The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud
W.A.R.P.: The Reluctant Assassin, by Eoin Colfer
Why I Picked Them Up: The primary reason for reading these two books is for the 2015 Battle of the Books. The secondary reason is that my husband and I were going on a 14 hour drive to visit my parents and needed something to listen to. As the librarian, it’s my job to find something that will entertain us both. My husband reads, but only if there’s nothing else to do, and if he’s going to spend time reading, it has to be good. On past drives, we’ve listened to Clive Cussler novels and he really enjoyed those stories (he semi-seriously wanted to name our first child Dirk, but that’s another story). Young adult writers have a tough crowd to please, and so their stories HAVE to be engaging and exciting. Consequently, YA fiction serves very nicely as a way to please both the reluctant and the voracious reader in our family (the little one, who is NOT named Dirk, doesn’t really count yet).
Why I Finished Them: Though we ended up listening to both books over the course of the trip, I gave my husband the choice of which to listen to first. After carefully assessing both books – looking at the covers, reading the blurbs – he chose W.A.R.P. because “it looked less dark” than The Screaming Staircase, and because he thought the premise that only kids can see the ghosts in The Screaming Staircase was silly. Overall, he thought he would enjoy W.A.R.P. the best. Interestingly, he ended up enjoying The Screaming Staircase the best. There always seems to be a few chapters of audiobook leftover at the end of a drive, and after we got home, he kept pestering me to finish it so he could find out what happened!
In contrast, neither book seemed like a “Sherry” book, but based on the covers and descriptions, I thought The Screaming Staircase is the one I would enjoy most. I liked the setting better, and was intrigued by the idea of kids being given such an important role in the society. However, as we listened to W.A.R.P., the idea of running a witness protection program in the past captured me more than I anticipated (Fun Fact: I wanted to be a double agent when I was in elementary school – not just a spy, a double agent) and that was my favorite of the two.
Both had good stories, good characters, an engaging plot and a few twists here and there. They are both a little dark, but in different ways. W.A.R.P. features an antagonist with a sadistic streak (he’s an assassin), which seems to be enhanced when he acquires the consciousness, knowledge, and weaponry of a modern-day FBI agent. The Screaming Staircase features “visitors,” many of which have dark stories which led them to be spectral, and that ghostly darkness must be eradicated.
Who I Would Give Them To: Lovers of adventure, middle school and up, will enjoy these stories!
Integration Ideas
This part is tricky on this post. There are many traditional things you could do with each individual book – analyze character, plot, setting, etc. However, I think these books have more power and potential for critical thinking together.
Theme/Guiding Questions:
Good vs. Evil – How do different cultures shape the definitions of good and evil?
Identity – How do we form and shape our identities?
Relationships – How are people transformed through their relationships with others?
Genre Study
As we listened to The Screaming Staircase, I kept making connections to W.A.R.P. The stories are very different, yet have many similarities. One leans more towards the science-fiction camp, while the other is pretty firmly rooted in fantasy, but they are both adventure stories. Both books feature a orphaned teenage girl who has been given a lot of responsibility and has to figure out how to solve a problem. Both girls have sidekicks and are supported by an interesting cast of characters.
These two books would work well as part of a genre-focused literature circle, but I would love to see them studied and compared exclusively as well. Give your class the option of reading one book or the other (hopefully making sure the numbers are somewhat even). Pair students together after they’ve read and have them start talking! See what kind of text-to-text connections they can make between the two books.
Then, it can become a bit more structured. Using ReadWriteThink’s Genre Group Book Review tool, have each pair of students chart the general characteristics of their book (Setting, Plot, Character, Personal Opinion). They can also add categories. I might add Mood, Problem, Solution, Crossover Genre, and Elements of “Other” (which could include supernatural and various technology).
Other books that you might use with these two for literature circles:
- The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
- The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan
- Holes, by Louis Sachar
More resources:
- http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/genres/adventure
- http://librarybooklists.org/fiction/children/jadventure.htm
- http://www.arrtreads.org/images/ARRT_genre_ADVENTURE.pdf
- http://childrens-books.lovetoknow.com/Best_Adventure_Picture_Books
Writing
Of course, after studying the conventions of a genre, the natural thing to do is write something! Take the conventions that the class determines belong to an “adventure” story, and have them write their own! Both of these books are the first in a series (I hate it when that happens – my reading list grows exponentially!), so have students imagine what sequels might include. Or have students craft an adventure story out of an experience they’ve had, helping them make text-to-self connections.
Character Analysis
Lucy and Chevie are very strong heroines with many similarities. Have students create a working or “live” organizer to chart the characters as they read and discuss the stories. Here is an example form that will need to be changed and recreated based on what you would like the students to focus on in their character analysis.
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