Review: Hold Still

Hold Still by Nina LaCour

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This one was sad--another hard read--but really a novel about hope and about finding a way after the unthinkable happens.

I just listened to a podcast about text sets, so rather than give you a review of the novel, I'm going to give you a text set that could include Hold Still. Call the set Teens Dealing with Death

Related titles:
Deadline by Chris Crutcher
Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult
The Pact by Jodi Piccoult
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper
Looking for Alaska by John Green
We Were Here by Matt de la Pena
Mick Harte Was Here by Barbara Park
After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick
If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

That list is all I can come up with off the top of my head. Read what you like.



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Turkey Break Reads

This year is the first year that my school district has given us an entire week off for Thanksgiving. It may be one of the only holidays that lines up with holidays at the university, which is nice. I decided, between working on research studies and visiting the Grand Canyon with my family, I was going to try to read at least three books. Here they are...

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
I finished this one on the way home from the Grand Canyon. I'm going to admit that I had a little trouble figuring where it was going, though I imagine that we were meant to feel at least a little of what the main character was feeling.

What I couldn't figure out was why the novel was written in 3rd person limited. I think it could have been much more powerful were it written in first person--we'd get directly into Ginny's head. Feel what she's feeling. Maybe I'm partial to first person narrators, though. I don't know.

What I do know is that there is a sequel to 13LBE, which I hope will tie up some of the loose ends. From what I've heard from Maureen Johnson, she wrote the sequel because her fans asked her to. Readers have power and nerdfighters are made of awesome.

Hold Still by Nina LaCour
I got this one from Rockin' Librarian. She ran across it while shelving and thought it would be a good read. As it turns out, she thought so. I've started this one and see it going in a similar direction as Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why (fabulous read, but not in the school library). I should be done tomorrow, I think.

Exposure by Mal Peet
This is one I've waited a while for. I read Tamar in my YA literature class last fall and Keeper las semester. I didn't really care for Tamar, but that has more to do with the fact that period pieces, or novels about war aren't at the top of my "Genres I Like" list. I loved Keeper, and Exposure is along the same lines. Where Keeper took a supernatural route, Exposure is a retelling of Shakespeare's Othello. I have a date with SparkNotes before I read this one. Eventually I'll go back and actually read Othello, but for right now, a short overview will work nicely.

I plan on posting formal reviews for all three books through Goodreads before school starts on Monday. Check back here or on http://www.goodreads.com/engltchrleo for more thoughts.


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Links of Note

I decided I needed to start writing at least biweekly about the links I pull from my Twitter feed. That way, at least they're all in the same place, and I can look anything I've forgotten up using tags. This is what I've got so far:

http://www.ipadcurriculum.com
I'm interested in this only because I'm always curious about what more I can do with my iPad. For the most part, I use it for my college classes (in an effort to be more green), to create last minute presentations when the internet in my hallway at school is down and to allow kids to view videos for Skeleton Creek and Trackers from their desks and not my teacher station. I'm anxious to see what more I can do with this device.

http://www.cybraryman.com/writingprompts.html
A collection of links to writing prompts. Good for timed writing. Has RAFT prompts, some from Six-Traits, and a link to photo prompts. Not a bad resource to have on hand.

http://www.myread.org/
This Australia-based website has information on what readers do and how to help struggling readers in the middle grades. I haven't perused it completely, but put it here to refer back to when I have some time.

http://www.soungle.com/
Royalty free sound effects. (I think this one comes from Google.) Needless to say, I could see how this could work well for school video or Glogster projects.

Math: Practical Application

I decided, this year, to decorate my classroom with movie posters. I started with five and eyeballed their placement on the wall. Two days ago I picked up a poster for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and decided that I needed to even out the space on the wall.

I borrowed a tape measure from the library and came up with this:





Then, used that information to come up with this:





My first hour students balked at my explanation.


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Review: Deadline

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There are some books you pick up, start reading, and think, "I love this main character, I don't want something bad to happen to him." So you read through the entire book hoping that the end isn't what it's billed to be. And you try to prepare yourself. But there is no preparing yourself. It's like rereading John Green's Looking for Alaska, or reading Jodi Piccoult's My Sister's Keeper (or anything by Jodi Piccoult, really). You know what's coming, but there's no avoiding the visceral reaction you have to the text.

I will reread this book. And when I do, I'll actually write a review of the book rather than my thoughts in general about books that make me cry.



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Review: Murder At Midnight

Murder At Midnight by Avi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


While Murder at Midnight is well out of the genre I'm used to reading (I have a bias against anything remotely close to historical fiction) the mystery element had mr guessing all the way to the end. Avi attacks the question of how to find truth when everyone has their own agenda, and I think he does it well.

I believe the sequel ti Murder at Midnight, Midnight Magic, is published already. Unfortunately, I have a long list of books to read before I can get there.



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Review: The Alchemyst

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Oh, wow.

This is a book my book buddy told me to read ages ago and I added it to my list on Goodreads, but didn't really put much priority on getting it read. Then I went to a conference on gifted students in Albuquerque last weekend, and the keynote speaker there said it was a must read. I probably wouldn't have picked it up so soon if I hadn't recognized the title as one of Book Buddy's recommendations.

Michael Scott does a beautiful job of putting mytholgies in a modern context. The fact that the book took place in modern times (I have a hard time with historical fiction most of the time) was surprising. Already vaguely familiar with Nicholas Flamel from The Sorcerer's Stone, I expected the novel to be set in the past. What I really loved is how Scott didn't limit himself to one mythology. I recognized the Greek and the Egyptian, but I know I'm going to have to do some research to find out who some of the other characters are. I love learning new things when I read fiction.

A colleague of mine left me a message today saying if I liked The Alchemyst, then I'll love the rest of the series--it gets more intense as it goes along. I'm also curious to see how some of my predictions will turn out--while I was wrong for the moment, there is a chance that I might be right.

I'm hoping my school library has the next book in the series--I don't know when I'm going to have a chance to get to the bookstore.



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