Book club reads

I read this with my book club. It is a teen fiction and not one that I would share with my class, as it does cover adult themes.

 

It is not a book about cancer although the two main characters have cancer and meet in a support group. I think it is a story about life and its struggles. I absolutely fell in love with the character Gus, I thought he was such a breath of fresh air in Hazel's life at the beginning, and allowed her character to grow. It has been at the cinema for over a month and I haven't yet allowed myself to see the movie as the characters haven't been casted as I imagined them to be. I am sneaking off by myself tomorrow as it is the last week on the big screen. A great read loved by every one that I find myself talking with about the book. I even feel inpsired to read another book by John Green as I found him so easy to read.

The other book my book club loved this year was Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night-time. The book is a great Young adult novel chronicling the incidents after a dog ends up being killed in a neighbour's home. It is narrated by a boy named Christopher, he has asperger's, and his story allows the reader to experience what life is like living with asperger's. I found Christopher's quirks endearing and was in the world of story quite quickly with this page turner. Well worth reading.

 

A really powerful read

Michael Morpurgo was a very popular author in my class last year. I loved seeing all the children borrow his books from the library, order the box sets from Book Club and other book shops. I discovered this book at my local library in November, and read it to my class in the week leading up to Remembrance Day.  The memorable story is about Christmas in the trenches in 1914. It is inspired by the Christmas truce. After reading this story my class were motivated to examine historical documentaries on youtube about the events. They found it hard to imagine resuming the fighting, and what it would be like to follow orders. Coming up to the 100 year anniversary, I will be reading this book to my class again this year and hopefully they feel encouraged to share this story with many others.

Gold stories

 Term two this year, my class was studying gold and we were looking at perspective for our English unit. I selected a couple of novels and a picture book. I had read New Gold Mountain by Christopher Cheng as a novel study. I thoroughly enjoyed the diary entries of a Chinese boy of the goldfields. His story was linked to the riots at Lambing Flats in NSW during the gold rush era. Unfortunately time in the term was getting away from me, and I ended up switching text and reading the class, Seams of Gold also by Christopher Cheng. The Making Tracks series by the National Museum of Australia is an exciting series. Each book in the series is linked to a piece in the museum's collection. Seams of Gold is linked to a sewing basket. Whilst New Gold Mountain is aimed at upper primary, Seams of Gold is much more suitable for your reluctant upper primary children or middle primary classes. The class thoroughly enjoyed this story and understood a bit more what life was like for the Chinese immigrants to the Australian gold fields.

 

We then read Rachel Tomkin's To the Goldfields. It is a picture book with a gold perspective from the point of view of the British settlers. The children learnt a lot about the way of life in this period from reading these stories.

Mahtab's Story by Libby Gleeson

I read this story in the January school holidays. I was planning a unit of work on Refugees and Migration for Year 5/6. I had considered using Morris Gleitzman's Boy Overboard but was aware that many of the children in my class had read the book. I decided to read them Libby Gleeson's Mahtab's story and among many English activities was for them to compare the two literary works.

My class were swept up into the world of the story really quickly just like I was. Libby Gleeson has a wonderful way with words. We examined an extract of her text and the children created the most amazing imaginative texts extending the story at the point of reading.

Everyday the children were asking me when are we going to find out what was happening to Mahtab, and we would read on. The children watched a youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Ykw6ehfPI of Libby Gleeson explaining the motivation for writing the book. The children already thought the story was much more authentic than a previous similiar themed book.

It was an amazing read and I felt so priviledged sharing this story with my class. I am sure they will remember this story for years to come.