The title grabs them first. There’s giggling. And then the kids love that there are threats of fighting and torn up assignments, a real Bad Kid is the main character. Then we learn the things that make him quirky and angry and sad and vulnerable. We learn what started it all, years ago. He meets new people, and he starts to change. Or he tries to change. There are challenges and setbacks. He does confusing things. As a class, we talk about it. There is tenderness and redemption and generosity and love. 

I read this second to show the range of one author — Louis Sachar can be silly and profound. I read this because there are so many fun voices to use with these characters. I read this to show that even Bad Kids can change. They are good, too, if given permission and a few chances to change. If they are invited. If we can invite them.  

The Read Aloud Series is a review of the series of books I used to read aloud to my third grade students every year after lunch. The exact order and titles changed somewhat over the years, but these are the ones that were most beloved, both for the kids as listeners and for me as the read aloud reader. Many afternoons our 15-minute read aloud time would stretch into 20, 30, sometimes as long as 45 minutes, as the kids begged to hear more of a story, or we discussed what a character did, or I reread difficult passages, or diagrammed family trees and plot lines for them. I can say that my gift as a teacher was, and still is, my enthusiasm for a good story, and these are the books that have brought me a great deal of joy in sharing with young readers over the years.