June - Six Month Postmortem

Here we are, at the halfway point. I'm having a hard time keeping up with my various goals, but then I always knew that what I'd laid out for myself was practically impossible. So far, I've read 80 books. I'm completely on track for YA and short story collections. I'm only behind one for Poetry thanks to my decision to count novels in verse.  I've only read about half the adult novels I need to at this point and I'm woefully behind in nonfiction. All in all, I've read 23, 515 pages of text.

As far as the writing goes, I've been inconsistent with the blog. I'm going to work on stepping that up and adding my creative writing time in which so far practically hasn't happened at all.

YA Literature (15,912 total pages)

1. Yummy: The Last  Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri (1/1/2017) - 96 pages
2. El Deafo by Cece Bell (1/1/2017) -248 pages
3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (1/2/2017) -320 pages
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (1/6/2017) -550 pages
5. Code Orange by Caroline B. Cooney (1/12/2017) - 195 pages
6. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (1/14/2017) - 304 pages
7. *Crewel by Gennifer Albin (1/15/2017) - 353 pages
8. Clementine by Sara Pennypacker (1/21/2017) -136 pages
9. On the Devil's Court by Carl Deuker (1/22/2017) - 201 pages
10. *All-American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely (1/26/2017)- 315 pages
11. *Altered by Gennifer Albin (1/27/2017) - 387 pages
12. *Unraveled by Gennifer Albin (1/28/2017) -288 Pages
13. Tangerine by Edward Bloor (2/8/2017) - 303 pages
14. Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans by Don Brown* (GN) (2/13/2017) - 93 pages
15. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (2/19/2017) -485 pages
16. The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs (2/18/2017) - 188 pages
17. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (3/1/2017) - 453 pages
18. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (3/3/2017)  - 541 pages
19. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare (3/4/2017) - 424 pages
20. *City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (3/8/2017) - 533 pages
21. Masterpiece by Elise Broach (3/9/2017) - 288 pages
22. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (3/22/2017) - 182 pages
23. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (3/25/2017) - 476 pages
24. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (3/27/2017) - 502 pages
25. *Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (3/28/2017) - 568 pages
26. The Maze Runner by James Dashner (4/25/2017) - 384 pages
27. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (5/3/2017) - 362 pages
28. The Death Cure by James Dashner (5/5.2017) - 325 pages
29. Mister Monday by Garth Nix (5/8/2017) - 384 pages
30. Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix (5/8/2017) - 336 pages
31. Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix (5/15/2017) - 389 pages
32. Sir Thursday by Garth Nix (5/23/2017) - 344 pages
33. Lady Friday by Garth Nix (5/27/2017) - 320 pages
34. Superior Saturday by Garth Nix (5/29/2017) - 336 pages
35. Lord Sunday by Garth Nix (5/30/2017) - 320 pages
36. Hope was Here by Joan Bauer (5/30/2017) - 186 pages
37. Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs Dunphrey by Margaret Peterson Haddix (5/31/2017) - 128 pages
38. Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac (6/1/2017) -224 pages
39. Looking For Alaska by John Green (6/2/2017) - 221 pages
40. Whip It by Shauna Cross (6/5/2017) - 234 pages
41. How to Train Your Dragon: Book 1 (Special Collector's Edition with Brand-New Short Stories) by Cressida Cowell (6/8/2017) - 407 pages
42. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (6/9/2017) - 382 pages
43. Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury (6/12/2017) - 246 pages
44. The Fall by Garth Nix (6/15/2017) - 208 pages
45. Castle by Garth Nix (6/16/2017) - 224 pages
46. Aenir by Garth Nix (6/16/2017) - 240 pages
47. Above the Veil by Garth Nix (6/17/2017) - 256 pages
48. Into Battle by Garth Nix (6/18/2017) - 208 pages
49. The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics by Norman Juster (6/18/2017) - 80 pages
50. The Violet Keystone by Garth Nix (6/18/2017) - 233 pages
51. Bearstone by Will Hobbs (6/24/2017) - 154 pages
52. Spud by John van de Ruit (6/30/2017) - 352 pages

Short Story Collections (1,230 total pages)

1. Confessions of a High School Word Nerd edited by Arianne Cohen & Colleen Kinder (1/3/2017) -168 pages
2.  The Case Against Tomorrow by Frederik Pohl (3/20/2017) - 150 pages
3. Across the Wall by Garth Nix (3/30/2017) - 305 pages
4. To Hold the Bridge by Garth Nix (4/7/2017) - 432 pages
5. Twelve Impossible things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen (6/20/2017) - 175 pages

Adult Literature (5,514 total pages)

1. Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff (1/4/2017) -227 pages
2. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (1/21/2017) - 350 pages
3. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (1/25/2017) -386 pages
4. Animal Man by Grant Morrison (GN)
1. Volume 1 (1/29/2017) - 240 pages
2. Volume 2: Origin of the Species (1/30/2017) - 224 pages
3. Volume 3: Deus ex Machina (1/30/2017) - 232 pages
5. Sabriel by Garth Nix (2/12/2017) - 491 pages
6. Lirael by Garth Nix (2/27/2017) - 488 pages
7. Abhorsen by Garth Nix (3/11/2017) - 358 pages
8. Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett (3/13/2017) - 373 pages
9. *Clariel by Garth Nix (3/15/2017) - 382 pages
10. *Goldenhand by Garth Nix (3/18/2017) - 344 pages
11. Marvels by Kurt Busiek (GN 4/7/2017) - 216 pages
12. Kick-Ass #1 by Mark Millar (GN 4/8/2017) - 216 pages
13. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers (4/17/2017) - 240 pages
14. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett (6/4/2017) - 377 pages
15. Soul Music by Terry Pratchett (6/24/2017) - 373 pages

Poetry/Novel in Verse (719 pages)

1. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (2/13/2017) - 169 pages
2. Above the Dreamless Dead edited by Chris Duffy (6/4/2017) - 144 pages
3. The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom (6/19/2017) -169 pages
4. The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (6/25/2017) - 237 pages

Professional and Nonfiction (140 total pages)

1. A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart (6/6/2017) - 140 pages

The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle

The verse novel is a funny little genre. Its roots are in the ancient epics like Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Beowulf. These epics are culturally invaluable as a common literary thread and form a foundation for most of the western literary tradition. The verse novel is a separate modern tradition that saw its initial popularity in the early and mid 19th century. Then it faded out, but not completely. There's a steady trickle of examples through the twentieth century particularly in 60's (everywhere) and in the Caribbean.

A recent revival of the form has happened in YA lit starting in the early 2000's. There are dozens and dozens of examples at this point and I've had great success getting reluctant readers to read them. There's something about the greater white space on the page,the lyricism, and language play that works for kids who struggle finding books to read for the full range of reasons.

The Surrender Tree is the story of Cuba's struggle for independence from Spanish rule. It is a verse novel told from five points of view but mainly focusing on Rosa la Bayamesa who was an herbal healer hunted by the Spanish as an escaped slave. Rosa is a historical figure as are most of the characters in the novel and many of the events in the story are real historical events, but the narrative is highly fictionalized.

Rosa lived almost her entire life running from slave hunters and caring for the various refugees from the intermittent war with Spain. She didn't just help the Cubans either. She also helped wounded Spanish soldiers some of which defected to the Cuban side.

I liked the immediacy of the voice and the connection of the story to the jungles and healing plants. I got a real sense of the anxiety and hopelessness of the situation and various voices, all of them Cuban of one sort or another, gave different perspectives on the events. I didn't like what ended up feeling like a dearth of information. The verse novel can be a very sparse form for conveying historical context and I finished the book feeling a little like the characters existed in these little Cuba-scented bubbles.

Overall, The Surrender Tree is a good gateway text to Cuban history and an excellent example of the verse novel featuring the fairly typical multiple voice format.

Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen

It seems like most everyone knows Jane Yolen for a book I've never gotten around to reading: The Devil's Arithmetic. I've been reading her since I was age appropriate for what she writes, but I always focused on her Pit Dragons series which I absolutely adored in my dragon-obsessed youth. However, even that doesn't really do her justice. Yolen has written dozens and dozens of kids, middle-reader, and teen books. I actually had no idea just how prolific she was until I did a little poking around in preparation for this post.

Twelve Impossible Things is a collection of her short stories - twelve of them. They are all at least decent, and several of them I like quite a bit. Yolen is a master of capturing a narrative voice. While they are all typically Yolen, each story has a strong and distinct narrative voice that ranges in age, nationality, and regionality. All the stories are fantasy based and have a good mix of themes a protagonist types.

Particularly, I liked:

• "Sea Dragon of Fife" - which is a story with the feel of a Scottish fish tale. It's set in a sort of fantasy version of Scotland and revolves around a fishing family who have just suffered the loss of two of their boys to a sea dragon attack. What I love about this was the voice and easy use of fishing terminology; I really felt like I was dunked right into a scottish seaside village.
• "Mama Gone" - a vampire story. It really feels like some authors are trying to reclaim vampires as figures of horror and good on them, vampires are supposed to be scary. This story isn't as scary as it is intensely sad. The story is told from the point of view of the pre-adolescent Mandy-Jane who must care for her siblings and father after her mother dies. It's a vaguely frontier setting with a vaguely folk tale type feel.
• "The Bridge's Complaint" - I love this one for it's narrator. This entire story is a version of the "Billy Goats Gruff" told from the point of view of the bridge.
• "Winter's King" -  another melancholy story that plays with levels of reality and the idea of Faery. This story has a more distant narrator who tells about a boy snatched from death as a newborn and as a result never really belongs to the human world. It's an interesting take on the idea of a changeling.

All the stories were worth reading and appropriate
for readers middle school and up, but I liked the introduction wherein Yolen talks about writing and what it means to be an adult who still plays in imaginative landscapes. It spoke to me as a writer.

Bearstone by Will Hobbs

Sometimes I pick up a book because I need it to fill a gap. That's how I found this book. Next year, the reading challenge is going to have a tile about reading books about, by, or featuring an indigenous people. The obvious pick for us in the States is to read something by or about Native Americans but it really could be any displaced or, for lack of a better word, conquered extant people.

 I've actually read a fair bit in this area but not much that would be inherently appealing to teens. So, to avoid stocking the section entirely with books by Sherman Alexie and Chinua Achebe (both excellent authors) I've started casting about for options. That's how I tripped across Bearstone.

Cloyd Atcitty is a "troubled teen." His mom is dead and dad disappeared.He's run away, skipped school for years, and basically run wild in the canyons around his grandmother's home. So, his tribe decides to send him to a boys group home where he does not improve. The woman who runs the group home sends him into the mountains of Colorado to work the farm of a friend named Walter.

Up in the mountains, Cloyd has the opportunity to work hard and explore the mountain wilderness and comes to some realizations about himself and the nature of family.

I have mixed feelings. It was a very good story but the writing was a little clunky and many of the situations were implausible at best. I guess it's hitting me square in the educator button. I don't know much about tribal organizations but I don't think they would remove a kid from his home simple truancy. Additionally, assuming he's been removed, I have a hard time believing a state run facility would ship a kid up to some guy's farm even if they are an old friend of the director. The book was written in the 80's so maybe things were different. I don't know.

Aside from those issues, I think the emotional journey Cloyd undertakes in an interesting one. His reactions to situations reads true to me and reminds me of several kids I've taught over the years. Walter's capacity for forgiveness is a little unbelievable, but he's an amazing character who I wish we were given more information on.

Summer Reading Challenge Completed

Reading challenges are weird things. I finished the school's summer reading challenge today, but it took me twice as long as I expected it to. I got really hung up on the collection of short stories tile and the non-human protagonist tile, neither of which did I expect to be a problem. In the end I read nearly 15 books that were parts of series (tile 7) and nearly as many that won awards (tile 1) before I found my non-human protagonists. I guess that's just how it goes.

1. Read a Book that Won an Award: Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer 
2. Read a Book with A Non-Human Main Character: The Dot & the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics by Norman Juster
3. Read a Book recommended by Family, Friend, or Teacher: Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats US Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form by Paul Lockhart
4. Read a Collection of Essays or Short Stories: Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen
5. Free Space: Whip It by Shauna Cross
6. Read a Book Featuring a Place You've Never Been: Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
7. Read a Book that is Part of a Series: Lord Sunday (Keys to the Kingdom book 7) by Garth Nix
8. Read a Book about Something that Actually Happened: Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac
9. Read a Book with a Mystery: Looking For Alaska by John Green (What happened to Alaska?)

Good luck everyone who's still working on it!

The Dot & the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics by Norman Juster

Ok, I admit it. This one feels like a little bit of a cheat. It's only 80 pages long and mostly pictures. However, I needed something with a non-human protagonist for the summer reading challenge, Ryan recommended it, and I'm trying to shed some of my book-snob habits. Additionally, I know Norman Juster from The Phantom Tollbooth which, if you've never read, you should give it a gander. (It's good stuff in Children's Lit)

The Dot & the Line isn't really children's lit even though it's presented that way. There are actually some meaty themes in there about the difference between looking interesting and actually being interesting. And, of course, it is an ode to the coolness of Math. In any case, I'm not going to be one of those people who write reviews longer than the work that I'm reviewing. Suffice it to say that it was a fun little read and worthwhile despite of, or even because of, its length. What do you really have to lose,  after all?

Masterlist Revised

I often imagine the world of books like a vast ocean. When I'm reading, it is like I'm floating on the words and the ideas are like vast currents pushing and pulling at my mind. However, thinking about reading is different. Sometimes it is overwhelming, like standing on the dock and staring up, up, up at the leading edge of a tsunami.

No matter how much I read, there is always more. The more I talk about reading, the more people recommend books. It's a wonderful thing.

But it's also why these lists get out of control. I've been spending a lot of time spending less money than one would think buying books for my classroom library which is why the YA category has exploded. I've also put more thought into the other categories and added back books from some of my other sub projects.

In other news - I'm only 20 books behind pace....catching up!

YA Books

1. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
2. Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson
3. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
4. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson
5. Feed by M.T. Anderson
6. The Islands at the End of the World by Austin Aslan
7. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
8. Nothing but the Truth by Avi
9. The Seer of Shadows by Avi
10. The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
11. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
12. Dove Arising by Karen Bao
13. Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett
14. Peeled by Joan Bauer
15. Stand Tall by Joan Bauer
16. Sticks by Joan Bauer
17. Tamsin by Peter Beagle
18. Exodus by Julie Bertagna
19. The Hanged Man by Francesca Lia Block
20. Rose and the Beast by Francesca Lia Block
21. Story Time by Edward Bloor
22. Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach
23. Stolen by Lucy Christopher
24. The Pants Project by Cat Clarke
25. Burning Up by Caroline B. Cooney
26. The Terrorist by Caroline B. Cooney
27. Fade by Robert Cormier
28. The Eye of Minds by James Dashner
29. The Rule of Thoughts by James Dashner* (UF)
30. The Game of Lives by James Dashner* (UF) 
31. Wither by Lauren Destefano
32. Heart of a Champion by Carl Deuker
33. Runner by Carl Deuker 
34. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
35. The Battle of Jericho by Sharon Draper
36. Fire From the Rock by Sharon Draper
37. November Blues by Sharon Draper
38. A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer
39. Life is Funny by E.R. Frank
40. Girls Like Us by Gail Giles
41. Book Jumper by Mechthild Glaser
42. The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going
43. Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
44. Twerp by Mark Goldblatt
45. Paper Towns by John Green
46. Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix
47. One for Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn
48. Under the Bridge by Michael Harmon
49. The Someday Suitcase by Corey Ann Haydu
50. Olive's Ocean Kevin Henkes
51. The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry
52. Bearstone by Will Hobbs
53. Incantations by Alice Hoffman
54. I Am David by Anne Holm
55. When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt
56. Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes
57. Girl Vs. Boy Band: The High Note by Harmony Jones
58. Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin
59. Very Far Away From Anywhere Else by Ursula K. Le Guin
60. Louisa the Poisoner by Tanith Lee
61. A Coyote's in the House by Elmore Leonard
62. Day of Tears by Julius Lester
63. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
64. The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore 
65. The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore
66. The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore (UF)
67. The Revenge of Seven by Pittacus Lore (UF)
68. The Fate of Ten by Pittacus Lore (UF)
69. United as One by Pittacus Lore (UF)
70. Hero by Mike Lupica
71. Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
72. Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers
73. Slam! by Walter Dean Myers
74. Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
75. A Step from Heaven by An Na
76. The Violet Keystone by Garth Nix
77. Big Mouth & Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
78. Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen
79. Lawn Boy Returns by Gary Paulsen
80. Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus
81. Bullyville by Francine Prose
82. A List of Cages by Robin Roe
83. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
84. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
85. The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski
86. A Good Horse by Jane Smiley
87. Jack's Run by Roland Smith
88. Peak by Roland Smith
89. The Taker by J.M. Steele
90. Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater
91. Lament by Maggie Stiefvater
92. Spud by John Van de Ruit
93. So Be. It by Sarah Weeks
94. Jack: Secret Histories by F. Paul Wilson
95. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
96. The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
97. Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen
98. Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak

Nonfiction/Professional Learning

1. Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions by Elizabeth Andoh
2. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
3. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
4. Turbulent Mirror by John Briggs and F. David Peat (Ryan Rec)
5. Chasing Shadows by Fred Burton and John Bruning
6. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
7. Living Faith by Jimmy Carter
8. Mini-Lessons For Literature Circles by Harvey Daniels & Nancy Steineke
9. Making a Collection Count: A Holistic Approach to Library Collection Management by Holly Hibner and Mary Kelly
10. The Dark Game by Paul Janeczko
11. Boardwalk Empire by Nelson Johnson
12. 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature by Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald & Dawn B. Sova
13. George Washington's Secret Six by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger
14. Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers by Penny Kittle
15. Choice Cuts by Mark Kurlansky
16. Reading Ladders by Teri S. Lesesne (RR)
17. Good-Bye Round Robin: 25 Effective Oral Reading Strategies by Michael F. Opitz & Timothy V. Rasinski
18. A Wing and a Prayer by Katharine Jefferts Schori
19. Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units by Peter Smagorinsky
20. "You Gotta BE the Book": Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading with Adolescents by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm 
21. The Sacred Wisdom of the Native Americans by Larry J. Zimmerman

Short Story & Essay Collections

1. The Human Fly and Other Stories by T.C. Boyle
2. Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon
3. Wizards: Magical Tales From the Masters of Modern Fantasy edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
4. The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
5. Fantasy Stories edited by Diana Wynne Jones
6. Rag & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt

Poetry & Novels in Verse

1. The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle
2. Sold by Patricia McCormick

Adult Fiction

1. Company by Max Barry (Ryan Rec, RR)
2. Machine Man by Max Barry (Ryan Rec)
3. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
4. King Rat by James Clavell (Ryan Rec)
5. Circuit of Heaven by Dennis Danvers (Ryan Rec)
6. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
7. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Ryan Rec)
8. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (Sandy Rec)
9. Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (Ryan Rec)
10. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
11. Swan Song by Robert McCammon (Ryan Rec)
12. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
13. The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
14. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
15. Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
16. Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
17. Maskerade by Terry Pratchett
18. Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
19. Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff (Ryan Rec)
20. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (Ryan Rec)

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

When my students recommend books, I do my best to track them down and read them. However, I have to admit some of my students are more discerning than others and that when they recommend something I really take note. Little Brother was recommended by two such students.

I think one of the most valuable things that literature does, is present facets of reality in a way that frees the mind to really think about them. When we look at what is going on in the world, our perception is loaded down with masses of expectation, preconception, fear, and denial: "That could never happen to us." When we read fiction, we can look at a model of some of those real-world situations, without our reality-baggage weighing us down. Only after the reading, does it sometimes become clear the connection between the fiction and the reality. That's the power of some of the really great pieces of literature such as George Orwell's 1984 which was an illustrated caution of what happens when the government watches the people instead of the people watching the government.

In 1948 the post WWII British government was scrutinizing its populace in a way that was impossible in previous eras. Orwell, always deeply suspicious of government, wrote 1984 as a response and it struck a chord. It was, and is, chilling just how predictive it ended up being. 'Orwellian' became a common term for justified paranoia about government scrutiny. For a time, people talked about the relationship between language and thought patterns ("newspeak") and dogmatic conditioned response ("5 minute hate.") These things were chilling because elements already existed in the world in the less extreme forms of propaganda. It provided access to a necessary conversation about the role of the governed in the government.

But, we forget these lessons or we need to rephrase them for new generations. Little Brother is a direct inheritor of Orwell's 1984.

Marcus is a pretty typical High School student in San Francisco. He's savvy to network security and can get around most things if he really wants to. He plays games online, doesn't watch broadcast TV, and get's most of his information from the internet. So, yeah pretty much the kids I teach, day to day.

Things change for Marcus when terrorists bomb the Bay Bridge. The Department of Homeland Security cruises in and takes control. Unfortunately for Marcus, he gets picked up off the street and detained without due process in a secret facility where he's questioned for days. Eventually he is released, but he San Francisco he is returned to is under the scrutiny of the DHS. Ordinary people are scrutinized and the city under martial law is a dark place.

Marcus fights back, the only way he can.

What I liked about Little Brother is how well Doctorow updates the ideas of 1984. While the actual plot is very different, so is the world. Out and out war is no longer the bogeyman, terrorist attack is. Much like Orwell, Doctorow is pointing out that a populace that is afraid will, on the whole, give up their rights for the promise of security. Additionally, the digital revolution has changed the world. Most of the time we are giving up freedoms mainly because we are ignorant of how the internet really works. The potential for abuse is astounding.

Little Brother asks us some very relevant questions and challenges us to think about how the internet really works. I have to admit, while I would rate myself as above average in technical savvy, I know that I am still woefully ignorant. What terrifies me is that I know I have a better understanding than many of the legislators making decisions and setting policy.

It's something to think on.

Taking a Break

I took a couple day breather from reading. I'd like to say I used the time productively, but mostly I played video games, played with Thomas, and watched episodes of The Flash. Playing with Thomas is never a waste of time, of course, but refining the rules for tickle war doesn't tend to feel like getting things done. Oh well, a little down time is a good thing.

The Flash is a surprisingly good show for a piece of unrepentant fluff. Ryan noted that there seems to be a trend of making super heroes younger than their comic book counterparts in these adaptations. I think they are trying to reach a younger audience but it also gives the character more initial potential for growth. Not only are they figuring out how to be super heroes, they are figuring out how to be adults. It makes sense.

The garden is in a weird little maintenance phase. I've got six melon plants coming up, 10 various summer squash plants, a couple dozen bean vines, and a hodgepodge of winter squash planted. Some are even sprouting. My tomato plants are fruiting - heavily- and I'm going to go out and pick my first jalepeno tomorrow.  Things are progressing.

A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart

Ryan recommended this book to me. Actually, I discovered the title at last year's NCTE conference when one of the speakers mentioned in an off-hand kind of way during the last panel I went to. It's about math education and sounded interesting so I ordered it off Amazon for Ryan's Christmas present. I was expecting some sort of weighty tome, what came was a slim little white book of about 140 pages. 

Ryan, being Ryan, was enthusiastic about it and read it over a couple of days. He loved it, and immediately handed back to me as a recommendation. 

I picked it up as a break from fiction. I really only expected to skim the first few pages and then put it aside to read later, but what happened was that I found myself a few hours later still curled into a corner of the couch and turning the last page. It is very readable.

Essentially, this is a polemic. Lockhart states a problem: that the current organization of math education saps the creativity out of mathematics. He defines the problem well and even describes what his ideal of math education is. However, he doesn't really have a solution. Lockhart readily recognizes the limitations of the individual teacher in the current educational climate. 

So, as an English instructor, it may come as a shock that I got as enthralled in a math text as I did. I'm pretty mathy, actually. However, my interest in the text has more to do with the sort of universal issue with today's education. As long as we are, as educators, beholden to these bizarre standardized tests, education is only ever going to cater to the tests. We've all become SAT tutors instead of doing what educators are supposed to be about: guiding and honing the native curiosity of our students. 

The issues that Lockhart mentions are issues in every subject. The problem is that education shouldn't be about memorizing facts (that only helps in team trivia), it should be about teaching students to approach problems with logic and discernment. Anyone can memorize facts at any point of their life. Learning to think, though, is about a pattern of responses that can help a person throughout the entire course of their lives and that is what Lockhart is actually talking about. Stop making it about the subject and start making it about the problems we encounter as part of our everyday lives.

I can't give an overall opinion about this little tome, however I can say that it has me reevaluating how I teach. Maybe that is conclusion enough.

Above the Dreamless Dead edited by Chris Duffy

I have mixed feelings about this one. This is a slim volume that takes world war I trench poetry and repackages it with the illustrations of various Graphic Novel illustrators. The idea, I think, is to move this classic poetry into a format enticing to a younger audience.

Success for something like this is a little hard to assess. Ideally, the illustrations would enhance and illuminate the poetry giving added meaning or somehow make the inherent meaning more accessible. The risk is that the pictures distract from the meaning of the words and the beauty of the language.

Overall, I found the illustration more distracting than helpful. The effect of breaking the lines across multiple cells made the rhythms and rhyme schemes harder to follow and I often lost the thread of the poems while taking in the pictures. Additionally, because of the strong commonality of theme, the excellently drawn and painted pictures ended up rather samey even though executed by some very different artists.

I was already familiar with many of the poems, so all that really happened is I had my high opinion of Wilfred Owen confirmed and discovered that Robert Graves was older than I thought. Still, if it gets a younger generation reading these poems, than it is a worthwhile experiment.

Whip It by Shauna Cross

I have a friend, who for a time, was a roller derby girl skating under the name Double Splatnum. She dressed up in trashy rocker girl wear and painted her face in a stylized Kiss inspired mask. She was pretty hard core and, while I would always credit her with a certain fierceness of spirit, she was also one of the nicest people I know. Not at all violent. It's a strange dichotomy because roller derby is an inherently violent sport. On the surface, it isn't the kind of thing I would expect to find Aimee doing.

There is something appealing about dressing up as some sort of ridiculous tough alter ego. It's like a form of cosplay or LARPing* and people love it. It's a sort of underground phenomenon.

Whip It (originally titled Derby Girl) is a kind of coming of Age story. Bliss is a self described alternateen living in small town Bodeen, Texas. She is a fish out of water. Bodeen is a pretty typical small town. Bliss's mom is completely obsessed with beauty pageants and has pushed Bliss into participating in them all her life. Bliss is not a beauty pageant kind of girl. She wears old t-shirts and duct-taped boots. She listens to underground Indie rock. She wants out of Bodeen almost more than anything.

Bliss discovers Roller Derby. Suddenly, there's something in her life that she's good at and that she enjoys doing. She has something precious to her and she's willing lie to hold on to it.

Whip It is divided into short chapters reminiscent of journal entries. The voice is intimate with the reader inviting us into Bliss's innermost thoughts. It's almost like she is talking directly to us as she navigates her way through this crazy new world. Bliss's voice is full of ironic humor about her surroundings and about herself. I liked the intimacy of the voice and was impressed with hw Cross balanced humor and tension. Bliss is a teenager, so this close of a narration runs the risk of feeling either annoyingly whiney or unrealistically mature. Cross walks a narrow line between the two extremes and pulls off an impulsive yet intelligent young woman. Not at all an easy feat.

Generally, I make a point to read a book before I see the movie adapted from it. In this case though, I saw the movie before I even knew it was a book. I love the movie, probably because it reflects a lot of my experience of what high school was like. Clearly, I'm not from Texas but I did go to school in a small town and it's hard to be a teen in a small town if you aren't interested in the weird little microcosm of high school society. I identify with Bliss because I know what it is to simply not fit in and have that be excruciatingly obvious to everyone around me. The movie is excellent, the book is better. It was like getting an alternate version of one of my favorite movies.

*Live Action Role Playing

Not that I'm trying to catch up...

After my long slump in April and May, I came back to find that I was 27 books behind pace. I wasn't surprised. After all, 200 books a year means reading a book every day and a half, or so. It's a tough goal and I wasn't necessarily going to be heartbroken if I didn't make it. I certainly hadn't been reading enough to keep up with it. So, when I saw how far behind I was, it felt kind of liberating. Sort of like, "Aw shucks, guess that just isn't going to happen. Oh well."

Then I went on a reading binge. Since school ended, I've been reading a book every day and two in a couple of instances. So now I'm only 23 books behind. It doesn't sound like like that big a gain, but when your pace to just tread water is one book every 1.75 days, it's tough to make up ground once you fall behind. Now I wonder if I can catch up this summer after all. Catching up would mean 100 books by the end of June or 117 by the end of July. I'm good, but reading 38 books to catch up by June is a lot of reading. 55 books by the end of July sounds more feasible, but still pretty unlikely.

Who knows. I'm making up ground now, I guess, I'll just see where I am by the end of June and decide if I'm going for it.

Looking For Alaska by John Green

I regularly ask my students to recommend books to me. There are a couple of reasons I do this. The sneaky teacher reason is that it tells me the last book that the student really enjoyed which usually gives me some insight into them as readers. It's a good indication of reading level, reading preference, and, in some cases, personality quirk. For example, if a student tells me that the class novel from the previous year is their favorite book ever, chances are pretty good that I'm going to have to work at establishing trust with the kid because they are probably giving me a 'safe' choice.

The other reason is that I'm genuinely interested in talking to people about books. A person really lights up when they talk about a book that they actually enjoyed. A significant portion of my reading during the school year is driven by student and friend recommendations. When the same book gets recommended by multiple sources, I really take note.

John Green gets recommended to me a lot. As a general rule girls tend to recommend The Fault in Our Stars to me, boys tend to recommend Looking for Alaska. Also, as an interesting point, the boys who recommended Looking for Alaska to me tended to be students I would otherwise describe as struggling readers. I really wanted to read the book; any book that can get my boys to read is worth checking out. However, I couldn't get it through the school library because our copies kept disappearing (another good sign) and the waiting list through my county library was about 30 people deep. I finally got my own copy in my latest mass book buy. (2nd & Charles is selling them for about $2 a copy and they have about 15 copies sitting on the shelf) I devoured it in about a day.

Miles Halter decides to go to boarding school to look for the 'Great Perhaps.' He's an odd kid really. He's obsessed with the last words of famous people and starts the beginning of the novel fighting against a sense of existential ennui which fuels his decision to attend Culver Creek Boarding School. He is quickly immersed in the strange social world of the school and given the ironic nickname of Pudge. His roommate, the Colonel, serves as a guide and friend as he folds him into his social scene with Alaska (her actual name) and Takumi.

Alaska is the this strange free spirit who shifts rapidly between intense free-spirited hijinks, feminist anger, and despair. She's broken and the boys are each in love with her in their own ways. She seems like an analog for Janis Joplin or Grace Slick honestly.

The whole novel is organized in two sections: 'Before' and 'After.' Obviously, something big happens and given that it won a Printz award, it's a safe bet that it's something tragic. It's an interesting format choice actually because it sets up the expectation of the reader for the big event. In the 'Before' section, the tone is mostly humorous and lighthearted. 'After' is much more grim and downbeat. The shift is a big jarring but the setup makes it work.

I like the way Green handles grief in this. There is no simple solution and there is no pat reasoning. This is a book that embraces the ambiguity of sudden tragedy and acknowledges that truth that even if we can answer all the 'whys' of an event, we still will be no closer to really understanding.

Clearly oriented towards a more male audience, there are things in here that some parents may object to including substance abuse and sexuality. However, I believe these things are in service to the plot and, for me at least, Green's treatment of the greater themes outweighs that concern. I would recommend this book to many of my students.

Master List Reboot

So, now that I'm back on track with the reading, it's time to reboot the Master List. While I don't take these lists super serious, it does have one going when I'm at a loss for what to read next. The vast majority of these books were bought to fill in gaps in my classroom library so I'm going to be blasting through some YA to get them read before August. As always, this is fluid. There are many more books that I intend to read "soon" and I'll tag them on to the list for the next update. However, I think this is enough to get me started.

YA Books
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson
Feed by M.T. Anderson
The Islands at the End of the World by Austin Aslan
Nothing but the Truth by Avi
The Seer of Shadows by Avi
The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Dove Arising by Karen Bao
Stand Tall by Joan Bauer
Sticks by Joan Bauer
Tamsin by Peter Beagle
Exodus by Julie Bertagna
Story Time by Edward Bloor
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
The Terrorist by Caroline B. Cooney
Whip It by Shauna Cross
Wither by Lauren Destefano
Heart of a Champion by Carl Deuker
Runner by Carl Deuker
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
The Battle of Jericho by Sharon Draper
Fire From the Rock by Sharon Draper
November Blues by Sharon Draper
Girls Like Us by Gail Giles
Book Jumper by Mechthild Glaser
Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
Twerp by Mark Goldblatt
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Paper Towns by John Green
Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix
One for Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn
Under the Bridge by Michael Harmon
The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry
Bearstone by Will Hobbs
Incantations by Alice Hoffman
I Am David by Anne Holm
Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin
Very Far Away From Anywhere Else by Ursula K. Le Guin
Louisa the Poisoner by Tanith Lee
Day of Tears by Julius Lester
Hero by Mike Lupica
Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers
Slam! by Walter Dean Myers
A Step from Heaven by An Na
The Fall by Garth Nix
Castle by Garth Nix
Aenir by Garth Nix
Above the Veil by Garth Nix
Into Battle by Garth Nix
The Violet Keystone by Garth Nix
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
Jack's Run by Roland Smith

Nonfiction/Professional Learning
Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions by Elizabeth Andoh
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Chasing Shadows by Fred Burton and John Bruning
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Living Faith by Jimmy Carter
The Dark Game by Paul Janeczko
Boardwalk Empire by nelson Johnson
George Washington's Secret Six by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger
A Wing and a Prayer by Katharine Jefferts Schori
The Sacred Wisdom of the Native Americans by Larry J. Zimmerman

Short Story & Essay Collections
The Human Fly and Other Stories by T.C. Boyle
Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon
The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Fantasy Stories edited by Diana Wynne Jones
Rag & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt

Poetry & Novels in Verse
Above the Dreamless Dead edited by Chris Duffy

Adult Fiction
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
Maskerade by Terry Pratchett
Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Code Talkers by Joseph Bruchac

Let me start off by saying that war novels just aren't my thing. I find the whole notion of war pointless and depressing so reading about it in my fiction isn't high on my list typically. However, many of my students feel differently and I'm trying to push the boundaries of my current experience in YA. Code Talkers was donated to my classroom library and I try to read everything I place on my shelves for my students.

So, here goes.

Code Talkers is a historical novel written concerning an interesting piece of World War II history. I'm not sure how common the knowledge of Navajo Code Talkers are these days. I knew about it, but I pick up a lot of random information in my voluminous reading. It was however top secret for decades after the end of the war.

WWII was a war that relied on secure communications. Massive armies and all their support staff had to be in communication to a greater degree than ever before necessary. The problem was that the Japanese were really good at breaking U.S. codes and had prepared for the war by learning many of the languages spoken here including many of the languages of various Native American groups. However, one language they did not learn, because of it's incredible difficulty to learn, was Navajo. So the U.S. Marine Corps recruited groups of bilingual Navajo to develop a code that was underpinned by the Navajo language. The japanese never broke the code mostly because they couldn't understand the language that it was based on.

This book is a fictionalized account of one of these code talkers, Ned Begay. Ned's story starts when he was six and saying goodbye to his parents for the first time to go to Mission School. One of the goals of these schools was to stamp out the Navajo language with, one can only assume, the great goal of culturally integrating the Navajo into the U.S.'s European derived culture. Ned does well and becomes fluent in English. He continues on to High School, and when Pearl Harbor is bombed, he wants to join the fight. He does, and the novel follows Ned as he survives through the war.

According to Bruchac's Author Note, he had a hard time finding a way to write this story. He wanted to write a book about the Code Talkers but experimented with several different formats before settling on a novel. Apparently, the first draft was more history book than it was story. I think this struggle is evident in the text. The narrator, a much older version of Ned who is telling the story to his grandchildren, always seems oddly removed from the events of the story - almost dispassionate. I think this distance in the voice is a relic of the author's struggle finding a format.

Despite the dispassionate narrative voice, Code Talkers is a good account of the War for young readers. Additionally, it also introduces and addresses several issues about the U.S. treatment of the Navajos and attitudes about their culture including their forced relocation at one point and the campaign to eradicate the language. All in all, it's a good transition to fiction for students who tend to prefer nonfiction.

Don't you Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Sometimes I recognize an author's name and I don't know why. At my last book buying trip I snagged on this book because the author's name seemed familiar. Later, I figured out I recognized it from her book Just Ella which was a 'thing' when I started teaching. In any case, I picked out this specific title to try because of its premise.

Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey is a novel in the form of  a required journal written by a girl named Tish Bonner. Basically, Mrs. Dunphrey makes a deal many English teachers make which is "If you just write, I promise I won't read the entries you tell me not to." (It's a deal I've been tempted to make myself.) So, Tish writes in her journal. She writes even though she almost aims at being a poor student. She writes because there's too much going on in her life, she has no one else to talk to, and Mrs. Dunphrey keeps her promise not to read it.

As the book continues, Tish's home situation deteriorates until she comes to a breaking point and must make a decision.

This book hit me hard. When I finished it, I was in tears and I sat stunned for several minutes. The reasons for this are complicated and personal to myself.

First, it hit me right in an anxiety button. I've never been in a situation where there was not enough money or food to take care of the necessities, but it's always been one of my driving fears. I don't know why. Tish's situation in the book takes that basic fear and gives it a hard twist because, as a 16 year old with a younger brother to watch out for, her options for providing enough money to live on are very limited.

Second, I spent most of the book frustrated and angry and Mrs. Dunphrey for not seeing the warning signs that something serious was wrong with Tish. Of course, I know it's not that easy. It's not easy for me when I have 10 students in a classroom and I cannot imagine how impossibly difficult it is for someone with 30 or 40 students in a room at a time.

In the end, the resolution relies on the trust Mrs. Dunphrey earns with Tish by keeping her word. Still, it was very hard to read and very good.

Thematically, this book is about neglect and resiliency. It's about the love of a sister who tries to protect her brother. It is about a teenager dealing with sexual harassment of her manager at her job and her limitations in dealing with him because of her desperate need for money. In an overarching way, it is about both the flaws of the educational system and the strengths of individual teachers. It is a beautiful and tough book.