Literary List: Goodreads and YALit.com

Sometimes, when I go to the library or bookstore, I have a hard time finding a book to check out or buy.  This is partly because I am so overwhelmed by all the choices!  I don't even know where to start looking!  The fiction in libraries is usually organized by author rather than topic, genre, or feeling, and while this is super helpful if you know what you're looking for, it's not always the best for browsing.

One solution that I've come up with is to use other people's recommendations, including book lists, to narrow down my search.  A lot of times, I'll go to the library with a list of ten books or series, and I'll come home with only three or four of them.  It's like when I go to the grocery store: I have to go with a list, or I'll come home with stuff I don't even like!  (Like blue cheese.  Ew.)

If you're like me, and it's easiest to "shop" when you have a list, I have two websites for you!

First, if you're mostly concerned with reading the newest, then check out YALit.com.  It has a constantly updated list of books that will be released soon, and you can also read lists of books that have been recently released.

The downside to this site is that it doesn't have book descriptions.  You would have to click on the link to the book's Amazon or IndieBound page to see the description.  An upside to this site is that, if you click on a book, you can then click on that book's publisher.  The site then gives you a list of recently-released books from that publisher.  You can use that as your "shopping" list!

Second, a lot of people have heard of the GoodReads website, but I want to specifically highlight their Young Adult page.  This a great resource for many reasons, but my favorite reason is because it has lists, lists, lists galore!  (See here.)  Some examples are:

--Best "Strong Female" Fantasy Novels
--Intense and "Angsty" Romance
--Young Adult Road Trip Novels
--Fiction Involving Music
--Young Adult Vampires, Werewolves, Angels, Shapeshifters, Faeries, Mermaids, and Witches
--Best Intro to Sci-Fi for Young Readers
--YA Historical Fantasy
--Teen Urban Drama

You can look at the "Tag" or topic of different lists, or you can search for a specific kind of list.

Both YALit and GoodReads are great options if you don't know where to start or are overwhelmed with possibilities!

Recommended Read: House Rules

House Rules, by Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: Realistic Fiction
http://www.jodipicoult.com/house-rules.html

Have you ever read a book that you just cannot get over?  You read the last page, finish the story, close the book...and then stay awake thinking about what happened?  You tell everyone to read this book, and you bring it up any time a conversation even remotely relates to the story?  That's what House Rules is like for me.

House Rules is the story of Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome.  In a lot of ways, Jacob is like any other teenager.  He loves to watch TV, he has favorite foods, and sometimes he doesn't get along with his brother.  But in some ways, Jacob is very different.  He won't look people in the eyes, he twitches, and he has a hard time understanding emotions.  Unfortunately, when Jacob's tutor is murdered, the things that make him different also make him seem GUILTY.

The story is told alternately from the point of view of Jacob, his mother, and his brother.  All three views are powerful.  Jacob's mother loves her son deeply, but she wonders--could he be capable of killing someone?  Does he really know right from wrong?  Jacob's brother is defensive, both of Jacob and of the "normal" life he wishes he were living.  Jacob's point of view is the most interesting, because it's the most different thought process from mine.

There are a lot of good books about kids with disorders on the autism spectrum, but this is far and away the most engaging, interesting, heart-gripping look at what it's like to live with Asperger's.

Want to Know More? Discover More!

St. Peter Claver has a wonderful relationship with Scholastic (check out how awesome our Book Fair was here), and one of my favorite aspects of Scholastic is that all of their books are interesting and appealing.  I even find the non-fiction books they publish interesting!  (For me, this is a big deal--there are people out there who love non-fiction and informational books, but I am not one of them!)

One of the best informational series I have "discovered" is the Discover More series by Scholastic Press.  They have eight books in their "Expert Level" series: Disasters, Titanic, Rocks & Minerals, Technology, Ocean & Sea, Elements, World War II, and Night Sky.  Our library currently has three of these books, and I can't keep them on the shelves!

These books are great because they are very picture-heavy (appealing to a visual learner like me), but they don't shy away from giving in-depth information on a high vocabulary level.  They are also laid out in an appealing manner, and each page grabs you with colors, pictures, fonts, or timelines.  I think these are a great information resource for any age, and I can't wait to get the rest of the series in my library!

For more information, check out http://www.scholastic.com/discovermore/.

Books to Movies

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and most recently, Divergent, are all excellent movies.  I bet you knew that they were books first, but did you know that these movies also started out as books?

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Book published: 1973 by Little Brown

Movie released: 1997

Book authored by: Lois Duncan

Movie starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Ryan Phillippe

You should read it if you: like horror and suspense


The Princess Diaries

Book published: 2000 by HarperCollins

Movie released: 2001

Book authored by: Meg Cabot

Movie starring: Anne Hathaway, Julie Andrews, Mandy Moore

You should read it if you: have ever wondered what it would be like to find out you were royalty

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Book published: 2007 by Random House

Movie released: 2008

Book authored by: Rachel Cohn and David Leviathan

Movie starring: Kat Dennings, Michael Cera

You should read it if: you feel a little jaded by teenage life

The Fault in Our Stars

Book published: 2012 by Penguin

Movie released: 2014

Book authored by: John Green

Movie starring: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff

You should read it if you: haven't read it already.  And let's be realistic: you've probably read it.  This entry is more excitement that the book is getting made into a movie! Whoo-hoo!

If you are a reluctant reader (or if you know one), books that have been turned into movies are a great place to start.  You can reward yourself for finishing a whole book by watching a movie, or you can get excited about the book by watching the movie first!
What is the best book-to-movie adaptation you've ever seen?  What's the worst?  What part of books always gets left out that you miss?

Awesome Author: Lisa See

I am fascinated by Asian culture, partly because we don't learn much about Asian and Asian culture in our schools.  I love reading about people's lives during Mao's reign, or about the expectations placed on women in the late 1900s.  I think all of the inventions that came out of Asia are amazing, and it's cool to lean about the ways Asian countries have changed over time.

If you're like me and you like to learn about Asian culture, or if the above paragraph has gotten you excited to learn about Asian culture, then I have the author for you:  Lisa See.

 Lisa See's family came from China, and all of her stories focus on China and/or Chinese characters.  One thing I love about her books is that, while they are about China, the themes and topics are universal.  Her fiction covers love stories, mysteries, family dynamics, art and literature.

One of my favorite books, and a great one for tweens and teens, is Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  It's about a secret language for women, and how that secret language affects Snow Flower and her secret friend, Lily.  Young women will like this book because Snow Flower and Lily experience common feelings that all young women experience, plus there's the exciting factor of secret communication and hidden defiance.

If you're into a little darker read, then pick up See's mystery series, starting with Flower Net.  These stories happen in contemporary China, and they are fast-paced and emotional.  The series is probably best-suited for older teens and adults.

Don't like fiction?  See writes non-fiction, too!  Check out her memoir On Gold Mountain.  This is great because it gives the background about Lisa See's family, and it includes a bunch of history about China in general and her family's experience in particular.  This might be a great starting point, if you're interested in reading many of Lisa See's works.

If you want more information, check out Lisa See's website, lisasee.com.  (All of the pictures on this blog were downloaded from that website, too.)

Lisa See's books are published by Random House.

The Scholastic Book Fair at SPC!

This past week was our annual Scholastic Book Fair!  If you've never experienced one of these events, you are missing out!  For the organizers, it's a streamlined, cost-effective way to encourage reading and raise money for the school.  For the parents and students, it's an opportunity to get some of the newest, coolest books at low prices!  Here are some pictures from our successful week!

Third-grade students wait in line to purchase books!

Third-grade teacher Mrs. R. helped students find interesting books, and picked some up for herself!

One of the best things we do during the Book Fair is we allow our oldest students, the eighth-graders, to volunteer and get involved.  They have to apply for their positions, provide references, and adhere to a schedule, which helps prepare them for the responsibility of jobs.  It's also important for younger students to see that the "big kids" value reading and support literacy!  Here, eighth-grader Q asks first-graders K and L to point out their favorite parts of a book.

Eighth-grade student J reads a princess book to first-grader students S and L.

One of our biggest events was the "Brown Bag Book Fair Picnic!'  Parents, grandparents, and other guests could bring their students lunch and eat in a different building.  This event was a lot of fun!  The students loved getting "outside food" like Arby's and Applebee's, and they had chances to win cool prizes (like books!).  After lunch, the guests took their students up to the Book Fair!

The K Family enjoyed their lunch, especially because sixth-grader T won a book as a prize!

All three members of the A Family enjoyed their lunch!  The tables were decorated with some of the books that they could find at the Book Fair--third-grader C ended up buying one because he saw it on another table!

The Scholastic Book Fair is one of our most-anticipated and most fun events at St. Peter Claver.  I think it's one of our most important events, too, because it highlights the importance of READING.  The teachers at SPC already emphasize reading on a daily basis, but it is wonderful to have another chance for the families to show their children how much they value books, creativity, and learning.  We love the Scholastic Book Fair!

Perfect Pairing: Neighborhood Odes and The House on Mango Street

Chicano and Hispanic culture is one of the most colorful, diverse, and growing cultures in the United States.  At St. Peter Claver, we have a special relationship to Hispanic culture, through our relationship to those who attend Spanish Mass at the church.  I have loved finding out more about the Chicano and Hispanic culture from my Chicano and Hispanic students, and they and their parents have taught me a lot about the true meaning of diversity!

If you are interested in learning more about Chicano and Hispanic culture, then literature is a great place to look.  Two of my favorite collections, Neighborhood Odes by Gary Soto (published by Harcourt) and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (published by Vintage Books), are wonderful depictions of the Chicano and Hispanic culture from the viewpoints of children and young adults.

Gary Soto was born in California to Mexican-American parents.  He has written prolifically in many genres, but much of his writing is poetry.  His poetry, and especially the collection of poetry in Neighborhood Odes, reflects on life as a Mexican-American in the Chicano culture.  Neighborhood Odes talks about everyday life for children in a neighborhood--many of their experiences might be familiar to non-Hispanics (the sound of the ice cream truck), but some experiences are colored by the specific perspective of being Hispanic.  There are Spanish words throughout the poems, and uniquely Chicano phrases and dialogue.

Another great read is The House on Mango Street, a collection of short stories.  The author, Sandra Cisneros, is also Mexican-American, but she was born in Chicago.  Unlike Neighborhood Odes, Mango Street is in the voice of one young girl, Esperanza.  The House on Mango Street is her coming-of-age story, and it speaks powerfully to common feelings of turning from a girl into a young woman, and how Esperanza's Hispanic Heritage affects her growing up.

One great thing about both of these collections is that they can be taken as a whole or as parts.  If you wanted to read a few poems from Soto and a few stories from Cisneros, you would gain a lot.  If you chose to read the entirety of both collections, you would gain a lot.  Both authors do a wonderful job of tapping into the teen psyche and viewing it through the unique lens of Chicano and Hispanic culture.  I loved both of these collections, and I think you will, too!