Reading Reflection: 2023

 

The end of 2023 has arrived, so it's time for another yearly reflection. As I predicted at the end of last year, I was not able to read very much at all. The combination of graduate school and my regular instructional coaching job took up most of my time and napping took up the remainder of it. I did still manage to read a little bit though. Here is the breakdown:

My goal was to read 24 books in total and I did read 24. It feels like a very small victory compared to reading 101 books last year, but considering the different demands on my time, I'll take it. You can view my year in reading here.

I was hoping to read 24 books from my own shelves this year, but I ended up getting distracted by books at my school and fell short. I ended up reading a total of 13. I'm hoping to do a little better with this next year. You can see the list of what I read from my shelves here.

Overall, I would not say that I am particularly happy with my reading this year. I did read some really enjoyable things, but the stresses in my life made it difficult to enjoy them like I usually do. I feel like I gained some perspective though, and am getting more used to my busy schedule. I still have another year of graduate school to go, but I'm hoping to relax a little more in 2024 and get a little more reading done. 

Posted by John David Anderson

 

Posted by John David Anderson is another one of the books my school purchased for our middle school book clubs this year. The cover definitely grabbed my attention and I felt like the summary on the back would be intriguing to a lot of kids, so I figured I'd give it a try myself. I read this partially on my lunch break in bits and pieces and then finished it off in a few sittings over winter break. I admit that it had a bit of a slow start, but I ended up being really glad I picked this one.

The story follows an eighth grader named Frost. He's a bit of a geeky kid that likes writing poetry. He has a small group of similarly geeky friends named Deedee, Wolf, and Bench. They've been a tight knit group for years and do everything together. Their comfortable group dynamic begins to shift, however, when two big changes happen at their school. First, after some inappropriate online activity, the school enacts  a complete cell phone ban. Without the ability to sneakily text each other during class, students turn to leaving sticky notes on each other's lockers. The anonymous nature of this leads to a lot of bullying and truly mean comments being flung around, some of which are directed towards Frost and his friends. 

The second change is the arrival of Rose Holland, a new student to their school. Rose's stocky frame and eccentric personality immediately draws a lot of negative attention from the other students. She takes a liking to Frost and his friends though, and inserts herself into their group. Without meaning to, she causes a divide between the boys that leads to a lot of complicated feelings on all sides. Frost is caught in the middle of the divide. He doesn't want anything to change, but he also doesn't mind Rose being around. Eventually the mean sticky notes and the situation with Rose work together to cause problems that can't be easily solved and Frost has to come to terms with the changing nature of people and relationships.

I ended up really liking this novel because everything in it felt very true. The characters acted like real middle schoolers, the conflicts between the boys were realistic, and the resolution wasn't neat and tidy. The main themes of the story centered around the power of words and how they can be used to hurt and to heal. There was a strong anti-bullying message as well, which are all ideas you would expect to find in middle grades fiction. What I thought was unique though was that a good chunk of the story concerned how friendships don't always last. In general, people don't keep their middle school friends for life. People drift apart for a variety of reasons and that's just a normal part of growing up. That happens here, with one of the friends in the group moving onto a different social circle. While there was some drama attached to his exit, he ultimately just didn't fit in with the group anymore and wanted to hang out with other people. It was sad, but it was also understandable. I liked that this was included because it's so relatable. I can imagine having some very interesting class discussions about this since so many kids will have experience with changing friendships to draw on. It's a life lesson that's not clichéd or cheesy to talk about. 

Ultimately, I was pleasantly surprised by Posted. It was realistic in a way I wasn't expecting. I will definitely be recommending this to students this year. This will be my last book read in 2023 and it was a nice book to end on. It was about a lot of things that are difficult, but it contained a lot of hope as well. While the world can be a mean place, the relationships we build with those who move in and out of our lives will sustain us and make us strong.

2023 Reading Challenges Tally:

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 24/24 - Complete!

Clear the Shelves 2023: 13/24

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

 

I've had The Mists of Avalon on my shelf for a seriously long time. My husband bought it for me back when we were first dating, which was over  twenty years ago at this point. It's been sitting on my shelf all that time, waiting for me to finally pick it up. To put things further in perspective, when I finally did pick it up a few months ago, an old Blockbuster receipt fell out of the back. I rented Heavyweights in 2002. That movie is still iconic. 

Anyway, the reason it has taken me so long to get to it is its length. This is a 876 page tome with small print. I have so many other books I want to read that I tend to shy away from picking up long ones that will take a few months to get through. I must have been feeling ambitious back in November though, because I decided to finally give this epic fantasy a try.

The Mists of Avalon is a sprawling fantasy epic that retells the legend of King Arthur from the perspective of the women involved in the story. The point of view shifts between several women throughout the text, but the main character is Morgaine, more commonly known to us as the enchantress Morgan le Fay. The novel follows her from childhood to her old age as she works to preserve the holy island of Avalon in the face of different threats, including the invasion of the Saxons and the spread of Christianity. At first, protecting young Arthur and ensuring he takes the throne are her main priorities. He has sworn an oath to always defend Avalon. However, as time goes on his support of Avalon wavers and Morgaine's mission turns to removing him from power. Her journey is an emotional one, fraught with many struggles, betrayals, and losses along the way. She must eventually learn to make peace with the path her Goddess has dealt her and come to terms with her changing world.

This was a really phenomenal novel. I read it slowly and it took me a long time to make my way through it, but it was well worth the time. When I finished reading it, I felt like I had experienced something special; The Mists of Avalon is more than a book--it's an achievement. Telling the story from the viewpoints of the female characters gave the well-worn legend a fresh and interesting face with new layers of depth. This is not exactly a page turner. Instead, it is a story meant to be savored and considered from the many different perspectives running through its pages. 

The world-building was excellent. Bradley truly made the famous places from Arthurian legend come to life. The mysterious Avalon and the regal Camelot we rendered in loving detail. Similarly, the characters were developed beautifully. Each were different with distinct personalities, opinions, and goals, and each changed over the course of the novel. Each one was interesting to read about, and I never felt that there was a weak or boring perspective presented. The overall themes of loyalty versus compromise, men versus women, Christianity versus other religions, and old versus new continually asked interesting questions and presented compelling situations for the characters to grapple with. I enjoyed every aspect of it. 

Reading The Mists of Avalon is certainly a commitment, but it is one that is worth making for any fantasy fans that haven't given it a try yet. It may have taken me over twenty years to pick it up off my shelf, but I am very glad that I finally did. The beauty, complexity, and emotion of this one will stay with me for a while. I consider it a new favorite.   

2023 Reading Challenges Tally:

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 23/24

Clear the Shelves 2023: 13/24

100-Word Stories by Kim Culbertson

I am a serial buyer of teacher books, even though I rarely have time to read them. These slick, crisp volumes with their pages full of ideas represent endless promise. Maybe this book will be the one that solves all our problems and motivates kids to learn! Maybe this will be the perfect set of ideas to build the kind of classroom where kids are engaged and excited to do their work! Of course, those are wild fantasies, but it certainly doesn't stop me from dreaming...and scouring the Heinemann website every few months. I picked up 100-Word Stories from there a few weeks ago. I was initially intrigued by its idea of using short pieces of text to teach an array of literary concepts and its inclusion of lots of sample 100-word stories to use in the classroom. When the book arrived, I was both surprised and pleased by how short it was (it makes sense when you think about it). This, finally, was a teacher book I could sit and read in a few sittings. I got started hoping to find some ideas to bring to my school.

100-Word Stories begins with an explanation of how Kim Culbertson found success using 100-word chunks of text in her language arts classroom when teaching various concepts. She describes how she was able to get more student participation and engagement when the stories were very short. Not only were students better able to maintain their focus with these texts, but they also allowed her to explore many different concepts quickly. After that short introduction, she moves onto a series of chapters each focusing on a different story element. Each concept contains two 100-word stories, discussion questions for students to grapple with, and suggested writing activities for students to try. The book contains a total of 25 short chapters covering everything from basic story elements to revision strategies, making this a wide-ranging resource for reading and writing teachers.

Overall I did like this book. The idea of using short texts is a good one, as I can personally attest to the fact that students struggle with paying attention to longer pieces. These lessons offer quick and interesting ways to see different literary elements in action and provide good examples for students to try the techniques out by writing their own short stories. The discussion questions are thoughtful and encourage deeper thinking and the suggested writing activities incorporate a lot of student choice. This book contains some solid strategies and advice.

One element that was a bit of a disappointment for me were the 100-word sample texts. There is a little note at the start of the book warning that some of these might not be appropriate for all ages, but that an effort was made to have at least one story per chapter that was appropriate for grades 5-12. I did not always find that to be the case. Some of the stories included content that was inappropriate for younger readers, some of the stories had vocabulary that would be very difficult for struggling readers, and some of the stories required more inferencing skills than your average 5th-8th grade reader would have. Most of the samples are written by students too, which is fine, but I was hoping for pieces by well-known writers that I could use as a bridge to encouraging students to read their longer works. I work with 7th and 8th graders. If I was going to use these lessons, I would frequently find myself needing to source other texts or write the samples myself. This book is more user-friendly for high school teachers. As the sample 100-word stories were what I was looking forward to the most, this was a bit of a disappointment.

In spite of that, however, I did still enjoy the book and think that it is a good addition to my professional library. I agree with the logic behind using short texts and I think these lessons are a nice way to change up writing instruction and increase student engagement. Is this the magical teacher book with all the answers? No, but it certainly does have some answers that will help teachers improve their writing instruction.

2023 Reading Challenges Tally:

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 22/24

Clear the Shelves 2023: 12/24