Gifted Bulletin Board

Welcome to the Gifted Issues Discussion Forum.

We invite you to share your experiences and to post information about advocacy, research and other gifted education issues on this free public discussion forum.
CLICK HERE to Log In. Click here for the Board Rules.

Links


Learn about Davidson Academy Online - for profoundly gifted students living anywhere in the U.S. & Canada.

The Davidson Institute is a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting profoundly gifted students through the following programs:

  • Fellows Scholarship
  • Young Scholars
  • Davidson Academy
  • THINK Summer Institute

  • Subscribe to the Davidson Institute's eNews-Update Newsletter >

    Free Gifted Resources & Guides >

    Who's Online Now
    0 members (), 86 guests, and 12 robots.
    Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
    Newest Members
    Amelia Willson, jordanstephen, LucyCoffee, Wes, moldypodzol
    11,533 Registered Users
    October
    S M T W T F S
    1 2 3 4 5
    6 7 8 9 10 11 12
    13 14 15 16 17 18 19
    20 21 22 23 24 25 26
    27 28 29 30 31
    Previous Thread
    Next Thread
    Print Thread
    Joined: Mar 2010
    Posts: 615
    MegMeg Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    Joined: Mar 2010
    Posts: 615
    Apologies to those who like this book, but I have to rant!

    The writing is amaturish; the caricature of the environmentalist parents is really small-minded; the "suspenseful" build-up about the missing pig and the mysterious garden next door is long and dull; the pig's disappearance, when solved, is a let-down, it was just a way to introduce the main character to the next-door neighbors; then we get treated to some heavy-handed didacticism about how important science is (which poor George has been kept in ignorance of by his luddite parents).

    I'm only at page 25 and I'm ready to thow the book at a wall. Anyone who likes this book, I'd appreciate hearing what you like about it, and whether any of the issues that are bugging me bugged you, and if they get any better.

    Joined: Feb 2009
    Posts: 604
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Feb 2009
    Posts: 604
    I would agree with everything you said, however, I still liked the book and like all of the books in the series. The reason I like them is that once you get past the push at the beginning about why science is great and environmentalists are weird, you get to a story that does a pretty good job of explaining some advanced astronomy and physics stuff in a kid friendly way. For my DD she wasn't interested in reading true textbooks or other resources about astronomy, but she had so many questions about it that these books gave her a way to get the information in a format that she enjoyed. I don't remember the rest of the stories being so bad in terms of stereotyping the parents, but it has been a few years since we read them.
    I think if I were to ask DD she too would say that they weren't written really well, but she loved the basic theme and the science being woven into the story.

    Joined: Sep 2013
    Posts: 63
    S
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    S
    Joined: Sep 2013
    Posts: 63
    DS (then aged 6) devoured all 3 in a week. And then peppered his grandpa the rocket scientist with questions. They had several lovely conversations initiated by talking about stuff he read in those books.

    Last edited by SouthLake; 09/09/14 08:58 PM.
    Joined: Jun 2014
    Posts: 469
    LAF Offline
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Jun 2014
    Posts: 469
    Okay, I am somewhat of an environmentalist, and the caricature bothered me too-although truthfully, I know it's possible that some people can be that extreme. However they are usually Amish. wink

    Anyway I tried to read it to my DS9 to try and get him interested in reading again (he seemed to have lost interest) but he just couldn't get into it.

    Also I didn't see a lot of advanced astronomy info in the book that we hadn't covered in other material (although I do love the idea that they wrote this book). Still the interest wasn't there so the book went back to the library.

    Joined: Feb 2014
    Posts: 336
    A
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    A
    Joined: Feb 2014
    Posts: 336
    We did the audiobook of George and the Big Bang for our in-car "reading" and both kids really liked it AFTER the long droll blah blah blah at the beginning about the pig and parents. The science parts were really good, though, and both kids (4 and 8) got plenty out of them.


    Moderated by  M-Moderator 

    Link Copied to Clipboard
    Recent Posts
    Help with WISC-V composite scores
    by aeh - 10/28/24 02:43 PM
    i Am genius and no one understands me!!!
    by Eagle Mum - 10/23/24 04:11 PM
    Classroom support for advanced reader
    by Heidi_Hunter - 10/14/24 03:50 AM
    2e Dyslexia/Dysgraphia schools
    by Jwack - 10/12/24 08:38 AM
    Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5