Saturday, February 23, 2008

The Traitor King


At the CCIRA conference I was the “host” for Todd Mitchell, the author of The Traitor King. http://www.toddmitchellbooks.com/ I enjoyed spending the day with him, and learned some fun writing games to do with my students. I started The Traitor King, but had not yet finished before I met him. The day would have been more fun if I had because I loved the book. It is a superb story about a dysfunctional family that takes the reader to the Otherworld. The story begins with, 6th grader, Darren Mananann and his family arriving at his uncle’s house in the woods of Maine for the yearly “family reunion”. However, when they arrive they discover that their Uncle Will has disappeared. The quest to find him reveals many family secrets. Todd’s story telling makes me feel like I am helping Darren and his sister Jackie find their Uncle Will.

It is a book that, I hope, The Guys Read Book Club will choose next year. They picked the books for the rest of the year. (More on that later.) We are planning on having Todd visit our school in the autumn to talk about The Traitor King and do writing workshops with individual classes.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Grant Money

I am so excited. I recently applied for a grant. I just found out that The Guys Read Book Club recieved an $800 dollar grant to buy books. Imagine a teacher in a book store!