Adventures in Young Adult Reading
I had thought that today was going to be a very bad day at work. It seems like we have been having a lot of those. We are of course still under staffed, it seems like we are always understaffed. I haven't seen us fully staffed in a long long time now. But then each supervisor I have had has a different idea of what fully staffed is, so perhaps to them we have been. If you ask me, understaffed.
In any case we were attempting to run more rooms than we had people to run them and that is a bit problematic generally speaking. It usually results in us being about an hour behind and feeling a bit frazzled. But somehow today wasn't that bad. I actually got out to lunch at about 12:20 which is really good for me, I normally get out at 12:45. So it was a pretty good morning, though I am unsure about how the afternoon went, as I get to go home, eat my lunch catch up on stuff and then take a nap and get ready for teaching.
It makes napping much easier when the morning is less harrowing, and today was a good day. So I got my nap in and I am feeling just super refreshed and ready to teach a lesson on... Summer! I'll even try to be positive and leave out how much I absolutely hate summer and its cursed weather.
I am a bit eager to see how the new book will be for my ESL class (it is on its way from Amazon). We are going to read "The 100 Year Old Secret" which is a young adult book that sort of goes along with Sherlock Holms. It might be a bit less depressing than the last book we read, but it also may be more of a challenge for my students.
However students aside it also might even be interesting for me to read. I never read a lot of youth fiction, I sort of went from kid books to Stephen King at an early age. I did read some Nancy Drew and the like but only because our very small library ran out of books for me to read. I much preferred Alexander Dumas' "Three Musketeers" unabridged than I ever did Judy Bloom's "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret". But as I have gotten older I occasionally pick up one of these youth novels and some of them are better now than they were then. Quick little beach reads that remind you what it is like to be young and what it was like back then. Though I still love Dumas who may be the author who inspired me to branch out of horror "read" more than any other author.
So this book is a more modern Young Adult book and will I am sure let me see how old I am. I am always surprised to discover new slang or phrases that "the cool kids" are using. It doesn't quite make me feel old, but it does make you realize your not in "that stage" in your life any more. Reading the horrid writing of Stephanie Mayer did remind me of how in high school boys and school were more important than anything else. Way more important than mortgages, taxes and marriages. Oh how life has changed. Hopefully my books will get here soon, I am eager to preread it.
But on the subject of teaching, it is time for me to be off! I need to change and get out the door, into the 106°F weather that is outside of my air conditioned house. ::sigh::
In any case we were attempting to run more rooms than we had people to run them and that is a bit problematic generally speaking. It usually results in us being about an hour behind and feeling a bit frazzled. But somehow today wasn't that bad. I actually got out to lunch at about 12:20 which is really good for me, I normally get out at 12:45. So it was a pretty good morning, though I am unsure about how the afternoon went, as I get to go home, eat my lunch catch up on stuff and then take a nap and get ready for teaching.
It makes napping much easier when the morning is less harrowing, and today was a good day. So I got my nap in and I am feeling just super refreshed and ready to teach a lesson on... Summer! I'll even try to be positive and leave out how much I absolutely hate summer and its cursed weather.
I am a bit eager to see how the new book will be for my ESL class (it is on its way from Amazon). We are going to read "The 100 Year Old Secret" which is a young adult book that sort of goes along with Sherlock Holms. It might be a bit less depressing than the last book we read, but it also may be more of a challenge for my students.
Welcome 12-year-old Xena Holmes and her brother, Xander, Sherlock's great-great-great grandchildren, newly arrived in London from Florida. They are playing a favorite game, guessing people's occupation by appearance, in front of their hotel when a strange man delivers a note written in disappearing ink directing them to the Dancing Men Pub. There, through a set of tests, their famous relative is revealed to them, and they are given his "Unsolved Cases" notebook. Xena, intrigued by it, soon finds a case with modern relevance—a missing portrait by Nigel Batheson, whose other works are being displayed in a nearby gallery. The siblings are off and running through a plot laced with references to the original stories and using similar devices, including a red herring. The main characters are observant, bright, and gifted with powers of deduction. Watson's great-great-great grandson, Andrew, is integral to the plot. Some clues seem to be obvious, but they can lead to a wrong conclusion. A well-paced beginning to a new series.
However students aside it also might even be interesting for me to read. I never read a lot of youth fiction, I sort of went from kid books to Stephen King at an early age. I did read some Nancy Drew and the like but only because our very small library ran out of books for me to read. I much preferred Alexander Dumas' "Three Musketeers" unabridged than I ever did Judy Bloom's "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret". But as I have gotten older I occasionally pick up one of these youth novels and some of them are better now than they were then. Quick little beach reads that remind you what it is like to be young and what it was like back then. Though I still love Dumas who may be the author who inspired me to branch out of horror "read" more than any other author.
So this book is a more modern Young Adult book and will I am sure let me see how old I am. I am always surprised to discover new slang or phrases that "the cool kids" are using. It doesn't quite make me feel old, but it does make you realize your not in "that stage" in your life any more. Reading the horrid writing of Stephanie Mayer did remind me of how in high school boys and school were more important than anything else. Way more important than mortgages, taxes and marriages. Oh how life has changed. Hopefully my books will get here soon, I am eager to preread it.
But on the subject of teaching, it is time for me to be off! I need to change and get out the door, into the 106°F weather that is outside of my air conditioned house. ::sigh::
posted by Crystal at 5:01 PM
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