Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London is a nonfiction book that walks it's readers though Charles Dickens life and closely examines his tender-hearted treatment of the poor children of Victorian London. It's structured largely like an informative step up form a picture book. Here you can look inside the book to see how that works. There isn't a picture on every page, but sometimes there are two or three, this keeps the book visually interesting throughout. I have read Charles Dickens but I never realized just how closely his main characters were based on those close to him. Reading about his meager beginnings and honest work really helped grow my respect for him. I think that this book would be great to use in any secondary level as a supplemental text, perhaps just requiring the reading of a few chapters while reading a fictional text of his. I think that Charles Dickens works teach a lot about being grateful and believing that a person's class does not make them any more or less than who they are.
This cartoon version is a brief overview of Charles Dickens life that would at least give students some information in a fun and fast way, should they only be required to read a chapter or two.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unKuZ2wlNdw&hd=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_London
2 comments:
I almost chose this book for one of my four--Dickens is one of my all time favorite authors, and Oliver Twist is my favorite work of his (and OT is obviously a book about orphans). I like your comment about using this as a jumping off point for students who need to better understand Dickens or who want to learn more.
I took a class last semester that dealt with Crime in Victorian Literature and we read Dickens extensively. This books looks interesting as it gives readers that may not be as knowledgeable on this author, to give them context and better understanding on not only his works but this time period as well.
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