The White Witch Taunts Us

Our fifth grade classes recently finished reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. They just received this message from the White Witch:



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Image by Ethan Trewhitt

Our students will play a BreakoutEDU game called Revenge of the White Witch, created by Edie Erickson.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I first heard about Ransom Riggs when award-winning author and vlogger John Green shared a video Riggs had posted about his photograph collection. It appears that these photographs played some role in inspiring Riggs to write this book for young adults*.

Jacob is a teenager who was fascinated by photographs of extraordinary children his grandfather showed him when he was young. As Jacob gets older, he dismisses the stories surrounding these photographs as mere fantasy and accepts his ordinary life as the way things really are.

When his grandfather is killed in the woods behind his house, Jacob thinks he sees one of the tentacled monsters that were the villains of those stories. Ensuing nightmares lead to visits to a psychiatrist and a diagnosis of acute stress disorder. To resolve Jacob’s continuing questions, he talks his parents into letting him visit Cairnholm Island, the setting of his grandfather’s stories of peculiar children threatened by monsters.

Readers will get drawn into Jacob’s journey to seek the truth. What he finds is an intriguing and dangerous world with some very peculiar children indeed. Their meeting will cause irreversible changes to the worlds of both Jacob and the children.

• Book trailer 
• Information and the first three chapters

 *Disturbing violence and some profanity

Kenny and the Dragon by Tony DiTerlizzi

Kenny is an earnest, studious young rabbit whose interest in reading and learning about the natural world isn’t always understood by his peers or his parents.  The arrival of a dragon on his family’s land provides a unexpected opportunity for Kenny to find friendship.  Unlike the legends Kenny has read, Grahame the dragon is not fierce and destructive, but interested in crème brûlée, poetry, and music.  Kenny introduces Grahame to his parents and they soon fall into a routine of delightful conversation and pleasant meals.  This peaceful friendship is interrupted when townsfolk get a glimpse of the dragon and assume that he is as vicious as the tales tell.  How will Kenny stop a mob intent on seeing a traditional knight vs. dragon battle?

Tony DiTerlizzi's web site is well worth a visit.

Teacher notes: Could be useful for talking about stereotypes or first impressions.  Or finding creative solutions to conflict.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I love coming to a series a bit late - I don’t have to wait so long for the next book!  Given that the library isn’t open at 11:30 on a Sunday night, I do have to wait a few hours to get the second book in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series.

I just finished City of Bones, in which 15-year-old Clary Fray learns that there is much more to the world, and in fact to her own history, than she ever realized.  This is an extremely difficult book to describe because of its many surprises and plot twists.  Clary discovers the existence of a variety of supernatural folk in the world--demons, vampires, werewolves, etc.--along with humans with special abilities to see and fight these creatures when necessary.  A terrifying call from her mother pulls Clary into the hidden reality of these Downworlders and Shadow Hunters.

In Clary’s search to find her mother, she faces danger, romance, lies, and disturbing truths about the family she never knew.  It is that mix of adventure, flirtation, and shocking revelations, along with a healthy dose of snarky adolescent humor that makes this book so much fun to read.

Generally understood to be a “young adult” book and therefore marketed to teenagers, I think mature sixth-graders would enjoy it.  There is a sprinkling of expletives, mild sensuality, and considerable amounts of violence and gore.  The quality of the story-telling and values of the main character outweigh those factors, in my opinion.

So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane

Nita is being chased by bullies when she takes refuge in the public library.  Waiting for the bullies to leave, she runs across a book she’s never seen before: So You Want to be a Wizard.  Reading it, she isn’t sure whether it’s an elaborate joke or a true invitation to learn powers that could help her protect herself, talk to trees, and help Life in all its forms.  Once she gives the “Wizard’s Oath,” tries the suggested beginning exercises, and meets another beginning wizard Kit, she finds herself on an adventure that shows that wizardry is very much alive in the world.  And she’ll need it to rescue something precious that’s been hidden by a force of death, darkness and evil often called the Lone Power.  This is just the first book in a series of magic and adventure that will take readers to the depths of the ocean and the vastness of the universe.

Personal notes: The most recent book in the Young Wizards series, A Wizard of Mars, just came out this summer.  After reading it, I just had a hankering to reread the first book.