This text is especially well suited to using extracts or snippets for classroom use (e.g. a chapter, a section, a page).
Set in a dystopian society where citizens are subdued, a teenage boy named Jonas is chosen to be trained by The Giver, who is the only one who remembers. Secrets keep getting unearthed during Jonas’ awakening in a rebellious and spiritual journey.
Year of Release: 1993
Author(s): Lois Lowry
Further information (link): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3636.The_Giver
ISBN:
Extract and usage suggestions for teaching:How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them
Book cover
A young English teacher works with “at-risk” students who deal with hostility and racial intolerance on a daily basis. After reading The Diary of Anne Frank, they start to work on an joint diary with anonimuos entries aimed against intolerance and misunderstanding.
Year of Release: 1999
Author(s): Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers
Further information (link): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47304.The_Freedom_Writers_Diary?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=aiWr9Tk00l&rank=3
ISBN:
Extract and usage suggestions for teaching:Poet X tells the story of teenage girl Xiomara growing up in the United States feeling lost and finding herself in the poetry she writes. The poet-style novel describes her family, school, and love life by mediating everyday struggles for teenager coming-off age. Intercultural and intergenerational tensions are evident in the book and challenge heteronormative assumptions of gender, age, and ethnicity.
Year of Release: 2020
Author(s): Elizabeth Alcevedo
Preview: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33294200-the-poet-x
ISBN:
Extract and usage suggestions for teaching:The chapters are written in verse form and can be used as extracts.
The House on Mango Street is Sandra Cisneros’s greatly admired novel of a Latina girl growing up in Chicago. It tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty. Esperanza doesn’t want to belong — not to her rundown neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Esperanza’s story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she will become.
Book cover
Jane, the Fox and Me, written by Fanny Britt and illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault is a graphic coming-of-age story for pre-teens and teens as much as it is a story for adults. It is also a great book for language learners. It is easy to connect to the characters, who range from cool-kid gangs to everyday nerds and outcasts. There are also lots of fun language resources to explore. The visual world of the book is a real treat as it will support language learners in understanding the narrative in depth.
Year of Release: 2013
Author(s): Fanny Britt, Isabelle Arsenault (illustrator)
Preview: https://www.walker.co.uk/Jane-the-Fox-and-Me-9781406353044.aspx
Further information (link): https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17214302-jane-the-fox-me
ISBN: 9781406353044
ebook URL: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Jane_the_Fox_and_Me?id=AbRAAQAAQBAJ&hl=en&gl=US
Online text: https://www.helblinglanguages.com/int/en/blog/beat-the-bullies-through-books-a-review-of-jane-the-fox-me
Extract and usage suggestions for teaching:Explore the visual world of the book and use it as a starting point for discussions. The typography, the colours and the layout of the pages add new layers of meaning to the written narrative. You can also talk about the intertextual references to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
Lily Owens lives with her abusive father and has trouble remembering what happened to her mother. When she finds the mysterious Black Mary picture, she feels she needs to investigate her past to come to terms with her unrecognized trauma. She and their maid, Rosaleen, leave her father and try to find a new place to live. They meet the Boatwright sisters who invite Lily and Rosaleen to stay.
Year of Release: 2002
Author(s): Sue Monk Kidd
Preview: https://suemonkkidd.com/books/the-secret-life-of-bees/
Further information (link): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37435.The_Secret_Life_of_Bees?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=pV4wphzdD0&rank=1
ISBN: 13: 978-0142001745
Online text: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2941508W/The_secret_life_of_bees?edition=ia%3Asecretlifeofbees00kidd_0
Extract and usage suggestions for teaching:The film adaptation of the novel came out in 2008.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY9RvcbzTCw
IMDB site: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416212/
Woodrow Wilson Nickel is 105 years old and feels his life is ebbing away at an assisted living residence. He tells the most memorable story of his youth when he helped to get two giraffes to Southern California and met the love of his life. Woodrow grew up in the Texas Panhandle where he lost his parents and sister during the Great Depression. The year is 1938. Penniless due to the lingering depression, rowdy Woodrow arrives in New York after the hurricane devastated the coast. He ends up driving a truck on a twelve-day road trip to Southern California taking the two giraffes to the San Diego Zoo.
Year of Release: 2021
Author(s): Lynda Rutledge
Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGMuq8uPLko
Further information (link): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56449476-west-with-giraffes?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Q0r0lvK7EB&rank=1
ISBN: 9781542023344
Extract and usage suggestions for teaching:Ch. 1 deals with the consequences of the Great Depression
After her partner dies of cancer, Rosie, heartbroken, sets off from Wales to run around the world. In what would become a five-year adventure, she faces harsh climates, packs of wolves, serious illnesses and faces many other challenges. This extraordinary journey helps her overcome her grief and find new joy in life.
Year of Release:
Author(s): Rosie Swale Pope
Further information (link): https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780007306206/just-a-little-run-around-the-world/
ISBN: 978-0-007306206
Extract and usage suggestions for teaching:Instead of reading the whole book, chapters could be grouped by region (e.g. pages 121-172 for Russia, pages 173-235 for Alaska, pages 236-276 for Canada and USA). Different students read different groups of chapters and then process this in some way (e.g. presenting to the others verbally or via a digital story).
While reading the book from beginning to end, students can try to record and reconstruct an approximate timeline and locations and plot them on a world map. It will not always be possible to pin down exact places, but students can try to approximate locations as best as possible.
Yeonmi Park tells her story of living as a young girl in North Korea and how she eventually managed to flee. The book gives insights into North Korean life, her escape from there and the ordeals and pains Park had to endure “in order to live”.
Year of Release:
Author(s): Yeonmi Park, Maryanne Vollers
Further information (link): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24611623-in-order-to-live
ISBN: 978-0-241-97303-5
Audiobook URL: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318940/in-order-to-live-by-yeonmi-park-with-maryanne-vollers/
Extract and usage suggestions for teaching:Pages 1-6: Prologue
Pages 9-121: Part One takes take place in North Korea.
Pages 125-198: Part Two focuses on the journey through China
Pages 201-267: Part Three covers life in South Korea
While reading the book from beginning to end, students can try to record and reconstruct an approximate timeline and locations and plot them on a map (such as the one in the book). It will not always be possible to pin down exact places, which is a fact which can also be used for discussions.
Large digital version for the map in the book: http://ebookassets.penguinrandomhouse.com/ebookassets/features/inordertolive/IOTL_Map.pdf