Emily Dial-Driver

I agree with the editors and authors of this book that fantasy and popular culture have a place in the classroom, alongside canonical works. I agree that promoting critical thinking is an important goal of the college classroom. And like the editors of this book, I'm a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as Alice in Wonderland, and have taken a scholarly approach to both.

I didn't feel as though I learned anything new from this book; the approaches and the texts were what I would have imagined. For someone thinking about these issues for the first time, this could be much more useful.

I received this book from the LibraryThing early reviewers program.… (más)

Like many academic collections, this volume contains essays that vary from the richly insightful to the earnestly redundant. As an instructor who already uses fantasy media -- Harry Potter in a Mythology course, for example -- I found some useful ideas here, as well as some recommendations for the day when I've used my current selections too much. There were also sections, however, that focused on more basic arguments (and those basic arguments came up a lot throughout). For teachers and others who have not tried genre fiction, film, or comics in connection with more traditional content, the discussion on its value/significance/possibility may resonate. Those who are already on board may find it all to be too much preaching to the choir, especially since the overabundance of justification really shouldn't be necessary anymore. Several essays would be excellent to present to those who do not value the "marginalized" genres, though.

Overall, I found this to be a good resource for academics and an accessible read in general. While I was hoping for a few more practical pedagogical ideas for my level, I suspect that the target audience is made up of folks who haven't tried this stuff yet -- and for them I think this will be a great book.… (más)