Wednesday, April 14, 2010
I'm Back!
Ok, I'm embarrassed. I was engrossed with Shakespeare for the last three months and I've finally come up for a breather. Over Spring Break I did finally finish "Green Glass Sea". I ended up really liking it. We've decided to use it as our summer reading and one book one team. It caters to multiple interdisciplinary units. Some of the graduating 8th graders have read the next two sequels. According to them they get better as you go. Although I'm not a science person by nature, I really felt like both protagonist characters were relatable to all middle school students. Both of those girls dealt with very serious issues like fitting in, death of a parent, and acceptance of who they were. I'm excited to do some activities with it in the fall. Ok, so what are we onto next? Has anyone read "The Help"? It was my latest adult fiction novel that I just loved. Strand and I were discussing whether it would work for 8th grade towards the end of the year. Maybe doing an interdisciplinary unit with civil rights in S.S.
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2 comments:
So glad to see you back! :-) I have finally rebelled against my school work this week and read two YA novels - "Incarceron" by Catherine Fisher and "Auslander" by Paul Dowswell. The first is a kind of a dystopian fantasy; the second is historical fiction, set in WWII. Not something I would normally combine in a single week, but like I said - my kid probably doesn't get his rebellious streak from thin air... :-)
I have heard really great things about "The Help", and have skimmed through it; it's on my list to read sometime soon. As far as using it for school - the girls would probably enjoy it, but the boys might grind their teeth at the prospect.
Just thought I'd peek back here again - I read two absolutely marvelous, girl-centered books in the last two days, and had to share. :-) The first one is "Wild Things" by Clay Carmichael; the second one is "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly. The first one takes place in modern times; the second, in 1899. Both heroines are spirited, headstrong, and unconventional - I loved them both. Both books have garnered some pretty impressive critical accolades. Here are the links to the authors' websites, in case anyone is interested...
http://claycarmichael.com/
http://www.jacquelinekelly.com/
P.S. "Capurnia Tate" would make a wonderful addition to the middle school science curriculum. One could do all sorts of fun interdisciplinary things with it...
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