Middle School Showcases

"We are currently reading this book as a novel study so I decided to review this one. This is a short book so it is a quick novel study. The students are very engaged and love to guess who committed the crime. We talk about the mystery genre as some background knowledge and complete short student responses (Retell, Relate, Reflect) for each chapter. We do character reads as we read the book as a large group to keep the students engaged and interested. Something to keep in mind...the topic is about one of the passengers on the VIA Rail's "Canadian" who is murdered and two young detectives who are trying to solve the mystery of who committed the crime. So..there is some mention of blood, a drunk suspect and poison. We tie in discussions about the fact that the "Canadian" travels from Winnipeg to Vancouver and that the author includes Canadian cities as settings for his books."

- Kari Brown, Grade 5 Teacher

"Students absolutely love Wild Robot and Wonder. They provide many topics for conversation: friendships, loyalty, etc. Wild Robot also can connect to the Science curriculum with Waste and our World. Wild Robot constantly has you making predictions, inferring and students love the discussion it brings. I use this book as a read aloud during snack, however, it definitely could be used as a class novel study as well with the great conversation it brings. We do free-writes and making predictions activities based on the story. With Wonder we do a class novel study using our reading comprehension strategies."

- Sydney Boone, Grade 4 Teacher

"Freak the Mighty" was an exceptional book that captured the interest of the students right away. It brings together an awkward, large teenage boy who was a slow learner, with a tiny, very smart boy who was physically challenged and who loved to talk . When they build their unique friendship, it becomes one that is not only huge in mental courage and strength, but is physically huge as Max(the larger boy) ends up carrying Freak everywhere on his shoulders. Together they became "Freak the Mighty". This story explores multiple themes of strength, acceptance, courage, triumph, loss, bullying, to name a few. It is filled with the multiple adventures of Max and Freak and explores how courage takes on a very different meaning for both boys. The book is filled with so many moments to learn from that it could be used in multiple ways .... to explore bullying and acceptance was the most obvious one that I used in a lesson and to show that we all have value, that we can work together no matter the differences we may have, and that our lives have meaning no matter how challenging those lives may be. Keep in mind that many students would want to, and often would read ahead, so it was hard to contain them."

- Berna Coates-Perreault, Retired Teacher

"Barren Grounds is a phenomenal Canadian Indigenous book. It is essentially a modern Indigenous re-telling of Narnia (students loved the book and relates to foster system kiddos. It is honestly a 10/10 book and series."

- Erin Wieser, Grades 3 - 7 Teacher

"The three books offer important insight from a child’s perspective that helps students better understand and relate to the issues around war. They depict innocence, the value of friendship/family support, and the suffering or loss that occurs. We relate the themes from the book to world issues. They are used as a tool to create an understanding and compassion for others but also as a means to build sensibility towards immigrants coming to our country who may be fleeing this same type of issue in their home country. I used these books in my teaching from Grades (4) 5-7 for many years and students were highly engaged in the discussion wanting to know more about the historical, geographical, and political context at that time. Zlata`s Diary can be reviewed in Grades 5/6. The other two are better suited for Grades 6/7."

- Selena Mell, Director of Education

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