The Janitor’s Boy by Andrew Clements takes the normal tween feelings of being embarrassed by their parents to an extended level. It is a great book to use in your classroom or homeschool for a whole class novel study, small book groups, or individual book studies.
All kids are embarrassed by their parents at one time or another and all kids have to deal with various kinds of peer pressure as they try to find where they belong in the world. These normal feelings are multiplied for Jack in our elitist society. Jack has to deal with the guilt of being embarrassed that his father is the school janitor. The journey to a more mature view and acceptance leads Jack to places he never expected to go.
From the Book Jacket:
Unfortunately, it also led to the perfect punishment. When Jack Rankin gets busted for defacing a school desk with a huge wad of disgusting, watermelon bubble gum, the principal sentences him to three weeks of after-school gum cleanup for the chief custodian. The problem is, Jack’s anger at the chief custodian was the reason for his gum project in the first place. The chief custodian happens to be Jack’s dad. But doing time in the school basement after hours reveals some pretty surprising things: about the school, about Jack’s father, and about Jack himself.
I offer a complete novel study to accompany The Janitor’s Boy for use in the classroom or homeschool. The unit includes both a printable format and a Google Drive™ format for use in a paperless classroom or with Google Classroom.
This is a great book for kids who have dealt with feeling inferior to their peers (who hasn’t!) and for kids that have acted out in inappropriate ways trying to deal with their feelings. Many kids will relate to Jack’s inner struggles of acceptance of himself and his father and they will appreciate, as Jack does, that learning about their parent as a person outside of their kids reveals more than they ever imagined.
Are you interested in reading about and sharing ideas with other educators on using children’s literature in your classroom? My goal is to bring together teachers and homeschoolers who teach grades 3-8 and use novels with their students. I’d love for you to join me to learn, share, and grow together!
What if you had a second chance to be a better person? That is the singular question in Gordon Korman’s novel, Restart. Chase Ambrose was a classic bully. A bully of the worst kind who terrorized fellow classmates and adults alike and who always seemed to get away with it, until…
Restart is a great novel to use in your classroom to address bullying issues and really help students think about how their actions affect others and ultimately themselves.
Restart was published in 2017 so it is a fresh and modern book that students can easily relate to.
From the book jacket:
Chase’s memory just went out the window.
Chase doesn’t remember falling off the roof. He doesn’t remember hitting his head. He doesn’t, in fact, remember anything. He wakes up in a hospital room and suddenly has to learn his whole life all over again . . . starting with his own name.
He knows he’s Chase. But who is Chase? When he gets back to school, he sees that different kids have very different reactions to his return.
Some kids treat him like a hero. Some kids are clearly afraid of him. One girl, in particular, is so angry with him that she pours her frozen yogurt on his head the first chance she gets.
Pretty soon, it’s not only a question of who Chase is–it’s a question of who he was . . . and who he’s going to be.
I offer a full novel study for Restart that you can use with a whole class, small book groups, or individual students. It is easily adaptable and contains both a printable option and a Google Drive™ option.
Restart is a great book that really helps kids think about how their actions affect others and how this affects their reputation for the long haul. It’s a good resource to use for bullying prevention activities that isn’t preachy and will help students see their own character and help them want to “restart” themselves down the right and kind path.
Are you interested in reading about and sharing ideas with other educators on using children’s literature in your classroom? My goal is to bring together teachers and homeschoolers who teach grades 3-8 and use novels with their students. I’d love for you to join me to learn, share, and grow together!
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer is a poignant tale of how a young teen deals with the guilt and grief over the death of his friend. This Newbery Medal-winning book is great to use in your classroom or homeschool for a whole class novel study, small book groups, or individual book studies.
You can read author Marion Dane Bauer’s description of how she came up with this story based on real-life events from her childhood here to gain insight on the “behind the scenes” of the story.
Hopefully, your students won’t have any first or secondhand experience in dealing with a tragedy such as this. It can strike at any time. My teen daughter has had to deal with this during this past summer after the death of four of her close friends in a car accident. She doesn’t deal with guilt regarding the accident but has had to struggle with the why. How did a carefree summer night just like so many others change everything in an instant? How quickly it forces young people to face mortality and mature overnight.
On My Honor does a good job of portraying this experience in main character Joel.
From the Book Jacket:
Joel’s best friend, Tony, is a daredevil. It was Tony’s idea to make the long bike ride to the Starved Rock state park, and Tony’s idea to stop for a swim in the dangerous Vermillion River. So why does Joel feel so much guilt when tragedy strikes?
I offer a complete novel study to accompany On My Honor for use in the classroom or homeschool. The unit includes both a printable format and a Google Drive™ format for use in a paperless classroom or with Google Classroom.
Literature has such a power to help us deal with events in our life that we can’t understand. It helps us realize that in our feelings we are not alone. This is a wonderful book to help students understand survivor’s guilt, how things can change in an instant, and how to deal with grief over someone we’ve loved and lost.
Are you interested in reading about and sharing ideas with other educators on using children’s literature in your classroom? My goal is to bring together teachers and homeschoolers who teach grades 3-8 and use novels with their students. I’d love for you to join me to learn, share, and grow together!
Lunch Money by Andrew Clements personifies the effects of capitalism, both the good and the bad. It is a great book to use in your classroom or homeschool for a whole class novel study, small book groups, or individual book studies.
Kids, especially in America, equate success with making lots of money, and main character Greg, is no different. He is a young entrepreneur who is full of ideas and dreams of the big bucks!
Greg realizes his schoolmates are the perfect consumer and the key for him to reach his dreams. He is forced to face the competition and the obstacles the school puts in his way.
From the Book Jacket:
Greg Kenton has two obsessions — making money and his long-standing competition with his annoying neighbor, Maura Shaw. So when Greg discovers that Maura is cutting into his booming Chunky Comics business with her own original illustrated minibooks, he’s ready to declare war.
The problem is, Greg has to admit that Maura’s books are good, and soon the longtime enemies become unlikely business partners. But their budding partnership is threatened when the principal bans the sale of their comics in school. Suddenly, the two former rivals find themselves united against an adversary tougher than they ever were to each other. Will their enterprise — and their friendship — prevail?
I offer a complete novel study to accompany Lunch Money for use in the classroom or homeschool. The unit includes both a printable format and a Google Drive™ format for use in a paperless classroom or with Google Classroom.
This is a great book for kids to really think about entrepreneurship and all the highs and lows it may bring. What lengths and sacrifices would you be willing to endure in order to run a profitable business?
Are you interested in reading about and sharing ideas with other educators on using children’s literature in your classroom? My goal is to bring together teachers and homeschoolers who teach grades 3-8 and use novels with their students. I’d love for you to join me to learn, share, and grow together!
Third grade often brings about the rite of passage of learning cursive writing. Beverly Cleary’s novel Muggie Maggie explores the anxieties this causes Maggie. It is a great book to use in your classroom or homeschool for a whole class novel study, small book groups, or individual book studies, especially with the introduction of cursive.
In our modern world there is a debate whether we even need to be teaching cursive anymore. There are some common sense arguments for not wasting the classroom time while on the other side some solid research that points to the educational value on the brain development in learning cursive.
Muggie Maggie doesn’t really touch on the controversy, instead it focuses on the individual and how learning something so strange and new can be exciting or it may be anxiety inducing, as is the case for Maggie.
From the Book Jacket:
At first, Maggie is just feeling plain stubborn when she declares she won’t learn cursive. What’s wrong with print, anyway? And she can easily type on a computer, so why would she need to know how to read those squiggly lines? But soon all her classmates are buzzing about Maggie’s refusal to learn, especially after her teacher, Mrs. Leeper, says Maggie’s cursive is so sloppy that her name looks like “Muggie.”
With “Muggie Maggie” ringing in her ears, Maggie absolutely, positively won’t back down…until she’s appointed class mail messenger. All the letters that Mrs. Leeper sends to the office are in cursive, and Maggie thinks they are written about her. But there’s only way to know for sure…so what’s Maggie going to do?
I offer a complete novel study to accompany Muggie Maggie for use in the classroom or homeschool. The unit includes both a printable format and a Google Drive™ format for use in a paperless classroom or with Google Classroom.
If you are embarking on cursive instruction with your class or just your own child at home, Muggie Maggie is an enjoyable story that is so relevant and relatable for your students during this new time in their lives.
Are you interested in reading about and sharing ideas with other educators on using children’s literature in your classroom? My goal is to bring together teachers and homeschoolers who teach grades 3-8 and use novels with their students. I’d love for you to join me to learn, share, and grow together!
Newbery award-winning Betsy Byars, is a legend for writing books that get to the nitty gritty of tween/teen inner anxiety. The 18th Emergency is one of her classics that deal with how to survive the class bully. It is a great book to use in your classroom or homeschool for a whole class novel study, small book groups, or individual book studies.
The 18th Emergency was first published way back in 1973, even though so much time has passed the problem of dealing with bullies endures. Your students will get a chuckle out of some of the dated content in the age of TV’s without remotes before the internet and cordless phones. The core of the story is modern though, the small, anxiety-filled kid who tries to stay under the radar makes a mistake and the consequences are threats from the class bully, Marv Hammerman.
From the Book Jacket:
So what if Benjie “Mouse” Fawley likes practical jokes? He’s a good kid who never meant to harm anyone. The same cannot be said for Marv Hammerman, a boy in Benjie’s middle school who is as big as a high-schooler but has the temper of a two-year-old. When Benjie (in a fit of insanity) writes a joke about Marv for all to see, he soon realizes he’s stumbled into the biggest emergency he’s ever faced. Now Benjie must decide whether to stay at school and face a clobbering, or run off and live the rest of his life hiding in the woods. The 18th Emergency is a hilarious account of the trials of surviving the school bully.
I offer a complete novel study to accompany The 18th Emergency for use in the classroom or homeschool. The unit includes both a printable format and a Google Drive™ format for use in a paperless classroom or with Google Classroom.
Students of all kinds can find something to relate to in this book. Byars doesn’t give us the “happily ever after” ending we find so often when the underdog triumphs and the bully learns the error of their ways. Instead, Byars does what she does best and sticks to a more real ending, one that students can relate to and identify with and at the same time leave them laughing with Benjie and all his emergency scenarios.
Are you interested in reading about and sharing ideas with other educators on using children’s literature in your classroom? My goal is to bring together teachers and homeschoolers who teach grades 3-8 and use novels with their students. I’d love for you to join me to learn, share, and grow together!
