Michele+Powell

//A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce// In this remake of Rumpelstiltskin, Charlotte Miller is left to run her family’s woolen mill and take care of her teenage sister after her father suddenly dies. A young handsome banker brings an unknown mortgage to Charlotte’s attention; the mortgage term has been shortened considerably because the mill is now being run by a woman. After either a run of bad luck or sabotage Charlotte is unable to pay the yearly payment, that is until Jack Spinner appears and offers an abundance of gold thread to Charlotte in exchange for the only memento Charlotte has left of her mothers, her wedding band. The Stirwaters Woolen Mill and Charlotte continue to have bad luck and Jack Spinner is always there to lend his help, but at what cost?
 * 2009 Winner of the William C. Morris Award**
 * Genre: Novelized Folktale**
 * Summary:**

Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature. ||
 * **Curriculum Connection: RL.10.6**
 * Classroom Activity: Strategy 13- Imagination Recreation- This strategy allows readers to interpret text in several different ways.**
 * Bunce, E. (2008). //A curse dark as// //gold//. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books.**
 * ISBN: 978-0-439-89576-7**

//Jellicoe Road// by Melina Marchetta For decades the Jellicoe School students, the Townies, and the Cadets have been at war with each other, mainly fighting over territory. These never ending battles are important to all students, but more important for seventeen year old Taylor Markham, the one-in-charge of the Underground Community and leader of Lochlan House is finding out why her mother left her at the 7-Eleven on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven years old, where her mother is, and who her father is.
 * 2009 Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award**
 * Genre: Contemporary YA Fiction**
 * Summary:**

Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g. parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g. pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise. ||
 * Curriculum Connection:**
 * RL.9.5
 * Classroom Activity: Strategy 12- Inference Strategy Guide- Gives students a strategy for reading between the lines.**


 * Marchetta, M. (2006). //Jellicoe// //road//. New York: HarperTeen.**
 * ISBN: 978-0-06-143184-5**

//My Sister's Keeper// by Jodi Picoult Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g. parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g. pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise. ||
 * 2005 Alex Award Winner**
 * Genre: Realistic Fiction**
 * Summary: Anna was born special; she was born to save her sister's life. For most of Anna's life she has given of herself to keep her sister, Kate, alive. After Anna turns thirteen she makes a decision that rocks her family to the core; she gets an attorney to sue her parents for medical emancipation so that she won't have to give her kidney to her sister.**
 * Curriculum Connection:**
 * RL.10.5
 * Classroom Activity: Strategy 26-SCAMPER- Collaborative analysis of text**
 * S-substitute a person, place, time, or situation**
 * C-combine or synthesize ideas, situations, contexts**
 * A-adapt or adjust a problem or concept to suit a new purpose**
 * M-modify, magnify, or minify the size, traits, or dimensions of the concept or problem**
 * P-put to other uses or contexts**
 * E-eliminate a feature of the concept, story, or problem**
 * R-rearrange or reverse the sequence of the story, concept, or context**
 * Picoult, J. (2004). //My sister's keeper//. New York: Washington Square Press.**
 * ISBN: 0-7434-5453-7**

//Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice// by Phillip Hoose
 * 2010 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist**
 * Genre: Nonfiction**
 * Summary: The story of fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin, who helped spark the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a Montgomery, Alabama bus on March 2, 1955.**

Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories). ||
 * Curriculum Connection:**
 * RI 8.3
 * Classroom Activity: Strategy 18- Connect to It- Making personal, text, and world connections to text- A strategy used to comprehend information text by relating it to students prior knowledge.**


 * Hoose, P. (2009). //Claudette colvin: Twice toward justice.// New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.**
 * ISBN: 978-0-374-31322-7**

//How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous// by Georgia Bragg
 * 2012 Blue Grass Award for Middle School**
 * Genre: Nonfiction**
 * Summary: A humorous and gory look at how famous historical figures lived and died. Great illustrations and factual historical and scientific information about people like King Tut, Cleopatra, Christopher Columbus, Marie Curie, and others.**

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints. ||
 * Curriculum Connection:**
 * RI 8.6


 * Promotional Activity: Display this book with the biographies of some of the historical figures featured in this book.**
 * Bragg, G. (2011). //How they croaked: The awful ends of the awfully famous.// New York: Walker & Company.**
 * ISBN: 978-0-8027-9817--6**

//Because I am Furniture// by Thalia Chaltas
 * 2011 Blue Grass Award for High School**
 * Genre: Poetry**
 * S****ummary: Anke feels invisible. She sees herself as furniture because she doesn't recieve the same attention her father lavishes on her brother and sister. He brother is beaten regularly by their father and her sister is sexually abused by their father. After Anke becomes a successful volleyball player she finds the courage to stand up for her siblings.**

Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. ||
 * Curriculum Connection:**
 * RL 10.3
 * Classroom Activity:** **Strategy 14- Conflict Dissection- Analyzing relationships in text**
 * Promotional Activity: Display a collection of this book and other poetic novels, like //Heartbeat, Beanball,// //Out of the Dust// and //What My Mother Doesn't Know.//**
 * Chaltas, T. (2009). //Because I am furniture.// New York: Penguin Group.**
 * ISBN: 978-0-670-06298-0**

//Speak// by Laurie Halse Anderson
 * 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award**
 * Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction**
 * Summary: Melinda starts high school with no friends because everone knows she was the one that called the police during a party; ending the party and making her an outcast. Melinda has stopped speaking partly because she has no friends and partly because she can't talk about the real reason she called the cops. This is a book every girl going into high school should read.**

Writing routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. ||
 * Curriculum Connection:**
 * W 8.10
 * Promotional Activity: Book Trailer**
 * Anderson, L. H. (1999). //Speak.// New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, LLC.**
 * ISBN: 0-14-131088-X**

//The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian// by Sherman Alexie
 * 2009 winner Odyssey Award**
 * Genre:** Contemporary Realistic Fiction/Audio Book
 * Summary: Arnold "Junior" Spirit is a fourteen-year-old Spokane Indian living/struggling on the reservation, until he hits his teacher with a text book and has a meaningful, life changing conservation with that teacher. Junior is bullied by most everyone on the reservation, except his best-friend and protector Rowdy, but when Junior leaves the reservation to go to school at the all white Reardan High School he loses Rowdy but gains a whole new life.**

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. ||
 * Curriculum Connection:**
 * RL 10.1
 * Promotional Activity: Book talk**
 * Alexie, S. (2008). //The absolutely true diary of a part-time indian.// New York: Recorded Books Productions.**
 * ISBN: 978-1-4281-8297-4**

//Dream of Night// by Heather Henson
 * E-book #1**
 * Genre:** Contemporary Realistic Fiction
 * Summary: Twelve-year-old Shiloh and injured racehorse Dream of Night are both new to Jessalyn DiLima's foster home. Shiloh and Dream of Night learn how to trust and love again through working with each other and living with Jess.**

Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision. ||
 * Curriculum Connection:**
 * RL 8.3
 * Classroom Activity: Strategy 15-Jots and Doodles: Visualizing text to aid comprehension**
 * Henson, H. (2010). //Dream of night.// New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. Available from []**
 * ISBN: 978-1-4424-0611-7**

//Bystander// by James Preller
 * E-book #2**
 * Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction**
 * Summary: New kid Eric Hayes witnesses an incident of bullying before the new school year starts. The bullys want to be his friends. Eric has to decide who he is going to be; what side he is going to be on.**

W 8.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
 * Curriculum Connection:**
 * Promotional Activity:** **Play anti-bullying PSA before either giving a book talk or showing a book trailer.**


 * Preller, J. (2009). //Bystander.// New York: Feiwel & Friends. Available from []**
 * ISBN: 978-1-4299-5496-9**