22 - the nature of jade

so here's another deb caletti book . . . and just like the first book i reviewed on this blog, i was really drawn into this one. i'm starting to admire caletti's ability to write about common societal issues that tend to get overlooked in the YA genre. in the nature of jade those two issues are anxiety disorders and teen fatherhood.  there is a line in the book where jade says, "i am not my disorder" and while that is a powerful message to send about mental illness, i also feel like it is an honest description of this novel.  caletti has avoided writing a novel that reads like a diagnosis and also is able to stay away from defining her character (jade) only by some sort of textbook description of anxiety.  but yet, now that i've finished the book, i feel like i have more of an understanding of what anxiety is and how it touches every part of a person's life as they are dealing with it.

on a personal note, i should be back on track with reading now.  school is out and i've got a stack of all sorts of 'stuff' waiting for me.

21 - a midsummer night's dream

i FINALLY got to teach this play.  last year i had to teach romeo and juliet, which is probably my least favorite of shakespeare's plays . . . not that i don't love it, i just have a few others i would much rather share with my kiddos.   AMSND is one of them.  i owe my love of will to linda batty - my junior high english teacher.  it had been years since i'd actually read this play, but i had great flashbacks to good ol' WRJH during my month with this text.  (in particular, i remember us all turning the desks upside down and sitting on the floor to trick batty.  the teacher next door was NOT amused.)  nowhere in my mind do i think i did it the service that batty did, but maybe someday.  i'm hoping one of the outdoor shakespeare companies is performing it this summer.  i've never gotten to see it outside and would LOVE to.

not a lot of time for pleasure reading lately.  a lot of AP/GT curriculum reading, though.  that's always fun.