How to Begin?

If we're going to correspond with these authors, rather than just compliment, and if we're going to synthesize rather than just summarize, it helps, I think, to begin with a seed of a connection to the literary work.

Here are some of the seeds that emerged in class:

• Katniss volunteering in her sister's place to enter the games--all the sibling connections one could make to that choice
• Finding a character to relate to---similarities or differences!
• A moment of being ridiculed---like Ender
• A feeling of desperation--like the feeling in The Hunger Games
• A feeling towards the government---like the characters feel in The Hunger Games
• Violence as entertainment---like in The Hunger Games
• Katniss and her mother----parent relationships---
• Being without something---like Katniss is without food in The Hunger Games
• Censorship---how on television we may only be seeing part of the true story---a connection again to The Hunger Games

Could one of these work for you?
What other connections can you make?

And remember we've also got the ideas we pooled from the model letters.