Week of November 16th: Brown Girl Dreaming Lit Circle/ Ch.9 Contemporary Realistic Fiction

   We started class this week by grouping into our literature circle groups and discussing Brown Girl Dreaming and the poetry we wrote as a response to the book. We were each asked to share one of our poems that we had written. I chose a Haiku that I wrote in response to a section of the book about candy cigarettes. I think everyone liked it. I really enjoyed listening to other people's poems. It is fascinating to hear what they personally connected to in the book. That really shows how poetry and literature in general can connect to different people in different ways and levels. Some of us had lighthearted poetry while others had a lot more emotional poetry. It also provided different perspectives on the events that occurred in the story itself.
   The chapter that we had to read for this week was about contemporary realistic fiction. Contemporary realistic fiction presents challenges in a "here-and-now" setting, is derived from actual circumstances with realistic characters and settings who have to solve problems which are based on what is plausible in real life. An example of a contemporary realistic fiction book is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. This book has elements, though fictional, that bear a relation to the life we personally know. I read that book series myself in elementary school, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It contained certain fictional elements that kept me intrigued, but was grounded in plausibility so it didn't seem too over the top unrealistic.

   I also learned that there are different categories of contemporary realistic fiction, such as self-discover/growing up, families/family diversity, interpersonal relations, school, sports, and many others. The genre itself works by combining certain elements like plot, setting, theme, character, and point of view. The criteria for evaluating it includes asking yourself if the characters resemble people in our world, if the events are plausible, and is the plot solution believable. 

   Overall, I think contemporary realistic fiction is an interesting genre that could be very valuable.