The Hate U Give

I have read The Hate U Give right when it came out in 2017.  I was excited to read it because it sounded like a book I would enjoy. I absolutely loved this book! I am currently reading it for the second time, and I am currently on page 100. It is just as good as the first time I read it! I would highly recommend the book to anyone who asked me for a book reference. Now let's get onto the book.

Starr Jackson is a sixteen year old girl that lives in two very different worlds. She lives in a gang ridden neighborhood named Garden Heights. However, she attends a mostly white private school that is an hour away from her home. Starr's two worlds never cross each other and she likes to keep it that way. It isn't until the fatal shooting of her childhood friend Khalil. Starr is at a lost for words due to the shooting of her childhood friend. She wants to speak out about what happened the night of the shooting, but she is scared about what the public might say.

This book goes along with everything that is happening in our world today! There is so much hate towards one another and it honestly makes me sick to think that we have all let it get this way. I have watched the movie and I feel like it is just as good as the book. Before I watched the movie, I heard good and bad reviews of the movie. I don't really listen to the bad reviews, I try to watch the movie and determine if the movie is good or not based on my own opinions. I think the movie is just as good as the book, and it does a great job at portraying what goes on between a gang infested neighborhood and a white neighborhood. If you haven't already I highly recommend reading the book and then watching the movie!

Crossed

 

Crossed is the second book of the Matched series by Ally Condie that I have reviewed previously. I had to wait an entire year for this book to come out, and let me tell you, it felt like forever! I couldn't drive yet when this book came out in 2011. So, I remember having my dad take me to Books-A-Million right after school so I could buy this book. I had money saved up from my allowance to be able to pay for it myself. Now that I think of it, I think almost all of my money I would earn from my allowance went to buying new books. I mean what can I say reading has and will always be my favorite thing to do!

Now onto the book review. Crossed picks up exactly where Matched left off. Which I loved because Matched left off with a really big cliffhanger that left me real upset since I had to wait an entire year for Crossed to come out. I don't want to give too much away, because I want you to be able to read it for yourself. But, Cassia is at a work camp that is far away from her home. She is trying to find Ky, who is the boy she has fallen for. Ky was send to the Outer Provinces as a decoy in the war with the Society's. Throughout this book Cassia meets new friends, and together they discover some hidden secrets about the Rising, which is a rebel group that is led by a Pilot. Cassia and her friends discover many secrets that the Society has been keeping from them, and they also learn some secrets that they have been keeping from each other. I am going to stop there because like I said above, I want you to be able to read it for yourself.

Something that I really like about Crossed is that the chapters are alternately narrated by Cassia and Ky. Cassia is on a journey to find Ky, so I like how the book is showing what Cassia is doing and what Ky is doing throughout their journey to find each other. It really keeps you interested in the book and I highly recommend this series to anyone who is asking for book references. Plus, you won't have to wait an entire year for all of the books to come out because they are all out already.

Hearts Unbroken

I have had a hard time getting into Hearts Unbroken. However, from page 95 to page 165, I have been reading "like a writer" and learning a lot about Cynthia Leitich Smith's writing craft. I love how the author is tying in world problems that are going on around the world into her book. The main character, Louise Wolfe, works for her school's newspaper, so she connects a lot with the world's issues. Louise has aspirations, talents, a loving family, and a mind of her own. Louise is Native American, and all the prejudice around her, awaken's her activist side. Louise uses her own emotions and opinions to help awaken the world's activist side.

If I were using this text as a read aloud with upper elementary students (6th grade), I would pull in the impact of emotions and opinions in narrative writing.


The passages I would use are:

I happened to glance up at the nearest muted flat-screen TV. The news ticker reported that a bombing in Egypt had been linked to a terrorist group. I counted four screens in my line of vision. Bombing, bombing, bombing, bombing. I felt the tinge of sadness, the shudder of horror. Watching made me feel helpless, but it seemed selfish to look away. 

Suddenly, on four screens, a white girl with jutting collarbones strutted onto the runway in a shimmery, sleeveless turquoise mini, clear platform shoes, and an enormous Plains-Indian-inspired headdress decked out in glittery white-and-blue feathers. Headdress, headdress, headdress, headdress. Our conversation faltered. Our laughter faded. We turned our attention back to each other, where it belonged. Our jovial mood rebounded. When Phoebe, our waitress, returned with pecan pie, Mama said thank you and asked her to turn off all the TV's. 

So, in the example, Louise is feeling two different ways about two different topics that flashed across the four flat-screen TV's that were in the restaurant her and her family were eating at. I would pull this example, and possibly other examples from this book, and talk about how she weaves her emotions and opinions about certain topics that are going around the world.

More than likely, students in 6th grade have probably had a certain situation that they saw on the news or in real life that made them feel some type of way. I would have the students write about a certain topic that they saw on the news or in real life and have them talk about how that made them feel. I would then have them discuss their opinion about the topic they wrote about. I think this lesson would be challenging, but would also be very motivating for the 6th graders.