A new school year means…more student-author interviews! I’m thrilled to feature Caroline Carlson for our first interview of the year. Caroline is the author of The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates trilogy. In the first book, Magic Marks the Spot, Hilary Westfield, who has always wanted to be a pirate, is not deterred when The Very… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Middle Grade Literature
Read-Aloud Recommendations, the Fall ’14 Edition
This past August, like most Augusts, my to-read pile was dominated by a certain kind of book: I was mostly reading new books that I thought might work well as middle school read alouds. I’ve blogged before about why I love to read aloud to middle schoolers and the criteria I use when selecting a good read… Read more »
The Gray Area Between Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
Back in 2010, Mary Kole, who was then a literary agent, wrote a post called “Is it MG or YA?” on her excellent site kidlit.com. I should note that the publishing market has changed between 2010 and 2014, so I can’t say whether this post would be the same if Kole had written it today…. Read more »
Character Likability
If you’ve ever read reviews on Goodreads or Amazon, you know that readers find characters unlikable ALL THE TIME. The fact that some readers find a character unlikable doesn’t mean that a writer has done anything wrong. Certain characters simply elicit strong positive and negative reactions. One of the most powerful things about reading is… Read more »
Student-Author Interview 05: Tara Altebrando
When I was a kid, I loved books that felt real. Judy Blume’s Just as Long as We’re Together and Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson were two of my favorites because I could completely relate to the main characters. Tara Altebrando’s middle grade debut The Battle of Darcy Lane is just the kind of book I adored most back then because of the sensitive,… Read more »
Reading Aloud in a Middle School English Classroom
The other day, I read Joe McGee’s powerful blog post about being the kind of hero who doesn’t need a cape: the kind of understated hero who reads books aloud to kids. I recommend reading the post in its entirety, but in one part of it, Joe describes reading to one of his three sons: “I sit… Read more »
Student-Author Interview 03: Lisa Graff
I’m so excited to bring you the next installment of the Student-Author Interview Series! This time, three delightful sixth graders and two delightful seventh graders have interviewed the similarly delightful Lisa Graff, who has even shared some special bonus content with us! Poli, Sophia, Sydney, Dasha, and MaryElizabeth all read Lisa’s charming novel A Tangle of… Read more »
Exceeding My Expectations: A Great Author Visit at a Hectic Time
Last Friday morning as I was having breakfast before school, I read this blog post entitled “The Paradoxical Extremes of Middle Grade Students: A Holiday Memory,” and I teared up a bit. In the post, Braden Bell, a choir director and author, describes his experience with a talented but silly group of eighth graders and… Read more »
Crafting Likable Characters Who Make Mistakes (with Lessons from Lyn Miller-Lachmann)
My seventh grade students recently finished reading Riot by Walter Dean Myers, which is set in New York City during the draft riots of 1863. Because the students had studied immigration and visited the Tenement Museum and New York Historical Society during a trip to New York, they were familiar with the setting of Riot,… Read more »
Middle School Girl Culture Mini-Course
Now that I’ve made it through the first week back from spring break, I’m finally getting around to writing about something that happened just before vacation: a two-day “Middle School Girl Culture” mini-course that included a successful Skype visit and other fun events. My friend and colleague Maureen and I led a course for fifteen… Read more »
Short, Fun Projects to Energize Student (and Adult) Writers
I’m working my way through the first seasons of Dr. Who, and last night I watched an episode called “The Girl in the Fireplace.” In that episode, the Doctor passes through time windows to 18th century France to protect a young woman being stalked by extremely creepy looking clockwork droids. For the Doctor, only a… Read more »
Technology and Human Connection: Skyping with Grace Lin
As a middle school teacher, I often feel nervous about how connected everyone is in the age of the Internet and how public everything can be. I know, I know. Kind of ironic, worrying about how the Internet lets people connect and publicize their ideas on my blog. The thing is, though, drama already spreads fast… Read more »
8th Grade Dystopian Unit
Teaching middle school English often feels like a juggling act. It’s hard to make time for everything that falls within the realm of “English” when I only have each group of students for 40-45 minutes most days. And it’s especially hard to make sure that students are reading independently when we have an ambitious list… Read more »
Tension, and Conflict, and Antagonists–Oh My!
I am starting to revise my novel-in-progress after getting some insightful feedback from two smart and generous first readers. I’m working on increasing the tension and conflict in the second half of the novel (among other things), so I’m thinking a lot about antagonists. Now if you know me, you probably know that I don’t… Read more »
Reading Levels Don’t Tell You Everything: A Great Book Is a Great Book
This year, the theme for fifth and sixth grade English and social studies at my school is China. Last winter and spring, I read several China-related novels as I tried to figure out my book list for sixth grade English. I wanted a range of books that would engage sixth graders, expose them to aspects… Read more »
Celebrating Banned Books Week
It’s Banned Books Week, a time to celebrate the freedom to read! For the past few years, I’ve talked with my students about book banning at some point in the year, but this is the first time I’ve remembered the official week and commemorated it on time. Yesterday, I introduced Banned Books Week to my… Read more »
CHAINS and FORGE: Historical Novels that Pass the Student-Interest Test
The English and social studies curricula at my school are integrated, so I end up teaching a lot of historical fiction. It isn’t always easy to find a book that’s firmly grounded in a historical time and place and well-written and engaging for middle school readers. But Laurie Halse Anderson’s Chains and Forge are all… Read more »
CAPTURE THE FLAG: Another Great Read Aloud
I don’t know how Kate Messner does it. She just keeps coming out with new books of so many different kinds: realistic middle grade, dystopian middle grade, picture books, chapter books, books for teachers, and now the first mystery in a three-book series. I really enjoyed Messner’s new adventure-mystery Capture the Flag. She sets up… Read more »
LIAR AND SPY: An Excellent Read-Aloud Novel
I love to include read alouds in my middle school English classroom. That usually means choosing an effective read-aloud novel, reading somewhere between five and fifteen minutes per class, and giving students some time to discuss their reactions and predictions as we go. I find that read alouds increase students’ enthusiasm about books and lead… Read more »
Literary Meat or Poison?
A little over a year ago, I read Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande, which was published in 1934 but still feels timely. There are many things I appreciate about this book (and if you’d like you can access the full text of it here), but I especially love the frank and funny life advice… Read more »