Teacher Tuesday

I wanted to update the books my kids read for literature circles, so I ordered a bunch of new titles to try. Most of them have come in, and they are SO GOOD! I just love the new literature for young adults that has come out since I was a kid. I started reading through some of them tonight, and I ended up reading two whole books!!

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My first was Coraline, by Newbery-award winning author Neil Gaiman. I chose the graphic novel version, which was adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell. It is dark and creepy and just a little scary, and kept me going until I finished. I am sure the kids will be on the edge of their seats! I also love that this is a graphic novel, a genre which I love, and which I find really captivates readers who can't always get into regular novels. It is a whole new way of reading a story, with the pictures just as important as the words, that I love to teach and explore with the kids.

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The second I read tonight is When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead, which just won the Newbery award in 2010. It is a little sci-fi, which to me was a pleasant surprise, and talks about the paths our lives take, the chains of events that are set into motion by the simplest of things, and how even the little details are all meaningful. It referenced Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time heavily, which coincidentally is another of the Lit Circle books I chose for my advanced readers. I even cried (just a little bit!) at the end. This is a book that will really get the kids thinking about life and how they play an important role in their world.

The other books I chose are Chasing Redbird, by Newbery-award winning author Sharon Creech; The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, which won the Newbery in 2009; and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, by Robert C. O'Brien, winner of the Newbery in 1972 (gotta give them some old-school children's lit!).