I have a reader confession to make.
I have never read Frindle by Andrew Clements.
To be fair, I wasn't teaching at the time it was published; my firstborn turned three that year (not the age of the intended audience), and I was working weekends as a neonatal unit assistant. My teenage second-born tells me he read Frindle in elementary school; by then, I was running special education meetings in a secondary disciplinary setting, so children's literature was something my own children sometimes shared with me.
Then I ended up back in the classroom. I read Clements' No Talking to the students in my resource room, and we all enjoyed it immensely.
No Talking is about a contest between the boys and girls in fifth grade to see who can go the longest without talking, except for short answers to adult questions. The book led to great discussions in my classroom about stereotypes--and the importance of listening over talking.
Now I'm reading another Clements book--Lunch Money--the book choice by my fifth grade book lunch bunch.
Greg has always had a knack for making money. He works hard for his profits; his latest product is a series of tiny comic books, which he hand-draws, copies, and collates to sell to his classmates. He gets angry when his neighbor, Maura, cuts into his customer base with her own little comics. The two classmates have been rivals since elementary school; is there any way this newest feud can be solved? Lunch Money is an interesting story about work ethic, business, and collaboration.
I'm promoting Andrew Clements' books this week; who is your favorite author?
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