Reactions to Wonder by R.J. Palacio

I fell in love with August and his story. This book helped me understand, to a whole new level, what any person that may look different might feel like on a daily basis. My hands down favorite feature of the novel was the way it was split up into sections for different characters. I loved hearing the same parts of the story from different points of view. This really shaped and enhanced the novel for me because you feel like you know the entire story and how all characters saw it. I loved hearing their thoughts and knowing more about what really happened in situations. I really loved hearing all the nice things that Jack says about Auggie during his section of the book. August assumes the worst about Jack when he sees him trying to be cool in front of the other boys in his class and the reader is then able to see the true meaning behind the way Jack was acting.

I also really loved the quotes at the start of each character's section. They fit perfectly with either that character's personality or the situation they were currently in. They are such beautiful quotes and I really loved the way the author did that. 

This book was touching and would be such a great novel to use in the classroom. It really teaches kids about friendship and being kind to all people no matter how different they might be. It also shows kids that although someone may look different on the outside they are a person on the inside that might be just like you. I would most deficiently use this novel in my classroom. I was also trying to think of a reason this book might be banned and I can not think of a single reason. This beautiful story does have sections that might be difficult to read because kids can be so mean but other than that there are not any moments in the book that I feel students would not benefit from being exposed to. I am so happy we were assigned this book for class because it touched my heart.

Reaction to Banned Book: TTFN

I choose to read the banned book TTFN by Lauren Myracle. This book is about young teen girls that are 16 years old. It chronicles the stories of three best friends in their sophomore year in high school. It was a really interesting book because it is written in instant messaging style and I had originally read the prequel to this novel so I was really interested to read the second one. I love the stories that they tell because some of them had me thinking back to my own high school years.

 I think it is hilarious that people ban books because I feel as though that would spark a readers interest rather than steer them away from a novel. It really made me curious and more interested to read other novels on the list and I feel as though it would do the same for middle school students. With that being said, I do feel TTFN did contain material I feel would be inappropriate for middle school students.

The book contained: 

- explicit sexuality 

- foul language 

- adult situations 

- teacher student relations

I also believe that this book was banned because it discourages correct grammar and spelling. When  high school girls instant message throughout this book they do not write correctly. I am sure that some teachers and parents do not like that because it encourages their children that they can do the same. I think the content of this novel is really relatable for students in middle school at some points and at others is not appropriate for them. I do believe that readers should have a right to read what they want but I think there is a point where adults should step in when content is targeted for an older age. I believe this novel has very great and relatable stories but would be more appropriate for high school girls rather than middle school. This book would be entertaining for high school girls because they are going through the same situations in their lives. I would not have this book available in my lower grade middle school classroom but would not forbid students from reading it if they had it in my class. I plan to make as many books as I can available to my students but I do plan on making sure they are age appropriate.      

Articles on Picture Books

"A Middle School Teacher's Guide for Selecting Picture Books"
This article stated a lot of obvious benefits to using picture books in middle school classrooms and a lot of new ideas I hadn't thought about. I admit that I had thought that picture books were mostly made to target elementary students and did not even really know they made picture books for older students. I was shocked to hear in the article that the majority of picture books today are written for middle school studnets. That fact really opened my eyes to such a growing trend in education. I also had not thought about the topics of the picture books coming out these days until I read this article. The article stated that more and more controversial but educational topics are now becoming the main topics for picture books. I thought that was great because they are short enough where students will read them and they will get a lot of lessons and information from them. 

"Aren't these books for little kids? "
To begin with my impressions of this article, I loved the title. I really think that is my first question I asked when we began learning about middle grades picture books. I loved how the article started out with a life example of a skeptical teacher. I also loved how this article stated what exactly qualifies as a picture book because before this I was a little confused on what exactly qualified. It was great that it compared picture books and textbook because I know that students find picture books way more interesting. Although I am not specialized in social studies I did find it interesting that this article included aspects of picking social studies books for your classroom. I really enjoyed learning more about picture books and how to implement them in my future classroom.   

Picture Books

I really enjoyed picking out three picture books to share with the class. I had no idea how many picture books there are out there for middle grades students. The librarian in Aderhold helped me pick out my books and I got books that related to science, weather, and poems.

Hurricanes! by Gail Gibbons:
This picture book is very informative. It really surprised me that it needed such a high level of comprehension to understand. The book begins by tell the reader exactly what Hurricanes are and then tells the history of some of the most famous Hurricanes. It explains all the categories of the Hurricanes and explains what happens at each of them. I love the way the book ends with how to keep yourself safe if you are in a Hurricane. The book was beautifully illustrated and really seemed like it would keep students attention.

A Butterfly Is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long:
This picture book tells students anything they can possibly wonder or need to learn about butterflies. I was really shocked at how much information was in this book and how useful all the facts were. If students in a science class were studying butterflies this picture book would be great. I really think this shows me how useful these books are in the classroom and they are not just pretty to look at.

Color me a Rhyme by Jane Yolen:
I really enjoyed reading and looking at this picture book. It was a compilation of poems categorized by colors about nature. I really think this would interest students because it shows all different styles of poetry. This seemed like what I thought of when I pictured what a picture book was comprised of. I think this would be a great book for students to read that were interested in nature or to learn poetry in language arts. I love books that teach a lesson but also would be an interesting read on their own.