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!

My library

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

Sarah Vowell of NPR's This American Life indulges her obsession with death and history to write this book exploring presidential assassinations. She road trips around the country visiting museums, libraries, historic sites and plaques while gathering information for the nerd fest that is this book. She shares quirky details as if they related to living breathing people, and convinces her friends to join her (and drive her around) on her quest to find the information that makes history interesting.

Vowell's writing speaks to my favorite thing about history: the fact that people lived day to day lives despite the roles for which they are remembered. She points out that on a historical house tour, the size of Jefferson Davis’ bed and his sleeping habits are discussed with as much enthusiasm as his role in the Civil War. I love reading about history in a way that humanizes it and takes it away from the typical textbook survey.