Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay

This book should be required reading for any secondary English and/or social studies teacher. It is written by two teachers who know their stuff! Kimberly Hill Campbell and Kristi Latimer have crafted a professional text chuck full of ideas for reading and writing, appendixes of forms and pass-outs for teachers to give to kids, a gazillion secondary book ideas, and more. They stole my quote ( which is quite alright) of "Read like a writer and Write like a reader." An entire chapter is devoted to reading like a writer. But understand, this book is more than just a sermon of anti formulaic writing. It takes this philosophy one step further with specific ideas of how to get your students out of the 5 paragraph mold! Available from Stenhouse, this book needs to be in the hands of everyone who trying to improve student writing!

Code Name Verity (327 Pages)

There are many books written about the Holocaust, and it is my hope that schools will reach beyond Diary of a Young Girl.Although it is a perfectly fine book, other have surfaced that offer other ides about the war. Here is a book that is quite marvelous. Written from two points of view,author Elizabeth Wein has crafted an historical novel that is spell binding. The first half of the book is "written" by Verity, a code name for Julie Beaufort-Stuart. Julie is from an upper class Scottish family who becomes a spy for England. The second half of the book is "written" by Maddie, a young, Jewish, British girl who is a bit of a tom boy. She becomes quite a capable pilot and flies for much of the war carrying supplies to resistance in France and bringing back English pilots who have been shot down, but survived. Maddie and Julie meet and quickly become best friends. I will not tell you how the book ends, you obviously know "who won the war"! But this is not about the war as much as it is about the active duty of women during the war, about close friendships women achieve, and about the word "truth". Much truth,and therefore, such an aptly named title. I was on the edge of my seat for much of the read!

Never Fall Down (214 Pages)

Patricia McCormick has written several books that I may have mentioned in class, among them are Sold, Purple Heart, My Brother's Keeper, and Cut. Everyone of them have proven to be great for discussion. This book is no exception. It is historical fiction, although most of it is based on the memory of the main character, Arn Chorn-Pond. It is the story of the atrocities dealt by the Khmer Rouge on the Cambodian people, and in particular on the Cambodian children. Without knowing what he was sucked into, Arn finds himself in the middle of what has become known as The Killing Fields. The book is filled with gore, brutality,and horrific violence. It documents once again man's inhumanity toward man. It is an important read, I believe, and one that could be embraced by social studies teachers as well as English teachers.