Yesterday was the last fifth grade book group of the school year (though we’ll have one meeting in July), and it was the best yet.\u00c2\u00a0 This group of kids has evolved so much over this year, and they are now the most thoughtful, well-spoken, intelligent, and respectful bunch of fifth graders that I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our book was The Green Glass Sea <\/em>by Ellen Klages, a piece of historical fiction about the building of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos.\u00c2\u00a0 Dewey, the main character, is ten when the story starts in 1943; we begin with her being transported out to Los Alamos to join her scientist father who has been working there for a while.\u00c2\u00a0 The story continues up to the dropping of the first bomb on Hiroshima, and a sequel is in the works.<\/p>\n The kids loved the book.\u00c2\u00a0 And I mean LOVED the book.\u00c2\u00a0 This really surprised me, since I had kind of pulled a fast one on them to even get this book into the mix for a group discussion (they had summarily rejected this book in favor of a cowboy story, and I was regretfully going along with their choice until I figured out there weren’t enough copies of the cowboy story available, and I snuck The Green Glass Sea <\/em>back in).\u00c2\u00a0 The group is half girls, half boys, and everyone really liked the misfit, nerdy character of Dewey.\u00c2\u00a0 The girls loved that Dewey\u00c2\u00a0is a pioneer, a girl who\u00c2\u00a0excels at science and experiments, and that\u00c2\u00a0she\u00c2\u00a0doesn’t care about what other people\u00c2\u00a0think of her.\u00c2\u00a0 The boys respected Dewey’s intelligence, and one commented extensively on how being a\u00c2\u00a0“nerd” isn’t necessarily a bad thing.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Another member of the group, who I swear is better educated and more intelligent at the end of fifth grade than I am now, got us into a conversation about the differences between boys and girls.\u00c2\u00a0 The conversation arose because I mentioned the tension between the pair of married scientist characters in the book (the wife begins to have serious misgivings about using the bomb on civilians, while her husband is too wrapped up in the excitement of scientific success to see her point), and Aaron commented that boys grow up playing with soldiers and loving war, while girls are more peaceful.\u00c2\u00a0 There was some bristling of other group members as he said that, but eventually we were able to discuss that yes, there are some differences between men and women, and that we also need to be careful not to make blanket, stereotypical statements about any group.<\/p>\n Peter, another group member, then said: “It’s really not fair that men can get drafted to go to war, but women can’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone’s equal, so drafting should be equal, too.”\u00c2\u00a0 A lot of eyes opened wide, as the truth of that statement hit home.\u00c2\u00a0 Then Peter started to talk about the cruelty of the atomic bomb, and how hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed.\u00c2\u00a0 Which started an excellent conversation about war and why the atomic bomb was created in the first place.<\/p>\n We covered so much ground in our conversation that it would be hard to remember all of the group’s insightful comments; and this post would become more than long.\u00c2\u00a0 So let me just finish with a comment from Jill:\u00c2\u00a0 she told us that her teacher had informed her that this book was too difficult for her, and that the fifth grade library book group shouldn’t be reading it because it would be too hard for fifth graders to understand.\u00c2\u00a0 Jill was incensed by her teacher’s comment, and so she finished the book that weekend and then wrote a voluntary two-page summary and critical analysis of the book, which she turned in to her teacher on Monday morning.<\/p>\n No word on the teacher’s reaction…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday was the last fifth grade book group of the school year (though we’ll have one meeting in July), and it was the best yet.\u00c2\u00a0 This group of kids has evolved so much over this year, and they are now the most thoughtful, well-spoken, intelligent, and respectful bunch of fifth graders that I’ve ever had … Continue reading Green Glass Sea<\/span>