Club de lectura de poesía: 13 semanas y 13 novelas en verso

Each week, students will read one novel in verse. 
Students will come to class prepared to discuss the novel in verse and share what they loved about the work.
In socratic seminar method, students will guide discussion with their own questions to the group, and I will moderate the group discussions.
I will lead discussion on guided questions about structure, metaphors, rhyme patterns, and other poetic features. 
Students are invited to begin a journal where they practice and create their own poetry that is inspired by the text. 

The books we will read and discuss in the following weeks are:

Week 1_September 18, 2021: Planet Middle School by Nikki Grimes.
For twelve years, Joylin Johnson's life has been just fine, thank you very much. A game of basketball with the boys-especially her friend Jake-was all it took to put a smile on her face. Then suddenly the world seemed to turn upside down, and her best girl friend is now flirting with her best guy friend.

Week 2_ September 25, 2021: Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. 
Jack hates poetry. Only girls write it and every time he tries to, his brain feels empty. But his teacher, Ms. Stretchberry, won't stop giving her class poetry assignments -- and Jack can't avoid them. But then something amazing happens. The more he writes, the more he learns he does have something to say.

Week 3_ October 2, 2021: Forest World by Margarita Engle. 
Edver isn’t happy about being shipped off to Cuba to visit the father he barely knows. Travel laws have suddenly changed, and now it’s a lot easier for divided families to be reunited. Edver was NOT expecting to meet a sister he didn’t know he had. Luza is a year older and excited to see her little brother, until she realizes what a spoiled American he is. Edver and Luza have to find a way to overcome their differences. 

Week 4_October 9, 2021: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. 
"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering," announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell. He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his family's story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood.

Week 5_October 16, 2021: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all. Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes.

Week 6_October 23, 2021:  Inside Out And Back Again by Thanhha Lai.
For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, and the warmth of her friends close by. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food . . . and the strength of her very own family.

Week 7_October 30, 2021: Moo by Sharon Creech.
This uplifting tale reminds us that if we’re open to new experiences, life is full of surprises. Following one family’s momentous move from the city to rural Maine, an unexpected bond develops between twelve-year-old Reena and one very ornery cow.

Week 8_November 6, 2021: Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech.
This is the story of
Jack
words
sounds
silence
teacher
and cat.

Week 9_November 13, 2021: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.

Week 10_November 20, 2021: The Moon Within by Aida Salazar.
Celi Rivera's life swirls with questions. About her changing body. Her first attraction to a boy. And her best friend's exploration of what it means to be genderfluid.
But most of all, her mother's insistence she have a moon ceremony when her first period arrives. It's an ancestral Mexica ritual that Mima and her community have reclaimed, but Celi promises she will NOT be participating. Can she find the power within herself to take a stand for who she wants to be?

Week 11_November 27, 2021 The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan.
Armed with a suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka and her mother head for England. Life is lonely for Kasienka. At home her mother's heart is breaking and at school friends are scarce. But when someone special swims into her life, Kasienka learns that there might be more than one way for her to stay afloat.

Week 12_December 4, 2021: Hidden by Helen Frost.
When Wren Abbott and Darra Monson are eight years old, Darra's father steals a minivan. He doesn't know that Wren is hiding in the back. The hours and days that follow change the lives of both girls. Darra is left with a question that only Wren can answer. Wren has questions, too.

Week 13_December 11, 2021: Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry
A girl with Tourette syndrome starts at a new school and tries to hide her quirks. But, it isn't long before the kids at her new school realize she's different. This coming of age story reveals a character's strength to make friendships in what can sometimes be a hostile environment.