So, this week in my favorite grad school class, Literacy History: Teaching Reading in Middle and Secondary Schools, I have an uber exciting project due. It's called a classroom library project. I get to build a library of books for my (imaginary) classroom. I want to teach English (grades 8-12) and for the project I'm pretending it's an 8th grade classroom. I have to have at least 6 trade books and 2 of them MUST be YA! And I'm just thinking Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!
I have to do a qualitative and a quantitative analysis on the books but it's worth it!
I've already decided to us Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg, a book I read and loved thanks to an awesome class/professor I had in my undegrad (big wink and an elbow nudge)! I'm thinking about a lot of different books that I could use and there are so many! I'm in Heaven here but I can't have a list a mile long. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for my fake 8th grade classroom.
I want to have a dystopian novel because a.) they're awesome and b.) I think it's an important concept for kids to start thinking about. I have given thought to choosing The Giver, but I know that most kids read that in elementary school these days so, I was thinking of choosing something a little different, perhaps a little longer. I'm considering The Hunger Games as a possibility. Any input/suggestions for a good dystopian novel would be much appreciated!
Here are some YA books I'm thinking of using in my fake classroom for my fake 8th grade students (whom i already love):
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Any suggestions from fellow book lovers would be super helpful. I want these fake 8th graders to have quality literature to choose from in my imaginary classroom! And I wanted to share my excitement!
