@h_james18's Middle Years Book Recommendations

We had a BlueJeans chat with @h_james18 last Thursday. Check out her blog post with a list of middle years book recommendations!

In Jerry Spinelli's Star Girl, boy meets strange girl. Boy falls in love, but wants strange girl to become normal. This book explores important questions: How can you live an authentic life? Why do we change for other people? What is normal? Is it hip to be square? This is a great read for middle school students, who might not have packed away their Playmobil sets yet, but who are starting to think about sex, make-up and other adult concerns.

I'm selecting this book as the anchor text for a middle school unit on non-conformity. I'm exploring other titles, but am happy to hear others' recommendations. I'll post more information on my unit as the work unfolds.

Recommended age: grades 5 and up (no scenes of sex, drugs or rock-n-roll — just a bit of folk-based ukulele)

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is a great novel about a boy who is raised by ghosts and ghouls in a graveyard. It is a mystery/ adventure that would be a great read aloud. It is an exciting book that would appeal to both boys and girls. It is the sort of story that could get reluctant readers excited about reading. This book would be great for kids ages 9-14 years old.

Project Superhero

Last week I read Project Superhero, an engaging book with themes of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education and girl empowerment. This book makes my head buzz with lesson ideas from these themes alone. Within the book, you get to read about some fabulous project-based learning ideas playing out in a grade 8 classroom.

I was lucky enough to meet the author, E. Paul Zehr, at a book launch at the UVic Bookstore. (He even signed my copy!) You can tell the students who read this that they're reading a book by a neuroscientist. Dr. Zehr did a TEDTalk called The Superhero In You.

-Britney (@MlleBallen)

P.S. This book has its own hashtag, too: #ProjectSuperhero. (This isn't just my love of Twitter talking, it's printed on the back of the book!)

BlueJeans Video Conference with @h_james18

Circle Talk: What We've Been Reading This Week

• Project Superhero by E. Paul Zehr - @MlleBallen
• Ned, the story of Bear 693 - @KaitlynMorino
• Night by Elie Wiesel - @JacquiOVictoria
• Star Girl - @Fernwoodteacher
• Word Nerd - @mariah_burt
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - @Reading_Buddy1
• Fortunately the Milk - @kmychelle
• Silverwing - @caroc1968
• Jacob Have I Loved - @caroc1968
• Chasing Vermeer - @the_kelsi
  

 Look for more about these titles in our upcoming blog posts! 

@h_james18
Thanks to @h_james18 for joining us, and sharing your passion for middle years literature! You brought some really intriguing titles to our attention, and some really neat ideas about how to run literature circles. Some take-home messages that resonated with me were: 

• Read-alouds are important, even at the middle years level, and
• Literature circles can be expanded beyond classroom walls!

-Britney (@MlleBallen)

Jacob Have I Loved

In 1980, Katherine Paterson wrote a beautiful coming of age novel about the older, less celebrated twin, Sara Louise, and her struggle to find identity and value.  She lives in a time and place that does not privilege her unique gifts and interests which causes bitterness and envy of her beautiful, sweet and talented younger twin.  Sara Louise navigates her youth with neither charm nor grace but with feelings of resentment and envy overwhelming her at every turn.  I won't give away the ending . . . but my 11 year old daughter and I both read this book and it lead to engaging conversations about injustice, sibling rivalry and being comfortable in who you are.  I would recommend this book as a middle years literature resource.  It's not the newest book on the block but it stands the test of time.

Sky Color

You may have heard of Reynolds's other books "The Dot" and "Ish", which are really great art books too. Its such a simple book with beautiful illustrations and teaches about the power of colour in art (one of my favourite subjects!) in a way that children can understand. The little girl discovers how to paint a sky without the colour blue. She realizes that everything, including the sky, is made up of many different colours you just need to observe the world around you.

While googling for these photos I happened upon a great website called the artful parent http://artfulparent.com/

From what I perused, it seems like a great resource for bring art into the classroom. The creator is also an author and craft book writer.

Genevieve (@g_glisik)