Not What You Expected

**Note: This is part of the "series-ously" posts and therefore contains spoilers.  If you haven't read The Giver, stop reading now**

Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue is technically a companion to The Giver, not a sequel.  This is important because The Giver ends in a cliffhanger.  (Side note-I can't wait to see how my students react to that ending!!).  So when you first pick up Gathering Blue you are sooo anxious to see what happened to Jonas and baby Gabriel and instead of finding out what happened to them you are all of the sudden thrust into a totally different world.

Or is it totally different....

Kira is gifted at embroidery.  Her mother taught her some of the basics but Kira is able to go well beyond what her mother has taught her.  She just has the skill in her fingers.  But even with all of her skill she still doesn't have the color blue.

Yup you got it.  Gathering blue is literal.  Somehow Kira's village have lost the plants that make blue so she is unable to dye any threads blue.  She is able to make dyes for all the other colors, but not for blue.

The characters are different, the community is different but some features are the same.  If you haven't read this book yet read it and see if you can spot these things:
The knowledge of the past is kept with one person..  There is little personal freedom.  There are noticeable changes to mark the passage of time.  The speech and names of objects are just slightly different than our own.  That's what makes Lowry's societies so intriguing.  They are so close to what we have and yet they are so different.

Gathering Blue is worthy to be a companion of The Giver.  As you may remember The Giver is my favorite book of all time so to call Gathering Blue worthy is high praise indeed.  It is a compelling read and Kira has all the depth and relateablity of Jonas.  But Jonas is nowhere to be seen in this novel.

Or is he.... (I really really want to tell you what it is...it's one little line buried in the book...but to tell you would be a huge spoiler so alas I must hold my tongue).

Perseverance...that's kids stuff

Speak Truth

There are some books that change you.  Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak was one of those books for me.  I remember reading this book when I was in high school-and this is definitely a book for older adolescents (end of 8th grade would be the earliest I would recommend it), and I remember feeling so sad when I read it.

But speak is not a sad book-it's a real book.  Melinda sees high school for what it is and records several variations of "the ten lies they tell you in high school."  She has a strong sense of who she is and as a result has a hard time finding where she fits...especially since all of her old friends are no longer speaking to her.  You see Melinda called the cops and busted a party over the summer.  Now nobody wants to talk to her.

But why would witty, sarcastic, authentic Melinda call the cops?  You can clearly feel her inner tension throughout the story.  Now, as usual, I won't give any spoilers but I will tell you that eventually you get the whole story.  And the whole story changes your perspective not just on Melinda but on life.  Yup, it's that deep and it's that good.

Also this book emphasizes how critically important arts education is.  I teach reading, it's super important, it teaches you to be a critical thinker and a good citizen. But it is arts education that helps you be a good person-it speaks to your soul.

Speaking truth...that's kids stuff.  

Old Standby

There are some genres and/or authors that feel like an old standby.  Even if I don't connect with a character or feel gripped by the story there is still something I can find to like-they are always somehow worth reading.  Historical fiction is one of those genres.  No matter what I can find something I like.  And Gary Paulsen is one of those authors.  His books have gotten many of my students, particularly the males, interested in reading for pleasure and that is no small feat.

Needless to say I was excited when Woods Runner a work of historical fiction by Gary Paulsen appeared on the Reading Olympics list.  It did not disappoint.  Samuel is certainly an admirable character, even if he isn't someone I immediately connected with.  Samuel is a young boy who has become skilled at living in the forest, more skilled than anyone else in his small settlement.  A boy who must become a man when his parents are captured by British soldiers during the American Revolution.

What I especially like about this book is that Paulsen has interspersed little snippets of historical fact to supplement the story.  I like that they are kept separate because many times I find it tiresome to break up the story.   But Paulsen manages to keep the history to small tidbits.  Just enough to give you a little background and help you understand the story just a little bit better.  

And finally I just had to share this line.  It is found towards the end of the story so if you're planning on reading this book you might want to stop reading here...even though I don't really consider it a spoiler.  "I'll distract the guard; you take a brick and hit him over the head.' 'That's your plan?'....'Hard,' Abner added.  'Hit him over the head hard.'" 

Revolution...that's kids stuff

Quote it

One of my favorite types of blog posts is to pull out quotes that really stuck with me, or quotes that jumped out at me as I read the novel. This is what I will do for Christopher Paolini's Eldest.  This is the second novel of the inheritance cycle so obviously there may be a few spoilers.  Proceed at your own risk.

"Why do you resist the order of things?"
"Because we can better ourselves, he answered Saphira.  Should we give in to our impulses to hurt or kill any who anger us, to take whatever we want from those who are weaker, and, in general, to disregard the feelings of others?  We are made imperfect and must guard against our flaws lest they destroy us."


"on its own, being a decent person is no guarantee that you will act well, which brings us back to the one protection we have against demagogues, tricksters, and the madness of crowds, and our surest guide through the uncertain shoal of life: clear and reasoned thinking.  Logic will never fail you, unless you're unaware of-or deliberately ignore-the consequences of your deeds."

"Eragon, you are only a cripple if you consider yourself one.  I  understand how you feel, but you must remain optimistic, for a negative outlook is more of a handicap than nay physical injury. I speak from personal experience.  Pitying yourself serves neither you nor Saphira."

"Do not be shy to ask what lies in your heart."

"A place where we are responsible for our own actions, where we can be kind to one another because we want to and because it is the right thing to do instead of being frightened into behaving by the threat of divine punishment.  I won't tell you what to believe, Eragon.  It is far better to be taught to think critically and then be allowed to make your own decisions than to have someone else's notions thrust upon you."

I challenge anyone to read these quotes and browse the books on this blog and still think that juvenile fiction is "kiddy" or "lacking depth"  or "just for little kids.'

Thinking critically...that's kids stuff.

Series-ously?

So I'm really trying to make that pun work. I made a bulletin board around that in my classroom one year and nobody thought it was as amusing as I did.  I still like it so I'm going to try it out here.

 As you can probably guess this is all about book series.  I've talked before about how I am a big fan of book series.  If you liked the first one then you have a whole collection of other books to read and stories are richly developed in a series.  You really get to watch the characters grow and evolve-I love that. It's like you're taking a journey with the books.

 This new feature will look a lot like what I did with the Harry Potter Series over the summer.  I will do a post on each book in a series, but the post won't necessarily be back to back.  I may weave in stand alone books along the way.

Obviously doing posts on later books in a series means that there may be spoilers.  I won't spoil any major plot twists in that book but I will probably spoil something that happens in a previous book.  So if you are the kind of person who doesn't like spoilers, read the previous books in the series before you read any posts about later books.


 So if you're looking for a good series click on the "series-ously" tab on the top of the page.  Be sure to check back often as I will consistently be adding new books to the list.  The book title will become a link once I have written a post on that book.

Going on the journey...that's kids stuff.  

Resolutions

If you're like most people you probably made some sort of resolution a couple of days ago.  Starting the new year off right and all that jazz.  Thanks to sites like pinterest reading challenges are all over the place.  So if your resolution was to read more books here are a few ways to get you started (besides reading this blog of course).

If you are an adult try this one:

If you are a fan of Gilmore Girls try this.

If you just want a general challenge that's not too big try this one

If you just want to read YA try this

And of course you could can't go wrong with a classic-read all the Newbery Award Winning books.  That's how this blog started and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the process.

So what do you think?  Are you up for the challenge?

Rising to the challenge...that's kids stuff

PS My goal is to finish the Reading Olympics book list then maybe move on to the ALA notable book list....but who knows maybe I'll try one of the above challenges.