some books i've read recently

1. YA novel - the demon headmaster series

ok well this is probably something that's closer to upper primary level of reading (heheh i did read it when i was in upper primary) but i absolutely love it! i can finish each book in 2-3 hours, so i polished off the entire 6 book series over a few days. it's basically about a guy who can hypnotise others and tries to take over the world. i guess there are some passages in it that are useful for lower secondary kids, but this is one of those books where it's not written particularly brilliantly, just has a nice plot, so the passages aren't extractable. 

2. MOE recommended text - boom by jean tay / roll of thunder, hear my cry

have to admit here i did not have time to read an MOE recommended text. i downloaded lord of the flies but never managed to get around to it, so to make up for that i'll write about 2 texts that i have read recently i.e. while on internship in july. 

boom is my absolute favourite piece of singaporean work!!!! seeing it on the shelf in the lit dept made me pick it up. it is such a powerful piece of work explaining the en-bloc situation in singapore. it's a little abstract as it discusses 3 stories but the ending is quite clear. i would love to do this at lower secondary. it's so rich with meaning that students can definitely extract some meaning from it, even at lower secondary levels. i really wish it would gain popularity as a lit text for o levels - i mean, it's a beautifully, artfully written play that totally trumps romeo and juliet (sorry shakespeare) and extremely accessible to singaporeans without excessive use of singlish

roll of thunder, hear my cry - this was a book that students found incredibly inaccessible, and that i found rather quite like to kill a mockingbird. the book itself is written quite well, each chapter can stand alone as a comprehension passage. its utility stops there though, in my opinion. students just do not seem to understand racism against blacks, and trying to relate it to the latent racism in singapore is difficult as well given that the way we conceive of racism here is quite different from that of the systemic and legal discrimination of the blacks in the past. 

3. other book - freakonomics

so i coach debates and my kids made it to the finals last year. i was incredibly proud of them and bought them freakonomics - it's a book that invigorates the mind and helps one see different links. it's not a typical fiction book, and lately i've been reading science fiction (miles vorkosigan saga), crime (john lutz is v addictive) & young adult books (for NIE) so this is a big shift. in the lead up to debate tournaments i also tend to read up on the economist, but listing that as a "text" just seemed stretching it a little (although reading one magazine from cover to cover is probably longer and more tedious than most books). anyway i love reading this whenever i feel like my mind is slowing down or i'm not making sense. this book is a lovely, interesting show of logic. i would be happy to include passages of this in comprehension passages, but probably in upper secondary in JC since it is a little deep. my adorable debate kids did manage to understand it at 16, but i would hardly call them the average 16 year old, so i hesitate to speak for its appropriateness.