The best books are impossible to “blurb.” They contain multitudes and up-end our expectations of what will happen between the covers. A.S. King’s new book, I Crawl Through It, is one of these. In it, four teenagers try to cope with family life, high school, and invisible helicopters while being mothered by Hawkeye Pierce, assisted […]
Tag Archives: Kim McCollum-Clark
September
23
A.S. King and I Crawl Through It: Twisting Reality to Let Truth Drip Out – Interview by Kim McCollum-Clark
posted by CBethM
“The Real War will Never Get Into Books”: The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan (1996) by Jennifer Armstrong – Review by Kim McCollum-Clark
posted by CBethM
My rising sophomore son got his summer reading marching papers in early June: Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage. I felt the bile rise in my throat. Eason is a gamer, not a reader, and I have to work like a dog to encourage him to open any book. This choice felt like a blow. […]
Top 10 Picture Books for the Secondary Classroom by Kim McCollum-Clark
posted by CBethM
As a teacher of future English teachers, I am always trying to open my students’ eyes to the wonder and power of the picture book, both as an art form and as a terrific instructional tool for the secondary classroom. Being students of capital-L literature, my teacher-babies sometimes forget to consider these compact and powerful […]
Light a Candle/Cast a Shadow
posted by CBethM
A Wizard of Earthsea (1975) by Ursula K. Le Guin In 1968, a small press publisher asked already famous fantasy and science fiction author Ursula K. LeGuin to write something for “older kids,” promising her free range. She wrote an archetypal story of a boy who leaves his miserable origins and achieves fame at a […]
Nerdy Book Club 