How To Read Literature Like A Professor: For Kids By Thomas C. Foster

Reading Between the Lines: Interpreting Fiction with New Eyes

Thomas C. Foster’s book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids, helps young readers learn to interpret and understand deeper meanings in fictional literature. The book describes essential facets of reading fiction novels. By using Foster’s novel as a guide, readers can see the differences between the literal text and the author’s figurative meanings and agendas. In All of our Demise, by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman, seven families control a natural resource called “high majick”. Each family sends a champion to compete in a tournament to the death in order to claim the magick for one family. However, many new problems arise, and the champions must learn to cope

The lesson Foster makes in this chapter is that the majority of books are in some way political, using their stories to teach the reader about the problems of society. In the chapter, Foster writes, “Many of the things in [the] world are political. Who holds power and how they got it and what they do with it” (Foster 70). In All of our Demise, there are seven, mafia-adjacent families who vie for control of a natural resource they call high magick. The authors write, "...a single surviving vein [of high magick], kept secret by the seven oldest families of Ilvernath…each family sent a champion to compete in a tournament to the death. The victor won their family exclusive claim to Ilvernath’s high magick…" (Foody and Herman 3). Foster describes different aspects of power: who has power, how they receive it, and what they use it for. In Foody and Herman’s novel, only one of seven families holds the power which they claimed as theirs, correlating with who has the power. After twenty years of possessing high majick, the seven families must send a champion to fight for it once more; this illustrates how they acquire power. While having this power, the family uses it for personal gain and to benefit themselves, a reader can see the political aspects of power. Multiple reasons can prove Foster’s lessons exemplified in All of our Demise, as they connect

Here, Foster explains that weather always symbolizes a greater meaning and states that it is never just weather. In his book, Foster states, "For as long as anyone’s been writing, the seasons have stood for the same set of meanings...winter is old age and resentment and death" (Foster 60-61). In All of our Demise, one of the main characters, Alistair, is sitting in a graveyard. The authors write, “Alistair sat in the damp grass, leaning back against a tombstone. He closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of the early winter..." (Foody and Herman 218). The graveyard in which Alistair sits is very old, dovetailing with Foster stating winter is about old age. Alistair is about to dig up the grave of someone he once knew, symbolic of the reference to death in Foster’s central idea. Finally, Alistair is also resenting the past, tying in where Foster speaks of winter as a symbol of resentment. Based on these commonalities, Foster’s lesson that seasons are never just seasons and always signify something more is