Reading Along I-94: The Pull of Gravity

Jen is trying to pull the book away from me in this picture, but I’m too strong.

I don’t read a lot of Young Adult novels. I tell myself that I don’t read them because I won’t be able to recommend them to my fourth graders. That is partially true, but I am starting to uncover another reason why I don’t read YA. I never have.

That’s right, almost all of the books I read in high school were the “classics”, that we “read” via the whole class novel. The only books that I ever saw in high school classrooms were the ones that my teacher for us to read together. It was always depressing to walk into class and see a stack of some “classic” waiting for us.

As I begin to explore books for young adults, I start to get a little frustrated with my high school language arts teachers. I understand a classic here and there, BUT COME ON, how about a little variety once and a while?

For February’s Reading Along I-94 I have selected The Pull of Gravity to read with my book club partner-in-crime Jen Vincent.

For our book club in February we are going to read the whole book first, and then chat. A big reason we are doing this is because I sat down to read the first 50 pages of The Pull of Gravity, but I ended up reading the book straight through. It was crazy awesome, and I can’t wait to see where my conversations with Jen end up.

I can’t help but wonder how my life in high school would have been different if I would have had great books like The Pull of Gravity to read instead of books that made me want to jump off a cliff.  My dream is that my former students will not stand for classrooms without great books. Sometimes I lay awake at night, and picture them with picket signs in the front of their high school chanting, “WE WANT BOOKS! WE WANT BOOKS!” Wouldn’t that be cool?

Sorry for the rambling. I’m excited to read and talk books with my friend.

Happy reading everyone!