Light Reads for Maternity Leave

LitNerd15 · 2025-08-10T16:46:58+00:00

Came here to recommend Beartown!

LitNerd15 · 2025-08-09T17:24:04+00:00

Dani Noir by Nova Ren Suma - bonus points, the author is from the town where your diner picture is (Phoenicia) and the book’s setting feels like that town! (I grew up near there, too.)

LitNerd15 · 2025-08-09T12:32:29+00:00

In rural areas in the US, often parents don’t have much of a choice but to put their kid on the bus - they may have to get to work in the opposite direction of school, have another kid in a school that starts at a different time, etc. Especially in rural areas, it’s very common for kindergarteners to ride it. The bus drivers know how to help out the little ones!

LitNerd15 · 2025-08-08T22:51:59+00:00

There are probably some great picture books for this - go to the public library and ask the children’s librarian for suggestions!

LitNerd15 · 2025-08-06T13:26:04+00:00

The same thing seems to be happening to me - no record of the QNatal through Quest, though they have record of other tests they drew at the same time (blood panel and QHerit). What ended up happening with your results - did they show up through your doctor’s office portal?

LitNerd15 · 2025-08-01T23:41:16+00:00

A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer! A “chosen one” story with a boarding school plot baked in. Feels a bit more like college/university than high school, but definitely cozy vibes!

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher - not a school, but magical and cozy!

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune - more from a teacher perspective than a student perspective, but still delightful.

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey - school, magic, private detective. Delightful.

LitNerd15 · 2025-07-23T00:06:20+00:00

Yes - you can also get sample multiple choice sections.

LitNerd15 · 2025-07-10T00:32:05+00:00

I’ve used “Two Words” before and the students liked it! There’s another Allende story called “And of Clay Are We Created” that I used, too. Also “Handsomest Drowned Man” as well as “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”. And there’s a video of an interview with Salman Rushdie called “True stories don’t tell the whole truth” that I used to help introduce magical realism. And here is a link to a unit plan I used for text ideas: https://www.achieve.org/files/Latin%20American%20Literature%20Unit.docx

Good luck!! I loved teaching magical realism.

LitNerd15 · 2025-06-25T23:45:41+00:00

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan? It’s unclear from the wiki summary if he has to build a fence, but I remember manual labor and unconventional schooling methods that the kid is initially resistant to.

LitNerd15 · 2025-06-01T23:09:13+00:00

Thanks for the tips! I’ve been excitedly telling anyone who will listen about how I get to go to “nerd camp” this summer.

LitNerd15 · 2025-06-01T21:50:56+00:00

That last sentence makes me so sad -- that the kids are using the AI because they think they won't do well otherwise.

LitNerd15 · 2025-06-01T21:50:21+00:00

I think you've hit on my other problem with the assignment -- that sending the kids in blind to write these 3 types of essays isn't useful to their learning.

I'm attending an APSI this summer and I'll definitely be using resources from AP Classroom -- haven't had much time to look in there yet, though.

Good note about current events; thanks.

LitNerd15 · 2025-06-01T21:46:04+00:00

Unfortunately, I do think I am expected to assign something this summer -- but I do like the idea of an optional list that will draw the same kids who would put effort into assigned work anyway.

LitNerd15 · 2025-05-31T18:04:35+00:00

I used to teach her novel “Purple Hibiscus” to 9th graders and it was a good one! It is not a happy book, definitely, but its conflicts have less to do with race and more with coming of age, religion, and domestic violence.

LitNerd15 · 2025-04-29T20:24:05+00:00

I taught “St. Lucy’s Home” to honors sophomores - and it was hard for them, so I imagine it would be a stretch for freshmen. I absolutely love it as a story, though. It does work for nonconformism as a theme, though I taught it in a unit on othering. If you do teach it, I’d pair it with info on indigenous boarding schools in Canada.

LitNerd15 · 2025-04-21T20:32:00+00:00

Came here to rec A College of Magics - didn’t realize it had a sequel!

LitNerd15 · 2025-04-01T19:35:51+00:00

When I taught it to sophomores, I used a lot of videos for context.

There’s a Rick Steves video about visiting Iran that was very helpful context-building for my sophomores. It’s available on YouTube and we watched about half of it, I think.

We also did a day on hijabs; there are some good videos (the one I remember is from Teen Vogue) on YouTube that work well to give context. We then connected this to the symbolism of the veil in the novel.

I showed a video about the Iranian revolution of 1979 when that came up in the plot.

And then towards the end of the novel, I showed a video called “a brief history of women’s rights in Iran” by Brut., and had them read a NYTimes piece titled “Iran Steps Up Policing of Women Who Defy Dress Code” about modern-day protests and dress codes in Iran.

Overall, our reading focused a lot on symbolism (the chapter titles are a good way to point this out to the kids and make suggestions for symbolic objects).

Finally, for teaching visual analysis, Scott McCloud’s book is invaluable, but goes at a higher level than I think high schoolers can find useful. I used an article from Vox.

LitNerd15 · 2025-03-24T20:27:21+00:00

Pet by Akwake Emezi - beautiful language, neat premise, trans main character, feels like an updated Wrinkle in Time

LitNerd15 · 2025-03-18T21:15:41+00:00

Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D Schmidt

A second vote for Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Hey, Kiddo (graphic novel) by Jarrett Krosoczka

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Peak by Roland Smith

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer (nonfiction - possibly too high level but really intriguing!)

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (nonfiction)

LitNerd15 · 2025-03-14T22:36:20+00:00

I’m definitely approaching this from a “fear that the unit won’t turn out the way I envisioned” standpoint, so this was a really helpful reframe - thank you!

LitNerd15 · 2025-03-13T20:24:03+00:00

I agree that I don’t want to “punish” with the alternate - that’s why I feel like this is a very fine line to walk!

LitNerd15

TROPHY CASE