To begin here, I decided to include two books into my Young Adult Literature Project, as one is greatly inspiring and the other is useful, although there isn�t a "ton" of literature to it. The first book I chose was by Gary Larson, who is one of the greatly known cartoonists to the science world. The second book is a greatly inspiring novel by the author Nicholas Sparks. I have just finished this book a few days ago and am still uphalled at how powerful human will is and the greatness of the notion "never give up".

Book: The Far Side Gallery 3

Author: Gary Larson

About the Book: Gary Larson has teamed up with Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist and taxonomist from Harvard University, to create a biologically funny book. Humor has a purpose in this book. It is used in an attempt to cause the reader to think biologically on a macrocosmic level and expand on the harsh technological entities that science entails. Social interaction of all animals on the smallest level effects the bigger picture. If cows or chickens are your favorite animals and you like grotesque situations, or you simply want to laugh, then Gary Larson should be your first choice here (as it was mine, and Dan H.�s).

I enjoyed this book very much; however, a few cartoons were something of a different retrospect to my taste and need. In all, the cartoons vary from simply slapstick to delicate descriptions of modern day culture. Most amazing is that the humor is not specifically American but truly international.

With some critical thinking, all readers may be able to get the message of all the cartoons, find them humorous and (teachers-science) depict them for use in the classroom setting.

The Far Side Gallery 3 features all the cartoons from a lot of his previous works of biological perfection. A great choice for any high school biology teacher who advocates student interest and learning!

About the Author: American cartoonist Gary Larson was born on August 14, 1950 in Tacoma, Washington. According to sources, Larson loved to draw when he was young, but never studied art other than in required classes in primary and middle school, nor did he ever consider being a cartoonist. His love was science, which ultimately became a frequent topic in this cartoon panel The Far Side

Gary Larson�s cartoon, The Far Side, thrived for 14 years and when Larson retired from his daily cartoon strip on January 1, 1995, the panel appeared in more than 1,900 daily and Sunday newspapers worldwide and had been translated into 17 languages. The panel is still syndicated internationally in 40 countries. Larson has received numerous awards, including the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year from The National Cartoonists Society in 1991 and 1994, who also named The Far Side Best Syndicated Panel in both 1985 and 1987. In 1993, The Far Side was awarded the Max & Moritz Prize for Best International Comic Strip/Panel by the International Comic Salon.

Larson has published 22 Far Side books including 15 collections, five anthologies and one retrospective, each of which has made it to The New York Times Best Seller List. Thirty-one million books have been sold worldwide, and have been translated into every major language. Current merchandising of The Far Side include his Far Side books (33 million sold), calendars (45 million) and greeting cards (80 million), mugs, t-shirts, a line of personal organizer products, and other such goodies.

In 1994, Larson completed his first animated film, "Gary Larson's Tales From The Far Side," which aired in the US as a Halloween Special on the CBS network. In 1997, Larson's second animated film "Gary Larson's Tales From The Far Side II" premiered in Europe at the 1997 Venice International Film Festival and in the United States at the Telluride Film Festival.

Larson attributes much of his success to the caffeine in the numerous cups of coffee he drinks daily as well as the enlightening (endarkening?) time his older brother compelled him to spend in the basement as a child. He is currently living in Seattle, Washington.

Book: The Notebook

Author: Nicholas Sparks

About the Author: Nicholas Sparks is the author of The Notebook, which was a New York Times hardcover bestseller for fifty-six weeks and a paperback bestseller for forty-nine weeks; and Message in a Bottle, a New York Times hardcover bestseller for twenty-nine weeks and a paperback bestseller for fourteen weeks. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and two sons.

When Nicholas Sparks' first novel, The Notebook, was published, it debuted with a splash and showed, in the jargon of the entertainment industry, "real legs." The tender love story spent more than a year on The New York Times list of Best Sellers and eventually sold more than 850,000 hardcover copies. When the author started his follow-up, the news quickly spread through the worlds of publishing and filmmaking.

"All of my stories were inspired by events in my own family", Nicholas stated in one of his interviews. "The Notebook was inspired by my wife's grandparents"

His favorite part about writing is that he doesn�t necessarily know where any given chapter, any given section or scene is going to go. He generally knows how long it's going to be but doesn�t know how he�s going to get there. If something isn't working, he says, he�ll give it to his wife. She'll say, "no, it's not right." He then asks "what's wrong with it?" She'll say, "I don't know" He then goes back and works on it and three days later, he�ll say; okay, now it's right.

What an inspiring committed way to write!

This was by far the most difficult of the projects I had to do this semester for this class. My primary concern was trying to find the time, and secondly, I had no idea which book(s) I would like to use, as there are so many trees in the woods to choose. Well, my sister, one of my inspirational reading role models, purged the novel by Sparks into my decreped hands and said "Read", and that�s how I got to the decision to use this as one of my choices. It wasn�t so much the tale of love, but the adherence of the character of Noah to keep striving to what he wanted and knew was write. If everyone could display this determination, I think we would all be a bit happier of our current situations and improve the likeliness of the events and things we cherish. The other book I found so amusing, and I know of MANY science teachers who love Gary Larson. He is one of the greatest cartoonists and is one in a million in portraying this to us in a scientific notion.

10 Possible Read Outs/Assignments/Uses

1. Write a short response (1/2 � 1 page) in respect to the cartoon above with the two bears and the hubcap, how is this similar to that of holding up a seashell to our ear? What is happening here? Why would a car be in a woods like that, is it your car?
2. Write a short response on what will happen to the happily vacationing VW of slugs going into a salt water environment, is this what they really want? Why? Would you like to travel with them?
3. Every morning I would post a farside cartoon either on the overhead or somewhere where the students could see it. They would also be encouraged to bring in other biology or German related cartoons, which they like. On Fridays we could have short discussions on the cartoons and their relationship. Also, on Fridays I will bring in a cartoon related to a current event that is taking place in the world. For instance, this cartoon below could be used in relation with the Egypt-Air flight 990 incidence.



4. Another way I could use these cartoons would be for the students to start their own collection, sort of a portfolio. In this, they would collect these cartoons and relate them to the unit we would be working on, they should collect perhaps 7-10 cartoons for each unit and describe their relationship to the unit.

5. Each cartoon could easily serve as a great read aloud at the beginning of various classes. These read alouds would be both from myself and from the students, when they bring in cartoons to share with the class.
6. In respect to German, there are also various cartoons that I could use. I wasn�t able to capture any from the web, but have see them in the books from Larson. With these, I could have the students write descriptions in German about what the cartoon does for them, how they feel about it. Also, another assignment related would be to describe the physical attributes of the picture in German and so on.
7. The cartoon about the virus could serve as an introduction and an aid in a class discussion about certain current viruses, i.e. AIDS, and how they travel from person to person and from country to country.
8. Another neat activity related to the cartoons would be to have the students construct their own cartoons, which should relate to a current event, a biological situation, or an international/multicultural perspective. The students would be encouraged to use their own creativity in constructing something they find neat and useful, and could file into their portfolio (earlier stated).
9. With respect to The Notebook, I would have students, after reading the book, describe the environment where this intriguing story took place. They could then analyze and derive what type of biome this is and support their conclusion. All in all, a short little writing assignment with a biological twist.
10. With respect to the farside cartoons again, I could select a group of about twenty or so. Then have the students get into groups of two and decide how biologically correct these cartoons are. Associated with this, they would provide me with a 4-5-paragraph essay stating which ones didn�t quite belong, and why they chose this way.
11. Now for some read alouds from The Notebook.