Today I overheard Jessica discussing how much her students love the Bluford books, a series of young adult fiction written by a few different authors and telling the loosely tied stories of adolescents at the a school called Bluford high. The Bluford books are great in a way-- they are low- reading level/high interest stories that depict African-American kids in an urban setting with both accuracy and respect. Kids really, really love them. Beyond entertainment, though they have a pretty low literary value (ok, this is my opinion...but I stand by it!), and students who love them don't always let this translate into an interest in classroom reading, especially when confronted with harder texts. Jessica and I had a quick quick talk about using slightly more advanced realistic fiction as a bridge between easy reads like Bluford and harder literature. I said I would try to make a list of books that my 7th and 8th graders really enjoyed, and then I got inspired by the Technology Day and decided to put it on the blog so that everyone could add on ideas and we could use each other as a resource. I have read a bunch of these books but not all of them. I hope thisis an ok use of the blog.
Chelsea
Some authors and books my students enjoyed:
Sharon Flake:
Bang!
The Skin I'm In
Begging for Change
Who Am I Without Him?
Angela Johnson:
The First Part Last
Heaven
Rita Williams-Garcia:
Like Sisters on the Homefront
Walter Dean Myers:
Monster
Bad Boy: A Memoir
Hoops
Slam
145th Street
Paul Volponi:
Black and White (this book isn't that well known but it is AWESOME, my kids, especially the boys, loved it!)
Gary Soto
Taking Sides
Carolyn Mackler: The Earth, MyButt, and other Big, Round Things
Roald Dahl
Boy
Gary Paulson:
Hatchett
3 comments:
My students liked the Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes.
It has some great multi-cultural stories that connect with slam poetry.
Gary Paulson has a much younger series that students in younger grades or lower level reading seem to enjoy. Hatchet is well liked but is on the higher end of his works.
Anyone looking for a good but short book addressing "slavery" needs to look up his book, "Nightjohn".
Thank you for this list. I'm always looking for inroads to get students reading. Sharon Draper is also a great writer who has an absolutely gut-wrenching series that deals with weighty issues. I enjoyed reading them as much as the students did.
Tears of a Tiger
Darkness Before Dawn
Forged by Fire
Also, the Bluford Series can be purchased for $1 each copy at townsendpress.com. When I order from them, the shipment comes in pretty quickly.
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