Smackdown Books 2021

Ordinary Hazards
We Dream of Space
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
The Companion
Punching the Air
Show Me a Sign
Land of the Cranes
Furia
Dragon Hoops
When Stars Are Scattered
Snapdragon
The Radium Girls: The Scary But True Story of the Poison That Made People Glow in the Dark
American as Paneer Pie
Tune It Out
The Gilded Ones
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
Switch

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Pay Attention - Dia and Arlene Agree!

 Team ABM struggled...not to read two amazing books but to find the time and energy to talk through our choices. With this kind of lethargy you wouldn't expect an earth shattering result yet here we are.  

All of our communication this round came through email and a google doc.  Those participating unanimously selected New Kid to move on.  This is not to say we didn't enjoy Clap When You Land. Novel in verse and diverse stories always have a welcome home in our classroom libraries and hearts. However New Kid, the Newbery Award Winner, Sarah reminds us brings a graphic novel and racism into a book that is easy to pick up. It's easy to teach all the visual outcomes in our curriculum and necessary as we want to put books that touch our hearts and heads to the forefront. Lisa said she loved the way it encourages readers not to label and stereotype. Angie loved the relationship between Jordan and his grampa and how the sketchbook visually shared Jordan's inner thoughts. Andrea discussed how the book looks at the desire to fit in and the toll of inequity. It highlights the importance of asking real questions about what is going on in the life of kids and it shows kids how change can be not perfect but good over time. Ben wasn't really thrilled with either selection but he hadn't voted for Clap in the last round and he is a loyalist in his book fighting.

I wrestled back and forth but thought what does it matter? Almost every vote Arlene and I cancel each other out. Frankly, I think this is the most amazing legacy of Smackdown.  We both love books, reading, learning more about our teaching craft and we DISAGREE all the time. We are a living example of why readers need choice in reading - and that enduring classics (pay attention curriculum builders) are in the minds of the reader. Yet, every once in a while worlds collide and a New Kid finds us agreeing.

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Two Great Books, but Fighting Words in a Unanimous Decision

 

One of the joys and frustrations of The Mighty Smackdown is when we get two rich, but fundamentally different reading experiences, paired up in one round. Oh wait, that basically is a description of the Smackdown in most rounds, but it really smacked us in the face on this one. Our general consensus was that we all really enjoyed both Fighting Words and This Place and we were struck by what important - and even, perhaps, visionary - books they are in terms of creating a space for our kids to hear some under-represented - and maybe find their own - voices. 

 I think we were all smacking our lips at the prospect of teaching This Place, both as English teachers, where one could do a ton with the various modes of graphic storytelling, and in Social Studies where there are such profound connections to the curriculum, particularly at the junior high level. We were also very excited about getting Fighting Words into the hands of as many kids as possible - even though it actually wasn’t our choice to go through when we first read it last round - because we found it not only immensely readable, but also one of those books that would likely activate the sometimes dormant empathy chip in a wide range of students (again, particularly at the junior high level). A tough decision all around and we’d encourage you to find a space for multiple copies of both books in your classroom/office libraries, but, ultimately, Fighting Words was our choice to move on. We had a fairly nuanced discussion about this the other day, and I won’t hash all of that out, but I think that what it boiled down to for us is that the very nature of an anthology is that not every story is going to land for everyone and such was the case with This Place. That is also, however, one of its strengths as I know that there would be at least one,and probably many more, of these stories that would hit home for anyone. It sounds like we all savored This Place in bite sized morsels, befitting its form and structure, but Fighting Words had us reading right through because we wanted to see that things were going to be ok for these girls. I’m not sure either is a more or less powerful reading experience, but we ultimately thought that Fighting Words was probably the book that we would see more of our students connecting with independently and it was our choice to move through to the final round. 


As noted above, despite Fighting Words being our pick in this round, it actually wasn’t our pick in the previous round. Our Zombie pick (for all of us at SBS) is - to no one’s surprise if you read our blog last round- When The Ground is Hard.  We feel really fortunate to have been able to read these three great books in our last two rounds.

 Clap When You Land VS New Kid

Both of these books are genres that some members of our team don't usually read.  I am a recent convert to enjoying novels in verse and, having enjoyed Poet X immensely, looked forward to Clap When You Land.  We read New Kid last round and chose it to move forward and blogged already about how much students have enjoyed it.  This round was a tough choice.  Ultimately, we brought in a student reader to hear her thoughts as well.  She was torn like we were.  She liked both a lot, but just thought that other students in our school would like Clap more. We concur and choose Clap When You Land to move to the finals.   

 A couple of us enjoyed the audio version of Clap.  We concur with the other bloggers who recommend that version.  It reads like something that is meant to be spoken aloud. 

Monday, April 12, 2021

New Kid vs Clap When You Land

 Team Sweet Grass is moving Clap When You Land forward for the finals.  Honestly, the majority of us did not want to move New Kid forward last round but the other teams in our bracket out-voted us.  The same 2 holdouts from last time are still holding out.  This time is was a graphic novel versus an novel-in-verse which lead some to say...I just want to read an old-fashioned book.

Like last round, the books really appealed to two different audiences, we could (and do have New Kid) in our school library.  But could not (and will not) have Clap When You Land in our library which is ironic because we have a Spanish bilingual program!  If you get a chance, listen to Elizabeth Acevedo read her own novel and hear it the way she meant for it to be heard - she is an excellent narrator.

So the applause goes to...Clap.

Team Sweet Grass