Book Review

How I Was and How I Live Now
This summer I read two books by the author Meg Rossof. Quite a few people recommended this author to me and I was excited to read her books. The two books were very different but the writing in both was very strong. Another similarity I noticed was that the main characters are very strong, but very strange. Meg Rossof creates voices that quickly become familiar, but characters that remain mysterious.

How I Live Now is the story of Daisy who is stranded in the English countryside with her cousins after a war breaks out. The book seems to be futuristic but the time period is never completely clear. How I Was is the story of a young man at an English boarding school who befriends a hermit living alone in a fishing shack near the school. Rossof seems to really enjoy creating these quirky characters and they are interesting to read about. She is also really good at creating tension in her narrative and keeps you turning the pages to find out what happens.

One complaint I have is that the endings in her books leave something to be desired. Both endings try and dance around wrapping things up too neatly and leaving things too open. The result is rather unsatisfying. I would definitely read another book by Rossof because I think her skills as a writer and her quirky characters outweigh her somewhat lackluster conclusions.

I would recommend her books to students 12 and older. Both of these books kind of defy genre. They're a blend of sci-fi, historical fiction, and realistic fiction. If you have read either of her books, or have a related recommendation please feel free to comment.

Labels

In order to ensure that you get credit for your work. Please always label your posts appropriately. One of the following labels should always be used.
(Remember labels should be one word or multiple words squished together.)

• SelfConnection
• TextConnection
• NewsConnection
• SchoolConnection
  
• Vocabulary
• BlogsIRead
• Review
  
• Other

Using these tags will make it easy for me to see the variety of posts you have created.

Connecting to Current Events

In Tangerine there are many natural disasters including; freak lightning storms, sinkholes, and muck fires. A muck fire is a fire that burns below the surface of the ground. It is very difficult to put out.

Check out this article from USA Today about muck fires in Florida. It turns out the author definitely got his facts straight. One thing that I thought was really interesting is that muck fires didn't used to be so bad. But since people started developing and draining wetlands for building and irrigation for farms the muck fires have gotten worse and more frequent.

Connecting to Another Text

I just started reading Tangerine by Ed Bloor. So far I'm pretty engaged by the author's strong first person narrative and the use of foreshadowing in the prologue. At the beginning of the book Paul, the main character, is moving to Tangerine Florida. He's about to enter seventh grade at a brand new school.

Being the new kid is an interesting phenomena and it really shows you a lot about middle school. When I get a new student in my homeroom I'm always interested to see how the other students react to him or her. The new student is always the most popular kid...at least for a day.

One other book that I've read that features a new student is Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. Stargirl is very unique and has an difficult time fitting in at her new school. Have you read any other books where a character is the "new kid"?

Types of Posts

There are many different types of posts you can do on your independent reading blog. You may come up with brilliant new ideas that aren't listed here. That's great. Vary the types of posts you do, be thoughtful and creative.

• Connect what you 're reading to a personal experience.
• Connect what you're reading to another book you've read.
• Connect what you're reading to a current event.
• Connect what you're reading to something you've learned about in school.
• Choose a particularly interesting new vocabulary word or term you came across in your reading, explain and define it.
• Reflect on a blog post that you read and link to it.
• Reflect on a magazine or newspaper article and link to it.
• Review or recommend something you have read.
  

Blog Requirements

The requirements for this blog are as follows:

• write intermittent posts about the novels they are reading independently
• write posts about blogs they are following as part of their independent reading requirement
• write posts about magazines, newspapers or other sources of independent reading
• to vary the types of posts that they put on their blog
• to create links both to the readings they reference and to other resources related to the content of their blog.
• Ask questions in your posts that invite other people to comment or make suggestions.
• Comment constructively on other student's blogs.