Building Momentum

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to those who are logging on, reading the posts, and even posting! I love it. This is going to be so much fun to hear about what you are reading all summer and maybe even next year?!?!

The books that have been mentioned--Harry Potter, Go Ask Alice, Pride and Prejudice, Twilight--and so many other good books really inspire me to either read them or re-read them. I remember Ms. Sbrocco's mother once said, "I just wish authors would just stop writing so I could get caught up." Kinda funny, but it makes sense. Sooooo many good books and not enough time in my day.

I like that there are some new titles I don't recognize either. I am going to come back to these posts to read the books and tell next year's student about them.

This is awesome, everyone! Thanks for posting, and KEEP READING and KEEP LOGGING ON TO TELL US ABOUT IT! I'm having so much fun with this.

Thanks for making it possible,
Stenson

What makes a good book?

A handful of students have answered my call to tell me the names of the best books they read this year.

Here are three that have been highlighted recently:

Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Brief Chapter in my Impossible Life by Dana Reinhardt
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

I found myself nodding my head when I read through the comments kids left about the books they liked. Good books are contagious, and I wasn't surprised to see some familiar titles. These three in particular are books that seemed to run right through my classroom from kid to kid. Often, I recommended these books and they were checked out of the library.

So, I've got two questions:

1. What makes these books so good that our Media Center can't keep them on the shelves? (Anyone who has read these three titles could tell me...)
   
2. What are kids looking for in a good book?

I'm looking for answers, 8th graders! Tell me what you know and what you think.

Looking forward to your insights,
Stenson

Turning it over to the 8th grade experts.

A great year of great books...

To get a bigger, better, larger, longer list of good books started, I'm turning this over to my students.

To all my Rockstar Readers out there, tell me, what was the best book you read all year. See if you can give us a one sentence summary about the book.

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Awsome! I'm excited to read your thoughts,
Stenson

My attempt to blog about reading.

I don't know if this is going to work, but I'm going to try. My 8th graders laughed me out of my classroom when I told them I expected them to keep reading this summer AND blog about it.

I am new at this, so I don't really know where to start. I just want kids reading. But just in case they get spazzy about a good book now and then, I want them to know there's a place to pass it on.

I'll get started by sharing books that have knocked me and a few of my students over. But hang with me. Once I get some of my super-tech savvy colleagues to help me out, I'll try to add links, images, and all that jazz.

Today's recommendations:

1. Sean M. told me the other day that Flush (by Carl Hiaasen)was a book that he finished in a weekend. He thought it went quickly because it "was just one of those good books".
2. Patrick L. turned in a book called I am the Messenger (by Markus Zusack) and told me "It made me laugh, and then it made me sad, and then it made me mad, and then it made me happy". I think I got choked up. So I read it over the weekend. Actually, I read it Sunday afternoon. I loved the message. Pun intended.
3. The Tall Guy just finished Flight by Sherman Alexie. I pushed it at him for a week. When he started it, he read it straight through and was up for a few hours trying to get his hands around it. I'm telling you--the book broke my heart right open. It's off-the-charts violent, but a beautiful, poignant story still. I can't put words around all that's good about this book. Just read it. Because of the violence, I'd recommend kids read it with an adult.

And this is how I'll begin my blog...
Happy reading,
Stenson