Get all the Books

You know what really stinks?  Books are expensive.  That's a big bummer.  

As a bit (ok maybe a lot) of a book nerd I have a particular fondness for hardcover books with textured edges and slightly thicker paper.  Ahhh I feel happy just thinking about them.  These books are especially expensive-sad face.  

Here's the good news.  Even though the feeling of a physical book is pretty fabulous, the best part of a book is the story.  The real reason I love books is because I love stories.  So it really doesn't matter what the book looks like at all..it doesn't even really matter if it's a book, an electronic version of the same words gives you the same story. 

Confession time:  I really really really dislike e-readers.  It's just a personal preference.  I look to hold a physical book and physically turn the pages.  But the electronic or kindle versions of a book are often cheaper than a physical copy.  Then I found out about bookbub and I came around to the whole e-reader thing.  

Bookbub is service that emails you discounted e-books (kindle) every day.  All you have to do is go here and fill out a little survey.  Then everyday they email you books you may like that are on sale or even free.  Yes you read that right...free!! And you get to keep the book on your tablet or e-reading device-it's not a loan, it's yours to keep.  

So now I check bookbub email every day.  I only get the books that are free and sound interesting.  Now I always have something to read. I'm even getting used to reading on a tablet....but I still prefer a physical book.  

Trying something new...that's kids stuff.

PS.  Your school or local library is also a fabulous place to get books for free!!!   Just make sure you return them when you're done.  

PPS I'm not getting anything from bookbub for posting this. Bookbub is a service I actually use and actually like.  

Short and Sweet

I'd like to use this post to talk about an underrated type of text and that is the short story.   Speaking for myself, this is not really my favorite type of thing to read. If a story is well written then the longer the better is how I feel.  I like to really immerse myself in this world the text is creating and get lost in it for awhile.

But alas not everyone is like me (in case my tone isn't coming through clearly, that's sarcasm-I am immensely grateful that not everyone is like me).  This was made very clear when I introduced our first anchor book, The Outsiders, to my classes this year.  "What!?"  "We will read this in 4 weeks??"  "No way!"  "It's sooo long."  Are just a sampling of the reactions I received.  When we did in fact finish the book in 4 weeks students were amazed.

But it made me wonder, if students are overwhelmed by the length of novels, how can I still get them to read on their own time?  The answer is simple.  The short story.  I would guess that many students stop reading around the middle school level because this is when books start to get long (my best estimate of what a middle-school student would think is long is anything over about 75 pages).  It starts to feel overwhelming.  They can no longer finish a story in one setting and they may not be interested in returning to the same text multiple times.  The obvious exception being you have found the perfect book to peak that students interest.

In the meantime, the short story may be the way to go.  Short stories need to stop being weird quirks of literature found only in English anthologies and start becoming more mainstream.  As I've been on a Roald Dahl kick I just finished his collection of short stores The Umbrella Man and other short stories.  However these stories would most likely not be interesting to 7th and 8th graders.  So now I need your help.  What are some good short stories-or better yet  short story collections you think are awesome?  Share in the comments!!

Reading different styles...that's kids stuff.  

And We're Back

Apologies for the delays in posting.  New year, new curriculum, new students is always more overwhelming than you originally think.  And if it comes down to doing something for the students or reading a new book/writing a post I'm gonna choose the students every time.  Even though I may sometimes prefer to read the book...

All this to say posting will be a bit haphazard for the next little while.  I'm hoping to be back on a (at least weekly) regular posting by Thanksgiving. Now, on to the good stuff.

Roald Dahl's The Witches is another delightful story.  I remember reading this as a child and having just a little bit of nervousness that maybe this wasn't fiction after all.   Maybe there really are witches and I should be suspicious of all women who wear gloves and I need to look verryyy closely to see if their spit is blue.  It's true a real witch has blue saliva and a real witch will always wear gloves. It isn't a scary book-it didn't cause me to panic.  But it was just believable enough to suck you into the story.

Not only that, but it does what all the great stories do-it bleeds over into your real life.  Still to this day whenever I see a woman wearing gloves scratch her head (because all real witches are bald and must wear wigs which make their scalps itch) I wonder, "could it be a witch?"

There's a reason Roald Dahl has been described as, "The worlds #1 Storyteller."  Just read any of his books and you'll get it.  The title is well deserved.

Seeing books in real life...that's kids stuff

Great Stories

One of the hardest parts of writing this blog is deciding what books to blog about.  When I don't have access to Reading Olympic's books or Newbery Winners (they're not in the library, someone else has checked them out, etc) I typically stare at my book collection waiting for inspiration to strike.

Then it hits me.  Roald Dahl!  I don't think I have every blogged about him, but he is one of my favorite authors.  I LOVED all of his books when I was a kid and I still love them today.  Even though these books are a little older now, they are still great stories-and that's why people love them.

Roald Dahl's The BFG is the perfect example of Dahl's wonderful stories.  The premise is slightly fantastic ,but still close enough to real life that you can almost believe it.  A giant snatches young orphan Sophie right out of her window one night and carries her away to giant country.  Luckily this particular giant is not a human guzzling giant, he is the Big Friendly Giant.

Instead of devouring humans, the BFG gives them dreams-good dreams, of course.  Oh yes, dreams are living things that the BFG captures, labels, and blows into the bedrooms of lucky boys and girls.  Sophie and the BFG hit it off right away and they could have lived quite happily in giant country except for the fact that there were a whole bunch of other giants who were the man guzzling kind.  Sophie couldn't watch those giants run off and eat humans every night, so she and the BFG come up with a plan to stop them.

Working with giants...that's kids stuff.  

Last but Not Least

Longtime readers of this blog will know that mystery is not my favorite genre.  So when the 7th grade reading department announced that the last novel of the year would be a mystery I was a bit nervous.  Then I read Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and I stopped being nervous and started getting really excited.

This is the kind of book that I couldn't stop reading because I had to see what happened next.  I think my students will have that same excitement.  I like to think that I am pretty good at picking up hints in the text but by the end of the story I had no idea who the murderer was.  Luckily Christie wrote an epilogue that explains everything (to any students reading this don't you dare read the epilogue first!!!).  Trust me I would have been furious if I got all the way through the book and still didn't have any resolution.

This is also the kind of book that as I was reading I had a million ideas of how I could teach this book.  I cannot wait to put them all into practice.

There is no better intro to this book then what is written on the back cover: "Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion...at dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead...haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one...one by one they begin to die...who among them is the killer and will any of them survive?"

Solving the mystery...that's kids stuff

History is Personal

The third book my class will be reading this year is Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry.  It won the Newbery and I blogged about it here as part of my Newbery project.

My favorite part about this book is that it takes something that can often feel abstract and distant and makes it feel personal.  As a modern, white, female I can't imagine what it feels like to be of color growing up in the deep South during the height of segregation.  The only way I can access that and try to understand is through story.  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry tells that story.  It gives me something to relate to.

One of the best parts about teaching middle school is that it's the time when students have matured enough that they are able to handle more difficult discussions.  They are able to look at themes like racism and segregation and talk openly and honestly about it.  I can't wait to see what this book looks like from a students' perspective and I am so excited to see their maturity come out in the midst of our discussions.

Talking about the hard stuff...that's kids stuff

Yes!!!

I absolutely positively cannot wait until the second marking period of this school year.  Why, you ask?  Well that's when we get to devote an entire marking period to one of my most favorite books of all time.  Any guesses?

It's Lois Lowry's The Giver.  Now I have mentioned The Giver numerous times on this blog and done a traditional post on it here.  I am so excited to be able to share this book with my students.  And to prove to them that this book at least is a million times better than the movie.  Not that the movie was bad (I put it firmly in the "ok" category) but it was not as good as the book.

I cannot wait to see how my students react to this book and I am so excited to start reading and talking about it with them!

Teaching your favorites...that's kids stuff.