I'm a fan of fantasy -- and a HUGE fan of Buffy! -- and I'm looking forward to a more academic approach to these works. I also plan on suggesting this as a nonfiction for people also interested in fantasy.

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. ( )

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. ( )

This was a fascinating read. I am familiar with about 80% of the fantasy media highlighted in these essays which made the connections and ideas easy for me to follow and applaud. There are very accessible and very unique approaches to teaching here.. in other words, something for everyone!
I am neither a teacher nor student but this book makes me wish I was. I do have a school age son however who will benefit from the ideas put forth in this great resource. ( )

Excellent collection of essays for high school and college faculty interested in ways to incorporate fantasy media into their teaching. I found the chapter on gaming to be most insightful, even though I went into it quite skeptical of the idea. My only quibble is that the authors often sound overly defensive of their use of fantasy media in the classroom. This collection demonstrates that there should be no need for facutly to feel that way. ( )