Wild Things: YA Grown-Up discussion

I am going to start the teacher/librarian corner with an author who I think is fabulous: Ginny Rorby.

I have read 2 of her 3 books and I think they are some of the most memorable, heart-wrenching, amazing books I've ever read: Hurt Go Happy and The Outside of a Horse.

I currently teach Hurt Go Happy and find it to be such a rewarding experience. I use it as a chance to teach students about disabilities, abuse (animal and child), sign language and overall acceptance. Ginny is amazing at telling stories about human healing with the help of animals. I'm also lucky enough to be in contact with Ginny, so she does a phone interview with my students and we go on a field trip to the Ape rescue facility that is a setting in the novel.

Outside of a Horse could easily be taught as well. It was just as good as Hurt Go Happy. My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

What grade levels do you use this book with? I teach gifted education and I'm always looking for great novels that fit in with our yearly unit on Change.

Amy wrote: "What grade levels do you use this book with? I teach gifted education and I'm always looking for great novels that fit in with our yearly unit on Change."

I taught it with 6th grade 08-09 and I'll teach it with 7th next year 10-11. (Couldn't teach it last year since I had some of the same kids...)
Either book by Ginny would work perfect for that unit and could easily be extended for the gifted learner.

Thank you once again, Kellee. This is just the kind of stuff I was hoping our teachers and librarians would do. I'd never even heard of this author, and now I know I want to read both of these.

Also a question: what happens when you find a book you'd like to teach? Do you have free rein to decide, or do your choices have to be approved? Or, do you not get a choice at all?

Laura wrote: "Thank you once again, Kellee. This is just the kind of stuff I was hoping our teachers and librarians would do. I'd never even heard of this author, and now I know I want to read both of these."

I am so glad!! They are fantastic and she really should be getting more recognition for the work she does :)

I agree! Good authors sooo deserve that, and YA lovers of all ages need to find out about these authors!

Laura wrote: "Also a question: what happens when you find a book you'd like to teach? Do you have free rein to decide, or do your choices have to be approved? Or, do you not get a choice at all?"

It really depends on the school and H.S. is much more strict.

There are some specific books that can only be taught in certain grades (Holes in 6th, Tangerine in 7th, The Giver in 8th, etc.) which you can't teach in a different grade, but if the book is not specified for a grade, my grade level agrees to it, and my principal okays it, we get to teach it. We teach in 7th grade at my school: Hurt go Happy, Love that Dog and Lightning Thief (the other 7th grade teachers also teach Tangerine and The Bully). I also teach lit circles where I have a TON of books for the students to choose from.

The best book for bullies I have ever read is "Give a boy a gun" by Todd Strasser. I use it as a reading group discussion book in conjunction with the 8th grade bully lessons given by our counselor.

Jeanette wrote: "The best book for bullies I have ever read is "Give a boy a gun" by Todd Strasser. I use it as a reading group discussion book in conjunction with the 8th grade bully lessons given by our counselor."

You should start a Stop Bullying thread :)

I've been talking to Ginny Rorby, and I am excited to say she is rewriting her first book as well, and I am sure it will be as fantastic as the other two. I haven't had the chance to read it yet, but I am going to wait until she rewrites it. :)

Dolphin Sky by Ginny Rorby

Kellee, do you know her? Or did you write to her or something? I'm curious... :)

I could not believe that she commented on my blog in response to my review. It was a definite SQUEE! moment for me! :D

(And I don't even think that review is anything close to as good as I wanted it to be! *blush*)

Story time.... :)
After reading Hurt Go Happy 2 summers ago, I decided I HAD to teach it. So, I planned my lessons and was all good to go. Then, low and behold, I find out she is coming to one of our Barnes and Nobles around here. I told me kids about it and some of us went (it was about 30 minutes from my school).

Later on in the year, I e-mailed her asking some questions and she offered to do a phone interview with my students (SO EXCITED!!!!)

Then, we began e-mailing back and forth. I found her on FB and here and we just began talking.She even sent me an ARC of The Outside of a Horse so I could read it (she had talked about the book in our call-in interview, so I'd been waiting for over a year!)

She is fabulous! And so humble and just a great person.

Becky wrote: "(And I don't even think that review is anything close to as good as I wanted it to be! *blush*)"

But it was exactly how you felt and was so heart-felt. It didn't need to be anything other than what it was.

That's so cool! :D

Ginny just let me know that the audio books for Hurt Go Happy and The Outside of a Horse will be coming out in 2011. This is really helpful if you are thinking of teaching it :)

Ginny has a new book coming out as well- it is different than the other two, but just as good. Her other books, Hurt Go Happy and Outside of a Horse, deal with animal and human issues; although Lost in the River of Grass does talk about animals and animal issues throughout, this is Ginny's most human of a novel. It is about survival and finding the strength inside of yourself to stand up to anything- even something that has always terrified you. Throughout the novel, Sarah and Andy, who are lost in the Everglades, face things that are only in most of our nightmares. I learned, quite quickly, that I probably wouldn't survive if I was lost in the river of grass. But Sarah, who is scared of EVERYTHING, grows up right in front of our eyes. This book made me gasp, cry, laugh- go through the cycle of emotions, but that is what makes a book so wonderful. Ginny Rorby knows how to write characters that the reader can connect with and this is no exception- Sarah is just a normal girl and Andy is just a normal boy, but through their journey they found out how extraordinary they are.

Also wanted to mention that I just finished my Hurt Go Happy unit and the kids really do connect and love this book- it teaches them so much about animals, empathy, abuse, humanity, etc. Such a deep, wonderful book.