Posted by Elizabeth on January 10, 2009 at 20:28:27 user Elizabeth.
In Reply to: Re: Esperance posted by Rob Boden on January 09, 2009 at 09:20:48:
Rob--I think the reason there are so many views listed for the Wild Cat Island clip and so few, respectively, for the two clips showing the Dogs' Home is that many children run into SA through teachers who read that first story aloud or require their students to read it for school. Also, it seems to me that SA is easier to find than many of the other books--there are simply more copies of it at libraries & schools. Children learn the name "Wild Cat Island," but they don't learn what "The Dogs' Home" is, and to be honest, it doesn't sound all that appealing when you first read it--remember Dorothea's private reaction?
When I first read the books, between ages 9 and about 12 (eagerly searching everywhere I went to find ALL of them!), I knew only a few peers who had read them at all, and most had read SA but not necessarily the others. When my younger daughter had read the whole series and we had already made one very exciting visit to Coniston to find the real places, two of her best friends were assigned to read SA for school in about 5th or 6th grade. Helen thought it was absolutely great that a teacher had assigned an AR book, told her friends how LUCKY they were to have such an obviously great teacher, and tried in vain to get them to read any others in the series....
Think how lucky we all are, to know ALL of the books so well, like old friends!