Follow Doug Swieteck in the book OKAY FOR NOW

I try to read a variety of genres and authors to be able to share books and ideas with kids.  Once in while I'll run into a book that I can not put down, and I can't get it out of my head. I hope by sharing my reading on this blog and in my classes, that some of my students and readers will get that same feeling some day.  I feel bad for people that have never had the feeling of getting into a book that much.  I was not an avid reader in school. I know for a fact, that I didn't know what that was like until college. Because I could read well, I was never pushed to read more than the texts my teachers gave me, and I barely read some of them.  I don't remember any of them. I am glad that has changed for me today.  If anyone has a chance to scroll through my blog, Mr Kohl's Literacy Corner, there are a lot of  books shared in there.  Some are great. Some not so great, but I remember something about all of them. The book, OKAY FOR NOW by Gary D. Schmidt is one of those books that I will remember for a long time.

Better Than Hunger Games?

Dust Lands - Blood Red Road by Moira Young is book one in a trilogy depicting primitive lifestyles during a post apocalyptic world setting where an almost wild west mentality now is required for survival. With the successes of Maze Runner and Hunger Games, author Moira Young puts a new twist on how her young characters must survive harsh environmental change, a rogue government regime that controls the people through slavery, and a very powerful and addicting drug.

Surviving Some of the Most Extreme Forms of Human Suffering

There are many good books that depict what the Holocaust was like for Jews in Europe during World War II. Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz is based on the true story of ten year old Jack Gruener, a Holocaust survivor of 10 different concentration camps. Jack's story tells of the atrocities faced by prisoners of the Nazis during their occupation of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and eastern Europe. Jack, whose real name is Yaneck, survives the work and death camps knowing that one unlucky move will most certainly end his life. Also knowing that his family is dead, and the suffering is more than any human should have to endure, Jack has to continually push himself to live; that no matter how bad each moment may seem, life is better than death.

Is There a Life After Death?

There have been a few books that I have read recently that depict what death might be like as your spirit leaves your body.  The book, Everlost, by Neil Shusterman is certainly one of those books (Posted on Mr. Kohl's Literacy Corner). These books place their characters in a purgatory like setting where the characters are either waiting for their time to cross over, deciding whether to continue on with the afterlife, or return to their lives. In the book, If I Stay, by Gayle Forman, Mia is in a serious accident and now has to decide if going back to a life that will certainly contain severe mental and physical suffering is what she wants, or should she go on to an uncertain future where there are are no clues as to what lies beyond death.

Hmoung Fiction Depicts Troubled History and Possible Futures

For years there has been a growing number of Hmong students in classrooms across the United States, and Oshkosh is no exception.  Many of them are very quiet, very hard working, and very respectful to teachers.
Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl's Story by Pegi Deitz Shea allows the reader to understand the cultural pressure put on young Hmong children to respect their elders, work in the home, and honor their ancestral heritage, no matter what.