Where She Went by Gayle Forman - video!

Gayle Forman's new book Where She Went, a sequel to the hugely popular If I Stay, is coming out soon. The publisher recently posted this video where the author takes viewers on a tour of New York, visiting the sites the characters visit during the book.

See the video here!

Closed for the Season

Some 7th graders stayed after school today for a book discussion on Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn. This was a really creepy mystery about an unsolved murder, missing (embezzled) money, and also themes like friendship and loyalty. One of the things we talked about was staying true to yourself and standing up for what you believe in. I'm always proud of my kids when we have a discussion and I find that they've grasped these important points on their own.

Because an important location in the book was a closed, rundown theme park where a lot of the action takes place, one thing we talked about was local legends about haunted buildings and unsolved mysteries. We managed to creep ourselves out, and while I had one story that they'd never heard - the house that turned around - they also had plenty that they all knew, independently of each other. It was a lot of fun.

Paper Towns discussion

I had a really good GMBA book discussion with some high school kids last week. They took home John Green's book to read over February break, and we met with snacks after school to talk about it. They had a lot of good insight, and they all pointed out that John Green does a really great job of writing realistic teenagers. Also, he is hilarious. They all know him because we watch vlogbrothers videos all the time too, so that makes him an extra real person. In our discussion we talked a lot about the ways we can never really know somebody, only our perception of who we think they are. As John Green writes, "'What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person". I also spent some time making a page for my students with links, videos and pictures of references from the books. How cool that they now get to know the Mountain Goats!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!