The Superhero's Journey

At the end of this post is a link to a 14-book giveaway you can enter for FREE through the New Classics Study Guides site, which includes my book The Minor Miracle. You have a week to enter, but do it now before you forget it in the back-to-school shuffle . . .

I’ve spent most of July in a house next to the Pacific Ocean. We filled that house with family, we took walks by the ocean, watched for whales, cooked together and played games after the littles were down. My ten-month-old granddaughter learned how to say, “na-na-na-na” which is the precursor for “Nana,” (na-nuh) which makes me very proud. And my four-year-old grandson spelled the names of some of his favorite characters from the Pixar movie Cars all by himself. So, so proud.

It was hard to get much work done. I’m a creature who thrives on routine and home and long stretches of quiet, but I did manage to create a few things I’m proud of. One of these was a new resource, a five week study guide that looks at The Minor Miracle through the lens of The Hero’s Journey, created by Joseph Campbell. The Joseph Campbell Foundation website says it well:

“Campbell posits the existence of a “monomyth” . . . a universal pattern that is the essence of, and common to, heroic tales in every culture.”

I’ve always found this fascinating. Why do so many people respond so strongly to this “universal” story structure? Some would argue Campbell’s structure isn’t so universal, but it certainly seems to apply to many well-known and beloved classics, from The Lord of the Rings series to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Maybe you’re wondering why would I spend so much time thinking about Joseph Campbell or working on a study guide with a beach just steps away? A few weeks before we left town, I was invited to be an author on the New Classics Study Guides site, which offers free downloadable study guides to modern classics. They were having a giveaway starting August 10th, and voila, I had a deadline and a reason to explore something that has always fascinated me. I took stolen moments, hunkered down, got feedback from my husband and kids, and created a guide that will teach kids about The Hero’s Journey using The Minor Miracle. You can find it here.

I wrote Noah’s superhero journey using a modified Hero’s Journey. But can modern books like The Minor Miracle really be called classics? Great Expectations is about an ordinary person who is handed an extraordinary fate, and has to learn what actually matters. So is The Minor Miracle. It’s one of the oldest structures in the classics canon. Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey is a classic way to look at story structure for all kinds of books, no matter when they were published.

In the study guide, I break the journey into five essential elements that can be easily understood by my target age of 3rd to 7th graders. Once they understand it by applying to The Minor Miracle, they can apply it to countless other classics. In addition to understanding The Hero’s Journey, the guide has thought-provoking discussion questions teachers and parents can use with kids like:

• What is a real-world example of how power and responsibility go hand in hand?

• Has anyone ever told you something helpful that repeats in your head?

• What are some things you love that you’d be willing to give up for the sake of a friend?

And there are also fun activities. Try to do Noah’s superhero warmup or create your own top-secret Gravitas gadget.

In addition to working on the study guide, I booked a few author visits while in SoCal. I love, love, love author visits. There’s nothing like seeing a kid’s hand shoot up, eager to ask a question about one of my books, connecting face to face.

If you’d like me to speak to your students, contact me. And if you’re a teacher, check out my study guide and the others on the New Classics Study Guide site. Speaking of free, remember, today you can enter to win free copies of all fourteen of the books featured at New Classics Study Guides. Enter to win here. The winner will be announced August 19th and everyone who enters will receive some fun free downloads from the participating authors.

As you read this, we’re in the car, road-tripping back to Texas with the doodle in the back seat. Yes, we’re returning to triple-digit temps, but we’re also returning to out home sweet home. In a way, those 1,475 miles bring us back to where we started, just like a hero from The Hero’s Journey, who returns home changed after his adventure. Nothing dramatic, but five weeks of intentional living with friends and family while leaning into a project I feel passionate about changes a person, for good.

• having grown kids who volunteer to make delicious dinners like curry chicken or “gourmet quesadillas”

• looking up from my computer to see a pelican fly-by/glide-by

• happening upon funny signs on a walk through an unfamiliar neighborhood that began to feel familiar after five weeks

  

My name is Meredith Davis, and I’m an award winning writer of middle grade books, a former indie bookseller, founder of the Austin chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Learn about my books, teaching resources and author visit information on my website (www.meredithldavis.com) Mother to three, Nana to two, I live with my husband and a crazy doodle in Austin, Texas.