This is going to be fun!  Thanks Mrs. Reid for setting this up.  I've just finished reading Ghost Map, a non-fiction book about the cholera epidemic in London in the 1850's and about the doctor and the minister who discovered the cause.  It read like a detective story and it was amazing that people could so easily jump to the wrong conclusions, like the disease was caused by bad smells ( Never mind that the sewer workers weren't getting sick).  And of course just like AIDS, if it was a disease of the poor and immoral, it was easy to dismiss it.

    Don't read this if you have a queasy stomach.  All the description of the filth and excrement piling up in people's basements was a bit rough to take. 

      As most of you know, I am a 7th grade reading and language arts teacher.  Over the years I've read some really great young adult literature.  Here are some of my all time favorites-in no particular order

Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli - a great book about what it means to be different.  Who are the Stargirls and boys in our school?

Tale of Despereaux-Kate DiCamillo- What an imagination, what a voice.  I love how Kate talks to the reader, sneaks in vocabulary words like perfidy and fills her book with great quotes like," Is it ridiculous for a very small sickly mouse to fall in love with a beautiful human princess named Pea? The answer is Of course it's ridiculous. Love is ridiculous. But love is also  wonderful. And powerful ."

Elsewhere-Gabrielle Zevin- an imaginative look at what you would like heaven to be.

Freak the Mighty-Rodman Philbrick- Much better than the movie.  The story of two misfit boys and how together they become Freak the Mighty.

To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee- a classic that makes you laugh, makes you cry and shows the injustice of the deep south during th depression

Mrs. Mike- Benedict and Nancy Freeman- an oldie but a goodie.  This book follows the true story of the author's grandmother who moved to Canada for her health and married a Royal Canadian Mountie.  I first read this in 7th grade and I've probably read it again every 5 or so years.  I still love it and still cry at all the sad parts even though I know they're coming.  There is an instant bond with everyone I've ever met who has read that book.

House of the Scorpion-Nancy Farmer- Very imaginative,Science fiction/fact story showing what could happen if cloning runs amuck.

Milkweed-Jerry Spinelli- When you first start this book, it seems like fantasy but then you realize its about the Holocaust as seen through the eyes of a child.

Godless- Pete Hautman- What happens when a wiseguy kid tells his Sunday school teacher that for all he knows God lives in the water tower and suddenly he has created a cult/religion.

Dandelion Wine and An Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury- My first initiation into magical realism.  Although Ray Bradbury is listed as a science fiction writer, his work is much too imaginative to fit into that realm.  For example: An Illustrated Man begins with some boys finding a sleeping tatooed man.  As they look closer at the tatoos, they begin to move and tell a story. No one describes the thrill of new sneakers and childhood better than Bradbury

Memory Boy, Striking Out, and Defect  -  Will Weaver( a Minnesota author)  These are great books for boys.  Memory Boy is a survival book about what happens when a volcanic eruption destroys life in the Twin Cities

Striking Out - is about a farm boy who is a gifted baseball player but can't leave the farm to play for the team.

Defect - is Weaver's latest book about a boy who is born with something like wings.  It takes place in Red Wing Minnesota and Mayo clinic.   I loved the story and I loved reading about areas that I knew.

Books I have just finished:

True Confessions of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.  This book just won a national book award. A very true book on what it's like to be Native American and Poor.  It certainly deserves the award but beware, it is for mature readers.

Defect - see above.  I think I will read this to my next reading class.