Book Talk #1

Sweep: Book of Shadows

Summary: At the beginning of this book, Morgan Rowlands is described as a typical teenager who is the complete opposite of her sister and parents. Her family has light hair and eyes while she has dark hair and eyes, they are morning people and Morgan isn’t, her family likes to have more of a healthy breakfast together while Morgan’s go-to breakfast is a Pop-Tart and Diet Coke. However, what is similar between them is the fact that she loves going to Sunday morning mass with her family and they always go to lunch afterwards. One day, a new student named Cal starts going to her school and Morgan is immediately drawn to him, along with many other girls. After Cal makes friends, he has a party at his house where he reveals his Wiccan origins by inviting everyone at the party to join in a circle to celebrate one of the Wiccan Sabbaths. Many of the people there are discomforted by the witchcraft and leave, but Morgan and her friend Bree decide to stay. After this, Morgan shows that she has a natural knack for witchcraft and Cal becomes very interested in her. As Cal and Morgan become closer, Morgan and Bree drift apart because of Bree’s jealousy. Later, Cal and his friends form a coven called Cirrus and during another circle, Morgan discovers that she is a blood witch, which is a person who is born with magical powers. She starts to learn more magic using herbs and earth’s elements. Soon, Morgan realizes that she was adopted and everything that makes her different from her family all starts to make sense. As the story goes on, Morgan suspects that Cal is keeping secrets from her that could possibly put them both in danger.

Rationale: I chose this book because it is about a girl finding out her true identity. Although it is a work of fiction and about magic, teenagers can relate to Morgan figuring out who she is along with love and friendships throughout the story. Teens often have problems with finding out the person they are going to be, friendships drifting apart, relationship issues and gaining life experience in general. I also like the fact that it is the first book of a 15-book series. Anyone who loves reading series would have fun with this one as they follow Morgan through her journey of love, friendship and magic. I read this series in high school and it was often my escape when I was dealing with things I wasn’t ready to face.

Teaching Ideas: I honestly don’t think I would teach this book, but I would highly recommend it to my students. However, if we are being hypothetical, I think it would be fun to teach a unit on fiction itself, have students read this and discuss the themes that are relatable to high-schoolers. Another idea would be to have my students read the book, partner up and do a presentation on an idea, topic or theme we talked about during discussions as we went through the book.

Challenges: Some challenges that could arise from using this text would be students not being comfortable with the use of magic, same as parents and if the parents are not comfortable with their kids reading about magic that could be more realistic than the magic that is in Harry Potter, then the administration will have a problem with me teaching it at all. Again, I honestly would not want to teach this in my classroom because I feel it is more of a series that is good for reading for pleasure and not analyzing.