A little indecisive?

I stopped at the library on the way home yesterday to return some items I checked out and a couple items I had on hold were ready to pick up. I am now going to change the book I'm reading once again, but I WILL stick with it this time.

Am I the only one who will choose a book based on a movie or a reference from a movie?

Over the weekend, I watched Saving Mr. Banks. It is a movie about Walt Disney trying to get P.L. Travers to give him the movie rights to Mary Poppins so he could make the movie. The movie offered some insight into what Travers's life used to be like. I found it very interesting.

Several years ago I read the book Mary Poppins and I didn't really like it. I thought Mary Poppins was mean and selfish and not Julie Andrews. After watching Saving Mr. Banks I decided I needed to reread Mary Poppins and I wanted to see if there is a biography about P.L. Travers. The life described in Saving Mr. Banks, really explains why Travers's Mary Poppins is so different from Julie Andrews's Mary Poppins. I found a biography, Mary Poppins, She Wrote by Valerie Lawson.

Now I am excited to read this book and learn some more about Travers's life and Mary Poppins. When I am done reading the biography I wil reread Mary Poppins with new eyes, then I may even rewatch both movies.

I think I will be busy for a while. The nice thing is that in 1.5 weeks my 12th grade students will be choosing non-fiction independent reading books for their 2nd semester Independent Reading Project and now I can join them in their non-fiction discussions with my real-time reading.

I'm gonna...

I just have to. I'm going to quit Pan by K.R. Thompson. I like different spins on old stories...sometimes. I may later decide to pick it back up, but right now I just can't keep going.

A few weeks ago I saw this meme on Facebook:

I didn't really like it. It was dark, it was disturbing, and it explained a lot. Ugh!

I don't know which came first this meme or Pan, but that is the premise of this book, kind of.

Peter is a "guardian" who helps lead dead children to the afterlife. Tinkerbell is a pixie on Neverland and since no one is there to believe in the pixies they are starting to die. Tink thinks that if Peter came to Neverland and believes in pixies he will save them. If he goes to Neverland he will become real. He goes. They need more help to save the pixies so he starts to bring boys to Neverland using the skills he gained as a guardian. One night he went back to his old house where a woman was putting her boy to bed and he thought it was his mother who had forgotten about him. So he steals the child!

This is where I just have to stop. I don't like Peter, I don't like the premise, and I don't like that it is ruining a childhood favorite movie and a pretty decent original book.

Time to move on to something a little better. I think I will try a book one of my 10th graders read and recommended to me. I'll let you know how it goes.

The Sparks

Has anyone read a book by Kyle Prue called The Sparks.

He will be doing a school/book tour here in Michigan in February and March. I'm curious to see if there is any interest in hearing him speak in our area.

There is a cost, but if we have at least 70 book pre-ordered, that may cover the cost.

Is there interest in the school?

Finally!

It's happened. The book that I have been complaining about since the Break, the one that was slow and I was having a hard time getting into, well I reached 50% today with it. Now, I am having a hard time putting it down and am currently over 75%. It took me one day to go this last 25% and almost 2 weeks to go the first 50%! I have finally become invested and interested in the characters. My perception and impression of the book has changed. I have finally been drawn into this book. I want to know what happens to the main characters. Will they find happiness? Will their questions get answered?

I wish it didn't take so long, but here's what I'm thinking, and you may not like it, some times you have to just slog through a book that should hold your interest and see if your thoughts change. You may be surprised or you may be horribly disappointed. If you keep going, though, you will have an answer and you will have knowledge to back up your opinion.

A new book

I've admitted to my students this year that I am a Book Nerd and I have a "book problem." There hasn't been a Christmas list that didn't have a book on it. I collect books and some people collect pennies. I struggle with the desire to give each book a new home.

This Christmas I gave a new home to two books that I am particularly excited about. One was The Curse of the Capistrano or The Mark of Zorro, but I am not ready to release it into the wild of my classroom. The other book will be immediately released into the wild. This book is called Wild Boy.

Three years ago, I checked out several books from the public library and set them on my desk to give my students some suggestions for independent reading books. They seemed to like this since there were several that would borrow these books from me in class. Wild Boy was one of these books, it is a quick read and it is a non-fiction book about a young boy found in the woods outside of a village in France. I found the story fascinating and a little sad. There have been multiple students who have picked this book up over the last couple years and gave it good reviews. I'm excited to permanently have this book on my shelf for more students to try.

What books have you been excited for someone to read?

By the way, there is a new challenge. See the comments on the challenge page. =)

Dragging

Over the holiday break, I read a couple books and I started a new one, The Centurion's Wife. The last few books I read I had no problem getting to the end. I read them in just a couple days, granted I had more time, but they were interesting reads that made me want to sit down and sneak in a couple minutes of reading as much as I could. When I chose to read The Centurion's Wife, I picked it because it sounded more interesting than the other books I have right now and I wanted a break from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy books. I just wanted to read something a little different. I am struggling, though.

The Centurion's Wife is has an interesting premise and was co-written by an author that I used to really enjoy reading. It is the story of a young woman who is a servant in Pontius Pilate's house, she is also his niece. Pilate was the Roman governor that Jesus was brought before for trial and ultimately his crucifixion. The story is set soon after the Crucifixion. The woman, Leah, finds out that a centurion has asked to marry her, and she doesn't want to marry. Pilate has promised Leah's hand in marriage to the centurion for a price. What happens in this story against this particular backdrop is why I have kept reading so far.

It kind of draws my attention, but I am struggling to get through this book. I fall asleep on the couch, I get distracted in class, and I am just dragging through this book. I need to finish it; someone I know read this book and really liked it, but I feel like setting it aside and finding a different book that I know will be a quick read.

Have you ever felt this way? What book did you struggle with? Why was this book a struggle? What did you do, did you quit it or did you force yourself to finish?

What should I do?

Grrrr.... Nobody likes reading...

It's Monday, we're back at school after two weeks off and I'm trying to get my class back into the routine. We read for 15 minutes at the beginning of the hour and a few students are making it difficult for anyone to read. Why? Because "nobody likes reading."

This statement pains me for so many reasons.

1. It is infringing on the other students' right to read (who wants to argue with a loud classmate anyway?).
2. It is robbing my students of the opportunity to experience another world without leaving home and possibly find something they do enjoy.
3. It is robbing these particular students of an opportunity of choice. For these 15 minutes each of my students get to choose whatever they want to read, kids book, YA book, magazine, reading homework.

So, really, does nobody like reading? Honestly? No! Believe it or not people do like to read, and some of those people may surprise you. .

There are times I will admit that I don't want to read or I don't like what I am reading that is OK. It's OK to not like what you are reading. So when you have the opportunity to choose what to read, pick something you do like. Quit robbing yourself and look closely at the real reason why "nobody likes reading."

So, why don't you read?

This is really why I started this blog, to give those of you who do like to read a quiet place to speak up and talk about what you are reading and what you like without having a boisterous classmate make you feel like a weirdo. It's OK to talk about reading, what you like and what you don't like, don't let classmates stifle your voice when they aren't even around. 

Let's talk.