THE BLOG LIVES!

I really love this group and have decided to kick this blog up a notch! I urge you all to participate by commenting, posting, or reading. Tell us what your kids are reading. How do you feel about the book choices their schools are making? What are you reading aside from the book group book? What are you interested in reading?

I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot for my adult group. Highly recommended. I also read The Alchemist which my 11the grade boys at BCS raved about.  Brings me back to my Khalil Gibran and The Prophet phase... It's a journey, people. It's a journey...

I've been working with kids on their PBATS (performance-based assessments) at BCS. Their thesis question is "How do people maintain their dignity in an oppressive society?" So we are looking at art, music, armed resistance, family life, quilts, Frederick Douglass, Dave the Potter, Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, John Brown. I've been reading quite a few picture books about different aspects of American slavery and there is a lot of wonderful stuff out there. Keep in mind that just because they are picture books, they are not for little kids... maybe 3rd grade and up, but WOW! They are a great tool for older kids and grown-ups to fill in a lot of holes in their knowledge base. The John Brown book (left) led me to deepen my understanding of this controversial character.

I read a darling biography of Jacques Cousteau called Manfish to my 3rd and 4th grade 12:1 kids at
BNS. They enjoyed it a lot. Nothing quite like getting a group of fascinatingly different types of learners who all engage in the story in different ways.

Went to a NYC DOE library conference with Susan last month. Saw Joy who was there with Brooklyn Public Library Summer Reading! Some schools are doing amazing things with technology -- predominantly with personal devices like iphones. The future is here. When will New York City public schools catch up?

For those of you who really enjoyed Please Ignore Vera Dietz, I highly recommend another A.S. King book called Ask the Passengers.

Remember Veronica Rother and Divergent? Did anyone read Insurgent? Someday, maybe. Anyway, the third book in the trilogy is coming out in October and will be called Allegient! Is that a real word?

Kris and Jack

I saw jack Gantos with our old friend and infrequent member Kris Hartley-Manieri on May 11 at the 92nd Street Y! He is charming and Kris has a HUGE crush on him. So psyched a sequel to Dead End in Norvelt is coming out -- From Norvelt to Nowhere.