On all levels, taking a deep breath has been difficult lately. I've been sick - the doctor wasn't sure if it was asthma or pneumonia or a combination of both. And I've been stressed. This blog was supposed to be part of a way to de-stress myself. I'm going to let it be that. Why do I put such pressure on myself? I mean - so I got a little behind on my blog. Get real. Yikes. It's funny how something I look forward to becomes a burden when I get behind. I need to let that go... :D
I finished four other books in January.
Book #6: Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan was a National Book Award Winner. I got this book for free at the ALAN conference in New York this fall (if you haven't been, GO). A student of mine read it and loved it so I took it home one night and didn't fall asleep until I'd finished it.
The first paragraph:
" 'Koly, you are thirteen and growing every day,' Maa said to me. 'It's time for you to have a husband.' I knew why. There were days when my maa took only a bit of rice for herself so that the rest of us - my baap, my brothers, and I - might have more. 'It's one of my days to fast,' she would say, as if it were a holy thing, but I knew it was because there was not enough food to go around. The day I left home, there would be a little more for everyone else. I had known the day was coming, but the regret I saw in Maa's eyes made me tremble."
Homeless Bird is set in India and deals with what happens/could happen to young widows when their dead husband's family doesn't want them anymore. I loved how it was written, and the story flows in a way that it's not a problem to have in my classroom - it even appears to be written for late intermediate or middle school readers.
Book #7: Sold by Patricia McCormick was amazing, painful, horrible, wonderful. A much more painful and graphic version of Homeless Bird. McCormick wrote Cut, which the counselors at my school asked me to remove from my classroom library. It is entirely possible that this book may meet the same fate - except that I'll do everything I can to not let that happen. I'll be talking with kids about it first - and after they return it. I have to tell you, it does have a rape scene. I also have to say it's one of the best books I've read in a long time. McCormick wrote it in a series of vignettes - some only four lines long... none longer than two pages, I think. It's like reading poetry. With all the depth, imagery, symbolism, and terribleness that poetry can capture. I'll have to add the first paragraph in later - it's back on my classroom bookshelf. Honestly, I probably will never recommend this book to my 9th graders. But my seniors... yes. Absolutely.
Book #8: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. I have to admit right here that I've never read Dickens' Great Expectations. I'm sure I would have gotten a lot more out of the book if I had read Dickens first... except how many of my students will read Dickens first? Maybe it's a way to Dickens, rather than from it. It was another painful book. Maybe that's why I moved on to Christina Feehan next...
I finished four other books in January.
Book #6: Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan was a National Book Award Winner. I got this book for free at the ALAN conference in New York this fall (if you haven't been, GO). A student of mine read it and loved it so I took it home one night and didn't fall asleep until I'd finished it.The first paragraph:
" 'Koly, you are thirteen and growing every day,' Maa said to me. 'It's time for you to have a husband.' I knew why. There were days when my maa took only a bit of rice for herself so that the rest of us - my baap, my brothers, and I - might have more. 'It's one of my days to fast,' she would say, as if it were a holy thing, but I knew it was because there was not enough food to go around. The day I left home, there would be a little more for everyone else. I had known the day was coming, but the regret I saw in Maa's eyes made me tremble."
Homeless Bird is set in India and deals with what happens/could happen to young widows when their dead husband's family doesn't want them anymore. I loved how it was written, and the story flows in a way that it's not a problem to have in my classroom - it even appears to be written for late intermediate or middle school readers.
Book #7: Sold by Patricia McCormick was amazing, painful, horrible, wonderful. A much more painful and graphic version of Homeless Bird. McCormick wrote Cut, which the counselors at my school asked me to remove from my classroom library. It is entirely possible that this book may meet the same fate - except that I'll do everything I can to not let that happen. I'll be talking with kids about it first - and after they return it. I have to tell you, it does have a rape scene. I also have to say it's one of the best books I've read in a long time. McCormick wrote it in a series of vignettes - some only four lines long... none longer than two pages, I think. It's like reading poetry. With all the depth, imagery, symbolism, and terribleness that poetry can capture. I'll have to add the first paragraph in later - it's back on my classroom bookshelf. Honestly, I probably will never recommend this book to my 9th graders. But my seniors... yes. Absolutely.Book #8: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. I have to admit right here that I've never read Dickens' Great Expectations. I'm sure I would have gotten a lot more out of the book if I had read Dickens first... except how many of my students will read Dickens first? Maybe it's a way to Dickens, rather than from it. It was another painful book. Maybe that's why I moved on to Christina Feehan next...
Book #9: Safe Harbor by Christina Feehan. Great escapist reading (supernatural romance), but I have to say I'm a little disappointed at how formulaic her books have become.It's funny - my impression of January was that I hadn't read enough! But nine books... plus a start on a few others I'll write about when I'm done with them... just isn't bad at all.
Some goals: I've been big into the escapist and re-reading. That is NOT a bad thing - but I do want to round that out with some more professional reading in February.
So many other blogs I want to respond to... I think I'll save that post for tomorrow! (No need to become perfectionistic again!)
1 comment:
Ah, to not only give yourself permission to read for escapism and comfort... but to just read for escapism and comfort, without asking thyself permission.
Someday, my friend, someday...
:)
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