English Companion Ning

Love this site! Lots of great discussions and areas created by Jim Burke.

Young, High-Level Readers

Hey, all. I'm teaching 6th & 7th grade English at a charter school out near Tooele this year, & I've got a question for all of you: What books (/authors, /series, etc.) would you recommend to very young (mostly age 11), very high-level (12th grade +) readers? I've got about a dozen kids that fall into this category, and I'm having a very difficult time recommending texts that will challenge them reading-level wise (or at least not bore them) without having content that's inappropriate for kids that young. Every time I think I've got a good pick, I skim the book again and find that there's too much swearing, adult topics, intense violence, sexual innuendos, etc. It doesn't help that many of the parents of my kids are really sensitive to anything you could remotely call "inappropriate." My only fallback recommendation right now is Shakespeare, since I assume that the adult content will go way over the kids' heads and their parents won't remember it's there. :P Any ideas?

A Fun Writing Exercise

I was gifted the most unusual Christmas book ever: Red Ranger Came Calling by Berkely Breathed. It would absolutely ruin the book to tell you why it's so unique-finding out for yourself is definitely a part of the reading experience.

What I will say is that at the end of the book, the author uses a local landmark at the end of the book to explain the mystery of a Christmas gift.

I plan on using this picture book in class as a springboard writing assignment. Students will choose a natural or man-made landmark in their city or state and write a legend, story, urban legend about it, in the same way that the legend of Timpanogos was created to explain/enhance the sleeping princess shape of this mountain.

If you are familiar with the book or use it in your classroom, make sure you comment on this post so we can expand the book's use.