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Book recommendations please

31 replies

lifeisafunnyoldgame · 12/08/2024 10:11

I’ve started a new thread as I am
not sure if my comment on another may get missed… copied and pasted for ease 😉

I will shamefully admit to not reading for pleasure anywhere near as much as I should, ok never, but I have spent the last few years reading for work/uni.

I want to finish the Child Called It series, however I need to change my genre of reading.

I am a new teacher this year, and want to introduce reading for pleasure in the class, and will have a “What I am reading” display so it is only right that I display my books on there too. This is where I need help.

What books would you recommend for a teacher who could display in class and potentially talk to the children about?

I am not into Harry Potter/LOTR style books.

I do like autobiographies and those that really pull on heart strings.

The last book I tried to read was Girl on a train, I struggled so much getting into it so gave up in the end. That was 4 years ago, I haven’t read a book since. 😕

OP posts:
LittleLittleRex · 12/08/2024 10:49

Ah, so no "Murder" in the title - nice titles, easy to read and you feel you learn something about history?

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe
White Teeth
The Midnight Library

LouH5 · 12/08/2024 10:47

Currently 2/3 the way through Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent and it’s brilliant!

DancefloorAcrobatics · 12/08/2024 10:41

What age group are you teaching?

I find fantasy type books good for primary age kids.
Adult books like S.A Chakraborty: City of Brass, great for sharing with children if you want to talk about what you are reading....
I just finished Veronica G Henry: The Canopy Keepers, again has some great content for sharing.

BarbaraBuncle · 12/08/2024 10:32

As you say you like autobiographies, you might like Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming. I think he wrote it around 10 years ago and I found it very moving.

For a bit more of laugh, try Miriam Margolyes's autobiographies - This Much Is True and Oh Miriam! She likes to shock, so not one for prudes 😁

lifeisafunnyoldgame · 12/08/2024 10:24

Thank you for a quick reply.

I’ll be teaching year 3, but the books I will be reading won’t be read to them, it’s just to show that I also read for pleasure too, but clearly I can’t be sharing that the books I read are about abuse or sordid love affairs.

My daughter has hundreds of books, which I can’t read in case I crease a spine or a page, but they all seem to involve a murder of some sorts!

OP posts:
LittleLittleRex · 12/08/2024 10:16

What age are you teaching?

I think you can find much better writing that the "Child called It," books but probably have to ease yourself back in - have you considered some young adult books, like "The good girls guide to murder," or easy reading like the Richard Osmand books?

Autobiographical books might include The Heart's Invisible Furies, that is beautifully written and based on his real life.