Back in Action

After a long hiatus, I am back to reviewing the books that I am reading. My hope is that this blog will become a tool for my students (and others) to use to find books to read.

Proof that not every student hated SSR :)

This past semester, I implemented an SSR (student selected reading) period at the beginning of every class to encourage my students to read more. Okay, so I sort of forced them to read, but I allowed them to choose the books they read, within a very broad limit. The only requirements were that it was a piece of fiction and something at their reading level, which of course varied from student to student. The result? I had students reading! I'm talking about the kid who is a self-proclaimed reluctant reader, you know, the one who groans when you tell him that he has to read a book. Several times throughout the semester, I had students coming in and say "Ms. Ferrari! I read my book at home last night!" or
"Ms. Ferrari, I read in the car all the way to location X and all the way back!"

Of course, this wasn't the case with every single student, but out of my 80+ students, almost all of them finished at least 1 book, sometimes for the first time in their high school career.  Some students were reading so much that I couldn't get new books into their hands quick enough! My favorite part every day would be at the end of the designated time, usually 10, 15, or 20 minutes, depending on how into my own book I was, when I would tell them to find a good stopping point or finish the page. I would look up from whatever book I was reading, and instead of seeing every student rushing to close his or her book, eager to move on to the next item on our agenda, I would see students still reading. And still reading. Sometimes for as long as 5 more minutes. A few times, students would look up at me and catch me with a huge grin on my face because seeing them absorbed in books makes me so happy.

I will again implement SSR during the next school year, making a few changes to how I structure the time, but I am looking forward to seeing how my next groups of students respond. I am also looking forward to seeing how many more books I am able to read during SSR myself. Last semester I read 10 books, during class only.

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

My Reaction: 3 stars. I liked bits and pieces of This Is What Happy Looks Like, but it wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be. I loved that it was set in a fictional town in Maine and even though I didn't grow up on the coast, it definitely reminded me of home. I had a few issues with the setting, mostly the fact that there are no towns an hour south of Kennebunkport, at least none in Maine.  I get that it's a fictional town so that should not matter, but accuracy is important to creating an authentic setting and it would have been much more realistic if Henley had been north of Kennebunkport.

As far as the plot goes, this was a slow plot. The beginning started out great, but then I felt like it lost its momentum. There wasn't much for action and even what little there was was slow. There was no love triangle, no big fights, no mystery that we were trying to solve, nothing to keep me up late turning the pages.

About the Book: One day, Ellie O'Neill receives an unusual email from an unknown sender about walking a pig. Knowing absolutely nothing about the sender, she responds and before long a long distance friendship develops between two teenagers on opposite sides of the country. The unknown sender of the email turns out to be Graham Larkin, teenage movie star whose latest film brings him to Ellie's hometown of Henley, Maine for part of the summer. Together the two must navigate the public spotlight and the ocean waters to see if their relationship will work.  

Requiem by Lauren Oliver

The Magician by Michael Scott

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick

Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick