Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Christmas Reading

So, it's the day after Christmas and I'm already bored.  I was going to tackle taking down the Christmas decorations, but I thought that I maybe should wait a little longer than a day.  I wouldn't want people thinking that I'm a Scrooge!  (Allusion...)

I finished reading Keeper of the Night on Christmas Eve.  It is by Kimberly Willis Holt who also wrote When Zachary Beaver Came to Town which I liked.  I have to admit that I select books based upon the cover and/or the author.  I do read the back, but I tend to also put a lot of value on the quotes about the book made by other authors.  When I'm shopping for books on Amazon, I put a lot of value on the reviews.  (Amazon update...I have only purchased books from Amazon twice over break!)

Keeper of the Night is set in Guam.  While the acknowledgements at the beginning make reference to the people of Guam, I would have liked to have more background knowledge about the setting before diving into the book.  The story is told from Isabel's perspective and it revolves around how she copes with her mother's suicide.  Not a lot of action, but enough to keep my interest and want to keep reading.  I really enjoyed the author interview at the end of the book.  Would I recommend this book to my class?  Probably not to most of them. 

I'm currently reading The Watch That Ends The Night.  It is a book told in verse about the Titanic.  Each poem rotates from over 20 different characters' point of view.  Confusing?  Pretty much, but you begin to know the characters rather quickly.  I love reading anything about the Titanic, so I'm semi-interested.  There are only a few characters that I'm interested in following including Molly Brown.  There are some "facts" that I have googled to find out their validity.   The author, Allan Wolf, had to do an incredible amount of research for this novel.  Would I recommend this book to my class?  If somone is a Titanic freak, they would enjoy it.  I think that most would find it cumbersome and give up. 

I'm also working on a poetry unit to start the new year.  I have not ever done a poetry unit with 7th grade, so it is something completely new.  My goal is to make the unit interactive and fun while still covering some of the classics.  I have to admit that I do not know a large number of the "classics", so I am learning too!

If you are a student of mine and reading this, post a comment to my blog.  Extra credit for the third nine weeks will be yours!!!!

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