Saturday, January 28, 2017

The Complete Persepolis


The Complete Persepolis

Specifics


APA CitationSatrapi, M., & Satrapi, M. (2007). The complete Persepolis. New York: Pantheon Books.

Meets EDU 333 Blog Requirement For: Picture Book, Graphic Novel, Diverse Protagonist


Lexile Level: GN380L-GN500L (The first book is listed at 380, the second at 500, this copy is both together).


Audience: I would probably assign this to a mature 7th or 8th grade class. I would want to make sure they can take it seriously, and also be able to maturely handle the more explicit scenes. 

Summary

This book is about a young girl, Satrapi, while she grew up during the Islamic Revolution. It follows her through school, getting sent to live in Vienna at a boarding school run by nuns, living through homelessness, eventually finding her way back to Iran to be with her beloved family, and eventually moving back to Europe. 

Evaluation

This book is a great read to teach about the Islamic Revolution. Students can connect with Satrapi and realize that children around the world have friends, parents, grandparents, school, and their own struggles.

The book is a memoir, so I believe that the characters were not portrayed stereotypically, because the author wrote the story how she saw it. I found it interesting how many allusions she used throughout the novel including Karl Marx, Marie Curie, Castro, Bruce Lee, Jimmy Carter and much more. I think she alluded to all of these people because not only did it make the story more real, it also helps readers make those personal connections through the story too. It can also give a deeper meaning to the story.

The tone throughout the novel was both funny, but also serious. She uses humor to keep the mood light, but readers know that this is also an important time in history. 

Mini Lesson

For this book, my mini lesson would be to show a the movie version of Persepolis, or maybe just a small portion of it, and have the students compare and contrast the book and the movie. It would be interesting to see which they liked more. 










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