[LM_NET] Hit: 11th Grade "outside the box" books

[Lois Smits <lsmits@SBCGLOBAL.NET>]

Here is the HIT that several of y














Here is the HIT that several of you requested.Lois
Original Post:

I have a request from an English Teacher-- "looking for
books that challenge my juniors to think outside of

their "box." Books like "Enrique's Journey,"
"3 Cups of Tea," "Life of

Pi," "1984." Books that challenged
them to think socially, politically

from a different perspective."



I have a few titles in mind including SAY YOU'RE ONE OF THEM and SAME KIND OF
DIFFERENT AS ME.

 

Responses:



 Any more suggestions?  Can be Fiction or Non-Fiction.

1. SAY YOU’RE ONE OF THEM

LIFE OF PI

ENRIQUE’S JOURNEY

3 CUPS OF TEA

1984

SAME KIND OF DIFFERENT AS ME

THINGS WE COULDN’T SAY    DIET EMAN

 

2. non-fiction

Daniel Pink's A Whole New
Mind

Nickeled and Dimed: on (not) getting by in
America -- by Barbara Ehrenreich

Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to
Change Harlem and America by Paul Tough

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the 
World by Tracy Kidder

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder



Fiction:

What is the What by Dave Eggers

 

3. Life as we knew it 
(or Live as we know it??)  Can't remember...  

It is about a world having to adapt when the moon slips off its orbit and
affects EVERYTHING.  It causes you to think how completely inter-related
our lives are to the environment.  The main character is a girl entering
her sr year at high school.

 

4. Take a
look at the book: The Cellist of Sarajevo by Stephen Galloway

 

5. How about Marcello in the Real
World?

 

6. How about Framework
to Understanding Poverty by Dr. Ruby K.
Payne?  This really speaks to the entrenched middle class and if they are
an advanced group, I think you could have some marvelous discussion in
class from this book.   I copied this from Amazon for you to read:

 

Only a
handful of books have impacted my career as an educator, but none as much as
Dr. Ruby Payne's, A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Through reading and
studying Dr. Payne's book, I came to find out that what I really needed to know
was what my students were dealing with outside of school and how that was
affecting their behaviors in college. I teach at Big
Sandy Community and Technical College in eastern Kentucky, working with 
developmental education students (transitional students)
who do not have entry-level skills in reading, writing, and/or math. With each
page that I read, I found myself thinking more and more about what my
developmental education students say and do. Why they don't have any
self-esteem or have any sense of responsibility toward their education. And why
many times they don't even have any motivation to persist toward graduation.
Payne's book helped me look at my students' behaviors through a different lens.
As a result, I have completely changed my perspective and my pedagogy. --Judith
Valade, Faculty, English, Big Sandy Community and Technical College, KY



Poverty is not just a condition of not having enough money. It is a realm of
particular rules, emotions, and knowledge that override all other ways of
building relationships and making a life. This book was written as a guide and 
exercise book for middle-class teachers, who often
don't connect with their impoverished students--largely because they don't
understand the hidden rules of poverty In the same way, poor
children misconnect with school because they don't understand the hidden
rules of middle-class life. Ruby Payne, a former teacher and principal who has
been a member of all three of the economic cultures of our time (poor,
middle-class, and wealthy) compassionately and dispassionately describes the
hidden rules and knowledge of each. I think it's useful not just for educators,
but for anyone who has to deal with people of different backgrounds. Having
read it, I feel a lot more confident about dealing with
people as people, not as representatives of their social class.
Especially noteworthy is the Could you survive? quiz on page 53. For example,
can you keep your clothes from being stolen at the laundromat, or entertain
friends with stories? (That's essential knowledge for the world of the poor.)
Can you get a library card or use a credit card? (Essential for middle-class
life.) Can you ensure loyalty from a household staff, or build a wall of
privacy and inaccessibility around you? (Essential knowledge for wealth.) Every
class assumes that their knowledge is known by everyone, which is one reason
they assume that people in other classes don't & get it. I also appreciate
the telling point about upward mobility in America: It's possible for anyone to
shift classes, but only at the price of leaving behind your existing personal
relationships. One sign of A Framework's value is the way that educators who
grew up in poverty from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, embrace this book.
--Whole Earth, Art Kleiner, [former editor]



The concepts from Framework were taught by Bethanie Tucker to many of our
faculty and Administrators last spring. Those concepts, combined with increased
Student Services advisors & Program Directors, community outreach, faculty
involvement and a lot of hard work resulted in our annual attrition rate going from 
6% to 4.3% last year. After
all, it does take a village. --Ada Gerard, Campus President, Heald College, Rancho 
Cordova, CA

 

 

 7. A
Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler by Jason 
Roberts: Tells the story of James Holman (1786-1857), who, despite losing his
eyesight by the age of 25, undertook to travel to distant parts of the
globe.  The author delves into 19th-century beliefs about blind people
(and the treatment Holman received as a result) and discusses the
difficulties and triumphs Holman experienced.  Definitely much food for thought 
and discussion!

 

8. A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's
Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts: Tells the
story of James Holman (1786-1857), who, despite
losing his eyesight by the age of 25, undertook to travel to distant parts of
the globe.  The author delves into 19th-century beliefs about blind people
(and the treatment Holman received as a result) and discusses the difficulties
and triumphs Holman experienced.  Definitely much food
for thought and discussion!

 

9.  Check these:


Whale Talk by Crutcher

An Abundance of Katherines by Green

Crossing the Wire by Hobbs

 

10. Unwind
by Neal Shusterman

The Roar by
Emma Clayton

Little
Brother by Cory Doctorow

Grand Theft
Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can
Do by Lawrence Kutner (nonfiction)

Waiting for
Normal by Leslie Connor

Big Fat
Manifesto by Susan Vaught

Pushed: The
Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block
(nonfiction)

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

Company by
Max Barry

So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld

Truesight
by David Stahler, Jr.

 

11. The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Haddon is told from the point of
view of an autistic boy.

 

Going
Bovine by Libba Bray is told from the perspective
of a teen with Mad Cow Disease (strong language
and non-graphic sexual situations).

 

Far from
Xanadu by Julie Anne Peters has a lesbian
narrator.

 

Makes Me
Wanna Holler by Nathan McCall is the
autobiography of a very angry African American man
(strong language, violence, sexual situations).

 

Afterlife
by Gary Soto is told by a dead Mexican American
teen.

 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman
Alexie has a Native American narrator/protagonist

 

The Very
Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous by Suzanne Crowley has a narrator with
Asperger's Syndrome

 

Being by Kevin Brooks has a protagonist who discovers he is not
human.

 

12. Kaffir boy : the true story of a Black youth's coming of
age in Apartheid South Africa by Mark Mathabane - biography 

 

13. I'm
Down by Mishna  Wolff

   I just sent a review for a book that will challenge them
politically, socially and from a different perspective.  There is minor language
in it, but it's sure to not only grab their attention, but also cause
conversation.

 

14. The
Kite Runner

 

15. The World Is Flat -
nonfiction title

 

16. While Sold by Patricia McCormick is really an easy read
but the subject is very tough (sexual slavery in Nepal). The story is not
graphic but the reader knows what's going on. My girls in the upper school have
really gotten a lot out of this book and teachers have used it to spark tons of
discussion. I hope you'll consider it.

 




Lois E. Smits

Library Media Specialist

Holland Christian High School

950 Ottawa Ave.

Holland, MI 49423

Phone: 1-616-820-2905

lsmits@hollandchristian.org 



"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends;

 they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, 

and the most patient of teachers."

                                                ~~Charles W. Eliot~~

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