Top 5 Favorite Teachers and Mentors in Books

*Note* Top 5 Wednesday is a Goodreads group where blogger/vloggers post about a bookish topic every Wednesday. You can check it out right here. https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

     Whether or not we attended a public or private school or we were schooled at home, almost anyone has a person who had been a model in our life even if that person never realized how much we looked up to him/her.

5. Brother Methuselah from Redwall

     The only non-human on this list, Brother Methuselah is an elderly-mouse monk who lives and works at Redwall Abbey. He spends much of his time supporting the novice, Mathias, as he tried to find a way to protect Redwall and the surrounding area from invaders. Methuselah helped raise Mathias and is almost as much as a grandfather to Mathias as he is a mentor. *Spoilers* Another way it is clear how much Methuselah means to Mathias is how the young mouse ends up naming his son after him. *end spoilers*

4. The Giver from The Giver

      With his name in the title, this man has to be important to the plot, right? The Giver is a man with regrets and I question if he really wants to pass down the memories to Jonas. Not because he doesn’t want to give up his very important position in society, but because he doesn’t want to burden a young teenager with the weight of the memories. Whenever Jonas discovers something The Giver is the first to know and he listens and for the most part patiently answers all the boy’s questions.

3. Mandy from Ella Enchanted

     The fairy godmother of this story doesn’t just giver Cinderella a makeover and send her to the ball. Mandy has worked for Ella’s family for years and was always there to help Ella deal with her gifts. Mandy is Ella’s support system and one of the few friends she has left after the death of her mother. Mandy always helped Ella feel she has a choice especially when she tells Ella to think anyway she wants to think about her “gift”.

2. Ani’s Aunt from The Goose Girl

      Although, she wasn’t present in the plot for very long, if it weren’t for this woman the story of The Goose Girl would never have happened. It saddens me that a character who influences the heroine, Ani, in such a way doesn’t even get named. She’s only known as Ani’s aunt or the queen’s sister. Still, this woman is the one to teach Ani about the first languages and how to understand the birds despite this causing her much ridicule from the rest of the court. Towards the end of the first chapter, her death is only mentioned in passing by the queen. The turn of events saddened Ani because her only true friend is gone, but her aunt’s fingerprint is still on her. Throughout the story, we see how her aunt shaped Ani and just how significant those childhood lessons are. It is actually scary to wonder where Ani would be if her mother never allowed her to see her Aunt as a child.

1. Rafael LeMarres from Following the Phoenix

        Given how strict our hero’s, Paul, uncle is at the beginning of the story it is no wonder why Paul would rather be with anyone, but him.  Paul’s uncle forces him to follow a different religion, and doesn’t allow him to paint which crushes Paul and aspiring artist. Paul could have been happy with any normal guardian, but Paul’s late father was best friends with a very interesting man called Rafael LeMarres. Rafael is also an artist and follows the same religion as Paul, but even if this wasn’t the case Raf, as he prefers to be called, would still have supported Paul anyway. Raf’s heart goes out to all parentless children and not just Paul and he even tries his best to help Paul get out of his abusive situation. (That’s not a spoiler, that is the premise of the book).

Spoiler Talk Part Two: What Counts as Spoilers?

 This is a sequel of sorts to another article I wrote, Whose Responsibility is it to Avoid Spoilers, if you missed out on that one you can check it out right here, but please finish this one first. :) http://charmingchum.blogspot.com/2018/03/spoiler-talk-part-one-who-is.html

      I and many people really only think of something as spoiled when we hear how it ends. If I learned a little bit about a subplot occurring later in the story, is that also a spoiler? I would say yes, but I enjoy going into a story blind so I can both try to guess what is going to happen next and to keep my expectations under control so what are some guidelines I use to pinpoint spoilers?

    If something isn’t in the trailer of a movie I consider it a spoiler. However, I don’t trust movie trailers anymore so I avoid them. For example, I knew I wasn’t going to see The Last Jedi until after Christmas and I had to quite the internet until then. I suppose I went a little too far as I refused to even watch the trailer until after I saw the movie. After seeing the trailer, I wondered why I thought it was going to spoil me because they did a good job not revealing important events from the end of the film. However, I am still not a person to watch trailers if I’m not forced to because I am at a movie theater.

  

  My personal opinion about what counts as a spoiler for books is if it isn’t in the synopsis and/or the first 20-45 pages (this is the length of most previews give or take a few pages) of the book then I consider it a spoiler. Although, this ground is a little shaky because sometimes a book’s synopsis will have spoilers. Spoiler Warning for Flames in the Mist if you haven’t read it yet I recommend you skip the next several sentences. The synopsis stated Mariko, the main character, was going to find love that will challenge everything she believes in. Although the character who Markio ended up falling in love with was introduced early in the story (within my 20-45-pages rule) there wasn’t any sexual tension until about 50 pages later and actual romance doesn’t begin until well over the second half of the book. This romance was an important plot point but doesn’t occur until the story is coming to a close. Because I knew Mariko would find love when I opened the front cover I continued to anticipate it, but I think I may have enjoyed the story more if I didn’t know what was going to happen. I would rather the question not be “When will Mariko find love?”, but “Will Mariko find love?”

Top 5 Science Fiction/Fantasy in Other Media

     The first list I constructed for this topic was much longer than five. At first it was difficult narrowing my favorite movies, video games, and TV shows down to only five until I realized many of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride, The Wizard of Oz, and others were all adaptions of books. Although there was no rule against this, I decided putting adaptations on this list was cheating. After removing anything the creators had to buy rights to produce, I was able to easily shrink my list.

5. Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitsu

      I never thought that A. a show about Lego people could be any good and B. a show about teenaged ninjas could be any good. This show isn’t a grand cartoon masterpiece, but it isn’t supposed to and doesn’t try to be one. Ninjago is an action comedy with a tiny amount of romance and that’s all it needs to be. Each of the four main ninjas are unique and have their own quirks, how Zane has trouble understanding jokes, and Cole acts like this big tough guy but loves, and is very good at, dancing.

4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

       I love colorful games with fun images to look at. With its adorable cartoony cell-shaded graphics Wind Waker is one of the most visually unique Zelda game. Another nice touch is how Link has a family in this one. His grandmother and sister definitely add to and drive the story. The sailing mechanic really sets this game apart from other ones in the series, and I admit to spending more time exploring the ocean and searching for new islands rather than on the main quest. (I also love how you can chase pigs and carry them around.)

3. Fire Emblem Awakening

     I wasn’t exactly a fan of strategy games before I got into the Fire Emblem series, but now I have warmed up to them and it’s all thank to Fire Emblem Awakening. I do appreciate how units stay dead if they are killed because it makes the game even more challenging. Although, this can be infuriating at times. I will almost be finished with an objective, but an enemy can get a critical hit on one my favorite units/characters, and I have to start the entire thing all over again. There is also a marriage system so if I ship two characters I can, at least in the majority of cases, make it happen. I did find myself spending large amounts of time trying to figure out which characters had the best chemistry together.

2.  Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

     This is my favorite out of all the Star Wars movies. The soundtrack is amazing, and some of the locations, especially Endor are beautiful, and it was an excellent finale to the original trilogy. Also, I actually like the wickets. I find them absolutely adorable even though they could probably kill me. (Spoiler Alert, if you haven’t seen Return of the Jedi, I advise you don’t read the following paragraph)

     I felt everyone’s character arc had closure. Han no longer has to worry about his debt to Jabba, Yoda has passed the future of the Jedi Order to Luke, and Darth Vader finally sees the light and reconciles with his son even if it wasn’t long before his death.

#1

  Earlier I said Ninjago wasn’t a grand cartoon masterpiece, but Avatar the Last Airbender is. This isn’t only my favorite fantasy cartoon. It’s my favorite show of all time.  The animation and soundtrack are breathtaking and the plot doesn’t drag at all. In fact, a few episodes into season 1 a strong sense of urgency is established. All the main characters are memorable and although the show has many serious topics, war, genocide, destruction, there are still a huge number of hilarious moments. There is one thing I also applauded this show for. Character development sticks. I noticed many of the cartoons I was watching around the time Avatar first aired would have a character learn a lesson in a very special episode and then in the next episode he/she would go right back to his/her old ways. Here people do change and if they end up changing back there is an explanation for it, and it’s not glossed over which stood out to ten-year-old me.