Week 7: Young Adult book "Fallen" over Fantasty theme of the week

Title: Fallen

Author: Lauren Kate

 

Summary

    When it comes to choosing books for Young Adults, I often struggle to figure out which ones to choose. Probably because I typically work with lower elementary students, so my experience there is limited. However, I know that when I was a young adult the first book that actually peaked my interest and that I enjoyed reading outside of normal school based texts was the book Twilight by Stephanie Meyers. I know it is cliche that as a highschool teen I enjoyed a vampire love story, but my teenage girl brain and heart loved it. I not ashamed to say that I pretty much devoured reading through the whole entire book series. Twilight falls into the genre/category of fantasy fiction. So when it came to finding a book for this weeks fantasy themed books, I kinda looked for something that my teenage self would enjoy. The book that I found and decided to read is titled ¨Fallen¨ by Lauren Kate. To my surprise it isn´t a newer book, its been around for a little bit. The book was published back in 2009 which was during all of the Twilight hype so I´m assuming that is why I missed it.  I kind of wish I had found it back when I was in my young adult years, because I do strongly believe I would have really enjoyed it back then. However, reading now in my mid thirties I still thought it was a decent and entertaining read. ¨Fallen¨ is a fictional fantasy story about fallen angels with a good love story thrown in. The main character in this novel is a teenage girl named Lucinda Price. Throughout the story Lucinda goes by Luce for short. The story begins with Luce getting sent to a reform school out in Savannah, Georgia. The name of the school is called Sword and Cross. Luce is sent to this school because she is partially blamed for an accident at a summercamp where her crush tragically passes. Luce does not fully remember what happened to the boy, just knows that they happened to kiss and then a fire of sorts broke up unexplainably. Moving on to Luce´s time at Sword and Cross, she meets and array of interesting students. A girl named Arraine and Penn become close friends to Luce. A few other characters that Luce meets and that are main characters in the story is a girl named Gabbe and Molly, and a boy named Cam which is short for Cameron and Roland. Another main character and the love interest in this story is a boy named Daniel Gregory. Throughout the story there are odd occurences where Luce sees shadows and sometimes an unexpected fire erupts similar to her history with her previous crush. Also throughout the story Luce begins to notice the subject area of Angels being taught, and there other suspicious occurences that seem to connect back to that subject area.  Luce finds herself pulled towards Daniel, but Cam also tries to make his advances on her as well. Finally it is revealed to Luce that all the students at Sword and Cross are Fallen Angels, some on different sides. Daniel and Luce are apparently cursed to love each other throughout many lifetimes, but Luce never lives long in any of their meetings. Daniel is forced to lose Luce each time. However, this time is differen´t because Luce´s family were not of a religious background. The book has you rooting for Luce and Daniel to finally get their happy ending, but of course the end of the book has you needing to read the sequel to see if that is truly going to happen. 

Classroom Activities

            I think the book Fallen is a great book to have available as a resources for students to utilize for personal reading interests. I´m not sure if I would directly incorporate this particular book into an actual lesson plan or have them assigned to read it directly. The reasons I say this is because  first the topic of religion or angels. This book doesn´t teach one way or the other, but we do live in a sensitive world and I wouldn´t want to step on any toes. The other reason is, I think young adult girls would typically enjoy it more than the boys. The material is engaging and follows right along with their age range. I just think it would probably be something that students would read in their free or personal time. Our textbook Readicide has taught us the importance that students should be able to read books that interest them and promote and enjoyment of reading. That is something that I do think this book accomplishes. Now while I might not directly implement this particular book in my classroom lessons, that is not to say it doesn´t have value or that there couldn´t be activities done with it. If an educator did have their students read this story, I think have students complete a timeline graphic organizer would be beneficial. The story line often jumps back and forth to different time periods. I also think if there were a group of students who seemed interested in this book, then maybe a small group discussion of sorts could be implemented with them regarding the story. The teacher could assist the students that are interested in this type of book with a guided discussion over their thoughts over the topic throughout or at the end of the story. One thing I love about this particular book is it is the first book in a six part series. I personally have only read the first book, but it definitely peaked my interest enough to want to see what happens next in the plot line and with the other characters. I think book series like this one are great for young readers because it promotes further reading and develops their love for reading in itself. So overall I would definitely recommend this book to be available in a local classroom library for students to utilize. 

Week 7: Children's Book "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" over Fantasy theme of the week

 

Title: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Author: Judi Barrett 

Illustrator: Ron Barrett

Summary

    This week´s theme of Fantasy is my favorite of all. When it comes to my own peresonal interests regarding reading, I tend to always go toward this genre. For this weeks children´s book, I chose to review a beloved staple in my early childhood classroom. ¨Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs¨ by Judi Barrett has been a comical, and engaging story, that I´ve shared with my classes throughout the years. The funny story along with the engaging art always maintains my students interest and keeps them laughing the whole time. I recently shared the read aloud with my three son´s at home on Youtube. They thoroughly enjoyed the funny story. The story begins with a normal family being cooked breakfast by their grandfather. The gradfather gets a little wild with flipping his pancakes. This event inspires the grandfather to tell his grandchildren a bedtime a silly bedtime story over the town of Chewandswallow. The town of Chewandswallow is like a regular town. However, in place of regular weather, food falls down from the sky to supply them with daily meals. The town has a great sanitation routine in place, and seems happy with the situation. The story provides the readers with examples of full course meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that falls down from the sky. The illustrations of this book really brings the book to life, and will make you giggle. Everything is well, until one day the sizes of the food coming down begin to grow dramatically in size. From their the ¨weather¨ seems to go bonkers. The food no longer makes sense and become a danger of sorts to the town´s people. The people of the community eventually have to flee the area, and leave the crazy town of Chewandswallow for good. The story then ends the grandchildren waking up to snow falling at their house and going sledding with their grandfather. While sledding, they happen to notice that the big snow covered hill reminded them of a big pile of mashed potatoes with the sun at the top looking like butter.

Classroom Activities

    The cute children´s book ¨Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs¨ provides many fun educational activity for children. I have read this book with my students throughout the years many a time, and it has always been a hit. If I were to teach a lesson around this book, I think I would first read the story and then open up a whole group discussion with my students over what their favorite foods were and what they would like to rain down from the sky. I could also venture over to having the students generate ideas of what they would do if food rained down from the sky. Ask them questions such as how would they clean up the mess, would they want it to keep doing it and if not, how would they get it to stop. This could turn into a very cute guided writing assignment over the topic. Teacherspayteachers.com has many cute art ideas over the book. My favorite activity that I found costs about five dollars to purchase, but has a guided writing prompt paper with a craft that has a big cloud with an assortment of food that you color and cut out that hangs from it. Down beliow in the reference section, will be a link with this adorable activity. This book inspired the making of a major motion picture. The movie varies a little bit from the actual story, but is entertaining and kids love it as well because of it´s comical nature. Personally I enjoy the true storyline from the book, but showing the movie after reading the story could generate some meaningful discussions over how motion pictures sometime differentiate from the original plot line. Overall I strongly recommend this book as a staple for any earlychildhood classroom. Many older elementary students enjoy the silliness of the story as well. 

References

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | Activities | Mini Read Aloud Unit. (n.d.). TPT. Retrieved July 4, 2024, from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cloudy-with-a-Chance-of-Meatballs-Activities-Mini-Read-Aloud-Unit-6638131?st=3cc5bb3b011b9365d5a52f63facf4cfd

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Week 6: Young Adult book "Out of the Dust" over Historical Fiction theme of the week

 

Title: Out of the Dust

Author:Karen Hesse

 Summary

From the moment I found out that our theme this week was over Historical Fiction, I knew just the book I was going to review for the Young Adult content. ¨Out of the Dust¨ has been a favorite of mine for a very long time. During my Junior year of High School, I had a very special Speech/Drama Coach introduce me to this novel. I was looking for something to use to perform in the Prose category. This categoty is pretty much an interpretation of poetry. The novel ¨Out of the Dust" qualified into the categoty of free verse poetry because it is written as daily journal entries by the main character Billie Jo Kelby. I made it all the way to the State Championship at Oklahoma University with my interpretation of a collection of entries from this novel. I have thoroughly enjoyed rereading this classic story, and taking a little trip down memory lane. The novel ¨Out of the Dust¨ is set during the time period of the Oklahoma Dust bowl at the time of the Great Depression. This book gives vivid details about the hardships that people experienced during this time. As a fellow Oklahoman, I think this book is a great addition to any classroom library because it depicts life in an era in our own great state. As I said earlier, the novel is written as journal entries from the main character Billie Jo Kelby. Billie Jo is a fourteen year old girl, and I will say in warning that she does experience many traumatic hardships during the course of the novel. Billie Jo explains in her entries about the dust storms during this time period and how it effects the crops. Billie Jo and her family experience financial trouble because of it all. One thing noteable about Billie Jo is that while she is a rough and tough tom boy she has a deep love for playing the piano. There are many side characters mentioned throughout the course of the book, but the other main characters in Billie Jo´s life are her Ma, and Father. Billie Jo´s Ma is pregnant during a major portion of the story. A main event that tragically happens during the novel is an accidental fire caused by a bucket of kerosene that is mistaken for water. Billie Jo´s hands are severely burned during this awful event by trying to help remove the kersone bucket to outside of the house. While trying to throw the burning pail out of the house, Billie Jo´s Ma was running in at this time and gets doused by kersone and engulfed in the flames. When I say this book has your biting your nails I truly mean it. This portion of the book frames a good part of the rest of the story. Billie Jo´s hands hinder her ability to play the piano, but with time and perserverance they do heal. However, life is still not so great for Billie Jo. Billie Jo´s Ma does survive the terrible fire incident, but she does not look like the person she always had been. However, later during child birth she dies along with the little boy that she beared. This book does not just have a fairy tale ending, but it does have closure that gives you hope for the main character and her father. Her father eventually meets another woman who I believe helps improve their situation. This book is one that will keep you engaged and give you a true perspective of just how hard times used to be for Oklahomans.

 Classroom Activities

The novel ¨Out of the Dust¨ presents many opportunities for educational discussions both for whole group and small groups. If I were to teach this novel to a class, I would first give an introductory lesson about the history of Oklahoma during the time frame of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era. I would share pictures with students over what the land used look like during this time, so that they could have a deeper understanding over the concept. Personally because of my own history with performing the journal entries as my own interpretations, I think it would be fun to do something of that line of thinking with my own class. For an engaging and inclusive activity, I would separate the students into small groups and have them pick out their favorite or what they feel are most meaningful journal entries from the book and then take turns reading them with different voice inflections and their own personal spin on things. I think doing this would help them to identify with the main character and empathize with her situation. As I have said many times, I love this novel and I think it would be a great staple in any classroom.