Amanda Zieba Learning with the Word Nerd | Free Verse || First Chapter Friday || Novel in Verse and Prose @AmandaZiebatheWordNerd | Uploaded April 2024 | Updated October 2024, 14 hours ago.
Friday, April 5, 2024 - April is national poetry month and the perfect time to read this award winning and heart wrenching story interspersed with poems written by the main character. If you are a fan of Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons, Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s One for the Murphys or Jaqueline Woodson’s Locomotion, you are going to love this story set in a West Virginia coal mining town. Make sure to listen all the way to the end to discover the mystery quote that appears on screen, one word at at time!
Blurb: When her brother Michael dies in a fire, Sasha Harless has no one left and nowhere to turn. He’d been her caretaker since their mother ran off and their father died in the mines. And before his accident, Michael made Sasha promise him that she would leave Caboose, West Virginia for a better life someday. Now, she’s in foster care, feeling more stuck and broken than ever. Trying to cope with her brother’s death, Sasha returns to school and is introduced to poetry and finds it's a new way to express herself when spoken words just won’t do. She even discovers family she didn’t know she had, including a younger Mikey Harless, who’s just as broken as she is. But just as she’s settling into her new life, tragedy strikes the mine her cousin works in. While fearing the worst, Sasha takes Mikey and finally makes her escape. But will running from Caboose really fix the pain in Sasha’s life, or will she have to discover a new way to heal? Free Verse was the 2012 winner of the Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship through the PEN American Center.
Grab your copy of Free Verse from your school or classroom library or if you can’t find it there, order it from Alex at my favorite indie bookstore: Birdy’s Bookstore. birdysbookstore.com/. It is also available for purchase on Amazon: amzn.to/4aERrCv
Want to increase student engagement? Try these First Chapter Friday worksheets, with both generic response and novel specific sheets for each video in this playlist! Grab them here → teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Word-Nerds-First-Chapter-Friday-Read-Video-Aloud-Resource-Bundle-8469855
Grab the Mystery Quote Resource Here: teacherspayteachers.com/Product/First-Chapter-Friday-Mystery-Quote-Worksheets-Implementation-Ideas-9546402
Take a look at all of the other First Chapter Friday videos in this playlist → youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpVe6VlpCwJZCLWm7CR4yX93l3xN2conB
Wanna say thanks and fuel future creations? Buy me a virtual cup of coffee for making this (and many other!) amazing free video resources for your classroom. Click here → ko-fi.com/amandazieba_thewordnerd
And finally, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE this channel for more great videos from the Word Nerd! Just click here: bit.ly/wordnerdonyoutube
** The videos in this First Chapter Friday Playlist were created in the spirit of: helping teachers and students find high quality and engaging books to read, promoting amazing authors and great books, and celebrating stories
Each video in this playlist features a book chosen by Amanda Zieba based on its literary merit, thematic/curriculum connection, or simply because she loves it and thinks you will too. All commentary and facts shared about the book and author were also researched/gathered by Amanda. Books were purchased by Amanda from Birdy’s Bookstore, Barnes and Noble or Amazon, unless otherwise stated. These videos are recorded and edited from Amanda’s home office in Wisconsin, USA. **
#wordnerd #mglit #readingrecommendations #amandazieba #firstchapterfriday #teachertube #mglit #sadbooks #poetrymonth #freeverse #westvirginia #coalminingtown #siblingdeath #awardwinningfiction #sarahdooley #poetry #poetrybook #poetryandprose
Friday, April 5, 2024 - April is national poetry month and the perfect time to read this award winning and heart wrenching story interspersed with poems written by the main character. If you are a fan of Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons, Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s One for the Murphys or Jaqueline Woodson’s Locomotion, you are going to love this story set in a West Virginia coal mining town. Make sure to listen all the way to the end to discover the mystery quote that appears on screen, one word at at time!
Blurb: When her brother Michael dies in a fire, Sasha Harless has no one left and nowhere to turn. He’d been her caretaker since their mother ran off and their father died in the mines. And before his accident, Michael made Sasha promise him that she would leave Caboose, West Virginia for a better life someday. Now, she’s in foster care, feeling more stuck and broken than ever. Trying to cope with her brother’s death, Sasha returns to school and is introduced to poetry and finds it's a new way to express herself when spoken words just won’t do. She even discovers family she didn’t know she had, including a younger Mikey Harless, who’s just as broken as she is. But just as she’s settling into her new life, tragedy strikes the mine her cousin works in. While fearing the worst, Sasha takes Mikey and finally makes her escape. But will running from Caboose really fix the pain in Sasha’s life, or will she have to discover a new way to heal? Free Verse was the 2012 winner of the Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship through the PEN American Center.
Grab your copy of Free Verse from your school or classroom library or if you can’t find it there, order it from Alex at my favorite indie bookstore: Birdy’s Bookstore. birdysbookstore.com/. It is also available for purchase on Amazon: amzn.to/4aERrCv
Want to increase student engagement? Try these First Chapter Friday worksheets, with both generic response and novel specific sheets for each video in this playlist! Grab them here → teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Word-Nerds-First-Chapter-Friday-Read-Video-Aloud-Resource-Bundle-8469855
Grab the Mystery Quote Resource Here: teacherspayteachers.com/Product/First-Chapter-Friday-Mystery-Quote-Worksheets-Implementation-Ideas-9546402
Take a look at all of the other First Chapter Friday videos in this playlist → youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpVe6VlpCwJZCLWm7CR4yX93l3xN2conB
Wanna say thanks and fuel future creations? Buy me a virtual cup of coffee for making this (and many other!) amazing free video resources for your classroom. Click here → ko-fi.com/amandazieba_thewordnerd
And finally, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE this channel for more great videos from the Word Nerd! Just click here: bit.ly/wordnerdonyoutube
** The videos in this First Chapter Friday Playlist were created in the spirit of: helping teachers and students find high quality and engaging books to read, promoting amazing authors and great books, and celebrating stories
Each video in this playlist features a book chosen by Amanda Zieba based on its literary merit, thematic/curriculum connection, or simply because she loves it and thinks you will too. All commentary and facts shared about the book and author were also researched/gathered by Amanda. Books were purchased by Amanda from Birdy’s Bookstore, Barnes and Noble or Amazon, unless otherwise stated. These videos are recorded and edited from Amanda’s home office in Wisconsin, USA. **
#wordnerd #mglit #readingrecommendations #amandazieba #firstchapterfriday #teachertube #mglit #sadbooks #poetrymonth #freeverse #westvirginia #coalminingtown #siblingdeath #awardwinningfiction #sarahdooley #poetry #poetrybook #poetryandprose
