Grade 8 · Class Reads · Book guide
Harbor Me
by Jacqueline Woodson
Six students meet weekly in the ARTT Room without adults, where they gradually share experiences involving incarceration, deportation, racial profiling, grief, economic change, and belonging.
Book details
Format
Contemporary middle-grade novel
Suggested age range
Ages 10 and up; Grade 5 and up
Why read it together?
A book worth talking about
The conversation-based structure makes listening, voice, memory, and perspective central. Students can analyze how recorded stories create a collective narrative without erasing individual experience.
- Trust and listening
- Belonging and identity
- Racism and immigration
- Story as a harbor
Before reading
Get ready to wonder
- What responsibilities come with listening to another person's difficult story?
- How can a group narrative preserve distinct individual voices?
During and after reading
Talk about the text
- How does the ARTT Room change as trust develops?
- How do silence, memory, and recording shape Haley's narration?
- Where do the students challenge or expand one another's perspectives?
Writing invitation
Respond to the book
Analyze how the room or the recorder develops as a symbol across the novel. Use evidence from at least three moments.