
The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy | |
By | |
ISBN | 0385753780 |
ISBN-13 | 9780385753784 |
Publication | 10 April 2025 |
Number of Pages | 336 |
Format Type | Hardcover |
Awards | Milwaukee County Teen Book Award (2015) |
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And none so than Ethan s beliefs about the people surrounding him This is one of the many reasons this book holds up so well it s almost better when reread than it is on the first read The first read gives you a hilarious teen voice and a really entertaining story English classes Discussions of the intersection of art and life Triplet sisters Every detail is integrated so brilliantly from the Applemen s gerbil who isn t just Ethan s security blanket but also has a purpose in the story to the noticeable decrease in quality in the Contracantos School was an eye with no mascara to the mix of philosophy and whining in true whiplash teen tradition to the convincing friendships.
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I ve reread this four times since January that reread total is only beaten out by I ll Meet You There and due to the battle haven t gotten the chance to really flesh out some thoughts yet It might be too late I m not going to be able to recapture the immediate wowed impressions I had But here s what stayed with me Remember this is not a novel not a memoir not produced by anyone with artistic skill It s just about what happened last year It s about reality TV a desperate crush on a ballerina and a heroic gerbil named Baconnaise But mostly it s about my friends Please remember not art just life. Book the vigilante poets of selwyn academy review I m going to start small I think with one particular instance in The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy Our vigilante poets have sneakily distributed their work in that way schools have nothing remains secret for long the vice principal gets on the loudspeaker and announces that all copies will be confiscated and that no students are allowed to read the work Here s what I thought at that moment on read 1 has no one in this school read Harry Potter or heard of The Quibbler Anyone And then this becomes a deliberate subversive moment in a book full of them where everything that looks familiar is turned slightly on its head with just enough judgement censure and self doubt Which is exciting to read about And smart and funny and authentic But on the second read I started to think about not just the story but how it s told This is a book that examines the responsibility of media and the extent to which behavior is influenced by the media we consume the extent to which life imitates art and art imitates life and the way we tell stories It specifically highlights the way reality TV tells stories And it underlines its point by telling its story by creating its reality in a way that distinctly contrasts the storytelling of reality TV This contrast is established right from the beginning when Ethan says he s not sure where to start because life isn t a TV show with clearly delineated start and end points But there s so much that s less overt. The vigilante poets of selwyn academy kindle download Ethan finds out for example that the show s producers pull together separate pieces to create a storyline they play recorded dialogue over unrelated footage they allow manipulated storylines to air if they think those storylines are compelling It s called frankenbiting and it becomes a key part of Ethan s denial of the show s portrayal of Maura I haven t even mentioned Maura yet Or any characters aside from Ethan the narrator Well they re all great More on them later And yet Ethan frankenbites in his narration too The key difference is that it s inadvertent because he s not omniscient and he is forced to face his mistakes Reality TV might be able to establish and follow through on storylines but life forces people to challenge the narratives they ve set up for themselves And Ethan is forced to confront the reality of people s complexity. The vigilante poets of selwyn academyk characters Luke points this concept out very early on But it takes Ethan the course of the book to understand it kTV found tiny unrelated bits of footage and they put them together to make a storyline To create a storyline Which is exactly what you re doing You re holding like three pieces of a big jigsaw and you think you know what the whole picture looks like. The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn academyart One thing I really love about this book is that its characters analyze their own lives on the pages too They re not completely separated from the events they enact in that the events aren t wholly left to the reader to unpack The characters think about them too and they think about their analyses of English class and of life It s yet another degree of involvement Beyond the specificity of frankenbiting though it s really fun to read the book and deconstruct it like that I d argue that the entire story realism dramatic moments hilarious supporting characters is one TV would love to have and it takes place under their very noses and they miss what s right there Reality TV the book points out isn t built to handle actual reality Luke s bombshell Baconnaise that the show might not be able to exist in a bubble and ignore the less talented kid in the corner For Art s Sake has to tie together unrelated information to create a compelling narrative when there s a much compelling story playing out in the same space I love that To say that differently reality TV never would have given Ethan any airtime In fact they deliberately disregarded him by crowning Luke the sole creator of the Contracantos and ignoring the team that created it not just in terms of physical creation but that the work never would ve existed had Luke not been able to bounce off of his friends But Ethan s story is such a worthwhile one. Book the vigilante poets of selwyn academy series order There s a discussion to be had on what people look for in their entertainment and why the show thinks their manufactured storylines will lead to maximum viewer interest sure I don t think the book is saying people shouldn t watch reality TV I think it argues against its being termed reality. The vigilante poets of selwyn academy epub pdf Because reality and messiness and zaniness and moments of boredom and loneliness and betrayal are front and center in this novel And they re not contrived or pieced together but rather the ebbs and flows of everyday life. The vigilante poets of selwyn academyland book There s an interesting distinction drawn between reality TV and higher art like Ezra Pound It s almost tangential because the book doesn t consider the reality show to be art at all like Jackson points out it s a social drama about the artists and not about their art or reality at all Ethan defends Pound s work as art imitating life and points out how impenetrable he finds most of it Difficult but with pieces that are accessible and beautiful like life The novel makes a strong case for denseness and length and getting it all down even if you need three different beginnings and endings as opposed to staging and frankenbiting and the self consciousness that comes when you need to consider your audience before you can tell a story. Kindle the vigilante poets of selwyn academy summary The book isn t all argument though The reason it s so effective is because the argument underlies a fabulously entertaining story A little about the entertainment 1 The Contracantos Beginning every chapter with an excerpt is a great way both to actually demonstrate what the characters are working on and to foreshadow what s coming next. The vigilante poets of selwyn academy kindle download 2 Ethan s obsessions with grammar I m running out of synonyms for great It s a wonderful way of tying his story together and it s smart without ever being heavy handed about its smarts The way tricolon is used at every possible juncture and with every possible list is both self aware and demonstrative of the power of threes which the story shows instead of simply discussing in the abstract There s a lot of showing not just telling in this work 3 BradLee s English classes and the discussions of Pound s work It s rare when writers integrate other works into their own books well This is successful because it s learning filtered through Ethan and so every powerful moment I mean beauty not slither You don t argue about an April wind you feel bucked up when you meet it is magnified because it s speaking to you through someone else Because it s meaningful to someone else It seems these three items have a lot in common which probably surprises no one I will always love smart interesting approaches to integrating art and literature into life And I love that this book does that in terms of its critique of reality TV and in terms of the literature discussed in class I said earlier that I d talk about the characters but this has gotten really really long So I ll just say that Maura and her single mindedness are very compelling Ethan s friends are so well rounded there s paragraphs to write on each on not just what Ethan says about them but on what they say about each other and how they interrelate and Ethan himself who is this book s heart with his by turns sarcastic and vulnerable and unlikeable voice his triplet sisters his gerbil friend and his place in the untalented caste. The vigilante poets of selwyn academy kindle download One last thing I think the book can be read yet another way because it s discussing art as a commercial art form itself But I don t want to read it that way Yes books need to sell Art needs to sell too Everyone needs to eat If Hattemer hadn t written this book I wouldn t have gotten this opportunity to think about art and commercialization in the first place I don t want to discount a thoughtful examination of art because it s presented using a medium powerful enough to reach me Kate Hattemer What a memorable story on every level the characters the setting the poetry humor It takes a deft touch to incorporate academia into fiction without the reader sensing a You Are Learning Here signpost But wow does Kate Hattemer have that touch Literary device Imagism and references to other works are woven into a story that is at once funny protag Ethan s triplet sisters are a laugh out loud riot and authentic to teens All in all POETS manages to be smart without being unapproachable witty without straining and original without ever skewing gimmicky That was a tricolon Read this book Kate Hattemer 4. The vigilante poets of selwyn academyjoy Recap we ve got a reality TV show we ve got a vigilante long poem we ve got my attention This book is brilliant a good match for English Creative Writing majors AP English takers and it s so deep and well written maybe even for fans of John Green You will learn about punctuation marks You will use poetry to examine your feelings AND to fight against the man You will like it Kate Hattemer Selwyn Academy is a school for artists of all kinds visual written dance theater music It s also the basis for a popular reality show For Art s Sake in which students compete for a major scholarship Everyone s addicted to it except Ethan Luke Jackson and Elizabeth who for various reasons think it s degrading and a slap in the face to true art It s Luke who comes up with a plan for exposing the show for the cheap sensationalist crap it is but when an unexpected development ruins their plans it s the other three who have to prove what s really going on at Selwyn Academy. The vigilante poets of selwyn academya series I m not a fan of Ezra Pound but I could appreciate the way his poetry framed the story Hattemer weaves quotes from his Cantos into the story at just the right moments to make them part of the underlying structure There s a lot of balancing going on here balancing the plot with the Cantos the Cantos with the characters the characters with each other and I really admire the craft It s also funny at times particularly if you like nerd humor why is one guy s code name Avogadro Because he s the mole It s really funny if you love chemistry I promise especially if it comes out of nowhere. Book the vigilante poets of selwyn academy review Ethan the first person narrator has a really great strong voice and his three friends come across as unique individuals The characterization skirts a little too close to stereotype unfortunately awkward Ethan has a huge crush on the beautiful and self assured ballet dancer Jackson the computer genius falls into geek mode too often and Elizabeth who frankly gets too little screen time is maybe a little too bold and fearless though since I like bold and fearless female protagonists I don t actually care if this is stereotype And I m not sure what to make of Luke Since we get everything through Ethan s perspective and Hattemer is good at handling her na ve narrator Luke s character development and the twist in the middle of the book seem reasonable Almost I was as surprised and horrified as the characters when Luke betrayed his supposed ideals to accept a role on the show but I felt that some of that surprise and horror had been manufactured that Ethan was possibly a little too na ve about his friend for the sake of that twist Then I didn t quite buy it when Luke comes back to the group in the end humbled and wanting to be friends again First he s an idealistic radical then he s a sellout then he s a nice guy again it looks like character complexity but it felt like inconsistency At the end he acts and his friends act as if it was all just a big stupid mistake that Luke had just gotten briefly greedy But the disparity between his character at the beginning and what he turns into in the middle is so huge it really has to be fundamental that greedy person is who he has to be inside And I don t buy that he can come back from that so easily It would have helped if Ethan had noticed details about Luke s reaction when they asked if he d be trying out for the show that made no sense to him but were revelatory to the reader Which is I think what I mean when I say Ethan was maybe a little too na ve What I think worked well is that at the beginning Jackson and Elizabeth sort of faded into the background because Luke is Ethan s best friend I noticed this and was a little annoyed by it until the middle of the book when the focus shifted and Ethan s ties to his other friends became stronger I think I would have preferred all four to be equally strong presences in the book but as an aspect of Ethan s characterization I think it worked. The vigilante poets of selwyn academyk pdf The reality show For Art s Sake is what the plot revolves around since it s the friends effort to get rid of it that takes up most of the story and the idea is really interesting even if I think it s unlikely having had a child in an expensive private school once that any private school full of kids whose parents are paying a ton of money to have them educated would want that education disrupted even for fame and potential scholarships It s equally unlikely that the show would be so incredibly popular without the parents of those students particularly those in the show not being fully aware of how their kids are being portrayed Pitting the four friends against the reality show with its warping of the ideals of art makes for a good story but this book also comes across as an indictment of reality television separate from the concerns of the characters Everyone involved with the show with the possible exception of BradLee is a caricature of venality ignorance and selfishness just in case we didn t get that For Art s Sake is a Bad Thing I m not saying it s a bad thing to take on reality TV just that this feels like one too many plots for a single book. The vigilante poets of selwyn academy book 3 Despite all this I did enjoy the book I liked Ethan s interactions with his triplet toddler sisters and what that meant for his position in his family I liked Ethan despite his occasional gormlessness It does feel like a first novel but one that shows the author s potential and I m interested in seeing what Hattemer writes next Kate Hattemer lots of nerdy references to rhetorical devices the two side friends were fun and interesting characters one of the stupidest plots of all time in believability and tone it reminded me of Glee everyone except two side friends were undimensional or cartoons serious lack of diversity MC white male describes the dreadlocks of his half black female side friend as beautiful but not in the way of normal obvious beauty but like undergrowth or like the mottled surface of an old car s bumper and is always barely suppressing his urge to touch them So offensive At the beginning of the book the MC regards his half black friend Elizabeth as sexless fixating instead on a white ballerina who he regards as unattainably beautiful There are some fakeout scenes where the MC seems to begin a crush on Elizabeth that seems like it could be reciprocated but instead of anything coming of this Elizabeth gives the MC a heartfelt speech about love and about how the MC needs better perspective about what love is magicalnegro And nothing really comes of this either In fact at the end when the ballerina has left their school Elizabeth tells the MC that he would have totally had a chance with the ballerina But this is after the MC realizes his crush on the ballerina was based on no real knowledge of her as a person No characters challenge the idea of a girl having a bad reputation because she dates multiple people I found most of the humorous dialog to be forced and tedious parents were almost completely absent and characterless Kate Hattemer
The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy By Kate Hattemer |
0385753780 |
9780385753784 |
English |
336 |
Hardcover |
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