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.  

Whatcha Reading?

To me one of my favorite things to think about at the start of each new school year is, "what books do we get to read this year?"  And by we I mean, me and my students.  In the reading class I am teaching this year we will read one novel per marking period (in addition to numerous poems, short stories, plays, newspaper articles, media clips, etc).  First up is S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. 

If I'm being totally honest, this isn't one of my favorite books.  There's nothing I don't like about it, but it would never make my top 5.  Here's the cool thing though.  About 90% or more of the students love it, like love it so much that when I taught them the next year they still said The Outsiders was their favorite book.  What a great way to start the year, especially for students who come into reading class already believing that they are bad readers and they don't like reading.  They just haven't found the right book yet.

The Outsiders proves to students that books can be real.  They can come from an authentic youthful perspective.  They can tell it like it is, they don't gloss over the grittier aspects of life.  The Outsiders is the story of Ponyboy (yes that is his actual name, like on his birth certificate and everything).  And that's all you're getting.  Partly because any way I try to think of to describe it sounds cheesy and this book is anything but cheesy.  But also because I encourage all of my students to check out this blog and I don't want them to know anything about the book before we start reading.

Understanding others...that's kids stuff 

PS Since Monday is the first day of school don't be surprised if there aren't as many posts as normal.  But don't worry, it's just until I settle into the routine of a new school year.

How Cool!

Maximum Ride- or Max as she prefers to go by, is so cool.   She is the leader of a group of exceptional young people-and by young I mean she is the oldest at only 14-and she can fly.

No, seriously, she can fly.  You see Max, and her friends (and by friends I mean they're basically family) are 98% human and 2% bird.  When you put it that way, it sounds, I admit, a bit lame; but in actuality it is really, really cool.

James Patterson's Maximum Ride The Angel Experiment chronicles the journey of Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel.  They started as science experiments and were subjected to many horrific tests while being forced to live in a cage.  But they got out and that is where the adventure really begins.

Like at the beginning of any school year, one of my tasks is to decide how I'm going to use the bulletin boards that are in my classroom.  One will be a book recommendation board.  It will be started by me and, hopefully, continued by the students.  Maximum Ride will most definitely be making the board. I think all of my students would love this book.

Small disclaimer this is the first book in a series so as you can probably guess that means the ending is not quite as satisfying as one would desire.  Looks like we're all gonna have to read the rest of the series.

Being the coolest...that's kids stuff.  

Deep Breaths

This is a coping strategy I tell my students to use all the time.  If you're overexcited, angry, frustrated,whatever, deep breaths often work.  Ben, the main character in M.H. Herlong's The Great Wide Sea, really really needed to take some deep breaths.

Ben is the oldest of three boys, he and his family live near a lake and are big fans of sailing. Things seem very happy except, a la Disney movie, you don't get to see very much of that happy.  When Ben's mom is killed suddenly in a car accident his dad decides to sell the house and sail around the Bahama's for a year.

But sailing around the world is not the jolly adventure you think it would be. Not only is sailing really hard work, but boats are small and three boys who have just lost their mother and a husband who has lost his wife have allllll the feels.  All of these feelings can create pretty high tension aboard the boat.

The Great Wide Sea left me feeling much like I did after watching the movie Unbroken.  My main feeling throughout the story was, "how much more can this person possible take?"

I thought this was an authentic, heart-wrenching, emotional story. All of that makes The Great Wide Sea worth reading but not necessarily an enjoyable read.  It is a powerful story but it's not the kind of story that gives you all the warm fuzzies.  

Making it through...that's kids stuff.