Northview in the news

The Des Moines Register published an article about a recent issue with one of the 9th grade literature circle books, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Maya Angelou, author of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" wins

Many 9th graders are currently reading a book by a living literary legend, American author Maya Angelou.

In last night's National Book Award ceremony, Angelou was presented with the 2013 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.  The National Book Foundation's webpage and press release today described I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as "an intelligent and sophisticated story of how Angelou transformed herself from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a self-assured, dignified young woman and civil activist."

How are books selected for classroom use?

If you've been curious about how our school selects instructional materials (e.g. books, articles, etc.), consider reading the school board policies.

They're pretty dense, but if you exercise your close-reading skills, you'll probably be able to make sense of them!

605.00:  Selection of Instructional Materials

605.1:  Instructional Materials Inspection

605.2:  Objections to Instructional Materials

605.2F:  Reconsideration Request Form

You might also want to read the "Materials Adoption" section (page 3) of the English Language Arts Curriculum Review summary or curriculum approved by the school board.
There are similar policies for library materials:

Need a new book to read? Try Marie Lu's Legend series

I think the best-kept secret in the young adult dystopian books world is the Legend series by Marie Lu.

Champion, the third and final book in the series came out on Tuesday (and your NV library has two copies!), so you can read the whole series now--no waiting for release dates months away!

What I love about Legend and Prodigy--and I'm hoping Champion will be just as amazing--is the two main characters.  A young man named Day is the most-wanted criminal on the streets, famous for crimes meant to thwart The Republic, the government that took over after the United States crumbled because of environmental disasters.   June, who narrates the book in alternating chapters with Day, is a highly trained solider in the Republic, and she begins the series hunting for Day--her brother's killer.  These two characters feel more real to me than Tris and Four in Divergent, and I honestly care what happens to them.

I read somewhere that author Marie Lu was inspired to write this series after thinking about the premise of so she created the criminal-on-the-run character of Day to parallel Jean Valjean and the defender-of-the-law character June to parallel Javert.  As far as I can tell, the parallels to Les Mis end there, but I still think Lu has created a really gripping dystopian world with original flairs.

Another cool thing about Marie Lu is her website:  she posts a few examples of her early writings and her self-described mediocre poetry, there's a link to her artsy blog, and there's also a Legend-inspired game!  (Note:  I haven't previewed the game, so use your best judgment before playing!)

In short the verdict is:  put Legend hold today!  

Hooray!! Allegiant is coming out next Tuesday!

Take our quick survey to tell us how you plan to get a copy of Allegiant!  And add your name to the hold list if you want a copy from the NV library!

Who's John Green? What's all this about The Fault in Our Stars?

It's pretty hard to walk the halls of Northview without seeing a copy of John Green's most recent book The Fault in Our Stars.  What's the big deal about this book?  And why are people so crazy about John Green?  Well, the Daily Dot explains in their recent post "John Green Fandom 101:  Nerdfighters, Vlogbrothers, and Pizza".  Let's just say...welcome to Nerdfighteria!