CH 8 & Fave Fiction Books

I haven't been one of the "reading types," which makes me feel really far behind when y'all talk about authors and books you all have read, but it doesn't slow me down. I have read some books for college that are fictional and I must tell you, I would re-read them.
The first one is, "Famous All Over Town," by Danny Sanitago, and it is about a young Mexican-American boy who is growing up in Los Angeles, CA who is struggling in poverty and thinks there's no way out. We follow him through his path of self destruction and family struggles and see him survive in the end. It is a very good book. I would recommend it for your high school students. You can find some controversial subjects that it raises here at this website:

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6993682/Socialist-realism-and-the-success.html

I don't have the book anymore, but I loved reading, "Outcry In the Barrio," when I was young. It's by Freddie Garcia and was a hit when I was growing up. It was about a young man who was into hard drugs and couldn't see a way out, but finally he found one and became a minister. This book is based on a true story but is still considered fictional. You cannot use it in your classroom because it has religion in it, but I just had to share! This book was given to me in back in the day, but now I see that the new paperback starts at $42.50. WOW, that shows how good it is. Here at this web site you can purchase the book used or new, and most importantly, read some reviews about it, enjoy!

http://www.amazon.com/Outcry-Barrio-Freddie-Garcia/dp/0961931906

The next book is, "Lipstick Jihad," by Azadeh Moaveni, and it is about an Iranian girl growing up in America. This book I read in my Humanities class in my earlier years of college, it could however be read for a high school class to teach about the Iranian culture. We tend to turn our backs on the unknown, but after reading this book, we all opened our eyes to see that there are only small differences between all of us, as the human race. At this website you can find an interview with the author:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/03/lipstick-jihad-interview-azadeh-moaveni


Fiction is an experience in narrative and provides a window into what makes human beings human. Now these books that I mentioned, they were all based on true stories, and some say they are biographies, but I must say that I do not agree. When a story is told and altered a little bit and does not tell the whole truth, then I must say it is fiction. We did our fiction projects in class and the question was, "What is fiction to you?" The truth is fiction is just merely a fake story. It can be based on truth and things of that nature but is just not entirely true. I guess these books would fall under Contemporary Realistic Fiction, where people can actually exist along with the events that can actually happen. All of these books were also, Character vs. Society, the theme where the main character is in social conflict with traditions. I love these fictional types of books and if you have any advice on a good book that falls into this category and theme, please feel free to leave it with your comment.

"Author Study"

I found a good book for your boys, mainly, but girls will like it too. It is, "Batman," by Ralph Cosentino, and this particular story is about 32 pages long, written like a comic, almost a picture book because it is illustrated beautifully. Of course Batman is saving Gotham City from its most dangerous criminals but it also explains what made him a Hero, how he changed from a boy into a hero. You can use this book to explain the difference between the hero and the villan and focus on the hero part of it. This day and age, people pride the villan and make him look better than the hero (like the Joker) and that is not how we want to raise our society, so we need to change our children's views, and what better way to do that than through literature.

Next, I have, "Don't Say That Word," by Alan Katz, which is a funny story that your children will love to laugh with that is about a little boy who tells his mom about his crazy day at school. She stops him before he says the ending of his story with, "Don't say that word!"

Finally, I have a book that I would read to my Pre K or Kindergarten class which is called, "Princess Baby," and it's a cute little book that brings a smile to your face at the end. It's about a little baby girl who doesn't like all the nicknames that her parents call her. It's a very easy read that I liked a lot.