Book Talk

Ender's Game

 

Title:  Enderıs Game

Author:  Orson Scott Card

Publisher:  TOR

Date Published:  1994

Genre:  Science Fiction

Grade Level:  Juniors in High School

Booktalker:  Dinah Haakenson

 

Background note about the author/selection

Orson Scott Card has a B.S. in theater and his Masterıs Degree in English.  He lives in Greensboro, NC, with his wife and daughter.  He is currently teaching writing and literature classes at Southern Virginia University.  His website offers free writing workshops. 

Enderıs Game actually started out as a short story.  It won the Nebula (1985) and Hugo (1986) awards for Science Fiction.  Study guides for this book, a biography of the author, and writerıs workshops all are available at the authorıs website:  http://www.hatrack.com/index.shtml  Mr. Card got inspiration for Enderıs Game from Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. This book is also a homage to Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers.  Enderıs Game has been optioned for a movie with a tentative release sometime in 2008.

Booktalk:

How many of you have seen aliens in books or movies?  What do they look like?  (Would show these examples on a screen.) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is usually the biggest fear involving aliens?

Oftentimes aliens will be portrayed looking like or having qualities of insects.  Humans fear being invaded/taken over by these other species.  The book, Enderıs Game by Orson Scott Card, takes place in the future.  Aliens, called buggers, have already attempted to invade earth once, eighty years ago.  The International Fleet, IF, fears that they will invade again.  The only thing that saved earth the first time was a genius general named Mazer Rackham.  The IF knows that if earth is to survive another attack, they need to find another genius with the right qualities.  When children are born, a monitor is inserted in their necks, allowing the IF to keep track of which children may be suitable for Battle School.  The Wiggins family has had two children who were great possibilities: Peter, who was too violent, and Valentine, who was too soft for their needs.  Hence the IF let the Wiggins family have a third child, something that was unheard of in the future.  Andrew, the third child, was indeed a genius.  What usually happens at school to children who are different?  Andrew was picked on and bullied.  Even though the IF was aware of this, they only kept watch and monitored, never interfered.  When Andrew, Ender as he was mockingly called by the other children, turned six, the IF felt he was the one.  Although Ender wasnıt sure he wanted to go to Battle School, the IF made sure he went.  They continued to try to maneuver Ender, to push him harder and harder, to isolate him, to perfect him.  While they were playing games with Ender, Ender was playing his own game, a game he needed to perfect as the buggers were a lot closer than anyone knew.

 

For more information/curriculum suggestions:

Authorıs website:  http://www.hatrack.com/index.shtml

Psychology ­ Study of mind games and/or brainwashing.

Art ­ Have students draw/build spaceships and/or aliens.

Language Arts ­  Orson Scott Card uses two different fonts in this book, one indicating a  dialog between two unknown speakers, the other representing the regular third person novel.  Why does he use this device?  How is it effective?  How might this be used in other novels?

          - Orson Scott Card has written a parallel novel to Enderıs Game, Enderıs Shadow.  What is a parallel novel?  What was Mr. Cardıs reason for doing this?  How does it help/hinder the understanding of Ender and Enderıs Game?  Find parallel novels for other books.

Social Studies ­ Research for debate the issue of genocide and ethnic conflicts such as Rwanda and Darfur.  Encyclopedia of Modern Ethnic Conflicts / Joseph R. Rudolph, Jr., editor. Greenwood Press, 2003.   Genocide / William Dudley, editor.  Greenhaven Press, 2001.  The Genocide Reader: the politics of ethnicity and extermination by Marnie J. McCuen.  G.E. McCuen Pub., 2000.  Rwanda Genocide by Christina P. Fisanick.  Greenhaven, 2004.  

          - Research for debate the issue of population control.  Discuss Chinaıs ³one-child policy.²  Lost Daughters of China: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America, and the Search for a Missing Past by Karin Evans.  Penguin, 2001. Only Hope: Coming of Age under China's One-Child Policy by Vanessa L. Fong.  Stanford University, 2004.  China's Longest Campaign: Birth Planning in the People's Republic, 1949-2005 by Tyrene White.  Cornell University, 2006.

Science ­ Research Roswell, New Mexico, space travel, other planets that might prove hospitable to other life forms.