New Books

So when I accepted the reading position for next year, I asked my principal if there was money to order new classroom novels. She replied, "Oh, yea. There's tons of money. Talk to Roberto." (Roberto is one of our assistant principals). So I started looking through some catalogs and deciding on what novels I'd like to teach next year.

I asked an English teacher at my school what novels she taught this year and she immediately started complaining that there were no good novels to teach at our school. I told her I was going to order some new novels through Roberto. She replied, "Oh good. Let me know what you order." I was thinking, "Why? I'm ordering them so I can teach them. That means you can't teach them in your class!!" I then thought, "Instead of complaining that our school has no good novels to teach, get off your lazy ass and order some." Each teacher at my school has received an email each week for the past 6 weeks about getting your book requisitions submitted. Why hadn't she looked into ordering anything?

I went into Roberto's office and asked him about book requisitions - I was trying to see how much I could spend. After trying in a round-about way to figure how much money I could have, he told me, "You're the only teacher who has approached me about new books for next year. We have tons of money. Whatever you want, I'll order." I thought two things: 1) YES!!! and 2) I was shocked that no one had approached him. If the language arts department is so upset about the lack of quality books, why wouldn't they request new ones? I work with a bunch of morons.

Anyway, I spent $1600 and ordered classroom sets of the following novels:

• Fever 1793
• Lightning Thief
• A Long Way From Chicago
• Stargirl