A Book that Affected Me in Secondary School

I’ve always been interested in reading. I could read a few novels a day when I was in primary school if I didn’t have much to do. Books were my companion and a library was my safe haven.

When I was 11, my father received a scholarship to study in the USA. My family and I followed him abroad and I went to Frick Middle School in Pittsburgh. As reading is my passion, I found that the library had a vast selection of storybooks with themes that were new and sometimes strange to me. Upon my return to Malaysia when I was 13, I felt a bit disappointed over the selection of novels and storybooks in the school library. I felt that they somehow paled in comparison to the choices I have had overseas. I didn’t read many novels from the library, then, and I couldn’t afford to buy on my own.

My best experience of reading a fiction would be on a book I’ve read in Frick Middle School. I can’t remember the author nor the book’s title since it was 22 years ago. It’s very hard for me to recall. But the storyline was so intriguing that it remains in my memory up till today.

Basically the story was about a family of four that moved from one place to another until they reached the city where the narrator lived. The narrator was a girl/boy (I can’t remember specifically) who was about the same age as the children of the family. From time to time, the narrator noticed certain strange remarks from the family especially the children. They would sometimes mention an event that they have experienced but the event actually happened 50 or 100 years ago, which was way beyond their age. The children, one boy and one girl, who were teenagers, also behaved as if they were somehow older than their age. Finally, the narrator discovered that the family was actually trapped in time and have been at that age for a hundred year or so. They were actually somewhat depressed since they could not grow older even though they have experienced many things in life. They were upset that the society would only treat them according to their biological age and they could not reveal otherwise.

The children also felt tremendous pressure since society would always treat them as 12 year old or 14 year old. The teenage girl could not experience the life of a girl evolving into womanhood nor experience the normal life cycle of an ordinary woman. The boy also felt the same way. Biologically, they were young and immature, but in truth, they were socially developed yet, could not advance beyond their age. In the end, the whole family committed suicide.

The story changes the whole outlook I had on life. As a young girl, just reaching my teenage years, I would have thought that immortality is a great idea. To be young forever also has many plus sides. I thought that you could have seen many changes of the world with the energy of a young person. Never did it cross my mind that seeing the world evolves around us but we, ourselves, remain static is disturbing and quite challenging on our personal identity or personality. Change is perhaps an essence of life.

In today’s society which constantly strives to maintain youth and searches for secrets of immortality, I began to see those issues in a different light. The author of the story clearly challenges the notion of what-if we are immortal. Maybe, God has created death for a reason. You can actually experience so much and sometimes eternity seems to be too much. Forever could be more than we could handle.

A Book I've Enjoyed and Why?

When I was in my undergraduate years, a friend recommended me a book titled SAGA, a Malay novel written by A.Talib Hassan (if I’m not mistaken).

In summary, the book was about three good friends, Rahmat, Hisham and Munirah. They had just graduated from their university and decided to go to Rahmat’s village in an attempt to help in the development of the village. Rahmat’s village was depicted as somewhat remote and still very traditional. Their plan was to develop the economy of the village and help the youngsters of the village to be more skillful and competitive in the modern world.

The book appealed to me because it was about society instead of personal challenges. The book was different from most Malay novels that I had read which were very melancholic and somewhat depressing. SAGA provided a different point of view on Malay challenges. It gave me an insight about political, economic and social challenges for the Malays in a wider context. I had never before then, encountered well written stories using young people language to describe Malay patriotism.

In my opinion, the writer’s language was not too complex but very realistic for adolescent readers like me at that time. Although the issues were quite heavy, the author managed to convey his messages simply yet powerfully. His plot was rich with details and enough sub plots to point out the issues and thus delivering or promoting his ideas and concepts successfully. Perhaps that was why it could be easily understood by young modern readers like I did at that time.

Even though the issues and plot may be viewed as heavy by some, I feel that the author’s language helped to moderate the seriousness of the story. The author also avoided using sad intonation or overly poignant language to describe sad events. Overall, the author’s language seems optimistic to me. Although there were many challenges portrayed in the story, the characters developed positively throughout the story.

In general, the book was engaging and beautifully written, using simple language yet conveying powerful messages, as well as delivering heavy issues but being realistic at the same time.

My Experience with Young Adult Literature

I had to teach young adult literature when I was teaching The Ministry of Education Matriculation Programme once. It was my first experience teaching literature without any training to do so. All I had was a guide book for teaching the novel (I’ve forgotten the title) and set of questions with accompanying answer scheme to be done with students.

It was purely trial and error basis of teaching literature. Sometimes I was confused myself on what actually I was supposed to be teaching. However, by analyzing the sample questions given, I managed to get the idea that I was to somehow discuss the theme and characters. Those were my focus at that time. My first approach was to try to go by the set of questions.

Later on, when students seemed to be nonplussed most of the time and keep whining that they couldn’t understand the story, I changed my approach to discussing the plot, chapter by chapter, with my students. It was better but I still couldn’t get students motivated to read on their own and come up with their own synopsis of what they have read.

It was a very frustrating experience for me. A few years after that experience, I’ve tried to teach another novel with students from a different programme. This time, I’ve some basic understanding of the approach to teach literature after taking KPLI course in TESL. However, I still find that students are not very motivated in reading and analyzing the story. Unfortunate to say, I was also not someone who is passionate about teaching literature.

Since those two experiences, I’ve always avoided having anything to do with teaching young adult literature. I think the topic is too abstract and I wasn’t really keen on the subject. I personally believe that literature should be taught by someone who is passionate about it. Students will gain more by the depth of input that passionate teacher can share with them instead of someone very “concrete” like me.

Although I love to read books and novels, I think teaching literature does not suit me. Perhaps this is due to my lack of competence in analyzing literature at a deeper level. I think I rather simply enjoy the story. For me, young adult literature is interesting to read for leisure. It also provides me exposure on teenagers’ life. At this point in time, I have little confidence that I could contribute to students understanding and appreciation towards literature. Hopefully with training in the course of Teaching Young Adult Literature for my Masters programme, I would change my mind.