The Canary List Review

“The Canary List” incorporates elements of all kinds of genres.  Horror, mystery, fantasy, and religion are all intertwined in this thriller.  At first, I found the book difficult to be engaged with, but as it progressed the character development and moral questions that were raised became made the book become a more interesting read.

Is it ok to do evil things as long as the greater good will be served?  “The Canary List” reminded me vaguely of “Angels and Demons”.  I learned a little about the Catholic Church as I read, but I never felt like I was being preached to.  I did feel that the author missed a few opportunities that would have made this book go from good to great.  So many of the characters spend time focusing on their past, but their present and future is left open.  Only one character appears to be any better off than they were at the start of the book.

As a teacher, I feel comfortable placing this book within my classroom library and not receiving flack for it.  My students, I feel, will enjoy “The Canary List” and it will keep them engaged.

That's a Great Answer 2nd Edition

I teach Language Arts at the middle school level and found this book to be very applicable to direct classroom instruction.  Often, I read material that is “pie in the sky” and does not share direct and explicit ideas that can be immediately used.  I found the availability of the information to be applied directly to my current classroom lessons to be my favorite part of the book. The other parts of the book I found to be positive are:

- The explicit examples as mentioned above are by far the best part of the text and need to be reiterated.

- The gradual release model of instruction was applied in the examples.  This is something my principal is always asking us to incorporate.

- An explanation as to why the new common core standards are important to the field of teaching.

-Rubrics for selecting picture book and other literature.  This is important as a simple list of texts is ever changing.

-I liked that there was an emphasis on reading.  Being a Language Arts teacher I feel that often, other subject areas such as History, Science, and yes, even Math need reading skills. This text was applicable to all subject areas.  The open-ended question style could be applied to a passage from any subject area.

I received a review copy in Adobe format so I did not get the chance to use the CD that is included with the book so I cannot comment on it.  I did find the text to be a valuable tool and would recommend that others teachers use it to come up with new ideas in their classroom