If it ain't broke...

Agreeing with what you have now read for the past 15 blog posts, I also support Obam—I mean, House of Danger as a part of the syllabus next semester.  For the same reasons the bloggers before me have articulated much more elegantly, House of Danger is 1) very short, 2) clear in its purpose to our course, and 3) a nice change-of-pace.  1) Who doesn’t like a quick read?  Unless I held an irrational amount of animosity toward these potential unnamed students, I do not see any reason to make them read something longer and more convoluted.  2) Unlike the previous novels assigned where Janelle, at times, had to spell out the purpose of the novel in the course, everybody seemed to pick up on how House of Danger highlighted the manipulation of choice.  3)  Within the coursework and college life in general, taking 30 minutes to read a children’s book provides a nice change-of-pace for an otherwise overworked brain.  Now that we've got that out of the way...

In my opinion, Joe asked a good question in his blog post, “Should it not be the choice of the next class to decide whether or not they will read the House of Danger?”  And this question led me to ponder, “Would the next class pick differently?”  Granted most of these future students may read this book, because like most of us, they were just following instructions.  I would contend, however, that even if the students were presented with all the reasons of why or why not they should read this book, almost none of them would choose not to read it.  Looking at the past 15 posts, the closest anyone got to deciding not to bring the book back was offering an alternative (+1 to Sarah for mentioning the Magic Tree House series) or providing a neutral opinion.  Does anybody have a compelling reason why House of Danger should not be brought back?  Because I have yet to read or think of any.