However, I was wondering what apps and websites do you use in order to get free reading materials for your electronic devices. Please make suggestions for your classmates and me. Tell us a little about the app or website and why you like it.
Over the weekend, I found a wonderful website where you can get free and deeply discounted books for those of you who like to read on electronic devices. It is free to join. You must supply an email address. It provides several different options for downloading the books. I use Google Play and Amazon. I am not familiar with the others; however, I realize some of you may be. Please check it out. Tell you parents about it. Click on BookBub to go to the website.
However, I was wondering what apps and websites do you use in order to get free reading materials for your electronic devices. Please make suggestions for your classmates and me. Tell us a little about the app or website and why you like it.
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Hello everyone!
I have a quick question for you. Do you read on an electronic device, such as, an ereader like the Nook or Kindle, or a tablet, or even a cell phone? Until recently, I have preferred to have a book. There was just something comforting about having a book in my hands. It reminded me of my youth when I'd frequently hide books under my pillow, wait for my mother's bedroom light to go out, and ease down to the end of my bed to read by the light of my fish tank. Boy, have times changed! There are so many advantages to using an electronic device to read. I carry an android tablet. I have several books downloaded, so I have a book with me at all times. Do you prefer to read on an electronic device? In the comment section, please tell me why or why not. I'm very interested in your opinion on this matter. Thanks! Mrs. Bradford As I have been creating this blog, I have been taking a critical look at my bookshelves and have noticed that I certainly need to update them. I am looking for suggestions. If there is a book that you have enjoyed reading, please make a suggestion. Tell me the title of the book and a little about it in the comments section below. If you know the author's name, that would be helpful too. If you have read a book from my classroom library and I have not put it on this list yet, please make a comment about it as well. I must admit that I have not read all of the books in my classroom library. So I would like to know what you have read and enjoyed.
Thank you all so much! Mrs. Bradford Things are so bad, I feel like I'm going to explode if I don't do something...
Everyone has to keep a journal in Mrs. Dunphrey's English class, but the teacher has promised she won't read any entry marked "Do not read this." It's the kind of assignment Tish Bonner, one of the girls with big hair who sit in the back row, usually wouldn't take very seriously. But right now, Tish desperately needs someone to talk to, even if it's only a notebook she doesn't dare let anyone read. As Tish's life spins out of control, the entries in her journal become more and more private...and dangerous. Is she risking everything that matters to her by putting the truth on paper? And is she risking more by keeping silent? 128 pages (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/336828.Don_t_You_Dare_Read_This_Mrs_Dunphrey?from_search=true&search_exp_group=group_b&search_version=service) My Thoughts: There are so many issues that are addressed in this novel...parental neglect, sexual harassment, and abuse. However, the biggest issue may be secrecy. Tish is faced with more challenges than any 16 year old should have to face, but she has a choice. Will she tell and allow someone to help her or will she continue to lie in order to protect the ones she loves? This is a great novel told through journal entries rather than chapters. It is a quick read and the ending will surprise you. At first, Bobby Wallace was everything Cindy Gibson hoped for. He was friendly, seemingly mature, and handsome--the perfect escape from her problems in school and even bigger troubles at home. But then, Bobby starts behaving strangely, and Cindy gets scared. Hiding her concerns from her friends and her distracted mother, Cindy soon finds herself in the worst trouble of her life.
162 pages (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/357605.Someone_to_Love_Me?from_search=true&search_exp_group=group_b&search_version=service) My Thoughts: This novel deals with many issues like self-esteem, drug use, and violence in dating situations. The book is only ten chapters long. Although it is short, you really get to know the characters. If you like this book, you may also like other books in the Bluford High Series. Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.
Written in spare and evocative vignettes, this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs. 263 pages http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201114.Sold?from_search=true&search_version=service My Thoughts: This novel brings to light the plight of children who are forced into slavery. Set in modern times, Lakshmi must go to work because her stepfather gambles away the money that is made and a monsoon destroys their crops. You soon learn the Lakshmi is not going to be working as a maid. How she comes to learn of her fate and how she survives it makes this story memorable and powerful. Although it is fiction, the author shares that this novel is dedicated to the many young girls in Nepali who are forced into the sex slave trade. In August of 1994, 11-year-old Robert “Yummy” Sandifer — nicknamed for his love of sweets — fired a gun at a group of rival gang members, accidentally killing a neighborhood girl, Shavon Dean. Police searched Chicago’s southside for three days before finding Yummy dead in a railway tunnel, killed by members of the drug gang he’d sought to impress. The story made such an impact that Yummy appeared on the cover of TIME magazine, drawing national attention to the problems of inner city youth in America.
Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty relives the confusion of these traumatic days from the point of view of Roger, a neighborhood boy who struggles to understand the senseless violence swirling through the streets around him. Awakened by the tragedy, Roger seeks out answers to difficult questions — was Yummy a killer or a victim? Was he responsible for his actions or are others to blame? 96 pages My Thoughts: This is a novel that I bought after checking it out from the public library and reading it. It, too, is a graphic novel, and it sadly depicts how a child ended up murdering another child and being murdered himself. If you read this novel, I suggest you also follow up by reading the magazine article at the link below. It provides a timeline of the events that happened but also address the youth violence that had been happening in that part of Chicago for years. "True Crime: The Forgotten Story of Robert "Yummy" Sandifer" Some stories draw blood. Some truths won’t stay buried.
He was human once, or so they say. The son of a fur trapper, he was taunted by his peers and tricked into one of his own father’s traps. By the time anybody found it, the trap’s vicious teeth were empty, pried open and overgrown. It was said the brambles themselves had reached out and taken pity on that boy; that his skin had hardened to bark as thorns grew over every inch of his body. Maybe it’s true and maybe it isn’t. But anyone who knows anything stays out of the woods beyond the Widow’s Stone. That used to be enough. But this is the summer everything changes, as Stucks Cumberland and his friends find a mysterious package containing mementos of their childhood: baseball cards, a worn paperback, a locket. Offerings left behind in the woods years ago, meant to keep the Pricker Boy at bay. Offerings that have been rejected. 288 pages (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6335705-the-pricker-boy?from_search=true&search_exp_group=group_b&search_version=service) My Thoughts: This novel is a cross between a horror story and a mystery. It reminds me of Stephen King's movie It because of the young kids involved and how they come together to fight evil. If you like thrillers (movies or books), I think this may be the book for you. It begins with a real life terrifying situation that most of us could identify with. Then it gradually draws you into other horrifying situations that will leave you questioning, "Did that really happen?" This collection of original stories and poems provides rare insight into the minds of adolescent African American boys. There's Tow-Kaye, getting married at age seventeen to the love of his life, who's pregnant. James writes in his diary about his twin brother's terrible secret, while Tyler explains what it's like to be a player with the ladies. And Eric takes us on a tour of North Philly on the Fourth of July, when the heat could make a guy go crazy. Sharon G. Flake's talent for telling it like it is will leave readers thinking differently, feeling deeply, and definitely wanting more.
208 pages (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6642300-you-don-t-even-know-me?from_search=true&search_version=legacy) My Thoughts: This is a novel that I have suggested to several students over the last couple years and both male and females students have enjoyed it and recommended it to their friends. You meet several different characters with different stories. The characters deal with important issues like teen pregnancy, AIDS, gangs, sexual abuse, depression, and suicide. It is interesting because it delves into these emotional subjects through the lens of male characters. Andy is the janitor's son, an outcast, a nobody. Then the rumor starts-that Blake has a gun in his locker. In a moment of misguided hopefulness, Andy steals the keys from his dad and opens up Blake's locker, hoping that finding the gun will change his own status. But the gun isn't there and Andy remains an outcast. When an unlikely friendship develops between the two loners, Blake shares most of his secrets with Andy, including the gun. But there's one secret that worries Andy more than anything-the date circled on Blake's calendar. Does Blake have something planned? Something that Andy can prevent? In a fascinating look at how teens deal with the now constant threat of school violence, debut author Ryan G. Van Cleave provides a unique, emotional perspective on how it feels to be the one who can prevent a tragedy. 176 pages (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8781543-unlocked?from_search=true) My Thoughts: This novel was a quick read because it is written in verse. I have read some reviews that have not spoken well of this text, but I enjoyed it. It's different because of the way it's written, but I think it helps the plot move quickly, and you really get inside of Andy's thoughts. It makes you question what you would do if you were in a similar situation. This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it." Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son.
184 pages (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60748.A_Child_Called_It_?from_search=true) My Thoughts: This is one of the saddest books that I've ever read. It is especially sad because it is nonfiction. When you read this, you will question, "How can a mother treat her child this way?" However, it does give voice to the many children that face abuse. It also makes you reflect on how you treat others...especially your peers at school. You never know what a person my be going home to in the afternoon. Your smile and kind words may be the only ones they get all day. A DEADLY VIRUS KILLED EVERY ADULT ON EARTH, LEAVING ONLY US KIDS BEHIND.
My parents are gone, so I'm responsible for my little brother Todd. I have to make sure we stay alive. Many kids are sick or starving, and fierce gangs are stealing and destroying everything they find. Lots of people have given up, but here on Grand Avenue, some of us are surviving, because of me. I figured out how to give the kids on Grand Avenue food, homes, and protection against the gangs. But Tom Logan and his army are determined to take away what we've built and rule the streets themselves. How long can we keep fighting them off? We need to find another place for us to live safely. A strong place, a secret place. In a world like this, someone has to take charge. 125 pages My Thoughts: I admit that I was not a big fan of graphic novels until about a year ago. This was the first graphic novel that I have read. It was amazing! It was really interesting seeing how the kids behaved with the absence of adults. Surprise, surprise! It might not be how you'd think... Ninth grader Philip Malloy is forbidden to join the track team because of his failing grades in English class. Convinced that the teacher just doesn't like him, Philip concocts a plan to get transferred into a different homeroom. Instead of standing silently during the national anthem, he hums along, and ends up in a crisis at the center of the nation's attention.
177 pages http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/121877.Nothing_But_the_Truth?from_search=true My Thoughts: This is one of my favorite books. The story is told through multiple characters. Some parts of the story are told through journal entries, official school documents, letters, newspaper articles, and radio program transcripts. Other parts allow you to be in the center of the drama. Throughout the novel you are left wondering who is trustworthy...who is telling nothing but the truth. Terse and terrifying, this final book from Cormier will leave a lasting impression. Jason, almost 13, is a shy, ineffectual child, who takes being bullied as a matter of course--but if he sees someone else being pushed around, he may strike back. When the seven-year-old girl who lives next door is murdered, Jason is horrified. He was the last one to see her alive. He wants to do everything he can to help find the killer, so when the police come calling, he tells them all he knows. What he doesn't know is that Trent, a detective adept at extracting confessions, has been called into the case--and Trent has Jason in his sights as the murderer. Cormier presents a cat-and-mouse game so tense that readers will feel they must escape the pages just as Jason wants to extricate himself from the stuffy, cell-like room where his interrogation is taking place.
176 pages (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/293950.The_Rag_and_Bone_Shop?from_search=true) My Thoughts: This is a very intense novel that begins with the death of a young child allegedly at the hands of another child. I found myself on edge throughout the entire novel as I questioned whether the suspect was innocent or guilty or if that even mattered at all as long as Trent could get him to confess. The ending is shocking, and you won't see it coming. This is a great novel if you like mystery and intrigue. Sharon Creech tells a story with enormous heart. Written as a series of free-verse poems from Jack's point of view, Love That Dog shows how one boy finds his own voice with the help of a teacher, a writer, a pencil, some yellow paper, and of course, a dog. With classic poetry included in the back matter, this provides the perfect resource for teachers and students alike.
112 pages (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53498.Love_That_Dog?from_search=true) My Thoughts: I usually recommend this book to students who tell me they don't like to read. Why? It's a really short book. I don’t want to Because boys Don’t write poetry. Girls do. That is literally the first page of the book. It's quirky. It's funny. There are some sad parts, too. It's also doable. If you have recently said, "I hate reading" or you admit that you have never finished a book, I encourage you to give this book a chance. It's a great story about a boy who learns to enjoy something that he really disliked, too. |
AuthorI love to read, and I want to introduce you to some interesting books on my bookshelf. Students, feel free to come borrow a book from me, make a suggestion about a book I should have in the classroom library, or have a conversation about a book you find interesting, too. ArchivesCategories |