Monday, July 11, 2011

Blogging, education, and writing housekeeping - (What middle grade fiction would you buy?)

Some house keeping:
Reading and Blogging
Lieder over at Songs and Stories asked me to be part of her Bookie Brunch. It was a lot of fun. Five of us got together and talked about our opinions about love triangles in stories. Check it out. If you answer with a thoughtful response, you get entered in the giveaway to get a tote and a book by Amanda Quick. This feature is going to pop up every Sunday on people's blogs, so be on the look out.

Education
I have been officially moved out of 12th grade English into ELA 8. OK. Now that's different, but I am going to be co-teaching with my friend Angela and we have some really awesome ideas. We are going to base our whole year on Survival. We are going to be incorporating: The Outsiders, Unwind, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, The Diary of Anne Frank, among others. But I have a small catch, my classroom library is based for high school not middle school. Some of the stuff on the shelves are a bit to high for them. So I am asking the book blogging word for some awesome (maybe not so popular) books for Middle school students. I don't care the genre, I have kids with all kinds of interests.

Writing
Now that I have had two weeks off of school. (GOD BLESS SUMMER VACATION! Sorry had a moment of pure elation right there, I'll get it together.) Komal over at In Which I write Nonsensically, was awesome enough to give me her list of agents that she has compiled. I took it one step farther, listing email and street addresses and what their submission requirements were. I finished that, oh about ten minutes ago - believe it or not, it took four days to do. I also sent out my Q letter to my book blogging and close writing friends for some feed back. I also have been working on my WIP for my sequel. It's been going really well.

I currently have a soundtrack (on repeat) while I am writing. The list is as follows:

Sober by Kelly Clarkson

Witchy Woman by the Eagles

What Hurts the Most by Rascal Flatts

All I Wanna Do It Make Love to You by Heart

Trouble by Pink

Sober by Pink

I've been busy.

So remember about two paragraphs up? What middle grade fiction should I get?

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you are really on a roll here. :) Glad to hear.

    And middle school fiction, survival... Hmmm, I'm not sure. There are a lot of dystopian books out there these days the kids might enjoy. I don't know if Hunger Games would work. Or maybe even Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton. It's a fantasy read based on Celtic folklore. I really enjoyed it and want my son to read it.

    Hope you have a great year next year. :)

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  2. Middle grade fiction ideas are everywhere this week at Top Ten lists. I think you will find hundreds of great ideas if you browse the lists.

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