Young adult literature continues to be fertile ground for an amazing range of books covering almost every subject imaginable. Below are quick reviews of the best eleven books that I read in the past year. These books are appropriate for middle school and/or high school readers. Not all these books were published in 2019, but […]
CEJ Archives are available to on-line subscribers. No worries, just click the Register tab from the menu and register with a user name, email, and password. Already registered? Login from the menu above.
This year I read a lot of young adult fiction, and I was struck by how much these books engaged social justice issues in a complex and nuanced way. Fair warning, though: when teenage protagonists struggle with issues of equity and difficult moral decisions, they sometimes use vulgar language. While such language is quite common […]
Katie (not her real name), a high school junior, walked briskly toward her first hour class, making sure to get in the room before the bell rang. As she approached the door, I waved a greeting and said, “Good morning, Katie!” No response. Katie, normally wide awake and talking with friends, walked silently, her head […]
This year I read many excellent adolescent and young adult books. Many of these books have a common theme: they take readers on a journey alongside someone very different from themselves—a good theme for students to engage in. I organized these books in order of how much I enjoyed reading them (from the ones […]
This year as I looked over the books that I have read in the past year and I tried to figure out whether to do a list of the best graphic novels, picture books, or young adult novels, it occurred to me that it might be best to do a series of short lists. So […]
The student’s words unsettled me. We had been discussing the topic of courage, the letting go of our fears so that we could become a source of blessing and wisdom. Then we read together a quote, “We are able to live with this degree of courage, reflected in focus and passion, only if we are […]
1. Fleischman, Paul. Whirligig. New York: Macmillan, 1998. My friend Kim has recently returned to the joy of reading. This one is especially for her. There is a seventeen-year-old kid named Brent who has just moved to a new school. He is nervous and insecure and trying to fit in, so when he is invited to […]
Whenever I have an opportunity to talk about the Bible for the first time with a group of students, I often start with a too-easily overlooked question: When Jesus “finished” his incarnational task—his birth, life, death, and resurrection—and was preparing to ascend, why didn’t he take his followers with him? Why the delay? In many […]
The bell rings for lunch, and the students stream out of their classrooms. As I make my way from my office to the staff lunch room, I am stopped by a student who asks, “When can I be in chapel again?” I chat with the student for a while, and continue on. Ten steps later, […]