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Ordinary Hazards
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If These Wings Could Fly
We Are Not Free
The King of Jam Sandwiches
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team
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Show Me a Sign
Land of the Cranes
Furia
Dragon Hoops
When Stars Are Scattered
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The Radium Girls: The Scary But True Story of the Poison That Made People Glow in the Dark
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Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Sweet and Simple versus Deep and Dark

Image result for the goat anne fleming                                         Image result for the marrow thieves
The Goat
The Goat is a cute story about people coming together to help each other. It's sweet and simple. It seems like there might have been deep symbolism at play with a goat named Goat. a child named Kid, and a dog named Cat, but we didn't figure it out. It was the holidays though.

Though the story is nice, we didn't love it. In fact, Dianne "kind of thought it was the stupidest book ever". There are too many issues for such a short book; it touched on them and moved on. Though the two main characters are children, much of it seems to be from an adult perspective. Many of the issues are adult too: a survivor of a stroke, angry and defeated by a lack of recovery, an adult mourning the loss of his father and his marriage, a playwright and actress paralyzed by self-doubt, a grandmother being obsessively protective of her grandchild following his parents' death in the World Trade Centre. 9-11 itself is hard for our students to grasp. They weren't alive when it happened.

On the other hand, we liked the focus on anxiety and extreme shyness. We thought many kids would identify and benefit from seeing themselves in a story. We had some fun seeing things from the goat's point of view. Unfortunately, we don't think many students will make it past a slow starting first chapter with a lot of characters to keep track of.

The Marrow Thieves
The Marrow Thieves  was a little slow to start, but the second half definitely made up for that. We got to know characters as they shared their back stories from their own perspectives. We were impressed with how the author blended  love stories with an action based plot.

In addition to the portrayal of strong Indigenous characters who are not stuck in history, we have positive portrayals of the LGBTQ, not as a plot point, but as a natural presence. The mentor's partner just happens to be same sex.

The story made us question and reflect on Canada's history. It also has us thinking about the future: the direction we're going, how we're going wrong, and where we might end up. So much potential for discussion with students.

Hurray for Canadian Metis and Indigenous authors!

Alisha, Dianne, Megan and Renee, Ottewell School

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