by Martha Mahtani and Bill Boerman-Cornell The Holocaust perpetuated on the Jewish people by the German Nazi party during World War II has inspired a remarkable amount of excellent literature. Middle school and high school English teachers are quick to recognize the interest their students have for this era in history and are quick to […]
Young Adult (YA) literature is exploding. A broad range of stories is coming out right now in the unprecedented numbers of books for young adults. On the one hand, this has meant some incredibly powerful stories that can connect deeply with our students in terms of both the brokenness of our world and also the […]
I was at my desk collecting writing assignments when Hannah, one of my sixth graders, walked over. “Mrs. Blok,” she said, “when are we going to read a book that has a girl as the main character?” So far we had read The Phantom Tollbooth and King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table—both […]
London, 1854. A medical breakthrough.In a fascinating manner, Deborah Hopkinson delivers a novel that draws the reader into the fictional story of a boy called Eel, while surrounding the narrative with the true, groundbreaking discoveries of Dr. John Snow. Dr. Snow’s work is not widely known, though he is a pioneer in the field of […]
Jesus said, “Go into all the world . . .” (Mark 16:15). When we read these words as Christian educators, we tend to think about our students “going” out into the world after high school. Have you ever asked what it might look like for middle school students to “go”? For the past thirteen […]