Writing Challenge #4

I was surfing around online and found a great site containing lots of writing prompts.  You can find it here.  The one I'm going to use today is from that site. It intrigued me because it combines two of my favorite things, writing and books (and movies).  I think there's something for everyone in it.  I'm still thinking about which one to choose.  I'm fans of all of them, except Dr. Who.  I keep saying I'm going to start that show on Netflix, but haven't yet.  I'm afraid I'll be hooked and won't get anything else done.

Happy writing,

2013 Writing Challenge #3

I saw Man of Steel over the weekend, and it inspired this week's challenge.  Whenever I see a superhero movie, I always think about what it would be l like to have those powers, and of course I think about which powers I'd like to have.  For every superpower, it seems like there would be both good and bad aspects.  I liked that in Man of Steel they showed just how difficult Clark's powers were for him when they first manifested.

Challenge #3

Create your own superhero.  What are his/her powers?  Now write a story that shows the negative side of having that particular superpower.  

2013 7th Grade Book Recommendations

The last week of school, I had this year's 7th graders (now8th graders) compile lists of their favorite books.  Here they are in alphabetical particular order.

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Alex Rider series

Among the Brave

Among the Captured

Among the Hidden

B.F.G. 

Bitter Melon

Black Hawk Down

Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Bud, Not Buddy

Call of the WIld

Candy Shop War

Candymakers

Catching Fire

Charlotte’s Web

City of Bones

Clockwork Angel

Confectionately Yours

Crazy

Daniel X

Dead End in Norvelt

Diary of a Wimpy Kid series

Divergent

Dracula

Dragon’s Milk

Elephant Run

Eragon Series

Everlost

Extras

Fablehaven

Girl’s Best Friend

Gone WIth the Wind

Guardians of Ga’hoole

Hatchet

Holes

Hoot

Howl’s Moving Castle

Hunger Games

I Am Number Four

I Funny

In the Company of Heros

Incarceron

Insurgent

It

Jane Eyre

Kane Chronicles

Legend

Life of Pi

Lightning Thief

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Rings

Lost Hero series

Mark of Athena

Maximum Ride

Maze Runner

Middle School

Missing Series

Misty of Chintoge

Mockingjay

Mockingjay

Narnia Series

Of Mice and Men

Powerless

Pretties 

Pretty Little Liars

Rebecca

Red Pyramid

Red Umbrella

Safe Haven

Sarah’s Key

Search For the Moon King’s Daughter

Son of Neptune

Specials 

Summer of the Monkeys

Sunrise Over Fallujah 

The Art of Dancing in the Rain

The Big FIeld

The Cay

The Giver

The Help

The Hobbit

THe Limit

THe Lost Hero

The Lying Game

The Outsiders

The River

The Roar

The Unidentified

Twilight

Uglies

Uglies series

Under Wildwood

War and Peace

Warrior Heir

We Were Soldiers Once...and Young

Wildwood

Witch and Wizard

Because I'm a huge word nerd, I also put it into a Wordle.  The bigger the title, the more times it was suggested.  It's easy to see which books were the most popular this year.  To see the full version, click on the Wordle.

2013 Summer Writing Challenge #2

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer break so far!  Ours has been really busy, so I'm hoping for some relaxation time this week.  For the writing challenge, I think it's time for a story starter.  You may use this as the actual beginning of the story or simply to spark an idea.  I'll even give you a choice of two starters.

Remember to upload your story to Dropbox or email it to me directly.

Challenge #2

1) The waves crashed across the sand and I knew....

or

2)"That will show them," I thought as I hammered the last nail into place.

Happy writing!

Books-- Glow and Spark, the Sky Chasers series

Hello readers!  I'm working on compiling the recommendation list put together by this year's 7th graders.  I should have it up this weekend.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a series of books I came across by accident.  I was reading an article for teachers and it mentioned a few different series of books.  I'd heard of all of them except Sky Chasers.  It was recommended for people who liked the Hunger Games.  I downloaded the first book, Glow, to my Kindle, and I couldn't put it down.  As soon as I finished it, I downloaded Spark and read it in one day!  The only thing that frustrated me was that it had a killer cliffhanger ending, but the next book doesn't come out until January 2014.

The books are about two ships that were sent into space from Earth.  At the time, Earth was in bad shape, so their mission was to spend decades (I can't remember exactly how long) in space, and then come back and repopulate Earth.  The story starts out following Waverly and Kieran, two teenagers on the first ship.  Then the second ship attacks the first, and steals all the girls, killing most of the adults on board.  The story then goes back and forth between Waverly's experience on the new ship and Kieran's experience trying to run the other ship without any adults.

I thought the books were excellent.  I will warn that there is some violence (not as explicit as the Hunger Games) and the kids have to deal with some adult situations on the new ship.  I would rate them a PG-13.  They reminded me a lot of Lord of the Flies, with the kids trying to govern themselves and the way they handle situations new to them.

Happy reading!

2013 Summer Writing Challenge #1

Hello!  Welcome to another summer of writing challenges.  If you played along last year, this will work in much the same way.  Every week, I will post a new challenge for you.  Some weeks it will be personal writing, others weeks a story starter.    I will try to play along every week as well.

Week #1 Challenge:

Vacation.

What is the best trip you've ever taken?  Describe the trip and why it was so special.  

Remember, to have a chance at fun prizes, you need to email it to me or post it on Dropbox.  If you would title your file as your name and #1, that would be great.  For example, mine would be name nschuette#1.    I look forward to reading your pieces, and I will post my own sometime this week.  I have to decide which trip I want to describe.  Have fun!