Questions About Blood Red, Snow White

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Answered Questions (2)

Dear Goodreads community, My teaching partner and I want to use this book for an 8th grade Humanities class. Is this appropriate for young adults? Any other thoughts on the story, we'd really appreciate it! Thanks :) Ceci

Rebecca If you are looking for a novel with somewhat similar themes that is often taught to 8th graders, please try Jane Yolen's Briar Rose. If you are lookin…moreIf you are looking for a novel with somewhat similar themes that is often taught to 8th graders, please try Jane Yolen's Briar Rose. If you are looking for something for slightly younger readers, perhaps try Lois Lowry's Number the Stars. Both are award winning novels written about WWII and the Holocaust. The former is framed through the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty.

I personally think Blood Red, Snow White it is appropriate for young adults depending on how you are teaching them. We seem to coddle our younger readers so much now for fear of "confusing" or "upsetting" them, but how else do you want them to grow up and mature? What better place than in class, where they can discuss and explore the meaning behind "adult" themes, language, scenes?

As a 12-13 year old I was assigned books like Watership Down and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. As a 13-14 year old in 9th grade I was reading All Quiet on the Western Front and Of Mice and Men. Have faith in your young students and realize that they do not need to be protected from Rasputin caught with no clothes on or the word "penis" - literature is there to challenge them to expand their understanding, not to protect them.

Edit: I can also remember many "traumatic"/emotionally difficult books of childhood (in addition to the two I already listed above: Where the Red Fern Grows/Old Yeller, Out of the Dust, Bridge to Terabithia, etc.) and some of those are the books that challenge you to grow as a person.(less)

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Is this a stand-alone novel?

Igenlode Wordsmith It's a fictionalised biography/autobiography/allegory- so while you probably don't need to be familiar with Arthur Ransome as an author, or his "Old P…moreIt's a fictionalised biography/autobiography/allegory- so while you probably don't need to be familiar with Arthur Ransome as an author, or his "Old Peter's Russian Tales" (far from being his best-known work), I think the book might seem rather odd without being acquainted with his literary style and his children's novels.
On the other hand, no, it isn't part of a series...(less)

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Unanswered Questions (1)

Are there any explicit scenes and are all the characters straight?

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