Robert Hankes blogs every Friday.
I just saw an ad announcing it’s Back to School time! Not
for me! I’m staying home, blogging and writing YA fiction!
But I do think a lot about those brave teachers heading back
to the classroom. Some of you probably have ditched your classroom library.
Certainly understandable in a climate when you might be fired for having a book
on your shelf that someone else doesn’t feel is appropriate. Others of you will
fight on, and have books ready at the students’ fingertips because they need access
to those books. You all should be proud of yourselves. You have the best interests
of the kids at heart. Students will remember your classes fondly—and forget the
classes taught by grammarians and comprehension fanatics.
Here are five books I read in the past year or so that I
would put on the shelves of my classroom library. That is if I were teaching
in Pennsylvania again and not in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, or any other state
that thinks it knows what kids should be reading better than the students
themselves. Before you think me hypocritical, I would not recommend these
books. I’d recommend students look at the books and decide for themselves
whether any of these books are worth reading or not.
1.
This Book Won’t Burn by Samira Ahmed. A
mother and daughter move from Chicago to a small town in southern Illinois. The
daughter learns that the high school in town is banning books. The rather
narrow-minded town is somewhat supportive of this practice. What the
protagonist, Noor Khan, does about the situation is worth thinking about and
discussing. On the one hand, little wooden mini-libraries in front of your
house are cute, and you can stock them with whatever you want. On the other
hand, shouldn’t our government make books available to tax-paying citizens?
And, if so, who gets to decide what books will be made available? And this book
has other things going for it, like romance and some great-sounding food!
2.
Caught in a Bad Fauxmance by Elle
Gonzales Rose. It’s a well-written boy-meets-boy romance. It’s not gross or pornographic.
The characters are well-drawn, and Devin’s family seems genuine and
realistic. The conflict? Devin agrees to pretend he’s the boyfriend of the next-door-neighbor boy. Guess what happens? This is a light, readable novel for those who
are looking for such.
3.
The Shadow Club, by Neal Shusterman.
Shusterman is an uneven writer. This gem from 1988 is often taught in middle
school, but the themes illustrated in the novel would interest and benefit most
fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds. The kids who always come in second get together
to torment the students who always come in first. And there’s a student in the
book who has real issues—where does he fit in? He ends up being used by the second-best
bunch. Near the end, one has a change of heart, and there’s a great climactic
scene that illustrates we all have worth. It’s a short, fun read.
4.
Out of our League. A collection of girls’
sport stories, edited by Dahlia Adler and Jennifer
Iacopelli. Everybody is in this great book. Girls who: are driven, who are
disabled, who are trans, who help each other, who fall in love with each other.
Great mix of content.
5. At the Speed of Lies by Cindy L. Otis. What price lies? And what price is paid when people magnify lies to enhance their own character and promote their own agenda? Quinn Calvert, a disabled blogger, watches as a lie takes over the entire population of a high school. It ends up sucking Quinn into the eye of the hurricane that is the school program called Defend Kids. Lies becoming truth and destroying lives as they become as big as life? Imagine that! Timely.
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