Eighth Grade Book Recommendations?
A playlist of songs about animals (both actual & metaphorical), interviews with Chelsea Hodson & Celeste Ng, an excerpt from Jenni Fagan's new memoir, and more
Do you remember eighth grade? That precipice between middle school (or elementary school for older folks) and high school?
I remember reading the classics. Silas Marner and A Tale of Two Cities stand out as two books I plodded through that year. In retrospect, I appreciated the plotting and pace, but found little to relate to. Later in the year when we read The Grapes of Wrath, it seemed like a music video in comparison.
The first unit I’m teaching this year focuses on intersectional feminism, and includes Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis as well as other interesting and enlightening texts.
What books can you recommend for an eighth grade curriculum that focuses on inclusion and diversity? Did you read anything (assigned or not) then that opened your eyes or changed your life then? I’d love to hear from you in the comments or via e-mail.
Songs About Animals (Both Actual & Metaphorical) Playlist (30 songs, 1 hour and 37 minutes)
I have been thinking about animals a lot lately. The birds and squirrels and rats in my backyard. The elephants and monkeys and giraffes in my partner’s photos from Africa. Enjoy the playlist!
Largehearted Likes:
The Brooklyn Book Bodega promotes childhood literacy by providing books to young people aged 0-18 as well as literary outreach programs.
Fan Fan Doughnuts
A couple of blocks from where I transfer from the subway to the bus sits bakery heaven. I was infatuated with Fany Gerson’s bakery Dough (as well as her paletas), but Fan-Fan takes the doughnut to new levels of deliciousness.
Largehearted Links
Chelsea Hodson’s interview with W Magazine about her new book imprint, Rose Books
How would you characterize the books you’ll publish at Rose?
There’s no obvious throughline, but they’re all taking risks on the page. It’s not that I’m looking for things that couldn’t be on a mainstream press. They’re good enough to end up anywhere, but for some reason, I am lucky to have them.
Read an excerpt from Dave Chisholm’s graphic novel biography of Miles Davis
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It would appear I’ve kind of become one of those “I’m reading 15 books all at the same time” people, who I never trusted, mostly because I couldn’t imagine what the results would be of such endpoint-sparse pursuit.
Paste profiled film music composer Ludwig Göransson
”Most of the audience doesn’t know that all of the music, all of the rhythms, has to mean something,” Göransson says. “There’s meaning behind the rhythms and, in Africa, music is not just performance, it’s a way of life. It’s language, and a different rhythm can mean something to everyone.”This conversation between Thurston Moore and Bush Tetras’ Pat Place and Cynthia Sley
MOORE: As soon as there was any semblance of accessibility, No Wave died.
PLACE: Yes, exactly. Because that’s what it was about. But that’s why also it was kind of short-lived because, I mean, how much of that can anyone listen to, really?
Celeste Ng on the GOP’s war on children
One of the things that I did while I was writing this book was look a lot at history. I was looking at the past instances in which we had book bans, in which we had laws restricting all kinds of individual freedoms. And I realized how important it was to know that these things have happened in the past. Because if you know that, you’re aware that there are these patterns of history, and maybe you have the chance to break out of them.Swans’ Mighael Gira talked about playing guitar with GuitarWorld
”My guitar playing in itself is crude and extremely simple, but whole sonic worlds grow out of it.”
Last Week’s LHB Feature Posts
Diane Williams’s playlist for Her story collection I Hear You’re Rich
J. Vanessa Lyon’s playlist for her novel Lush Lives
James Hynes’s playlist for his novel Sparrow
Jesse Rifkin’s playlist for his book This Must Be the Place
Siddhartha Deb’s playlist for his novel The Light at the End of the World
I taught 8th grade LA for 9 years and two of my favorite books to teach were The Book Thief and The Knife of Never Letting Go. Engaging for that age group plus they can both be taught from so many angles thematically and are great ‘discussion’ books.
I taught eighth grade for five years some years ago. The texts that engaged them the most were (unsurprisingly) those they chose for book clubs and independent reading but also the short stories we studied as a class, especially stories of suspense from Poe, DuMaurier, and others. I tend to think that I focused too much in middle and high school on teaching novels and other full-length texts versus stories, poems, and essays. One of the shorter pieces that had the biggest impact: Richard Wright's The Ethics of Living Jim Crow.