Fall 2015 Book List
Book List (updated August 2014)
Shared by Elizabeth Baldridge
This is my updated book list used for the first part of the joy reading component of my course. Students choose their first joy reading book from this list (subsequent books just have to get my approval).
Published by EB
Elizabeth is a professor of developmental reading and writing at Illinois Central College. Growing up in Arvin, CA, Elizabeth was forever shaped by the injustices as well as the community and shared responsibility created by the migrant farming situation. As a first-generation college student and community college graduate, Elizabeth is a fierce advocate of open admissions and basic writing programs. While pursuing her Ph.D. in Writing Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Elizabeth focused on basic writing, literacy studies, and disability studies. Her dissertation explored how the introduction of standardized intelligence testing and the eugenics movement converged with limited understandings of literacy to create the category of learning disabilities. That history informs her academic obsession with public (mis)understandings of basic writers.
In her non-academic life, Elizabeth is a wife, mom, dog lover, and good food fanatic.
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Thank you, Elizabeth! This list is amazing.
Thank you! This is what I’ve been wanting to do with my course. I’ve used book clubs, but am short books this semester because I have four sections. I’m going to try this method instead. Do you have any other materials you’re willing to share for this part of your course? I also wondered if you shared Atwell’s stance on “no series books” (i.e. no Twilight). I’m torn on how to address that here.
Meagan — I’ll send you everything I have if you want it! I have novel projects, reading logs, lit letters. . . a ton of handouts that I’m happy to dump in your inbox. 🙂 Some of the books on my list are series books, but I DO have to approve the books students choose after their first from the list. And no — Twilight is not on the list. Generally, I check the book for vocabulary, plot complexity, etc.
If you want my materials, send me an email (eb896@icc.edu), and I’ll get them to you! (I think some are already posted here, but I have revised since then.)