Literature Circles

1. Literature Circles Subtitle

2. You will select the books • After this presentation, you will write your top 3 choices in order. I will put you in groups based on your choices. • Some books require Young Adult permission forms • You will read and prepare for Lit Circles discussions.

3. Ninth Ward • Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. She doesn't have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like the other kids on her street. But what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her fiercely loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world and able to predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya's visions show a powerful hurricane — Katrina — fast approaching, it's up to Lanesha to call upon the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive the storm. • Ninth Ward is a deeply emotional story about transformation and a celebration of resilience, friendship, and family — as only love can define it. • 2011 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book • http://www.today.com/id/38572300/ns/today-today_books/

4. Trash • In an unnamed Third World city, Rat, Raphael, and Gardo live with thousands of other kids like them in a garbage dump, where they dig through the detritus looking for anything that could be profitable. When an important person loses something valuable in the refuse, the three boys embark on an engrossing, sobering mystery characterized by stealing, lying, and police brutality as well as generosity, trust, and ingenuity. The story flows more smoothly as it progresses, bolstered by the young characters’ well-articulated, authentic thoughts, feelings, and voices. Throughout, the boys’ significant sense of devotion and morality leads them from lives of desperation to miraculous possibilities. http://youtu.be/g5VewsbBGPA *YA permission required

5. Between Shades of Gray • Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. • She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. • Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously — and at great risk — documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart. YA permission required http://youtu.be/GPiQ_LuKtDE

6. Bomb The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon • 2013 Newbery Honor Book • 2013 Sibert Award Winner • 2013 YALSA Excellence Winner • A gripping narrative of the race between countries, spies, and scientists to create the first atomic bomb. • This fascinating tale, packed with a wide cast of characters, focuses mainly on three individuals: spy for the Soviets Harry Gold, leader of the Manhattan Project J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Knut Haukelid, who sabotaged German bomb efforts while working for the Norwegian resistance. Sheinkin skillfully combines lucid, conversational snapshots of the science behind the atomic bomb with a fast-paced narrative of the remarkable people who made it possible and attempted to steal it. Handsomely designed and loaded with archival photos and primary-source documents, the accessible volume lays out how the bomb was envisioned and brought to fruition. Bombis a 2012 National Book Awards finalist for Young People's Literature. http://youtu.be/tE0az7Etru0 http://youtu.be/jyRWWw8gJUQ YA permission required

7. Berlin Boxing Club • Fourteen-year-old Karl Stern has never thought of himself as a Jew. But to the bullies at his school in Nazi-era Berlin, it doesn't matter that Karl has never set foot in a synagogue or that his family doesn't practice religion. Demoralized by relentless attacks on a heritage he doesn't accept as his own, Karl longs to prove his worth to everyone around him. So when Max Schmeling, champion boxer and German national hero, makes a deal with Karl's father to give Karl boxing lessons, Karl sees it as the perfect chance to reinvent himself. • A skilled cartoonist, Karl has never had an interest in boxing, but as Max becomes the mentor Karl never had, Karl soon finds both his boxing skills and his art flourishing. But when Nazi violence against Jews escalates, Karl must take on a new role: protector of his family. Karl longs to ask his new mentor for help, but with Max's fame growing, he is forced to associate with Hitler and other Nazi elites, leaving Karl to wonder where his hero's sympathies truly lie. Can Karl balance his dream of boxing greatness with his obligation to keep his family out of harm's way? http://youtu.be/BetqNbYRQqY *YA permission required

8. Red Kayak • Brady loves life on the Chesapeake Bay with his friends J.T. and Digger. But developers and rich families are moving into the area, and while Brady befriends some of them-- like the DiAngelos, his parents and friends -- are bitter about the changes. Tragedy strikes when the DiAngelos’ kayak overturns in the bay, and Brady wonders if it was more than an accident. Soon, Brady discovers the terrible truth behind the kayak’s sinking, and it will change the lives of those he loves forever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oa-29hzzTo

9. The Other Side of the Truth • When Nigeria's corrupt military government kills their mother, twelve-year-old Sade and her brother Femi think their lives are over. Out of fear for their safety, their father, an outspoken journalist, decides to smuggle the children out of Nigeria and into London, where their uncle lives. But when they get to the cold and massive city, they find themselves lost and alone, with no one to trust and no idea when -- or if -- they will ever see their father again. • Beverley Naidoo is a novelist who was born in South Africa under Apartheid. As a student, Beverley began to question racism and at 21 she was arrested for taking part in the resistance movement. In 1965 Beverley came to England and married another South African exile. Beverley started writing when her own children were growing up. Her first book, Journey to Jo'burg, won The Other Award in Britain. It opened a window onto children's struggles under apartheid. In South Africa it was banned until 1991, the year after Nelson Mandela was released from jail. For subsequent books including Chain of Fire she had to rely on reports and photos smuggled out of South Africa. But after 26 years she was at last able to return freely to research in the country. No Turning Back and Out of Bounds followed. In all her stories, young characters from different backgrounds face tense conflicts and choices. Beverley chose London as the setting for her first novel set outside South Africa but the issues are as dramatic. Two refugee children face a terrible personal loss as well as injustice. The Other Side of Truth won her the Carnegie Medal.

10. Literature Circle choices • Ninth Ward (Hurricane Katrina) • Trash * (3rd world country) • Between Shades of Gray * (Lithuanian girl in work camp) • Bomb * (Development of Atomic Bomb) • Berlin Boxing Club * (Jewish boy training with boxing champ) • Red Kayak (Chesapeake Bay ) • The Other Side of the Truth (South Africa apartheid)