Thinkers
Fiction to support the IB Learner Profile for the Middle Years Programme
The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie art by Ellen Forney This is an amazing story told through a narrator who speaks so clearly and vividly to us and also draws cartoons for us. He tells the story of his childhood on the Spokane Indian Reservation with its massive problems of alcohol, and despair and where he was regularly beaten up because he was nerdy and wore glasses. The book grips our attention. Sherman Alexie does performance poetry and comedy and it shows in his writing. This story is very revealing of the complications of human relationships and of the incredible toll of alcohol abuse on the Reservations but for all that remains positive and is at times very funny. (13 – 16 years)
risk-takers, inquirers, caring, thinkers
Village by the Sea by Anita Desai
A moving story by this well known author showing some of the problems facing families trying to escape from the poverty of village life in India. It shows some of the environmental problems facing villagers as the population increases and resources are threatened but there is a belief that people can adapt to changes in the same way that some birds and animals do. (12 years up)
risk-takers, caring, inquirers, thinkers
A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly
This is a beautifully written book which is fascinating in its portrait of a small community in the Adirondack region in the early 1900s. The story is based on the real murder of a young pregnant girl who is found drowned in a lake and her story is linked to that of Mattie, about the same age, who is torn between her sense of responsibility to look after her family, her first romance and her intense desire to write and to be independent. There are many wonderful insights into Mattie’s feelings and desires and the difficulties that beset so many women of that time who wanted an education and independence. (13 years up)
risk-takers, inquirers, thinkers
The London Eye Mystery by Siobahn Dowd
Written in the first person by Ted who, as he says, has some sort of syndrome (perhaps Asperger’s) this is an absorbing book. Ted is very bright but is unable to understand why people behave in a particular way and is generally unable to read body language. He is a fascinating character and through his descriptions, we gain such an insight into his view of the world and also into his family and the way in which they behave. Moreover the plot involves a genuinely intriguing mystery about what happened to Ted’s cousin when he disappears while riding on the London Eye, the huge Ferris wheel in London. The mystery is doubly intriguing because of the way in which Ted puts his unique brain to work in trying to understand what could have happened. (11 years – 15 years)
inquirers, caring, knowledgeable, thinkers, reflective
Macbeth and Son by Jackie French
This novel is about the truth in history and whether it really matters. Jackie French’s complaint is with Shakespeare who wrote about the Scottish King Macbeth who was by all accounts an honourable king but was turned into a villain in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Jackie uses the dreams of a modern-day boy, Luke who is studying the play at school to show what really? or possibly happened to Lulach and his father Macbeth in eleventh century Scotland. The most fascinating aspect of the story is the theme of whether the truth really matters and whether Shakespeare was justified in making Macbeth a villain for the sake of the play. This would make a fascinating book for discussion. (11 – 14 years)
inquirers, thinkers, principled
To the Boy in Berlin by Elizabeth Honey and Heike Brandt
This is the story of an intriguing email correspondence between Henni who lives in Melbourne, Australia and Leo Schmidt in Berlin. The emails fly backwards and forwards providing much amusement and also glimpses of the difference and similarities between their lives. They both become involved in working on Henni’s school project which involves fascinating historical documentation about early German immigration to Australia and the treatment of Germans in Australia during the 2 World wars. We also learn incidentally about some of the problems of immigration in Germany and Australia today. I especially liked the humour, especially humour concerning the difficulties of translation and also some of the extraordinarily long German words that exist. This is an excellent book for discussion on a variety of topics. (10 – 14 years)
inquirers, thinkers, communicators, principled, caring, open-minded
Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo
When Michael is washed up on an island he struggles to survive on his own. He is about to give up when food appears. He is not alone. This is a wonderful story of survival and about Kensuke, an elderly Japanese man who lives on the island and has survived for many years using traditional Japanese skills and crafts. (9 – 15 years).
caring, thinkers
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
This is a wonderfully entertaining and continually surprising story of Maurice, a streetwise tomcat who suddenly has acquired the gift of talking and thinking. He wants to put these skills to ever more inventive money-making scams with the assistance of his unlikely friends the educated rats who also acquired the skills of speaking and thinking at about the same time. However as a natural consequence of being able to think, some of the rats begin to struggle with the question of what is right and what is wrong (especially in relation to some of Maurice’s schemes) and also with the stirrings of a conscience. (10 – 16 years)
knowledgeable, thinkers, principled
The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie art by Ellen Forney This is an amazing story told through a narrator who speaks so clearly and vividly to us and also draws cartoons for us. He tells the story of his childhood on the Spokane Indian Reservation with its massive problems of alcohol, and despair and where he was regularly beaten up because he was nerdy and wore glasses. The book grips our attention. Sherman Alexie does performance poetry and comedy and it shows in his writing. This story is very revealing of the complications of human relationships and of the incredible toll of alcohol abuse on the Reservations but for all that remains positive and is at times very funny. (13 – 16 years)
risk-takers, inquirers, caring, thinkers
Village by the Sea by Anita Desai
A moving story by this well known author showing some of the problems facing families trying to escape from the poverty of village life in India. It shows some of the environmental problems facing villagers as the population increases and resources are threatened but there is a belief that people can adapt to changes in the same way that some birds and animals do. (12 years up)
risk-takers, caring, inquirers, thinkers
A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly
This is a beautifully written book which is fascinating in its portrait of a small community in the Adirondack region in the early 1900s. The story is based on the real murder of a young pregnant girl who is found drowned in a lake and her story is linked to that of Mattie, about the same age, who is torn between her sense of responsibility to look after her family, her first romance and her intense desire to write and to be independent. There are many wonderful insights into Mattie’s feelings and desires and the difficulties that beset so many women of that time who wanted an education and independence. (13 years up)
risk-takers, inquirers, thinkers
The London Eye Mystery by Siobahn Dowd
Written in the first person by Ted who, as he says, has some sort of syndrome (perhaps Asperger’s) this is an absorbing book. Ted is very bright but is unable to understand why people behave in a particular way and is generally unable to read body language. He is a fascinating character and through his descriptions, we gain such an insight into his view of the world and also into his family and the way in which they behave. Moreover the plot involves a genuinely intriguing mystery about what happened to Ted’s cousin when he disappears while riding on the London Eye, the huge Ferris wheel in London. The mystery is doubly intriguing because of the way in which Ted puts his unique brain to work in trying to understand what could have happened. (11 years – 15 years)
inquirers, caring, knowledgeable, thinkers, reflective
Macbeth and Son by Jackie French
This novel is about the truth in history and whether it really matters. Jackie French’s complaint is with Shakespeare who wrote about the Scottish King Macbeth who was by all accounts an honourable king but was turned into a villain in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Jackie uses the dreams of a modern-day boy, Luke who is studying the play at school to show what really? or possibly happened to Lulach and his father Macbeth in eleventh century Scotland. The most fascinating aspect of the story is the theme of whether the truth really matters and whether Shakespeare was justified in making Macbeth a villain for the sake of the play. This would make a fascinating book for discussion. (11 – 14 years)
inquirers, thinkers, principled
To the Boy in Berlin by Elizabeth Honey and Heike Brandt
This is the story of an intriguing email correspondence between Henni who lives in Melbourne, Australia and Leo Schmidt in Berlin. The emails fly backwards and forwards providing much amusement and also glimpses of the difference and similarities between their lives. They both become involved in working on Henni’s school project which involves fascinating historical documentation about early German immigration to Australia and the treatment of Germans in Australia during the 2 World wars. We also learn incidentally about some of the problems of immigration in Germany and Australia today. I especially liked the humour, especially humour concerning the difficulties of translation and also some of the extraordinarily long German words that exist. This is an excellent book for discussion on a variety of topics. (10 – 14 years)
inquirers, thinkers, communicators, principled, caring, open-minded
Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo
When Michael is washed up on an island he struggles to survive on his own. He is about to give up when food appears. He is not alone. This is a wonderful story of survival and about Kensuke, an elderly Japanese man who lives on the island and has survived for many years using traditional Japanese skills and crafts. (9 – 15 years).
caring, thinkers
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
This is a wonderfully entertaining and continually surprising story of Maurice, a streetwise tomcat who suddenly has acquired the gift of talking and thinking. He wants to put these skills to ever more inventive money-making scams with the assistance of his unlikely friends the educated rats who also acquired the skills of speaking and thinking at about the same time. However as a natural consequence of being able to think, some of the rats begin to struggle with the question of what is right and what is wrong (especially in relation to some of Maurice’s schemes) and also with the stirrings of a conscience. (10 – 16 years)
knowledgeable, thinkers, principled
