Get to know the author! Rick Riordan's career started as a middle school teacher. He also wrote an adult mystery series, but when his son started asking for Greek myths as bed time stories, he soon ran out of myths to tell. It was then that his son asked him to make up new stories using the same characters, and the seed for Percy Jackson was born. He has won numerous awards including the Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel, Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original, Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, Mark Twain Award, Rebecca Caudill Award, School Library Journal's Best Book, Children's Choice Book Awards: Author of the Year, Children's Choice Book Awards: Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year, Wyoming Soaring Eagle Book Award, Milner Award, Indian Paintbrush Award, Best Fiction Book for Children in Bulgaria, and Stonewall Book Award for Children's literature. What makes Rick Riordan truly special as a young adult author is his love for mythology that shines through his books. He creates a world that helps make students who might struggle a little academically connect with the magic reading can provide. Get to know The Lost Hero! School is never easy. It's even harder when you can't remember who you are let alone who anyone else is. Jason wakes up on a bus to a field trip holding hands with a girl he doesn't recognize and no memories to speak of. Even without his memories, something feels wrong and he is quickly proven right when things go crazy fast. Next thing he knows, he's diving off a cliff to save a girl he doesn't remember while his half goat coach fights off wind monsters. From there, things only get crazier. Difficult themes: Identity: Each of the major characters struggles with their identity from Jason who can't remember who he is or where he came from to Piper who struggles with what it means to be the daughter of a famous actor and daughter of Aphrodite to Leo who feels like an absolute failure. They all work together throughout the novel to help build their sense of self. Morality: Piper, in particular, struggles with morality. She's confronted with having to choose between her father and her friends. The forces pressuring her to choose make it seem like she has no choice, but the world isn't always so straightforward. On a broader view, the gods of Olympus each have their own idea of right and wrong. This becomes even more complex when their Roman alter egos come into play. Useful Resources and Homework: From the ReadWriteThink website, here are some tips to help encourage critical thinking while reading at home. I would like to encourage each of you to engage in this activity. Follow this link and use it as a template to help guide you in researching a Roman or Greek god to present to the rest of the class. This will help you practice for the research project we will do at the end of the unit.
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Get to know the author! Scott Westerfeld is a wonderful contemporary writer who primarily writes for a Young Adult audience. He is married to another author from Australia named Justine Larbalestier. They split their time between Sydney and New York. He has always tried to keep engaged with his readers by connecting with them on social media and his website. In the past, he has even dedicated his books to specific readers who interacted with him online. His books cover a wide berth of sub-genres such as Steam Punk, Dystopias, and Urban Fantasy. While his books cover a wide range of settings and themes, he always creates characters that are interesting and relatable for younger readers all the while managing to present important ideas for his reader's to consider. His Uglies series deals with what it means to be beautiful by questioning the importance of physical looks and people’s tendency to judge people who don’t conform to their notion of the world. On the other side of the spectrum, his Steam Punk series Leviathan questions gender roles and subtly gives a voice to characters who may not be cis or straight. According to his website, his books have won the Philip K Dick Special Citation, the Aurealis Award, the Victorian Premier’s Award, and have been named NY Times Notable Books and BBYA Top Ten Children’s Books of the Year. He is perhaps best known for his Uglies quartet of books which deal with difficult themes that many young adults are struggling with. To learn more about him and his work I strongly recommend you check out his website. Get to know Uglies! Tally absolutely cannot wait to turn sixteen. Her best friend's birthday was a couple of months ago and she misses him terribly. Fed up with waiting to be made Pretty so that she can see him again, she decides to sneak into New Pretty Town where she meets a new friend with strange ideas. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world—and it isn’t very pretty. The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally’s choice will change her world forever. Difficult themes: "Uglies isn’t about dire warnings, it’s about thinking things through. The more we think about this stuff, the better our choices will be." - Scott Westerfeld Identity: Like many teenagers, the characters in Uglies struggle with their identities as individuals. As Uglies, they're far more individual than their Pretty counterparts. Instead of embracing what makes them different, they pick each other apart viciously. Uglies are encouraged to give each other nicknames based on the flaws that make them the most uncomfortable. It's not until Tally gets an outside perspective from the Smoke that she starts to realize that there might be more to her own identity. Humanity: As the events of the novel unfold, we question more and more what it is to be human. After becoming Pretty, people seem completely different, and we as the readers are left to wonder what exactly makes them change. Do their looks really impact their personality as much as they believe? Or is it their environment shaping them? Maybe it's something else entirely. Useful Resources and Homework: This podcast is a great resource to listen to with your parents to help you and your parents pick out series of books that will help you grow as a reader and also be fun to read. Follow this link and follow the instructions to create a brochure for your ideal city. Put yourself into the mindset of an architect working to design a perfect city. It can use any technology you can imagine. Be prepared to share it with your groups. |
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