SOTAREADING 2021-2024

  The Beekeeper of Aleppo Monday, Dec. 20. 2021 Moderator: Shelly Davis Nuri is a beekeeper and Afra, his wife, is an artist. Mornings, Nuri rises early to hear the call to prayer before driving to his hives in the countryside. On weekends, Afra sells her colorful landscape paintings at the open-air market. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the hills of the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo—until the unthinkable happens. When all they love is destroyed by war, Nuri knows they have no choice except to leave their home. But escaping Syria will be no easy task: Afra has lost her sight, leaving Nuri to navigate her grief as well as a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece toward an uncertain future in Britain. Nuri is sustained only by the knowledge that waiting for them is his cousin Mustafa, who has started an apiary in Yorkshire and is teaching fellow refugees beekeeping. As Nuri and Afra travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of thei

  Acclaimed author Renee Watson offers a powerful story about a girl striving for success in a world that too often seems like it's trying to break her. Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some  opportunities  she doesn't really welcome, like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. Just because her mentor is black and graduated from the same high school doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone people want to fix. Jade wants to speak, to create, to express her joys and sorrows, her pain and her hope. Maybe there are some things she could s

  October Read--The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill Monday, Oct. 25  4-6 Facilitator:   Winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal The  New York Times  Bestseller An  Entertainment Weekly  Best Middle Grade Book of 2016 A New York Public Library Best Book of 2016 A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2016 An Amazon Top 20 Best Book of 2016 A  Publishers Weekly  Best Book of 2016 A  School Library Journal  Best Book of 2016 Named to  Kirkus Reviews ’ Best Books of 2016 2017  Booklist  Youth Editors’ Choice Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the Forest, Xan, is kind. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Xan rescues the children and delivers them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moo

  Monday, Sept. 27   3:45 ZOOM mtg. Moderator: Susan Woodhams "A major work of Black American fiction." – The New Republic Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions–affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.

 From Nija: Hi All, Yesterday was our last meeting for the year.  We had a great discussion about  Long Way Down  by Jason Reynolds.  This book will be the focus for the Title I opportunity for staff, students, and parents in June. If you were unable to attend, please remember to post your response on the BLOG by Thursday. Attendance will be submitted on Friday.  The link is below.  http://sotareading2.blogspot.com/ SOTAREADING 2019-2020 Ten-year-old Hazel has always had an amazing imagination--a little too amazing her dad sometimes says--but even she can't pretend away the fact that her family has just become homeless, her best friend Jilly isn't speaking to her, and a tornado is on the way. Through friendship, family and the love of a sweet old dog, Hazel will discover there are many different kinds of brave. sotareading2.blogspot.com Our summer read is  If Beale Street Could Talk  by James Baldwin.  We will start our first meeting in September with this book discussion.  Sue

From Nija, (Thank you, Nija, for leading this PD Collegial Circle throughout the year and to all the facilitators of meetings!  Great book choices and presentations this year.) Hi All, We had a great discussion on Monday with author Trista Wilson.  Thank you for arranging this, Meagan.  Our two final meetings are Monday, May 17th and Monday, May 24th.  May 17th we will discuss our summer reads and possible books for next year.  On May 24th we will discuss our final book of the year,  Long Way Down  by Jason Reynolds. The reason we are meeting twice in May is because we must submit final attendance for our PD by June 4th.  Please blog by tomorrow if you missed Monday's meeting. I will submit attendance for the meeting on Friday. 

 From Nija: Hello All, We will be discussing  Sometimes Brave  by Trista Wilson.  Trista will join us for our conversation. Meagan Harris is the facilitator for this meeting.  Our May read is  Long Way Down  by Jason Reynolds.  Sometimes Brave by  Trista Wilso n Monday, April 26, 2021 Facilitator:  Meaghan Harris TimeL 3:30 Ten-year-old Hazel has always had an amazing imagination--a little  too  amazing her dad sometimes says--but even she can't pretend away the fact that her family has just become homeless, her best friend Jilly isn't speaking to her, and a tornado is on the way. Through friendship, family and the love of a sweet old dog, Hazel will discover there are many different kinds of brave. Jason Reynolds “An intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger.” — Booklist  (starred review) “Astonishing.” — Kirkus Reviews  (starred review) “A tour de force.” — Publishers Weekly  (starred review) A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Prin

  The Ardent Swarm Monday, March 22nd at 3:30 Moderator: Jim Tillotson From an award-winning Tunisian author comes a stirring allegory about a country in the aftermath of revolution and the power of a single quest. Sidi lives a hermetic life as a bee whisperer, tending to his beloved “girls” on the outskirts of the desolate North African village of Nawa. He wakes one morning to find that something has attacked one of his beehives, brutally killing every inhabitant. Heartbroken, he soon learns that a mysterious swarm of vicious hornets committed the mass murder—but where did they come from, and how can he stop them? If he is going to unravel this mystery and save his bees from annihilation, Sidi must venture out into the village and then brave the big city and beyond in search of answers. Along the way, he discovers a country and a people turned upside down by their new post–Arab Spring reality as Islamic fundamentalists seek to influence votes any way they can on the eve of the country

  Born a Crime Monday, Feb. 22  3:30 pm Moderator: Shelly Davis Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of  The Daily Show  began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle. Born a Crime  is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s rela

Future meetings: Our February read is  Born a Crime  by Trevor Noah facilitated by Shelly Davis. Our March read is   The Ardent Swarm   by Yamen Manai facilitated by Jim Tillotson.  

Moderator: Brad Craddock  Presentation https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y1lHIxb-D0Lr6t4PUHdkkMqKtVk2IxfQHT2t79qPfmQ/edit?usp=sharing   from Nija Branca: Hello! Just a reminder that we are meeting to discuss the two books below. Please choose one (or both) to read and discuss.  What is Not Yours Is Not Yours   by Helen Oyeyemi   and "Here for It"   by R. Eric Thomas - (choose one) Brad Craddock will facilitate the meeting.  Check email for Zoom link.