24 books to teach RESPONSIBILITY for elementary/middle readers

 Each month our school focuses on a character trait to teach, practice, and discuss with our students. September is all about RESPONSIBILITY.  Our students are learning to be responsible in many ways: how to manage their time, supplies, events, friendships, and being part of a community.  Here are the books I recommend to my teachers to read to their classes.  These range from picture books to chapter books and all provide a rich context for how RESPONSIBILITY plays a role in all of our lives:

With all of these books readers can identify the ways that the main characters are being responsible and how that effects others in the story.  They can also relate the plot to their own lives. Have they been asked to take care of something in a similar way?  What happens when we don't live up to our responsibilities? How can we fix it?  These are powerful conversations that will have our children thinking about their actions.

If you have other favorites please add them in the comments!

Angel of Greewood: romance set in a tragedy

 

Angel of Greenwood is a historical fiction young adult chapter book written by Randi Pink.  Set 11 days before the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, the story alternates point of view between teenagers, Angel and Isaiah.  On the surface, they couldn't be more different: Angel is there to serve others, she's interested in studying and is always home tending to her ailing father.  Isaiah on the other hand is always out of his house he shares with his mother.  He has many hook-ups and runs around town with the community bully, Muggy.  After Isaiah notices Angel dancing at church, he cannot get her out of his mind.  He invokes the help of their teacher to give them a summer project delivering books to the community so they can have a chance at a relationship.

On the surface this is a romance of two interesting characters, however there is so much more to this story than that.  Pink brings alive the community of Greenwood in detail so that by the end of the story, the characters who remain and are affected by the massacre feel real.  The tension in the story lies in the fact that the attack is coming and each chapter reminds the reader through a countdown.  Another tension is the way Isiah and Muggy's relationship changes.  Readers can relate to when a friend's actions caused anxiety and when one needs to decide to cut ties with them.  The will-they-won't-they romance between Angel and Isaiah is a beautiful unfolding.  Although they debate about the merits of writers, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, they truly listen to one another and come around to understanding the other person.  

I highly recommend this book to 8th graders on up to adults.  The subject of the community in Tulsa is not taught very much in schools so this is an accurate feel for what it was like there, how the residents created this free space to thrive, and how they protected their own interests.  For further reading, Pink includes her sources and notes about the attack.  I am grateful that she set her romance story in this setting because it shows that even in the worst tragedies, the universal theme of love still resonates. 

Here is an excerpt of the novel read by Pink.

Remembering 9/11 through stories

 On this anniversary of 9/11, I find myself talking with young people about what they know about that day.  Some know a lot of facts based on what they have learned from their families and teachers.  This is when historical fiction novels and picture books about the event can help everyone learn more about the people who were affected by the events of that day.  Below I highlight my top picks for books for elementary and middle school readers who want to put people's stories with the facts of that day and beyond:

All We Have Left is a middle grade chapter book by Wendy Mills.  It's a realistic fiction mystery that  quickly flashes back and forth between present-day and September 11, 2001.  The flashbacks and fast-forwarded stories seem to be about two teenagers whose stories are disconnected: 16 year-old Jesse is going through a tough time as she grieves the loss of her brother on 9/11.  The question is, why was he there in the first place?  Back in the towers on that fateful day, we meet Alia, a girl who just decided to start wearing her hijab in public that day.  What brings these two together is a sad yet, hopeful tale of tragedy, loss, grief, friendship, family  and prejudice.

Mills' novel has been nominated for multiple awards and she even includes discussion questions for readers on her website.

Code of Honor is a middle grade chapter book written by Alan Gratz.  It's a suspenseful realistic fiction story about high school senior Kamran Smith.  He's enjoying his last year of school as he prepares to follow in his older brother, Darius', footsteps and attend West Point.  One night the TV news reports that his brother has now joined Al-Queda and is now a terrorist targeting the U.S.  Kamran doesn't believe it, even after watching his brother's video rampages about fighting off the evil in the world using games they made up as children.  Kamran and his parents are taken into custody for questioning and only one CIA officer believes Kamran's theories that his brother is innocent.  They work together to crack the code of messages Darius tries to send to his brother, but with an attack on the horizon, they'll need to work fast and in secret to get to the truth.

Gratz's novel was nominated for multiple awards and the audiobook version is quite compelling. Gratz has an excerpt on his website to read and share with potential readers.  He also has a new book out specifically about the events of 9/11:

Nine, ten: a September 11 Story is a middle grades chapter book written by Nora Raleigh Baskin.    This is a realistic fiction novel about four middle schoolers who the reader learns about a few days before the 9/11 attacks.  It seems like their lives cannot intersect at all, but in a twist of fate their paths do cross in surprising ways.  Baskin's novel was nominated for multiple awards.  

Here is a trailer for the book to share with readers:

14 Cows for America is a nonfiction picture book written by Carmen Agra Deedy, Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah and beautifully illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez.  This is a true story about what happened when people around the world heard about the 9/11 attacks, specifically, what a group of Masai warriors did in Kenya to help show their support for the people of the U.S.  There is a whole website dedicated to this book for reader to find out more about this event.  

Here is Deedy talking about how she came to writing about this true story:

Fireboat is a nonfiction picture book written and illustrated by Maira Kalman.  It tells the true story of a boat created by John J. Harvey in 1931.  For many years it was kept in the Hudson River as a relic of the past but it was called up on on the day of the 9/11 attacks to help firefighters fight off the fires from the attack for 4 days and 4 nights.  This is a great book to share with young people to focus on the first responders who did their best to save lives after the attacks.  Kalman's website has excerpts from the book to view with readers.

Black Boy Joy: a middle grades anthology

 

Black Boy Joy is a middle grades short story collection edited by Kwambe Mbalia and is full of stories written by contemporary Black male and nonbinary authors who know their audience and subject matter. The stories range from realistic fiction tales about fashion, friendship, crushes, deciding how to continue one's journey on finding their identity, music, customs and more.  Surprisingly, there are also science fiction and fantasy stories about gaming in other dimensions, mysterious realms of happiness, and challenges that require zero gravity and quick-witted problem solving.  My favorite parts of these stories are the strong community and family units that support the boys in all of the settings.  They are self-assured, confident people who are going through life's challenges either in real life or in a fantasy world, but overall, the themes they embody are universal.  

I am going to get this book for my school library and will share it with students, families, teachers, and community members. Readers will enjoy the variety of stories and formats.  There is even a story told through comics by the award winning author and illustrator, Jerry Craft.  This is a recommended title along the same vein of Ancestor Approved and Flying Lessons.  I hope that readers will appreciate short story collections and add them to their reading lives!

The Mushroom Fan Club: putting the FUN in Fungi!

 The Mushroom Fan Club, a nonfiction picture book written and illustrated by Elise Gravel is a delight for all of the senses.  We have Gravel's popular nonfiction  Disgusting Critters series   in our school library and it's highly popular with our students, so when I spotted this book in our local comic book store, Chops Comics, I knew I had to take a closer look!

Gravel takes the reader along with her and her daughter as they venture into the woods looking for some mushrooms. She adds diagrams that help readers learn the names of the parts of the mushrooms and differentiates among popular types they have encountered on their hunts.  

The best part is that Gravel brings personality to the mushrooms so readers can remember the information, connect with it and share what they've learned with others.  I am going to use this book with my kindergarten - 2nd grade classes when we are working on the difference between fiction and nonfiction.  I've used her book, The Fly, for this learning objective before and the students love to listen to the facts about flies, which they see everyday.  

The Mushroom Fan Club offers many opportunities for interactive listening and follow-up activities.  My favorite parts of the book are that there are actions that readers can do along with the mushrooms.  For example, Gravel's daughter stomps on puffballs to help spread their spores for reproduction, so readers can act out stomping, just like her daughter.  

There are also species of mushrooms that Gravel does not get to describe, she leaves only the attention-grabbing names.  Readers can choose one to research, illustrate and share a fact with the community.  Or they can draw what they think the mushroom would look like based on the clues in the name and then they can look up the actual one to see how close they were!

Readers can, of course, walk outside and look for mushrooms as a follow-up and document what they have found.  They can learn about what mushrooms grow in their area.  We are lucky in our town to have a mushroom hunting club and at our farmers' market, many mushroom growers who are happy to share their knowledge about mushrooms.

Finally, Gravel adds instructions on how to do a spore print which is perfect for a classroom art activity.  All you need are mushrooms, paper and a glass or bowl. 

 I'm looking forward to reading this book with my students and encouraging them to get outside to look for mushrooms.  I'm incredibly impressed with anything that Gravel has written so I feel lucky to have found this copy nearby! It's a must-have for school libraries, science classrooms and home libraries.