The final two chapters of Book Love by Penny Kittle were a great way to finish out the book. Throughout this whole book, we have read about numerous ways that reading is beneficial in the classroom. These two chapters kept expanding on that in ways that I have not thought of.
In chapter 8, Kittle discusses “An Order for Literature”. Something that really stuck with me is the goal for students to see that their personal reading like has a purpose. Most of us in this class enjoy reading as a hobby and this is something that we want our students to develop as well. As Kittle says, there is so many possibilities in literature that the opportunities are endless. What is important in a classroom is that we allow students to discover these things for themselves. Students learn best when they make their own discoveries not when they are lectured at and told what the discoveries are.
Still in chapter 8, Kittle talks about quarterly reading reflections. These are a great idea for students because they are learning what kind of reader they are through self-reflections. They are able to understand what makes them want to read books in the first place and things they avoid. With this information, students and teachers can set up conferences and set goals for the student’s to reach that will help expand their reading life. The thing I love about reading reflection is that they can be used for almost any grade level.
In chapter 9, Kittle talks about how standardized testing does not effectively measure what we want as teachers. The main thing I found irritating is the need to read quickly in order for students to score well on the ACT. As we know, everyone reads at a different pace and that is not an issue. If the student is still retaining what they are reading, it does not matter how quickly they can read. The ACT is difficult because the tester only gets eight minutes to complete the passage. If a student is a great reader but cannot read quickly, they are automatically at a disadvantage.
Chapter 9 also has a section where is talks about how to work through obstacles in a reading classroom. While these are all helpful, an issue I have been working through in my years at CSC is how to get a student to read when they don’t want to. Kittle talks about having a variety of different literature in the classroom. This is helpful because I did not think about newspapers or magazines in an reading classroom. If it gets them to read something, that is what I care about.
Overall, I found this book incredibly helpful in my studies. I have found myself making connections from this book to other classes that I am in and real life situations. I can see myself referring back to this book frequently during student-teaching and once I start teaching.
I am sure we all know what It is about but for you that do not, it is about a group of kids who are being tormented by a killer clown. The story goes back and forth between their childhood and adulthood and how the clown is still tormenting them.
I am not sure how to explain this book so here is the 
Carry On is about Simon who is the chosen one in a wizarding world. Sound familiar? There are parallels in this book that reminds me of Harry Potter but I still enjoyed the story. I do not want to spoil too much of the book but it is important to know that Simon is fighting against a creature who looks and sounds just like him. On top of all of this, he is trying to avoid his enemy Baz and fix his relationship with his girlfriend Agatha. This is an LGBTQ book so that is what I counted it as on my Bingo card. A review I found on Goodreads is this book is basically if Draco Malfoy was in love with Harry Potter. That is very accurate! Overall, I loved this book for the relationship that is formed and the quirkiness of the world and Simon’s friend.
Yummy is about a young kid who is in a gang. With wanting to be seen as a more serious gang member, he shoots someone and it causes a lot of uproar in the community. This book was great. It is a graphic novel and the images go along with the story perfectly. This book shows Yummy as the criminal that people believe him as but it also shows him as a young kid who has had so many problems and just seems lost. If you have not read this, please do! It was probably my favorite read this week.
The Book Thief follows a girl named Liesel who is growing up in the mix of WW2 Germany. She finds love for books after the death of her brother and eventually begins stealing them giving her the name “the book thief”. This book was something I was nervous to read because of all the hype around it. I did not want it to fall short for me and it did not. The book is told through the eyes of death which I thought was so cool and unique. This marks off “Read a work of historical fiction” on my bingo card.
This book follows Junior who is living within his reservation. With this comes him getting bullied for multiple reasons. One day, his teacher tells him to leave the rez and hope for a better life. With that, Junior goes to an all-white school off the rez. As you can imagine, this was a change for Junior. Not only is he surrounded by all new people, but he is also being shamed by some of his fellow Indians for leaving the reservation school. This book blew me away because it had a wonderful writing style that was so easy to get through. It was such a good story that I finished it in one day. This marks off “Read a YA book by a Native American author” on my bingo card.
This book follows Leonard Peacock who is planning on having the “best” birthday ever…by killing his ex-best friend and himself. I do not want to spoil too many things because I loved this book so much but there is a lot of sensitive topics that are addressed in this book so keep that in mind if you want to pick this up! The unique thing about this book is it has footnotes at the bottom of a lot of the pages that are more facts about what exactly is going on. I would highly recommend reading them along with the book but I also do not think they are required as part of the story.
I finally got to read this book! The Hate U Give follows Starr whose whole world is turned upside down because of her friend getting shot by a white police officer after doing nothing wrong. The rest of the story follows Starr through the grieving process and the media attention that the case is getting. I did not expect there to be an actual case in court but I am glad that it was included. I am very pleased with this book. Although I did not enjoy parts of the book, I feel like they were very realistic. It is refreshing to see a book that covers some relevant issues about police brutality so I would recommend this book. This marks off “Read a finalist for the Morris Award” on my bingo card.
The Indian in the Cupboard is about a young boy who has the power to bring his toys to life by his magic cupboard. This is a pretty well-known book and for me, it was a reread and I hardly remembered anything about it. It was really fun to reread something and not remember the small events that make it enjoyable. Overall, it was a nice break from YA and I understand why this book is still talked about today.
Booked is about a young soccer player named Nick Hall. At the beginning of the book, we find out that he is a very skilled soccer player and his best friend is as well. The only problem is that they play on different teams. Nick also develops feelings for one of his classmates named April. At home, Nick’s family starts to have some problems that lead them to get a divorce. Later on in the book, Nick is injured in a soccer game so he has to deal with his injury, his crush, and his family that is falling apart. This book was very fun to read because it is a verse novel that includes definitions of difficult words with a little comedy in them. I forgot to say that this is the second book to Crossover but it does not follow the same people. However, I would recommend this book to anyone. I am not really into sporty type books but the story of Nick and his struggles is what kept me going.
Persepolis is a graphic novel about a young girl growing up in Iran after the Islamic Revolution. The book was outside my comfort zone because it has a lot of issues that I never knew about. I really liked it because it opened my eyes to all of the struggles that these people had to deal with. I would recommend this to anyone because it is such a powerful graphic novel that really makes you think about the world and struggles of people in other countries.
Persepolis 2 is about the same girl in the first Persepolis only this time she is an adult. SPOILER: at the end of the first Persepolis, Marjane leaves Iran so now she is working towards finding her identity and going throug
There are a couple books from this list that I want to add on my TBR list, the first being Swing by Kwame Alexander. I recently read Crossover by Alexander and I really enjoy his writing style and that he talks about sports. Since I do not really read sporty books, Alexander is a great new author for me to explore. Another book I’ve added is And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness. I read A Monster Calls by Ness and really enjoyed it but haven’t read anything else by him. I am
This series follows a young wizard named Harry Potter. Harry lives with his aunt and uncle after his parents died in a “car crash”. Strange things always happen to Harry which he cannot explain but it all makes sense when he is told he is a wizard and has been accepted into Hogwarts Wizarding School. Harry also finds out that he is a survior of a dark wizard attack that caused his parents to die. This dark wizard is Voldemort who disappeared after he could not kill Harry. When arriving at Hogwarts, Harry meets multiple new wizards but one, in particular, is Ron Weasley. Ron and Harry soon become best friends but they also make a new enemy, Draco Malfoy. I do not want to spoil everything in this book but it basically covers different situations Harry, Ron, and eventually, another classmate Hermione Granger go through during their first year at Hogwarts. These include three-headed dogs, giant trolls, irritating professors, and numerious life treatening situations. If you have not read this series, I would highly recommend. They are not very difficult to read but towards the end books, they get pretty long. However, the story is very interesting and comes with a few surprises.
The Crossover is a verse novel that follows Josh Bell. Josh is twelve years old and has a twin brother named Jordan. Both of the brothers are wonderful at basketball and this could be partly credited to their father, who was a professional basketball player. The brothers are usually very close but this changes when Jordan gets a girlfriend who seems to be taking up all of his time. Josh gets pretty annoyed with this which leads to some tension between him and his brother, on and off the court. While this is going on, their father seems to be having some medical issues but refuses to see the doctor. I won’t spoil anything else but the ending is pretty upsetting but also very predictable. I would recommend this book because it is a very short read but has a very cool story. Since it is a verse novel, there is always the worry of losing information but that does not happen here!
Happy Monday! This week, I’ve read two young adult books.
The Poet X is about a young girl named Xiomara. Xiomara lives in a very religious household and is usually criticized for growing into her young woman body. When she meets a boy named Adam, it is not a good thing in the eyes of her parents. As they continue to meet in secret, it is no surprise that they eventually get caught. In order to cope with all of the obstacles in her life, Xiomara writes poetry. The teacher sees this and wants her to join the poetry club. With this, Xiomara finds her voice outside of her words.
Hello, Universe is a middle grades novel that follows a young man named Virgil. Virgil has some issues at school so he is put into a different class
Rachel's Mind 