WhatMissKelleyIsReading

Reading Goals and #nerdprintz

(Please ignore everything on this blog other than this post. I switched to a free account a few months ago, and this is the default theme. Everything is out of date, but I'm unwilling to spend time on this until I decide how to use this space moving forward.)

I have a love/ignore relationship to reading challenges.

As a first grader, the summer reading program at the Tacoma Public Library changed my life. I read 100+ books in an attempt to meet the mayor, and a voracious reader was born. By the time I reached the final summer of my MA at Bread Loaf, however, I swore to never read anything assigned to me ever again. I am, at best, a reluctant member of book clubs, and I refuse to read most books that people tell me I HAVE to read.

Two years ago I started a blog with the stated goal of reading "a book a week"; while I have always read more than that, I wanted to break my habit of reading 16 paranormal/urban fantasy novels in a row. So I challenged myself to read 1 non-"trashy" book each week. (Note: "Trashy" is a term that a friend and I coined in high school, and is applied without judgement to pretty much all adult genre fiction. I say "trashy" with great affection.) That summer I found #bookaday and started following other voracious adult readers like Donalyn Miller and John Schu, and I ratcheted my reading up another notch. My reading goal for 2011 was 365 books, a goal I reached on December 28. (I estimate that at least 100 of those were picture books). I had mixed success at some of my other goals; I don't really blog anymore, so I abandoned the challenges I had entered, but my Twitter PLN and my relationship with booksellers keep me reading newer, better, more diverse books, which was my reason for entering the challenges in the first place. So I'm quite happy with my reading in 2011.

I do believe that part of leading a reading community, which is what we do as a teachers, is constantly pushing ourselves further, so I've set some goals for 2012.

Goal 1: Read 365 books (a book a day). Wait, it's a leap year, right? 366 books.

Goal 2: Read 12 professional development books (a book a month). This has more to do with the number of unread books about reading and writing that I have piled up than a need to challenge myself. There are at least 12 books in the stack that I WANT to read. Hopefully this goal will remind me to read them.

Goal 3: Continue to read through my stack of 2011 Coretta Scott King, Stonewall, and YALSA Non-Fiction winners, and add the 2012 titles (plus the Schneiders) to my stack. I want to revisit the Walden books too.

Goal 4: Start reading the Printz winners and honor books, in chronological order. This is a stretch for me; out of last year's books, only Ship Breaker (and now Please Ignore Vera Dietz since I heard A. S. King speak at ALAN) appeal to me. The rest of the list seems so grim. But if I am going to hold myself up as an expert in YA, even if it is only in my own classroom, then I need to be familiar with what others consider to be the best, even if I sometimes disagree with their choices. (Also, I really wanted to be nerdy like Donalyn and John and Colby Sharp, but many Newbery books are even less appealing to me AND they're old, and if I tried to read Caldecotts from the public library, I would bankrupt myself in late fees. Thus #nerdprintz was born.) I might finish in a year, or two, or never. It depends on whether or not I like the books. I will, at least, start each of them.

Goal 5-?: I have a few more ideas in my head. I want to read all of Sarah Dessen's books (and David Levithan and Laurie Halse Anderson and. . .). I have a dozen or so series to finish or catch up on. I have a growing stack of books written for adults by friends of mine that I really want to read. I need to read a few books that my students are obsessed with. There are Babymouse books unread.

How will I keep track? Goodreads, of course. Over the last two years this site has become central to my reading experience, so I'll be tracking everything there. I'll make a shelf for my various challenges and see how I do. I'm also going to be better about posting about books I love on Twitter and Facebook. I learn a ton from my Twitter friends (Paul Hankins is especially good about promoting great titles), and I need to return the favor. And, of course, #nerdprintz. I'll keep using that hash tag to report on the titles that I read and recommend. I look forward to hearing what my fellow nerdy readers have to say. Please, post your plans there.

And Happy New Year!

Dark Life by Kat Falls

Dark Life by Kat Falls is an underwater adventure story. Falls wrote a story that would entertain her own son, who only liked Westerns, books about the oceans, and comic books. Falls is also an experienced screenwriter, so the book at times also reads likes a movie. These factors combined with a truly original setting make this a book that has been very popular in my classroom.

Ty Townsend, sixteen, was the first child born underwater, where his parents are pioneers following the catastrophic flooding of the earth. He lives with his parents and his sister on an underwater farm, and the family grows crops for the Topsiders who remain on the tiny pieces of land still uncovered. Ty meets Gemma, an orphaned Topsider girl, while exploring one day, and the two of them almost immediately run into the Seablite Gang, outlaws who have been interfering with trade and terrorizing the Benthic Territory where Ty and his family live. Adventure ensues, including a search for Gemma's missing brother, more confrontations with the Seablite Gang, and a mysterious underwater research facility.

Dark Life reads more like a Western pioneer story than a piece of science fiction or dystopian lit, and that's exactly what I liked about it. The book is also fast-paced once the underwater world has been explained. The students in my class read it fast, and immediately demanded the early copy of the sequel that one student won at a bookstore. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure, and I look forward to reading the sequel if I can ever get it back from my students.

Teacher Thoughts:

There's nothing in this book to keep it out of a classroom. In fact, it would make an excellent read aloud or whole class read. This is a book that sparks conversations: Would you live Topside or underwater? Is the Seablite Gang good or bad? Should the Benthic Territory have the right to self-government? I look forward to having these very conversations with my students as they read this book.

Coming this summer:

The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams

The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams, illustrated by Quentin Blake: Dennis lives in an "ordinary house on an ordinary street in an ordinary town." His mother has deserted the family, leaving Dennis with only Dad, his truck-driving father, and John, his older brother. Dennis misses his mother, her hugs and her pretty clothes, and the only really joy in his life is playing soccer. His other interest is fashion, but how is a twelve-year-old boy to express that interest in his blue-collar town with his repressed family?

I loved this book. It was laugh out loud funny in many places, and also very moving, especially when everyone seems to turn against Dennis. The books avoids coming across as a "very special episode", though, because it is so hilarious. Dennis likes sports (he's the star of his team), he likes dresses, and he likes girls. The fact that this bothers the adults around him says much more about them than it does about Dennis.

Teacher thoughts:
There's no reason to keep this book out of the classroom, except for one or two bits of British schoolboy humor that have nothing to do with boys in dresses. I will probably keep it on my desk for a bit and see what happens.

The Boy in the Dress was a Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Honor Book in 2011. 

2011 Challenges

Last year was my first year blogging consistently, and my first time participating in any challenges. I got the most out of my participation in the 2010 Debut Author Challenge, and I'm excited to read as many or more debut authors this year. I ended up reading 24 by the end of 2010, though I also admit that I stopped counting in December. Go here to sign up for the 2011 Challenge. I will be posting my titles here.

This year I'm also going to join the PoC Reading Challenge. I teach in a not-at-all diverse school in a suburb, so I think it is especially important to expose by students to diverse titles. Here are my titles for that challenge.

Finally, I have set some personal challenges for myself in addition to my 365 book resolution. I started a shelf on Goodreads to keep track of how many books I already owned on January 1 that I read in 2011. I am going to make progress on the many series that I have started and not finished.

I also bought and plan to read all of the Stonewall, Schneider, Coretta Scott King, and Non-fiction award winners and honored titles from the recent ALA Youth Media Awards. I've loved the titles from those lists that I have read so far. I may or may not read the Printz books. Ship Breaker was already in my pile, but the titles on the list are pretty dark for my taste. Same goes for the Morris list (thought I LOVED Guardian of the Dead and Hold Me Closer, Necromancer is on my shelf), and I know I won't read many Newbery books since MG historical fiction is not my genre. 

I was thinking about challenges a few weeks ago, and also considering how to bump up the reading by my students. This is my second year with the same group, and while the majority are on board and excited about books, a few are still dragging. I was also reading The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller, and decided to switch from required daily reading to a required number of books by the end of the year. (Note: I did not actually tell my students that I'm not requiring 30 minutes per night, I'm just going to stop taking away points when they fail to do it.)

I came up with this: The Twenty Book Challenge. For most of my students, twenty books won't be a problem, especially since they are allowed some early readers and graphic novels. I'll keep you all updated on how it goes.

 

Recent Favorites: YA

Three recent favorites that I think you also will enjoy:

 

Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg: Elizabeth Eulberg also wrote one of my favorite debut novels this year, The Lonely Hearts Club, and I like her follow up novel very much too. Lizzie Bennet is a scholarship student at Longbourn Academy, and her only friend is her roommate Jane, who has a terrible younger sister named Lydia and a crush on dreamy Charles Bingley. Lizzie, on the other hand, wants nothing to do with Charles' best friend Will Darcy, who is rude and snobby. So why does Will keep showing up at Lizzie's job? And why is Charles suddenly ignoring Jane? Prom and Prejudice is a fun and funny update on Jane Austen's classic novel, and will hopefully lead students back to the original text.

 

The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June by Robin Benway: Sisters April, May, and June have been forced to relocate "to the Valley!" following their parents' divorce, and just as they are adjusting to a new school, they discover that they have the gifts of foresight, invisibility, and mind reading. This is not happy news. May already wants to disappear to live with their father in Houston, freshman June is desperate to make friends with a popular but troubled older student, and big sister April just wants to get her homework done and keep her sisters out of trouble. This story is laugh out loud funny at times, and is realistic in its portrayal of teen life. I read it in one sitting, and highly recommend it. 

 

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: Anna Oliphant does not want to spend her senior year of high school at a boarding school in Paris, but it's what her father, a bestselling novelist, wants, so away she goes. She makes a new group of friends at school, including Étienne St. Clair, who might just be perfect for Anna, except he has a girlfriend, and Anna is still pining over a boy from home. The two become best friends over the course of the school year, but can they discover if it's more before it's too late? Anna and the French Kiss is absolutely one of the most romantic YA books I've read this year. I love Anna; she's smart and independent, and trying to do the right thing despite her feelings for Étienne, who is also pretty awesome. Don't miss this book!

 

Teacher thoughts: 
I probably won't be putting Anna and the French Kiss or The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June in my 8th grade classroom due to language, but otherwise I think all three of these books are okay for 14 and up.

Reflections and Resolutions

My holiday #bookaday pile + today's read.

In the past, I have made fairly simple new year's resolutions: Use fewer plastic bags from the grocery store. Get more sleep by going to bed earlier. Last year, I resolved to turn this page into a book blog to keep track of my reading, and to read at least one book each week. (I also vowed to get new glasses, which I still have not done. Sigh.) Results have been mixed, as they always are. I almost never use plastic bags anymore, and the fact that I wake up by five each morning has certainly forced me to go to bed earlier, although that has more to do with an early-rising upstairs neighbor than with any decision on my part.

I also read over 200 books last year, far more than the 52 that I would have read at the once a week pace, and I diligently kept track of them both here and on Goodreads, so I know how many pages I read and at what pace and in what genres. I don't have anything to compare this year's numbers to, but I am pretty sure I read more non-trashy* novels this year than I ever have, and that is a good thing. (*trashy novel is a completely non-pejorative term that my friend Dana and I started using in high school to refer to romance novels of all types.) I have discovered books that I would have otherwise missed, and my students have benefited from all of the reading that I did this year. 

 And yet, as always, it is time to change, time for new goals, and new resolutions.

My goal this year is to read 365 books, or a book a day. This is partly inspired by the excellent #bookaday community on Twitter, and partly to push my own reading further. I will not, of course, read a book every single day, but I will read every day as I always have, and I will certainly expand my reading into the picture books and middle grade novels that are important for my students but not typically as interesting for me. 

This blog, naturally, will change as a result. I could never review 365 books in a year and teach full time, so I am going to focus my reviews on the books that I love and want to share with others, and do very quick reports on other titles. My complete list of books will still be available on Goodreads, and somewhere here, but I won't review every book that I read.

I am also going to write more about teaching, so this space will become less of a book blog and more of a teacher/reader blog. My goal is to try to write weekly on that topic. We'll see how it goes. I am not alone in feeling like teaching has been under attack during the past several months, so instead of endlessly yelling at Oprah and Bill Gates in my head (please tell me I'm not that only person that does this), I'm going to replace their noise with things that I know to be true about teaching and learning.

My other goals are simple. I'm flirting with the idea of doing a photo 365 project, though I'm not quite committed enough to join a group yet. I bought a cute daily planner notebook from Moleskine, and I want to write something in it each day, even if it only says "Finally blogged again!" I want to read more of the awesome books that are already on my shelves.

And yes, I really want to get new glasses.

NaNoWriMo

As you may have noticed, I have taken some time off from blogging to work on NaNoWriMo and for grades/report cards/parent conferences/Thanksgiving. I'll be back in December!

Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher by Wendelin Van Draanen

Sammy Keyes is one of my favorite teen detectives working today. In this, the thirteenth book in the series, Sammy is finally starting eighth grade. She's still secretly living with her grandmother in a seniors-only highrise, but Officer Borsch, her nemesis in the first several books, is now in on her secret. In fact, they get along so well that Sammy is even part of his upcoming wedding!

Things are not going as well at school. Sammy is in the hated Mr. Vince's home room and History class, and she doesn't have nearly enough classes with her best friends Marissa, Dot, and Holly. She also sees far too much of Heather Acosta, and Sammy's almost-boyfriend Casey Acosta has left for high school and is ducking her calls. When someone starts threatening to kill Mr. Vince, Sammy finds herself and her friend Billy Pratt at the top of the suspect list. Can Sammy clear her name and make it to the church for Officer Borsch's wedding? And what is up with Casey?

The Sammy Keyes books are extremely likable, and while they're appropriate for middle grade readers, Sammy's hilarious escapades will appeal to older readers as well. If you haven't picked up this series, you are missing out. 

Edition I Read: Kindle
Where/How I got it: Amazon
Total Books Read in 2010: 150!
Will I Make This Available to my Students?: Yes.
Other Books Read but not Reviewed: 0

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

I have had a student in my class for the last two years who is one of the sweetest and sunniest girls that I've ever taught, and she loves dark books, the darker the better. She read Crank last year, and loved it. This set off a small crisis when she lent it to other seventh graders, and their parents didn't approve. This is where one would expect my story to end in letters to the school board and angry tirades. It doesn't.

The original reader's mom knew what she was reading, and the three of us had discussed the subject matter. When the girl lent the book to a boy in class, his mother found it and didn't want him to read it, but there was no controversy. The mom simply returned the book to its owner. I didn't even hear about this part of the story until months later.

I did know that something was up (teachers almost always do), and I told all my students that when it comes to edgier books, like Crank, they can't pass on their personal copies without talking to their parents. This isn't a perfect solution, but it works for my classroom and for our community. If a student wants to read something that I can't or won't provide, then they have to go through mom or dad to get to the bookstore or the public library. Parents also ask me what I think of particular titles, and I give them my honest opinion, based on either my own reading or the reviews that I've seen from other teachers and librarians. Most parents are grateful to me since it means they don't have to read "all those vampire books", and the trust that we build up allows me to keep a wider range of titles in my classroom.

I finally read Crank myself during Banned Books Week this year (I might not have it available in my classroom library, but I can let the students see me reading it!), and this is another book that every student and parent should read at some point. Very few of us these days get through our lives without being touched by addiction, and Crank is an eye-opening look at just how easy it is to make one wrong choice, and how quickly that choice can take over a life. I have had students tell me they loved this book, but also wish they hadn't read it because the book is so sad. I understand where they're coming from, yet I believe these same students will also think twice before casually trying a drug like crank. It's one thing to know that something is bad from a public service announcement or a school assembly, and it's another thing entirely to have read Kristina's story.

Told entirely in verse from the perspective of Kristina, a bright high school student, Crank details how a visit to her drug addict father introduces Kristina to the monster: crank. Despite a loving and involved mother and stepfather, Kristina can't shake the monster, and her life unravels.

Ellen Hopkins is a talented writer, and she writes important books that teens and their parents should read. As she writes in her author's note: "Crank is, indeed, a monster—one that is tough to leave behind once you invite it into your life. Think twice. Then think again." This book will make you do exactly that.

Edition I Read: Paperback
Where/How I got it: Borders
Total Books Read in 2010: 147
Will I Make This Available to my Students?: No, but I would have when I taught high school.
Other Books Read but not Reviewed: 0

The Body at The Tower (Agency #2) by Y. S. Lee

The Body in the Tower is the second Agency book; A Spy in the House is the first. You've been warned.

In A Spy in the House, Mary Quinn went undercover as a housemaid. In the sequel, The Body in the Tower, her job is even harder, and she must disguise herself as a young boy in order to investigate a mysterious death at a building site. Mary commits fully to her investigation; she cuts off her hair and takes up residence in a boarding house, where she is forced to share her quarters with a strange man. But when an old friend also starts working on the building site, Mary's secret is that much harder to keep. Can she solve the mystery and keep her identity a secret?

The books in this series are great mysteries, and they're filled with lots of historical details without boring the reader. Mary's job as a spy takes her to all different walks of life, so readers learn about both wealthy and poor residents of Victorian England, and the details are gruesome enough to appeal to today's teens. The romance also continues to develop nicely, and I honestly can't guess what's going to happen next. I'm eagerly awaiting the third book to find out, and I hope there are many more Mary Quinn mysteries after that. 

Edition I Read: Hardcover
Where/How I got it: Unabridged Bookstore, Chicago
Total Books Read in 2010: 146
Will I Make This Available to my Students?: Yes
Other Books Read but not Reviewed: 0