The books our students read in school and for pleasure should be a source of inspiration.  As an educator, helping students choose books that will engage them, grab their attention, and keep them reading is crucial. 

Click here to view my Powerpoint presentation regarding various indicators that should be considered when selecting books for the middle-school aged reader.  Certain aspects of the physical text as well as the subject matter will capture this age group better than others.  It is my hope that my students will share their sources of inspiration, both in the texts that I choose for my classroom, as well as in their daily lives.  On the Quote Board below, I invite students to share quotes from their reading assignments, music, pop culture, etc.  Here is a list of some of my favorites...

  "To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks." - A.A. Milne

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." - Abraham Lincoln

            "People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." - Aesop

        "In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer."
        - Albert Camus    

"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever." - Chinese Proverb

        "Nothing we learn in this world is ever wasted."
        - Eleanor Roosevelt

"I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision." - Eleanor Roosevelt

            "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
- Henry David Thoreau

            "Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens." - J.R.R. Tolkien

"All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien

        "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."
        - Langston Hughes

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." - Mother Teresa

            "The truth is rarely pure and never simple." - Oscar Wilde

"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." - Oscar Wilde

            "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." - Robert Frost

        "Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all
        the difference." - Robert Frost    

 "What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." - T.S. Eliot

"And since you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I, your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of yourself which you yet know not of."
- William Shakespeare

Quotations provided by http://www.quotesandpoem.com; Images provided by http://office.microsoft.com/clipart