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Books I Read in 2014

Posted on December 30, 2014 by auburnchick

I read.

A lot.

It’s kind of part of my job, but it’s a task I don’t mind.

Because I teach high school remedial reading, it’s important that I know the plots of books that might interest my students.  This knowledge helps me recommend books according to individual students’ needs.

Having read the books myself lends credibility to my recommendations.

I also tend to get a bit excited about books, and that feeling transfers to what are usually reluctant readers.

I keep track of my books on Goodreads.  If you’ve never used this site, run to it, set up your free account, and post your own reviews.

During 2014, I was able to finish reading 59 books.  I read thirteen of those books during my summer break.

Click to embiggen

Favorites that stood out:

All of Jennifer Brown’s books.  Seriously.  Bitter End made me cry.  Thousand Words needs to be read by every single middle and high schooler.  Seriously.

Neal Shusterman’s Bruiser also made me cry.  I fear that I have become a sap in my middle age.  The message of this book is poignant.  I might do this as a lengthy read aloud next year.

Unbroken…this will forever be in my top ten of biographies.  I cannot wait to see the movie!!!

Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver series was beautifully crafted, as was her Scorpio Races book.  Ahmazing (spelling purposely skewed for effect).

Positive, by Paige Rawl made me cry…several times…and angered my mama heart for this gentle young woman.  I am currently reading this to my students, and you should hear the discussions we are having!  This is the true story of a young woman, now currently twenty years old, who was born with HIV.  She was tormented by bullies until she finally found her voice.  I adore her…her courage…her classiness through what would normally have people cursing.  You must add it to your reading list.

Now, I have to say that I did not enjoy a few of the books I read.

NOS4A2…a horror-like ditty that had a decidedly inappropriate feel to it.  I had purchased it for my classroom but threw it in the trash after I finished.

Matched was good.  The other two books in the series were not.

The same thing happened with Wither.  This book was good.  The other two were not.  The term sister wives will forever make me want to puke.

Surprisingly, I did not enjoy the book Heaven is for Real.  I felt like the father, the author of the book, spent more time talking about himself than was necessary.  The point of the book was that his son glimpsed heaven.  I think that there wasn’t enough material to justify an entire book so he filled in.

Wendy Corsi Staub’s books drove me nuts.  The story lines were good.  Her usage of verb tenses was horrid.  I won’t read any more of her books.

The Duff had a good message but was too explicit for me.  I’m still debating whether or not I’ll put it back in my classroom.

The same goes for Looking for Alaska.  I hated the first half of this book but enjoyed the latter third.  Still, a few of the scenes had me picking my jaw off the floor.  There are ways for writers of young adult fiction to let their readers know that teenage characters are engaging in sexual activities without describing those activities in detail.  Sheesh.

That, my friends, are just a few of my thoughts.

I’m eager to see what I can finish in 2015.

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Dear Allison van Diepen

Posted on September 16, 2014 by auburnchick

Dear Allison van Diepen,

It’s just your #fangirl, Auburnchick, with a little shout-out to one of the best YA authors around!

I wanted to share a story that I thought would make you smile.

First of all, you may remember that we exchanged emails in the spring after I wrote you to tell you how one of my students fell in love with The Vampire Stalker.  I blogged about it here.

I’m thrilled to tell you that I am raising another group of van Diepen fans in this year’s classes.

Today, when my sixth period class entered my room, one of my girls, “A,” stopped me and said, “Mrs. Auburnchick, I finished my book!”

I excitedly asked her to tell me the title.  I teach sixty students and often forget who has which book.

She proudly pulled out a copy of Snitch.

Our conversation continued:  “Mrs. Auburnchick, I’m going to have to read it again,” she said.

“Oh really,” I said.  “Did you enjoy it that much?”

She responded, “Well, parts of it confused me, so I need to read it over.”

My.

Jaw.

Dropped.

You see, I teach high school Intensive Reading.  I provide reading instruction to students who need extra support so they can pass our state reading exam and, thus, graduate.

For a student to recognize that he/she didn’t understand something and to take it further by coming up with a plan to improve comprehension is HUGE.  It’s what I, as a reading teacher, strive for.

The conversation didn’t end there.

She said, “I want to do research.”

I asked the obvious question, “Research about what?”

She said, “What made her write about gangs and drugs.”

Oh.

My.

Word.

I’m sorry, but in my world, students do not often research such things unless a grade depends on it.

#realtalk

I was beyond floored.

She asked me for help, and I told her we would work on it during the class’s silent reading time.

You should have seen her eagerness as we did bell work and fluency.

She sat on the edge of her chair and held up her book a couple of times…just as a reminder.

Finally, it was time, and I told her to pull up a chair.

The first thing we did was pull up your website.

She.

Was.

Amazed.

She immediately decided that the next book she wants to read is Takedown, which I own.

Duh.  I am, after all, a #fangirl.

Then, we started looking for information that would explain why you wrote the book Snitch.

We got distracted by the study guide we found, and I printed it out for her.  I told her that if she answered the questions from the guide, to check for comprehension, I would give her bonus points on a test.

She was thrilled.

Next, I asked her if she had Twitter and told her how awesome you are about responding to Tweets.

Her mom is somewhat strict and doesn’t allow her to Tweet.

#proudteacher

Still, she really wanted to ask you a question…immediately.

So, I pulled up my Twitter account…for educational purposes (in case Big Brother is reading).

I showed her how I “follow” you, and I typed my question.

You haven’t responded as of this writing.

I forgive you.

You have a family to take care of.

Just don’t wait too long.

I promised I’d share your response with her.

😉

Next, I suggested that she find you on Facebook.

Don’t be surprised if A starts following you there.

As we sat, she told me how she loved that you wrote poetry for the book, and that she connected to it personally because she likes to write poetry too.

Ms. van Diepen, do you know how monumental this is?

We have been working on making connections when we read…something struggling readers have to be taught explicitly to do.

Oh word, but my teacher heart was overjoyed!

Then, she spoke words that I insisted she share with you on Facebook.

She said,

She makes me want to write a book.

I.

Kid.

You.

Not.

Take a look at the sticky note I used to record her words…

Ms. van Diepen,

Thank you for writing relevant teen fiction.

Does it have cursing.

Yes.

Does it talk about gangs, drugs, and turf wars?

Yep.

Do my kids want to keep reading more and more?

A-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y.

It’s not because of the cursing, although that makes it more authentic.

It’s because of the subject matter and the way you paint realistic pictures.

Students think, when they enter my room, that they don’t like to read.

They quickly discover, through in-touch writers like yourself, that they’ve never had the right books placed in their hands.

Please keep doing what you’re doing.

You are making a difference in countless children’s lives by fueling a fire that feeds what I hope will develop into a lifelong passion for reading.

Sincerely,

Auburnchick

P.S.  I like the old cover of Snitch much better than the new one…grabs the kids’ attention.  You should tell your publishers this.  😉

Filed under: Books, Teaching | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

Positive – A MUST Read

Posted on September 14, 2014 by auburnchick

I love to follow authors on Twitter.

No, I am not a stalker.

I might be a bit of a fangirl.

Ahem.

One of the authors I follow is Jay Asher.

This man writes hysterical Tweets.

If you’re not familiar with him, you MUST acquaint yourself.  He wrote the much-acclaimed Thirteen Reasons Why, which my students cannot put down.

A couple of weeks ago, he tweeted a shout-out to Paige Rawl, author of the book Positive.  After reading a summary of it on Amazon, I immediately ordered it and began reading it the day it arrived in the mail.

First of all, Jay Asher’s foreword for the book is incredibly touching.  This man is gifted, let me tell you.

Then, it was time to read Ms. Rawl’s words.

Oh my gosh.

This book.

Its message.

Oh word.

Positive is an autobiography that describes Paige Rawl’s young life…her struggles…as a young woman born with the HIV virus.

She is candid about her dad’s death from complications from the virus.  There is a picture in the book of the last time she saw her father the day he passed away.

I cried and had to put the book down.

It was deeply moving.

This book will shock you when you read the details of the bullying she endured after she innocently told her best friend that she had HIV.

You will be angry when you read about the injustice she suffered by the very people who should have been her advocates.

This is a story that every single teenager should read.  I’m telling all of my friends about it.  Adults should read it too.

I plan on reading this book to my students as our Read Aloud after I finish the book I’m currently reading.

I know we will have a lot of meaningful discussions about misconceptions about the virus, bullying, and empathy.

I am planning on having my students do some research.  I’m praying for other ideas to incorporate into my classroom as we read this.

It’s that good.

I tweeted out to this young lady after I finished, and she RESPONDED!!

I might have mentioned that I could be a fangirl.

😀

Buy the book.

Share it with a friend.

You won’t regret it.

Filed under: Books | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Getting Them Hooked on Reading

Posted on August 26, 2014 by auburnchick

Mondays are not always fun…can we all just agree?

They mark the end of relaxing weekends and the beginnings of long, tiring weeks…especially when you are a teacher!

That is why I was pleasantly surprised when my Monday went swimmingly yesterday.

Although we’ve been in school a week now, I had yet to get my students reading.

Oh, they were starting to get excited, mind you, looking at the books on my bookshelves, but I’d held them back so we could review procedures and get to know one another better through various activities.

Yesterday was finally the day, though…the day when we did our Read Around.  You might know this as a book pass.

I filled five baskets with books, and students had a minute and a half to two minutes to preview the books in the basket.

I had given each student a copy of a Read Around form from the book, Igniting a Passion to Read, by Steven Layne…a reproducible he provides in the book.

I had instructed my students NOT to keep any books for the independent reading we would be starting today.  They were simply to preview, list the titles of any books that interested them, and when the time was up, pass the baskets around to other tables.

Now, I must be doing something different because ALL of my classes got very excited as they began previewing books.

I don’t know if they had been skimming from the enthusiasm I’d been showing since Day 1 for the various books around my room.

It could have been that as I walked around and provided bits and pieces of various plots, gleaned from personally reading the books, they grew even more enthusiastic.

MANY begged to be allowed to check out books, but I had to hold them back.

I had to have enough of my better books to share with ALL of my classes.

So the first two classes reluctantly agreed.

Then, my sixth period came in, and Lord Have Mercy, but you would have thought that Christmas had arrived.

I could not keep myself from being pulled in, so I spontaneously announced that I would allow them to check books out.

I explained that as my last class of the day, they would probably find themselves getting what was left over from book chats I’d be doing throughout the year.

To make up for that, I let them have first dibs on my books.

They.

Went.

To.

Town.

I have a new procedure this year where I have a checkout binder in the back of my room.  It is divided by class periods, and students can fill out the form to let me know which books they have and when they checked them out.

I have often found myself unable to locate certain books, uncertain which students are reading them.

My sixth period class could not get a hold of the binder quick enough, and it made the rounds from one table to the next with quite a few of the eighteen students checking out books to take home and read…

Many of my Allison van Diepen and Jennifer Brown books got checked out.

My name will be mud with my second and fourth period classes.

In fact, one young lady had pitched a fit earlier in the day because she insisted that she HAD to read Thousand Words.

I was so nervous about the yelling she was sure to do that I stopped by Books a Million to buy another copy of the book.

Unfortunately, my store had a crappy supply of Brown’s books…

There was ONE freaking copy of her newest book, which I refuse to pay $18 for.  I’ll wait for the paperback.

There were a few copies of Hate List on a display, but this was not the book my students were fighting over.

I’m peeved at the sucky supply (do you like my alliteration?), and I made a suggestion to the cashier that they would probably be inundated with young ladies looking for these books, and that the store needed to put them in stock.

*Ahem*

I did pick up a couple of books on the clearance shelf…

My teacher discount allowed me to get these books for under $5.

I’m hoping I can coax my students to try some different authors like Jay Asher, John Green, and Neal Shusterman.

I have a feeling that, unlike previous years, I won’t have to beg my students to read during their silent reading time each day.

I’m excited just knowing what we are all in store for!!

Filed under: Books, Teaching | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

Dear Jennifer Brown

Posted on August 4, 2014 by auburnchick

Dear Jennifer Brown,

I just finished reading Perfect Escape, the third of a set of your books I brought home from my classroom.  I had already read Hate List over a year ago.

I want to thank you for writing books that take on challenging topics.

Do you write dystopian novels filled with plagues and zombies?

Nope.

Do you write stories filled with government conspiracies?

Nope.

You create characters with honest-to-goodness believable problems that each and every reader can relate to.

Your characters could be our friends, family members, or people on the news.

You’re not afraid to embroil your characters in real-world issues such as bullying, sexting, dating violence, cheating, and mental illness.

Your characters come to life in their raw musings, sometimes aloud but often in their heads.

They think what we think, and they aren’t afraid to think them.

They finally lose their cool and explode, saying out loud what we often don’t have the courage to say.

In doing so, this frees us up from the guilt of shame…shame for feeling the way we do…because someone else feels the same way.

Thank you for writing books that my high school students relate to.

I’ve seen them cry over your books and have, personally, cried over the books as well.

I’ve been told, by a student, that she got in trouble at home…for READING TOO MUCH.

I thank you for this, for she was reading one of the books pictured above.

Now, I’m not going to fault those who write about zombies and the apocalypse.  There’s an audience for those books.  I’m part of that audience, because I enjoy reading a variety of books so I can knowledgeably pair them up with my students’ interests.

But…

Your books hit home with my students…especially the female ones…in a way that other books do not.

Many do not have mamas at home they can confide in or, in true teenage fashion, do not feel comfortable talking to.

Your voice, through your characters, tells my students that it’s okay to feel angst and shame over what some might downplay as typical teenage stuff.

Thank you for not trivializing the issues.

You’ve played a large role in helping me create engage readers…hopefully life-long readers.

Your friend and fangirl,

Nathalie

Filed under: Books, Teaching | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

The Beauty of Imperfection

Posted on August 3, 2014 by auburnchick

I’m currently about two-thirds of the way through Perfect Escape by one of my favorite young adult writers, Jennifer Brown.

This book tells the story of Kendra, a high school senior, who whisks her brother, Grayson, away on a road trip.

It’s no ordinary road trip, though, because Kendra is running away from trouble at school.

She tries to justify the trip in her mind by claiming that she’s on a mission to help her brother, who is mentally ill because of his OCD.

One of the things Grayson does when he’s under stress is to line up rocks and count them.

Rocks are his fascination, and I was struck by a comment he made to Rena, a young mom who joins in on their road trip.

She asks Grayson why a particular piece of quartz is colorless while other pieces have various colors.

He explains that pure quartz is colorless, and that is is chemical imperfections that leads to quartz becoming colored.

Then he says, “Quartz is at its most beautiful when it’s been changed by impurities.”

Go ahead and re-read it.  I bolded it because it’s a very poignant statement.

I had to pause in my reading, so I’m not sure how the author is going to use this statement of his.

I sure can see deep meaning in this sentence.

The first thing I thought about was my students.

They are certainly not perfect (none of us are).

Their lives are dirtied up by terribly dysfunctional home lives, terrible personal choices, and temptations to make more poor decisions.

These are the students who walk into my classroom.

These are the things that make them beautiful in my eyes.

These are my favorites precisely because of their imperfections.

I find even deeper meaning in Grayson’s words, though, by thinking about our lives as sinners.

Boy are we imperfect, aren’t we?

In God’s eyes, though, we are beautiful and worthy of His love.

He sent Jesus, His Son, to die for imperfect beings.

How humbling is that?!

I think back to when the Mr. proposed to me and gave me my engagement ring.

I was in college and enrolled in a science class that had a lab.  One lab day, we had to work with the microscopes, and I put my ring beneath the viewer.  We marveled because the diamond was nearly flawless.

I wonder how many people purposely select diamonds with flaws?

Not many.  There’s an entire rating scale devoted to a diamond’s qualities, and big sales are made over the best gems.

When you look at Grayson’s statement again, you notice that he says that quartz is beautiful because it’s been changed by imperfections.

If you think about it, our imperfections make us who we are.  They add color to our lives.

What an interesting concept and such a neat way of looking at and accepting my own imperfections…something that’s very tough for a perfectionist like myself.

I am beautiful…

Because of my imperfections.

Filed under: Books, Christian | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Look Straight Ahead

Posted on July 24, 2014 by auburnchick

The Mr. and I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago.  Our locale?  This place…

I do have plans, at some point, to blog about our adventures, but today, I wanted to focus on a little lesson I learned while on one ride.

During one of our visits to Epcot (I say “one” because we went there four different times…a story for another day), we used our Fast Passes for the ride Mission Space.

There are two options for this ride…green and orange.  The orange is the more intense option.

Now, I’m going to be honest with you.  Had it been my choice, we would have done green.  I get car sick and have issues with rides that mess with my head.

The Mr…well…he likes fast, thrilling rides.

So, we did the Orange option.

While you’re waiting, there are all kinds of warnings about not riding if you’re prone to motion sickness, not riding if you have heart issues (I don’t but feared I’d develop them after the ride), etc.

I kept commenting about being scared…so much so that the couple who were set to ride it with us started looking at me sideways.

Uh huh.

So we get onto the ride, and Lord Have Mercy!

I didn’t mention that I’m also claustrophobic.  Look at this thing…

Pictures courtesy of Google (I was too freaked out to take pictures)

What you do is sit in your seat, pull down the shoulder harness thing, and the Disney attendant closes you in.  Then, the control panel in front of you MOVES FORWARD to close you in even more!!!

I was a nervous wreck.

A video plays beforehand giving suggestions on how to deal with motion sickness issues.

I payed close attention, much like I do when flight attendants give safety instructions before a plane takes off.

The video suggested that the best thing to do during the ride would be to look straight ahead.  It said not to look to the left or the right…not to look down…not to close your eyes.

And then the ride started.

The ride is a simulation of a trip to Mars, beginning with takeoff.

The screen in front of you is your window outside.

I felt as though I was in a rocket on the launch pad looking up (because these thing are vertical).

My stomach dropped as we “lifted off” and entered the upper levels of the atmosphere.

Then, there was the floating feeling of weightlessness.

It was surreal.

It made my head feel funny.

Oy vey!

I felt a panic attack coming on but knew I didn’t want to cry out and embarrass myself.

I started breathing deeply and tried to talk my way through it.

Then, I decided to put my head down, close my eyes, and ride it out.

That is when I remembered the instructions in the video…

Look straight ahead…

Stay focused…

Don’t look to the left or the right.

I made the decision to trust the advice, and you know what?  I survived without an issue.

I did think the ride would never end, but I talked to myself as I do when I’m nearing the end of my C25K training (another subject for another post) run when I think I’m almost out of gas and can’t go another step.

When we finally landed on Mars and the ride ended, the couple beside me looked over and asked if I was okay.

I was.

I was so proud of myself for sticking it out!

As the Mr. and I talked about it later, I began to reflect.

I couldn’t help but see a tie-in between the lesson I’d learned with something I’d like to teach my students.

My students, struggling readers, often see their challenges as insurmountable.

Many have never passed our state reading exam and have always been in Intensive Reading.

They become overwhelmed with tasks and react in different ways.

Some get distracted, looking around to find something more interesting to do.  Oftentimes these students begin causing distractions.

Others use avoidance tactics by closing their eyes while putting down their heads and giving up.

I’m going to tell them the story of this ride I “survived.”

I’m going to use the same pieces of advice to encourage my students to stay the course…to trust me by looking straight ahead and staying focused on what is in front of them…not feeling overwhelmed by the challenges in front of them…staying in tune with the goal of landing safely in the land of reading literacy.

With the new format of a tougher state test, they are going to need every piece of advice they can get!

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

In Their Words – Part 6

Posted on June 30, 2014 by auburnchick

This is the last of these posts…finally!!!!!

I do hope you’ve enjoyed looking at the books that inspired struggling readers.  I promise that if MY students liked them, ANYONE would like them.  Teachers in my department almost have to stand on our heads to cajole our kids to read.

The keys are personal enthusiasm from someone who can vouch, from experience, that a book is good, a great author, short chapters (practical but necessary), and encouragement to stick with a book, even during a boring chapter.

On to the projects!

This was a very short book and an easy read for my student…a gifted football player who was easily distracted by thoughts of college football. The fact that he finished this book and looked for more in this book series made me happy. I have a picture of him working, side-by-side with a young lady, on this project, truly engaged in what he was doing. I love this young man to bits and his amazingly supportive mama, and I cannot wait to see him in the NFL draft one day. I’m also going to be waiting for my shout-out, which he’s promised to give me. 🙂

This is still a popular series with some of my students!! They really enjoy comparing the books to the movies, and we have good discussions about which ones are better!

The third or fourth project I’ve posted for this book. It was so popular, and I enjoyed looking at the projects and the various ways that students interpreted the book!

This is another book that is popular with the young men I teach. I really want to read it too! The gentleman who completed this project HATED to read, bless his heart. He did enjoy this book though.

This series…so popular with my 6th/7th period block…all because of one young MAN who read the first one, talked about it so much, and got nearly all of the girls in that class to read the series. They talked about this series ALL THE TIME, and it even made it onto the original young guy’s Instagram feed. The kids love the drama of it, and it obviously appeals to young men and young ladies (a gal completed the project you see above).

When I see this project, I smile, BIG TIME. The young lady who made it took a lot of time with it. She had eclectic taste in books. Thank heavens I knew this from teaching her the previous year, for I tried to buy books that appealed to her preferences as well. This project makes me smile because I’ll never forget how hard this student worked on EVERYTHING I asked her to do in class.

Had to show you the bonus feature of this project. Because my student didn’t have enough space to include everything on the checklist I was using for grading, she came up with this ingenious way to add them…a flap!!!

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In Their Words – Part 5

Posted on June 29, 2014 by auburnchick

More book projects that my students completed at the end of the year (there will be one more post after this one, I think).

A popular book with my boys

Hands-down one of the most PROLIFIC and moving books I have ever read. EVERY teenager needs to read this. I can usually get my staunches non-readers all the way through this book because they CANNOT PUT IT DOWN.

When I see this, I think of the young lady who made it. She did not like to read. She was a very slow reader, as evidenced by the lines she made in the book to mark her stopping points (ugh!!!). She completely adored this book and told me constantly that I needed to read it when she finished. I did, and it made her day when she saw it on my desk, bookmark in place. To know that I was reading something SHE had recommended went miles toward healing what had been a strained student-teacher relationship. She came back to see me on her last day (she left for a trip a few days before school was officially over). I will forever love this young lady!

My students cannot put these books down (there’s a set of three), and I always seem to “lose” one or more of them during a school year. They relate to the setting and the characters’ problems. Although I’ve never read these books, I’ve heard that they are raw and very, very real. This young lady redid her project because she didn’t like the first version and didn’t want to show less than her best work when it was placed under the document camera for her presentation.

The student who read this book was one I never quite managed to connect with despite my various attempts…a fact that makes me very sad. He, as you can see, is a gifted artist. He was very, very intelligent and could analyze a book, its characters, and its various themes. He really liked this book. I need to buy it for my classroom.

Another Allison van Diepen book. Her books NEVER sit on my bookshelves. If you’ve never read her, please do. Follow her on Twitter. She is one of the nicest ladies ever and one I’m trying to find a way to have come down here to speak to my students.

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Things That Have Kept Me From Blogging

Posted on June 28, 2014 by auburnchick

It would seem as though, despite having much more time to blog, I have chosen, instead, to do other things.

A pictorial explanation follows…

Did someone say World Cup?

Shout-out to my main soccer squeeze for helping the U.S. advance to the round of 16!

My OWL (three-month project)…halfway finished…

A return to the gym…

Zombiesrun.com – GREAT way to keep my Zombies Run C25K app synched (that’s the playlist I used one day this week)

Best workout app ever (former iFitness)!!!! Sure beats carrying around a notebook, which I used to do to keep track of my reps!

Sixteen cans of tomatoes…for about thirty cents each after BOGO and a $1.00 off of four coupon (shout-out to Coupon Queen for sending me extra coupons!!)

Infinity Cowl

Two of my loves…

Southwestern Socks – A quick, five-day project!

Southwestern Socks

Online Shopping…courtesy of shophopes.com

Another shophopes.com dress! Please excuse the hair (freshly washed and, obviously, unfixed) and the background (must invest in a full-length, over-the-door mirror)

Teacher Training

Tweeting with one of my favorite authors…and feeling star-struck when she followed me…

Chatting it up with one of my favorite shows (please note that THEY tagged ME in this conversation!)

What’s kept you busy of late?

Filed under: Knitting, Saving Money, This-n-That | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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