Coming to you live from NCTE…

…with some holiday book recommendations!

This conference, y’all. I cannot wait to bring back the learning I’ve been doing and the networks that I’ve building to our work together in the Bay. I’m just now sitting down at a table with Matt de la Pena and ten other authors to learn writing strategies they use in their own writing. So much to share!

I know that some of you have already begun your ride into the sunset of your Thanksgiving break, and some of you have a few more days before a long weekend of relaxation, celebration, and time with family and friends. THIS is a perfect time to put down the pen and pile of essays (at least for a couple of days) to read for yourself. I wanted to offer a preliminary list to help you figure out where you might start during this week(end):

Books you can read with your students (or at least read and put in your SSR library):

  • Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina: Not only did I get to meet and learn with Meg Medina this week at NCTE, but also I cried on the treadmill while reading this book because it is JUST SO REAL. Piddy Sanchez is a student we all know and that all girls can connect with. Check it out here.
  • Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: Cath is a big fan of the Simon Snow series (read Harry Potter sort of), and she’s been writing fan fiction, and she is REALLY good, followed by thousands on the internet. Cath and her twin sister, Wren, head to college and Cath is forced to face the many pieces of her identity and her past in order to start writing her own life. Check it out here.
    • BONUS: Rowell just published Carry On, the fan-fiction IN Fangirl that the main character writes. My roommate Fil called it: “Realistic Harry Potter—if he was sort of over being the ‘Chosen One’”.  Check it out here.
  • Endgame Series by James Frey: Hunger Games meets Rat Race in this trilogy that follows the chosen descendants of the original clans of humans. They are trying to save themselves, save their people, and, if they can help it, save the world. Lots of fight scenes and death.  Here’s the first one.
  • Fat Angie by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo: Not only is e.E a rad lady, but she’s doing amazing writing and film-making about and with at-risk children around the country. See insta for our selfie. I’m a fan, and this book is beautiful and captivating. It is such a portrait of a life—tragic, outrageous, touching, and darkly comic. READ NOW! Here!
  • Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena: People, Matt de la Pena is a phenomenal writing teacher, so it is not surprising that he’s a phenomenal writer. Danny is trying to figure out where he fits in—in his mother’s white world, in his now-gone father’s Mexican family, at his school, on his baseball team. Check it out here.
  • Bone Gap by Laura Ruby: Roza is missing. Sean and Flinn are used to things going missing. Bone Gap is a place where this happens. But after the search for Roza turns up nothing, Flinn is not convinced that she’s just run off; she’s certainly been taken. What will it require to find her? Take a look here.
  • Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman: Our main character, Caden Bosch, is on a ship headed to the deepest point on Earth—Challenger Deep—the southern part of the Marianas Trench. Caden, a unique high schooler, has been designated as the ship’s artist in residence, and finds himself pulled between alligience to the captain and the allure of mutiny. Winner THIS WEEK of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. READ THIS NOW.  Look at it here.

Books on pedagogy and practice to inspire you in your weeks until the Holidays (and for all the weeks):

  • Rhythm and Resistance by Linda Christensen
  • Mission High: One School, How Experts Tried to Fail It, and the Students and Teachers Who Made it Triumph by Kristina Rigza
  • In the Best Interest of Students: Staying True to What Works in the ELA Classroom by Kelly Gallagher
  • When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers
  • 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know by Jeff Anderson

Books to read because they are awesome:

  • Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon
  • Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)
  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

ya.books