Thanks to Kid Lit Frenzy, I made a goal to read more children's nonfiction this year which I will be featuring on my blog every Wednesday.
I only read one nonfiction book for kids this week:
I was really looking forward to this book when I heard it was coming out, since I read the original and loved it. I even e-mailed Thomas Foster after I read it with the idea of a version for kids, but he kindly e-mailed me back letting me know it was already in the works. When it came out, I thought it would be a great book for my students to read at the beginning of 5th or 6th grade next year when I teach at the intermediate building. I was expecting a book for middle grade kids to get the same insight into reading literature that Foster's original book did for college-aged kids, using intermediate grade books. Even the cover makes it look like it's for about 4th-6th grades. Unfortunately, it's aimed at older kids and not appropriate for middle graders at all. The book titles range from Narnia books, which would be appropriate for the grades I teach, to The Odyssey, which wouldn't be. I was disappointed. I can adapt some of the material, but I won't be able to have them read it all. I'm not sure why it was still aimed at teens - a lot of high schoolers are reading the original one for honors and AP English classes. Maybe this was meant for jr. high? I'm not sure. Oh well - don't miss the original one, How To Read Literature Like a Professor, though. It's wonderful! Here is a post I wrote for Nerdy Book Club about using it with a read aloud:
http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/?s=Edward+Tulane&submit=Search
http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/?s=Edward+Tulane&submit=Search
Oh, I have to look this one up. Thanks for sharing and linking up.
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