Et tu, Hunger Games?

 

In Language Arts this year, Kate is using the vocabulary manual, Caesar's English to learn about Latin roots and their relationship to our language.  She learns the ancient Latin roots, learns their meaning, and then creates a few examples that follow the rule.  This week, one of the roots was "super"which means above, over, overly, excessive...When she thought of examples to write in her workbook, I suggested supercalifragilisticexpialidocious but she only rolled her eyes and snickered (an amused snicker, I believe). 

 

Who came first, she asked, Julius Caesar or Caesar Augustus?

Ummm, I don't know.  Probably Julius, I guess, since July comes before August. (I really have no idea but that sounded good to me.)  And what about Caesar Octavian, I ask, he probably came after.

Actually, turns out Augustus and Octavian were the same person.

 

But, the point is, her interest was peaked.  A couple more factors added up to her next request.  The factors are:

(1) A few weeks ago, we watched Orson Welles and Me (with Zac Efron and Claire Danes), in which Orson Welles is directing a production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.  Kate loved the film.

(2) About 3 years ago, Kate asked Mark to help her buy tickets online to a promenade staging of Romeo and Juliet which she gave me for Valentine's Day (to take her, of course).  From there, we discovered No Fear Shakespeare, which is how Kate first read Romeo and Juliet.  In this series, the original text appears on one side with an updated/explanatory version on the opposing side.  I'm okay with this.  If you're going to read Shakespeare, you need to read his real words; they are so verbal.  Even if you read silently, you're talking in your head.  There is nothing silent about Shakespeare.  And there is no better way way to say it.  But it's also nice to be able to understand the text.

 

So, the request yesterday morning:

Mom, can you go to Barnes and Noble today and get me a NFS copy of Julius Caesar?

Yes. I can. I will.

 

Today, before school, she's reading it and says,  Hey, Mom, did you ever realize that the names of lots of the Capital characters in the Hunger Games are the same as characters in Julius Caesar:  Caesar, Flavius, Octavia(n), Portia, Cinna, Cato, Messala, Claudio, Brutus.