I am looking to make my classroom library more accessible and diverse for my students. I teach functional literacy to 9th graders who read very much below grade level. I am specifically looking for suggestions for any 5th-8th grade level novels that could be of interest to 14 year old black and hispanic boys. The students' reading level makes English class hard enough, I would hate for lack of interest in the content to make it worse.
by lizardqueen121
3 Comments
Look at the “Rick Riordan presents” imprint.
If it’s not too old(-fashioned), perhaps King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry? I found this teaching guide on it: https://school.teachingbooks.net/annotations.cgi?id=11470#t_cid_1
Do you have any examples that represent the type of book you’re looking for, or anything close? What do you know about your students and their interests? Are your students in a city, a suburb, a rural area, or a particular part of the country that might shape their interests or culture? You mention Hispanic boys. Are they new immigrants, English learners, or 2nd/3rd generation? Are the Black boys from the American South, Inner City, or Carribean, or African immigrants? This helps to narrow down the issue of seeing themselves in the story. Also, consider Fantasy & Science Fiction or comic books & graphic novels that tend to entertain or use alien or fantasy characters as stand-ins to deal with race indirectly. And some books are just universally popular. If the goal is to get kids to read, find anything entertaining that they might like to read. Popular is popular, and books, especially YA, are very targeted to the audience. I read an introduction by Rick Riordan where he talked about how he now has a sensitivity editor who helps make his new books more inclusive. I think he is not alone in this.