This book is not as interesting or as engaging as the others we have read. I have found it to be a little slow going. I am enjoying the situations he finds himself in. I think that a lot of students would have connections to the topics in the book such as thinking a teacher hates you, being bullied, and not always getting along with family. I would want to give some context about the time period before I have them read the book because there are some references to topics students may be unfamiliar with. I would want to provide context for the Vietnam war, flower child and other terms and events that they may be unfamiliar with. This would help provide understanding.
I think this book would make a good classroom book that we all read together. This too would help with understanding and I would be able to help with difficult topics. I am not sure that I would recommend this book to my students I think that if I had older students then maybe I would consider it. I look forward to seeing if the rest of the book becomes more interesting and if it has more topics or ways to incorporate it into my class lessons. I love having more books to use in my classroom but I want them to have a purpose.
I agree that this book would probably need to be taught with some historical context in order to provide for deeper understanding. Maybe it would be better to teach this book to older students who have already had a history class or two.
ReplyDeleteI think you are absolutely correct that students would need a lot of help with the context for this story. I don't know of a single elementary school classroom that talks about the Vietnam War, hippies, or Shakespeare (beyond Romeo and Juliet). This book could be a good tie-in with social studies, then! I also agree that I wouldn't use this book with younger students. The complex words, ideas, and sentences would make this a better choice for fairly developed readers.
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