Textbook Reflection #3

Realistic fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and graphic novels... all sub-genres I love! Realistic fiction needs to be consistent with the real world. It should avoid stereotypes and the theme should emerge naturally. That theme should be something that the reader can relate to. I would refer back to Havigurt. Most of his list would be themes that I would expect in realistic fiction.

Science Fiction and Fantasy are my FAVORITES! Good sci-fi and fantasy should have believable characters. There need to be rules for the world the author has created. The author should help suspend disbelief and the story should relate to universal truths. The number of subcategories in Sci-fi was overwhelming. But with that, I can now tell that Grasshopper Jungle is apocalyptic. I'm still not sure how to categorize The Knife of Never Letting Go. It's in space, there are aliens, but society is messed up! So is it soft science fiction with dystopian themes? By the way - I died a little when it ended! I was so psyched that they made it to the city and then... a sequel! And me with no time to read it.

Graphic novels are for everyone. They cover a variety of sub-genres. You can look at the sub-genre to see what characteristics they should have. I currently have science fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction in my classroom. I have a set of the Nathan Hale Alamo books that I used during the Alamo unit in Texas History. The kids loved them and my non-readers were engaged. They are difficult to lexile because of the images and reduction of text. Also some pages can be busy and hard for kids to follow. This is the one part of my collection I'd like to increase. I've seen such an increase in reading among my lower readers since I've added graphic novels. I chose to read Ghost for my graphic novel and had to tell my students to wait to read it. One kept taking it off my desk! My husband gave me Fun Home for Christmas (it was on my amazon list). He had no idea there were graphic novels for adults! He thought it was for my class and was appalled! Great laugh for me though!

Nonfiction is another ball game. The key is to focus on the accuracy of the facts. Is the author qualified?  Is the information organized in a way to make it easy to access? Does it have purpose and scope? Does it have text features and illustrations that elaborate on the text? I'm unsure as to what kind of nonfiction a teen would read, other than for research. I looked at the nonfiction prize winners and the books for college bound and most seemed like well written books but not something that a teenager would pick up and read for pleasure. My nonfiction collection also needs work. Hopefully with these guidelines I can increase my collection with quality nonfiction. I also need to weed. I have books from the 70s and 80s that I inherited when I started teaching. The atlas with the Soviet Union might need to go...