After reading Herman Melville's renown classic "Moby Dick" for the first time, this book has become one of our favorites. Melville writes with incredible skill. In an instant gratification age where the media looks to provide entertainment at the expense of meaning, there is nothing like a book that requires some thinking to accompany it. At its best, Moby Dick is excellent. It’s moving, insightful, and it very much captures the sense of the sacred, the spiritual relationship of crew to whale or man to obsession. It can also be fascinating in its detail. Entire chapters are devoted to the anatomy of the whale, the symbolism of the color white, or the role of the whale in art and history. Phrases like “Call me Ishmael” are some of the best known of any book, even among people who haven’t read the original source: it is but one of many unforgettable phrases. I do have to say we did find the book a little boring and drawn out but we decided to read the entire book.
It took us more then a few months to read Moby Dick. It was very time consuming and we had many discussions over dinners. After every chapter we read the cliff notes and took a quiz. We used the Spark Notes website for chapter quizzes. Lily and Aj also completed a character study, colored a picture and watched the movie. They also read about Herman Melville and completed a time line about his life. The kids loved learning about Krakens and Sea Monsters. They watched a video and we saw a fake Kraken while in Florida. We can’t wait for the summer so we can go to The New Bradford Whaling Museum.
Spark Notes website for quizzes and cliff notes
Learning about the characters
Learning about Herman Melville Life
Coloring
The Kraken in Florida
Video on You-tube
Watching the Movie
Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed our activities.
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