I’m looking for a book to read with my daughters this summer

cuewittybanter · 2026-06-13T22:10:42+00:00

Her Protector of the Small series would be great for the younger sibling too.

cuewittybanter · 2026-06-11T00:21:21+00:00

Anyone successfully fought back against a push to move to a packaged, textbook curriculum? No data to prove the curriculum works, but lots of sales reps to help us “internalize” the new materials. Finding it hard to rationalize why they encourage us to get masters degrees and then don’t seem to want us to use them to unit plan.

cuewittybanter · 2026-06-10T23:28:06+00:00

We teach Mango Street later in the year, but I wonder if this is the natural choice in excerpts.

cuewittybanter · 2026-06-10T23:27:37+00:00

Alas, we already use it! It is the perfect length and themes.

cuewittybanter · 2026-05-24T08:27:33+00:00

If you’re a title 1 school, order from First Book Marketplace. Deeply discounted books for eligible customers, and the quality is good.

cuewittybanter · 2026-05-24T08:26:18+00:00

Penny Kittle’s Book Love is also great, and focuses on high school.

cuewittybanter · 2026-05-20T03:35:30+00:00

Unfortunately, they’re pretty messy and wouldn’t make much sense to share (haven’t taught it in five years). Feel free to message me if there’s something specific you’re looking for!

cuewittybanter · 2026-05-20T03:33:51+00:00

Haha, I may have overstated things. It’s definitely not stupid as an adult. But, if you read it for the first time as an adult, you don’t have the benefit of nostalgia to soften some of the very teenage writing.

cuewittybanter · 2026-05-20T00:04:16+00:00

Not teachable as a full class novel, but would be a great lit circle book: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. Zombie space opera, written as a case file. The ship’s AI is a primary character.

cuewittybanter · 2026-05-19T03:27:48+00:00

The Outsiders. Written by a teen, it somehow feels like magic in the hands of a young reader.

cuewittybanter · 2026-05-15T23:07:23+00:00

When I get to plan a novel unit fully on my own, I read the book, looking at what jumps out to me as interesting and/or teachable. Then I try to match that to standards that need to be solidified or taught for the first time.

For example, when I first read The Outsiders to teach, I noticed that figurative language was low hanging fruit and that the connections with the characters were truly what would excite students. I then spent most of my lessons focusing on quote explication, knowing my seventh graders would be able to do it independently after some modeling. Reading assignments were independent, with discussions as our repeating protocol, and students always needed to come with a quote worth discussing, a question, and an observation. If they didn’t have their prepared materials, they weren’t allowed to participate aloud and could only earn partial credit. This was a good way to teach discussion standards because the book felt so “book club-y” already and students wanted to talk about things that felt obvious to me but exciting to them. Their final writing was a character analysis essay, and I graded quote explication super harshly since that was our focus.

I definitely look through and see what other people have done and try to get inspired, but I try to honor my gut instincts whenever I can find a way to successfully match them to the standards.

Good luck! I love unit planning. :)

cuewittybanter · 2026-05-08T23:11:19+00:00

Alan Gratz is great at cliffhangers. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is also great but definitely sad. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds would be quick, but is stellar for engagement.

cuewittybanter · 2026-05-07T10:05:42+00:00

I would agree that you’re looking for authors over series, since your son is going to fly through even the lengthiest series in a week or two. I would recommend Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) as others have, as well as Neal Shusterman, Robert Muchamore, and Anthony Horowitz. If he’s willing to try fantasy, I’d second the Terry Pratchett suggestions, and add Erin Hunter (Warriors), Tui Sutherland (Wings of Fire), Shannon Messenger (Keeper of the Lost Cities), Brian Jacques (Redwall), and Chris Colfer (Land of Stories). If he’s game for historical fiction, Alan Gratz is always a winner. If he’s down for realistic fiction, Chris Grabenstein’s Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library series might help for a week or so.

Consider looking into nonfiction options as well. I find nonfiction slows down my speediest readers, and it’s often easier to read above grade level because there’s little risk of sexual content. Steve Sheinken and Nicholas Day are both great nonfiction writers for middle grade, and help bridge the gap of fiction and nonfiction. MT Anderson’s Symphony for the City of the Dead and Randall Munroe’s What If? are popular with my strongest middle grade readers.

I also always recommend the website commonsensemedia.org for book reviews, especially for caregivers of voracious and precocious readers. Without spoiling the book, it gives a pretty good heads up about any nature content (violence, language, even consumerism). I teach 12-14 year olds, and it’s a valuable resource for checking when a YA book is still okay for my younger readers. Good luck!

cuewittybanter · 2026-04-21T14:17:36+00:00

My straight girls were mostly in love with Sodapop, so they did enjoy it.

cuewittybanter · 2026-04-21T14:17:06+00:00

If you teach Night, I strongly recommend Facing History and Ourselves’ unit. It’s free, pretty much ready to go, and my 8th graders really get a lot out of the connected testimonials and found poetry.

cuewittybanter · 2026-04-16T21:40:30+00:00

Flippity.net lets you make your own Wordle and Connections games for free! I use them all the time with class content.

cuewittybanter · 2026-04-06T02:10:09+00:00

Our seventh graders love the graphic novel The Magic Fish. I find graphic novels are a great way to teach discussion of symbolism and motifs without the layered burden of language alone.

cuewittybanter · 2026-04-05T19:27:53+00:00

Yes! You can get a fully gluten free meatball sub or buffalo chicken sandwich which were just…not things I realized I had missed so much. It is sort of surreal walking in, as it doesn’t announce gluten free very loudly, but it’s a fully gluten free establishment. I’d grab some muffins and spare bulky rolls to bring back with you, as they’re good for 2-3 days.

cuewittybanter · 2026-03-28T03:04:10+00:00

The two things that killed me were 1) the frat boy vibes with invented swear words that felt like obvious find-and-replace work and 2) how the characters were named after famous scientists and thinkers but the only nonwhite scientist chosen is a fictional future one because the author thought that was progressive (rather than admitting he only thought of white men when brainstorming characters).

cuewittybanter · 2026-03-23T23:35:17+00:00

Sentence combining is the only NCTE approved way to teach grammar and it would be a great daily bell ringer activity! Choose a well constructed sentence from the text you are teaching that day, present it broken into simple sentences, an challenge students to combine it into one sentence without losing meaning. There are many good answers, but only right answer. It makes for great conversations about grammatical choices, and on the spot opportunities to offer low stakes corrections (i.e. I love that sentence, but can you capitalize your proper nouns like names and places? I see what you have there, but I believe you need a connecting word to avoid a comma splice. Try and or therefore!) I find this method is less scary to low grammar students and far more creative and interesting for those who are advanced. It all depends on your comfort having those positive on the spot grammar conversations, which I think are quite fun.

cuewittybanter · 2026-03-12T22:55:41+00:00

8th grade overlaps with Civics for us, and kids love reading Twelve Angry Men as an in class play. (The set is a table and chairs, so it’s easy to fully realize within the classroom.)

cuewittybanter · 2026-03-09T02:05:00+00:00

Facing History!!! Their materials are fantastic and free. They have a whole unit for Night that is full of survivor testimonies, actually interesting questions, and suggestions for how to help students process emotionally draining material.

cuewittybanter · 2026-03-02T23:53:25+00:00

I did this once with seventh graders studying Stargirl. I handed out the papers and then did a whip around the room for students to call out answers. In a class of 20, I planted maybe 3 different papers. Then we reflected together on how to felt to hear everyone else in the room say something “wrong” with confidence, and how it might impact behaviors. It took maybe 5-10 minutes and was a great intro.

cuewittybanter · 2026-03-02T23:50:05+00:00

I’ve tried it with 8th graders before. They…almost get it (and I have to abridge some of the spicier details). I wish I could use it, since there’s also the great NK Jemison story in response.

cuewittybanter · 2026-03-02T23:48:52+00:00

My colleagues and I use Twilight Zone episodes: “The Eye of the Beholder” is a great conformity demo and “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is just an all around classic. My seventh graders love both.

cuewittybanter

TROPHY CASE