The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

why: I'm reviewing this for possible use with my CU students this fall, but I've also wanted to read it for a while. All of my students who have read it in the past have loved it.

when: start 7/23, end 7/29

how: as an ebook on my ipad.

thoughts: Whoa. I can see why the Fairview librarian says he cannot keep this book on the shelf in our library. Not only is it constantly checked out (even the multiple copies he has of it), but he says it often walks away from the library permanently. It's an intense read for sure--a view into a different world for me for sure as I was lucky to have a very stable childhood in terms of having a solid roof over my head and food on the table to eat always. I never had to worry about my head getting rained on in my bed or not having heat or whether or not there would be money for food. The parents here--the lifestyle they lived was truly a choice, even though it was a lifestyle that did not provide basic necessities for their children. That was very difficult for me to understand, and I've been thinking a lot about it since I read it. A good friend of mine who is a writer hates this book--she wishes there was some humor, that the writer would at times show us the humor in some of these situations. And of course there were moments of that, and I think there are even moments in the book that could have been relayed with humor but were not. The absence of humor maybe even more underscores the tragedy of this story. The choices these parents made about the life they provided for their children--really there's not much redeeming there in my opinion. But maybe I'm being a bit too judgmental.

Click on the book image to get to the wikipedia entry on this book.

review haiku:
In a glass castle
dream, it's easy to forget
to feed your children.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

why: I wanted some fun summer reading, and this was recommended to me by a friend who often recommends books to me.

when: start 7/14, end 7/22

how: I read this as a ebook on my ipad (as usual, purchased through the website of my local independent book seller!). This is what I was reading for fun in the evenings when I was reviewing all those books about teaching on our road trip this summer).

thoughts: I had read another book by Sittenfeld (Prep) a few years ago (great book, by the way--I highly recommend), so I was expecting this to be equally engaging. Just right for a summer read. For some reason the other book I'm trying to get through for fun right now isn't going very quickly. I like it, but it just doesn't hit my summer reading needs right now. I'll get it done eventually. ANYHOW, American Wife is a fictional take on the relationship of George and Laura Bush (in the book, Alice Lindgren and Charlie Blackwell). The author researched Laura Bush's life extensively, so much of this is accurate (including the tragic car accident in her teens where Laura ran a stop sign and ended up killing one of her friends). But of course, much of this is absolutely fiction (like the moment in the book where Alice speaks out against the war in Iraq and her husband is furious and considers it a personal betrayal). I enjoyed the book on the whole, though I wondered how political I should consider this book. Is it ultimately a criticism of Bush's presidency? (Charlie Blackwell comes off as somewhat ridiculous lots of the time in this book). If you read it, let me know if you think this book is political.

Click on the book image to read more about the book from the author's website.

review haiku:
a President's wife
her life is complex, manic
she yearns for simplicity

Teaching Argument Writing by George Hillocks, Jr.

why: This is a book I need to review for the course I'll be teaching at CU this fall. And it's also a book I've been interested in due to the demands of the Common Core State Standards for teaching argument.

when: start and end 7/19 (we were in the car for about 10 hours that day, ok?)

how: I read this in hard copy and in its entirety in the passenger seat of the car as we drove from Grand Teton National Park to Grand Mesa, Colorado.

thoughts: So George Hillocks has been in the education business for 55 years. I'm not kidding. FIFTY FIVE YEARS. Isn't that awesome? I actually saw him in person at a presentation at the NCTE conference in Chicago in 2011. This book is a great resource on argument and shows how to use crime scene investigation to teach students about argument. Cool stuff. I think, though, that it might be a bit more in-depth work than is necessary for my CU students this fall. I may have them read an excerpt but not the whole book, and I will definitely include it on a list of recommended teaching resources that I am building for them.

Click on the book image to learn more about the book.

review haiku:
an old but smart guy
explains teaching argument
excellent resource

Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst

why: I have been wanting to read this for a while, but it's also a text I need to review for the course I'm teaching at CU this fall.

when: start 7/17, end 7/19

how: I read this in hard copy once again. I did lots of reading sitting outside at Grand Teton National Park with the dogs while my traveling companions were checking out attractions in the park that the dogs could not visit. I finished reading it in the passenger seat of the car en route from Grand Teton to Grand Mesa, Colorado.

thoughts: I'm impressed by the process that became this book. Beers and Probst read dozens of the novels typically assigned in high school and middle school and kept note of when they paused as readers to think about what they were reading. From these notes, they identified six common signposts where engaged readers may stop to think about a text and ask questions of it (for example, when there is a contradiction from something expected or when a character has an aha moment or when something in the text repeats again and again). The idea is that you can use these signposts to teach students to do more than just decode the words--you can use them to teach students to really think about a complex text, which is something that students absolutely must be able to do on their own. I think this will be a very useful text for my CU students, and I'm looking forward to integrating this work into my own classroom. The signposts may replace the tricks of successful readers I've been using for the last few years. The signposts are way more concrete and specific and really show students what to do.

Click on the book image to read more about this book.

review haiku:
notice and note your
questions, connections, and thoughts
unpack complexity

Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts by Kelly Gallagher

why: This is another text I need to review for possible use with my college students at CU this fall. Also, this book has been on my list for reading for my own professional development as a teacher.

when: start 7/14, end 7/16 (started on leg one of the summer road trip and completed during leg two: Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Grand Teton National Park)

how: I read this as hard copy, in the passenger seat of the car, sticky notes in hand again making notes about how this would fit into my course syllabus.

thoughts: After the Colorado Writing Project work I did this past summer, I've been very anxious to read this because it gives more details about how to use mentor texts and modeling to teach writing authentically in the high school classroom (these are all key tenets of the writing workshop philosophy). I picked up lots of ideas for my own classroom--so I'm hopeful that my CU students will find this useful as they think about their future classrooms as well. This book is full of practical ideas for getting students to do real-world, authentic writing (not the five paragraph essay...but the kinds of writing they actually see in our world). I've been wanting to figure this out--how to get my students writing things that they will see as actually useful to their lives beyond school. School writing really need not be different from real world writing. I want my students to be able to think through complexity and struggle with words to communicate their ideas about their lives. Ideas in this book have helped me to figure that out more.

Click on the book image to get a link to information about this text.

review haiku:
write for real, students
not just for school. Life demands:
think. write. communicate.

Supporting Students in a Time of Core Standards: English Language Arts Grades 9-12 by Sarah Brown Wessling

why: This is a text I need to review for the course I'll be teaching at CU this fall.

when: start and end 7/14

how: I read this in hard copy, sitting in the passenger seat on the first leg of our summer road trip (to Badlands National Park in South Dakota). I read with sticky notes in hand, making notes on each chapter and how it would fit into the syllabus for the course I'll be teaching.

thoughts: This is a helpful text for language arts teachers who may have anxiety about what the Common Core State Standards are asking of us to do differently. Great practical work here. This is one book in the series coordinated by a smart professor in Michigan. Incidentally, one of my former high school students worked with this professor on the middle school book in this series.

Click on the book image to get to information about the text.

review haiku:
common core standards
don't worry. They only ask
more of our best work

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

why: Jane asked me to read this to her (I haven't read a book to her for a long time! She reads on her own voraciously, but for some reason, she wanted me to read this one to her).

when: start 6/3, end 7/10

how: The photo is of my copy of this book that I've had since I was a child. Jane found it on her book case and asked me to read it to her. So I've read some to her at bed time when she gets to bed early enough for that. I also read a lot of this to her (and to the husband as well) while we were driving to and from Montana this summer.

thoughts: Such a great story. I haven't read it since I was a kid--yet it's just as vivid and wonderful now as it was then. It's amazing how clearly I do remember much of this book even though it has been so many years!

Click on the book image to get to the wikipedia entry on the book.

review haiku:
all is lost to Sara
but she doesn't change herself
and finds it all again

Joyland by Stephen King

why: This one is just for fun. I haven't read King in ages and a colleague posted a link about it in Facebook so I thought I would check it out. 

when: start 7/6, end 7/8

how: I had to read this one in paperback. For some reason, King is not permitting ebook copies of this. This confuses me because King has been a huge proponent of ebooks and ereaders. Whereas I loved seeing the book sitting around the house, I remembered how much I prefer reading on my ipad just for the simple physicality of holding a book vs. having the ipad propped up somewhere and reading on it. 

thoughts: This was a fun read. It certainly doesn't achieve the psychological depth of some of King's work (like The Shining, for instance), but I'm pretty sure it's not about that anyhow. This is a fun summer read set in a fun and campy amusement park in the summer. There is a mystery in the middle of this book and a ghost too, but what takes center stage really is the world that this book throws you into--a world inhabited by carnies. Loved it. 

Click on the book image to read a review of the book from the NYTimes.

review haiku:

a murder mystery?

kind of. Moreso a trip to

carny world. Enjoy!