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2004 Favorites from Dean Schneider
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From: Robin Smith <robinsmith59>
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2004 21:13:43 -0600
From Dean Schneider:
I agree with Steven: Fire?ters is my favorite YA novel of the year. I like David Almond's work so much that I always order the British editions, published well ahead of the American editions, so I feel like The Fire?ters has been around for a long time. It is simply and beautifully written, with so many layers, so much to say about life and mystery and home. All of Almond's writing is carefully composed and wonderful for reading aloud. I love the notebook writing Bobby does (in chapter 48): a beautiful accounting of Bobby's place in the world and what he finds of value there.
I also especially liked Walter Dean Myers' Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices, which captures Harlem through the voices of people who live there. Modeled upon Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, Here in Harlem feels like a classic, a celebration a place and people -- laborers and blues singers, nannies and ballplayers, jazz artists and con artists, students and poets and boxers. Too me it has a Whitmanesque love of the city. With Duke Ellington on the cover and allusions to Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Hurston, Baldwin, Malcolm, and Martin, this is a rich work indeed. And the photographs from Myers' collection add a rich visual element as well.
Other YA favorites:
King of the MIddle March -- Kevin Crossley-Holland
New Found Land -- Allan Wolf
Tending to Grace -- Kimberly Newton Fusco
Favorite Intermediate Novels:
Richard Peck's The Teacher's Funeral is the book I find myself talking about most with other teachers. Such a great first line and first chapter! Adult mentors or role models are important in Peck's novels, and here in Russell's big sister Tansy we have another. A great read-aloud with action, humor, and satisfying ending.
Others I have liked:
The Sea of Trolls -- Nancy Farmer
Al Capone Does My Shirts -- Gennifer Choldenko
Becoming Naomi Leon -- Pam Munoz Ryan
Favorite Picture Books:
Most of the picture books I have liked this year have history themes:
Going North -- Harrington/Lagarrigue
The Cats of Krasinski Square -- Hesse/Watson
Coming on Home Soon -- Woodson/Lewis
Apples to Oregon -- Hopkinson/Carpenter
The People Could Fly -- Hamilton/Dillons (picture book edition of a story from the earlier book)
Nonfiction:
Two I think are well done and especially valuable in the classroom are Russell Freedman's The Voice That Challenged A Nation and Diane McWhorter's A Dream of Freedom. Freedman's is about Marian Anderson and her historic performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. McWhorter's is about the Civil Rights movement from 1954 to 1968.
Also: George Washington, Spymaster by Thomas B. Allen. It's a fascinating story of espionage during the American Revolution, through which readers will learn a lot about the Revolution itself. Especially notable is how nicely made the book is, as described in a recent Book Links magazine article (Sept. 2004). And The Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose, a big, rich work about how species become extinct and the fight to save them.
It's been a good year!
Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, Tennessee schneiderd at ensworth.com
Received on Sun 05 Dec 2004 09:13:43 PM CST
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2004 21:13:43 -0600
From Dean Schneider:
I agree with Steven: Fire?ters is my favorite YA novel of the year. I like David Almond's work so much that I always order the British editions, published well ahead of the American editions, so I feel like The Fire?ters has been around for a long time. It is simply and beautifully written, with so many layers, so much to say about life and mystery and home. All of Almond's writing is carefully composed and wonderful for reading aloud. I love the notebook writing Bobby does (in chapter 48): a beautiful accounting of Bobby's place in the world and what he finds of value there.
I also especially liked Walter Dean Myers' Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices, which captures Harlem through the voices of people who live there. Modeled upon Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, Here in Harlem feels like a classic, a celebration a place and people -- laborers and blues singers, nannies and ballplayers, jazz artists and con artists, students and poets and boxers. Too me it has a Whitmanesque love of the city. With Duke Ellington on the cover and allusions to Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Hurston, Baldwin, Malcolm, and Martin, this is a rich work indeed. And the photographs from Myers' collection add a rich visual element as well.
Other YA favorites:
King of the MIddle March -- Kevin Crossley-Holland
New Found Land -- Allan Wolf
Tending to Grace -- Kimberly Newton Fusco
Favorite Intermediate Novels:
Richard Peck's The Teacher's Funeral is the book I find myself talking about most with other teachers. Such a great first line and first chapter! Adult mentors or role models are important in Peck's novels, and here in Russell's big sister Tansy we have another. A great read-aloud with action, humor, and satisfying ending.
Others I have liked:
The Sea of Trolls -- Nancy Farmer
Al Capone Does My Shirts -- Gennifer Choldenko
Becoming Naomi Leon -- Pam Munoz Ryan
Favorite Picture Books:
Most of the picture books I have liked this year have history themes:
Going North -- Harrington/Lagarrigue
The Cats of Krasinski Square -- Hesse/Watson
Coming on Home Soon -- Woodson/Lewis
Apples to Oregon -- Hopkinson/Carpenter
The People Could Fly -- Hamilton/Dillons (picture book edition of a story from the earlier book)
Nonfiction:
Two I think are well done and especially valuable in the classroom are Russell Freedman's The Voice That Challenged A Nation and Diane McWhorter's A Dream of Freedom. Freedman's is about Marian Anderson and her historic performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. McWhorter's is about the Civil Rights movement from 1954 to 1968.
Also: George Washington, Spymaster by Thomas B. Allen. It's a fascinating story of espionage during the American Revolution, through which readers will learn a lot about the Revolution itself. Especially notable is how nicely made the book is, as described in a recent Book Links magazine article (Sept. 2004). And The Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose, a big, rich work about how species become extinct and the fight to save them.
It's been a good year!
Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, Tennessee schneiderd at ensworth.com
Received on Sun 05 Dec 2004 09:13:43 PM CST
