How I Live Now ~ Meg Rosoff

Meg Rosoff’s first novel, How I Live Now, which won the 2005 Printz award, is told by Daisy, a fifteen your old American girl, shipped off to England to live with cousins. Her dad has remarried, and Daisy just does not fit in the picture, with a new baby on the way. She doesn’t like her dad much at this point, so, even though she did not choose to go to England, she’s just as happy not to stay home. But, an important point about Daisy is that she is not happy. And, as I suppose is the case with many books for adolescents and about adolescents: the book tells the story of the character, in one way or another, and his or her journey towards happiness.

Daisy moves in with her aunt’s family, in the countryside (her dead mother’s sister) She turns out to really love these people, almost right off. The hitch is that soon after her arrival, war breaks out, and all hell breaks loose. The story follows Daisy and her cousins and their efforts to deal, in this somewhat post-apocalyptic situation. It’s dark and grim and tense – the book, I mean. Yet, in some ways, their situation is pretty normal, they live and eat (the eating part is kind of important… read the book, you’ll see) and are actually pretty okay, against a fuzzy dark-ish scary background.

As someone who studiously avoids books with scary stuff and violence, I think it says something about this book and the way the story happens that I really loved it. The story of Daisy and her cousins is sharp and clear and vivid, and not so war-like and violent, and the war stuff feels – for the most part – more in the background, and less sharp and clear, and I think that is why I could deal with it. It was actually an interesting device, on the part of the author, the way she left a lot sort of fuzzy, about the war. That’s not to say there are not a few yucky moments, but, by the time they came around, I felt okay about reading them, for some reason.

I would not say that Daisy is a totally loveable character, there is something about her that means you don’t just fall in love with her (she’s no Maniac Magee, a character we all want to either be, be best friends with, or be the parent of…). But, she’s interesting and compelling and soon after the story begins, you do find yourself really wanting to know what is going to happen to her, how it will all turn out for her.

Margaux with an X - Ron Koertge

This was my second book by Ron Koertge – the first being Shakespeare Bats Cleanup. When I began reading, I was not at all sure I was going to like the book. It just had a sort of negative feeling for me, and I was not totally pulled into it. Perhaps I had too high expectations, having liked Shakespeare Bats Cleanup so very much. But, I liked it enough to keep reading, and in the end decided it was a very good read. Not sure I would have persisted if it had been my first Koertge book; but, as things stand now, I am in the market for another book by him, for sometime in the near future.

The story is about Margaux, beautiful, and, we get the feeling – mean. In addition to being mean, she’s also restless and unhappy, and ultimately, the book is about her effort to get past this restlessness and unhappiness, to move beyond it and find something more meaningful and positive in her life. And, in the course of this journey, we also discover that the meanness we sense in the beginning is more of a façade than a reality. Or, we discover that there is much more beneath the surface.

Margaux’s a high school student, in LA, with a set of wacko parents, who she seems to not like at all (and, with good reason, we decide, as we read and learn more about them). She has a close girl friend, and together, the two of them seem like a powerful, mean duo, alternately feared and admired by others in the high school community. What is not so quickly understood about Margaux, but revealed as the book progresses, is that she is smart, and she loves words. I think this is where the book got several degrees more interesting to me (though by this time I was also definitely engaged by the story line). She thinks about and plays with words, and uses sophisticated, obscure, and interesting words.

Example here:

An hour later, Margaux listens to Sara and a couple of her dunderheaded acolytes describe some farcical gymnastics in the inevitable back seat. p. 110

When I realized this, I then was suddenly able to make the connection between this book and the other one by Koertge. It’s not just Margaux who cares about words, it’s also Koertge. Now, yes, sure, all authors care about words. But, for some more than others, this is a driving concern, a central feature of their writing. While at first I thought these two books – Margaux, told in regular prose, and Shakespeare, written as a series of poems – were stylistically really different, I in the end have come to believe that they are actually very similar, even though their “shape” differs. Words really matter in each, both in the writing – from the author’s end, and for each of the main characters, Margaux and Kevin. [Margaux with an X, while written in third person point of view, is most definitely told through the eyes of Margaux, so it’s her voice and her word choice we are experiencing.]

Last but not least, the book has some suspense/mystery, and some fun relationships between interesting characters (I hesitate to say romance, because I’m not sure that it’s quite the right word, but, it’s something like romance…).

Life on the Refrigerator Door - Alice Kuipers

Based on Katie Rose's Planning Around A Text project for this book, I decided to read it. It's the story of a mom and a daughter, both busy and therefore constantly missing each other (by which I mean they never see each other, though, presumably, at times, they also do miss each other. Though, like most mother-daughter relationships, it has its occasional tensions and flare-ups). So, they tend to communicate by leaving notes for each other on the refrigerator door.

It's a short, sweet, and easy read. But, really, more bittersweet than sweet, as one of the central plot devices is that the mom gets cancer and we see them dealing with it, and their relationship, through their refrigerator door communication.

Yup, for me, it was a tear-jerker. I admit it.

It was a good read, but, pretty solidly in the chick-lit camp, I think I'd have to say.

Interesting point, from a teaching or YA Lit standpoint is that it has been marketed as both adult and young adult lit (just like The Book Thief and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time).

Also perhaps note-worthy is its note-based-structure, that is, its sort of epistolary format. I'm suddenly noticing a lot of these out there, and think it might be something worth exploring more, from a teaching-literature standpoint. There just might be some sort of a fun project in there, waiting to be created.

The Green Glass Sea ~ Ellen Klages

So much available reading material about WWII, and the Holocaust, even within the Young Adult Literature world. Lots of books to pick from, many very well-regarded ones. But, it seems to me that, for the most part, much of the fiction written about this time period is set in Europe, in Germany or other nearby parts. Another line of related books chronicles the Japanese Internment side of the war. I think Farewell to Manzanar is a classic for this [note: I’ve never read this one, and think I should give it a try sometime]; and, a year or so back I read Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata, which also tells the story of a Japanese family in the U.S. during WWII.

The Green Glass Sea, which is billed as historical fiction (and it clearly and successfully is this), [for me, one sign of good historical fiction is that it gets me interested in learning more about that time period, and what was going on at the time], falls into neither of the above categories, but is set in this same time period: WWII. The story takes place in New Mexico, Los Alamos, to be exact. Though, at the time of the story, the place is really only barely coming to be known as Los Alamos. The story primarily follows two eleven year old girls. While they are quite different from each other, they do have one important thing in common: both are the daughters of top notch scientists/mathematicians, called to this place, out in the middle of nowhere, where all the good brains of the time have gathered to try to create a solution to the war.

What a great idea for a story: creating the world of the kids living in that time and place, looking at that event through the eyes of the children who were there at the time, really just living very everyday lives, in a slightly not so everyday place.

The girls, Dewey and Suze, are young, and innocent, though their innocence is not just a function of their youth. The work the people are doing on “the hill,” as it is known, is top secret and while everyone knows they are trying to create a solution to deal with the war, no one is really talking about what they are doing.

From our removed, 21st century perspective, we, of course, have some idea of what they are doing; and this omniscient perspective that we have, compared to the limited perspective the narrators have (while the story is told/written in the third person, it is actually really being told through the eyes of either Dewey or Suze, depending on the chapter) is one of the interesting things about this story. For me, what was also interesting was just getting a little window in to this one specific element of the larger WWII story.

I loved some, though not all, of the characters (which is as it should be and, I think, what the author intended for us), and felt fully engaged by their circumstances and stories. Even though at some level, we know what happens in the end (just like we know that the Titanic sinks, but are still interested in the stories of those on the boat), I was still curious and, as I read, found myself always wanting to know what would happen next, as the story unfolded, and wanting to know what happened “in the end” for these particular people. Really, this might be my favorite book yet, this fall.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ~ Sherman Alexie

Note: I wrote this to be shared as a book talk, in class. After the book talk, we had a lot of conversation about just how much detail and information a person should share, about a book, when doing a book talk... no definitive answer on this, I'd say. But some people did feel like I shared too much, during my book talk.

The book I want to share with you today is called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, and it is by Sherman Alexie. Let me just quickly tell you a tiny bit about the author. He is a contemporary Native American author, and up until this book, everything he has written has been for adults, and he has written a combination of both novels and short stories and I think he has also done some film stuff. He has gotten really well known and won a lot of awards for his work, but, I have to admit, this is the first time I have read anything by him.

The book tells the story of Junior, also known as Arnold Spirit. He is a 14 year old Indian kid who lives on the reservation in eastern Washington state. The story is told through his eyes and in his voice. Basically, it is written like a journal that he is writing. He is a pretty funny kid, and he has a great way of telling the story. So, one of the things that, I think, makes this story a good one to read is the voice of the narrator/main character.

So, Junior turns out to be a pretty smart kid, we learn this early on and for whatever reasons we believe him (if you read the book you would have to decide if you thought so, really). we also learn early on, through his descriptions, that life on the rez is pretty bad. People are poor, people drink a lot, people are sad. It is just not that great a place to grow up. [yet, there seems to be happiness, too, and that is one of the interesting things about this book, to me, how there can be both happiness and sadness, such hope and such despair, all at the same time]

Within the first few chapters, a pivotal event occurs, an event which as you read it is, again, this odd combination of funny and sad I just mentioned. At the start of the new school year, Junior accidentally breaks his white math teacher’s nose with a textbook, resulting in him getting suspended from school. I have to reiterate what I sort of said above – he’s a good kid, not a troublemaker, not the sort of kid who usually gets suspended.

[during my book talk, I read a section from the book, here]

The teacher then comes to see Junior, and, in a surprising turn of events, rather than yelling at Junior, he apologizes for all the sins that the white people have committed against the Indians, weeps openly in front of Junior (freaking him out quite a bit) and quietly tells Junior that if he is ever going to be anything or go anywhere, he needs to get the heck off the reservation.

Junior has the wisdom to listen to his teacher’s advice, and, bravely, decides to try going to the white kids school, about 22 miles away from his home. The rest of the story is about what it is like for him to go there, the difficulties he faces, the fun he has, and the way he has to try to navigate two very different worlds and figure out who he is, as a person, a student, a friend and a Native American.

One of the things that is interesting about this book, and that makes it especially fun to read is that there are cartoons, pictures, graphics, throughout. Junior is an artist, who loves to use drawing to make sense of the world as well as to provide commentary about the world, so, his drawings are included throughout, and they definitely add to the story.

You can read more about Sherman Alexie on his website; this is where I learned just how autobiographical this novel really is, which I thought was sort of interesting.

The Rules of Survival ~ Nancy Werlin

I think Katie Rose thinks I am a wimp. A reading wimp, that is. Just want the nice, gentle, sweet storylines. Nothing sad, harsh, scary.

It’s funny. She’s right, of course. The sad, scary, harsh stuff SCARES me – or, is it that the sad scary harsh stuff prompts emotions in me that are scary and hard to handle? (whoa, I’m going all psychology on you now), and I have a desire to avoid it. And, I really did hate The Chocolate War, which WAS sad, scary, and hard. But, interestingly I guess that some of the other things I have read also share these qualities (so many books with dead moms, what’s up with that?), and yet, I read them with interest and even enjoyment. Certainly, you could never argue that The Book Thief was not sad, scary, and harsh. Yet, it was also much more, wasn’t it? (at least some people thought so. I know not everyone did, and that is okay..)

All of this brings me to The Rules of Survival, which I read a few weeks back, and which I was gripped by, and really enjoyed reading. Yet, if I give you the “brief description”, the review, you’ll wonder how I could have read it.

The book opens with a particularly self conscious narrative device, a “cover letter” written by the narrator, explaining what he is about to do: tell, to his younger sister and for her benefit, the story of what happened to them, a few years back, with their crazy mother. At the time he writes this opening letter, Matt says he is 17. He acknowledges that what he is about to do, write their story, is certainly going to be painful, but is something that he recognizes he might need to do not just to share what happened with Emmy, the supposed recipient of the story, but also so that he can actually process, make sense of, and, presumably move on from, the events that happened. There’s a fair amount of foreshadowing built in to that short opening section. Yet, since Matt is now 17, and writing it all down, we know that, in some way, it all comes out okay.

Matt is older brother to Emmy, who is around 5 or so when the story begins, and Callie, who is about 11. He is fiercely protective of both of them (though especially Emmy, and, in many ways, he and Callie band together to protect Emmy), and it is this desire to protect them that much of the story revolves around. They live with their totally psycho and wacked out mom who, interestingly, Matt calls Nikki, rather than “Mom.” My guess is that this is a conscious effort, on his/the author’s part, to create a certain distance or lack of emotional involvement. I think it is the sort of thing that might bother a reader, but, I did not find it troublesome at all.

If you ever felt like you were not the best mom (which I realize most of you have probably not felt, but I have), watching Nikki for a few days will quickly make you re-think that idea. She’s a case. Alternately crazy-fun (taking the kids on day adventures meant to prove her love for them and her “worth” as a mom: in one such instance she rents a jeep [you know, a “fun car”], takes them to an amusement park, and essentially force-feeds the kids cotton candy, so that they can know how much she loves them) and crazy-psycho (violent, irrational, abusive, etc.).


Much of the story hinges on the introduction and subsequent involvement of a stranger, an adult named Murdoch McIlvane. The older kids, Matt and Callie, see him one night when they have snuck out for Popsicles (Nikki’s out on date-night and has left them home alone, locked in). For various reasons, which are made clear as the story unfolds, they take an interest in him, eventually pursue him, and manage to involve him in their lives. Ultimately, what they are looking for is someone to save them. None of the adults in their immediate world are able to help them with the Nikki problem. Matt and Callie have a dad, but he’s only marginally present, and way too intimidated by Nikki to actually help his kids. Likewise, Nikki has a sister, who lives in the same building as Nikki and the kids, but she’s equally unhelpful.

There are some unrealistic things in the story. For me, I find it hard to believe that the above-mentioned adults could be so lame. But, I suppose it’s possible. Also, the kids success in weaving Murdoch in to their world seems contrived, and his staying seems hard to believe. Nevertheless, if you suspend your disbelief a bit, it all works and comes together. In the end, I think what helps is just Matt, who he is as a character, how he narrates the story, and what he learns and how he reflects throughout the process. I found myself just really liking this kid, and wanting to see happened to him (and whether he and his siblings were able to end up in a better place), and I think that was what pulled me through the story with such interest.

The Rules of Survival was a National Book Award finalist.

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup ~ Ron Koertge

yeah, I already posted about this one, but, then, I wrote more of a real "review"/brief description, so, decided to post that, too.

In Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, our main character, Kevin Boland, has been confined to his bed, due to a case of mono. He’s missing both his mom, recently deceased, and baseball: both playing and being with his friends from the baseball team. He has a decent relationship with his dad, a writer, though the fact that the dad is a writer makes Kevin not want to appear too outwardly engaged in or interested in writing.

Nevertheless, as is the case with a number of books I have read recently (Dairy Queen, The Rules of Survival), the story is not just being told in the first person (as is the case of Crispin), but is actually being written by the first person narrator as it is being told (for some reason, right now, I think this is a cool feature…). Furthermore, the writing is an element of the story that is important to pay attention to. In this case, growing out of his boredom, his dad casually handing him a composition book, and his sneaking up and grabbing one of his dad’s books on poetry (just as a kid might furtively squirrel away a Penthouse magazine, Kevin observes), he decides to experiment with writing poetry. The writing (story) that follows is a series of poems, and, as Kevin experiments with poetry, he also reflects on his world: grieving (in a very low level and not mushy way) for his mom, missing baseball and his friends while he convalesces, and providing alternately poignant and funny commentary on adolescence.

This is an easy read, in terms of density, as there is not that much text, basically, a short poem per page, with a few extending over more than one page. While it has some heavy stuff – his dead mom, for one, and his sort of loneliness at being excluded from the team while he recovers from mono – it is, at the same time, a really sweet book, especially when Kevin’s efforts to have some success in the girl department begin to be rewarded.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead ~ Avi

Set in the 1300s, in England, Avi’s Newbery Award winning novel, Crispin: The Cross of Lead, is narrated in the first person, by Crispin, and tells of his adventures, which are, indeed, adventurous. The book opens with his mom having just died, and Crispin (who at that point did not even have a name, he was considered so inconsequential in the community) finding himself pretty much alone and bereft.

He soon discovers that not only is he alone and bereft because he has lost his mom (there’s no dad to speak of, at this point in the story), but he is alone and bereft because it turns out the town leaders want to kill him and consequently have falsely accused him of a crime and put a bounty on this head. Even though he is terrified, Crispin realizes his only chance of survival is fleeing, even though he really has no idea how he’ll survive. So, he takes off, and the book chronicles what happens to him along the way, his slow discoveries about himself (discoveries of a factual nature as well as of a personal/character nature…), as well as descriptions of the different people and problems he encounters.

Suspense, action, and foreshadowing, as well as compassion for the main character all help to drive the story and keep the reader engaged.

The Chocolate War ~ Robert Cormier

Reading this book was a harrowing experience. Totally harrowing. I wonder if I am just a wimp…. Have I become really sensitive and weak in my old age, not up for the reality of the meanness of human nature? I really would like to know what other people think. If they are as “disturbed”, or find this as dark a read as I did. [I think I need to credit Mandy here, I think it was she who first used the word dark to talk about this book. Or, was it Katie Rose?]

Nevertheless, I have to say, I am glad that I kept reading. Sure, part of that is just so I can say that I read it, that I read this book, which is a book that people seem to “talk about.” And, part of it is so that I can feel like I read a “challenge” book. And, really, it was a challenge.

The weird thing is, I was sort of gripped throughout. It was one of those books where I wanted to keep reading because I wanted to find out what happened. Yet, at the same time, while reading, I really would not say that I was having fun (as opposed to say, the actual reading experience of Maniac Magee, during which I really was having fun).

Not sure if my reasons for being glad that I kept going are all that valid or make much sense. But, I wanted to at least note that.

This book did make me think: some questions…

*Why was this book so popular? I don’t actually know much about its popularity, I just have this general sense that it is a much-recommended, often taught, sort of canonical YA lit book. I do also know that Cormier is considered big, a huge presence in the field, and this is one of his signature books. In that sense, I am glad I read it.

Is this book still popular? I am curious about how much it is now taught, or read. Does it still have the weight it apparently once had? Assuming kids in the 70s really liked it and thought it was good, would “kids today” have similar reactions, or would they think it is sort of dated and old and not so great.

I definitely also could see elements that would lend themselves to classroom use, as it were.
There’s that T. S. Eliot quote about "daring to disturb the universe". Seems to me there’s some conversation to be had there.

Related, but not completely, the main character Jerry reflects on what seems to him to be his father’s incredibly dull life. Is this all there is, he wonders… Now, as an adult, reading a kids’ book, and “listening” to the kid look at the adult world, I am intrigued by Jerry’s questions and reactions to his dad there. Do we seem so boring to our kids, I wonder?

Also, essential questions about things like physical versus emotional abuse, perhaps. And, about standing up to peer pressure, or, standing up for what you believe in.

Sorry for not doing more by way of summary. I just needed to sort of react… reflect…

The Higher Power of Lucky ~ Susan Patron

note: this is a book I read several months back, late winter/spring, maybe. Wrote a quick reaction about it then, and so am including that here now.

This won the 2007 Newbery. Got all sorts of press and controversy because it uses the word scrotum in the first few pages [just need to get that out there right away…].

Lucky is an 11? 12? (can’t remember right now and I don’t have the book in front of me anymore) year old girl, living out in what seems like a totally barren dry dusty wasteland – out in the middle of nowhere in California. Her mom is dead and she is being cared for by her dad’s ex-wife. She is really anxious because the arrangement might be temporary, but she really likes Brigitte (the dad’s ex-wife), and wants Brigitte to want to stay with her.

So Lucky is just this kid, living in a whacked out community in the desert, and a fun part of the book is the slightly disreputable cast of characters in this town she lives in (barely a town, really, but, I think my use of the word community is telling – in spite of the remote, small, weird nature, this odd array of people is in some way a community, and it matters to Lucky to be a part of it). Ultimately, I think the book is about her desire for some stability. Her need to know that she is safe and that she is not going to be shipped off to foster care.

This was a good, though not great, read. I liked Lucky and thought she was a fun and interesting character – and, I think that while the book is told in the third person, we are seeing the world through Lucky’s eyes (I’m stretching here, adding this part to this reaction I wrote a long time ago, and not totally sure I am getting it right), and because of Lucky’s character and particular perspective, this works and makes the book more fun and engaging.

More of a younger young adult book. And, in spite of the word scrotum appearing early on, it really is a totally “clean” book.

The White Giraffe ~ Lauren St. John

note: this is a book I read a while ago, but, wrote a reaction to after reading it. So, I am posting about it anyway. Also, see comments below about mean school kids and such. I read this before The Chocolate War. For mean school kids, Chocolate War trumps this one hands down.

I think I saw this written up in one of those Book Sense flyers (lists of good books, with short reviews). They really liked this and so I bought it for the library. Finally read it sometime in the late winter/spring (having brought it home for the winter with me).

Main character is a young girl, Martina, who was living in England until her parents were killed in a fire. This is how the book begins (so, I am really not spoiling anything here) – and it is not the sort of beginning that works super-well for me. Just too damn painful and tragic. I am such a wimp. While on the “things that don’t work for me” topic – mean school kids being mean to each other (which happens when Martina starts at a new school. Just your better basic kids being mean, excluding, teasing, etc. Again, I am a wimp and I hate that sort of thing. But, I suppose that it is a very real part of this world, and so, noting it and exploring it is not a bad thing for a book/author to do).

So, Martina goes to live in Africa, with her grandmother. They have a tense relationship, and there is a bunch of mystery that emerges when Martina arrives in Africa (to live with a grandmother that she never even knew she had…. Hmmmm. Like I said, mystery…) they live on a game preserve, and the setting is interesting and rich. Martina is super-lonely and has to figure out how to make her way in this new world.

The title comes from a “character” in the book – an elusive white giraffe that Martina befriends (or, that befriends Martina?). I think this book has that “magical realism” thing going on. Stuff happening that is not quite real. But, it’s not full blown fantasy or sci-fi.

I persevered with it, in spite of the horrific beginning and the mean school kids. As you get more into it, the “plot thickens” and you get drawn in by the mystery, and it is a pretty compelling story. Definitely more for younger kids, but a good read regardless, and, as I said before, I was pretty drawn in to the setting.

Shakespeare Bats Clean Up - Ron Koertge

I just finished reading Shakespeare Bats Clean Up.

Really liked it. In part because it has that poetry thing going on, which, as some of you know, I really like....

It was written in poetry rather than prose - always sort of an interesting change.

And, it was also about poetry. Told in the first person, the main character is writing, in a sort of journal form, and then begins experimenting with various poetic forms. Very reminiscent of Love That Dog, but slightly older.

hmmm - text to text connection: books that are essentially written as journals. Different, to some degree, from books that are told in the first person. Reminds me of Dairy Queen, which is also essentially a journal (in addition to being first person narration). I feel like that is sort of a spoiler, but, oh well.

EDU 212 Library

Skellig – Almond, David
Speak – Anderson, Laurie Halse
Crispin At the Edge of the World – Avi
Crispin The Cross of the Lead – Avi
Nothing But the Truth – Avi
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – Avi
Rules of the Road – Bauer, Joan
Fire, Bed, and Bone - Branford, Henrietta
Gregor the Overlander – Collins, Suzanne
What Mr. Mattero Did – Cummings, Priscilla
The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 – Curtis, Paul Christopher
Catherine, Called Birdy – Cushman, Karen
The Blue Hawk – Dickinson, Peter
Shadow of a Hero – Dickinson, Peter
The City of Ember – DuPrau, Jeanne
At Freddie’s – Fitzgerald, Penelope
Whiligig – Fleischman, Paul
Your Own, Sylvia – Hemphill, Stephanie
Out of the Dust – Hesse, Karen
The Misfits – Howe, James
Totally Joe – Howe, James
The Chronicles of Chrestomanci – Jones, Diana Wynne
The Phantom Tollbooth – Juster, Norton
Weedflower – Kadohata, Cynthia
The Tail of Emily Windsnap – Kessler, Liz
The Green Glass Sea – Klages, Ellen
Mischling, second degree My Childood in Nazi Germany – Koehn, Ilse
Margaux with an X – Koertge, Ron
Endurance, Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage – Lansing, Alfred
Memoirs of a Bookbat – Lasky, Kathryn
Camilla – L’Engle, Madeleine
Rules – Lord, Cynthia
The Giver – Lowry, Lois
Number the Stars – Lowry, Lois
Inexcusable – Lynch, Chris
The Earth, My Butt, & Other Big Round Things – Mackler, Carolyn
Parrot in the Oven – Martinez, Victor
sloppy firsts – Mc Cafferty, Megan
The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie – Moriarty, Jaclyn
Jasmine – Mukherjee
Dairy Queen – Murdock, Catherine Gilbert
Monster – Myers, Walter Dean
My Name Is Not Angelica – O’Dell, Scott
Sing Down The Moon – O’Dell, Scott
Bread and Roses Too – Paterson, Katherine
Lyddie – Paterson, Katherine
Life as We Knew it – Pfeffer, Susan Beth
Max the Mighty – Philbrick, Rodman
The Golden Compass – Pullman, Philip
Angus, thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging – Rennison, Louise
I Was There – Richter, Hans Peter
The Lightning Thief – Riordan, Rick
Becoming Naomi León – Ryan, Pam Muñoz
Esperanza Rising - Ryan, Pam Muñoz
A Fine White Dust – Rylant, Cynthia
But I’ll Be Back Again – Rylant, Cynthia
I Had Seen Castles – Rylant, Cynthia
Missing May – Ryland, Cynthia
Holes – Sachar, Louis
The Wednesday Wars – Schmidt, Gary D.
Enthusiasm – Shulman, Polly
Jesse – Soto, GaryEggs – Spinelli, Jerry
Love, Stargirl- Spinelli, Jerry
Maniac Magee – Spinelli, Jerry
Treasure Island – Stevenson, Robert Louis
The Mysterious Benedict Society – Stewart, Trenton Lee
The Amulet of Samarkand – Stroud, Jonathan
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Taylor, Mildred D.
The New Policeman – Thompson, Kate
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ - Townsend, Sue
Uglies – Westerfeld, Scott
Pretties – Westerfeld, Scott
Specials – Westerfeld, Scott
Feathers – Woodson, Jacqueline
The Book Thief – Zusak, Markus
I am the Messenger – Zusak, Markus

Another experiment...

Just trying to see if I can make this work, given what my goals are.

Course goals:

Ø To read a lot of young adult literature
Ø To consider why we teach literature, and why we teach the different types of literature that we teach
Ø To practice planning for teaching literature
Ø To consider the role talk and discussion play in the [literature] classroom

Blog goals:

shared space for noting resources, sharing lists, discussing books, linking to other things, etc.