Biblio Reviews

I'm amazed that so many education-focused texts ever get published since I've rarely had my pedagogical knowledge expanded by the many theoretical pedagogical texts I've been asked to read or that I have read voluntarily. The more of these books that I read, the more that I realize that the landscape of education-focused texts is made up of the same recycled ideas...and that much of education reform is really a money-making endeavor that a select few profit from in a major way at the expense of many parents and educators. The new wave of texts being published in response to the Common Core will soon saturate the market with many pimping out old ideas under new labels.

What's in a name? I had not been familiar with the Stephen King quotation when I first named this blog "Portable Magic Reviews." At first, I thought I was being unique. Boy, was I wrong! While I agree with King's sentiment about the power within books, I wasn't keen on having a blog name that was so common. I wanted a name that clearly communicated the purpose of this blog, so after a couple more changes, I settled on "Biblio Reflections and Reviews." I not only include a review, but I also share a reflection inspired by the particular book. While not the most exciting of names, it felt less kitchy and more palatable than the original blog title.

Technically, the Common Core is already here, but in case one did not know, the saturation of "Common Core aligned" notices on various workbooks, vocabulary texts, and the deluge of Common Core-themed texts on the market would make that announcement clear enough. Anxious parents, and even more anxious and novice teachers, will soon scan these shelves to buy these Common Core-themed texts in the desperate hope that they will be enlightened. Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher's  Rigorous Reading: 5 Access Points for Comprehending Complex Texts  (2014) is one such text they might come across. In the end, Frey and Fisher's  Rigorous Reading  is an overview of the reading demands of the Common Core. In it, Frey and Fisher identify five strategies ("access points") for engaging students with complex texts, a requirement of the new Common Core. These five access points include the following: Purpose and Modeling Close and Scaffolded Reading Instruction Collaborati...

It seems as if every wanna be romance writer makes Amazon their dumping ground. Desperate to find some new authors to diversify my limited favorite authors' selections, I stumbled upon Terri Osburn's  Home to Stay  (2014) ,  a bland, forgettable romance that emphasizes why I hate small town romance series. Home to Stay  is the story of Willow Parsons and Randy Navarro, residents of Anchor Island. Willow, living on the island for only a year, works as a bartender and harbors a secret that keeps her emotionally distant and secretive about her past. Randy, muscle-bound owner of the local fitness club and brother to Willow's "best friend," is determined to break through Willow's protective shell despite her visible, negative physical reaction to him / his size. In the course of planning their friends' wedding, Willow and Randy fall in love, but will she let her past get in the way of true love? Of course not! At 291 print pages,  Home to Stay  is an abs...

Catherine Coulter's Night Storm  (1990) was my first. I was a freshman in high school, and it happened in Civics class. "Girl, you gotta read this!" a classmate exclaimed. She  grinned as she beckoned  me to read a sizzling passage from the novel. Fourteen and innocent, I could not believe that such eroticism existed in the pages of books that were readily available at my local library.  After such temptation, I could not wait until she  finished the book to lend to me, so after school, I walked down to my local library to get my copy. I consumed it within a couple of days, read the other two books in the Night  series, and began my love affair with reading romance novels, in particular, and reading, in general. Membership into the Harlequin book club quickly followed. (How I found the money to retain my membership remains a wonder to me because I did not work throughout high school.) I spent every waking hour reading the  Harlequin  Pre...

Malcolm Gladwell is a storyteller. What I find particularly admirable about his work is that he is able to convey what has been traditionally a spoken language skill into a written one--while reducing seemingly complex ideas into digestible bite-size chunks. It is not surprising, then, that  The Tipping Point  (2000) was a best seller and achieved "one of the best books of the decade" status on many lists. Pulling from a broad set of examples from different aspects of life and history, such as from Paul Revere's midnight ride, to successful advertising campaigns, to  Sesame Street  and  Blue's Clues,  to the decline of the crime rate in New York City, Gladwell explains "how little things can make a big difference." More specifically, Gladwell describes how three special groups of people--connectors, mavens, and salesmen--are responsible for creating word-of-mouth epidemics. In the process, he also adds interesting bits of trivia, such as that the number...

"My heart hurts," said one of my students, crouching near her desk, after we finished the book recently. She then asked if she could go in the hallway because her pain in response to the story was so acute. Some others had tears in their eyes--the girls visibly so while the boys tried to hide or deny theirs. I had a lump in my throat and waited until I had control over my emotions so I could formulate the words to speak. In all, I reveled in this particular moment. There is something thrilling, satisfying, and affirming about seeing someone else fall in love with a book that you, yourself, love. When that someone else is a group of not and non-readers, the experience becomes magical. Such is the case for me every year when I introduce my students to John Steinbeck's  Of Mice and Men  (1937), a heartbreaking historical novella about the friendship between migrant workers George Milton and Lennie Small. In as few as 103 pages,  Of Mice and Men  packs a strong emot...

I first read  Of Mice and Men  (1937)   as an adult, a few days before I was to teach it to my sophomores years ago. I had wanted a quick read; at 103 pages, it fit the bill. What I remember from that first reading is that I was hooked within the first five pages, that I didn't like George much at first, and that I gutted by the ending. Other than  Flowers for Algernon  (1966) ,  which I had read my freshman year of high school, I hadn't wept as much reading a book as when I finished  Of Mice and Men . ( My Sister's Keeper  [2004] by Jodi Picoult and  The Fault in Our Stars  [2012] by John Green are two others that have since provoked such a similar response). Looking back, I guess I wasn't much of a good reader because Steinbeck had foreshadowed the ending from the very first chapter. In any case, I followed up my reading with seeing the 1992 film adaptation. Despite my newfound familiarity with the story, the movie, too, left me...