Fallout

Tate, Niki. (2011). Fallout. Victoria, BC: Orca Books.

Teen suicide, a survivor, distant parents, slam poetry, someone who understands....  Nikki Tate's Fallout is a powerful and engaging story of a teen coping with her younger sister's suicide through writing and performing poetry.  We meet Tara one year after her sister's death.  She has left home and moved to another city where she works in a bookstore by day and meets with her slam poetry friends by night.  Every day is filled with memories - and poems. Prose descriptions of a slam poetry competition are interspersed with poems about a family dealing with suicide. Tara begins to open up to her new friends and find a few moments of relief and, eventually, someone who really understands. While the topic is complex, there is no prolonged analysis or discussion and the characters are not very developed. The story moves along quickly touching on many common teen concerns (parental expectations, teen sex, teen drinking, depression, walking home alone, balancing competition and friendship). This is not a 'deep' novel but with its sparse layout, large type and lots of white space it is a perfect high interest, low reading level (3.0)  for reluctant or struggling readers that will appeal to many other teens looking for a quick read.

Young Adult (Part of the Orca Soundings Series, also available as an e-book on Google Play)

Who Likes the Rain?

Kraner, Etta. (2007). Who Likes the Rain? Toronto, Ont.: Kids Can Press. (E-book retrieved from Tumblebooks).

This year our school purchased a subscription to Tumblebooks (ask Kathy or Carla for the password to use them at home).  I have been using them in my Kindergarten classroom.  Last week we watched and listened to "Who Likes the Rain?".  This wonderful mixture of fiction and non-fiction describes children playing in the rain and explores all the reasons we like rain. When a child states "I like the rain because the worms come out.  I wonder why the worms come out?", the next page explains why worms come out when it rains. Every reason for liking rain is a starting point for another age appropriate scientific explanation. The children were mesmerized and learned a lot.  Afterwords we did our own writers' workshops about why we like (or don't like) rain. This is a great book acknowledging our natural curiousity and introducing the idea of inquiry learning (asking "wonder" questions and then looking for the answers).

Primary