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Horror is for Middle Grade – A Booklist for Thrills and Chills

By on March 26, 2023   /   Articles, Book Lists, Fiction  

Anyone who enjoys Stephen King appreciates that deliciously uneasy feeling of a toe sticking out of the covers when who-knows-what is hidden under the bed.

All people deal with fear. Middle Grade Horror allows children to experience thrills and chills, find their brave inner hero, and go on a dangerous journey in a safe space. It’s an important lesson. Plus, it’s fun.

Below, you’ll see why I believe Horror is for Middle Grade and check out the book list for the young horror-reader in your family.

Reluctant Readers

My own family stumbled into horror when one of my children struggled to find stories he liked. He labelled the books he read too predictable, too touchy feely, and too boring. All of that changed when a great librarian suggested he check out Middle Grade Horror. He started with The Vampire Plagues, by Sebastian Rook. This series, about three children who chase a vampire from 1850s London to Paris and on to Mexico, hooked him on reading, and I believe it can help other reluctant readers learn to enjoy books.

Liking this article about scary books? Check out this archived interview with scary book author and MUF contributor Jonathon Rosen

An Emotional Journey

Like all great stories, great Middle Grade Horror takes the reader on an emotional journey. Horror provokes terror, surprise, revulsion, empathy, love, and hatred. With all that excitement, probably everyone of us would enjoy some Horror. However, all of us have limits, and no child should be pushed beyond theirs. We want children who read Horror to be thrilled by it and not to suffer nightmares.

I highly recommend The Vampire Plagues, a fast-paced, action-packed, vampire-filled adventure. Below are more great Horror reads that range from Bunnicula, a story that is hardly scary at all to Katherine Arden’s truly creepy Small Spaces.

 

Middle Grade Horror Book List

Bunnicula is as silly as it is scary. This much beloved series features a mystery loving dog, an overly dramatic cat, and a vampire rabbit who sucks the life out of carrots.

The Graveyard Book, written by Neil Gaiman, author of the Halloween favorite Coraline, is an action and adventure story. It’s a great read for a child who enjoys action, suspense, and mysteries. It is a great read. It comes with lots of fun, friendly ghosts, and a few who are not-so-friendly.

For the daring, Victoria Schwab’s City of Ghosts leads the reader into increasingly unsettling territory. The ghosts in this book are monsters to be feared, and the heroine takes great risks in her endeavors.

Finally, Small Spaces by Katherine Arden is the ultimate spine-chilling adventure. The main character is a deeply flushed out, sympathetic child with tons of courage. She uses every ounce of her courage to face some truly terrifying creatures.

A lot of people, including children love horror stories. Being scared is fun. Middle grade horror provides a compelling read for some children who might be reluctant to dive into less edgy topics, and it presents an opportunity for kids to learn to deal with fear.

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STEM Tuesday– Math– Writing Tips and Resources

By on March 21, 2023   /   Common Core & NGSS, Cross-Curricular, Curriculum Tie-in, For Teachers, Math, STEM, STEM Tuesday  

 

Paradigm Shift

Did you see it? The National Council of Teachers of English recently issued the “Position Statement on the Role of Nonfiction Literature (K–12).” I’ll be honest and say that when I was growing up, I never thought of nonfiction as literature. To me, nonfiction was an encyclopedia, a text book, or one of those really dry library books that you checked out when you had to do a report on a cheetah. Sure the cheetah was cool, but the book about it? I had to crawl my way through all of the dusty dry to find the fascinating facts.

Look how far we have come… This month we are looking at the literary craft of not just nonfiction, but math nonfiction! And that’s because the world of publishing has opened their arms to cool, crafty, creative presentations of information. And I for one am giddy over it. In fact, NCTE, this group of professional English teachers is proposing “a paradigm shift for teaching and learning with nonfiction literature in K–12 education.”

Drop the mic! Nonfiction is coming into its own!

So, how exactly do we spur on this paradigm shift? We can start by studying the craft of informational books. We can articulate new language to help us describe unique attributes of nonfiction. We can search out the devices used by nonfiction authors. We can compare/contrast, discuss/evaluate, and weigh the pros and cons. In other words, we can have informed opinions.

One Way to Start

Melissa Stewart (author of over 100 nonfiction books for children) and Dr. Marlene Correia (an educator of 30 years) have written a book entitled 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and writing Instruction with Children’s Books. Check out this article (https://www.melissa-stewart.com/img2018/pdfs/5_Kinds_of_Nonfiction_SLJ_May_2018.pdf) in the School Library Journal and Melissa’s blog post (http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2020/02/5-kinds-of-nonfiction-update.html).  They propose that much of today’s nonfiction can be categorized as one of the following:

  • Active – books that get kids doing something, i.e, Klutz Books for Kids
  • Browseable – open to any page and find chunks of facts, i.e., Nat Geo Weird But True World
  • Traditional – provide a broad survey of a topic, i.e. Rattlesnakes
  • Narrative – provide a narrative arc, i.e.  Radiant Child The Story of Young Artists Jean-Michel Basquiat
  • Expository Literature – non-narrative books that present a narrow topic in a creative or unique way, i.e. Summertime Sleepers: Animals that Estivate!

To become more comfortable with this idea, open a math book and check out a spread. Which category might each fit into? Try these:

 

The Kitchen Pantry Scientist Math for Kids: Fun Math Games and Activities Inspired by Awesome Mathematicians, Past and Present; with 20+ Illustrated, by Rebecca Rapoport and Allanna Chung.

 

 

 

Just a Second, by Steve Jenkins

 

 

 

 

 

Dollars & Sense: A Kid’s Guide to Using–Not Losing, written by Elaine Scott, illustrated by David Clark.

 

 

 

 

Sir Cumference and the First Round Table , written by Cindy Neuschwander, illustrated by Wayne Geehan (you’re right, this one is not nonfiction!)

 

 

 

Just as all novels books do not fit neatly into one genre, nonfiction books don’t all fit neatly into these categories, but I bet you know a reader who LOVES one of these categories. What if we recommended books to readers based on this? What if we encouraged all readers to sample books from all of these categories?

This is a powerful new way to understand and nudge forward this paradigm shift for teaching and learning nonfiction!

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Prepared by:

 

Heather L. Montgomery, author of 17 nonfiction books for kids.

www.HeatherLMontgomery.com

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STEM Tuesday– Math– In the Classroom

By on March 14, 2023   /   Math, STEM Tuesday  

 

What’s the story of math? It’s more than logical equations, patterns, and exact answers. These STEM Tuesday books tell of math’s history, its use, and how it integrates into the lives of fictional characters. Bring the story of math into the classroom with these fun activities.

A Quick History of Math

by Clive Gifford, illustrated by Michael Young

This book chronicles the history of math, beginning with the Lebombo bone (the very first mathematical object in the world) all the way to the present day. Readers will learn how to count like an Egyptian using hieroglyphs and how to do matha-magic with magic squares. It’s fun and engaging, and also packed with jokes, graphics, and activities.

 

Classroom activity: Reenact the history of math with micro-performances in the classroom. Have students research a moment of math history from the book. Then ask them to create a little skit to act out that moment. Some examples could be:

  • An Ancient Egyptian store where the cashier adds up purchases using heiroglyphs
  • Be a Babylonian math teacher and teach the class to add
  • Host a Chinese magic squares game show
  • Stage a short counting story play using Mayan math

Encourage students to create visuals, add math jokes, and interact with their audience. See how creative they can be!

What’s the Point of Math? What's the Point of Math? by DK

by DK

What’s the Point of Math? not only highlights how math is all around us, but also,that math is fun. Through a slew of fun facts, magic tricks, and mathematical brainteasers, readers will be entertained while they learn. The book also touches on the history of math as well as bios of famous mathematicians.

 

Classroom activity: Pick a famous mathematician from the book to write about. Have students research their mathematician and write a short biography of that person. Ask them to find photos or images to go along with parts of their bios. Encourage students to write interesting hooks at the beginning of their bios and titles for their biographies.

Much Ado About Baseball

Much Ado about Baseball

by Rajani Larocca

Although this is fiction, Much Ado about Baseball is a stellar book. To be clear, it doesn’t specifically teach readers about mathematical concepts, but the narrative connects to math in many ways. For example, twelve-year-old protagonist Trish is able to solve tough math problems and loves baseball. When she moves and joins a new baseball team, they must solve a difficult puzzle or there will be tragic consequences.

 

Classroom activity: Part of writing fiction is developing characters. Ask students to develop a math-loving character. They should write descriptions of the character and how math is part of their lives. Pose these prompts: What kind of personality does this person have? What do they look like? What kind of math goals do they have? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Have students create posters with an image of their character, their character’s name, and a description of what they are like.

 

Karen Latchana Kenney loves to write books about animals, and looks for them wherever she goes—from leafcutter ants trailing through the Amazon rain forest in Guyana, where she was born, to puffins in cliff-side burrows on the Irish island of Skellig Michael. She especially enjoys creating books about nature, biodiversity, conservation, and groundbreaking scientific discoveries—but also writes about civil rights, astronomy, historical moments, and many other topics. Visit her at https://latchanakenney.wordpress.com

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