I've been prepping my classes again as school is just around the corner. For my mystery class, I love incorporating The Perfect Crime: 22 Crime Stories from Diverse Cultures Around the World. This anthology is a great mix of different kinds of stories (e.g. traditional whodunnit, thriller, domestic suspense, a noir hip hop screenplay, even a fairy tale retelling) by authors such as S.A. Cosby, Rachel Howzell Hall, Walter Mosley, and many more. It's a great way to introduce a wide variety of mystery subgenres and have my students consider what the standard mystery conventions are.

This time around I'm also going to include a game called Making History, a micro break-up game. We get "facts" about the timeline of a couple's relationship - but which of this info is true and which is rumor or biased interpretations of what happened? The designer of the game, Nicholas Proctor, is a history professor and frames the discussion around how we interpret history. But there's a lot here that can be applied to any classroom: critical thinking, recognizing bias, how narratives are crafted, etc. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out in my class. Hopefully my students will be able to apply what they learn from this experience to their own lives.