This month at Reading Wildly, we talked about Science Fiction books. We had an interesting conversation about the different types of science fiction that exist - it's not all aliens and spaceships (although it is some of that!). And we talked about whether science fiction is more "for boys" and whether science fiction is being written that will attract girl readers, too. (What we actually found was that the books we read were about half and half with girl protagonists and boy protagonists and that almost everyone on my staff [mostly female] was able to find at least one science fiction story they enjoyed.)
To start our meeting, we discussed the following articles: Sci-Fi Series and Stand-Alones Across the Curriculum by Aileen Kirkham (LibrarySparks, March 2012) and Why Everyone Should Read More Science Fiction by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (Huffington Post, 2013). One consideration we talked about is that some of our school require kids to read in different genres and sci-fi can be a hard sell for some kids who think they don't like it. We're always on the lookout for sci-fi that reads like other types of fiction (example: The Fourteenth Goldfish is a science fiction story, but also has a lot of elements of contemporary fiction).
And then we shared our booktalks and here's what we all read this month:
- My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville
- The City of Ember (Graphic Novel) by Jeanne DuPrau
- Earthling! by Mark Fearing
- Hunt for the Hydra (Jupiter Pirates #1) by Jason Fry
- The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm
- Adaptation by Malinda Lo (teen selection)
- Archvillain by Barry Lyga
- The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
- The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts
- Menace from the Deep (Killer Species #1) by Michael P. Spradlin
For June and July, it's Reader's Choice for our monthly meetings.... and we're not going to actually meet! It's so hard to get everyone together over the summer that we're forgoing in-person meetings and I'm asking everyone to contribute to our group "reading log" throughout the summer. We'll be back to our monthly meetings in August, once the kids are back in school and peace reigns again. ;)