Favorite Books: 2012-2013

At the start of this school year, I challenged my students to read 20 books a year, 10 books per semester. To wrap up this school year, I asked my students to choose at least one favorite book of the entire school year, not just this semester. Some students just gave me one title, but quite a few gave me multiple titles, which made me happy. A few students had to rack their brains to land on a title, but others knew immediately which book was their favorite.

I put all the titles into a PowerPoint. I initially had students add their own slides, but some of my sophomores could not handle such a responsibility. One student, instead of getting the image of his favorite book, opened my My Photos folder and inserted a picture of me that I had on hand for a bulletin board. I was working on other things in the classroom, and students were supposed to just go up one at a time and add their slides. Anyway, I quickly retook the reigns and was able to power through all my students and their titles in about two class days at the start of class. Of course, some students were absent, so I had to wait for their return and for their titles. I didn’t want to leave anyone out. Then I found this helpful video on how to convert a PowerPoint 2007 into a video.

Basically, I had to save all the slides of my PowerPoint as JPEGs and then import them into Windows MovieMaker. I did all this on my school’s computer because my laptop is way old and needs replaced. Besides, I had already created the PowerPoint during class time. It only made sense to finish the video at school. I typed up a script for the introduction to the video and recorded it using Sound Recorder, found in the Accessories > Entertainment folders. It took me a while to realize I needed to zoom in on all my slides to make the audio last the perfect length. Anyway, here’s the result, which I will share with my current and future students:

Note: My school computer could not link up to YouTube, so I had to save the MovieMaker file to my flash drive, move it to my laptop, and upload it to YouTube from my laptop.

OCTE Fall Conference

I first learned about the Oklahoma Council of Teachers of English (OCTE) when I received the Geraldine Burns award from them when I was a junior in college. Oklahoma Baptist University selected me for this award because of my promise as a future English teacher. After I left college and began teaching, I joined NCTE (the National Council of Teachers of English), but I delayed my OCTE membership. After a year or so, I learned of their presence from a student writing contest. Flash forward to my eighth year of teaching, and I’m now serving on OCTE’s executive board. We’re planning our 2013 fall conference, and I’d love to have a great turnout of Oklahoma English teachers, current and future alike. Here are all the details you need:

 

Oklahoma Council of Teachers of English

Fall 2013 Conference: NATIVE LEARNERS

Saturday, September 28, 2013

          
featuring Sonia Gensler

Oklahoma author of The Dark Between & The Revenant

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The theme of the conference is Native Learners, focusing on two strands: (1) Native American literature as a source of innovative lessons & (2) the relationship between student teachers and mentor teachers.

• Do you teach any Native American literature?
• What tribal prose and poetry enlivens your classroom?
• What was your student teaching experience like?
• What advice would you offer future student teachers?
• How could mentor teachers improve their craft?

These questions and more will guide our breakout sessions. Of course, if you wish to propose a session outside our theme, feel free. Use this Google form to submit your proposal. Presenters will receive one-year free membership in OCTE.

 LOCATION & TIME

The fall conference, sponsored by the Department of English at Southern Nazarene University, will be held on the SNU campus at the Herrick Building & Auditorium on the corner of NW 39^th Expressway and N. Asbury Ave. in Bethany, on Saturday, September 28, from 9:00am—2:00pm with a break for lunch at area restaurants.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

A detailed schedule with breakout session descriptions will be emailed to registrants the second week of September. The complete schedule will also be posted on the OCTE website.

8:30-8:55         Registration
9:00-9:25         Opening Session: Oklahoma author Sonia Gensler
9:30-10:15       Breakout Session 1
10:20-11:05     Breakout Session 2
11:10-11:55     Breakout Session 3
12:00-12:55     Lunch at area restaurants
1:00-2:00         Closing Session

REGISTRATION

Registration is exclusively online on this Google form. Please register by Thursday, September 26, 2013. Contact Laura Bolf-Beliveau, OCTE treasurer, with any registration questions at octetreasurer@gmail.com. Registration fee includes morning coffee, tea, and snacks and all breakout sessions. Lunch is on your own. Some restaurants are within walking distance.

COST

We are unable to accommodate registration at the door, so please register early. Those who are not members of OCTE are required to purchase a year’s membership to attend the conference; however, first-year teachers and college students get free OCTE membership. No reimbursement can be offered for cancellations.

Free    SNU College Student
$20      College Student
$20      First-Year Teacher
$20      Presenter
$20      OCTE Member
$45      Non-OCTE Member (includes a 12-month OCTE membership)

SNU CAMPUS MAP & PARKING

The Herrick Building & Auditorium is located at #1 on the SNU campus map. Free parking is available on the street and one block west of the building in the Bethany First Church of the Nazarene parking lot.

AREA RESTAURANTS

Use this handy Google Map to navigate to some favorite area restaurants.

• Ann’s Chicken Fry House
• Arby’s
• Bella Italia
• Birrieria Diaz
• Boom-a-rang Diner
• Braum’s
• Carl’s Jr.
• Chelino’s Mexican Restaurant
• City Bites
• Flatire Burgers
• Lai Thai
• Los Amigos
• Papa Angelo’s Pizzeria
• Sonic
• Swadley’s Bar-B-Q
• Thai Sweet Basil Express

OCTE

Website: http://octe.ecok.edu

Twitter: @oklacte

Facebook

The Red Line: Our Student Anthology’s Journey

This is my fourth year to teach creative writing and my first year to have a Creative Writing 2 class. Some of the seniors I currently have in CW2, I had as freshman in CW1. When I began teaching CW, I inherited the task of sponsoring our high school’s student anthology of poetry, prose, art, and photography, humorously titled The Red Line after Microsoft Word’s grammatical error signal.

My first year as adviser, I worked alongside some great students who produced a book much like ones from the past. The Red Line 6 was the size of computer paper (8.5 x 11), and we had it printed and bound at FedEx Office. The end result had some fine content, but I was not very pleased with the tape binding of our book. It seemed like something that could have been done 10 or 15 years ago. I wanted something better because the work our students produce is so good.

I was pleased to learn about lulu.com  in a session at the National Writing Project’s Annual Meeting in Orlando the next school year. With Lulu, we still created the document, but we used their template, which automatically numbered pages for us. We went went for a much smaller book size for the 2011 issue of The Red Line (volume 7) and to save money we included the best art on the cover, but we kept everything in the book black and white–including all the other artwork and photographs.

Last year I attended a workshop on high school literary magazines with Paul Stevenson at the Nimrod conference at Tulsa University. Paul has been at the helm of Eyrie, the student journal of creative expression of Edison Preparatory School in Tulsa, for quite some time now. Their work is remarkable and gets high honors in the PRESLM contest sponsored by NCTE. Paul shared some good pointers and even gave me a copy of Eyrie to show as a model to my students. It was decided we would do a full-color book, even though it would be more expensive. The end result was quite nice, and The Red Line 8 cover looked amazing thanks to the desktop publishing skills of one of my seniors. I uploaded a digital version of RL8 using FlipSnack if you’d like to give it a read. The downside of this book was its cost, and we just told published and interested students to buy their own book from the Lulu website. That procedure definitely needed some improving.

This year we continued our full-color book tradition but decided to sell ads to offset costs. My editor Katie and I called area businesses. To be honest, neither one of us was expecting to get any sponsors. To our surprise, we got some affirmatives over the phone as well as some potential interest. Plus, we had some connections with a fellow CW student and our photography teacher’s wife’s business. Our sales pitch was rather last-minute, so we’ll definitely need to begin that process earlier next year. In the end, we sold $440 in ads and got a $50 donation from our school’s principals. I took down orders from students, and ordered the copies of The Red Line 9 with a school credit card. Now instead of having to pay $22 for their books (the price on the Lulu website), students will only have to pay $10, a much more affordable price for a 60-page full-color book. Here’s a preview of The Red Line 9 if you’re interested.

What about you? Do you sponsor a student anthology of writing? What advice or questions do you have?

Audio Book Reviews

There’s writing a book review, and then there’s saying one in front of a room of twenty-eight sixteen-year-olds. Over the course of eight years of teaching, I don’t know how many book talks I’ve given. I’ve tried to learn a balance of giving just enough plot and characters to hook readers. And since it’s 2013…

I’ve created my first audio book review using a cool, free app called Audioboo. By creating an account, users can create multiple sound files of up to 3 minutes. Right now, I’ve only made two boos. (Yes, that’s what they’re called. Fun, right?)

My dream is to get my students to create Audioboos as well. Then I’ll convert the websites of the Boos to QR codes and post them inside the books. I know that students almost always listen to one another for good books before they’ll listen to me. Imagine a student opening a book and finding three different opinions about it from three current and former students! Since most of my students have smart phones, they can just plug in some ear buds, scan the code, and listen to a quick review. I think this idea holds a lot of promise!

For now I’m posting my first audio review on my classroom door.

Do you use Audioboo or something similar in your classroom? What about QR codes?

Shout out to Wes Fryer and EdCampOKC for sharing Audioboo with me.

If the embedded Audioboo player is not showing up below, you’re likely using an iOS device. Just click on the following link instead to hear me talk about The Walking Dead, Volumes 1-4.

listen to ‘Walking Dead review’ on Audioboo

Tweaking the Reading Routine

In room 149 we are one month into the second semester. I’ve been tweaking how we begin class since I read Penny Kittle’s Book Love. The ten minutes of sustained silent reading was non-negotiable, but I wanted to give more book talks, so I started each class with a book talk or two. It was a little jarring at first because students were used to reading as soon as the bell rang. Now I was talking about books before they got to read. Some of my more voracious readers ignored me and got even more reading time in. These are the same students who try to read during a lesson or activity. I feel bad telling them to put their books away, but that’s the way it has to be.

I quickly realized that I couldn’t keep up giving daily book talks, so I decided students would give book talks on Wednesdays. Some hours are more willing to talk than others, so I sometimes have to call on specific students. My seventh hour has the most willing students. They actually come to the front of the room to talk rather than talk from their desks like my other hours.

All year long we have used the first few minutes on Fridays to update our reading checkup charts. Students record the book they’re currently reading, their page progress (e.g., 134/358), and their total number of books read. Here’s one of my blog posts that goes more in depth on how we do that, which includes some student samples.

Most recently I started showing book trailers from YouTube to start Monday classes. Yesterday I showed book trailers for Stupid Fast and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. By my second English class, both books had been checked out. Here’s my current playlist of book trailers I’m collecting on YouTube. My plan is for this list to grow throughout the school year.

To recap, here’s our weekly schedule at a glance:
Mondays: book trailers
Tuesdays: I give book talks
Wednesdays: 3-4 students give book talks
Thursdays: I give book talks
Fridays: Students update their reading charts

Recently students have volunteered to help me add up the weekly total of books from the checkup charts. I sometimes let them help me, especially if quite a few students need to have a book chat with me on that day. But seeing each student’s progress helps me motivate the ones who have not read much in the past week.

With our new media center opening, some old book shelves became available, and I nabbed one. I gave a smaller bookshelf away to one of my colleagues to make room for it. Here’s how my classroom library looks now:

In January I explained to students the quote bulletin board I had left empty the entire fall semester. To kick things off, I put up the famous quote from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Only one student brought quotes for the board, but she brought a lot. Here’s the board:

This semester I’m having students read a book that’s been nominated for our state’s Sequoyah award. Instead of limiting their choices to only the winners of the Sequoyah award, I’m letting them choose any titled that’s been nominated over the past four years. I posted all the titles they could choose from, and I arranged for our librarian to come give book talks on some Sequoyah titles to all my classes. She has the Sequoyah titles labeled with different colored stickers, so that’s why the list is color-coded.

Along with the number of books read per hour, I’m also calculating the average books per student, or bps. I had some students move away between semesters, and I also gained some students, so that’s why my student numbers changed. I should probably reprint them, but it’s not a priority.

I also chart the overall book progress on this semester chart.

I’m also keeping a running list of all the texts we have shared together as a class, an idea I think I got from Donalyn Miller.

These routines work for my students and me. Feel free to borrow and tweak them for use in your own classroom.

Fiction vs Nonfiction

My first year of teaching high school English was as much a learning experience for me as it was my students. I had three classes of Pre-AP English 2, and Daniel was one of my students. We have stayed in touch off and on, and he recently reached out to me on Facebook, asking if I’d heard of Common Core because he’d recently read an article about CCSS on NPR.

Here’s what Daniel wrote:

“I would agree with you that nonfiction and fiction need to be balanced. However David Coleman’s quote makes me think that common core does not recognize fiction’s value. Yes fiction can help one understand themselves but it can also help them understand others. Fiction frequently explores different issues and gives them a foundation for discussion. (To Kill a Mockingbird, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Hamlet). Stories are a tool for rhetoric. Stories exercise the imagination. Innumerable influential people were story tellers and I think we are much better for that. I could write a lot about each of those statements, but the point is that fiction has an important place in english classes and the world.”

Daniel is going into the medical field. Perhaps he is a future Khaled Hosseini or William Carlos Williams: doctor by day, writer by night.

What are your thoughts on the fiction-nonfiction debate in Common Core? How is your school reacting?

New Library

My school recently had its soft opening for its new media center/library. It’s most impressive and more than doubles our previous space. We are now a 5A-size school, and our former library was designed for a 2A school.

Our librarian weeded out many old nonfiction books before the big move, and students have noticed. “Where did all the books go, Mr. Stephenson?” they have asked me. I support our librarian’s decision to weed. She cut books about computer repair from the 1980s and craft projects that have not been checked out in 10 years.

Check out a 1-minute video tour and some pics below. I’m experimenting with my iPhone, which I used to record the video and take the photographs.

Inaugural Poets

Four years ago I remember Elizabeth Alexander reading her poem “Praise Song for the Day” at President Obama’s first inauguration. My first reaction to the poem was a little like this:

As I reread and studied the poem, though, I grew to like it more and more because it speaks to our identity as Americans. Just hearing a poem read aloud once is not the same as pouring over it on the page. Of course, I’ve heard poems before that I liked right from the start, but sometimes poems grow on you.

Alexander is only the fourth poet to read at a presidential inauguration. And earlier today, the fifth inaugural poet, Richard Blanco, read his poem. According to The New York Times, Blanco wrote three poems for the inauguration, and Obama’s team selected the one for him to read to the nation. (I want to know what the other two poems were!)

The inaugural poets and their poems are:

1. Robert Frost, “The Gift Outright” & “Dedication” (Kennedy, 1961)
2. Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning” (Clinton, 1993)
3. Miller Williams, “Of History and Hope” (Clinton, 1997)
4. Elizabeth Alexander, “Praise Song for the Day” (Obama, 2009)
5. Richard Blanco, “One Today” (Obama, 2013)

Frost is the most well-known of the five, one of our nation’s greatest poets. Kennedy asked Frost if he would recite a new poem for his inauguration, but suggested he use “The Gift Outright,” a poem he’d already written, as a backup. Kennedy even went so far as to suggest a revision of the final line of the poem. Frost wrote “Dedication” specifically for the occasion, but the the sunny, snowy day kept him from being able to read the words (Frost was 86 at the time), so he recited “The Gift Outright” from memory, including the modified, final line. That’s why Frost has two poems listed.

Angelou is best known for her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which I still haven’t read. I own a copy. Maybe I’ll read it this year.

Williams was an Arkansas man like Clinton. I have not read any of his other poems, and I don’t think I’ve come across any of his other poetry in anthologies or literary journals.

Alexander was the second black woman chosen as an inaugural poet. She has quite a few poems available on her website. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Blanco as a gay Latino expands the diversity of the inaugural poet. Named after Richard Nixon, at 44, Blanco is also the youngest poet ever selected. He’s on Twitter as well, and some of his poems, including a chapbook, are available online. Here’s a word cloud of Blanco’s “One Today” I created with Wordle:

During this semester, try incorporating one the inaugural poems or poets into one of your lessons. April is National Poetry Month, so that’s a good time to introduce your students to one of our nation’s historic poets. I’ll probably use “One Today” in my sophomore English classroom. I’ll post about how it goes when the time comes.

Blackout Poetry

Over Christmas break, I received a message from a high school graduate, urging me to check out the poetry of Tyler Knott. He writes a variety of poems, but I found myself drawn to his blackout poetry. A recent favorite is “Look on the happy side of all things.” Notice how Tyler adds punctuation in his typed version of the poem.

I bet you’ve figured out how blackout poetry works. Austin Kleon collected his blackout poetry of newspaper articles in Newspaper Blackout. This accompanying video demonstrates the stages of the blackout poetry process.

Last year when we experimented with blackout poetry in Creative Writing 1, I gave all my students the same article from the Wall Street Journal about being lovesick. Some teacher in our building had ordered the newspapers but was not using every issue, so I scavenged, and my students and I had a pretty good time.

This year our school’s librarian happened to be weeding her collection of books in preparation for the big move to our new library. This was great timing for blackout poetry. I grabbed three books for blackout poetry. They were all nonfiction: one was about dog training, one was about whales, and one was religious. I had an office aide rip out some pages from each book, and I gave a pile of pages to each table group. We had already examined Tyler Knott’s poetry, so we were prepared. Students placed a blank sheet of paper beneath their book page and set to work with their markers. The room soon fumed with the smell of 24 Sharpies, and a few of us (myself included) cried out in frustration when we accidentally marked over a word we meant to keep. Some students had the foresight to mark their keepers with pencil before launching in with permanent marker.

Even if you don’t teach creative writing like I do, you might be able to incorporate blackout poetry into a lesson in your English class. One idea I have but have yet to try is to give students a page from a novel we’re studying and have them create a poem from an important scene in the novel. Now I’m not suggesting you have student deface their novels with Sharpies. You’d have to make some copies of some of the novel’s pages. I don’t think that would be breaking copyright because those copies would be for classroom use and would constitute a tiny fraction of the overall book.

Finally, if you have some weeding to do in your own classroom library, consider ripping out some pages of your weeded books before you completely thrown them away.

Here are some of my students’ poems:

I decided to go
early in the morning
before the rest wake.
Fleeing to a tide
they shall never know,
running to the shore.
~Samantha

Men like football. Some-
one has to win. Great success-
es are full of praise.
~Catherine (who turned her blackout poem into a haiku!)

KARMA:
He didn’t deserve mercy.
He got a chance.
I had a pickax:
death, executed, slaying,
dead at 6:45 p.m.
~Drew

An angel appeared.
Believe it without fear.
Things are different than before.
There is something worth living for.
~Lillie

He tore the bars away.
Gone, he left with a simple, lovely tune.
Now you’ll notice
a family so near–heartache.
~Emily

Human history:
The combination of technology and manmade war.
Such marvels and other deadly unseen carcasses
board other forms of life which share the planet with us.
~Sabrina

2012 Reading Reflection

Looking back on the past year, I wonder how I read 75 books. Teaching high school English keeps me busy, and I devote more time than I care to admit to TV (Chopped, Parenthood, The Big Bang Theory, Homeland, The Good Wife, SNL, Happy Endings, Elementary to name some series). Part of my secret is that I read quite a few poetry collections (14) and graphic novels (18). I recorded four picture books toward my goal, but I read more than that. During a drive to Kansas and back, I listened to a John Grisham audio book, and I checked out and listened to two YA audio books from the Edmond library over the summer.  I also occasionally read with my students, but that is rare because most of the time, I’m having book chats with students during their 10 minutes of SSR at the start of class. Aside from those tricks, I simply carved out time to read–sometimes before bed, on weekends, on vacation. Almost anywhere I went, I brought a book with me.

According to Goodreads, I’ve grown in my amount of books I’ve read over the past five years. I think this chart also demonstrates my devotion to Goodreads, which I did not use much in 2008. I have been keeping a Word file on the books I’ve read since 2005, but now I’m pretty faithful to record my books in both the Word file and on Goodreads. I also keep a graphic reading history in Publisher and print off the titles to tape onto my classroom door. Each time I finish a book, I chronicle it 3 different ways! That might be too much. I could probably just use Goodreads to create my graphic reading history. Maybe I’ll try that this year to save myself some time.

My pages show growth as well, which shouldn’t be surprising.

Goodreads also gave me the option to see how I rated the books I read this year. Shout out to Claudia Swisher for giving me the idea to write about my ratings. (You should check out her blog!) Of the 75 books I read, I gave only 1 a score of 1 (“didn’t like it”). I gave 7 books a 2 (“it was ok”). I gave 19 books a 3 (“liked it”), 37 books a 4 (“really liked it”), and 11 books a 5 (“loved it”). That means my overall average rating for a book this year was a 3.67, which I think is excellent.

The above chart also shows that my longest book was Erik Larsen’s The Devil in the White City and that I categorized my books in a wide variety of genres/shelves. Currently on Goodreads, I’ve rated 620 books with an average overall rating of 3.59, so my 2012 ratings are close to my overall average. I’ve written 252 reviews for those 620 books, which I also think is pretty good.

I’ll wrap up this reflection by copying and pasting my 2012 book record from my Word file. I’ve selected 2 books from each of 4 different time periods to highlight as outstanding reads. I was very happy with most of the books I read this year, and I look forward to another year of reading in 2013.

2012 Reading History

Spring 2012

    

1. Scott Card, Orson. Ender’s Game. © 1985. 324 pages. Sci Fi / YA / Annoying.
2. Dawson, Mike. Troop 142. © 2011. 150 pages. Lad Lit / Graphic Novel.
3. Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. In Evil Hour. © 1979. 183 pages. Multicultural literature.
4. Fey, Tina. Bossypants. © 2011. 275 pages. Memoir / Humor.
5. Garfield, Simon. Just My Type. © 2010. 331 pages. Nonfiction.
6. Macaulay, David. Black and White. © 1990. 30 pages. Children’s book.
7. Janeczko, Paul. Requiem: Poems of the Terezín Ghetto. © 2011. 94 pages. Holocaust poetry.
8. Rosenthal, Amy. Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. © 2005. 225 pages. Memoir.
9. Grisham, John. The Associate. © 2004. 434 pages. Legal thriller.
10. Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. © 2012. 313 pages. YA: CRF.
11. Whaley, John Corey. Where Things Come Back. © 2011. 228 pages. YA: CRF.
12. Borden, Louise. His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg: Courage, Rescue, and Mystery During World War II. © 2012. 131 pages. History: Children’s Book.
13. Kohn, Alfie. Feel-Bad Education: And Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling. © 2011. 204 pages. Education.
14. Greenberg, Jan, Ed. Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art. © 2001. 73 pages. Poetry & Art.
15. Kooser, Ted. The Blizzard Voices. © 1986. Poetry: Historical Fiction.
16. Kooser, Ted. Bag in the Wind. © 2010. Children’s Book.
17. Kooser, Ted. House Held Up By Trees. © 2012. Children’s Book.
18. Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. © 2011. 341 pages. YA Historical Fiction.
19. Kohn, Alfie. The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards.” © 1999. 237 pages. Education.
20. Carson Levine, Gail. Forgive Me, I Meant To Do It: False Apology Poems. © 2012. 80 pages. Poetry.
21. Applegate, Katherine. The One and Only Ivan. © 2012. 304 pages. Children’s Lit.

Summer Break 2012

    

22. Wilson, Maja. Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment. © 2006. 109 pages. Professional.
23. Morrison, Toni. Home. © 2012. 146 pages. Historical Fiction.
24. Handler, Daniel. Why We Broke Up. © 2011. 354 pages. YA: CRF.
25. Brosgol, Vera. Anya’s Ghost. © 2011. 221 pages. YA: Fantasy / Graphic Novel.
26. Backderf, John. My Friend Dahmer. © 2012. 199 pages. Memoir / Graphic Novel.
27. Kohn, Alfie. The Homework Myth. © 2006. 198 pages. Education.
28. King, A. S. Please Ignore Vera Dietz. © 2010. Audio / 336 pages. YA: CRF / magical realism.
29. Crawford, Brent. Carter Finally Gets It. © 2009. 300 pages. YA: Lad Lit.
30. King, A. S. Everybody Sees the Ants. © 2011. 279 pages. YA: CRF / magical realism.
31. Hinds, Gareth / Homer. The Odyssey. © 2010. 249 pages. Classic / graphic novel.
32. Chast, Roz. What I Hate from A to Z. © 2011. 64 pages. Illustrated / Humor.
33. Pyle, Kevin C. Take What You Can Carry. © 2012. 176 pages. CRF / Historical Fiction / Graphic Novel.
34. Anderson, Jeff. Everyday Editing: Inviting Students to Develop Skill and Craft in Writer’s Workshop. © 2007. 158 pages. Professional.
35. Ferguson, Craig. American on Purpose: the Improbably Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot. © 2009. 268 pages. Memoir.
36. Palacio, R. J. Wonder. © 2012. 313 pages. YA: CRF.
37. Tovani, Cris. So What Do They Really Know?: Assessment That Informs Teaching and Learning. © 2011. 156 pages. Professional.
38. Herbach, Geoff. Stupid Fast. © 2011. 311 pages. Realistic Fiction.
39. Martin, Walter & Paloma Muñoz. Travelers. © 2008. 81 pages. Art / Photography.
40. Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. © 2003. 396 pages. History.

Fall 2012

    

41. Fies, Brian. Mom’s Cancer. © 2006. 115 pages. Memoir / Graphic Novel.
42. Koertge, Ron. Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses. © 2012. 87 pages. Fairy tale poetry.
43. Trethewey, Natasha. Thrall. © 2012. 78 pages. Poetry.
44. Knisley, Lucy. Relish. © 2013. 173 pages. Memoir / Graphic Novel.
45. Duffy, Carol Ann. The Bees. © 2011. 84 pages. Poetry.
46. Thompson, Richard. Cul de Sac: Golden Treasury. © 2010. 197 pages. Comic Strip.
47. Thompson, Richard. Shapes and Colors. © 2010. 127 pages. Comic Strip.
48. Thompson, Richard. The Mighty Alice. © 2012. 128 pages. Comic Strip.
49. Knisley, Lucy. French Milk. © 2007. 193 pages. Memoir / Graphic Novel.
50. Anderson, Jeff. 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know. © 2011. 266 pages. Professional.
51. Ronson, Jon. The Psychopath Test. © 2011. 272 pages. Nonfiction.
52. Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. © 2010. 328 pages. Nonfiction.
53. Heard, Georgia, Ed. Falling Down the Page: a Book of List Poems. © 2009. 45 pages. Poetry.
54. Scieszka, Jon. Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka. © 2005. 106 pages. Memoir.
55. Bracey, Gerald W. Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality. © 2009. 259 pages. Nonfiction.
56. King, A. S. Ask the Passengers. © 2012. 293 pages. YA: CRF.
57. Forney, Ellen. Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me. © 2012. 237 pages. Graphic Novel Memoir.
58. Kittle, Penny. Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers. © 2012. 169 pages. Professional.
59. Grisham, John. The Appeal. © 2008. Audio.
60. Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. © 2008. 285 pages. Nonfiction.
61. Regnaud, Jean & Emile Bravo. My Mommy: is in America and she met Buffalo Bill. © 2007. 118 pages. Graphic Novel / Memoir.
62. Ryan, Kay. Say Uncle. © 1991. 76 pages. Poetry.
63. Hicks, Faith Erin. Friends with Boys. © 2012. 211 pages. Graphic Novel: CRF & Fantasy.
64. Ruddell, Deborah & Joan Rankin. A Whiff of Pine, a Hint of Skunk: a Forest of Poems. © 2009. Children’s poetry.
65. Lee, Nelle Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. © 1963. 384 pages.  Literary Excellence: Historical Fiction.
66. Chaltas, Thalia. Because I Am Furniture. © 2009. 352 pages. YA CRF: Novel in Verse.

Winter Break 2012

    

67. Yang, Gene & Thien Pham. Level Up. © 2011. 160 pages. CRF/Fantasy: Graphic Novel.
68. Moore, Alan & David Lloyd. V for Vendetta. © 2005. 265 pages. Dystopian Graphic Novel.
69. Gregorich, Barbara. Jack and Larry. © 2012. 92 pages. Historical Fiction Novel in Verse.
70. Bingham, Kelly. Shark Girl. © 2007. 276 pages. YA CRF Novel in Verse.
71. Zuniga, Lauren. The Smell of Good Mud. © 2012. 92 pages. Poetry.
72. Bragg, Georgia. How They Croaked. © 2011. 161 pages. Nonfiction.
73. Urban, Linda. Hound Dog True. © 2011. 148 pages. CRF Elementary.
74. Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink. © 2007. 276 pages. Nonfiction.
75. Juster, Norton. The Phantom Tollbooth. © 1961. 256 pages. Classic Fantasy Elementary.
76. Newman, Lesléa. October Mourning: a Song for Matthew Shephard. © 2012. 91 pages. Historical Fiction Novel in Verse.