Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Teaching Resources for Stormbreaker from the Alex Ryder Series

The Boys at my middle school love the Alex Ryder series. The series is a great addition to the adventure genre that so many boys enjoy. An Alex Ryder display in your library with the Ryder books displayed along with nonfiction books about spies, secret codes, etc. will be a hit with lots of your students. You could add some of the pictures and downloads available on the movie's web site. http://www.stormbreakerthemovie.com

A visitor to this blog has asked about teaching resources for Stormbreaker. Here is a list of some teaching resources and writing activities that I found this morning on the web. Thanks to our visitor for the comment regarding this blog and Stormbreaker made on an earlier post.

Great Interview with Anthony Horowitz and a wonderful writing suggestion at the end of the interview
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=7245&FullBreadCrumb=%3Ca+href%3D%22%2Fbrowse%2Fsearch.jsp%3Fquery%3Dstormbreaker%26c1%3DCONTENT30%26c2%3Dfalse%22%3EAll+Results+%3C%2Fa%3E

Two week unit on Stormbreaker and another one on Point Blanc from the UK
http://eduwight.iow.gov.uk/curriculum/core/english/transition8to9/transiti.asp

10 Good Resources for Stormbreaker from the UK’s Teachit Site
http://www.teachit.co.uk/index.asp?CurrMenu=17&S=472

Activities for Stormbreaker – Downloads are toward the bottom of the page.
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/all/respub/en_novel

Friday, May 04, 2007

Books for Teen Gamers

UPDATED: I made a big mistake! Kelly hasn't written a book but an article for Booklist titled "Books for Teen Gamers." It was first published in Booklist March 1, 2007. You can go to Booklist Online and get a 30 day free subscription to view the article.

Kelly Czarnecki has a great article out called Books for Teen Gamers. Games are categorized by types, such as Action-Adventure, Sports, Fighting Games, etc. and books are suggested for each category. Colfer's The Lost Colony and Horowitz's Stormbreaker are just two listed under the Action-Adventure Games. Think of what a great book display you could make in the library using this book and the related book lists. I know it would catch the attention of many of my boys.

New GUY-LITERATE books from Libraries Unlimited

Libraries Unlimited www.lu.com has four new GUY-LITERATE resources that sound really good.
  • The Guy-Friendly Teen Library- Serving male teens
  • Gotcha for Guys! Nonfiction books to get boys excited about reading
  • Playing to Learn - Video games in the classroom
  • Boys and Literacy - Practical strategies for librarians, teachers, and parents

I received the company's brochure about these books just last week. Gotcha for Guys has received a good review from Booklist. I am definitely considering these for future purchase.