A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, By Ishmael Beah

When my dad was in school, Vietnam was the conflict that had many people the world over calling for attention to the abuse of human rights. This was around the same time that many previously uncovered (in the United States media) events in Africa began boiling over, including the conflict in Sierra Leone. Of course, right now, the world conflicts that are garnering attention from human rights groups throughout post-industrial nations include what's happening in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the Darfur region of Sudan, and the civil war in Sierra Leone, among many others.

There are many books out there now in ya and children's literature circles about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the catalog of books is ever increasing. Darfur has moved to the forefront for many who decry what is happening throughout Sudan. A great book that discusses and showcases the human side of the events in Sudan (not necessarily Darfur) is called What is the What, written by Dave Eggers telling the true story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee. Of course, this book is clearly written for adults, it is quite dense, and would be very cumbersome to read in a high school classroom, so I wouldn't recommend it.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, written by and about Ishmael Beah, a boy soldier from Sierra Leone, is a book that is sized just right for the young adult audience. Content wise, this book is gritty and disturbing, as Beah takes us through his horrible experience of fleeing the rebels after the presumed death of his family, and hiding alone, as a child, in the jungles of Sierra Leone. He is eventually found and turned into a boy soldier, capable of ruthless genocide.

This story disturbed many adults in my reading group to the point that they could not finish the book, yet I was looking at this text as a resource to be used in an 11th or 12th grade literature class. As a non-fiction story (which we don't use often enough), a clear picture is painted here of genocide in our time. This isn't reading about the Holocaust and saying "wow, we must learn from those mistakes," because these things in Africa are happening right now.

First of all, this book is bloody, it is gritty, it is disturbing. It was written for the ya audience, and it is not any less appropriate for them than reading Maus (Art Spiegelman) or showing videos about the Darfur crisis. It's not a long book, which makes it a good two or three week long read, and the discussion that will surely take place upon completion of the book will go in many different directions, including morality, regaining humanity, and the place of an American in this crisis.

Red Glass, by Laura Resau

Red Glass, by Laura Resau, is a great "coming of age" story. Sophie is an outcast (much of it born out of lack of self esteem and other internal conflicts) living in Tucson, when a young boy, Pedro, enters the lives of their family. Pedro was crossing the border illegally when his family died, and he was left alone.

Now, first off, Red Glass is an excellent piece of young adult literature that would be appropriate to the reading levels and content appropriateness for young high school students, possibly 9th or 10th grade. The reading itself is surprisingly easy to get into, I actually read this book in two evening sittings, it's a fluid, wonderful love story.

I can see many students relating to either Sophie or her love interest Angel. The characters are so well written that at times I felt like I was reading a first person biography. The way the story moves from Tucson to southern Mexico and then off to Guatemala is entrancing. This book is great for students living in the desert Southwest or the border areas of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

I highly recommend this book, and its wonderful play with words and metaphors. The metaphor of red glass will not be lost on high school students. This book is one of the better ya novels written in the last few years (published in 2007).

My Take on Watchmen

I had never read Watchmen, the highly popular graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (artist). When the movie came out a few months ago, the book gained in popularity again, and I finally caved and got a copy to see what all the hype was about.

I am by no means a graphic novel aficionado, I have just read a few things that have caught my interest over the years, so I'm not one who feeds on these types of books. I have, however, started branching out and trying to read more, and have found it to be a varied experience.

My first thought when I began reading Watchmen was "wow, this is just a big giant comic book." I was drawing back on my childhood experiences, reading X Men and Superman comics, among others. However, when looking at this book through a historical lens, knowing that it was written during the later years of the Cold War, there was a lot to this book. The cynicism, the disillusionment, and the tongue-in-cheek dialogue, especially from the narrator Rorschach, made this a great adult reading experience.

I'll admit that some of the Dr. Manhattan stuff got a little "out there," but I enjoyed the metaphor that lied behind it. That's a good way to describe my overall experience with this book. It was out there, but was a great story that kept having me go "ah yes, I got that, very nice."

Now, does this book have potential in the classroom? First off, if you're talking anything below AP English Literature for Seniors or really insightful Juniors, forget it, don't even bother. If this book fits some kind of unit of study on, say, the Cold War, or in a greater survey of graphic novels, comic books, or something along those lines, then sure, I can see it fitting in terms of its content along those subject lines.

It is a very witty, very multi-dimensional story. There is a lot more sophistication than I was anticipating, and I'm not saying that in a snooty, "those darn kids won't get it, they're just not smart enough," kind of way. I am saying that it simply might go over their heads and end up being just another comic book with an adult theme.

This is a great piece of literature that has aged well, but is an adult piece of literature. I commend anyone who has managed to use this in the classroom and go deeper than surface level with it. Personally, I say it's more of an adult read, but if you've had experiences teaching with this, please share.

The Lightning Thief - A Book Review

I'm always interested in finding new books that seem to resonate with my students. Up through winter break this past school year, I had read aloud The Castle in the Attic (Elizabeth Winthrop), Coraline (Neil Gaiman), The City of Ember (Jeanne DuPrau), The Giver (Lois Lowry), and had read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Barbara Robinson) right before the break. So coming back, I wanted to start things off with a bang.

Luckily, over the vacation, I had run across Rick Riordan's popular Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, namely the first book, The Lightning Thief. It was an interesting book, if not one obviously written for the pre-adolescent set (ages 10-13). It definitely wasn't a young adult or children's book that surpassed most adult books in quality, at least not from an adult perspective. But I was anxious to try it out with my class.

First off, The Lightning Thief clocks in at 375 pages, so it does require a commitment on the part of the read aloud teacher to really stick with it and read for at least 30 minutes every day. What my students loved about this book was its action, how it basically went from one monster to the next, and that the main character, Percy Jackson, is just "some kid."

This book lends itself extremely well to studying Greek Mythology. I had the class do companion projects where they studied a Greek God and presented a report on them, either using technology (like power point) or doing a poster board based presentation (for those artists who like to use their skills with pencil and paper).

This book resonated quite well with my 5th graders. It did take a little time to get through it. I made the commitment to read no less than 20 pages in each sitting. And even at that pace, it took a month to finish the book. By the time we reached the end, the class was very excited, had felt a sense of accomplishment by finishing such a large book, and many of them went on in the series. This series is currently at its fifth book, with more surely coming.

There are great reasons to read large books with your class. Too often read aloud turns into small books that can be finished in a few sittings or a couple of weeks (if the teacher even reads books in the first place, too many teachers still rely heavily on textbook basal readers). The amount of time involved with this book shows to those students who aren't used to sitting down with a large book the payoffs to reading something so big, and that it's ok to sit with one book for an extended period of time.

Right after we finished The Lightning Thief, my school had its book fair, and sure enough, they were selling the entire series. I bought a few copies of each, and followed the course of these books, as well as my students who bought their own copies, and believe it or not, out of a class of 18 students, 7 finished the second book, 4 went on to the third, and 2 also read the fourth by the end of the year. Finding a series that gets kids excited about reading, takes them into the world of mythology, and has them begging for more is a very exciting thing. Although it didn't really hold me as an adult reader, it is a great book (and series) for students. I highly recommend this book.

In the Small by Michael Hague, a graphic novel book review

What you're going to read from me over the next few days are a few graphic novel reviews, I am currently going through a stack of some that were either recommended to me or sounded interesting.

Today I am going to review In the Small, by Michael Hague. In the Small is the debut for Hague and is likely the first in a story series. In the Small is a post apocalyptic story about a blue flash that envelops the earth, turning humans 1/12 their normal size. Of course, you can imagine the panic that sweeps the world, as life as humanity knows it ceases to exist. Animals once thought benign are now predators on the largest scale, and years of technological advancement are for nothing, because humans are no longer large enough to use any of it.

This is a great premise, an interesting take on the whole apocalyptic story, certainly a departure from the celestial event or nuclear bombing that is the hallmark of 90% of all books and/or movies in this genre.

The first thing I noticed about In the Small is that I didn't care much for the delivery of the story in Hague's artistry or word choice. The story was highly contrived, based around mysticism a little bit too much, and was one of those stories where basically one family does all the work on two separate fronts and everyone else just satisfies themselves with being background players.

The graphics were rather gory, which isn't a problem, and actually comes with the territory, many graphic novels that are classified as young adult appropriate have a fair amount of blood and death, but this one was sensationalized a little bit at times.

I felt that the story was weak, and if I wasn't trying to get through it in order to have the whole story to look at (or the fact that it only took about 20 minutes to read the whole thing and gather my thoughts on it), then I may not have finished it, it couldn't hold interest and was just odd.

If you are a teacher (or just a reader) and have a love for apocalyptic fiction, or your students enjoy it and want more, I guess this book can be tried. I don't know how well received it will be by students, because it's getting highly mixed reviews in the literary world. I can just say that I won't personally recommend it, because I didn't care for it.

This book should carry a high school reading level, I would say 9th grade and up for the language usage, but probably 11th and up for the content, but that's just my opinion on that.

Arrival, by Shaun Tan: The Tour de Force of Wordless Graphic Novels

I went down to the library this morning to pick up some graphic novels to keep me occupied during this last week of vacation. One of the books I picked up was The Arrival, by Shaun Tan. The Arrival is the ultimate graphic novel, it is quite literally all graphics, there is not a single word in the entire story. Also, this book doesn't necessarily qualify as a "picture book," something like a Dr. Seuss or another book you'd see in a primary classroom, it is much deeper and multi-dimensional.

From the top, the visuals of this story are unbelievable. It's a story of immigration, of a man leaving behind his wife and daughter and heading to a new, strange, industrialized world. Upon his arrival, the language is strange, the customs are strange, and the man is confused and lost. What is amazing is how well the images capture this, and how the reader becomes confused and lost as well. There were times when I was viewing this book that I felt confused and lost, that I found myself trying to understand the man and his thoughts, and that is the very essence of this wordless book.

How good is this book? I can put it best in two different ways. First of all, on goodreads.com (a book social site that I discuss frequently in this blog), there is one book that I've come across that carries an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars, and it is this book. Secondly, every teacher in the United States should have a copy of this book, and should go through it, in great depth with their classes.

Wordless books are great to use in the classroom, and yet, oddly, are something I do not have a lot of experience using. The book Zoom (Picture Puffin), by Istvan Banyai, is a wonderful wordless book in which you continue to zoom out of a picture, revealing more and more of the world as you do. It's a captivating story that students are easily drawn in to and want to experience time and again. The book Zoom has become a mainstay in literacy classrooms across the world, from kindergarten to high school classes, and I highly recommend it.

But wait, back to The Arrival and the classroom usage of the wordless book. There is a great many resources out there that discuss the merit of wordless books and the many different contexts in which they can be utilized. On EverythingESL.net, there is an article by Judie Haynes titled Wonderful World of Wordless Books in which ideas for the implementation of wordless books as literacy lessons are given (in the context of ESL students, but honestly, every child can benefit from ESL instruction, especially in the elementary setting). There is also a great wikispace that's all about reading wordless books, it is aptly titled How to Read a Wordless Book, and contains in depth examples of using The Arrival.

This is the first review of a wordless book that I have done on this blog, but now that I am thinking about it, I want to encounter more of these. Those of you who are more involved in this type of literature, please share some of the better ones you have read. Please, pick up The Arrival, by Shaun Tan, and "read" it. There are so many ways that this book could be utilized, and I'm just scratching the surface here in this posting.

The Diamond of Darkhold: The 4th Book of Ember

The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau, was a book that intrigued me when I first read it last summer (see my review of it HERE). I enjoyed the mystery that surrounded this dark city, and the post-apocalyptic nature of the book. Not to mention that it was wholly appropriate for elementary aged students (9-12 years old). Even the sequel, The People of Sparks(see my review HERE), was interesting. Although The People of Sparks was very similar in many ways to The City of Ember, it had something of socio-political intrigue, and continued the story of Lina, Doon, and the Emberites, which seemed to captivate many of my students (I read The City of Ember with my class, and four of them have gone on to read The People of Sparks).

I have still not had a chance to read the third book in this series, The Prophet of Yonwood, which is actually a prequel. So when I saw that The Diamond of Darkholdwas available at the library, I knew that I could read it without needing The Prophet of Yonwood as appropriate background material.

Right off the bat, I found myself captivated by the idea of this great mystery still hidden in the mountains, and wanted to read on to find it. I also found out, very quickly, that Jeanna DuPrau seemed to be unnaturally extending the story in The Diamond of Darkhold to make me want to keep reading, or to meet a minimum page requirement from her publisher. Whatever the case was, it felt very contrived. This book is by far the weakest of the series so far (out of the three that I have read). The protagonists, Doon and Lina, have been fully developed as literary characters since The City of Ember, and at this point, there's nothing left to be said about them other than that they single handedly save their people time and again, and seem to be the only people in the world who ever encounter adventure and peril.

It was nice to see familiar characters continuing a familiar story with (slightly) new twists in their familiar world. This is very important to remember when handing this book over to students who have read the other books. Sometimes a book like this is just what your students may be looking for. It doesn't require any great leaps of chance, not knowing what the book is about. For the timid reader who may have enjoyed the other books, this is a perfect choice for them.

But as far as this book being a great read all around, having great plot devices, nice character development, and value as a read aloud, it's slim, there's not much here. Pick up The Diamond of Darkhold and put it in your classroom, because it's part of the series, but that's about it. I wouldn't get too excited about this book, but it is a worthy addition to the series that will be enjoyed by many. Its reading level is right on par with the others (around a 5.5 or middle of fifth grade), but the fact that it doesn't require any new knowledge of setting, plot, characters, or anything else along those lines, for the student who has read the other books in the series, it could end up being maybe a 5 or so). Basically, if your students could read the other Ember books, they'll have no problem here.

The Dead & the Gone: A Book Review

As a 5th grade teacher in New Mexico, I am responsible for teaching United States history, from pre-Columbian times to the present day. One of the things I start each year with is a study of Mayan, Incan, and Aztec cultures, and their influences on early American culture. One of the things that always comes up is the Mayan calendar, and their belief that December 21, 2012 will be the end of their long count calendar (and, as some say, the end of the world). My students, each year I teach this, become enamored by this idea, and some continue to study it on their own or ask questions on and off for the rest of the school year. This is one small example of how apocalyptic tales and/or warnings intrigue even the youngest among us.

The Dead and the Gone, by Susan Beth Pfeffer, is a companion book to Life As We Knew It(see my review HERE). In the reality crafted by Pfeffer, an asteroid has hit the moon, jarring it out of its precarious orbit with the earth, moving it slightly closer. The consequences of this event, in which the moon has a stronger gravitational pull in relation to the earth, causes massive tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, and near nuclear winter conditions world wide. The apocalypse in this story seems as if it could happen anytime, from the telling of the story, there's nothing ridiculous about it on the surface.

In Life As We Knew It, the story is told from a small town in Pennsylvania, with the struggles for survival in an isolated area. The Dead and the Gone tells this same story from New York City, and as the story moves along, we see a world almost more isolated, more prison like, than the Pennsylvania story.

The Dead and the Gone, in my opinion, is a much more telling read than Life As We Knew It. It's more jarring, more true to the realities of post apocalyptic fiction, and lives up to its billing as a book for ages 12 and up. With its images of death, disease, and the decaying human condition, its a good story from beginning to end. I found that the characters of this story, Alex Morales and his sisters mainly, were easy enough to relate to, and would be for pre-adolescent/teen readers as well.

Post apocalypse has been a topic of interest for me recently, and I've tried to pick up and read books that approach this concept from different perspectives. Most recently, I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road (see my review HERE), and found slight parallels between it and this book, possibly a future topic of research, at least, it's an idea I'm throwing around. If you read both, you will see similar stories of survival, self-preservation, and the stark reality of the world after events that have put an end to life as we knew it.

So in any case, before I go on and on, I want to end this review by saying that I enjoyed The Dead and the Gone a lot, more than Life As We Knew It actually, but understand that its content is a bit more mature. This is a great book, one that I enjoyed from beginning to end.

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore: A Young Adult Book Review

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore, is a book that says "14 years and older" on the back cover. From reading this hefty piece of young adult literature, I would have to mostly agree with this, although I would not feel any reservations to sitting this on my 5th grade bookshelf and letting some more advanced readers try it out.

What caught me about Graceling is that, while this book is a fantasy, set in the fantasy world of Kristin Cashore's imagination, it has so many levels, more levels than some adult fantasy stories. This book is almost equal parts fantasy, combat, romance, survival, and political intrigue.

Clocking in at 480 pages, I would say that it's probably a bit too long to be a read aloud, plus, its content (fantasy), doesn't seem to have universal appeal. Now, before anyone takes offense to that, I'm just saying that fantasy stories seem to really attract some readers while others won't even read five pages of it. I do recommend this for the student or adult who enjoys fantasy reads. I would place this on my bookshelf next to The Land of Elyon (fantasy for pre-teens), and The Lord of the Rings (fantasy for older teens).

For me, the best thing about this book was the concept of Grace. The two toned eyes, the differing gifts, and the interplay of the Graceling's Katsa and Po. Katsa, the main protagonist of this story, is told masterfully. I found myself very intrigued by her, continually trying to form an image of this beautiful, dangerous heroine, and found that my image of her changed throughout the story.

I cannot stress enough how good this book was. I now just need to sit back and hope that Kristin Cashore is working on a sequel.

Managing the End of the Fall Semester

Courses at NMSU end officially today, and everyone there is surely ready for the break, I'm ready for a break from the rigors of grad school. Now, it's down to 4 and a half days of teaching until the break. It can't get here soon enough.

Teachers always sit around and joke about how the last week before Christmas... er, "Winter" (must be PC), break, is a throw away week, a week of fun activities and mostly just messing around. I can tell you, from experience, that this is in fact mostly true.

There are a few reasons for this, but mainly, the kids are hyper, burned out, and looking ahead to the breaks. The teachers, well, they're also those things. I've never really been one of those teachers who does tons of decorations and plays Christmas music and stuff like that. We do have a party, we do a gift exchange, we're reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson, which, I'll admit, might not be the greatest Christmas book out there, but it's short, funny, and most of my 5th graders end up enjoying it, so I go with it.

I'm sure there are better Christmas books out there than The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, but at 80 pages, you really can't go wrong. Most of the story does take place in a protestant church, and Jesus is mentioned quite often, although mostly just as part of the story, it's not real preachy, and, like I said, it's short, we started it last Monday and will have it done by next Thursday, no problem.

So anyways, I turned my little personal post into a book review (figures). Let the last week before the break be what it is, a time to wrap things up, a time to celebrate the semester, and a time to embrace your hyper students and let them have a chance to kick back a little. It just goes with saying that school isn't all about getting every little thing out of every single second in terms of learning. You can kick back and enjoy the end of the semester, you earned it, and you're probably burned out, because that's how it works.

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy: Possible Young Adult Literature

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, was not written for high school students, it is an adult book. However, its content, as well as the way the story is told, is appropriate for high school and undergraduate college students alike. The Road is a post-apocalyptic story of the survival of a man and his son is told through very roughly formatted text, but in beautiful fashion. McCarthy, the author of No Country For Old Men (which is definitely NOT appropriate for school reading of any age), has struck a chord with this book among both science fiction and literary circles alike.

This book forces one to ask, can science fiction be heralded as a work of classic literature, or if this book even qualifies as science fiction. I wanted to originally classify this book as a dystopia themed one, much like 1984, A Brave New World, and such post-apocalyptic tales as The Planet of the Apes, I Am Legend, and Earth Abides, books that have all found their way into high school classrooms at one time or another. However, after reading it, I found that it fit with none of these books, although I was able to make connections that I found fit. This book defies classification in a clearly defined sub-genre, but is most definitely a work of science fiction and of the highest form of literary art, in my opinion.

This story involves no brutal murder, blood and guts, or even adult situations (other than the ongoing topic of death and suicide, which is not an uncommon theme in works of adult literature, especially such dark tales as this one). I can see high school juniors or seniors, as well as college undergraduates, delving deep into the possibilities of this book, including the origins of the apocalypse that took place, the relationship and goals of the man and boy, and the meaning of this story as a whole.

The prose of the book is especially interesting. McCarthy is known for his interesting style, and this book is no exception. The stripped down writing, with its incomplete punctuation, sometimes erratic structure, and bare bones dialogue are almost poetic at times, but on a deeper level, are a part of the story itself. When the man and boy are on the brink of despair and starvation, the grammatical structure of the story begins to thin, but when they are in higher spirits, it reads more like a novel (which isn't much). I think this would be an intriguing idea to show to students to let them think about on their own, it certainly interested me.

I am writing about this book in part because I thought it was of stunning beauty. It was a work of art, and engrossed me in every conceivable way. Its content is not inappropriate for high school students, and its vocabulary is not beyond 17 and 18 year olds. I recommend teachers take a closer look at this book, both for its value as a true masterpiece, and for its value in the classroom. Hopefully someone sees this and runs with this book. If I taught senior English/Composition, I definitely would.

I would draw possible parallels in the young adult and pre-adolescent literary worlds to this book through the following two books:

Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer - The story of a girl and her family struggling to survive after a massive meteor strikes the moon, knocking it out of its gentle balance with the earth, causing apocalyptic events (ages 10-14). See my review of Life As We Knew It.

The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau - Some sort of unnamed apocalypse occurs, and a group of people are taken to safety in The City of Ember. This story is one of survival through dark circumstances, but is told in a fashion that is appropriate for children (ages 8-12). See my review of The City of Ember.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: A Book Review For the Classroom Teacher

Early last school year, I was making a large round up purchase of books for my 5th grade classroom library, and picked up a few copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney (as well as its sequel, titled: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules). I noticed something very quickly. These books never even touched the bookshelf. They spent the entire year being read. This year, it was the same story, those books have continued to fly off the shelves and have been enjoyed, already, by over 25 of my students in the past 15 months.

So what is it about these books that make them so loved by pre-teen students? First of all, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are one part fictional journal (written in a daily format), one part graphic novel, and one part realistic fiction. The books are the story of Greg Heffley, a middle school student who lives the life of, well, a middle school student. Greg is oblivious to the world around him, selfish like most middle schoolers can tend to be, and makes witty, age appropriate observations through spot on teenage dialogue.

Lately I've been writing a little about books being relevant to "modern students." These books are a prime example. I currently have a student, a struggling reader with a learning disability, reading the second book in this series (and who is eagerly awaiting the release of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, which releases on January 13, 2009), and who is eager for more reading because these books have shown him that reading can be interested and leave you begging for more.

There is honestly no reason that an elementary school teacher, grades 3-5 (and even middle school teachers, 6-8) shouldn't have these books in their classroom. They are great books that kids are enjoying tremendously, and there has to be something said for books that increase interest in reading. It has also set off a search in my classroom for other graphic novels (I have a post from last year titled Teaching With Graphic Novels that you should take a look at if this is something that interests you).

Finally, if you are interested in these books in your classroom, you can head off to Funbrain.com and read the daily text of Diary of a Wimpy Kid there. I currently have a small group of below grade level readers working their way through this. CLICK HERE to go there and check it out for yourself, it's free.

Most Boring School Aged Books (my personal list of hatred and loathing)

In the spirit of keeping up with "what the people want," I'm going to further my posts from recent days in which I threw down on such classic books as Little House on the Prairie and To Kill A Mockingbird. Today I wanted to head off in a little bit more of a personal opinion direction, and discuss books that are boring (I don't even really want to get into the relevance or politically correctness of these books).

I'm focusing on literature, so no text books, because that literally would compose my entire list. Keep in mind, this is personal, and if you disagree, please, join in on the conversation, I'm having fun with this, and I experienced a lot of these in high school, when I was slightly less agreeable than I am today. My list consists of books from my own personal experience, meaning books that I have personally read or attempted to read but didn't finish (which was quite common of me in high school). I'm going to do a top 10 here. So here we go (I'm probably going to pay dearly for some of the books on this list, but bring it on):

THE TOP 10 MOST BORING SCHOOL AGED BOOKS, in no particular order (ages 8-18)

The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding - Yeah, the part when Piggy fell off of the cliff and his brains fell out was pretty awesome when I was 16, but this book dragged like a two-legged-dog (OK, wow, that is the worst analogy of all time). At the time, I wasn't ready to appreciate the microcosm for society at large that this book displayed, and now that I am old enough to appreciate it, I don't.

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë - I don't care what you say about this book, it was HORRIFICALLY BORING in every way that a book can be boring. Let me set the scene for you. Senior AP English, we're reading this book, and the entire class balked at it. We actually didn't finish it because the entire class refused. I have to say that is my great honor to have no finished this book. It may be whatever it is to you, but to me, *gag*.

Anything Shakespeare - I'm not talking about a book, I am literally talking about Shakespeare stuff. There were certain kids in class with me who profoundly enjoyed The Bard's work, but it put me to sleep. For some reason, it still does. My wife likes Shakespeare, but I can't stomach any of it, it's just a personal thing I guess. I would say that 3/4's of the words used in Shakespeare aren't even in the dictionary anymore, so that might have something to do with it.

Moby Dick , by Herman Melville- It's always a humorous title to say out loud for a young teenager. that light hearted, sick humor quickly fades by the end of chapter one. I've always thought that Moby Dick is considered great because it's one of those books that enlightened people are "supposed to like." Well, I'm enlightened now (in my own enlightened opinion), and I still can't get past "Call me Ishmael."

Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder - Uh oh, I'm returning to the scene of previous crimes against literary classics (offended by me, earlier this week, and again a few days ago). This was an elementary school read that I hated with my entire being. I hated it again when I first became a teacher and had to read a part of it out of the reading textbook. Eventually I got the guile to finally ditch the textbook altogether, and this lovely pile of boring set off my fight against textbooks, so I guess it's good for something.

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger - If you go over to my Goodreads page, you might see 3 stars next to this book. It wasn't the worst book ever, in fact, some of the innuendo was pretty interested and funny. But the character of Holden Caufield, as a whole, came across a little hastily put together, a walking stereotype that was a little one dimensional. In my opinion, this book is not the classic many say it is, and I re-read it just about two years ago, in one sitting, and decided that it is still boring.

Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell - I had to read this book in middle school, and it still sits on my classroom shelf. I believe in giving my students some choice, and this book has been read by a few students of mine over the years, some liking it and some not. I'm more on the side of the not. I tend to have pretty demanding tastes, and the autobiography of a horse just doesn't cut mustard with me.

The Borrowers, by Mary Norton - I read this book to my class for two years, and finally decided it was time to stop. This book is inconsistent in terms of vocabulary, comes across a little slowly, and doesn't seem to hold interest anymore down here where I live and teach. I'm just speaking from experience and all that.

R.L. Stine stuff - OK, stop, don't yell. I have pretty much every R.L. Stine book ever written on the shelf in my classroom, and they are beloved by many. I'm saying that personally, I never could stand them. I actually feel like I outgrew them when I was like 10. I would get them for birthdays and Christmas, smile, say thank you, then go trade them off at the bookstore.

Leveled Readers - I'm going generic here at the last. Most elementary teachers know what leveled readers are, it's those really short books that teach a skill in isolation. The stories are usually hastily made, and the books have no real point. I guess they work sometimes for struggling students, but honestly, they're not literature.

Another Look at the Downfall of Once Classic Book Little House on the Prairie (A Response to my own Must NOT Read List post)

In my post from Saturday, November 29th, titled Must NOT Read List For Elementary School, I discussed a few books that have lost their cultural relevance in the United States. I scratched the surface, and the ensuing discussions that took place, both within my own page and on other pages, showed that people still have very passionate opinions about these classic books. I respect those opinions, because reading preference is, after all, a matter of opinion, and was pleased to see multiple levels of discourse occurring over what I wrote (I am a teacher after all).

Another level of this critique could take me into suggestions of other books, a suggestion I received in comments, and I do plan on moving in that direction too, but I wanted to further the discussion from that post by offering a deeper criticism.

In my first year as a classroom teacher, I inherited a large book library full of class sets that belonged to the school (a library that has since been absorbed by a "book room" open to all teachers). One of the titles on this shelf was The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. I had a sub one day when I was out sick, and upon my return the next day, he was still in the building. This substitute teacher was a member of a Native American tribe from the northern part of the country. He told me that Speare's book is pretty much blatantly racist, and just thought I should know.

I looked a little deeper into this by researching it and reading the book. I found out that this books treatment of Native Americans was in fact not appropriate. It stereotyped Native Americans, reminded everyone of hateful attitudes towards "Indians," and presented a racially superior world view (whites as superior).

Now it's one thing to say that this book reflected the ideals of the time when it was written. OK, fair enough, I couldn't really argue with that. There's one problem here. The Sign of the Beaver was written in 1984, so explain it now. It's not a historical criticism, to argue that basically means that you haven't read the book and are just arguing for arguments sake.

This same argument is equally valid for Little House on the Prairie, a book that claims that "The only good indian is a dead indian," a book that presents a story told from the perspective of power, the white group settling west.

To choose to keep this book in the classroom, you must deal with the above argument, it's right there in front of you. When confronted with the fact that The Sign of the Beaver was a blatantly racist book, I removed it, because there is no argument to keep it there. If you say you are keeping Little House around because it offers children a chance to critique racism historically, think again, especially when some of the comments I received talked about reading it to 6 and 7-year-old kids. These children don't yet have that capacity (I don't care how advanced they are, they DO NOT have that capacity yet).

It's one thing to pull out these books in an AP English class in 12th grade, or in college, and critique it, but for children, they are not going to see that far beneath the surface, even with help from the teacher/parent.

Fahrenheit 451: A Young Adult Book Review

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 stands as one of the masterpieces of the 20th century, and for good reason. This book, originally published in its complete form in 1953, can easily be compared to books like George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the works of Ayn Rand, and, for those of you in the intermediate and middle school grade levels, Lois Lowry's The Giver. This book is so widely loved that it's an often read piece in high school, college, and by adults, who see in it parallels between the politics of book burning and dominating the lives of people and the world we live in now (similar things can also be said about the other dystopic books listed here).

Now, if you're not familiar, dystopia themed literature is about a future in which the world has gone wrong. They often closely resemble, and are sometimes even mistaken for, utopia themed books. The Giver is a book that, in the beginning seems to be a perfect world, but as the curtains are pulled back, society is actually quite appalling and horrific, making it dystopic.

Guy Montag is the protagonist of Fahrenheit 451. He's a man who holds a position of respect in society, he is a fireman. He does not fight fires, he starts them, he burns books. Imagine a fireman carrying a fire hose, but the phrases are both literal, firemen who start fires with hoses that spray fire. Guy is drawn into the world of books, and begins stealing some away. His wife, in the meantime, has become a mindless watcher of TV sitting in the TV parlor watching shows all day in which she interacts with the actors and actresses in a futuristic artificial intelligence.

Early in the book, Guy runs across Clarisse, a sharp witted, free thinking teenager who often wanders around instead of going to school. When Guy asks her why she doesn't go to school, she responds by saying (I will paraphrase this quote to include some of the more poignant parts): "Social to me means talking to you about things like this... or talking about how strange the world is... But I don't think it's social to get a bunch of people together and then not let them talk... we never ask questions, or at least most don't; they just run the answers at you."

In the very same paragraph as the above listed quote, Clarisse makes a quote that can basically sum up education in this future, and, if you're cynical enough, in America. She says: "It's a lot of funnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and out the bottom, and them telling us it's wine when it's not."

This book is a timeless masterpiece that can be enjoyed by a sharp minded 15 year old, and anyone older. I recommend this book for a junior or senior level English class, and even then, only with AP students. Use it with students who will look deeper and make those parallels between the book and society, both in the 1950's and now. I also see this book as a great read in a college undergraduate English class or as part of a survey of dystopia themed or politically charged literature. It would work great alongside the other books I listed at the beginning of this article.

Life As We Knew It

Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer, is a great "Armageddon-esque" story, but not really to that extent. It's the story of what happens after a massive asteroid slams into the moon, knocking it off balance, sending the earth into spiraling chaos. As dormant volcanoes erupt, the ocean currents are thrown out of whack, and the earth is sent into nuclear winter, we follow the story of Miranda and her family trying to survive that first winter in Pennsylvania.

This book is pretty good, and is currently sitting on my classroom bookshelf for my 5th graders to read if they so choose. It is a little long, and I almost felt like its format, although interesting (it was written like a diary, with daily entries), didn't read like the diary of a pre-teen. The story is good, but in my opinion isn't a very friendly book to do as a read aloud. I think this one is better served for students to choose to read it. It did get tedious, and a little monotonous, but I definitely enjoyed the book in the long run. If you need some higher quality literature for your classroom collection, or are interested in either reading ya literature or possibly spinning this into some sort of research, it's certainly not the worst book out there.

The Castle in the Attic: Solid Children's Literature

I first read The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop to my 5th grade class three years ago, and have read it each year sense. I actually start the year off with this book as a shared read aloud. I have a classroom set of this book, so I read it with students. Alongside the book, we discuss King Arthur, the knights, and the middle ages, more as an informational unit than an all out social studies unit (because 5th grade social studies in New Mexico is United States history).

The Castle in the Attic is a great fantasy story all around, students love the mundane life of the protagonist (a 5th grader) that is disrupted by magic and a fantasy world. I didn't want to get into spoilers here, so I won't, but I do want to recommend this book to 4th or 5th grade teachers, it's a great, easy to read book that doesn't challenge social norms or anything of that sort. Check it out, an adult can read it in probably a few easy hours.

The People of Sparks (Sequel to The City of Ember)

The People of Sparks, by Jeanne DuPrau, is the 2006 sequel to the now hotly popular The City of Ember (which has been made into a movie that will come out in October). I personally sat down with The City of Ember recently and decided that it was a great books that 5th graders will enjoy (see my review of it HERE). I enjoyed The City of Ember so much that I went out and bought The People of Sparks and began reading it immediately.

Like The City of Ember, Sparks is appropriate for the same age set, and carries a 5.5 reading level or so, slightly above The City of Ember, because it is longer and deals with events of a more overtly political nature (not that Ember didn't, but it's much more in the open in this book).

The People of Sparks is a departure from Ember. Like Ember it is focused mainly on Lina and Doon, but the events also focus on the relations between the people of Ember and the people of Sparks. As their relationship grows more complex, and eventually, negative to the point of almost open war, we are shown a glimpse into the dark side of man and the triumph of humanity. Overall, I think this book sends out a very positive message to children who read it, and therefore would recommend it.

Like The City of Ember, The People of Sparks contains no profanity or extremely adult themes. The images of anger and war are age appropriate and are written very nicely. This book isn't as dynamic as Ember, but is a good sequel all in all, and I am happy to place it on my book shelf.

Choose Your Own Adventure Books: Practical Classroom Resources

If you're anywhere near my age (I'm in my mid-to-late 20's), then you probably remember the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books that started gaining in popularity in the early 1990's. This series has sold over 250 million copies, so that means there's a ton of these things floating around. I've found some at used book stores here in town, in bulk on Ebay, and have had some donated to me by people around the community.

Now, the Choose Your Own Adventure books aren't really what you want to do a classroom read aloud, although it might be neat to throw one in at some point just to see how it goes. I've done that, but that's not really the point here, I wanted to briefly discuss how these books are practical in the classroom.

First of all, most kids, even today's more tech savvy kids, seem to enjoy these little blasts from the past. They're usually quick reads, they can last anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes depending on the speed and interest of the reader. I have about 25 of them sitting on my classroom bookshelf, with the understanding that kids can check them out for enjoyment, but won't be able to do a book report or score points on them. I still had these books checked out over 100 times this past year, which is pretty good among 21 students.

I did use CYOA books a few times in instruction. What I did was, I had students partner up, I gave them a copy, and told them to take turns reading orally. They had to make decisions together, and try to get to the best scenario ending of their story, or the worst scenario, their choice. The lesson went over really well, and was especially a hit with struggling readers, who felt a sense of accomplishment in finishing a book in one sitting.

If you run across these books on the cheap, they're definitely a good addition to your classroom library if you teach anything from 3rd grade right on up through probably 7th or 8th grade (after that, students will probably begin to lose interest). They're fun, they're quick, and there's 250 million of them out there.

Persespolis: A Graphic Novel Review

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, is one of the great graphic novels of recent years. I was drawn to it after reading Art Spiegelman's Maus, the biography of his father's experiences as a Jewish Holocaust survivor. When I picked up Persepolis, I was first captivated by the simple yet effective graphics in the book itself, as well as the topic. This series, originally published in two parts, but now available as one book, is the autobiography of Satrapi, growing up in the Islamic Republic of Iran in the '70s and '80s, and living in Europe to escape the tyranny of the extremist government.

The story itself chronicles the downward spiral of hope for Iranian citizens at this time as the fundamentalist government came into power and persecuted them. This book is a clear representation of what happens when religion is allowed to rule theocratically, and isn't just a political statement, but a personal account of what DID happen, not what CAN happen.

As far as its relevance in the classroom, this book could consider adults its main audience. BUT, I do see relevance in the high school literature/composition classroom, but nothing with student much younger than 16 or 17 years old. The book does openly talk about executions, sex, and the personal journey of a teenager. Now, I'm not one for censorship, so I personally think it's great that this book touches on these things, and think it's appropriate for the 16 and up age set, because these are issues that are alive in their minds, and the political issues are things they need to know about.

Now, I'm going to step away from the book to end this and make a personal statement of opinion. As I said in the previous paragraph, I do have major issues with censorship. I don't think it should be up to the moral majority to decide what is censored. It should be up to parents to decide what is appropriate for their children, not ALL children. Also, teachers need to be aware of age appropriateness, and not just pull a book off the shelf and have the class start reading it without either reading it or researching it themselves.

By the age of 16, students should be exposed to more of the realities of the world. If we expect teenagers to be able to vote at the age of 18, they need to understand the intricacies of the world, and the difference that exist out there. I have met some narrow minded people in my life, and most of them are sticklers on the issue of censorship (they're all for it, and seek to censor those around them). We don't live in 1925, we can't think locally, and about only ourselves anymore in this world. Persepolis is a great book, because it puts a real human face on the citizens of Iran, who have been persecuted for a long time, and demonized in the eyes of many Americans.