47 Days Annette Oppenlander

 

Genre: Middle School, Young Adult, Biography
Source: I purchased a copy.

 Near the end of World War II, Hitler knew he was losing. This did not stop him from continuing the fight. When man power was dwindling, he reached out and drafted the Hitler Youth. These were young school boys. Helmet and Günter were best friends. They receive their draft notice in school and are required to report within one week to Marburg. They were told there would be no transportation and they would need to find their own way there. Günter goes to find Helmut. He tells him he doesn't plan to go. Helmut agrees. If they are caught they will be shot on the spot as traitors. Günter's father went to ward almost five years earlier and his brother left last year. This will leave his mother and younger brother all alone. Günter and Helmut start walking, slowly, deciding they will hide out in hopes the war will end before they actually get there.

     This story is the true story lived by the author's grandfather Günter and his best friend Helmut. It is a quick read, yet a hold-your-breath type of read. I worried the entire time I was reading about what they were going through.  I hear our youth today complain about such simple things when kids like Günter and Helmut had to worry about war, being killed, starving, freezing to death. It made me think about what was going on in Ukraine right now and how those children are living something similar. This should be in every middle school classroom. This is a definite must read

The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter

 

Genre: Young Adult, Adult, Realistic Fiction

Source: I purchased a copy

    This is actually a reread for me. I purchased this book when it first came out. A friend at school told me about it because the author was a friend and she knew I reviewed books.  I absolutely loved it. However, I somehow forgot to write my review. To do it justice I reread the book. It was just as painful the second time around. 

    Cassie doesn't trust anyone to love her. Her mother is abusive both physically and mentally. She finally has Cassie put in a mental institute until she is eighteen. Cassie leaves there and heads off to college where she tries to rebuild relationships and make new ones. Sometimes the past just won't let go and like powerful waves will continue to drag you under.

    Unlike many books that start out like this, Cassies gives us hope things can change for the better. She gives us hope that relationships can be renewed. You can never go back and undo the damage that has been done. You can choose to move forward and forge new relationships, even with those who broke up that relationship. Cassie is a courageous character. What you read is raw and make you evaluate the realtionships in your own life.  This should be a must read for teens everywhere.

 

Student Saturday: Count All Her Bones by April Henry

Student Reviewer: Sophia H.

The main character is Cheyenne. She is blind, has a service dog and a bodyguard named Jadra. Her trouble begins the night Griffen Sawyer sole a car, and accidently stole Cheyenne who was in the back seat. He panicked and took her home where is father held her for money. Griffen helped her escape. Now his father is awaiting trial. Griffen's father won't give up so he has his henchmen capture her again.  This time he doesn't want money, he wants her dead. Will she survive? What about Griffen?

This book is similar to a lot of real-world events. For example, a blind Portland girl named Heather Wilson was kidnapped when she was in the back seat of her mother's car and it was hijacked. I recommend this book to anyone 11-100 years old. It is great for a light night read. The best in my opinion.

Student Saturday: Four Days of You and Me by Miranda Kenneally

 

Student Reviewer: Amati

Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction (some mature themes)

Lulu and Alex are enemies I high school and at the end of each of their high school years they go to a big field trip. In their freshman year they go to a science museum. They get stuck together in a room. Do they work together to get out? In their sophomore year they go to Six Flags and Lulu falls in the water causing her top to come off  and Alex is the only one around. Does he help her or leaver her to save herself? I their junior year they have a choice to go watch a football game or go to an art museum. Lulu goes to the museum and Alex goes to watch the game. The game gets boring so he goes and talks to Lulu. They begin flirting. In their senior year London is their last trip and there is so much going on in both of their lives. Will this brin them closer or will they remain enemies.

Many decisions were made in the book. For example, Lulu was talking about how her ex-boyfriend had moved on so quickly and she said “how can he move on this easily? This quickly?” When she said that it made me wonder, how do people move on so quickly after things end so with the person they supposedly loved? I mean, if you really love someone, how would you be able to move on to a new person so quickly? When Lulu and Alex break up and get back together throughout the book, Lulu can’t get over the fact that he moves on fairly quickly while she is stuck, unable to move on from the heartbreak.

The book is similar to my life because just like Lulu, I learned that fallin in and out of love a a part of life. Not everyone’s perfect. Lulu learned to deal with her feelings for Alex and sometimes I’ve got to deal with my feelings too. Lulu got to travel a lot for school field trips and I’ve always thought that was pretty cool for students to do. I would like to travel as well. This book was similar to other books I’ve read because I enjoy reading enemies to lovers and love  the way the story ended.

Learn to Write by Kidsup Publishing

 

Genre: children's writing practice
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

As I went through this writing book there were several things that appealed to me. As a grandmother I loved that the theme was dinosaurs. I have two grandsons who are crazy about dinosaurs. The second thing was all of the opportunities for them to practice writing letters and numbers.

As a teacher, I loved the fact that they also have the opportunity to write bigger words. All of the dinosaur words and at the end of the book there are dinosaur jokes and their answers for them to practice writing. I definitely think this is a great book for ages 4-7.

They Came To The Island by Christopher Francis

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Source: I own a copy

I loved the way the author ended this story. We have an alien invasion. We have a young boy named Sheldon who fights them with a band of other survivors only to find out he himself is merging with the aliens as he was infected. But not everything is as Rennick, the leader of the area's aliens, would wish it to be. How do you stay human when your brain has an alien trying to merge with you? In this story we are introduced to new characters. The fighting between the two sides heat up. We see perspectives change. For me the greatest thing was watching the human spirit and the message that we need to embrace our differences. 

The story line is great. The descriptions are so well done that I felt I was actually watching a movie. Although the setting is in Canada, where I have never been, it felt like it could be any place in the world. This author is definitely a master of his craft and I highly recommend this book.

Student Saturday: Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova

 

Two Reviews by two of my students.

Jahnavi's Review

In the book  Awkward there is something that connects to my life and many other's lives. This story is about this girl named Penelope, Peppi for short. She goes for her first day of school at Berrybrook Middle School. As she opens the front doors, something unexpected happens; she trips. This might not seem too big of a deal, but she did it in front of everyone. This part of the story can connect to people's lives because small things can mean really big things. For example, first appearances on your first day of school. Embarrassing herself on the first day wasn't enough, I guess because the so-called, "school nerd" came to help. Everyone who saw this burst out laughing, saying "nerder found a new girlfriend" or "nerder girlfriend." A lot of people have first days that could go better too, their first day ruined.

The main character in the book, Penelope, has a lot of relatable personality traits to me and most likely other teenagers. I'm similar to this character because she is very, very awkward. She has terrible communication skills, something I should work on too. She is shy and has one friend group she's really close with. She gets really nervous and is really dramatic, sometimes like me. I want to be more like this character because she might be in art, messy, and not that smart, but she's also very compatible to work with, friendly, and just a good person. I want to be more like her.

Penelope has a creative mind and personality. She is so kind that she would do almost anything to help a friend or make someone proud. She's an amazing person as well as an open, helpful, and unique person. I love that about her, and I would like to be more like her.

Alicia's Review

In the book Dork Diaries, Tales from a Not-So-Smart Miss Know-It-All, there is a socially awkward teen with a crush on a boy and she has a diary that she writes every day. She also has a younger sister, Brianna, and her parents. Her best friends Zoey and Chloe, like any other friendship, help her with her confidence and are there for her all the time. Nikki has a unique sense of fashion.

In this book, Nikki and her friends decide to do something rebellious, and they get caught. Mackenzie thinks someone else did it and Nikki, Zoey, and Chloe are relieved. Nikki goes to school the next day and suggests her crush to join the newspaper crew. Once they go to the interview, they sign up for the position they want to be in. Nikki gets excited until something unexpected happens. Nikki did not get the position she signed up for and lost hope. Her best friends encourage her to tell the newspaper teacher and she gets a different position. She gets to be the schools “Miss knows it all” and she gives advice to people. She joined the newspaper crew because she did not want anyone to know something, and Mackenzie would obviously tell everyone by writing it in the newspaper, so Nikki had to pay attention to her.

This book reminds me of the book I recently read, I Know Your Secret, because it holds a subject about secrets. I recommend this book to my best friend Sophia because it reminds me of her a lot. They have similar personalities. They both have bubbly-like personalities, they’re both awkward at times, they’re not too social, and they both seem to be very likeable people. I like this book because it takes me back to 4th

Grade when I read one of the first Dork Diaries. I like it because it has fictional Drama, and I can relate to the main character. This book met my expectations because it entertains me when I finish my work early and in my free time.

Taking Books Away From Our Students

"Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance." —— Lyndon B Johnson

"I have it that Americans are taught to fear some books and some ideas as though they were diseases..." —— Kurt Vonnegut

This is my favorite:

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture, Just get people to stop reading them. -- Ray Bradbury


I promised my principal yesterday I would not post what I am going to say here, on Facebook. I did not say I wouldn't post it on my blog.

The first item on yesterday's Department Chair agenda was to tell us of something new he had learned at his principal's meeting. Due to a State House Bill, as of today, I have to box up and secure my classroom library. My principal is not happy about this, and he did mention the fact that I have worked so hard, like my whole department, to get kids to read. At the beginning of the school year, they would send out a list almost weekly of books that were challenged or banned. We had to pull these from our library. This was ironic because one of those books on the list has an excerpt, one chapter, in our new textbooks. We were told to skip that reading until further notice.
He pointed out he was trying to find boxes for me because not only do I have eleven bookcases in my room, but I also have two cabinets full. Some of these were gifted to me by authors. Between the cabinets and my bookshelves, I have nearly 2,000 books, separated by genre. So let me tell you some reasons I am angry.

Every year I MAKE my students set a goal of at least 15 books from 11 different genres. A lot of these kids would never read if you didn't make them. I also do this to introduce them to different genres. I have helped turn many non-readers into readers. The best compliment I have ever received was from a kid many years ago that came to me on the last day of school. His exact words were, "I want you to know I hate you. You taught me to love reading." Then he hugged me. Students don't always know what to pick, and I can help with that. Many students have no access to books at home or to the public library. These are the reasons why I have so many books. My principal knew I was hurting. He sat beside me and told me he had asked if we could just put curtains over our bookcases, and he was told no. A student might reach around and take one off the shelf. He said he felt we had returned to the days of Hitler and book burnings.

Although this is said to be a temporary thing, it hurts. We were supposed to Buddy-Read with elementary next week. Now my middle school students won't have that joy of sitting and reading with a younger child. We are a 100% choice school, and I tell potential students about my extensive library to hopefully draw them in. We are waiting, for who knows how long, for our district to tell us what we have to do, what hoops we have to jump through to be able to put them back on our shelves. ALL books have to be vetted to be placed back on our shelves. Tell me, who in our downtown offices will have time to read my 2,000 books? How long will my students have to go without reading anything except dry, boring textbooks? Here is what really scares me. We were told that if we violate this it could be considered a 3rd-degree felony. Are we as a society criminalizing reading? For the sake of our world, I sure hope not.

 

Henrietta Hedgehog's Prickly Problem by Carole P. Roman

Genre: Children's Picture Book
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

 I have long been a fan of Carole P.  Roman's Books. I was excited to receive this one in the mail. Henrietta is a hedgehog who is teased at school about her looks. She tries to disguise herself. All this accomplishes is hurting another animal's feelings. Henrietta learns from other animals that they are all different for a reason and being different is okay. This is a lesson that so many children need to hear. Every day I hear kids complaining about what someone said about the way they look. As a teacher it breaks my heart to hear this from any student. Excellent book, a must read.

They Came From the Trees by Christopher Francis

 

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Source: I own a copy

We have a great young adult novel with characters from one of the author's previous books. Margaret, Bailey and Sheldon have returned from, "That Thing in the Sky" which was about an invasion where aliens healed a lot of people on earth. They healed Margaret's mother of her cancer and Sheldon's father of his blindness.  In this book the aliens are back, but they aren't like the ones before. We have aliens who decide who is worthy to live and who should die. They want to merge with the healthy humans to create a "perfect" world. For everyone who has ever read dystopian/utopian books such as, "The Giver", we know there is always a flaw in those types of worlds. Sheldon, Bailey, and Margaret join up with a group of other teens who are doing their best to survive. They face some tough life changing situations and have to make some tough questions. I like that Mr. Francis didn't water this down as far as the fight scenes with the aliens. It truly was like watching a movie. I must continue with the next book, "They came to the Island."  This is really a must read for everyone who likes Science Fiction.