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Original Request:
Oh great collective wisdom,

Thanks for all the input so far on my Graphic Novels question, I will
post
a hit soon!

My next question is this:

A local middle school XLT (extra learning time * study hall,
essentially)
teacher is interested in some read-alouds to entertain/enlighten her
8th
graders. I have scanned the Archive and have gleaned a few suggestions
but
it seems mostly a couple years or more since any compilation of titles
has
been posted.

Anyone have a favorite read-aloud for a 20-min/day study hall class
full
of 8th graders with all different levels and interests? Short stories?

Novels? Picture books, even?


Response:
---- Beginning HIT list - 8th Grade Read-Alouds ---------

One I'd try:   Hoffman's  Green Angel, short very gripping.

I'd also look at some of the new novels in verse format. Let the kids
really hear the language.

Or how about some of the newer short story collections? Whole story in
less time than a sit com.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Three that I would recommend for that age group would be Tangerine by
Edward
Bloor (I think) and Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikalsen and You Don't
Know
Me by David Klass.  All three are hits with our students. They all have
male
protaganists, however, and I don't know if your teacher is looking for
something less gender specific.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After Hamelin - Richardson
An engaging fantasy story that delves into the Pied Piper of Hamelin
story
and brings it to a satisfying conclusion after many unusual twists and
turns.  A little like an Alice in Wonderland tale.

The House of the Red Scorpion - Farmer
A science fiction tale that deals with a clone's life.  Unique and
engrossing with short chapters!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Selected chapters from Chris Crutcher's King of the Mild Frontier  was
quite
popular last year with grade 8. I also read the first chapters of  The
Earth,
My Butt and Other Big Round Things, The She, Shattering  Glass, and Fat
Kid
Rules the World.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here are some suggestions for read alouds. Each chapter is a different
story
that would take up your 20 minute time period. They are are "amazing
but true"
type of stories. I had to review these for SLJ. Inexpensive, too.

SCANDIFFIO, Laura. Escapes! (True Stories From the Edge Series). 170p.
illus.
bibliog. index. CIP. Firefly. 2003. pap. $7.95 ISBN 1-55037-823-6. LC
2003-901897-0.

HUNTER, Ryan Ann. In Disguise: Stories of Real Women Spies. 133p.
illus.
photos. further reading. notes. CIP. Beyond Words. 2004. pap. $9.95.
ISBN
1-58270-095-8. LC 20030443.

SCHROEDER, Andreas. Scams!  154p. (True Stories From the Edge series).

bibliog. index. CIP. Annick, dist. by Firefly. Jun. 2004. pap. $7.95.
ISBN
1-55037-852-X. LC 2003-906474-3.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Maybe How Angel Peterson Got His Name by Gary Paulsen-- it's very
funny... and short.  City of Ember might be another possibility, but it
will take a while to get through the whole story (and if the kids like
it, there's a sequel: The People of Sparks).

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Nore More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman and Flipped by
Wendelin Van Draanen are wonderful read-alouds.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

My all time favorite book which should work for 8th is Patricia
Polacca's book "Pink and Say" about the Civil War. It's a real tear
jerker but full of great messages.

If the book will be read over many sessions...I'd suggest getting an
author that puts hooks at the end of each chapter, like Margaret Haddix

does...and the Fire Us Trilogy by Jennifer Armstrong & Nancy Butcher.

- - - - - - - - - - -

I taught an 8th grade/k-6 library split the last three years and always

tried to read aloud to the 8th graders a minimum of 3 times / week.
They liked "Harris and Me" by Gary Paulsen,  the "Soup" books by Peck,

Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poetry, and during October I'd read

a bunch of scary short stories I'd found in a variety of books. THere
were others but these seem to stand out.

- - - - - - - - - -

I have read:  Freak the Mighty by Philbrick
A View from the Cherry Tree  by Roberts
Deathwatch by White
A friend of mine has used a book called "Paul Harvey's The Rest of the
Story"
I would also suggest looking in Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook for
more ideas.

- - - - - - - - - -

One of my eighth-grade teachers loves to read _The Watson's go to
Burmingham-1963_ by Paul C. Curtis. It has the students laughing
histerically.

- - - - - - - - - -

CS Lewis' Narnia series is great and you can read just the first book
or
the whole series, one after the other.

Some of the Scholastic Diary series books are good, too, since they're
about kids around the same age - the Royal diaries (all females,
unfortunately - I liked Lady of Ch'iao Kuo: Warrior of the South) as
well as the Dear America books [girls] and My Name Is America books
[boys]. Two of them (Where Have All the Flowers Gone? and The Journal
of
Patrick Seamus Flaherty) are about two siblings on opposite sides of
the
Vietnam War (a Marine stationed in Nam and his pacifist sister
stateside). And Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace
Edwards won the 1998 Arrow Book Club/Dear America  writing contest and
was written by a 15 year old.

Also good:
Firebringer
Inkheart
Runt the Brave (out in Oct.; I read an advance copy - very good
story!)

---- End HIT list - 8th Grade Read-Alouds ---------



Krist Obrist, Youth Services Librarian
Monmouth Public Library
Monmouth, OR
kobrist@ci.monmouth.or.us

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