YA novel #5 - The exchange student by Kate Gilmore

This novel is about a girl whose parents sign up for an exchange student from another planet. This is set in the future after the world has been annihilated by a ecological catastrophe. The heroine is involved in rebreeding all of the animals on earth. All the common sci-fi stuff is there, food replicators, etc. her exchange student eats a lot, turns colors according to his mood and is very interested in the animals. their relationship develops but she can tell that there is something she is not telling him. Great story, good sci-fi background. a little slow, but most sci-fi novels are, aren't they?

YA novel #4 - 3 days off

3 days off by Susie Morgenstern

This author, though born American, originally wrote this in French and the translation retains a sprinkling of French phrases and a scene where the main character tries to understand an American tourist as they go through the city together.

Now, when the title says 3 days off what do you think it would be about? A vacation? A snow holiday? No, you would be wrong. the main character here actually gets suspended for telling his English language teacher he would like to know what color her panties were. Apparently he didn't mean to say it, just blurted it out. but gets suspended for 3 days nonetheless. he gets up every morning to figure out how to tell his mom. she actually gets fired from the factory the same day he gets suspended so he chickens out of telling her and has to pretend he is going to school. he can't actually return until she comes to school with him. he is a teenage boy, thinks a lot about the girl he likes, wants to get out of the town he lives in and move to a bigger city, etc. All ends up well, he learns his lesson. The whole book is only 89 pages so it is short enough to read quickly. There are 3 sections/chapters, one for each day.

YA novel #3 - Both Sides of Time

Both sides of Time by Caroline B. Cooney -

Apparently this is a series. The Time Quartet. It is a cute love story about a girl whose boyfriend cares more about his car than her and she wishes she lived in 1895. As she is walking around a condemned house that is about to be demolished, she ends up "falling" through time to 1895. She falls in love , gets caught up in a murder and falls back to her own time. All ends up well in the end. This novel is well written, fun and a bit sappy. :) I am interested in finding the rest of them because I wonder where the story goes.

virtual worlds

I am officially a computer geek. Now, I have been flirting with this for years. My husband, Dan, and I would go into the video game stores and all the other guys would tap and nudge each other, "Look, a girl! a real live girl! and she has heard of these games!" I would giggle at being the oddity and move on. We would play selective games: Civilization II & III; Kingdom Hearts; Lord of the Rings. . . . But all in all I was just flirting with game playing. Until last night. Last night I officially signed up to play Everquest II. Dan has been playing for 3 weeks now and I have been holding off, watching movies, reading books instead. However I sucuumbed. My screen name is Anaria. I am a level 5 Gnome Scout after one night of play. Actually, I just finished the tutorial and we are about to head away from the refugee camp into the "real" world. :)

Honestly, it is kind of fun. I'm not into killing, but there is more to do than just kill the monsters. And I have a sneak attack that makes me invisible. :) Fun times to be had by all.

YA novel #2 - Hole in my Life by Jack Gantos

Really liked this one. This guy is a children's author and this is his true story. When he was in high school he knew he wanted to be a writer and it talks some about his quest to be a writer. he didn't live with his parents his senior year of high school and got into some drinking and pot smoking. This isn't so much condemned as it shows that it did get him into some trouble because it was a symptom of his irresponsibility in this case. All said, he takes a job helping drive a boat to New York full of hashish fresh from Morocco and gets caught, goes to jail at 19/20 and spends 15 months there. This is a good story that lets you know what exactly he was thinking. It isn't preachy. It isn't really a "don't do what I did." It is just "hey this is what happened to me." Even if you aren't into Young Adult novels, this is a good one and a quick read.

YA novel #1 - Whirligig by Paul Fleischman

Really, I picked this book up because it had a cool cover and i liked the word "whirligig." Which, come to find out, is an actual thing you can build that has spinning arms or parts when the wind blows. The premise of this book is that there is this extremely self-absorbed teenager. Obsessed with being popular and his dad moves around a lot. He over analyzes everything to make sure that he is what other people think he should be. After a bad experience at a party, he drives home (beyond the legal intoxication limit) and decides to kill himself by letting his car swerve in the other lane. He lives, the other driver, a high school senior, dies. The girl's mother sends him on a trip to of penance building whirligigs in the four corners of the country. It tells the stories of the people who find them as well as his own. Cool, lots of irony.

Catching up

Ok, It is currently 4:50 am. I have been awake since 3:30. I feel like I'm jetlagging, however I'm not so i know I will pay for this tomorrow. I can't figure out what the problem is: i went to bed at 10 (normal), didn't take a nap, don't feel sick or anything like that. . . who knows. but regardless i'm up so i'll take advantage of my time.

Joys of my life right now:
-We failed the national AYP standards last year for LEP (limited English proficient) students last year so we are currently at inservice all week to learn how to teach them. Our contracts ended Friday at 3. We aren't finished till this Friday at noon. :) But lots of people need this stuff so i'll just stick with it.
-I'm teaching literary genres - 110.51 next year. . . sounds like a fancy advanced course doesn't it? :) nope, it isn't. actually is the TAKS (state standardized test) remediation for those juniors who have to start passing this february or they won't get a diploma. it is a reading class...i really love teaching writing better. It is going to be all the students that are reluctant, not sucessful students, but actually i really like teaching those (why is that when i was actually the opposite that all these kids were when i was in school?). Bonus: I get to teach TWO Reading I classes in language center (immigrant students on their 3 year phase in plan back to regular classes - Reading I is for 9th graders. Usually their 2nd year in the US). And I am teaching one or two literary genres just for ex-language center students. Don't get me wrong, I think it will be fun. . I'm just going to miss writing.
-The students arrive from Japan on July 16. 9 days. Leave on 23rd. We leave on July 26 and return on August 4. Getting close.


There, now everyone is caught up. For the summer, since I am reading masses of books, I think I'm going to share all the Young Adult novels that I'm reading. Some of them are quite good. Some aren't. If anyone runs across something that HS students would read (interesting, low reading level (6-8 grade), not too many pages 100-150/175) let me know. i have gotta find things to read as a class and stuff to recommend individually.

What did you read in High school?

Ok, quiz. What did you read in high school that you:
a) liked
b) stuck with you
c) have shared with others since then.

I want to include stories that are more of a classic nature...but I don't want to bore my kids with Old Man and the Sea, Tale of Two Cities (though I liked it) and Hound of the Baskervilles. Ok, now I am going to tirades that these are three of the most influential books in someone's life, but really...do I want to fight that battle?

Instead, what did you read that stuck with you, that you liked? Short stories, novels or novellas. I have no curriculum so I'm making it up as I go along. I have money to buy stuff too! :)