My Thoughts About Picture Books for Young Adults

I actually was very aware that books, such as the ones I read this week, were out there. I just have never really taken the time to explore this area as much as I am right now. I am very glad that I am getting the opportunity to take this class and broadening my horizons for my students and for myself.

I actually had to go to our public library in our little town because our middle school library didn't carry any of the books I was looking for. But, good new; our librarian told me that we still have some funds left for next year and I just need to tell her titles to order so that we can carry more books of this type and others! I am pretty excited about all of this!

I know that I could easily use every book I read this week in my curriculum and on the text set I am building. I really want to be able to give my students a wide variety of material covering World War II. Now, of course, I do not go into great detail about everything during World War II, but we do brush on major happenings (Hiroshima, Japanese internment camps, Pear Harbor, concentration camps, etc.) A lot of students become very interested in this part of history and each year they check out books like crazy from our library to learn more about "what really happened" during this time period.

While I was reading each book, I was constantly thinking, "How am I going to get my students to buy into picture books?" Well, I think I came up with a few ideas. But, my best idea is to type one of the stories up so that it looks like the format they are accustomed to reading in junior high. After reading it as a class and discussing it, I am going to surprise them by pulling out the actual picture book. I really want to see their reactions! I then want to talk about what their initial responses were to picture books before reading the story and then what their responses were after they realized the story was a picture book. This really will give a great opportunity to show students what picture books really can offer them.

I really found the information about using picture books with young adults helpful. Again, I was very aware of such ideas because of different workshops, seminars, and etc. that I have gone to in the past five years, but now it is nice to get to take the time to explore all of the options available to student and teachers. It is nice to be able to discuss it with others in this class as well.