Tuesday, July 1, 2008

This Is What I Did by Ann Dee Ellis

I recently finished a week long conference at BYU. It was amazing! It was the annual Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference and workshop. Ann Dee Ellis, a BYU professor and writer, was there and I have to say, I love that woman. I talked to her a few times. She's very down to earth and I was impressed by her real-ness. So, I bought her book (This Is What I Did), she signed it, and I read it in about 2 days. It's an easy read, obviously considering the audience (young adult), but I found it to be engaging. I was impressed with her voice, a boy who struggles with fitting in. Logan was a very real character to me. I talked to a friend about the book the other day and she felt the book's topics were harsh. They are. It's about a boy, Logan, and his best friend, Zyler. Logan and his family move so Logan can go to a new school and get a new start, but there is a dark secret that he is keeping, and this causes some intense and painful bullying. I personally really liked the book, and if I were still teaching, I would use it to teach different elements of writing as well as focus on certain themes: bullying, forgiveness, expectations, consequences for actions, etc. There is so much stuff that can be pulled from the book. I give it 3 stars (out of 4). Plus, I love the cover.

1 comment:

Amy said...

I took English 115 from Ann Dee my freshman year at BYU while she was working on her master's. She was an excellent teacher, and I'm sure she has only improved since then.

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