The Love of Reading Lives On!

I had a group of Grade 8 students working in my classroom the other day. They were working on a variety of projects and activities and sitting in small groups around the room.

One of students started a discussion about the book he was reading (In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis). He knew a few others had read the first book in the series (Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy as well) and asked if they thought it was okay to read the books out of order.

One girl used the phrase companion book and, having read both books, told him it would be fine, although there could be a few spoilers about a character. A few other students agreed, and the conversation turned to what they liked about the world building in the book.

Another boy chimed in about the world building in Extraction by Stephanie Diaz and he encouraged them to read it because, while it was really different in almost every way, he thought all the books created vivid worlds, powerful characters, and intriguing (his word!) conflict, and that students who liked one would like the other.

The conversation was interrupted by the bell, but it was some great eavesdropping for so many reasons:

• the authors the kids spoke about are friends of mine from Agent Query Connect (the kids know nothing about my connection to these authors)
• the gender of the main character didn't matter to anyone
• the conversation was completely and totally spontaneous
• there was NO adult intervention or commentary (I sat back quietly and grinned!!!)
• they showed great understanding of the books and all kinds of literary concepts
• they were able to look past the obvious dis-similarities to deeper connections within the books

Talk about an uplifting few minutes! So, for those of you who are worried about the next generation of readers, relax! 

What about you? What positive reading have you seen and heard about lately?

Look!

The sweet and talented Stephanie Diaz tagged me the other day. This is another fun one!

RULES:

If you are tagged, do a search for the word "look" in your work in progress. Copy that paragraph, along with surrounding paragraphs, to your blog, to keep the game afloat. Don't forget to tag others.

Gotta say, I was kind of nervous about this one. Look/looked are words I tend to overuse. They show up whenever I wordle my stories to find those overused words. Anyway, here we go...

***

“Hey there, pretty girl. You hungry? Does that grass really fill you up?”

The chuckle behind her made her jump. “That’s a steer, not a cow. A male. Cows are female.” Hawk walked up beside her and grinned. “Steers make the best meat.”

Terrific. First she nearly fainted on him, then she babbled. Now he finds her talking to herself. Worse, to a cow. And insulting the animal into the bargain. “Steers? I thought male cows were bulls.”

He grinned and walked up to the fence, leaned his arms against the top rail. “We don’t raise bulls. They’re for stud work. We raise steers.” Her confusion must have shown, because he continued. “Bulls are all male. Steers are castrated. Makes them get along better.”

Castrated? She looked again at the cow – steer – on the other side of the fence. “Poor guy.”

 ***

Once again, if you'd like to play along, consider yourself tagged!

Is 'look' one of your overused words?