Novel for year 9

Hi

Need some advice please people. I need to pick a novel to teach Year 9 next year. It has to be boy friendly and for mixed ability.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

Only boys in your class? Maybe the Chocolate War.

 

Stone Cold and Buddy always go down well.

 

boy in the striped pyjamas and stone cold

 

We use 'Face' by Benjamin Zephaniah - works well with boys and there are lots of directions you can take for extension activities. It's about a boy who is in an accident and gets horrifically burnt - scope for some grisly pictures which the boys in my class loved (strange as they are).

 

Noughts and Crosses? Themes are suitable for both sexes and the book also has a split narrative (boy and girl).

 

Animal Farm, great cross-curricular links with history dept,.....

 

"The Foreshadowing" by Marcus Sedgewick - a fantastic writer with the most beautiful use of language. A very original book and a welcome change to Private Peaceful.
Or "My Swordhand is Singing" by...guess who... Marcus Sedgewick. A gothic tale of the undead - not my thing usually but his prose is just stunning!


I don't work for him either!

 

'Stone Cold' and 'Face' have gone down a storm with every class with whom I have read them, and they cover PSRE issues well too. Girls have also enjoyed them. I'm reading "My Swordhand is Singing" at the moment, so can't judge what it would be like with my classes - but it does have the advantage of ticking the 'other cultures' box. I teach 'Holes' with year 8 and "Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" with year 7, both good books, dealing with challenging issues, but accessible for the younger year groups.

 

How about Boy in the Striped Pyjamas? Works very well with all abilities as we learnt this year. Also you can begin the novel by research on the Second World War? Maybe this would engage the boys?
Regards
Susan

 

I agree with rfharris, I love teaching swordhand and boys really enjoy it. Also Cirque du Freak works well and there is a film coming out next year.

 

Hi there,
I saw you teach Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime to year nine. I suggested this at a recent meeting regarding the reformation of our KS3 curriculum, I have been tasked with creating a scheme of work for the novel.
My email address is luke.starnes1@ntlworld.com -if you have anything that might be able to give me a head start, I would greatly appreciate if you could send me some?

Many thanks