True Story

When  I taught US History one of the most uncomfortable things to teach was slavery.  To the modern mind it seems inconceivable that such evil could have been so prevalent during the founding and well into the development of this nation.  We tend to skim over it or even worse compress it into technical facts and ignore the great human cost.  Judith and Dennis Fradin's Stolen Into Slavery makes the horrors of slavery real-and that is important.

Stolen Into Slavery tells the story of, what some argue to be, one of the greatest evils of slavery.  Free black men and women were kidnapped from norther free states and sold into slavery.  This book tells the true story of one such slave, Solomon Northup.  Solomon travels south playing his violin with some companions, when they drug him and sell him to a salve pen.

The Fradin's main source was Northup's own autobiography Twelve Years a Slave (that probably sounds familiar because it was recently made a movie).  This gives them access to Solomon's thoughts and feelings and brings the book to life.

I am a huge fan of cross-curricular work and I think this book should be required reading for all students of US History (or if you are an older student Northup's autobiography).

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

Motivate!!

Isn't that the truth!

Rap or Poems?

Nikki Grimes Bronx Masquerade is another one of the Reading Olympics books, and good thing it Bronx Masquerade  is a mix of reflective writing and poetry.  Yup, poetry-aka not my favorite thing.
was because otherwise I never would have picked it up.

But Bronx Masquerade had the best kind of poetry, the kind that creates questions and reflects real emotion.  Grimes takes on the persona of 18 different students in Mr. Ward's English class.  Set in the Bronx each student has a real struggle, real hurt, and real questions.  First you learn about them in a journal-like reflection then you get to see these feelings expressed through a poem.  The poems are raw, gritty, and good.

Some of the students have been writing raps or lyrics and they instantly grasp the connection between poetry and rap.  Poetry becomes something meaningful and through the process of writing and sharing poems they begin to grow as a classroom community.  They challenge stereotypes and realize that what they always believed about their peers may or may not be true.

My favorite part about this book is that what the students are dealing with goes far beyond the Bronx.  It addresses universals that even my suburban students can relate to.

Giving poetry a chance...that's kids stuff. 

Thrwoback

Today's throwback features one of my all time favorite books (I talked about it briefly here).  This isn't just a treasured book from my childhood, it is a book I keep coming back to year after year.  Well...if I'm being honest the book is an occasional re-read but the movie I re-watch every year (see I can like movies).  Yup, this is the rare exception, the one time where I like the movie just as much as the book.  I think it's because the movie stays so true to the book and captures the heart of the story.  And that's really what I love, not the book or the movie, but the story.

This is the illustrated version-I got one
as a gift and it holds an honored spot
on my bookshelf.  

What is this book you ask?  It is Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women.  Set in New England, Little Women tells the story of 4 sisters as they come of age in the late 1800s.  The four sisters are Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy.  Each share the desire to improve themselves and make their family proud but each is different. Whenever I re-read the book I connect differently with each of the sisters.

When I was in graduate school dreaming of being published I felt like Jo.  When I strove to improve my art (music) in college I felt like Amy, learning the hard lesson that talent isn't genius.  When I was first married and poor as poor could be I resonated with Meg and her newlywed monetary struggles.  Always I look at good, sweet, Beth and strive to have her kindness and love.

This book will always have a special place in my heart (cheesy alert-I know) and I frequently recommend it to my students.  It doesn't matter that it's over a century old, the story is as relevant now as ever.

One of my favorite scenes from the movie

Finding yourself...that's kids stuff.  

Calamitous Misadventure

I typically don't put much stock into the reviews printed on the back cover of a book.  Years of reading has taught me exactly which kind of books I will like and it doesn't much matter what the reviewer had to say about it.  In fact, we (myself, my co-teacher, and the librarian) did a lesson on how to choose a book with my class at the beginning of the year and not a single 8th grader mentioned that they read the reviews.  That being said I loved that Adam Rex described today's book as "A lyrical and calamitous misadventure, and who doesn't like that sort of thing?"

The book is Amy Timberlake's One Came Home.  With the very intriguing subtitle of "A sister lost. A body found. The truth buried."  To be honest I was having a very hard time figuring out how to describe this book-good thing Adam Rex summed it up perfectly.

One Came Home is the story of straight talkin' and sharp shootin' Georgie as she searches for her missing, and presumed dead, sister. But it's really about so much more than that.  It is in the truest sense a "lyrical and calamitous misadventure."  I will admit it was hard to get into but once it got started I couldn't put it down.  I just had to know how everything turned out.

This was one of those books that takes you to a different world.  When you read it you forget about reality and are totally immersed in Georgie's world.

Fighting for family...that's kids stuff.  

Get Hyped

I love this graphic not only because it references one of my favorite TV shows, Dr. Who, but it also reminds me of how important my job is.  I'm not just teaching reading because it's a fun thing to do.  I'm teaching reading because that skill is necessary for survival.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

That's one of the fundamental principles of our justice system, that you are innocent until proven guilty.  But I wonder about those high profile cases, the ones that are all over the news, the ones where everyone seems to have made up their mind before a trial date is even set.  Katie Leigh is able to attend one of those trials.

Jen Bryant's The Trial is told from the perspective of Katie Leigh, a restless adventurer stuck in a middle of nowhere town where nothing exciting ever happens.  Katie satisfies her need for adventure through magazine clippings and newspaper articles, even working in the newspaper office, just waiting to be old enough to have a real adventure of her own.

Charles Lindbergh is an American hero but that didn't protect him from tragedy.  His baby was kidnapped then later found dead.  Years later they have a suspect and the trial takes place in Katie Leigh's middle of nowhere, nothing exciting ever happens town.

Historical fiction is a favorite genre of mine and Katie Leigh has exactly the kind of spunk I love from a lead.  However, this book is written as a series of free verse poems.  Long time readers of the blog will know that this is pretty much a deal breaker for me.  The story was well told but it just feels so fragmented I can' t sink into the story.

Finding adventure...that's kids stuff.