Another Trip to the Library

Take four seventh grade girls, plop them in the middle of the teen section at the local library, and just listen. You're in for, at the least, a very interesting morning. Of course, if you were sitting with my students, you might just laugh yourself silly and then be absolutely amazed...all in the space of about ten seconds.

Welcome to middle school. This is no place for wimps.

I met four of my students at the library again this week, hoping to sit and talk about books for a couple of hours. The girls who showed up on Wednesday are incredible readers, so I took advantage of our time together and asked them to help me create a list of recommended books. If you're looking for something to read from the young adult genre, this is a good place to start (along with the list I provided in my previous post).

These are in no particular order:

• Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
• The Host by Stephenie Meyer
• Poison Apples by Lily Archer
• Firestorm by David Klass
• Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
• Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
• Fire by Kristin Cashore
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• Paisley Hanover Acts Out by Cameron Tuttle
• The Uglies (series) by Scott Westerfeld
• Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Savvy by Ingrid Law
• Somebody Everybody Listens To by Suzanne Supplee
• Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
• The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks (I think every one of my girls has read this one)
• Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard
• Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
• Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
• The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
• Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
• The Mortal Instruments series (City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass) by Casandra Clare
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
• Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman
• The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June by Robin Benway
• The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty
• The Name of This Book is Secret (series) by Pseudonymous Bosch
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Arthur Byron Cover, Alice Henderson, and John Vornholt
• Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland by David Koenig
• Paper Towns by John Green

My students are always giving me the titles of book that I just have to read. So I created a Google Spreadsheet for them to add the titles to. Some of the books they've added, that I haven't mentioned here or in my previous post:

• The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (seriously, if Hannah tells me this is "the best book EVER!!!" one more time, I might just snap!)
• It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han 
• Rush by Jonathan Friesen
• Harmless by Dana Reinhardt
• Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (Amanda recommends anything by her favorite author)
• Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
• Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers (Joey's comment: "You should just read it.")
• Under the Dome by Stephen King
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
• Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (Dylan says: "It's a great teaching book.")
• The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler
• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
• Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (Taryn adds: "It was just so sad and beautiful at the same time.")

And if you're curious as to what books my students checked out from the library on Wednesday, here's a picture I took of our table (and these aren't even all the books that were checked out):

We also had three iPod Touches with us, so we discussed some of their favorite apps, including Livesketch which they were happy to demonstrate for me:

I have some amazingly talented artists in my class! That one was created by Lanvi; the following was done by Gaby:

Lanvi let me try it out on her iPod, but I didn't feel the need to take a picture of my, um, "creation".


Some of the other apps we talked about:

• Doodle Jump (incredibly addictive game!)
• Talking Tom Cat (he repeats whatever you say with a strange voice that makes middle school girls giggle...which makes their teacher giggle at them!)
• Talking Gugl (a funny looking little creature who does the same thing as Talking Tom Cat)
• Finger Balance (I think this one would drive me mad)
• Fruit Ninja (I love this one!)
• Veggie Samurai (I really shouldn't get this, but you know I will!)
• Cut The Rope (yet another highly addictive game!)

If you need any other suggestions, I know my students will be more than happy to share their thoughts with us! Happy New Year!