Suggestion for Lit Class

I had a blinding flash of inspiration the other day. Long ago, I read a book called Silverlock by the unusual-named John Myers Myers (and no, the repetition is not a typo). In this book, Mr. Myers has taken great pains to weave characters from literature, fable and myth into the story.

I lost my copy several years ago, and recently I ordered myself a new one. (Because such is this book that one should never be without a copy lying around.) While I was waiting for this wonderful volume to arrive, the inspiration hit me. My daughter had never read Silverlock, and I could use this to add to this year's curriculum.

The inspiration was: Take Silverlock with its myriad of literary references, and while my daughter is reading the novel, she can take notes of the references as she reads them. Some of them are incredibly obscure and other are fairly obvious, but all in all, the lesson should be fun and educational. While she is enjoying the story of Silverlock, she can learn about bits of literature along the way.

I began re-reading it this evening, and this time I have a notebook handy, so I can catch the references as they filter past. I think she'll easily get the reference to Moby Dick in the first chapter, and definitely the scene with Circe in the second, but even I have to look up some of these things before she gets too far along. I mean, who would've thought about the name of Loki's boat in Norse Mythology? And the only thing I know about Taliesin is that Frank Lloyd Wright named his home after it. It's going to be a lot of work for me, and a lot of work for her, but I'm sure we'll both have fun doing it.