The Writer's Apprentice

This term in year 4 we were given a wide range reading project. We got to choose four of the assigned responses. The first one I chose was to write a discussion on the topic “Movies are Better than Books”. I decided to go against this statement and this is what I wrote.

Movies are Better than books. I strongly disagree with this statement. Even though some movies are better than books these cases only really come up when a book is written after a movie.

I think education is a big thing when it comes to reading, for quite a few different reasons. Some of my reasons are, that reading increases your vocabulary by a long way and this a great thing. Reading, is also a skill for life. You can do many things with this. But, just watching a screen for an hour or so, what good does it do? Nothing.

Beautiful, wonderful, spectacular. Nice. Which ones are movie language which ones are book language? This brings me to my next point. Language. I would like you to read the opening paragraphs of three of my favorite books. They all use beautiful language.

The dragon first appeared as a dot in the sky above Ashby Water, like a wisp of ash in the grey clouds of smoke hanging over the town.

Lily Quench and the dragon of Ashby

Natalie Jane Prior

Morgarath, lord of the mountains of rain and night, former Baron of Gorlan in the Kingdom of Araluen, looked out over has bleak, rainswept domain and, for perhaps the thousandth time cursed.

The ruins of Gorlan

John Flanagan

The tired old carriage, pulled by two tired old horses, rumbled onto the warf, it’s creaky wheels bumpety-bumping on the uneven planks, waking Peter from his restless slumber.

Peter and the Starcatchers

Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

So, after reading those, which do you think is better: movies or books? I know what I’m thinking: books. But that’s not all.

Now, lets think more about movies. If you read a book the see the corresponding movie it spoils your mental images of the characters or scenes. Movies do everything for you. This is something to think about. That is why at the end of a movie you get that groggy feeling. Because you are just sitting there watching a screen. It does everything for you! But at the end of a book you never feel groggy. Sometimes you can feel tired but that’s just because your brain has been working.

Books allow you to do the thinking and imagining and they let you do everything that a movie would do for you.

Books are a lifetime experience They stay with you for your whole life. I love them. I still can recite the first page and a half of Paddington Bear and I still remember the first time I ever read Winne the Pooh.

So, as you can see, books are so much better than movies.