherry tree and receive admiration for his inability to lie?  Probably not.  But it makes a great story that instills a sense of morality in our children.  Was Paul Bunyan real or did Johnny Appleseed plant all those trees?  No.  But what great ways to teach anyone about conservation and environmentalism.  I encourage all of you, adults and children alike, to take the time this week to read a few of those Great American tall tales, absorb them and remember that these stories are the foundations of America and family values, more so than any old apple pie.