The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleischman

Fleischman approaches the atrocities of the Holocaust from a very different perspective in this tale. The year is 1948, and The Great Freddie, an American GI who has stayed on in Europe after the war, has become a mediocre ventriloquist. He is barely making ends meet when he discovers a dybbuk, a Jewish spirit, in his closet. The spirit, a thirteen year old victim of the Nazis, wants to make a deal. He has a score to settle with the SS officer who killed him, and he would like to use Freddie's act to spread his story. Understandably, Freddie is appalled, but when the dybbuk inhabits Freddie without permission and turns his act into first rate ventriloquy, he succumbs to the dybbuk's plan.
The tale is humorous and introduces Jewish culture and several of its frequently used words, yet Fleischman also paints a realistic picture of the horrors that befell the Jewish children during the Holocaust.
The story can be read on many levels and is an interesting addition to middle school Holocaust literature.

Grades 5-8

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Author: Kinney, Jeff

Illustrator: Kinney, Jeff

Publisher: harry n. abrams, inc.
ISBN (library bind): 0-8109-9313-9
Price: $12.95
#pages: 217
Call number: 741.5 KIN

Annotation:
This book is a must have for all middle schoolers. Greh Heffley is a 6th grader who wants to make his mark in the school. In his attempts of making his mark his has tried weightlifting, creating the ultimate haunted house, trying for class treasurer, and trying to bet the World Record for the biggest snowman. However his attempts never work because he is always caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Middle school readers can relate to the typical teenage problems. The author is clever is using cartoons to play up the humor of the book.

Recommended grade levels: 4 grade – 7 grade

Curriculum


Character Education: Middle School, Friendship, Diaries, Humor

Other: graphic novel/comic

Schooled

If you read the first 2 pages, you will be hooked for the remaining 206! Thirteen year old Capricorn Anderson lives on a commune with his hippie grandmother named Rain. When she falls and breaks her hip, Cap is forced into the real world of public school 8th grade. The reader becomes fond of Cap as he deals with bullies and finds his own unique way to deal with teenage life.