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

Boyfriends.

Hmpfh. I get it. Boyfriends are a big deal when you are 14, 15, and so on. It's troublesome ground. Some girls, many girls actually, find comfort, friendship, and loyalty in their boyfriends. The relationships of their adolescents play an important role in teaching them how to navigate dating and relationships as they grow up. However, other girls only find more reasons to grow more self-doubting and dependent. Like I said, shaky ground. So, this topic- boyfriends- is a topic that usually generates too much adolescent angst and drama when I bring it up with my students. However, I know the topic is a big, big part of being a teenage girl. That's why I read E. Lockhart's book The Boyfriend List.

While it's no Disreputable History , it is an interesting book that portrays a realistic peek into the psyche of teenage girls and their struggles with friends, boys, and boyfriends. I love a series. I like the lessons the Ruby (our protagonist) learns.

Just make sure you read Disreputable History too.

Keep reading.
-stenson

p.s. The picture above is from e. lockhart's website.

Free Photos

Copyright rules and formatting trouble always leave me wondering how to add images to my blog and podcasts. I never have the right answers for my students when they add images to their work. However, this Technology Kit 2.0 promises to deliver us from our troubles. Among other tools, there is a list of sites where one can find free photo. Most helpful, don't you think?

Check it out!

Thanks to the National Council of Teachers of English (more evidence that English teachers save the world in too many ways to count)!

-Stenson

Farewell, Teacher Man.

-photo from trashotron.com

I would have loved to have a teacher like Frank McCourt. I had good teachers, but this guy told a story like Picasso painted. He was one of the best. Plus, I fondly remember lying next to the proud-to-be Tall Guy while he giggled as he read the last of the three auto-biographies Teacher Man. I hope we left this world smiling; Mr. McCourt died on Sunday, July 20 at the young age of 78. He will be missed.

Read on.
-Stenson

Reminds me of Hemmingway

I just finished this book called The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin. I'd recommend it for 8th grade and up- it was even hard for me to read through some of the stuff. That happens when you love a character, and our main character, Matt, is easy to love. Vulnerable, tough, smart, kind, caring, and courageous. His family is in crisis thanks to his unstable, abusive and violent mother. Matt makes some tough choices to protect his younger sisters, choices that no teenager should have to make. The story is suspenseful, tender, and, in the end, hopeful.

I liked the significance of two guys, well, they are really gentlemen, in the story. Two men join together with the children's aunt to try to save the kids. These guys are gentleman who are strong and brave, yet unafraid to admit when they are wrong.

When I book the book down (I read it before going to bed one night, put it down to get some sleep, but had finished it by 9:30 a.m. the next morning), I was reminded of one of my favorite Hemingway quotes.

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places."

Ernest Hemingway

Keep reading,
-stenson

Who is Puckett?

She is one of my best friends; she's my old lady black dog. I love her like I love breathing.

Here's a picture of Pucky just hanging around. She's a constant presence, keeping the whole family company. But apparently, while Pucky is lounging around enjoying city life with her family, there are some amazing dogs working hard.

Take these Dogs on Deployment for example. Dogs are defending peace and justice in Afghanistan. My heart goes out to the soldiers who work with the dogs, and the all the military men and women who are safer because of the work of these dogs.

Click here to listen or to read about these dogs are their masters.

Here's to Lode and Leddy. May they return home safely and quickly with their soldiers by their sides.

Keep reading (online newspapers count!)
-Stenson