Wrestling and YA literature!! I love John Green’s comments about his book. Çheck it out at http://www.wwe.com/content/media/video/vms/overtheropes/2009/october15-21/12105056
Although, this book is not on the reading list I have to say that the day it was release I went to Target and bought four copies for my library and kids are scrambling to read them. I have not even had time to enter them in the system they are just passing it around. Jeff Kinley does it again by attracting all of my 3rd-5th graders and has my 2nd graders wanted to read it. This book does not take place during the school year but during summer. Greg still has the craziest things happen but it does not involve the school. My students said they love it because they like the fact it is summer vacation. If you have not read this or have not gotten it for your library it is a must!
Katie Douglas
Patt Angell
Book Review
BEAH, Ishmael. A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier. 229 p.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2007. Tr $22.00. ISBN 978-0-374-10523-
5. LC 2006017101.
Gr 10 Up – This is a poignant story of a young boy growing up in Sierra Leone. It is a country that has gone through a savage civil war. Young boys are pressed into service either by the rebels, the Revolutionary United Front, (RUF) or by the government troops. Both sides engage in horrible atrocities to humanity. In order to keep these young children fighting, they give them marijuana and other drugs to keep them high so that they don’t sleep and don’t feel much pain. They are encouraged to torture their victims, seemingly for pleasure. They don’t take prisoners; they just kill whole villages of people. The only redeeming quality to this story is that Ishmael was finally taken out of the war by UNICEF to a rehabilitation center along with several other young boys. They had to go through withdrawal with little help. They did have access to a psychologist and a nurse, but they didn’t trust anyone anymore. They were able to go back to school. The center finds Ishmael’s uncle and he is permitted to go and live with him. He is given the opportunity to travel to the USA to speak to the UN about the situation. When the war makes its way to Freetown, he sneaks out of the country to Guinea and to freedom. I would not recommend this book to the faint of heart or those with a squeamish stomach.—Patt Angell, Wicomico High School, Salisbury, MD
Patt Angell
Book Review
FREEDOM WRITERS with Erin Gruwell. The Freedom Writers Diary: how a
teacher and 150 teens used writing to change themselves and the
world around them. 280 p. Doubleday. 1999. Tr $13.95. ISBN 0-385-
49422-X. LC 99-30342.
Gr 10 Up—This is the story of a classroom of “at risk” freshman students at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California told in diary form. The entries, except for the teacher, Erin Gruwell, are all anonymous thereby giving the students the ability to write their true feelings and incidents that happened to them. The diary goes through their four year journey throughout high school. It tells their stories using explicit language and sometimes graphic descriptions of what some of them went through. They were taught tolerance and love. They became the “family” that many of them lacked at home. They learned about the holocaust and brought in survivors to speak with them. They had fund raisers and sponsors to make money for trips to DC and after graduation to Europe. All of these students went on to graduate from high school. Some of them were the first in their families to do so. Most of them also went to college. It was truly a success story for this group of kids and their teacher.—Patt Angell, Wicomico High School, Salisbury, MD
OK I don’t think it is on our booklist this semester but what a cool book trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95s8GlKY40o&feature=PlayList&p=CF6CDB1D40BB55E0&index=38
For the last class I read Saturday Night Dirt so I decided for this class I would read the sequel, “Super Stock Rookie”. It was just as exciting as the last book and I wanted more after reading. This is becoming quite a series.The main character in this book is Trace Bonham. He is trying to leave the Minnesota race-car track. He tries out for the driver of a car sponsored by an outfit called Team Blu. Not only does Trace have problems with the team but also his love life. This book is definitely more for high school students but it is wonderful. I also found this cool book trailer on you tube and it would be great to show students because it has the artist Cake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-PDu4mTJFw
Katie Douglas
Although I admire WDM as an author and believe that he especially connects with young people of color with an urban background, I had avoided reading “Sunrise Over Fallujah” because I don’t like war stories. This book was so compelling that I couldn’t put it down because I wondered what was going to happen to the characters. W D Myers does a great job of weaving in the events of the Iraqi War with new recruits from various U.S. demographics. This book is definitely a reality check for the MS and HS students who think that war is going to be a heroic mission. WDM puts a face on the day-to-day reality of war. I plan to read this aloud to my 8th grade media classes, and I’m glad that I finally read this after hearing past students tell me it was the best book that they had ever read. JOY
Here is a very cool video of Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie (author of Half of a Yellow Sun) discussing her writing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg&feature=player_embedded
She really gets into some interesting issues related to culture and literature. We are not reading her book for class this semester but thought you might be interested.
Stream of consciousness style verse novels have become rather popular for young adults. Likewise there have been quite a few Bridget Jones’ Diary type insights into the dating problems of young women. Do these two trends work well together in Sones’ novel?
Many students have had a great experience with Day of Tears… it is a powerful novel. But does Lester overextend trying to present so many different perspectives on events? Does the narrative become confusing for young readers? If not how does the author pull it off?
