Reflections on Literature and Life
Laurie Halse Anderson writes powerful contemporary fiction and exciting historical thrillers. Don’t miss her stories of strong young women. While you’re waiting to get your hands on one of her books, check out these projects by Paige G, Emily S, and Courtney H.
Courtney has a fabulous glog, and you can enjoy these posters.
Do you speak Klingon? No worries. Scholastic provides a translation for author Lisa Yee as she describes her new book Warp Speed. Read more about it over at GuysLitWire.
If you’re looking for a good “beach read,” I cant think of any better books than those by Sarah Dessen. Yes, I know we are far from any beach, but these books would work while you’re lounging by the pool just as well. Just ask Shelby G, Shelbi N, Cheyanne H, Brittany H, or Emily D. They are probably carrying a Dessen book with them right now.
Enjoy these glogs:
and these posters:
Shelby’s poster
Shelbi’s poster
Lurlene McDaniel describes herself as the “crying and dying” writer. I warn my students that her books are addictive–you can’t stop with just one. Explore what EmilyR, Dakota R, Allie V, Kamryn S, and Kassidy F discovered about how McDaniel turns tragedy into hope through these glogs and posters.
Emily R’s poster:
Dakota R’s poster:
One of my all-time favorite books from my childhood was My Side of the Mountain. Ever since, I’ve dreamed of running away to the woods to live in a hollowed-out tree. Learn more about the author that created Sam from Adam Do.
I loved the Black Stallion books when I was a kid. I’m glad to know that some of you still love them, too. If you are looking for a good horse story, you can’t go wrong with these books by Walter Farley. Check out this glog and report by Hunter S.
Is she Jamie or Jamilah? At school, she’s definitely Jamie. She dyed her hair blonde and even wears blue contacts to look like the typical Australian. Even though Peter’s racist comments about immigrants make her uncomfortable, she’s too afraid to speak up and call attention to herself. Even her two best friends don’t know much about her since she never invites them over to her house and mostly turns down their invitations. It’s too bad she can’t be more like Johh, her online confidant who dares her to be true to herself.
At home she is Jamilah, the youngest daughter of Lebanese-Muslim immigrants. Her mom died several years ago, but the close-knit Lebanese Muslim community has supported her family through it all. Her older sister is in college, full of passion and protests against injustice. Her older brother dropped out of school to work as a mechanic. Jamilah feels stifled by her loving father, whose rules are stuck back in the Stone Age. She’s not allowed out after dark, and can’t go to any of her classmates parties or school dances.
Even if she’s afraid to speak out in public, Jamilah loves her Lebanese-Muslim heritage–the food, the music, even Arabic school where she plays in a band. All her dreams to keep her two worlds competely seperate fall apart when her Arabic school band is invited to play at the formal dance for her high school. Will Jamilah have the courage to drop the mask she hides behind?
Just as she did in Does My Head Look Big in This?, Randa Abdel-Fattah provides a glimpse into another culture and country. I enjoyed reading the Aussie slang. Even more I enjoyed getting to know and understand Jamilah in Ten Things I Hate About Me (Scholastic, 2010). Even though I don’t have to worry about “people assuming I drive airplanes into buildings as a hobby” if they learn my religious and ethnic background, I can relate to the fears of letting people know the person behind the public face. Who hasn’t ever wondered, what would people think if they really knew me? Not only does Abdel-Fattah address the courage it takes to stay true to yourself, she does it with humor and wit. This book is a fun read.
Peak Marcello was born to climb. Both his mom and dad were rock rats before he was born. Now his dad leads teams of climbers to the top of the world–Mt. Everest. Mom has remarried and settled down in New York with Peak and his younger twin sisters. There’s just one problem–New York City doesn’t have many mountains.
Once Peak tires of the indoor climbing walls, he seeks a new climbing challenge–skyscrapers. Now on his sixth skyscraper ascent, Peak runs into a problem. Actually, two problems. First, his face gets frozen to the side of the building. Second, cops are waiting at the top. After another kid dies in an attempt to be like Peak, the judge is ready to make an example of Peak and lock him away for years.
Josh Wood, Peak’s dad, flies halfway around the world from Thailand to offer Josh a way out. He offers for Josh to disappear–poof–and live with him in Thailand. Once on the plane, though, Peak learns that the plans are changing. Instead, Peak ends up in Tibet as the latest climber on Josh’s permit to summit Everest. Josh and his trusted Sherpa/Bhuddist mon Zopa each have their own reasons for helping Peak reach the highest point in the world, but neither is willing to share those reasons with Peak. Can Peak trust either of them to get him safely up and back down a mountain littered with corpses?
Roland Smith creates a story with non-stop, heart-pounding action in Peak. There is no more challenging setting than Mt. Everest. Peak is filled with compelling characters and danger–both from the mountain and from the Chinese soldier who is sure they are up to something. Once Peak started up the mountain, I did not want to stop reading until he reached the top–or as far as the mountain would allow.
If you can’t get enough of Everest, check out these two true stories of Everest climbs that first peaked my interest. Into Thin Air by John Krakauer tells the story of one of the deadliest climbing seasons ever. Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer is a memoir about a summit attempt by one of the youngest to ever attempt to summit Everest.
What makes a hero? The seniors in Sharon Draper’s Just Another Hero are forced to look inside themselves when a classmate brings a gun to school and holds a class hostage in an upstairs classroom while the rest of the school evacuates for yet another fire drill.
This is the third book chronicling the adventures of Jericho (Battle of Jericho), November (November’s Blues) and their friends. The old crowd is back for their senior year. Trumpet playing Jericho has hooked up with Olivia, who plays tuba in the band. Kofi and Dana are still together. Eric still uses humor to put everyone at ease with his wheelchair. November has returned to school after the birth of her baby. Eddie also returns after his stay in a juvenille detention center. Arielle regrets that she treated her friends so badly and now is alone. We also meet some new characters such as computer whiz Osrick who struggles at the mercy of school bullies.
Draper lets us know two of these characters on a much deeper level. Beautiful Arielle seems to have it all together on the outside. She has the latest clothes and gadgets and lives in a beautiful home with her mom and step dad. No one at school know, however, the fear her stepfather creates as he controls her and her mom’s every move. Khofi also hides secrets at home. He struggles to work part time while keeping up his grades in order to pay the rent and electric bills since his parents are too wrapped up in their own addictions to be depended on. Kofi can either claim his potential with is acceptance to MIT or slide in to addiction himself as he relies more and more on the pain pills his doctor prescribes.
Throughout the story, different characters are called upon to show courage
What actions do you think show courage?
(image of book cover from http://sharondraper.com/bookdetail.asp?id=25)
Sam is haunted by the number eleven which keeps showing up in his dreams and in the wisps of memory that haunt his conciousness. He finds another clue on a newspaper clipping sticking out of a locked box in the attic. He can make out the word “missing” over a photo of himself, but he is unable to read the rest.
Sam can’t read words on the page, but he can read the feel of wood as he works with his grandfather in his furniture shop. So Sam recruits the new girl, Caroline, to read the pages for him. They piece together clues as well as a castle they build together before Caroline is moving on again. She never stays anywhere long enough to make friends outside of the books she constantly reading.
I enjoyed the suspense that builds on Sam’s frustration with reading–or rather his lack of reading as the letters squirm across the page like spiders. I also liked the growing friendship between Sam and Caroline as they piece together the puzzle of Sam’s past. This would be a good book for those fans of Caroline Cooney’s Face on the Milk Carton series. With Eleven (Scholastic, 2008), Patricia Reilly Giff has created a mystery that explores frienship and the power of words.