The Voice in My Head Last Week

Last week, knitting and driving, I listened to Philip Pullman read the collection of his essays that constitute Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling. I’ve since put the print book on hold because he says some wonderful things in it. I want to see them in print and ponder them. I want to share some of them with my students.

If you like stories, storytelling or writing, I highly recommend it. It is not written for kids, but readers and writers of upper middle school and high school age might also find this fascinating.

Publisher’s Summary: From the internationally best-selling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, a spellbinding journey into the secrets of his art–the narratives that have shaped his vision, his experience of writing, and the keys to mastering the art of storytelling.

One of the most highly acclaimed and best-selling authors of our time now gives us a book that charts the history of his own enchantment with story–from his own books to those of Blake, Milton, Dickens, and the Brothers Grimm, among others–and delves into the role of story in education, religion, and science. At once personal and wide-ranging, Daemon Voices is both a revelation of the writing mind and the methods of a great contemporary master, and a fascinating exploration of storytelling itself.

 

This week’s booktalks 9/24-28

Banned Books week booktalks are always fun. This year, the  kids in both of my classes asked more questions about how books get banned or challenged, than all other years combined.  Here are the books that got them fired up.

Monday

The Seventh Wish  by Kate Messner

Tuesday

The Golden Compass  by Philip Pullman

Wednesday

This One Summer by

Thursday

Harry potter and The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, Jack Thorne

I am out for a meeting today, tp there is no Friday booktalk.

This week’s book talks 11/30-12/1

Monday: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Tuesday: Unfriended  by Rachel Vail

Wednesday:  The Apothecary by Maile Meloy

Thursday: The Great Greene Heist  by Varian Johnson

Friday: Me and Marvin Gardens  by A. S. King

 

 

 

Armchair travelling

One of the upsides of a five-day weekend is the opportunity to dive deeply into a good book and this very long weekend I took an armchair journey to Oxford.

Not the Oxford of the BBC’s Inspector Morse,  but Lyra’s Oxford, the once created by Philip Pullman. Did you know he has a new series, set in the Oxford before the His Dark Materials series. I went on my journey with an infant Lyra and learned something of her backstory in La Belle Sauvage the first book in his new series, The Book of Dust.

Here is the US cover

And here is the UK cover.

Publisher’s Summary: Malcolm Polstead is the kind of boy who notices everything but is not much noticed himself. And so perhaps it was inevitable that he would become a spy….

Malcolm’s parents run an inn called the Trout, on the banks of the river Thames, and all of Oxford passes through its doors. Malcolm and his daemon, Asta, routinely overhear news and gossip, and the occasional scandal, but during a winter of unceasing rain, Malcolm catches wind of something new: intrigue.

He finds a secret message inquiring about a dangerous substance called Dust—and the spy it was intended for finds him.

When she asks Malcolm to keep his eyes open, he sees suspicious characters everywhere: the explorer Lord Asriel, clearly on the run; enforcement agents from the Magisterium; a gyptian named Coram with warnings just for Malcolm; and a beautiful woman with an evil monkey for a daemon. All are asking about the same thing: a girl—just a baby—named Lyra.

Lyra is the kind of person who draws people in like magnets. And Malcolm will brave any danger, and make shocking sacrifices, to bring her safely through the storm.

I loved Malcolm and wished he was a student in my class. I was drawn into the story immediately and I am now thinking, while I wait for the next book, I might reread the His Dark Materials series.

 

This week’s booktalks 9/25-9/28

It is banned Books Week, so I booktalked some books in my library that have been challenged over the years, in various places.

MONDAY,  I presented This One Summer.

It was a popular check out last year and has already been checked out a couple of times. I was worried it wouldn’t be on the shelf for me this week.

TUESDAY, I shared The Seventh Wish.

WEDNESDAY, I talked about The Golden Compass.  There is a new book in the series, La Belle Sauvage, coming October 19th. It seems an opportune time to introduce students to the series.

I am at a conference Friday & Saturday, so my last booktalk was THURSDAY. I saved Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for the end of the week.

It is the only book in the HP series in my classroom library. I haven’t read it and don’t plan on reading this book. I like to leave Harry at the end of the Deathly Hallows. I live the life of a middle-aged person. I don;t need to see him as one.

Book talks for a short week

We only had 2 days of school last week 🙂

I was Thankful for that.

As a result, I only book talked two books and I felt like I had to make them good ones.

I started the week with The Reader. I enjoyed it so much I felt I had to share it with my students. Thinking about the excellent world building led me to talk about Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.

First published in the US in 1996, most of my students were unfamiliar with the series, so I hope I have turned some of them on to it.