When I was in fourth or fifth grade, I got into this habit of bringing a book with me where ever I went: to recess, to lunch, when my mom had to run errands, in the car, at the dentist, when my family went to "yum cha" with older people which is really, really boring for someone around 8 or 9 years old.
So I read a lot, partly because I found a lot of things boring and one of the few things that I found worthwhile to spend my time was with books. I began to consider than my best friends when I had never had one before. It's safe to say that I've read my fair share of children's chapter books; still do. When I don't know what to read, I usually head over to the juvenile fiction section. Most of my all-time favorites belong in this category. Here are just a few. Coincidentally, next week is Read Across America. WARNING: spoiler alert!
1. Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken. This British author is most awesome, but this one is my favorite (as well as Midwinter Nightingale in the same series. Black Hearts is about an poor orphan boy, Simon, around fifteen years old who travels to London to enroll in the art academy and ends up foiling a plot to kill the king. Simon also discovers he actually has a family with wealth and title.
2. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Grandly imagined. There are no words to describe the leaps and bounds my intellectual growth went through when I read this. Many people, specifically Christians, are fundamentally against this book. But then, many people have something against Harry Potter too. This book is probably way too difficult for EIB-type fifth graders; even many sixth graders may find it too hard. However, it's a great read aloud choice.
3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. My very first chapter book that I fixated on. I think I read this in the second grade or so. I still have my old beat up hardcover copy that I dragged around every where (hey, I was 7, it took my a while to slog through it). My favorite character: Jo. Although I started admiring Amy as I got older.
4. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. I'm actually preparing to read this to my fifth graders in a couple of weeks. The school doesn't have a class set of of this book, but I'll have my students work on art projects/letter writing as I read it. They really should have read it in fourth grade, but EIB is 99.9% EL and their language arts skills are not so high. I'm afraid even Island would be too hard for them if they had to read it by themselves.
5. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. We went to the school library today and I saw one of my students take this from the shelf. At that moment, Inner Ms. Ng went berserk with glee. Even though this book, too, is too hard (this student has the highest language arts ability in this class; just goes to show how disadvantaged Title I schools are) for her. I love how Anne is so idiosyncratic, and smart, and relatable.
More to come later. Exercise for an hour a day; read for an hour each day!
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