Teaching 8th graders is so much fun. I honestly believe this. Anyone who says they can't stand middle schoolers is blind to their world. I did, in fact, have a pre-AP class this year and true to form, it's a different experience. Are they smarter than "regular" kids? I can't make that distinction. I have a lot of regular kids that are extraordinarily bright that simply chose not to take the pre-AP classes. Mostly, the difference is the amount of work I can encourage the pre-AP students towards. More reading, especially.

I recently finished "Gil's All-Fright Diner" by A. Lee Martinez. A must read if you want a funny approach to the supernatural. A bit too much cussing in the first chapter (meaning, a disproportional amount.) that, if not there, I'd quickly choose to teach this book in class. The characters are easy to know, and yet they still develop (main characters and at least a few side characters). I would stop short of calling this a classic for the ages, but it's definitely a fun read.

Also recently finished "The Princess Bride" by S. Morgenstern, abridged and annotated by William Goldman. In my own experience, if you see a movie before reading the book, or read the book before seeing the movie, whichever you experience first becomes, in your mind, the superior experience. I believe this is probably because you're sharing a new part of your mind with the art that the second experience is, in some ways, trying to impose upon. In the case of The Princess Bride, this was not the case. I found the book to be much better than the movie, with the additional benefit of not coming to the conclusion that the movie was terrible. The book adds a lot of depth to the characters, specifically Buttercup's love for Westely. One of her speeches is so well written, with such a dramatic conclusion that I probably will use it to teach a myriad of concepts.

"Vampire Hunter D: Raiser of Gales" (book 2) was a nice read. I can't say that I liked it as much as the first novelization, but it was still quite enjoyable. The best parts to the book are the tidbits of prior history. What the Nobles have done to the planet, how humans have been modified, where all the demons came from, etc. However, there's a snippet to the third book at the end of the second which reveals even more Noble history, specifically infrastructure and transportation, that is, I think, interestingly thought out. Plausible? Not really But fun to think about. I'd recommend the series only to those who like Vampires and can put up with endless rewordings of "He had no visible reaction and this scared people" and "His question to her was so unusual that if she had known..." .. uhg :< A little more show, a lot less tell, please Mr. Kikuchi.

So, these three books, in addition to recognizing my favorites (like Bridge of Birds mentioned below) have given me the conclusion that I genuinely like adventure-fantasy. Finding *good* books in this category is not easy. This ( [link] )is an excellent reason why. I suppose a lot of critics would say that the fantasy/sci-fi genre has a disproportionate share of crap, but I would disagree. This genre just has goofier, and more noticeably poor covers and plots. Still, I'm less than willing to waste days of my life reading through really bad books.

Next up:
The Lecturer's Tale by James Hynes
Endless Love by Scott Spencer
Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Time for the Stars by Robert Heinlein
The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov
Half Magic by Edward Eagar
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Low Red Moon by Caitlin R. Kiernan