a cautionary tale....and fave books

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Today's BTBC prompt is to write about your favorite books as a kid or as an adult. I do have some favorites now, now that I've been a teacher and have some great mentors and colleagues who showed me the way. But...back when I was a kid, not so much.

The problem? Basal readers. My teachers never made me do independent reading. Sure, they taught us about reading with a basal and we read stories from a said textbook, but the lessons never went to independence with Just Right books. I grew up a kid who wanted to be a teacher and I never liked to read! Is that ludicrous or what?!?!

I share this with you because if you are a teacher who only uses a basal and does not create the space for students to do authentic, self-selected, independent reading, what you're teaching them won't transfer. The kids might learn some things about reading, but unless they have a way to apply it, it doesn't really do much. I've already talked in another post about the accountability piece, and I can go more into detail (let me know what's still unclear!), but kids have to read independent, self-selected books, or they won't become readers. End of story.

Now that all that's out of the way, I can share some of my fave books that I've found since I became a teacher!

First, a picture book:

Amos and Boris is a beautiful tale about unexpected friendship. Amos, a mouse, and Boris, a whale, unexpectedly become friends. When you read it to kids, be sure to use a squeaky voice for the mouse and a deep voice for the whale. They'll love it, and you'll love reading it to the kiddos!

A book for meditation and well-being:

I found out about this book through yoga. The teachers would read passages from this one to us at class and I had to have my own copy! It has 365 different passages - one for each day of the year - and they are about all different topics: love, acceptance, being kind to yourself, regret, moving on, etc, etc. You can read them according to the day of the year it happens to be, or you can look up topics based on how you're feeling. I've loved it when I've felt happy and it's a source of comfort when I'm feeling sad. Highly recommended!

A chapter book:

This is my all time fave book, ever! It was recommended to me by the librarian at the first elementary school I worked at. Read it with my first group of sixth graders, liked it, but didn't love it. Read it with another group of sixth graders...liked it again. Then talked to someone about the ending, who offered a new interpretation of the ending and *then* I loved it!

A few years after that, I read it with seventh graders. Loved it. But then, when I waited to read it until eighth grade...that was the best. Sixth graders: too much of it goes over their head. Seventh is better, but eighth is the best. Highly recommend. I'd read it with kids every year if I could!

Side note: The movie version is coming out on August 15th! Read the book before then (and leave me your comments about it here!)

Anyways, sorry to cut it short (I orignially wanted to put 5 books on the list) but I had a late night because I saw Taylor Mali at The Green Mill tonight! Do you know about him? He wrote this spoken word poem called What Teachers Make:

I'll post all about my evening tomorrow! Let's just say there were laughs, there were tears, and there was inspiration to keep on keepin' on with the writing. More to come tomorrow! :-)

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