Finding secondary school books to recommend to your classes can be hard. Here’s a selection of five top titles for those students who enjoy issue-based novels. Continue reading Secondary School Books: Five Fiction Books About Overcoming Adversity
Beyond shares five good reasons to read and why we shouldn’t leave our books languishing on the shelf until the summer holidays. Continue reading Five Reasons to Read if You’re a Teacher
We all have our weaknesses. I frequently tell myself that nobody’s perfect. Even Mother Teresa probably had an off-day or two. So, in the spirit of openness, here’s a list of what I get wrong – a lot: I am … Continue reading What the @~#*?
I was recently browsing through Twitter and a particular thread caught my eye. It was a post asking readers to give their most unpopular, even sacrilegious, literary opinion. In the comments below was a cacophony of spicy takes: fan fiction and Young Adult literature are as important as classic novels! Ebooks are better than paper! Dog-earing pages is fine! Some films are better than the book! As I scanned through, I found myself nodding in agreement with some, while others made the colour rise in my cheeks as I struggled to contain the urge to reply with a tirade about … Continue reading In Defence of the Controversial Opinion
If you ever find time to Netflix and chill in amongst all the planning and assessment, you might have caught Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up, in which the Japanese organising consultant compels viewers to de-clutter their lives and homes. Now, I am conscious that my classroom would undoubtedly benefit from the trained eye of a professional organising consultant, although I doubt a teacher’s salary would stretch to such expertise. What I – and numerous other bibliophiles – take issue with is Kondo’s minimalist dictum stating that book collections should be limited to 30. I am willing to concede that space-saving Kindles … Continue reading In Defence of Paper: I’ll Be Keeping Stig of the Dump
