90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Gallis

I have to admit that I chose this book because I had to include a couple of “middle school books” on my reading list and I did not think that it would be something I would seriously consider reading with my students, but I was wrong.  This is a book that anyone at any age could enjoy.  It happens to be about a young boy, I think about 9 or 10 years old, but it tells of an entertaining adventure and emotional struggles that anyone would enjoy reading or could relate to.  I chose this book over many other middle school titles because it describes a scenario that many of my students can relate to and I wanted to learn more about – moving to Miami from Cuba and adjusting to a new culture.  This story takes place during the 1960’s, when 14,000 children were sent to America from Cuba without their parents to escape the revolution and the new regime.  Even my students from other Latin American countries probably would learn about a time in history that they didn’t know much about.  This book lends itself easily to cross-curricular extension activities such as learning about the Cuban revolution or about America’s changing policies regarding Cuban refugees.  I think that it could also be a great tool for introducing a unit on bullying, which is a very important topic for today’s schools. 

In the story, Julian (the young protagonist) has to defend himself against a bully-turned-mini-dictator in the children’s refugee camp in Miami.  At first he has his brothers’ protection, but once they are taken from him he uses his cleverness and his sense of morality to help set things right in the camp so that none of the children have to be tormented anymore.  He even navigates his way through the streets of Miami and eventually the 90 mile stretch of water that separates Cuba from the United States to help rescue others from Cuba.  He becomes a hero in more ways than one, and when he is reunited with his family in Connecticut and starts school there, he is no longer intimidated by anyone.

I think this book could lead to a variety of writing assignments, and this could be a perfect opportunity to provide a choice for students.  They could write a personal narrative about an experience they have had with a bully, a mini-research paper about the effects of bullying or how it can be prevented, or they could write a short story about someone who faces a bully.  This would allow all students to learn more, develop empathy, and/or express their own struggles – whichever that student needs to do, he or she would have the opportunity to do.



Reading Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading

I thought the title of this book was clever, and a topic that my students would enjoy, so I decided to give it a try (even though I teach high school seniors and this book is clearly targeted to a middle school audience).  It was an enjoyable read, and short (which my students would appreciate!).  Most of my students would certainly relate to Charlie Joe’s animosity towards reading, but I am not sure they would be able to relate to much else.  Despite his opposition to reading, he is very intelligent and articulate.  He even admits that he is a pretty good writer and doesn’t mind doing it.  The only thing my students like less than reading is writing, so that might alienate them a bit.  I also worry that Charlie Joe’s white, upper-middle class family, friends, and school might turn my students off.  Charlie Joe’s dad is a lawyer; most of my students don’t really even have dads.  Charlie Joe hates reading because his dad gave him a bunch of books for his 6^th birthday; my students hate reading because they can’t do it very well.

Despite these differences, I still think I might consider reading at least some of this book aloud to my students.  The chapters are all very short, so it lends itself very well to read-alouds.  I was thinking of reading the section about when his hatred of reading began (the birthday presents).  I could use this as a writing prompt and ask my students to write about when they decided that they didn’t like to read and what prompted that decision.  Since they are so much older and wiser now (being seniors and all) maybe realizing how immature they were when they reached that conclusion might make them reconsider it.  One can hope, anyway…

Choices

Our school used the Edge textbook program, which is published by Hampton-Brown.  Each unit is organized around a theme, such as loyalty.  Each unit includes three trade books, each at a distinct difficulty level.  I believe that motivation is such an important component to reading that I feel the need to provide my students with a choice, rather than requiring students to read a book based solely on the lexile level.  I believe that students will gain more from reading a book that is somewhat “easy” than they would by pretending to read a more challenging book that does not appeal to their interests.  On the other hand, a student might be capable of reading a more challenging book than would be expected if the motivation is there to try.  Restricting students’ choices based solely on a lexile ranking is one of the most frequent complaints I have heard from students, teachers, and parents about the AR program. 

I encourage student choice by introducing each book with a youtube video trailer and asking students to jot down notes about each book as they view the trailers.  Then I ask them to rank the books in order of preference.  I review their choices, and try to allow each student to read his or her first choice book.  If I notice that a student has selected a book as a first choice that I think could be too difficult, I explain this to him or her.  Then I will show the book and ask him or her to “take 5” – read about 5 fingers length of text aloud and count how many errors are made.  If a student makes more than 5 errors in that length of text, the book is probably too difficult.  At that point I would strongly encourage the student to make another choice. 

The books my students had to choose from most recently were Two Badges by Mona Ruiz, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Wave by Todd Strasser.  Below are two of the trailers I used to introduce these books.

An interview with the author of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah.

I’ll take a class set of this book!

I recently finished reading A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah, and this is a book that I definitely plan to read with my students.  Ishmael was recruited as a soldier in Sierra Leone at the age of thirteen, after losing his entire family and his home during a raid by rebel soldiers.  At first he wandered the jungles aimlessly with a group of boys, searching for food and some sort of comfort.  His anger with the rebels who killed his family, combined with hunger and exhaustion, ultimately led him to join the army that was fighting against the rebels.  He quickly became addicted to the drugs they were fed regularly and became an unscrupulous killing machine.  After two years of this life he was rescued by UNICEF and slowly rehabilitated.  His eloquence and insight led to an opportunity to speak against the atrocities of war at the U.N. in New York City, and eventually a permanent home in New York.

Even though the violence described in this book is sometimes disturbing, I think it is a very important story to share with my students.  To teenagers who often glorify violence and drug use, this story could be a wake-up call.  I would also hope that by learning about the challenges that young people face growing up in other parts of the world would instill a greater appreciation for the comfortable lives teenagers in America lead and a sense of empathy for those who are not so fortunate.  That is why I chose to create a webquest based on this book for my literature enrichment project.  This book invites investigation into many important topics, especially the ways that children are impacted by war and violence in other parts of the world.

Disappointed

Last night I finished reading Burned by Ellen Hopkins.  It was about a Mormon teenage girl named Pattyn living in Nevada with her abusive father and six sisters.  She is the oldest child and is depended upon by her mother to help with taking care of most of the chores and looking after her younger siblings.  She gets into trouble drinking and hanging out with a boy (a non-Mormon boy at that) and is spent to stay with her aunt in rural, northern Nevada for the summer.  Her aunt turns out to be far more understanding and supportive than her parents, and Pattyn spends some of the happiest days of her life at her aunt's ranch that summer.  Most importantly, she falls in love with a young man who lives just down the road.  Despite frequent foreshadowing that things are not going to turn out well for the young couple, I was really rooting for them.  The book has a very tragic ending, and I have to admit I almost threw it across the room when I finished it!  I wanted so badly for things to work out for them.  I know that happily ever after is not the most realistic ending to a story, especially to a teenage love story, but why does everything have to go so horribly wrong?  The book also made me angry with the government and the Mormon faith.  I'm not sure that the author intended to make the reader so ticked off at the world, but that was the result of reading that book for me anyway.  I am going to have to choose a more uplifting story to read next...

I am so glad I read this book

I have to say that I connected personally to this story in ways I haven’t connected to a book in a long time.  It takes place in a fictional town in Mississippi called Bois Sauvage, which I am fairly certain is based on the author’s hometown of DeLisle.  I feel certain about this because my hometown is literally 10 minutes down the road from there.  I was already living in Florida when Katrina struck, but my parents – especially my father – suffered a direct hit.  My father lived in Pass Christian, which must be the beach town the author described that was completely annihilated.  My father’s home was gone – not a board left.  Katrina hit Sunday night and into Monday morning.  I was there by Wednesday with a truck full of supplies that had been generously donated to me by my friends and coworkers as soon as they heard about my family’s plight.  Since there was no cell phone reception, I drove and walked (in places cars couldn’t get through) all over what was left of Pass Christian (north of the train tracks, just as the author described) asking everyone if they knew my father and had seen him.  I was eventually able to get word to him and ensure that he was safe.  He was a volunteer firefighter in the community, so even though he was staying in what looked like a small airplane hanger with several other families, he insisted on staying and helping with the efforts to clear debris and rebuild.  For me, it was a terrifying and traumatic experience that I will never forget – and I wasn’t even there for the storm!  That is why I am so glad I read this book, because Ward describes the experience with such amazing detail that I now feel like I understand what it was like for so many people who suffered through this experience.  There are many stories like the one Ward told of people drowning or almost drowning in their homes.  A close friend of my mother’s lost her mother because she refused to climb into the attic with the rest of the family. 

Aside from the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina, this book tells the story of a teenage girl, Esch, who lives with her three brothers and alcoholic father in very poor conditions.  Esch is bright and sensitive, despite the unwise decisions she makes when it comes to boys and sex.  She discovers that she is pregnant just days before Katrina hits.  Afterwards she is left trying to figure out how her now homeless family is going to take care of a baby. 

All of the characters in this book are complex.  Esch’s brother Skeetah adores and dotes on his pitbull China, yet he puts her into dog fights.  Skeetah and the other older brother, Randall, will stoop to breaking and entering and stealing if it is necessary to take care of those that they love.  Profanity, drug and alcohol use, and promiscuity are a part of their everyday lives.  They are not perfect, but they are real.  These controversial topics could lend to some very interesting classroom discussions and writing assignments.

Many students would connect with these characters, but this is not a book for everybody.  I would not teach it to any grade level below 12^th, and then I would still probably send parent permission slips home.  The writing itself is beautiful, full of figurative language and lengthy imagery, but it may be difficult for some of my struggling readers to grasp.  What I love about this book, though, is that the characters and plot are so relatable that I think those struggling readers would want to read it and would be willing to make the effort to understand it.  This could be a breakthrough experience for those students that could take them to the next level as readers.