Friends

So you've got the friends who are always there to have fun with you.  The ones who you call when you need to talk, and the ones who always have your back.  In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets we are introduced to another type of friend.  The one who tries to save your life, albeit in unusual ways.  This friend is, of course, Dobby.  

Since Dobby is beloved it's only fair that part of our two sentence summary is devoted to him. 

"Harry Potter came back to school...Dobby warned and warned Harry Potter."  But it is our choices that show what we truly are.  

Making choices...that's kids stuff.  

PS Sorry if the pictures are weird this is my first post written on the ipad...still working out the kinks.  

Shortest Story

Recently I have been fascinated by the question, "how short can you make a story?"  This is a common challenge in the literary world and some argue that as few as six words can make a story.   As a review on inferencing I read my students 2 sentence horror stories, and I must admit they were quite chilling.

So for my annual Harry Potter summer re-read I decided to challenge myself and capture the essence of each book in only a sentence (or two...).  

Luckily book one came to me in a flash.  I don't think the other installments will be quite so easy.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone: You're a wizard Harry.


Finding the heart of a story...that's kids stuff.  

Not What You Expected

I have to admit that while I was never anti comic book I never really liked them either.  But, in fairness, I had never actually read any.  I thought the whole medium was just superheroes and villains and that's not really my thing.

But now that I've actually read a few it's not what I expected at all.  This medium has just as much diversity as any other.  And the stories, at lest the few that I have read, challenge societal norms and give our heroes or heroines new roles.  It's very cool.

Take, for example Lumberjanes: Beware the Kitten Holy (by Stevenson, Ellis, Watters, and Allen).  The Lumberjanes are a girl scout-ish organization but one group of girls takes it to another level.  They sneak out of their cabins and...well depending on your point of view they either break every camp rule under the sun OR have an awesome adventure.

The only negative is that this is a series.  Why is that a negative? You love series, right?  Well, yes I do...but it means this one ends in a cliffhanger.  

Challenging the norms...that's kids stuff.  

Next Year

It isn't fair that the end of the school year means less and less work for students but more and more work for teachers.  It isn't fair that teachers need to start planning for next year before packing up their classrooms for the summer when all they want to do is spend the little time they have left with the kids they will soon be saying goodbye to.

But in the spirit of always moving forward today I am going to write about a new book I will be using with my classes next year.  Tolkien's The Hobbit.  "Woah," you say, "hold up a minute.  The Hobbit in seventh grade, that seems like a lot."  Well you would be right.   Which is why my class will be reading the graphic novel version.

First of all, as soon as you look at the book you realize the artwork is just stunning.  It completely captures the mood of Middle Earth.  Secondly, it keeps all of the intrigue and drama of the original story without any of the tedious description (sorry Tolkien).

In it's original form this is a story I had to work to get through (though I did love Lord of the Rings-the book, to be clear); but in graphic novel form it was a story I couldn't put down.  I am hoping that next years kiddos will feel the same way!

Perhaps this is the start of me getting into comics...

Old stories new ways...that's kids stuff.  

Africa

Big news!  I am going to Africa this summer!! Lusaka, Zambia to be exact.  I have been given a fabulous opportunity to write a literacy curriculum for a center there and I am beyond excited!!  Heads up I will be gone all of July.  I will try to schedule posts through the time I am gone but be prepared for a, hopefully brief, interruption.

In light of my upcoming adventure I was especially drawn to Katherine Applegate's Home of the Brave.  This is a deeply compelling story of Kek, a refugee relocated from his home in Sudan.  Now he lives with his aunt and uncle in Minnesota.  His father and brother were killed in front of him and nobody knows where his mother is.

Kek tells his own story in free verse (which, as you know, I typically hate, but here it works).  Here is just a sample for you.

My people are herders. 

We move with the seasons, 

with the wet and the dry, 

so that the cattle

may be strong and well fed.

We cannot carry much with us, 

and so our stories don't

make their homes

in heavy books. 

We hold our stories

in our songs.  

Kek's beautiful explanation of his culture made me even more excited for my trip.  But more importantly his honest rendition of life as a refugee gave me such insight into the experience of modern refugees.  I think everyone should be required to read this book before making any decisions on refugee policy (looking at you capital hill).

Finding your new place...that's kids stuff.  

Commies

Longtime readers of the blog will know that I am a fan of history and a fan of the author Avi.  So when I saw that the Reading Olympics book list had an Avi historical fiction I was pretty pumped.

Catch You Later Traitor is set during the Cold War, a little more modern than I like my history-but history nonetheless.  Pete Collison is a pretty typical 12 year old until rumors start to spread that his father is a Communist.  All of a sudden Pete is ostracized.  Nobody wants to play ball with him, nobody wants to sit next to him in school, parents are telling their children not to be friends with him.

Pete doesn't understand it. Why are people acting that way? His dad is a history professor, there's no way he's a Commie?  But then the FBI comes.  Pete is conflicted.  What if it's all true?  Then what?

Set in the not too distant history Catch You Later, Traitor is a sobering reminder that even today, as a society, we are quick to judge.  Too easily we lump people together and assume the whole group is bad.  How could American's treat each other like that?  The spying on your neighbor, the judgments, the mistrust.

Optimistically I want to say things are better now.  But are they really?  Or have we just replaced Commies with Muslims and Reds with Refugees?  I hope not.

Finding the truth...that's kids stuff.  

Other Gods

Recently I blogged about the Percy Jackson series.  These books are based on the Greek gods/mythology.  But there are other ancient gods.  The Roman gods were based on and closely related to the Greek gods (probably because the Romans just stole all the good parts of their empire from the Greeks...I may be a little biased) but there were also Egyptian gods (and Mayan and Aztec, etc etc).  So Riordan wrote a new series based off of the Egyptian gods/mythology.

This is called The Kane Chronicles and I gotta be honest I like it more than Percy Jackson.  Probably because, though I really enjoyed both, I always liked Egyptian mythology more than Greek (except for that time I lived in Greece...obviously).  The first book of the Kane Chronicles is The Red Pyramid.  Here we are introduced to Carter and Sadie Kane, siblings who could not be more different.

That's the first great part about the Kane Chronicles.  Anyone who has a sibling will relate to Carter and Sadie's dynamic.  Also the book switches between their points of view, so first we hear Carter's side, then Sadie continues the story (complete with side comments they are making to each other).

The second thing is that this book leaves open the possibility that maybe you belong in this world.  Unlike in the Percy Jackson series where the heroes are literally children of gods, the Kanes are simply blood of the Pharaohs.  They are fully human, albeit descended from extremely powerful rulers of Egypt and born with the capacity to do magic and commune with the gods. Sure since both of Carter and Sadie's parents were descended from Pharaohs the Kane children are exceptionally powerful, but maybe you also have some blood of the Pharaohs.Maybe, just maybe, you will be able to host a god and help defeat the forces of chaos.  It's not likely, but there's a chance.  And that's why this book is so engaging.  It leaves just the smallest glimmer of hope that maybe there is something magical about you.

Fulfilling your destiny...that's kids stuff