Monday, August 30, 2010

Notes From the Midnight Driver

Title: Notes From The Midnight Driver 
Author: Jordan Sonnenblick 
Publication Date: 2006  
Genre/Format: Realistic Fiction/Novel  
Summary: Alex is pretty bummed about his parents divorce.  One night he decides to take his mom's car and drive over to talk to his dad...but to get up the courage he has a drink first. He ends up crashing the car into the neighbors yard and takes out a yard gnome.  His shenanigans end up getting him a sentence of community service spending time with Sol, a man at the senior center.  Both end up learning more than they expected about life and love.
What I Think: I was surprised how much I ended up really liking Alex as a character based on how the story starts.  I loved Sol as a character.  The author does a good job of telling a story and weaving so many different stories into it.  He also mentions  
Read Together: 7 - 10 
Read Alone:7 - 12 
Read With: Other Jordan Sonnenblick books, especially Drums, Girls, And Dangerous PieSleeping Freshmen Never Lie by Dave Lubar; The Juvie Three by Gordon Korman
Snatch of Text: "'Mom, how are you going to drop me off, pick me up, get to work on time, and sleep?' Mom is a night-shift nurse at an old people's home, so she usually slept while I was at school.
     'I don't know, Alex.  I will have to work something out, because I am going to be on you like a bad rash for the next thirty days.  And if you don't like it, maybe you should have thought of about that BEFORE you got arrested.'" p. 22  
Reading Strategies to Practice: Asking Questions, Making Connections, Making Predictions
Writing Strategies to Practice: Similes, Characterization, Letter Writing, Personal Narrative
Writing Prompts: Write about how you learned from a mistake you made.   
Topics Covered: Family, Divorce, Communication, Forgiveness, Elderly, Community Service, Friendship, Love, Music 
Translated to Spanish: No

No comments:

Post a Comment

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 08/28/2023

  It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!   It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kelle...