Reading is a true passion of mine, and I make it an integral part of my high school English classroom. Ask any of my students, and they will tell you I know a lot about books. I have to, for if I didn’t, I don’t think my passion would be as contagious. Now that we […]
May
27
10 Impressive (and Popular) YA Novels According to Mrs. Krajewski’s Students
posted by CBethM
May
26
Cover Reveal: Hurricane Child by Kheryn Callender
posted by donalynm
It’s not always easy being away from home—it’s where my family lives, where my childhood house stands, and even though it wasn’t so easy to see when I was a kid because it was all I’d ever known, St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands really is paradise. I felt a little differently when […]
May
25
Reframing “Pieces” in Three YA Novels: Gabi, Girl in Pieces, Girl in Pieces, All in Pieces by Sarah J. Donovan
posted by CBethM
As I scroll through the nearly two hundred poems and comments teens wrote today, I know that I am at once reading into pieces of their existence and all of who they are in the moments they composed the verse. They are at once complete and partial. Some would say such pieces are the nature […]
May
24
What I Was Thinking About by Laurel Snyder
posted by CBethM
The thing about unlikeable characters is… nobody likes them. The thing about sad endings is… they make people sad. The thing about unsolved mysteries is… they drive some people crazy. Almost exactly three years ago, I finished writing the first draft of Orphan Island, a project I’d been keeping secret up to that point. […]
The Book Love Foundation Summer Book Club by Penny Kittle
posted by Colby Sharp for
Most of us wait all year for summer. Not to escape the students we’ve grown to love, but for the hours we’ll have to read without the incessant demands of school. We are in a distracted age. I’m sure you feel it. During the school year we all practice a fractured attention to hundreds of […]
May
23
Celebrate the Weird Stuff in Life by Tammi Sauer
posted by CBethM
For me, the hardest part about writing a picture book is coming up with an idea. I’m not talking about a regular idea. Nope. I’m talking about a good idea. A fresh idea. An irresistible-to-readers idea. Each year, I present at lots of schools and conferences. One thing I like to tell people is to celebrate the weird […]
May
22
Classics, Colonization and a Call for Change by Padma Venkatraman
posted by donalynm
Last year, I gave in to horribly un-American behavior. Confident that my citizenship would not be revoked if indulged in censorship, I picked up a thick sharpie and blackened out offensive words in A Child’s Garden of Verse on my daughter’s shelf. Other “classics” just plain aren’t on her shelf. I’m confident her childhood can […]
May
21
A SERIES FICTION KIND OF GIRL by Heather Alexander
posted by CBethM
Have you ever played Nancy Drew the Spy On the Prairie? This game filled my fourth-grade afternoons. It’s best explained as a mash-up of storylines from three of my favorite literary heroes at the time—Nancy Drew, Harriet M. Welsch, and Laura Ingalls—intertwined as only a bookish ten-year-old can. Each day brought a new adventure and […]
May
20
Ten Types of Books That Are Hooking My MOST Reluctant Readers by Wendy Gassaway
posted by CBethM
I teach reading to middle schoolers who read two or more years below grade level. I am a fierce believer in the power of reading workshop and choice, but I continue to struggle with a sizable minority of students who Won’t. Read. ANYTHING. I feel like I offer a wide range of material, and I’m […]
May
19
Saving Wonder by Mary Knight – Review by Mary Alice Ramsey
posted by CBethM
“Words are thoughts and thoughts are things” Papaw tells Curley. And Mary Knight uses them exquisitely her debut novel Saving Wonder. Curley Hines, a seventh grade boy, shares his life story with us. Being someone who came to love reading late in life, I was captivated by Curley. His joy. His wonder. Living with […]
