Back to Reality

We all know I'm not the biggest fan of non-fiction.  It's just not my preferred genre.  And I certainly don't want to read a non-fiction book about the building of the atomic bomb right in the middle of the holiday season.  

For all of these reasons I was dreading reading Steve Sheinkin's Bomb: The Race to Build-and Steal-the World's most Dangerous Weapon.  Even with the librarian's assurances that this was an excellent book, I was sure that I would hate it.  

Instead I found myself unable to put the book down.  It starts with a man named Harry Gold frantically trying to destroy evidence before the FBI agents show up at his door.  I have never been so engaged in a non-fiction book.  I mean, I know how the story ends, but I will admit I was woefully ignorant of the details.  

Sheinkin does an amazing job telling the story of the bomb from all perspectives.  We see what the American's are doing, the Soviets, the Germans and the British. Bomb made me think about all the different aspects related to the Manhattan project-things I had never thought of before.  

 I didn't even think about all the spying that was happening during this time.  Or the mixed emotions all the scientist must have felt.  On the one hand they had made amazing advancements in the areas of physics, on the other hand they felt responsible for the massive destruction and loss of human life caused by the bomb.  

Some may argue that this type of information is not appropriate for middle schoolers but I would argue this is exactly the type of information they should be reading.  As technology continues to expand at baffling rates they need to know the human cost, to see all sides of the issue, to truly understand the horrors of war.  I cannot recommend this book highly enough!  Seriously, I'm buying a couple of copies for my class and passing them out tomorrow.  

Knowing the costs...that's kids stuff.   

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  Here's hoping your tree looks like this.  

Dreams

One of the easiest ways for me to tell if I liked a book (besides the obvious gut reaction) is how quickly I'm able to come up with a post for that book.

It took me a very long time to come up with anything for Jacqueline Woodson's brown girl dreaming.  Now don't get ahead of yourself, this is an excellent book, it was even a national book award winner; however it's poetry which, as you know, is not my favorite thing.

brown girl dreaming is an autobiography of sorts, it is Woodson's story, her life, told in verse.  She has such a unique perspective growing up in South Carolina and Brooklyn, NY during the 60's and 70's.  The most compelling part, for me, was Woodson's struggles in school.  Writing and reading were difficult for her.  To make it even worse her sister is basically a genius, excelling at all areas of school.  Woodson's teachers are excited to see the same name and then she must face their disappointment when they realize she is nothing like her sister.

That is until she finds poems.  Poems are her release.  So it is only fitting that she narrates her own life story in free verse.

I think it was hard for me to write this post because I didn't love this book and I couldn't think of anyone to recommend it to.  Free verse can be beautiful but it can also be difficult to comprehend, especially if you struggle with reading.  The only thing I could think to do is take excerpts and use them to supplement our reading of Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry.  I'm hoping some of the Reading Olympics crew will be able to share their perspective on this book.  Maybe it struck a chord with some of them.

Finding your voice...that's kids stuff.  

Tale as Old as Time

Some stories just stick with you, one of those is the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast.  Robin McKinley's Beauty is a retelling of that classic tale.

McKinley's version has all of the things I love about the original-a feisty heroine who loves books more than anything else (I mean really, how could I not like that person).  A romance that develops in the best way possible, distrustful strangers become tentative friends, then comfortable companions and gradually realize they can't live without each other.  And like all my favorite stories there is just a dash of magic.

Unlike the original Beauty doesn't feel that she lives up to her namesake, in fact she feels downright homely. Also Beauty has a much larger family to leave behind in this tale.  The changes just make the story more engaging .  McKinley somehow makes the tale fresh and new while still being old and familiar.

Beauty is the perfect book to read as you sip your coffee or hot coca all cozied up under quilts.  Actually it's the perfect book to read anytime you want to get sucked into a sweet story, but there is something about staying in on a cold day and reading good book-don't you think?

Looking beyond appearance...that's kids stuff  
 

Looks can be Deceiving

I mean really-does that look appealing? 

How many times have we all heard, "don't judge a book by its cover."  Well it shames me to admit it, but I often judge books by their cover.  William Sleator's The Boy who Reversed Himself has, in my opinion, a particularly terrible cover.  It is on this year's Reading Olympic's list so I was going to read it anyway but one glance at the cover made me think, "ugh, this is going to be silly and terrible."

I'm happy to report that I was wrong.  Despite the kiddy cover The Boy who Reversed Himself was actually a really deep read.  Everyone knows that we are three dimensional beings.  But what if there was a fourth dimension?  And what if we could get there? What if her weird neighbor Omar is more than just a weird kid?

When Omar gives Laura her science report-but with all the writing reversed she knows something is up. And she stops at nothing to find out what it is.  I don't want to give any spoilers but lets just say the cover isn't the only thing that's deceiving.

This book is a great introduction to science fiction.  It's complicated enough that it forces you to really think, but it isn't so complicated that younger students can't understand.  This is a great stepping stone to a book like A Wrinkle in Time.

Looking beyond the surface...that's kids stuff.  

Could you do it?

My cousin and his wife live in a log cabin at the edge of the family farm.  They have extensive gardens and grow much of their own food.  They built a greenhouse out of old windows and make their own herbal remedies.  If there ever is a zombie apocalypse I want to be on their team.

Robert C. O'Brien's Z for Zachariah is a true apocalypse story, only in this case it isn't zombies-it's nuclear war.  Everyone has died.  Everyone except for Ann, somehow the valley she lives in is free from radiation.  The rest of the town, including Ann's family, left the valley to see how the rest of the world was (since radios had stopped working), but they never returned.

Ann, just sixteen years old, has survived for over a year completely on her own.  She has a garden, chickens and cows.  Luckily her family were farmers so she knows how to work the land.  Also lucky the store was fully stocked at the time of the attacks so she has enough staple foods to fall back on as well as plenty of clothes, blankets, candles and matches.  It makes you wonder, if you were Ann could you survive?   Could I?

Things start to change when a mysterious man in a strange suit enters the valley.  Ann is torn.  She is desperate for some companionship-it's been years since she has spoken to or even seen another human being.  This is the turning point.  She could talk to the man and her whole future could be better, a companion, a helper, they could repopulate the valley-she would have a partner.   Or...the man is a criminal, an attacker, an enemy.  Her life is lonely but it's working-would he make it worse?

Which way does it go?  You'll just have to read the book to find out. A wonderfully engaging and thought provoking read.  Perfect for anyone who loved The Maze Runner. 

Surviving..that's kids stuff.  

New Favorite

Remember when I said Almost Home was in the running to be my favorite Reading Olympics book?  Well, I was wrong.  My new favorite is Lynda Mullaly Hunt's Fish in a Tree.  To quote my students, 'I can't even!"  I can't.  I don't have the words to describe how fantastic this book is.  Ally is a student who doesn't understand why the letters move whenever she looks at them, why reading gives her headaches, and why everyone else seems to get it but she just can't.  School is exhausting and painful and the other students are just plain mean.

That is until there is a new teacher, Mr.Davis.  I have to be honest, I cried reading this book.  Teaching only learning support reading, with students who believe (often incorrectly) that they are bad readers I strive every day to be a Mr. Davis.  I want to shove this book into the hands of every teacher, every person.  You must read this book.

Rather than give you my summary I want to share some of my favorite quotes from the book.  There's a lot so you should probably just stop reading this post here and go read the book yourself. Except for this quote because it's something I try to instill in my students each and every day: "I guess maybe, 'I'm having trouble' is not the same as 'I can't."  

I'll even do my closing line early.

Having grit...that's kids stuff.

"No matter how many times I have prayed and worked and hoped, reading for me is still like trying to make sense of a can of alphabet soup that's been dumped on a plate.  I just don't know how other people do it."

"Most teachers seem to like their students to be all the same-perfect and quiet.  Mr. Daniels actually seems to like that we're different"

"seeing him shuffle away in those sneakers makes me want to be better.  I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not mean."

"I can't help thinking about the girl on the train and how she feels-like she wants to do so much but she's held back, and it makes her feel heavy and angry."

"People act like the words 'slow reader' tell them everything that's inside.  Like I'm a can of soup and they can just read the list of ingredients and know everything about me.   There's lots of stuff about the soup inside that they can't put on the label, like how it smells and tastes and makes you feel warm when you eat it.  There's got to be more to me than just a kid who can't read well."

"but being lonely is never a choice.  It's not about how is with you or not. You can feel lonely when you're alone, but the worst kind of lonely is when you're in a room full of people, but you're alone."

"But what really gets me is that in order for Mr. Daniels to come up with this plan, he must have thought of me outside of school-when he didn't have to think of me.  I bet other teachers have never let me sit in their head one second longer than they had to."

Popular

Fun fact about my, my brain is composed of mostly song lyrics.  So when I see the title The Popularity Papers, I immediately think of the song Popular in the musical Wicked (listen to it here-no seriously it's great). After reading, Amy Ignatow's debut novel, I realized I was right to think of the song.

Both the song and the book focus on making a plan to become popular (side note to any students currently taking my reading class-this is the kind of connections across multiple texts we are trying to do this marking period), and both have the underlying unspoken assumption that being popular is the best thing to be.  The question is, do both of these texts view being popular as the best thing to be by throughout the entirety of the story?  Support your answer with evidence from the texts.    Sorry-got a little too deep into teacher mode there...

The Popularity Papers is a journal written by two fifth graders, Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang, who are researching how to become popular so that they can be in the cool crowd by middle school.  I loved the format of this book.  Each girl has a different font so you can easily see who wrote what-I instantly felt drawn back to my own note passing days (which for my current students who are reading just know that they were very limited and never while the teacher was talking).  Ignatow effortlessly captures the friendship shared by two girls who are BFF's.  Not being a boy I have no idea how they would feel about this book, or if they could connect to the two main characters, but it is ridiculous to assume that boys don't face the same popularity pressures and that they wouldn't like this book just because it's about girls.

Besides the handwritten fonts the book is filled with drawings by Julie and Lydia, that compliment whatever they happen to be talking about.  The Popularity Papers addresses real issues head on, but in a lighthearted way.  That being said, this book is just fun.  It's never one that I would use in class, and my 8th grade students may have outgrown it-but for 5th to even some 7th grade students this is a fun, easy, relate-able read. This is also the first book in a series, so if you are looking for enjoyable, stress-free, easy reads (which can often be the best kind of reads) check out the whole series.


Research with your friends...that's kids stuff.