It’s Monday! What are you reading? 1/14

This weekly meme is hosted by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Texts.  Head over there for more great ideas of kid literature and young adult books to add to your TBR.

Books I Finished This Week:

I was really interested in reading Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi both because of the Printz challenge and because the cover was so interesting.  This book is well-written and beautiful while at the same time quite disturbing.  It took me quite a while to get into the story in part because the world in the book is so bleak.  Once I was invested, the story picked up for me and I found myself reading quickly so that I could see what would happen to Nailer.  This is definitely a dark vision of a post-apocalyptic world.  I will certainly recommend this one to teens and adults alike, although it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.

Thanks to netgalley I was able to read Bruised by Sarah Skilton which will be released on March 5th, 2013.  I highly recommend this book for teens.  Imogen is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.  She was the youngest student in her dojang to reach this belt level.  She has dedicated her life to the study of martial arts and she is quite proud of herself.  Then one day she is in a restaurant at closing time and a gunman enters the place to hold it up.  Imogen feels like she did not do enough to help the situation and is living with the guilt she feels after this traumatic situation.  This is a really interesting look at what a trauma like this can do to a teenager.  I was fascinated with this story throughout the entire novel.  I will absolutely be looking for this book to buy it for my class library as soon as it comes out.

I ordered this series from a Scholastic catalog for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  This is a fun book about middle school and getting in trouble.  It is a perfect book for students who might be below level and it mixes graphic and text really well.  I enjoyed this story and will certainly recommend it to students, especially those students looking for easier texts.

I have had Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin on my TBR shelf for quite a while.  If I had to think about book gaps, my weakness would involve books that I think may be heartbreaking in some way.  I am the same way with movies.  If I think it is going to be a sad story, I avoid the movie.  So suffice it to say, I was avoiding reading this book.  I thought the premise sounded really good but I was afraid of heavy crying.  I should not have worried so much!  Elsewhere is about the afterlife.  Specifically, Liz has been hit by a car and wakes up on the boat taking her to her new life (death?) in the afterlife.  The adjustment to being in Elsewhere is tough for Liz and she wants to spend her days spying on her family and friends on Earth.  This book is about the process of letting go.  The original idea about how the afterlife might be for people is both beautiful and troubling.  I will definitely recommend this one to my students and will be curious to hear what they have to say about the ideas presented in this novel.

While looking for ideas for my unit teaching American Born Chinese, I stumbled upon a preview chapter of Teaching Graphic Novels: Practical Strategies for the Secondary ELA Classroom by Katie Monnin.  I was intrigued by the lesson idea so got on Amazon and ordered the book.  This book is full of interesting ideas and strategies for teaching with graphic novels.  I definitely appreciate the first chapter which has examples and handouts for helping students understand terminology unique to graphic novels.  However, some of the strategies and graphic organizers suggested are quite complex and confusing.  I will need to reread the lessons to determine if I want to use those ideas.  Overall, this book is helpful but a little disappointing.

What I am Currently Reading:

Energize: Research Reading and Writing by Christopher Lehman has already given me great ideas for starting the informational/expository research projects I will be doing.  I will be finishing this book soon so that I can begin to use the practical ideas and strategies to help my middle schoolers learn to research well.  I am also reading Adventures in Graphica by Terry Thompson because I was curious about the ideas I would find in this book for teaching graphic novels.  I love the ideas in this book so far and will be able to apply them in my 8th grade classroom even though the book is written for younger grade level teachers.

On the Horizon:

I want to read All the Broken Pieces this week.  I will probably also pick up Before I Fall and Beautiful Creatures.  I also should read Unenchanted on my Kindle because I have a student who just finished it and wants me to talk to her about it.  I have Ashes, Ashes on audiobook that I will listen to during my workouts this week.