I experimented today with a StoryBoard for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! I could play with this awesome tool all day! What an awesome way to engage students!

Multicultural, Diversity, Identity

Woodson, J. (2010). Feathers. New York: Puffin Books.

"Hope is the thing with feathers," starts the poem Frannie is reading in school. Frannie hasn't thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more holy.  There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he is not white. Who is he?  During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light: her brother Sean's deafness, her mother's fear, the class bully's anger, her best friend's faith and her own desire for the thing with feathers.

Lexile Level: 710L

LA Themes: The truth will set you free.

Universal Themes: Family, Friendship, Isolation, Spirituality, The Home, Race, Fear, Truth, Society and Class

           

Say, A. (2011). Drawing from memory. New York: Scholastic Press.

Caldecott Medalist Allen Say presents a stunning graphic novel chronicling his journey as an artist during WWII, when he apprenticed under Noro Shinpei, Japan’s premier cartoonist.  DRAWING FROM MEMORY is Allen Say's own story of his path to becoming the renowned artist he is today. Shunned by his father, who didn't understand his son's artistic leanings, Allen was embraced by Noro Shinpei, Japan's leading cartoonist and the man he came to love as his "spiritual father." As WWII raged, Allen was further inspired to consider questions of his own heritage and the motivations of those around him. He worked hard in rigorous drawing classes, studied, trained--and ultimately came to understand who he really is.  Part memoir, part graphic novel, part narrative history, DRAWING FROM MEMORY presents a complex look at the real-life relationship between a mentor and his student. With watercolor paintings, original cartoons, vintage photographs, and maps, Allen Say has created a book that will inspire the artist in all of us.

Lexile Level: 560L

LA Themes: The struggle between your passion and what your parents think you should do in life.

Universal Themes: War; Family; Courage

Alvarez, J. (2002). Before We Were Free. New York: Random House Children's Books.

Anita de la Torre is a twelve-year-old girl living in the Dominican Republic in 1960. Most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared, Papi has been getting mysterious phone calls about butterflies and someone named Mr. Smith, and the secret police have started terrorizing her family for their suspected opposition to the country’s dictator. While Anita deals with a frightening series of events, she also struggles with her adolescence and her own personal fight to be free.

Lexile Level: 890L

LA Themes: The cost of freedom

Universal Themes: Love; Family; Courage; Freedom

Neruda, P. (2001). The book of questions. Pasadena, CA: Archetype Press, Art Center College of Design.

Pablo Neruda is one of the world's most popular poets, and in The Book of Questions, Neruda refuses to be corralled by the rational mind. Composed of 316 unanswerable questions, these poems integrate the wonder of a child with the experiences of an adult. By turns Orphic, comic, surreal, and poignant, Neruda's questions lead the reader beyond reason into realms of intuition and pure imagination.
Lexile Level: N/A

LA Themes: N/A

Universal Themes: Faith; Beauty; Innocence

Talley, R. (2016). What we left behind. Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: Harlequin Teen.

Toni and Gretchen are the couple everyone envied in high school. They've been together forever. They never fight. They’re deeply, hopelessly in love. When they separate for their first year at college—Toni to Harvard and Gretchen to NYU—they’re sure they’ll be fine. Where other long-distance relationships have fallen apart, theirs is bound to stay rock-solid.  The reality of being apart, though, is very different than they expected. Toni, who identifies as genderqueer, meets a group of transgender upperclassmen and immediately finds a sense of belonging that has always been missing, but Gretchen struggles to remember who she is outside their relationship.  While Toni worries that Gretchen won’t understand Toni’s new world, Gretchen begins to wonder where she fits in Toni's life. As distance and Toni’s shifting gender identity begins to wear on their relationship, the couple must decide—have they grown apart for good, or is love enough to keep them together? 

Lexile Level: N/A

LA Themes: Love may not conquer all.

Universal Themes: Faith; Love; Loyalty

Adventure, Mystery, and Humor

Kennedy, J. (2008). The Order of Odd-Fish. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

JO LAROUCHE HAS lived her 13 years in the California desert with her Aunt Lily, ever since she was dropped on Lily’s doorstep with this note: This is Jo. Please take care of her. But beware. This is a dangerous baby. At Lily’s annual Christmas costume party, a variety of strange events take place that lead Jo and Lily out of California forever—and into the mysterious, strange, fantastical world of Eldritch City. There, Jo learns the scandalous truth about who she is, and she and Lily join the Order of Odd-Fish, a collection of knights who research useless information. Glamorous cockroach butlers, pointless quests, obsolete weapons, and bizarre festivals fill their days, but two villains are controlling their fate. Jo is inching closer and closer to the day when her destiny is fulfilled, and no one in Eldritch City will ever be the same.

Lexile Level: 820L

LA Themes: Learning who you are; Becoming who you are

Universal Theme: Heritage; Beating the odds; Peer pressure

Scott, J., & Borgman, J. (2013). Zits: chillax. New York: HarperTeen.

Jeremy Duncan is a high school sophomore. He’s essentially average, in that he’s not popular or a jock or anything. He doesn’t get super high grades or anything. However, Jeremy does have something that makes him unique, he is in a band with his best friends. He loves obnoxious loud, rock and roll music. When his favorite rock band Gingivitis comes to town, Jeremy finds himself determined to go to the concert, along with his bandmates Hector Garcia and Tim. ONLY! Tim can’t go because he is donating bone marrow for his mother’s cancer treatment. So then, Jeremy and Hector make it their mission to go to the concert FOR Tim and while yes, it does kind of sound like a selfish move at first (and kind of is), you’ll see how it blossoms into an unselfish thing by the end. 

Lexile Level: N/A

LA Theme: Sacrificing for others

Universal Themes: Family; Friendship; Parent-child relationships

Strand, J. (2012). A bad day for voodoo. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Fire.

When your best friend is just a tiny bit psychotic, you should never actually believe him when he says, "Trust me. This is gonna be awesome."
Of course, you probably wouldn't believe a voodoo doll could work either. Or that it could cause someone's leg to blow clean off with one quick prick. But I've seen it. It can happen.
And when there's suddenly a doll of YOU floating around out there—a doll that could be snatched by a Rottweiler and torn to shreds, or a gang of thugs ready to torch it, or any random family of cannibals (really, do you need the danger here spelled out for you?)—well, you know that's just gonna be a really bad day. 

Lexile Level: 730L

LA Theme: Even though people might think something is not real, doesn’t mean that it’s not.

Universal Theme: Faith

Wizner, J. (2007). Spanking Shakespeare. New York: Random House Children's Books.

SHAKESPEARE SHAPIRO HAS ALWAYS hated his name. His parents bestowed it on him as some kind of sick joke when he was born, and his life has gone downhill from there, one embarrassing incident after another. Entering his senior year of high school, Shakespeare has never had a girlfriend, his younger brother is cooler than he is, and his best friend's favorite topic of conversation is his bowel movements.  But Shakespeare will have the last laugh. He is chronicling every mortifying detail in his memoir, the writing project each senior at Shakespeare's high school must complete. And he is doing it brilliantly. And, just maybe, a prize-winning memoir will bring him respect, admiration, and a girlfriend . . . or at least a prom date.

Lexile Level: 850L

LA Theme: Trust in yourself and don’t worry about what people think about you. At the end of the day it only matters what you think about yourself. ; Learn from your mistakes and move on. Don’t let them haunt you.

Universal Themes: Courage; Coming of age; Seizing the moment

Shen, P., & Hicks, F. E. (2013). Nothing can possibly go wrong. New York: First Second.

Charlie is the laid-back captain of the basketball team. Nate is the neurotic, scheming president of the robotics club. Their unlikely friendship nearly bites the dust when Nate declares war on the cheerleaders and the cheerleaders retaliate by making Charlie their figurehead in the ugliest class election campaign the school has ever seen. At stake? Student group funding that will either cover a robotics competition or new cheerleading uniforms--but not both. 

            Lexile Level: N/A

LA Theme: Unlikely friendships; Cooperation; Divorce; Heartbreak; Discovering what you really want; Warring social groups

            Universal Themes: Friendship; Winners and losers; Family; Courage

            

Non-fiction

Content and Primary Sources

Palacio, R. J. (2012). Wonder. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?

Lexile Level: 790L

LA Theme: Kindness; Tolerance of Differences; Family; Courage; Outside vs Inside; Popularity

Universal Themes: Courage

 Angelou, M. (1971). I know why the caged bird sings. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash." At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors ("I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare") will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Lexile Level: 1330L

LA Theme: Racism and Segregation; Debilitating Displacement

Universal Themes: Survival, Beating the Odds, Prejudice

Andrews, A., & Lyon, J. (2015). Some assembly required: the not-so-secret life of a transgender teen. New York: Simon & Schuster BFYR.

Seventeen-year-old Arin Andrews shares all the hilarious, painful, and poignant details of undergoing gender reassignment as a high school student in this winning memoir. We've all felt uncomfortable in our own skin at some point, and we've all been told that it's just a part of growing up. But for Arin Andrews, it wasn't a phase that would pass. He had been born in the body of a girl and there seemed to be no relief in sight. In this revolutionary memoir, Arin details the journey that led him to make the life-transforming decision to undergo gender reassignment as a high school junior. In his captivatingly witty, honest voice, Arin reveals the challenges he faced as a girl, the humiliation and anger he felt after getting kicked out of his private school, and all the changes, both mental and physical, he experienced once his transition began. Arin also writes about the thrill of meeting and dating a young transgender woman named Katie Hill and the heartache that followed after they broke up. Some Assembly Required is a true coming-of-age story about knocking down obstacles and embracing family, friendship, and first love. But more than that, it is a reminder that self-acceptance does not come ready-made with a manual and spare parts. Rather, some assembly is always required.

Lexile Level: 970L

LA Theme: Knocking down obstacles; Embracing family, friendship, and first love; Self-acceptance

Universal Themes: Courage, The road not taken

Anderson, L. H. (1999). Speak. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

"Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.

Lexile Level: 690L

LA Theme: Speaking is the most challenging but rewarding form of communication.

Universal Themes: Fear, Effects of the past, Courage, Survival, Safety/Security

Mowat, F. (1963). Never cry wolf. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

More than a half-century ago the naturalist Farley Mowat was sent to investigate why wolves were killing arctic caribou. Mowat's account of the summer he lived in the frozen tundra alone -- studying the wolf population and developing a deep affection for the wolves (who were of no threat to caribou or man) -- is today celebrated as a classic of nature writing, at once a tale of remarkable adventures and indelible record of myths and magic of wolves.

Lexile Level: 1330L

LA Theme: The combination of ignorance and greed can lead to the destruction of important natural elements.

Universal Theme: Nature; Quest for knowledge