Monday, May 22, 2017

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 05/22/17


It's Monday! What are you reading? was started by Sheila at Book Journey and was adapted for children's books from picture books through YA by Jen of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee of Unleashing Readers. You can visit either site for a round up of blogs sharing their weekly readings and thoughts or search Twitter for #IMWAYR.



Last Week's Posts


      Middle Grade



      The Other Boy (2016) by M.G. Hennessey. My students are currently performing a diversity audit of our school and classroom library (post to come), and many students were disappointed by the lack of LGBTQIA representation. One student noted that while we have multiple books with male-to-female transgender characters (George, Lily and Dunkin, and Gracefully Grayson), she had yet to find a female-to-male book. The Other Boy arrived from my library hold list that same day.

      Shane had settled into life in his new town: star pitcher on the sixth-grade baseball team, solid best friend, and a newly-developing crush on a girl in his homeroom. But when an accidental conversation reveals the name of his previous school, a classmate discovers that Shane was born a girl. This book does a good job of balancing the real difficulties faced by transgender kids with the possibilities of supportive family members and friends. The ending is a bit quick and tidy.

      Do you have other great suggestions of LGBTQIA books for middle schoolers? I'm working on putting together a book display for our upcoming "Triangle Tuesday" day of support for the LGBTQIA community. Novels we already have in our library include Better Nate than Ever, Drama, The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher, The Marvels, among others.)

      Happy Reading!

      9 comments:

      1. Have you read News Girl by Lisa Ketchum? It is a historical fiction novel that deals with gender identity.

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        1. No, I haven't. Thanks for the suggestion!

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      2. I love this project of a diversity audit! Think I just might steal that for my YA and children's lit courses next year. Can't wait to read your post on that. My students are online and live in many different areas so would have access to many different libraries. Thanks!

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        1. It's been eye-opening! I also made the kids audit their OWN reading, so that they realize they are also complicit if they aren't seeking out diverse books.

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      3. Thanks for sharing this book. I had a girl start the process as an eighth grader some years ago. I wish I'd had some of the recent wonderful books for her! Here's one list from Book Riot: http://bookriot.com/2016/06/13/lgbtqia-books-middle-grade-readers/

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        1. Thanks, Linda! I've been using that one plus their YA list, but it's a fine line about YA books with middle school.

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      4. I also am looking forward to this post from you. Putting The Other Boy on my TBR list.

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      5. I've had the same challenge finding female to male transition stories, so I'm glad to find out about this one!!

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        Replies
        1. Pants Projects is another one - my copy just arrived from the library.

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