Annabel, if you've read the post below, is very organized. She can even get Lisa, also an organizer, to blog. What organization can't do is give a voice to the rest of us - the passionate but disorganized readers who need constant reminders so this blog is for the rest of us. We also read the books but probably while we ate something with crumbs and maybe after we lost one of the books under a bed for a while. Luckily, we come together in our unanimous support for The 57 Bus. Lill felt this was an important book to read and that as classroom teachers the message of being able to move on from poor decisions is one we live in with students every day. Andrew felt this was the book to move on and like in the earlier post thought Spill Zone barely got started before it finished. With a high cost associated with colour graphic novels this makes it a very expensive choice to ensure you have the whole series. I enjoyed Spill Zone and thought some of my students would too but there are plenty of F-bombs that would keep it out of many elementary libraries. Holly said it is outstanding but with an asterisk. I asked her why and she said she felt most people would feel Sasha's story was most important but she kept coming back to Richard's. I completely agree with her. The 57 Bus was a 5/5 read for me last year. You absolutely learn about the agender world and an old brain like me struggled past the pronoun they to learn so much. It was Richard's story, however, that spoke to me the most. The quintessential parent/teacher question is: What were you thinking? From experience we know the answer to this varies but never satisfies. The consequences for Richard are staggering and has repercussions for justice systems, for race relations and for empathy - a heavy load but a book that begs to be discussed by classrooms from grade eight and up. If you feel like Holly and I do I strongly recommend the third season of the Serial podcast.
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