Rick Riordan Presents Imprint vs short stories from class:

My creative project is a compare and contrast between three books from a published imprint to several short stories we have read in class. The imprint is called Rick Riordan Presents, Riordan is the author of the Percy Jackson series and many others who have partnered with Disney Hyperion Book Group to complete a simple goal. From Riordan himself, he states on the imprint's website “the goal of the imprint is to publish great middle- grade authors from underrepresented cultures and backgrounds, to let them tell their own stories inspired by the mythologies and folklore of their own heritage” (Riordan). The respective stories that I have chosen to analyze focus on Korean, Hindu, and West African mythologies. Those books are The Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee, Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi, and Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia. The PowerPoint presentation will be analyzing settings, conflicts, and themes in the primary and secondary sources.

In preparation for this project, I had to remind myself of the stories we have read up to this point in the class. I went back and studied the stories from Unit 1 since it was the first week of classes. I also had to read the first three books I mentioned in the first paragraph. Other materials that I needed for this project I needed was my laptop to properly work, PowerPoint downloaded onto my computer, and I needed to obtain the physical books of the three books I chose to analyze.

I decided to create a PowerPoint presentation for this project, because all semester, I have been writing essay after essay after essay; I wanted to work in another medium while had the chance. The PowerPoint opens with the same quotation from Rick Riordan in the first paragraph. I started the project with the quotation to allow the information about the books to make more sense of their importance. I also included a slide to explain the main point of my project, which is to outline the similarities and differences between the longer novels from the imprint and the shorter stories from the class. I did this to further explain why my analysis is important.

Creating the PowerPoint took about a month to complete. I had to wait for my materials at the library to arrive, and then I had to read them, which took about three days for each book. While I read, I took notes is a chart I created that separated the books and topics, so I could easily transfer that information into the PowerPoint. Finally, I placed the information into the PowerPoint with the books from the imprint along with the information from the stories we read in class. Placing my notes about the books and short stories was one of the obstacles I ran into. I had an issue with trying to condense my notes on each book. I might have gotten carried away with taking notes. Other than this small issue, completing the project was pretty easy.

Next, I want to mention why I specifically chose to use books from Rick Riordan’s imprint. The selfish reason for wanting to do a project over these books is so I could read them. I have been wanting to read more books from Riordan’s imprint and learn more about other cultures and the stories they share. I also thought doing a project on books that not many people might now know about would spike an interest in reading from more diverse authors. In my opinion, these books go into the magical realism of fiction, and those inspired by Rick Riordan, are the best books to read, because you get engulfed as the reader into a fictional world mixed with ours, and the fictional friends we meet on the way are the best. This is why I have chosen to pick these books. You should read the books I’ve used in this project from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint.

I did not use a lot of pictures in this PowerPoint presentation. For the pictures I did use, there are the book covers for the three books I chose to compare and contrast with the short stories from class. The other picture I used in the project is the logo for Riordan’s imprint, which I used to border one of my slides. These photos are found at the beginning of my presentation, and, unfortunately, the first 3-4 slides are the only slides that have these pictures where you can see them. To help with easier clarification as to which books are being analyzed, I placed a small image of the book cover specific to each slide. Even though the number of pictures is small, the information I provide is sufficient to understand how the novels of the imprint and the short stories from class.

The theoretical implications of my project are that even though the fictional pieces we have read in class were shorter, they still contain the same elements as longer narratives do. Each of my main slides is split into two sections where one is pulled from one of the books, and the other side takes notes from a story we’ve read in class. Finally, there is a box that states the connection of both stories in terms of setting, conflict, and theme.

As I worked through this project, and after reading the books from the imprint, I realized how important it is to read fiction from the perspectives of people who are different than you. You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘walk in someone else’s shoes,’ but have you heard the phrase ‘read someone else’s story?’ Okay, so maybe you have heard this, but this is important. Reading books from diverse authors makes the reader more aware of how people of different cultures view the world. Hopefully, by giving this presentation to the class, they might be interested in picking up these awesome books.

By analyzing the short stories of those from the imprint, I also realized it doesn’t matter if a story is long, short, or a novella. The short stories we read in class still had a lot of the same themes as the other books. You can check out those analyses in the PowerPoint presentation. Approaching all of the readings from this course and the ones from the imprint in a creative manner helped me to visually see where my analysis could be done, and I had more fun arranging the information on a slide than in a well-written scholarly essay.

My project suggests that among fictional literature, some themes are more common than others. In almost every book there was a theme of finding new family or friends, finding new identity, grief, being treated as a kid, and most importantly of all, the importance of storytelling and the myths or legends that a culture has. It is possible that within the next year or so, more novels written for middle schoolers or other realms of fiction could expand to really digging into these themes. This literature might also be saying that humanity has gotten a lot rougher for children and that is why these strong, soul-seeking main characters who deal with moments of grief or fear are important to read about.

In terms of my personality, I have been uplifted by doing this project, because I see what the authors in Rick Riordan’s imprint are trying to do in the world of fictional magic. I love reading about these characters who struggle through difficult situations and then rise to the top after figuring out who they are. One of my favorite books comes from Kwame Mbalia’s Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky: “It’s the spider’s web, an old African symbol for creativity and wisdom. It shows how tangled and complicated life can be. But with a little imaginative thinking, we can solve most of our problems and those of others” (Mbalia 13). This is one of my favorite quotes because it takes the spider’s web symbol from African culture and states that being creative is what can help us through struggles. If the characters from our stories in class used more creativity their stories would have been more exciting.

Finally, this was a really fun project to do because I got to read and analyze books I wanted to read anyway, and I was reminded of the stories we read in class. The similarities and differences between the two groups of stories are interesting. I enjoyed putting the puzzle together of what stories from class fit with the setting, conflict, or theme of one of the imprint’s stories. I hope the message in the presentation is clear, and the content is enjoyable to read. One last thing, in Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, he learns that he is Anansesem, who is a storyteller. After doing this project I am more tuned to being a storyteller who can wield the creation of stories, or in this case, an analysis of those stories in a nonmagical creative way.

Work Cited:

Bradbury, Jamey. “We All Go Through It.” Black Warrior Review, EbscoHost. Vol. 35 Issue 2, p31-46. 16p. 2009.

Chokshi, Roshani. Aru Shah and the End of Time: A Pandava Novel. Disney Hyperion, an Imprint of Disney Book Group, 2018.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Short Stories and Classic Literature, americanliterature.com/author/charlotte-perkins-gilman/short-story/the-yellow-wallpaper.

Google Images

Kincaid, Jamaica. «Girl.» The New Yorker. June 19, 1978.

Mbalia, Kwame. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. Disney-Hyperion, 2019.

Lee, Yoon Ha. Dragon Pearl. Rick Riordan Presents, 2019.

London, Jack. “To Build a Fire.” Short Stories and Classic Literature, americanliterature.com/author/jack-london/short-story/to-build-a-fire.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Short Stories and Classic Literature, americanliterature.com/author/edgar-allan-poe/short-story/the-tell-tale-heart.

Riordan, Rick, et al. “Rick Riordan Presents.” Rick Riordan, rickriordan.com/rick-riordan-presents/.”