Jordan Sonnenblick's Notes from a Midnight Driver

Many good lines in this book. Many good laughs. Many meaningful lessons to be learned.

Overall, I think most kids will like Alex. The 16 year-old kid whose parents are getting a divorce, he's got a secret crush on his best friend Laurie, and he's facing the repercussions of a very serious mistake he made. It's for boys and girls, and it's easy to read even though it's a powerful book. In fact, there is a good balance of everything you need in a book. Enjoy!


Keep reading!
-Stenson

p.s. This is my 4th book of the year. 1/10th of the way to my goal!

Oops, I did it again.

The response was mixed, but most everyone tuned in to the first vlog. While many rolled their eyes or turned me off, others sauntered to the bookshelves to find one of the three books. It got me thinking...this could be a weekly thing.

The second vlog introduces readers to:

-The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
-Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
-Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer

If you can take it, try Vlog 2.


Keep Reading!
-stenson

Vlog alert!

Are video blogs called vlogs? I seem to remember that's what they are called.

I'm not shamed to admit it...I've created a vlog. Anything to get my kids paying attention. This short little vlog is a video of me talking about three books I think you might like. Yea!

Watch and listen. Grab the book if you are so inclined. Or just watch and be amused. Yes, your teacher is a book-nerd. There are worse things you could call me. Just don't snicker too loud. We must be quiet in the Media center...shhhhhh!




p.s. I just finished I.Q, Book One: Independence Hall. My second book is complete. Onto #3. The road to 40 continues to be a fun ride!

Keep reading!
-stenson

1 down, 39 to go.

40. Forty. Cuarenta. 4-0. The number of books my 7th graders and I are going to try to read this year. It's about 1 a week (though I told one family it there were more than 40 weeks in the school year...oops!). It's a goal that is worth shooting for. A goal that depends entirely on effort, good choices, and good books.

Since I'm going to reach for the goal of 40 books this year too, I made sure I had a good book for this three-day weekend. I know it may be a little of a head start, but I'm counting the book I finished this weekend.

It's not a book I'd necessarily recommend to my students, but since it's the first book of the year for me, it's worth mentioning. Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer. Easy-cheesy crime novel. Kinda spooky though so I only read it when my husband was around and in the daytime hours. I've recently rediscovered mysteries, so I loved this holiday book (holiday book=easy read). I really liked that the setting (where it takes place) is in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

Anyway, 1 down 39 to go. Here's to a really fun challenge and sharing it with my students!

My inspiration for this goal comes from Donalynn Miller and her extraordinary book The Book Whisperer; this is a book every teacher, parent, educator should read.

The Reading Workshop Classroom

photo by Herb Swanson of the NY Times


I've always admired the work of Nancie Atwell, a visionary reading teacher and specialist. Recently, a colleague sent me an article about her classroom and how it is inspiring a new generation of reading teachers and reading classrooms. It's really a powerful movement.

Getting caught up in the rush and chaos of the start of a new year is easy to do. Even so, I always aspire to have a classroom where students of all reading levels are comfortable with who they are as independent readers, where students are choosing their own books and enjoying their time reading them, where all of come together as a community of readers. It is in Nancie's ideals where my work is grounded. Kids, parents, all readers, take a peek at the article and at the slide show accompanying it to see just what we are shooting for in Room 103. Here's to reading. Here's to kids. Here's to the start of another great year!

Keep reading!
-stenson

Be smart. Act intelligent. Know things.

“It takes an adult to make a child hate knowing things" -M.T. Anderson

Books make people smarter in all sorts of important ways. I like comparing getting the right book into the right student's hands to watering my garden. A slew of young adult authors are making a point to talk to kids about the importance of being a critical thinker and an aware, engaging citizen. I support them. I'll do my best to get kids reading books they enjoy and are willing to discuss and dissect. That's what good books do. They getting us thinking, talking, and growing.

Here are a few titles of books I've read or read about recently. They are certainly ones that will get readers thinking...and hopefully talking.

High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes

Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker

WinterGirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Disreputable Life of Frankie Landau-Banks by e. lockhart

The Pigman by Paul Zindel

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Read on!
-stenson

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Want action and suspense? Check.
Want gore and guts? Check.
Want likeable characters? Check.
Want a few who make you laugh? Check.
A few to fall in love? Maybe.

With elements of science-fiction and reality television, with futuristic and realistic elements , Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games grabs the readers from the first page and grips them with such suspense few are likely to successfully put it down until the end.

The book beings on the day of the Reaping, where each District of the post-apocalyptic North American country of Panem must send two youth to the 74th Annual Hunger Games. The government exerts total control over its people, and the Games are just one of its cruel ploys to remind the people their lives are only as good or as bad as the government decides they will be.

The book is a lot like The Lottery (a classic short story by Shirley Jackson) meets Survivor (the popular reality-television series) meets Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare tragedy about two star-crossed lovers). The main characters--Katniss and Peeta--are chosen from a lottery, forced to leave their families, and go to the Capitol where they will be contestants in a grisly Gladiator game.

It must be said that Katniss, who is the Girl on Fire, is a terrific heroine. Two thumbs up for a girl with the wits, strength, and kindness to be a true competitor, a protective big sister, an effective hunter, the pride of her District, and the love-interest of at least a couple of boys. She is a girl who could teach us all many lessons. Speaking of lessons, the book has several to tell....about violence in our culture, about the increasingly desensitizing nature of reality television, about the harm of a government not of the people, and about empathy.

It took me a long to pick up the book but minutes to fall in love with it. I urge all ages to read this book. Knowing two more in the series follow, I predict, as did awesome author John Green) the trilogy will be received with Twilight-esque mania. Join in on the fun. Get your hands on a copy today!

For more information like videos, message boards, and online games, check out this site.

Keep reading!
-stenson