The Book Thief

By Markus Zusak

"I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."

It's just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . . Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist-books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul. From the Hardcover edition.

This book is all about words. Their power. "The words. Why do they have to exist?" For Liesel they exist to enable her and others to survive. For the Nazis they exist to cause harm and persuade others. Words are the cause for Nazi Germany and the reign of Hitler as well as the savior for the people of Himmel Street. Through the eyes of Death we see human nature and circumstance pushed to the limits. Death is sarcastic, honest and the perfect narrator for a book set in a time of so much death and destruction. However he shows us the life of Leisel and how their can be hope in the darkest of times. 

This book is worded and written so beautifully you will find yourself falling in love with the words

Reading level: 12 and up; Grades 7 and up Lexile: 730L

Suggested Delivery: Independent Read

Electronic Resources:
http://zusakbooks.tumblr.com/ This is Markus Zusak's Tumbler/website. Gives information about Markus and his books. 

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/markuszusak/ Gives information about Markus and his books. 
http://www.thebookthief.com/ - This site is related to the movie that is coming out that is based on this book. This would be a great site to introduce the book and get kids interested or to follow up after reading.
http://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=925&a=1 Audio books, Lesson plans, Useful links, vocabulary lists, interviews with Markus (Great Resource for teachers!!)

Activities to Increase Comprehension:

Before Reading: Students can have a discussion about the Holocaust and what they know about it to get a bit of background knowledge before reading the book. 
Students can also watch the movie preview as a preview to the book and what they are about to read. 

During Reading: The book is broken up into ten parts within each part are chapters. Have the students look at all the chapter titles in the part they are about to read and have them make a prediction of what will happen in that part of the book. Have the students use background knowledge, context clues, and historically relevant information to make informed predictions. 

After Reading: Have the students write a story from the perspective of an emotion or inanimate state such as death, passion, love, greed etc. Have the students create a character map and think about what these characters would look like, how they would act, how would they see things.   

A Long Way from Chicago

By Richard Peck

It is between 1929 and 1935, the years of the Great Depression. Joey and his younger sister Mary Alice live in the city of Chicago. Every year during August they go visit their larger than life Grandmother. Each year that they go something interesting happens. Within the years that they go see their Grandma they see witness some pretty incredible things like a corpse, a sheriff in his underwear, and the Cowgill boys terrorizing the town but Their grandma sure does know how to keep things interesting. Each chapter can be read as a short story or they can be read together for a wonderful novel full of adventure and humor.

 

Publisher: Puffin Copyright: 2000

Reading Level: 4th – 8th Lexile:750L

Suggested Delivery: Independent read

Vocabulary: hazy, misty, superstitious, significance, queried questioned, inquired, asked, lurked, furtively, slink, lope, cadaver, loped, blackmail, bogus, riddled

Electronic Resources:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/clubs/pdfs/longwayfromchicago_t.pdf This PDF offers some great discussion questions and answers, as well as information about the author and the book

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/richard_peck.html This website offers some really great discussion questions, information about the book and even a lesson plans on how to relate the book to all different content areas such as science, math, social studies and art.

http://eduscapes.com/newbery/99b.htm this is another source that can help connect the book to different content areas. It also provides some electronic resources to help teach the book.

Activities to Increase Comprehension:

Before reading: Have the students research or know something about the Great Depression since that is when this book takes place. Having some background of the time period will help in comprehension of the book.

During reading: The students can do a jigsaw activity where one group become experts on one character ex: Grandma and then another table become an expert on another character and so on then have the students switch and get into discussion groups with someone from each group to talk about the characters that they have become experts on to better inform other students.

After reading: Have the students to a poem from two voices and pick two of the characters for the poem. Students can also participate in a Readers Theater where they pick the chapter that they would really like to read or act out. Because this book is really entertaining to read the students would have a lot of fun acting it out.