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Reading and Rating Sad BooksBy Molly, Lincoln ElementaryIntroductionMy Inquiry project mainly came from my interest in sad books. I like reading sad books because the book (or at least the end of the book) is exciting, suspenseful or both. They also make me glad that I'm not the person (or people) in the book that the sad things are happening to. ProcedureFirst, I went to the library to get some books. The librarian, Ms. Schultz, gave me about 10 books to sort through and find the ones I wanted. I read the backs of all the books to find the ones that sounded saddest. I picked out five: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Flip-flop Girl, Where the Red Fern Grows, Sounder, and Bridge to Terebithia. Then I read the books. I did not have much of a system for reading. I just read the books one after another. I read the books at school during D.E.A.R. or inquiry workshop. I did not document at all while I was reading. It took me about five months to finish four of the books. Then I decided not to read Sounder because five books was too much to read, as I had so many other things to do. ResultsHere are 3 number scales showing which books where saddest and best: See SpreadsheetI got the idea of using number scales from my teacher and other students in my class who are also rating books. First, I tried a 1-3 scale and all were tied except Flip-flop Girl. Then, I tried a 1-5 scale to narrow it down. All were tied except Bridge to Terebithia. Then I tried a 1-10 scale to narrow it down even more. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Where the Red Fern Grows were still tied. New DirectionsIf I where to repeat my project, I would do two things differently: #1, I would document more, because I hardly documented at all. #2, I would rate each book right after I read it, so it would be fresh in my mind. If I were to start any new inquiries from it, I would read Katherine Paterson books because her books are very good, but neither came in first when I rated them and I want to see if any others do. Acknowledgment I would like to thank my teacher, Mr. Jeff, for helping think up my project and helping me all the way through it also.
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