Insomniac's blog

Have you ever read a book or listened to the radio and gotten an image in your head of what that character or person would look like? I know I have. So for this book journal I decided I would play casting agent for No More Dead Dogs and pick a cast of characters for a movie based on the book. I decided to narrow my search to the three main characters, Wallace Wallace, Mr. Fogelman, and Rachel. First I will explain the character's personality a bit then I will explain why I picked a particular actor or actress for that character.

Wallace Wallace: He is confident in himself and has a high degree of integrity. He is also fairly good-looking and nice to be around. He feels a strong sense of attachment to his true friends and to his mom. Wallace also has a tendency towards a sarcastic sense of humor.
My choice of Actor: Noel Callahan from Nickelodeon's Romeo Show. Why? Because he likes sports, has a nice smile, and the character he plays on the Romeo Show is similar to Wallace Wallace. Click on the link below to see Noel's picture.
http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/cast.jhtml?sho...

Mr. Fogelman: He is a nice man, but a little neurotic at times. He tries to be your standard teacher but finds that the role is not only driving him nuts, but also his students! He is willing to adapt to the environment that the students put him in and becomes not just a teacher, but a friend and perhaps even an inspiration to his students.
My Choice of Actor: Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller is such a diverse actor that he could easily play Mr. Fogelman. He has the ability to make himself likeable and also to maintain a degree of adulthood just like Mr. Fogelman. To see a brief description of Ben Stiller and a few photos click on the link below.
http://www.aahceleb.com/pics/ben_stiller.html

Rachel: Rachel is not your typical seventh grade girl. She has ambition and is a hard worker. She is not boy crazy, but does find attractive qualities other than looks in Wallace Wallace. She is outspoken and lives in a bit of a fantasy world. Rachel likes to write letters to her idol Julia Roberts even though she thinks Julia will never see them. Rachel loves acting and the stage and is determined to one day be a grand actress.
My Choice of Actress: Emma Roberts from Nickelodeon's Unfabulous. Emma's character on Unfabulous seems to have a self-delusional quality about her that Rachel possesses. Emma also looks like the way Rachel is described in the book. Plus, Emma is really Julia Roberts's niece (how weird is that?!). To see Emma's picture please click on the link below:
http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/cast.jhtml?sho...

I think this is a fun way to try to envision what the characters in a novel would look like. Plus, it would also be a good way to have future pupils merge their love of television and movies with reading. This type of project would require readers to really look closely at the character, both the physical descriptions of them and personality traits found in dialogue. Readers would have to pay close attention to the smaller details in order to find a good cast for their book characters. I found this kind of fun too.

In my YA novel, No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman, there are few teachers. The setting for the book is in a school, so naturally there would be a few teachers throughout the text. One of the teachers, actually the main teacher, was Mr. Fogelman. Mr. Fogelman teaches English and assigned the horrible book that Wallace Wallace hated. Anyway, in the beginning of the book Wallace and many of his friends can not stand Mr. Fogelman. They are mad at him for putting Wallace on detention for not completing his homework the way Mr. Fogelman wanted.
A part in the book that affected me most as a reader was how uptight and unreasonable Mr. Fogelman seemed to be. He wanted the book report assignment to agree with his own opinions and not necessarily reflect what his students thought of the book. I wonder how many teachers like that are really out there. I know both as a student and as a mom that I have run into quite a bit of these egotistical teachers who think their opionions are facts. It reminds me to be aware of my own personal biases that I may bring into my future classrooms. Many pupils will take whatever the teacher says about anything as the God's honest truth, and they will never think to differ from a teacher's obvious likes and dislikes. I want my future pupils to know that I value their opinions and as long as they can back up what they say with either articulate answers to questions or with more material, I must and will respect that.
Anyway, the kids in No More Dead Dogs finally begin to realize that Mr. Fogelman may not be so bad after all. And, as the kids look at him differently he begins to mellow out (to use his words) and become more human to them. How many times as a kid in school did you run into a teacher outside of school and think, "Wow, Mr. So and So goes shopping at Meijer? And, he actually owns jeans?". This is the sort of transformation that happened to Mr. Fogelman. No longer was he viewed as some irrational teacher who couldn't handle anyone challenging him, but he became more than just a one-dimensional person to the characters in the book. I think Gordon Korman did a wonderful job of getting the right perspective on how pupils respond to teachers and how teachers can change that perspective.

After spending the better part of my Saturday with my face comfortably stuck in No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman, I began to think about the ways in which I was reading this book. I must admit that I was excited about it. When I did have to put the book down, I felt a little disconnected and anxious to pick it back up. Some of the methods I used while reading No More Dead Dogs were typical. I picked an area of my house where there were few distractions, namely no television, radio, or other gadgets to interfere with my total absorbtion in the novel. I also kept a pencil stuck into the back of my ponytail so I could be ready for any underlining or note taking. I took breaks when my eyes hurt, or my kids needed me, but other than that I was not just reading the text, but fully immersed in the story.
I can always tell when a novel has hooked me. I lose all concept of time. When I must disengage myself from the story, I always feel a little out of place. It is something like standing on the side of a busy highway after your car has broken down. There you were cruising along and then you have just stopped but all these other cars keep speeding past you. That was how I felt when I had to break off from the book.
I also found that I was adjusting my mind to the characters. Rather than thinking like the 30 year-old I am, by chapter three I was starting to remember all the drama and humor from junior high school. It has been a long time since I read such a light-hearted comedy, but I am so glad that I read No More Dead Dogs. I guess I just thought that YA literature was only for my daughter and not for me, but now I am beginning to see that really good books do not have an age level. The really good ones will always remain good. It is true though that this book would have affected me differently if I could have read it when I was in junior high. I think I agree with the Reader Response Theory to a certain extent. Although, I do believe that a beloved book will always have a certain special attachment to a reader no matter how much the reader has changed.
Overall though, I am amazed at how a well-written YA book can keep me focused and entertained. I guess after spending so much time in college oftentimes reading difficult and complex novels, I became a little bit of a literature snob, thinking that reading for anything other than the intellectual value a book can offer me is simply a waste of time. After reading No More Dead Dogs, I have learned my lesson.

I like the book No More Dead Dogs, but there is a point that made me think the book could use a new edition. In the book, the main character Wallace Wallace thinks that the book he was assigned to read was outdated in language and in situation. When the drama club puts on a play based on the outdated book, Wallace makes changes to the language in order to update the book and play. This is the same problem I see with No More Dead Dogs. While the plot and situation still is relevant, a lot of the words used in the dialogues are outdated. The following words are used in the dialogues and I think they are outdated:
"goofing off" pg. 8, perhaps use screwing around, playin'
"bamboozled" g 9, perhaps use conned
"chump" pg 85, perhaps use idiot or moron
"can it" pg 67, perhaps use shut it
These are some of the outdated words used. I have a middle schooler, and I can honestly say she has never used these words with her friends. Perhaps a reason for Korman to use these words was because they were used more during his time in middle school or because they are not as harsh, but they really do not reflect how a middle schooler talks nowadays. Maybe a look into a thesaurus would help with finding new words.
So, perhaps a new edition of this book could be done. But overall I think that No More Dead Dogs is still a good read and that middle schoolers would still enjoy it. It still appears highly recommended from middle schoolers, according to teenreads, so maybe the outdated language does not matter as much as I think.

I decided to take a look at Gordon Korman on the internet before I begin to read No More Dead Dogs. I believe that sometimes it is helpful to have some background information on an author, his or her writing style, or personality before devoting time and energy to a book. I must confess though, I have not read much YA literature in awhile. I do have a middle schooler at home so I sometimes read sections of her books just to do the whole parental censorship thing, but to sit down and read a YA book for content is something I haven't done in awhile.
I was impressed with the website I found on Gordon Korman. While the initial organization of the page is a little busy, I did find some useful information on him. Included on the site was a bibliography, short newspaper interviews, titles of his books, full text of his short stories, as well as a host of other information. So far, I am impressed. Korman seems to have a rather light-hearted take on comedy and writes his books in a way that celebrates humor and the strange situations his YA characters get themselves involved in.
Another way in which I checked out Gordon Korman was at the library. My local library, Howard Miller Public Library had a copy of No More Dead Dogs available and when I went to check the book out the librarian told me that the copy I had just checked out was signed by Gordon Korman and that he had visited the Holland area about a year ago. She also told me that the book and the author were quite popular with middle schoolers. This was another positive recommendation to read this book.
Another positive recommendation came from my daughter Myah. Recently in her language arts class, the kids had to do a book report project. When I told Myah that I was going to read No More Dead Dogs, she became very excited and told me that one of her classmates had read and did a report on that same book! Myah had been so impressed with the information that her classmate had shared with her that she basically gave me a condensed version of her friend's book report.
All of these positive recommendations has gotten me excited about reading this YA novel. I think that this author's use of light hearted comedy, and his ability to use more normal, albeit strange, situations will make this a fun read for me. I sure do hope that I can add one more positive recommendation of this book and author when I finish it. When others recommend a certain book or author, it always makes an impression with me. This is how I find so many good books, through checking them out through friends, online, and through the librarians.

In the book No More Dead Dogs I could not help but laugh when I read the part where the reader gets a first-hand insight into Trudi's mind. Trudi is one of the characters in the book and she is a little bit of a ditz. She has a good heart, but is the typical 7th grade girl. Her life is a little bit too involved with fantasy. By that I mean she thinks that there is a "scene" out there that she wants to be in and can not quite seem to make it in. Trudi also has the problem of falling for a lot of guys. In the book, she falls for the lead character, Wallace Wallace (no, it is not a typo, that is his name). Trudi does have some deeper intellect though, its just covered up by her extroverted ditziness.
I like Trudi. I was a bit like her at that age, so I can identify with her. The rest of the middle school characters I like too. I think Gordon Korman did a fantastic job of developing these characters. From the dialogue the reader can get a sense of not only their individual personalities, but also some of their mannerisms. Korman does not come out and write that so-and-so looked like this, or that the character talked in a certain manner. His characterizations are much more in-depth and are more shadowed than that. The reader has to look for characterizations and paint their own picture of the character. I did that for Trudi.
I pictured Trudi with the BIG Hair and the loud makeup that was popular with girls when I was in Junior High (and unfortunately I must admit I also had the hair an makeup). She would flit around the halls at school and nearly everyone would know her. Trudi would be liked by most people and she could make a friend anywhere. Strange that Korman never says any of these things about Trudi, but I imagine them anyway.
I am about half way through the book right now and had a hard time putting it down to write this. I am impressed with the characters in the book and how Korman has developed them. So far, not what I expected for an easy read. No More Dead Dogs is much more thorough than I had originally thought it would be