April 26, 2010 Today, Connie Gotsch, author, photographer, and local radio hostcame to talk to our class about the Hero's Quest and how she employed this technique in her book, Belle's Star. It was interesting for me to realize just how prevalent the Hero's Journey is and has been in literature. We learned that while it is beneficial to a story, and can be almost comfortable to the reader, sometimes it becomes to formulaic and actually hurts the story. Connie also shared with us that in the sequal to Belle's Star, she will employ some elements of the Hero's Journey, but that it will not be necessary to utilize all of them.
April 19, 2010 Today the class was fortunate to meet with Karen Morrison. Karen is a counselor at Rocinante High School here in Farmington. She discussed with us her use of books in Bibliotherapy. That is the use of books for therapy, to help children or teenagers through difficult or confusing times in their life. These books may help kids deal with bullying, drug addiction, abuse, death and countless other topics. It was exciting for me to see Karen's passion for books but more importantly, for the young people she works with. She is campaiging to improve the school's reputation. Rocinante has unfortunately been branded as a school for troublemakers and teenage mothers, but Karen is convincing people otherwise.