As teachers, it is difficult not to share our passions with our students. Obviously, books and writing are a passion of mine (along with monarch butterflies). However, my students know that all books are not created equal in my eyes. No sirree- show me a dystopian novel and I’ll show you a book I can’t put down. Needless to say, our unit surrounding The Giver is always one of my favorites. Today my students wrote in-class short essays comparing the themes in The Giver to those in a dystopian short story. (Old Glory by Bruce Coville, Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., or All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury). They chose one of our 5 essential questions to answer and had to use examples from both pieces of literature to back up their opinions. I am so proud of the thinking and writing they did!
After they completed their work, I rewarded them by handing out a list of dystopian books. Sort of “If you like The Giver, then you will love….” I listed about 15 dystopian novels and they were thrilled. I will share the list on the blog tomorrow, but for now I am looking for your suggestions. My students exhausted my collection of dystopian novels, so I need more ideas! What are some of your favorite dystopian tween or YA novels?
Filed under: dystopian, readalikes | Tagged: dystopian, dystopian ya, the giver readalikes | 20 Comments »
