We've decided to do something a little different in my school this year: The English teachers each chose a book for the kids to read, so we have a fairly short list. The students can read any of them (at least two) and then the third week of school in September, we have a Summer Reading Week where the kids meet with the teacher who's "in charge" of their book and we have groups and discuss it and all that fun stuff. It's all-inclusive, so we could have seniors discussing with freshmen, which is a nice twist. We make them accountable but don't do some old-style book report or a test or something. We're trying desperately to get kids reading again, so the list has fiction, non-fiction, young adult, fantasy, autobiography, and one book-made-movie (for the media teacher). Thus, I'll give you all the list because I know I haven't read some of these and I always love to get titles from informed readers. I plan to read them all, if I can. I'll make comments on the ones I know about.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower -- Stephen Chbosky
- I have heard nothing but good things about this one. Kids who don't like to read enjoy it.
The Road -- Cormac McCarthy
- Also wrote No Country For Old Men, heard lots of praise from colleagues
Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer
- True story of the Mt. Everest disaster
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time—Mark Haddon
- This one's mine; I loved it. It's told from the POV of an autistic boy and has points of hilarity and pathos.
The Kite Runner -- Khaled Hosseini
- Another great one; very powerful; I think most of you have probably heard of this!
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
- Much more a young adult book, told from the POV of a dead girl who watches over her family from heaven and sees what happens after her murder
King Dork -- Frank Portman
- I am very excited to read this one. It helps if you've read Catcher in the Rye. The narrator is a typical teenage boy dealing with high school hell as well as the death of his father. He finds out about his dad through dad's book collection, unearthing a lot he didn't know.
The Path to Purpose: Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life -- William Damon
The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama
Black and White (Speak) -- Paul Volponi
Winesburg, Ohio -- Sherwood Anderson
The Princess Bride – William Goldman
- Yes, what the movie comes from, and the book is much better!
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie
The Eyes of the Dragon – Stephen King
- Fantasy: A kingdom of old, an evil wizard, a conspiracy against the king...fun stuff.
So I'll be looking at some of those this summer. For those of you who actually have time to read, I think this makes for a pretty full list. Enjoy!
1 comment:
Great school reading idea! You'll have to let me know how it works out. We wanted to do this with the upper elementary kids one year, but the grouchy old teachers didn't want to do it and it flopped. Thanks for the reading list! Since we'll be doing a lot of traveling this summer, I may actually have time to read something!
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