08 January 2015

2014 reading list, October - December

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye. NY: Pocket Books, 1972.

This book sings, sings like Maya Angelou’s caged bird, sings a song of sorrow with a passion and pain so precisely expressed that, like a sharp blade, the wound isn’t felt until later. When is one ready for such a thing? Maybe only after reading it.


Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magonn, X. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2015.

see full review here


Jackie Robinson & Alfred Duckett, I Never Had It Made. NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1972.

see full review here


Avi, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. NY: Avon, 1992.

A Newbery Honor book, this is the tale of how little Charlie Doyle ran away to sea. With adventure, intrigue, and danger, lessons about 1830s sailing ships and their working slide by, un-noticed but effective, like waves beneath the bowsprit.


Jonathan Franzen, Freedom. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2010.

see full review here


Joan Kaplowitz, Transforming information literacy instruction using Learner-Centered Teaching. NY: Neal-Schuman, 2012.

see full review here


John Bean, Engaging Ideas, 2nd edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011.

“The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thing, and active learning in the classroom,” according to the subtitle, this book delivers. In four parts--Understanding connections between thinking and writing; Designing problem-based assignments; Coaching students as learners, thinkers, and writers; and Reading, commenting on, and grading student writing--Bean clearly shows why writing is important for learning and how to make it a more prominent part of any class--without necessarily creating a lot of additional work for the instructor. Recommended for anyone who teaches at high school or higher levels, no matter the subject.

Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon Days. NY: Penguin, 1986.

This heartfelt homage to small-town America, describing the fictional Minnesota village made famous in Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion radio show, shines with gentle humor.

Sarah Bee and Satoshi Kitamura, The Yes. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s, 2014.

In this boldly-colored picture book, the great big orange thing called Yes has a where to go. To get there, though, he must get past many obstacles. He must also get away from the hoards of Nos that want to stop him. Can he?

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