More Short Scenes and Monologues for Middle School Students: Inspired by Literature, Social Studies, and Real Life (Young Actor Series) (Young Actor Series)
Grade 6–9—This volume stands out for its distinct voices, multicultural characters, and engaging scenes. The book is well organized, with short monologues divided by gender in the first half and scenes with an incrementally increasing number of characters in the second. Some of the pieces have been adapted from longer plays and have well-developed characters. This book will be useful for classroom use, character work, ensemble work, and practice for students blocking and directing. Monologues range from historical (immigrants coming to America) to current (global warming) issues and are always presented from the young person's point of view. Dialogue is engaging and differs from piece to piece so students can work on pace and tone when speaking. The multicultural voices are realistically written with appropriate diction and rhythm to their speech. Surface also includes magical characters (a spirit cat, a cricket) as well as inanimate objects to give students a chance at playing nontraditional roles. This excellent book would be useful in a variety of classrooms including speech/communication, drama, English, and social studies.—Terrilyn Fleming, Colby Public Schools, KSCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.