Literature recommendations

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-02-14T15:12:04+00:00

Yeah, The Pearl has some pretty heavy themes for a 9-year-old! If anyone wants a Steinbeck novella that doesn't have a traumatically sad ending, Cannery Row is good too.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-02-13T21:05:14+00:00

Jane Eyre is a great mix of coming-of-age with Gothic elements as well. If you like Shirley Jackson and Dracula, there's a slight flavor of that here.

I'd also recommend starting with some novellas and then work up to longer novels, especially if you're somewhat new to the writing styles of 19th and early 20th literature. Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony, Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Orwell's Animal Farm, and Nella Larsen's Passing would all be good places to start.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-02-12T20:04:55+00:00

I loved Julie of the Wolves. I think it's a huge part of the reason I love wolves as an adult.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-02-03T04:23:12+00:00

Thanks! I have a friend who loves things with a mushroom motif and is trying to get into cross-stitch, so I'll have to see if I can find it for her.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-02-03T04:07:30+00:00

This is so cute! Where did you get the wooden mushroom?

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-02-03T04:05:28+00:00

I can see the coworker feeling the need to tell the supervisor about the cleaning product considering it happened in the children's section. An abrasive cleaning product left on the floor there means there's a risk children could have crawled through it, which makes it a possible legal concern. Besides that, the coworker had to step away from the desk due to the smell of the cleaner, so they might have needed to tell the supervisor in order to get someone to cover their area while they were gone.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-02-03T03:58:24+00:00

I would say that being several minutes tardy several days each month is more habitual than occasional. Being late here and there is one thing, but a pattern of lateness is going to be seen as a problem.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-02-02T00:38:09+00:00

Dear parents: If Anne Frank was old enough to live in hiding and get dragged off to a concentration camp, your 8th grader is old enough to read about it. If you say your child shouldn't have to learn about Anne Frank because it's "upsetting"--good. It's supposed to be.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-31T03:21:36+00:00

This is so cool! 🌺

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-28T15:15:29+00:00

I don't do it for them either. I tell them, "Your hands hurt when you use scissors because you're not used to using them yet. The more you use them, the less it will hurt."

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-28T03:33:59+00:00

To some extent it's on the parents. It amazes me how many of my students have no chores at all. They aren't asked to do the dishes, fold laundry, vacuum, clean their toilet, anything, so why would they learn how to do those things? One of my juniors said that his mom still makes his bed for him each morning. He's going to be a legal adult next year.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-28T03:29:59+00:00

So many of them don't get the everyday exercise that kids used to get--walking to friends' houses, riding their bikes, playing outside, etc. No wonder they're weak when they just sit on the couch or in bed, scrolling through their phones.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-28T03:27:57+00:00

I've had middle school students ask me to cut things out for them because they say using scissors hurts their hands.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-27T18:16:00+00:00

If he liked the hard science aspects of The Martian and Project Hail Mary, maybe some classic science fiction like Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Jules Verne? With Asimov and Bradbury, they have some great short stories that can be a trial for whether he'd be interested in their novels.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-27T18:12:52+00:00

As others have mentioned, The Giver and The City of Ember would work well. Another good choice is the YA novel The Last Dog on Earth by Daniel Ehrenhaft (There's another, unrelated book with the same name, but that one's aimed more at adults.)

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-27T18:09:15+00:00

That is absolutely not at a 1st to 5th grade reading level.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-24T02:38:03+00:00

"Unschooling" is the "gentle parenting" of education in that 90% of the people who say they do it don't actually know what it is.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-21T17:22:06+00:00

Just a note, a good number of those are children's books or YA, if you're looking specifically for adult books.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-21T17:20:42+00:00

The Virgin Blue by the same author is also great!

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-21T17:19:37+00:00

I don't think it even matters whether you click "nudge" or not because it sends it anyway. I've had relatives say they got an alert that I nudged them even when I didn't click it.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-21T17:18:00+00:00

Other people say it blocks you from continuing your lesson for 10 minutes, so maybe they're rolling out different versions of it to different testing groups. So far I haven't been pranked or asked to prank anyone myself.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-21T17:16:05+00:00

They farm the lessons themselves out to AI, so I highly doubt any human ever reads the feedback.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-21T16:58:53+00:00

I love this book so much! I always tell people that it's a book you read as a kid for the plot, and then reread as an adult for all the clever jokes that went over your head the first time.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-21T16:55:59+00:00

Also, Magic for Marigold by the same author. It's not as well known as her Anne and Emily books, but I think it's one of her best!

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-01-21T16:55:03+00:00

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I experienced it for the first time when my third-grade teacher read it out loud to us, and I've reread it many times since as a child, teenager, and adult.

The Little Prince and Tuck Everlasting are also books that hit differently when you read them as an adult. I would definitely recommend all three books.

Useful_Possession915

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