New Books

I recently received a shipment of new books that I'm sure will be of interest to middle level readers:

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President by Josh Lieb
Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown
The Savage by David Almond
Ruined by Paula Morris
Orphan! by John R. Weber
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead by Mark Twain and Don Borchet
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford
The Pricker Boy by Reade Scott Whinneem
The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

I plan to read my way through this list and then get the books into circulation through the middle school library. Please see me if any of these titles interest you.

The Uninvited

One of the books that I read this month is Tim Wynne-Jones' The Uninvited. I liked it, and talked about it in class. It's available in the SLMS library on the eighth grade shelf.

You can hear an audio review of this book, set in rural Ontario, at the North Country Public Radio website.

"The Fan Club" by Rona Maynard

As we work through our fiction writing unit, we've talked about how finding ideas for stories is sometimes very difficult.
Lucy Calkins, author of Units of Study for Teaching Writing, has this advice:
Think about an issue that is important to you and create a character who struggles with that issue.
As an example, we read "The Fan Club" by Rona Maynard. You may want to check it out, and see how the main character, Laura, deals with the issue of discrimination.

Creative Writing Unit

After a non-fiction narrative writing unit that saw students write some truly great pieces, we introduced a unit on creative writing today.

I mentioned a book by Stephen King that I really like, On Writing. This book is part autobiography and part writing instruction. Full disclosure: it's the only Stephen King book I've ever read.

I'm hoping that students will incorporate, like King, some of their real life experiences into their fiction writing.

Guest Book Talker

Mrs. Kennedy was in class today to talk about books related to the theme of "fear and phobias." Here are the books Mrs. Kennedy discussed:

School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari

Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu

Rash by Pete Hautman

What Are You Afraid Of? by Donald Gallo, editor

The following books are less directly connected to "fear and phobias," but still come recommended by Mrs. Kennedy:

Secret Saturdays by Torrey Maldonado

The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson

Time Bomb by Nigel Hinton

Recent Reads

I've read two very different books over the last several weeks. The first was Code Orange by Caroline B. Cooney. This novel tells the story of one student who gets into serious trouble for trying to complete his science homework. I liked it, especially the setting (post 9/11 New York City). Caroline Cooney also wrote, among many other things, Burning Up, which is a past school wide read selection at SLMS.

Next, I read Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson. This was my favorite of the two books. President Lincoln's assassination is a familiar story, but I learned things from reading this book that I never knew (for example, the broader conspiracy included an assassination attempt against Secretary of State William Seward).

Both of these books are in the SLMS library.

Hunger Games is a Hit

Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy is a hit, both with students and faculty at SLMS. The trilogy consists of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay.

Among the faculty members who read the series is Mrs. Beideck. She had this to say:

"I liked the series as a whole. I loved The Hunger Games, thought Catching Fire was as good or better, but was not as fond of Mockingjay. (But I did enjoy it and it kept my interest for sure) It was sort of like with Harry Potter when he got all angry and dark and moody in the later books, I didn't like them as well as the beginning of that series. In Mockingjay, Katniss gets a lot like that and less the vibrant, strong girl she is in the first two. And rightly so as a lot happened to her and she gets beat up pretty badly in Mockingjay also. It has a great message and could spark some good discussions."

If you'd like to learn more, here's the author herself, Suzanne Collins, talking about Mockingjay.