Historical Fiction with a Fantasy Twist, Yes Please!

This week has flown by!  I see from your blog posts that several of you have tried the Magic Tree House book series.  My daughter and I are reading a Magic Tree House book as well!  This series mixes in elements of both historical fiction and fantasy.  We have a large set of them and I think she is now confident reading them independently so I’m hoping she starts to really enjoy this series (because she can learn SO much from the historical fiction part of this book).

My daughter is obsessed with all things Paris, so we opted for Night of the New Magicians, which is set in Paris. We are only in the beginning stages of the book currently, but Jack and Annie have landed in Paris during the 1889 World’s Fair. Did you know that the Eiffel Tower was built for this fair? Jack and Annie taught me that interesting fact! (see why I think these books are so educational?)

Their task is to find four “new magicians” and protect them from an evil sorcerer. Here are the four magicians”

1. The Magician of Sound—his voice can be heard for a thousand miles.
2. The Magician of Light—his fires glow, but they do not burn.
3. The Magician of the Invisible—he battles deadly enemies no one can see.
4. The Magician of Iron—he bends the metals of earth and triumphs over the wind.

 After reading these descriptions, my daughter and I took a few minutes to talk about which magician we would like to be if we could pick. We then decided that my her brother would be the Magician of Chaos—he destroys all things! I thought it might be kind of fun to expand this to a “who am I?” game in the classroom. Perhaps with famous people or vocabulary terms.

I’m guessing each magician is going to be an invention. I hope as I continue to read this I’ll pick up a few more interesting historical tidbits!

Dr. K.

Harris and Me

Ahhh-- So much to say about this novel.  I am rereading this for the first time since I was a 5th grade teacher.  If you have a reluctant middle-grade male reader-- this may be the novel that does turn that reluctant reader into an engaged reader!

The setting of this book takes place a few years after WWII.  The narrator of this story is an 11-year old boy (we never know his name), and Harris, a distant cousin who lives life like he has never witnessed.  This book is full of hilarious pranks as the boys both work hard on the homestead by tending to the various animals and certainly play hard too.

I was listening to the Ted Radio hour podcast recently where they referenced a TED talk by Alvin Irby.  In this podcast, he shares how to encourage our kids to become lifelong readers (yes, like Donlyn Miller).  Specifically, he is an advocate for encouraging black male youth to read.  He cites startling research- such as --85 percent of black male fourth graders are not proficient in reading.

He also shares: 

"Scholastic's 2016 Kids and Family Report found that the number one thing children look for when choosing a book is a book that will make them laugh. So if we're serious about helping black boys and other children to read when it's not required, we need to incorporate relevant male reading models into early literacy. In exchange, some of the children's books that adults love so much for funny, silly or even gross books, like "Gross Greg"." 

While Harris & Me isn't a novel with a black male protagonist, it certainly is humorous as they wrestle pigs, hunt for mice, and engage in combat with the crazy rooster, Currently, in the novel, the main character is starting to turn a corner and begin to match Harris's pranks.  I recently read the most HILARIOUS part of the story when the narrator engages in the ultimate payback-- convincing Harris to urinate on an electric fence!  Yes, I did say that right... I was even brave enough to read this book aloud to students-- we could barely get past the laughter to read it.  Yes, there is some profanity in this book, and yes, I substituted the profanity with appropriate words.  :)

One other note of interest is the author of this novel, Gary Paulson, who is best known for the Hatchet series among other adventure novels.  This novel is out of context for this author and written in a completely different genre--I'd be interested to hear more about his inspiration for this narrative. 

Every teacher should read this book-- I promise it will make you laugh and touch your heart.  

Until next week,
Dr. K.

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