Today's post is by Jackie Mercer. Jackie is a great friend to Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday.  She makes sure it is shared on the Facebook page Teachers on the Move. I am deeply thankful that she takes the time to do it every week. I have a hard time remembering when I first met her. It seems like I have known her forever. She will ever be associated with all of the YA fans around Youngstown State and their wonderful English Festival that focuses on YA literature. In addition she will be presenting at the UNLV online 2020 Summit in a couple of weeks. Have you registered yet? Furthermore, Jackie had a post a just about a year ago. Check it out here.

Takei’s book provides readers with a unique look at an often forgotten piece of American history. Takei, as an adult, reflects back on his time as a child, so readers have not only his thoughts on his experiences as a child but also his realizations about these experiences as an adult. For example, as he reflects on his time on the train being taken away from his home and to an internment camp, Takei writes, “My bright, sharp memories are of a joyful time of games, play, and discoveries. Memory is a wily keeper of the past, usually dependable, but at times, deceptive. Childhood memories are especially slippery. Sweet and so full of joy, they can often be a misrendering of the truth. For a child, that sweetness, out of context and intensely subjective, remains forever real” (50-51). Takei spends much of the book reflecting on these vivid, fun memories of his time in the camp, but juxtaposes these happy memories with the harsh reality of his parents’ experiences during this time. He is upfront with the reader in recognizing that in some ways experiencing these events as a child has allowed him to romanticize these times, when in reality, these were probably some of the most horrific and uncertain times ever faced by his parents.
 
Both of Takei’s parents had had successful careers before being forcibly removed from their home. Takei notes the behavior of both parents on their initial train ride to the camps. He writes, “Mama was not going to allow anything, not even the United States government to affect her family’s well-being. I remember her obsessive concern and my father’s melancholy, but they are dusty, peripheral remembrances” (50). Obviously, as a child, Takei could not fully realize what his parents were experiencing or the ways in which they were ensuring their children’s safety and well-being, so his ability to consider these things as he writes adds a unique and important layer to the telling of the story. The reader has the privilege of not only seeing what Takei experienced as a child, but more mature readers (adults and young adults) can also gain understandings beyond a child’s view through Takei’s reflecting on his experiences as an adult. This also becomes important later as Takei, as a young adult, grapples with what he perceives as passiveness in his father’s behavior as Takei begins his work as an activist. The novel serves as not only a memoir recounting the impactful experiences of his life, but also functions as a coming of age story where the reader can see the ways in which Takei is grappling with the struggles that come with growing up, such as trying to understand his parents or feel understood by them.

​A particularly poignant moment in the book deals with Takei’s realization as a child of the racism he was going to face after leaving the camp. After four years of being held prisoners, Japanese Americans were freed. That freedom, however, certainly did not stop the government-approved racism that Japanese Americans were going to face. Before leaving the camp, Takei overhears adults expressing concerns about “white people welcoming us with open arms” (152). He notes, “The irony was that the barbed-wire fences that incarcerated us also protected us...if the fences were no longer there, we’d be in danger” (152). Takei quickly learned that just because laws are changed doesn’t mean people’s hearts are. Despite being haunted by those days in the camps and the difficulties that followed in his life, Takei recounts how those experiences motivated him and led him to the path of great success and ultimately his celebrity status. For the reader, it is particularly emotional to see a child as the victim of blatant racism and his lack of ability to completely grasp why someone would treat him in such a cruel manner simply because he is a Japanese American.
 
I would be remiss if I did not discuss how the choice of a graphic novel for this book as the format is so important to the telling of this story. I recently taught this book in an American Literature and Diversity course. I asked my students to consider how the genre impacted their understanding of and feelings about the book. Many of them noted that being able to “see” the characters, particularly the expressions on their faces, told more of a story than just the words on the page. While Takei focuses on his own experiences as a child, readers are able to see and understand the emotions of all of the characters, creating a more complete understanding of what this experience was like. 

​Geroge Takei provides us with hope people can overcome immense and senseless trauma and suffering in his book They Called Us Enemy, and I would highly recommend moving it to the top of your to-read stack.
 
Suggested Titles:
Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys
Internment, Samira Ahmen
March Book 1-3, John Lewis
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
Refugee, Alan Gratz
Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Until next time.

What?! You ask who is Samantha Vitale in the YA world? Well, you don't know her because she a debut author. Take a look you will like what you find.

Georgia McBride runs a small publishing company, Month9Books. Her company has supported the UNLV YA Summits. She was sending Samantha Vitale this year and I was looking forward to meeting her. Now, all of our contact will be virtual.

In the past Georgia has sent:
Jo Schaffer: Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/jo.seableschaffer
Justin Joschko: Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/justin.joschko
Clare Di Liscia: Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/clare.d.baird 

Back to Samantha. Georgia has been so spot on over the last few years. I don't even question here any more. While Samantha won't be in Las Vegas for the Summit, she will be logging in to be with us.

I hope all of you join me in getting to know Samantha and her work. He debut novel, The Lady Alchemist, is out today. Order it today.

Samantha kindly answered these questions a few months ago. I wonder if any of her answers would change now that we are in the COVID19 era.   Take a look.

Until next time.

Counting today, we are 22 days and a wake up from the start of the UNLV 2020 Online Summit. I know, who is counting, right? Well, I am. I hope that all of the authors and the presenters are counting, writing, preparing materials, and practicing their Zoom skills. Do we really have any Zoom skills or are many of us suffering from Zoom exhaustion? I am not sure I had any online presentation skills before March 11, 2020. That was the day I was packing to leave for a presentation at the MCTE Spring Conference. Things with the COVID19 crisis were starting to escalate and then the call that MCTE was cancelled came through. The flight was cancelled and other plans were put on hold. My wife and I were planning a Spring Break get away and, for a little bit further down the road, a trip to Scotland to see our daughter's family. Grandkids rule! All of that is just whim in the past now. 

I had to start watching the news in order to evaluate how things would play out. Here at UNLV, we had to decide to cancel the conference all together or to move it online. Fortunately, we are a big GO for an online adventure.

Below you can find a flier for the summit, an introduction to all of the authors, and draft of the program. Take a look.

I have known about Chris Crowe long before he knew anything about me. He is a long time English educator, author, and mentor to many English teachers and teacher educators. His work has been influential and his linage in Young Adult literature goes through Alleen Nilsen and Ken Donaldson.  He has a special interest in African American authors of Young Adult literature, especially Mildred Taylor.  He did some of the early research around the Emmet Till murder and turned it into two books, one fiction and one nonfiction. He is a perfect keynote to talk about how YA literature can connect to other curriculum areas.

I have featured Chris in the blog a couple of time. First, when he was a keynote at YA conference I hosted at LSU. You can read about that here. (bonus, Matt was also a keynote at that conference.) Later, I was attending a YA conference and I was able to hear both Chris Crowe and Chris Lynch at the same event.  What a great time.

Before I was reading a lot of YA nonfiction or historical fiction, I kept running across the name of Steve Sheinkin. His name and his books showed up time and again on award list after award list. Even though he hasn't won the National Book Award, I think he will remain a perennial favorite as long as he keeps writing. His nonfiction writing is superb. He has many more books, but I return to these three when I recommend books. 

Many people love how he has dealt with the development of the Atom bomb in Bomb, but I still favor Most Dangerous. I  lived through the late sixties and early seventies. The ups and downs of the Nixon administration and the Vietnam War shaped my political beliefs and my sense of right and wrong. I am excited to hear Steve talk about his research process and how that turns into such fabulous books.

A couple of years ago I featured a discussion of Most Dangerous on a Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday blog post. You can my discussion about this wonderful book here.

 A few years ago, I kept hear about this new book -- Out of Darkness. I try very hard to read the short list of most of the major awards. Wow! Enough said, it was exactly one of those books you should read as soon as it was recommend. I also love that when Ashley was a high school teacher her students were often her beta readers. I like to image them still reading her books as they move forward with their lives and cheering her on as she works on the next one.

I heard her speak at the same venue with Laurie Halse Anderson. What a treat. I wrote about for the blog. Take a look at this link.

I love attending the ALAN Workshop. It never fails to provide surprises and new discoveries. This is even true when you are involved in planning the event. At one of the first workshops I attended, I was introduced to Padma Venkatraman and my vision of the possibility of YA literature has never been the same.

Last November I meet several debut authors and I am still wading their several new books. However, discovering I'm not Dying with You Tonight and the two authors, Gilly Segal and Kimberly Jones, who wrote it as a team. I was stunned by the novels beauty. The language is wonderful and the characters well developed and a bit unpredictable. If you don't know this book, what are you waiting for? 

That isn't the best part. The best part was getting to have dinner with Gilly and Kimberly. I can't remember the last time I was taken with with a pair of writer/performers. They are witty, personable, and, most importantly, their friendship and love for one another is palpable. I started figuring out how to get them to UNLV before the night was over. 

Their tag team presentation will be worth the entire cost of the registration. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of I'm not Dying with You Tonight as soon as you can.

Matt was one of the first authors I turned to when I hosted an event at LSU. His visit was amazing and his reputation has continued rise. We added Matt to the 2020 summit because we were looking to add a children's literature component to the mix. Matt's works run the gamete from children's picture books to middle grades to older realistic YA fiction. 

I am still amazed at the power of Love and I keep rereading We Were Here because I find the book so nuanced and timely. Once again I look forward to what Matt has to offer.

I wish I could tell you that I have been reading Candace Fleming for years. I haven't, but man am I in the club now. The theme of match YA with curricula beyond the ELA classroom. Like Matt and Steve, Candace write for reader at a range of ages. Again, it sounds repetitive, but if you don't know her work, it is time that you did. Furthermore, not only will Candace be part of a author panel, she will be presenting in a breakout session as well. Come join the fun. 

Josh Allen was another find as a result of the 2019 ALAN Workshop. When you are putting together a program you want to land as many big name authors as you can. At the same time, publishing house want to pitch as many debut authors as possible. You have to find a balance. So you read and listen and listen and read. 

Josh was another author who had a great debut at an ALAN Workshop. Fortunately, for me and for you, he heard about the Summit and asked if he good be a part of the fun. Well, of course that can be arranged. I am looking forward to hearing what Josh has to say this time around. 

Samantha joins several others authors who have attended a UNLV Summit courtesy of Georgia McBride and Month9Books. In past years we have hosted, Jo Schaffer, Justin Joschko, and Clare Di Liscia. Each year Georgia and her crew have added to the success of the summit. My only regret is that I won't be meeting her in person. The big news is that her debut novel, The Lady Alchemist,  hits the shelves on May 26, 2020.

There is still time to register for the summit.  I know it isn't a face to face event.  I, like many of you, wish that we were gathering in Las Vegas to enjoy one another's company. We need to experiment with virtual conferences so that we can weigh the difference; so that we can witness to what works and what doesn't. 

​Until next time.

Jeff Buchanan is a member of the English faculty at Youngstown State University, the home of the Youngstown State English Festival.  Youngstown has always been a friend to YA literature and the Festival is celebrating its 41st year. They had a wonderful line up with Rich Wallace, Sandra Neil Wallace, and Rita Williams-Garcia ready for their big three day event. Like many of us they have had to change plans under the influence of the COVID 19 pandemic. Rather than let it pass by, Jeff and his colleagues have moved the event to an online format. I have not doubt that Rich, Sandra and Rita are up for the challenge. 

I have promoted Rich and Sandra works several times. They happen to be a couple of my favorite people in the YA world and I thrilled to talk about their work at the drop of a hat. It has also been my pleasure to present with them a couple of times. My advice, never pass up the opportunity listen to them speak and read everything they write. You can find my post about them here and here. 

In today's post, Jeff provides a much better introduction to the fantastic Rita Williams-Garcia than I could provide. Thanks Jeff.

There’s a moment in Richard Murphy’s terrific book about the teaching of writing, The Calculus of Intimacy, when he inserts himself as teacher into a peer group workshop.  He listens to one student’s not very convincing paper about Christmas morning at her family’s home and then begins to ask questions.  His questions prompt the student to reveal the details that make up the horror of her family’s Christmas Day.  Yelling, name-calling, open hostility among family members and ultimately a retreating to separate rooms where each opens her gifts alone.  Murphy expresses regret for asking his student to expose and re-live the painful circumstances of this holiday, but, as teacher, he knows the writing requires such details, to make the story compelling, to convey the horror through emotion, to bring the action alive.
 
It is the details about family that Rita Williams-Garcia captures so well in Gone Crazy in Alabama, the details that convey an idealized representation

About a month into the COVID-19 crisis, I went to the grocery store—about the third or fourth time since restaurants had closed and schools had gone entirely online. Previous trips had gone fine—not so different from trips before the COVID crisis.  But this one . . .
 
I returned crabby, irritable.  There had been too many people in the store, too many not social distancing, too many without masks, too many touching the produce.  I admit now that I think I got scared, felt real fear about contracting the virus.  I felt vulnerable, and I didn’t respond well.  I don’t think my reaction was unusual since there’s a great deal of uncertainty and too much we don’t know at the current moment.
 
Still, that day in the grocery store, all I was sure of was that I wanted to get out of there and not come back.  I really don’t know how rational that response was.  I’ve been back to the store since and had a better time of it.  Yet we don’t know exactly how much risk we’re taking, how exposed we are, how rational we’re acting.
 
In times of crisis, you just don’t know.

Months ago, when Dr. Bickmore asked for writers to sign up to compose posts to this blog, I volunteered.  The work I do in YA literature involves almost exclusively the work I do for the Youngstown State University English Festival.  This year, one of our Festival guests was to be Rita Williams-Garcia, and, while reading in preparation for the Festival, I became captivated by Gone Crazy in Alabama.  I chose to post at this time in May because our Festival would have taken place in late April.  I would have had the chance to hear Garcia-Williams speak—to adults and to students.  I could have asked a few questions, perhaps engaged her in conversation.  I might have come to this post with more insight into the book I want to write about, Gone Crazy in Alabama.

This year, we had to cancel our English Festival.  We could not, nor wanted, to bring 1000 people to campus each day for three days of conversations and presentations, music, art, and trivia, and contests and games.  But as our cancelled Festival date loomed, the Festival planning committee flinched.  This year is our 42nd consecutive year.  Could we give up so easily?  What other choices did we have?  What?  Where?  When?  How?
 
So we decided to go virtual.  Could we be sure about the rightness of this choice and its timing?
 
What guides the Festival is a history born out of love for a daughter who died too early, an essay contest started in Candace Gay’s name.  And what blossomed is an event built out of love for reading and writing and the intellectual and academic processes opened up by those activities.  We celebrate the feelings and ideas we encounter in books and in lives, we celebrate conversation with one another, and we celebrate our expressions in response.
 
May 13-15, we are staging a virtual Festival.  Join us if you wish (see www.ysuenglishfestival.org).  Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace will present and respond to student questions.  We’ll do some of our usual activities—trivia, poetry writing, insights sessions, and an awards ceremony.  And Rita Williams-Garcia will join us and take student questions.  Perhaps someone will ask her about how one can be certain in times of uncertainty.

Until next time.

Today's post is from Dr. Mark Lewis. Mark and i have been working as academic for about the same length of time. He was one of the first people that I began to look for at conferences. We have had many conversations about YA literature and more and more frequently about the Youth Lens as a tool for thinking about the adolescent in fiction and in educational settings.

Mark has been a friend of Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday from the early days of the blog. In 2017 Mark wrote about LGBQ Youth in YA Science Fiction with one of his students, Marilena Orfanos. Find it here.  In his next post he addressed Middles Grades Graphica. It was an insightful look at the genre and if you still don't have a strong grounding in the YA graphic novel then take a look here. His most recent solo effort was also on the in the graphic novel genre, but focused on the Memoir. Not very long ago, Mark supplied a post with one of his writing partners, Luke Rodesiler. Mark and Luke and been thinking about how coaches are portrayed in  sports-related YA literature. Once again, Mark has another interesting post. This time it is about teaching YA literature in course that is open to all interested students and not just intended future English Teachers. Thanks Mark.

For the first time in many years, I had the opportunity to teach a young adult (YA) literature course aimed (I thought) toward secondary English language arts (ELA) teachers this past semester. At my previous university, there was no room in the curriculum for a course that solely focused on YA literature so I infused it within the ELA teaching methods course. Of course, since that course had many other objectives to meet, the time I could devote to reading, analyzing, and enjoying YA literature with future English teachers was limited. So, I was excited at the opportunity at my new university to teach a course that solely focused on YA literature.
 
Then, I learned about a small detail. While the course is required for all ELA teacher candidates in the secondary program, it also met a general education requirement for all majors across the university. As I reviewed my class roster, I wondered why majors in health sciences, finance, political science, sports and recreation management, and communications would sign up for a YA literature course set in the College of Education. I thought of two reasons: 1) they were avid readers of YA literature and wanted to take a course on the subject, and 2) easy A. I learned quickly that both reasons were accurate, as it was clear on the first day of class that many were well read in popular (think Harry Potter and The Hunger Games series) YA literature yet, as embodied by a question from a finance major—“What is grading like in this course?”—an easy A was on at least one student’s mind.
 
Initially, I promised Steve a guest post featuring the ELA teacher candidates who took the course (who only represented a quarter of the group) writing about their experiences with YA literature throughout the semester. Yet, due our changing circumstances this semester that task seemed unreasonable considering how stressed my teacher candidates have been about just meeting the minimum expectations for finishing the semester from a distance. So, I decided to take this opportunity to reflect on what it was like teaching a YA literature course to non-majors while also attending to the needs of the future teachers in the room. 

​After reviewing past syllabi and speaking with colleagues who had taught the course, it was clear that most attempted to meet the needs of both the education major and non-major audiences. Since I had only taught a YA literature course to education majors, I followed this advice. I divided the course into three phases. We first examined the history and various definitions of YA literature. We then discussed several theoretical frameworks for analyzing YA literature. The final third of the course focused on teaching YA literature in secondary ELA classrooms. My ideas was that if I could engage the non-majors through the first two thirds of the semester, they would have enough investment to participate in the final third when the course turned to meet the needs of only a small portion of the group.
 
In terms of reading YA literature, I included two assignments to broaden their reading experiences yet leverage their personal reading interests. First, everyone joined a literature circle and read five assigned selections, and I will introduce those books in the next section. They read outside of class and I provided time in class for the circles to meet and talk about what they are reading. Each week, I asked that each circle create a Lit Circle Artifact, sometimes as a group and sometimes individually, that related to the weekly topic and in-class discussion, and many of these tasks presented a possible instructional task that could be used in a secondary classroom. Second, each student had to create a Thematic YA Literature Text Set in which they chose a theme that connected four selections—one aimed at middle level readers, one aimed at high school readers, one graphic novel, and one open selection. They researched how their theme has been discussed within YA scholarship, wrote a review for each selection, and created a roundtable handout to present in class. I have used both these activities previously in my courses and they both worked well…with education majors. 

There were two options for the literature circles and students were randomly assigned into groups of four or five. Readers of this blog are probably familiar with all these choices but here is a brief review of each. 

​Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Will’s brother, Shawn, has been murdered and the neighborhood code insists that he must avenge his brother’s death. Through a series of poems, the reader follows Will as he rides his building’s elevator grappling with his decision to follow the rules of revenge. Garnering numerous honors, everyone should read this book.
 
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
Finn witnesses the abduction of Roza but cannot remember the face of the man that took her. He wants to find her and discover what evil she was trying to escape. A thought-provoking story set in a unique world.
 
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
Cameron loses her parents in a car accident and is forced to live with her aunt Ruth. When Ruth discovers Cameron’s feelings toward another girl, she reacts in an extreme way and takes drastic action to “fix” her. This novel is intense and a worthy read.
 
Soupy Leaves Home by Cecil Castellucci (Author) and Jose Pimienta (Illustrator)
Set in the 1930s, Soupy has left her home to escape an abusive father and joined a group of hobos who are riding the rails. She meets Ramshackle who mentors her during their travels. A fantastic graphic novel with a compelling tale and stunning artwork.
 
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith’s tagline is “keep YA weird” and this novel meets that goal. Austin has romantic feelings for everyone, including his best friend, Robby, and his girlfriend, Shann. He is confused about these feelings; then, an army of praying mantises invades the world. 

​How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon
A black youth, Tariq, is shot and killed by a white bystander during a supposed robbery. Using multiple narrators, Magoon presents the perspectives on the shooting from several of Tariq’s relatives, community members, and outsiders. The story reveals the complicated issues of race and gun violence in our society.
 
Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston
Hermione Winters, captain of the high-profile cheerleading squad at her high school, is entering her senior year and looking forward to the year as a senior and captain. The story begins with Hermione and her teammates enjoying the annual summer cheerleading camp, but her life takes a tragic turn when she is sexually assaulted at the closing social.
 
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Noah and Jude were inseparable twins both with creative artistic talent. When their family is disrupted with tragedy, they end up barely speaking. The twins’ story is captivating and Nelson’s prose is as artful as Noah’s and Jude’s talent.
 
Crush by Sveltlana Chmakova
In the graphic novel selection for this literature circle, Chmakova tells the story of Jorge who is a confident middle school student. Yet, he has a crush on a girl that erodes that confidence when she is around him and his friends. This novel, however, is more than a “boy meets girl” tale; rather, it involves how individual decisions have consequences that affect others.
 
The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick
Told in four quarters, Sedgwick brings together four seemingly unrelated stories from different moments in time that explore the connectedness of the human experience. The metaphors of spirals and helices push readers’ to make thematic connections across the four stories. 

I think everyone, both ELA teacher candidates and non-majors, left the course thinking more critically about YA literature. The section of the course when we focused on different theoretical frameworks shifted how they were discussing and writing about the selections in the literature circles. Rather than mostly discussing personal reactions to the stories, then began making theoretical claims about the stories. To my surprise, the non-majors also started considering the novels from a teaching perspective in many of their in-class discussions and Lit Circle Artifacts. As well, they took opportunities to reflect on their own schooling experiences and provided some perspective to the ELA teacher candidates for how they might design curriculum and instruction to engage reluctant readers in their future classrooms. Finally, both groups admitted that they enjoyed reading YA literature beyond what has been declared popular enough by Hollywood to adapt to film and television.
 
The primary challenge I faced were the strained in-class literature circle discussions. When I have employed literature circles in my education courses, it was enough to group ELA teachers together, ask them to talk about the book, and they immediately began discussing the story, if they would teach it and/or how they would teach it, and what secondary students might think about reading the story. The discussions did not follow that pattern, which, upon reflection, I should have known they would not have since not only were these students non-education majors, they were also non-English majors. So, they did not have the tools or desire to discuss the literature. A tough lesson to learn since I often tell my ELA preservice teachers to think about student apathy or disinterest in literature when designing lessons. The other main challenge was helping students choose the texts for their Thematic YA Literature Text Set. Despite reading and discussing the history and definitions of YA literature, students submitted lists with both children’s and adult selections. We also discussed places to find high-quality selections, such as award lists, yet many of their selections lacked the literary merit of the books I chose for their literature circles. It became clear that many were simply choosing books they had read in middle and high school, and were awkwardly fitting them into a loose theme. Their selections did lead to some interesting discussions about why they had trouble identifying high-quality YA literature and I wanted to provide choice to raise engagement, but perhaps I should have pre-identified possible selections for several themes. I also think I did not do enough to support the ELA teacher candidates. Although we spent a third of the course on teaching YA literature, it still felt like I taught a literature course, not an ELA pedagogy course.

I have the opportunity to teach the course again next fall and feel fortunate to have the summer to reflect on these successes and challenges, as opposed to just a winter break, to ideally create a better experience for all my students.
 
I appreciate Steve providing the space for this type of reflective scholarship on teaching and learning, and for any reader who has advice to share related to teaching YA literature to non-majors. 

Until next time

Mark can be contacted at:
lewis6ma@jmu.edu
Twitter: @ProfMarkLewis 

I love poetry. I don't know if I read enough poetry. I certainly don't write about it enough, that is for sure. I appreciate the challenge of writing poetry during April promoted by Sarah Donovan and others.  With my current agenda, I just have to much work to do. I didn't want risk such a commitment. (Plus, it still terrifies me.) I did dedicate myself to the idea of reading poetry and sharing a poem each day through social media. I am just one day shy of finishing that challenge for the third year in a row (the last poem in this post is a sneak peak at tomorrow). I am sharing all of my choices in today's post. A few have been pulled out for easy reading. 

Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday has been a friend to poetry and  especially poetry in a YA context. I have pulled a few URLs for some of the past posts that have shared poetry, including what I posted last year at the end of the month and post that pays tribute to Bob Dylan upon winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. 

I hope you take a minute to read a poem. 

I hope you also revisit some of the older posts and add a book of poetry to your "To Be Read List." The authors of these post include: Lesley Roessing, Padma Venkatraman, Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.

1. http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/30-mgya-verse-novels-for-national-poetry-month-engaging-reluctant-readers-enriching-enthusiastic-readers-and-appreciating-story-form-language-by-lesley-roessing
2. http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/verse-novels-for-national-poetry-month-by-lesley-roessing
3. http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/better-and-verse-by-padman-venkatraman
4. http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/poetry-for-young-adults-finding-sharing-writing-by-sylvia-vardell-and-janet-wong-and-a-nod-to-bob-dylan
5. http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/saying-goodbye-to-april-and-a-month-of-poetry

Day 1: Gerard Manley Hopkins   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44404/thou-art-indeed-just-lord-if-i-contend
Day 2: Robert Frost   https://allpoetry.com/The-Silken-Tent
Day 3: T. S. Eliot  https://poets.org/poem/love-song-j-alfred-prufrock
Day 4: W. B. Yeats  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43291/sailing-to-byzantium
Day 5: William Wordsworth https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52299/nuns-fret-not-at-their-convents-narrow-room

Day 6: Elisabeth Bishop https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=32380
Day 7: Mary Oliver  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=39535
Day 8: Gwendolyn Brooks  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/25174/the-children-of-the-poor
Day 9: Langston Hughes https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47559/mother-to-son
Day 10: May Swenson https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=29965

Day 11: John Keats https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44481/on-first-looking-into-chapmans-homer
Day 12: Edwin Arlington Robinson https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44985/villanelle-of-change
Day 13: Anne Bradstreet https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43698/by-night-when-others-soundly-slept
Day 14: Maya Angelou https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise
Day 15: John Donne https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44131/a-valediction-forbidding-mourning​

Day 16: William Carlos Williams https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=20222
Day 17: Wilfred Owens https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47393/anthem-for-doomed-youth
Day 18: Walt Whitman https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45478/vigil-strange-i-kept-on-the-field-one-night
Day 19: Ezra Pound https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12588/middle-aged
Day 20: Phyllis Wheatley https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45467/to-a-gentleman-and-lady-on-the-death-of-the-ladys-brother-and-sister-and-a-child-of-the-name-avis-aged-one-year​

Day 21: George Herbert https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44360/the-collar
Day 22: Robert Lowell https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47694/skunk-hour
Day 23: H. D. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46541/helen-56d22674d6e41
Day 24: Sylvia Plath https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48999/daddy-56d22aafa45b2
Day 25: Randall Jarrell https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48392/eighth-air-force

Day 26: Theodore Roethke https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltz
Day 27: Phillip Levine https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=29412
Day 28: Wallace Stevens https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43431/the-idea-of-order-at-key-west
Day 29: Robert  Penn Warren https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47705/evening-hawk
Day 30: Sharon Olds https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=36723

Until next time.

Once again we have a remarkable post from Lesley Roessing. I am always amazed at how many books Lesley seems to have under belt. If you need a great resource, I really think you should communicate with her. She has posted so many times it is hard to keep up. Take a minute and browse the Contributors page for her posts.

Memoir is writing that matters—for a variety of reasons. Because memoir is, in essence, narrative nonfiction, it contains elements of both narrative and informational writing and provides an effective way to bridge the gap between these two types of writing—and meet multiple state standards. In addition, one of the most important reason writers can write is to discover who they are and to reflect on the people, places, items, and events that made them the adolescents they are today and the adults they will become. The end of the school year—especially this particular year—lends itself to time to reflect.
 
As we hunker down in our homes, surrounded by family, we can transform time with relatives into memoir research as our students look through family albums and communicate with relatives and friends.  And writers can practice another type of research, experiential research, as they reflect on their personal experiences. As writers learn about themselves while “researching” and writing their memoirs, memoir writing becomes inquiry—and memoir writing becomes a journey of self-discovery.

​Memoirs appeal to all readers because they are available at all reading levels and lengths; on all topics from dancing to sports to survival and resilience; in many formats, including prose, free verse, graphic, multi-formatted, and even as rhyming poems. Memoirs are written in first and third person, and can be humorous, poignant, and enlightening. Readers can together read whole-class memoirs, participate in memoir book clubs or memoir essay clubs, and read self-selected memoirs individually. In addition to memoirs, there are novels, such as Front Desk, that closely follow the author’s life, and there are biographies written in the style of memoir in that they focus on a particular part of a person’s life or particular events based around a theme and emphasize personal experience, thoughts, feelings, reactions, and reflections rather than facts.
 
Below are memoirs which I have recently read and reviewed and also memoirs read by my own middle grade students and in secondary classrooms where I have facilitated memoir units which include memoir reading.

​Anderson, Laurie Halse. Shout. Penguin Young Readers Group, 2019.

When I think of Laurie Halse Anderson, writer, I think of well-told important stories—whether contemporary or historical, memorable characters, critical messages. When I think of Laurie Halse Anderson, person, I think of hugs, compassion, empathy, attention, and action. Now when I think of Laurie Halse Anderson, poet, I will ruminate on the power of words, the rhythm of words, the lyricism of words.
 
In this free verse memoir Anderson generously shares her life—the bottomless depths and the highest peaks—all that made her the force she is today. A challenging family life and the rape that “splits open your core with shrapnel,” clouds of doubt and self-loathing…anxiety, depression, and shame,” leaving “untreated pain / a cancer of the soul / that can kill you.” (69)
 
But also there were teachers, librarians, and the tutor who taught “the ants swarming across the pages” to form words and meaning, the lessons learned from Greek mythology, the gym teacher who cared enough to inspire her to shape-shift from “a lost stoner dirtbag / to a jock who hung out with exchange students, / wrote poetry for the literary magazine / and had a small group of …friends to sit with at lunch.” (88) and her home in Denmark which “taught me how to speak / again, how to reinterpret darkness and light, / strength and softness…redefine my true north / and start over.” (114)
 
She describes how the story of her first novel Speak found her and shares the origin of Melinda, “alone / with her fear / heart open, / unsheltered” (162)
 
Part Two bears witness to the stories of others, female and male, children, teens, and adults, connected through trauma and Melinda’s story, the questions of boys, confused, having never learned “the rules of intimacy or the law” (181) and the censorship, “the child of fear/ the father of ignorance” which keeps these stories away from them. Anderson raises the call to “sisters of the march” who never got the help they needed and deserved to “stand with us now / let’s be enraged aunties together.” (230)
 
And in Part Three the story returns to her American birth family, her father talking and “unrolling our family legacies of trauma and / silence.”
 
Shout is a tale of Truth: the truths that happened, the truths that we tell ourselves, the truths that we tell others, the truths that we live with; Shout is the power of Story—stories to tell and stories to be heard.

​Engle, Margarita. Soaring Earth. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2019.

I eagerly read Engle’s second memoir, a continuation of Enchanted Air which covers the years 1966-1973. For me, this was more reminiscing, than learning, about the lifestyle and events. As a reader of about the same age of young adult Margarita and possibly geographically crossing paths at some point, I am quite familiar with that time period.

Engle depicts a feeling of duality as she longs for Cuba, home of her “invisible twin,” now that travel is forbidden for North Americans.

Readers witness firsthand the era of hippies, an unpopular war, draft notices, drugs, and Martin Luther King’s speeches and assassination, riots, Cambodia, picket lines, as they follow 17-year-old bell-bottomed Margarita from her senior year of high school to her first university experience, fascinating college courses, books, unfortunate choices of boyfriends, dropping out, travel, homelessness, homecoming, college, agricultural studies, and finally, love.

At one point young Margarita as a member of a harsh creative writing critique group says, “If I ever scribble again, I’ll keep every treasured word secret.” (31). Thank goodness she didn’t. This beautifully written verse novel shares her story—and a bit of history—through poetry in many formats, including tanka, haiku, concrete, and the power of words.

When his friends all join the football team, Rex has no one to sit with at lunch. But finally, Rex makes a new friend at school, Ethan, a boy who may have seems a “total weirdo” at first but turns out to be a good person and true friend and have his own family problems, and Rex’s teacher learns to admit and face her own prejudices. Rex comes to the realization that “Mom didn’t sign me up for the Free Lunch Program to punish me. She did it so I could have food….Things are not as black and white as I thought. Maybe some things are gray, somewhere in between.” (188) As Ethan tells him, “…no one has a perfect life. There is no such thing as ‘perfect.’ It’s just an idea.” (195).

However, some lives are indeed less perfect. About 15 million children in the United States – 21% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold. Forty-three percent of children live in households which earn less than necessary to cover basic expenses (NCCP). And Rex Ogle, author, was one of them; Free Lunch is his personal story.

Free Lunch, and other novels and memoirs about children affected by poverty, are necessary additions to classroom and school libraries so that readers can see their lives and the lives of their peers reflected and valued through story. 

Yang, Kelly. Front Desk.

Front Desk’s ten-year-old Mia moves to the head of my “Strong Girls in MG/YA Literature” list as she becomes an activist and champion of those who cannot, or will not, stand up for themselves [“You don’t get it, kid. I’ve been fighting my whole life. I’m done. It’s no use fighting—people are gonna be the way they’re gonna be” (105)], teaches others the wrongs of prejudice and injustice, and forms a community from her neighbors, patrons, and fellow immigrants.

Mia and her parents emigrated from China to the United States for a more “free” life. In China her parents were professionals; in America they feel lucky to find a job managing a motel. But the owner, Mr. Yao, is unkind, unjust, cheap, and prejudiced. He reduces their salaries until they are working for lodging and a life of poverty. And while this is a novel about Mia who manages the front desk and helps her parents temporarily hide other Chinese immigrants who have been mistreated, it is really a novel of culture, prejudice, bullying, community, and, most of all, the power of writing. “It was the most incredible feeling ever, knowing that something I wrote actually changed someone’s life.” (218)

In America there are two roller coasters, and people are born to a life on one or the other, but Mia and her friend Lupe, whose family came from Mexico, have decided to break that cycle. Although bullied in school and warned by her mother that she will never be a “native” English writer, Mia develops her writing skills to help Hank gain employment after a wrongful arrest, free “Uncle” Zhang whose ID and passport were being held by his employer, share her story with her teacher and classmates, and finally persuade friends and strangers to take a chance on her family.

Mia is a representative of the “nearly twenty million immigrant children currently living in the United States, 30 percent of whom are living at or below poverty.” (Author’s Note). As such, this book will serve as a mirror for many readers, a map for others looking for ways to navigate young adolescent life, especially in a new culture, and as a window for those who will learn empathy for others they may see as different. Author Kelly Yang also shares the autobiographical elements of the novel in her Author’s Note.
​
Front Desk, with its very short chapters and challenging topics would be a meaningful and effective 10-minute read-aloud to begin Grade 4-7 daily reading workshop focus lessons. I would suggest projecting Mia’s letters since they show her revisions as she seeks to improve her language skills and word choices.

​Lerner, Sarah. Parkland Speaks: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share Their Stories. Crown Book for Young Readers, 2019.

On the first anniversary of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I read the writings of the survivors of that unspeakable event. In this “yearbook,” students and teachers share their stories of grief, terror, anger, and hope, and honor those who died through narratives, letters, speeches, free verse and rhyming poetry, and art. As the editor, MSD English and journalism teacher Sarah Lerner, writes, “Watching my students find their voices after someone tried to silence them was impressive…. It was awe-inspiring. It was brave…. They turned their grief into words, into pictures, into something that helped them begin the healing process.”
 
“[The news] keeps coming in,
It doesn’t pause
Or give you a break. It keeps hitting you
With debilitating blows, one after the other,
As those missing responses remain empty,
And your messages remain unread.” –C. Chalita
 
“We entered a war zone.…I came out of that building a different person than the one who left for school that day.” –J. DeArce
 
“Somehow, through the darkness, we found another shade of love, too
 something that outweighed the hate and swept the grays away.
 A love so strong it transcended colors, something so empowering and true it couldn’t be traced to one hue.” – H. Korr
 
“I just don’t want to let go of all the people I love,
 I want to continuously tell them “I love you” until
 My voice is raw and my throat is sore” – S. Bonnin
 
“I invite you [Dear Mr. President] to learn, to hear the story from inside,
Cause if not now, when will be the right time to discuss?” –A. Sheehy
 
A look into the minds and hearts of those who experienced an event no one, especially adolescents, should ever expect to encounter as they share with readers in similar and disparate circumstances across the globe.

Thomas, Annie, ed. With Their Eyes: September 11th: The View from a High School at Ground Zero. HarperTempest, 2002.  

​“Journalism itself is, as we know, history’s first draft.” (xiii)
With Their Eyes was written from not only a unique perspective—those who watched the attack on the World Trade Center and the fall of the towers from their vantage point at Stuyvesant High School, a mere four blocks from Ground Zero, but in a unique format. Inspired by the work of Anna Deavere Smith whose work combines interviews of subjects with performance to interpret their words, English teacher Annie Thomas led one student director, two student producers, and ten student cast members in the creation—the writing and performance—of this play.  
The students interviewed members of the Stuyvesant High study body, faculty, administration, and staff and turned their stories of the historic day and the days that followed into poem-monologues. They transcribed and edited these interviews, keeping close to the interviewees’ words and speech patterns because “each individual has a particular story to tell and the story is more than words: the story is its rhythms and its breaths.” (xiv) They next rehearsed the monologues, each actor playing a variety of roles. Although cast members were chosen from all four grades and to represent the school’s diversity, actors did not necessarily match the culture of their interviewees. They next planned the order of the stories to speak to each other, “paint a picture of anger and panic, of hope and strength, of humor and resilience” (7), rehearsed, and presented two performances in February 2002.
 
With Their Eyes presents the stories of those affected by the events of 9/11 in diverse ways. It shares the stories of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, special education students, an English teacher, a Social Studies teacher, the School Safety Agent, the Building Coordinator, a dining hall worker, a custodian, an assistant principal, and more, some male, some female, some named, others remain anonymous. Written as a play, readers are given a description of each character. Read and performed as a play, readers will experience the effect of Nine Eleven on others, actual people who lived that day and persisted in those days that followed, sharing their big moments and little thoughts. With Their Eyes was written with the thoughts and pens of a school community.

​Winchell, Mike. Been There, Done That: Writing Stories from Real Life. Grosset & Dunlap, 2015.
Winchell, Mike. Been There, Done That: School Dazed. Grosset & Dunlap, 2016.
 
In these two unique memoir collections, popular authors show how and where they get stories. Each author shares a real-life experience and the original fictional short story that event inspired. Stories, relatable to readers everywhere, are divided into topics, such as dealing with peer pressure, putting others first, regret and guilt, change, morning school routines, class projects, and the dreaded school bus ride. Memoirists include well-known MG/YA authors Kate Messner, Julia Alvarez, Linda Sue Park, Lisa Yee, Alan Sitomer, Varian Johnson, Bruce Coville, and Meg Medina.

Bryant, Jen F. Feed Your Mind. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2019.

“If you can read, you can do anything—you can be anything.”—Daisy Wilson

Frederick August Kittle Jr., the son of a white German baker and Daisy Wilson, a black single mother who left school after sixth-grade, cleaned houses, and taught her four-year-old Freddy to read, overcame racism and poverty to become a Pulitzer prize-winning playwright.

Freddy left school when prejudice from classmates made it evident that he, the only black student, was not welcome in Central Catholic High and teachers at the public high school doubted his writing genius. Besides his mother, only Brother Dominic had faith in him, “You could be a writer.”

Freddy educated himself at the Carnegie Public Library though the works of such black writers as Hughes, Dunbar, Ellison, and Wright and the conversations of the Hill’s tribal elders—“warriors who survive in this hard world.” His job as a poet, and later as playwright, was “to keep [these voices] alive” though a collage of black characters from the Pittsburgh that never left him.
​
Through Jen Bryant’s verse biography, readers follow Freddy Kittle’s daily life as he grows into August Wilson, influenced by black writers and collage artist Romare Bearden and supported by fellow playwrights. Feed Your Mind, a picture book for readers of all ages, but particularly MG/HS, is hauntingly illustrated by Cannaday Chapman and includes a Timeline, Selected Bibliography, and list of Wilson’s plays.

​Burkinshaw, Kathleen. The Last Cherry Blossom. Sky Pony, 2016.
 
All wars have two sides, but, as Winston Churchill said, “History is written by the victors.” Through history books and archives our students learn only one point of view, but we must disrupt the narrative with tales from the other side.

When our students study World War II—the war in Europe and the war with Japan, it is crucial that we help our students to see all perspectives and bear witness to the experiences of others. They need to learn that actions and decisions of governments have effects. One of those actions by the United States in 1945 was the bombing of Hiroshima, employing the first atomic bombs.

Through author Kathleen Burkinshaw’s poignant story, based on her mother’s childhood in Japan, readers can gain empathy and understanding for those innocent victims of war. This is the first-person narrative of 12-year-old Yuriko, her family members who are inundated with family secrets and shifting relationships, her neighbors who are sending their boys off to war, and her best friend. Through this important and well-written story, readers are introduced to Japanese culture, experience the strain of family secrets, and observe the war from the Japanese perspective. Not only a story of war, The Last Cherry Blossom is the story of family, heritage, and relationships.

​Shabazz, Ilyasah and Magoon, Kekla. X: A Novel. Candlewick Press, 2015.
 
This fascinating novel, or fictionalized memoir, of Malcolm X could have been titled “Before X” since it covers the time before Malcolm Little became Malcolm X or as written in the Author’s Note, “[it] represents the true journey of Malcolm Little, the adolescent, on the road to becoming Malcolm X.” (352)

Co-written by one of his daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz with one of my favorite writers, Kekla Magoon, X covers the years from 1931 to 1948 (the year Malcolm went to prison), focusing primarily on his teen years in Boston and New York City.

The reader experiences the significant influence of Malcolm’s father, a civil rights activist, and his mother who kept the family together after his father’s death, or murder, despite severe poverty until she was taken away to a mental institution and the children were divided among foster homes. The story also demonstrates the powerful influence of a high school teacher who, despite the fact that he was a top student and president of his class, told Malcolm that he could not aspire to be a lawyer and should aim for a profession as a carpenter. Taking that advice to heart, Malcolm drops out of school and renounces his father’s principles.

The timeline fluctuates from past to present which may be a little challenging for some readers; it might help to write in Malcolm’s ages next to the dates for readers. This novel is definitely for mature readers as teen Malcolm becomes involved in drugs and sex although there are no explicit depictions.

Through this well-written and an engaging text, the reader observes the changes Malcolm undergoes as he moves from a family life in Lansing, Michigan, to the influences of big-city life in the Roxbury and Harlem jazz neighborhoods of the 1940’s; from being Malcolm Little to signing first time he signed his name, on a letter to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Muslim leader, as Malcolm X. The extensive 6-page Author’s Note takes the reader through Malcolm’s transition, or “awakening,” during his prison experience. 

​Powell, Patricia Hruby. Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case. Chronicle Books, 2017.
 
Loving vs Virgina is the story behind the unanimous landmark decision of June 1967. Told in free verse through alternating narrations by Richard and Mildred, the story begins in Fall 1952 when 13-year old Mildred notices that her desk in the colored school is “ sad excuse for a desk” and her reader “reeks of grime and mildew and has been in the hands of many boys,” but she also relates the closeness of family and friends in her summer vacation essay. This closeness is also expressed in the family’s Saturday dinner where “folks drop by,” one of them being the boy who catches Mildred’s ball during the kickball game and “Because of him I don’t get home.” That boy is her neighbor, nineteen-year-old Richard Loving, and that phrase becomes truer than Mildred could have guessed.

​On June 2, 1958, Richard, who is white, and Mildred marry in Washington, D.C., and on July 11, 1958 they are arrested at her parents’ house in Virginia. The couple spends the next ten years living in D.C., sneaking into Virginia, and finally contacting the American Civil Liberties Union who brings their case through the courts to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The documentary novel brings the story behind the case alive, interspersed with quotes, news headlines and news reports, maps, timelines, and information on the various court cases, and the players involved, as the case made its way to the Supreme Court.
 
Students can learn history from textbooks, from lectures, or more effectively and affectively, through the stories of the people involved. Novels are where readers learn empathy, vicariously living the lives of others.

​Crowder, Melanie. Audacity. Philomel Books, 2015.
 
Many of the same issues appear throughout history, wearing different masks; oppression, intolerance, and mistreatment of refugees have not ended, and we still need people unafraid to stand for their own rights and those of others. Audacity relates the true story of Clara Lemlich, a Russian Jewish immigrant with dreams of an education who sacrifices everything to fight for better working conditions for women in the factories of Manhattan's Lower East Side in the early 1900's. Lyrically related in verse, the use of parallelism and the purposeful placement of the words is as effective as the words themselves.
 
The novel includes the history behind the story and a glossary of terms, a wonderful "text" for a social studies class. Readers not only learns the story of Clara Lemlich but experience the trials of the factory workers in NYC’s garment district and the obstacles Clara surmounted as she fought to organize the women to fight for their rights. Through the story of Clara Lemlich, a Russian Jewish immigrant who sacrifices her education to fight for the rights of factory workers on Manhattan's Lower East Side in the early 1900’s, readers will learn about the struggles which led up to the Triangle Factory fire.

​Engle, Margarita. The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist. HMH Books for Young Readers, 2013.

The story follows feminist Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, known as Tula from 1827, from when she tells us that “Books are door-shaped portals…helping me feel less alone” to 1836 where she begins the first of her books to spread her hope of racial and gender equality.

As a girl, Tula reads in secret and burns her writings as reading and writing are unladylike. A13 she is nearing the age of forced marriage, and her grandfather and mother make plans to barter her for riches. The reader follows Tula through Engle’s beautiful verse as she writes plays and stories to give hope to orphaned children and slaves; refuses not one, but two arranged marriages; falls in love with a half-African freed slave who loves another; and at last independent, moves to Havana to be healed by poetry and plans the writing of “a gentle tale of love,” a story about how human souls are “free of all color, class, and gender,” an abolitionist novel written by the real Tula to spread her hope of racial and gender equality.

​To introduce a memoir unit or for more challenged readers, such English Language Learners, picture book memoirs may be a good fit and a bridge to longer memoirs. Patricia Polacco’s numerous memoirs work well with adolescent readers.

In Bridging the Gap, I discuss how it can be effective, before writing, to listen to an oral memoir and ask students to list what makes it a "good" or "effective" memoir. They then can create a class list to refer to when writing memoirs or critiquing memoirs that they  read.

Seinfeld, Jerry. Halloween.  Little, Brown and Company, 2002.
One oral memoir that works in classrooms of all ages is Jerry Seinfeld's "Halloween" (adapted into a picture book). Mr. Seinfeld shares Halloween experiences that are common to us all: the badly fitting costumes, being made to wear a coat over the costume (at least for us Northerners), trick or treating as a teen, and he ends with a reflection, the hallmark of memoir writing.
 
When working with adolescent writers, teachers can share a memoir from NPR's "Snap Judgment such as “The Garbage Man” about an adolescent’s first day at a new school.
 
One hilarious oral memoir I especially love and use with adolescents and adults is Carmen Agra Deedy's TED Talk "Spinning a Story of Mama".

With all the varieties of memoirs, this genre easily lends itself to Memoir Clubs. Full-length memoirs can be grouped for book clubs by format—prose, genre, or verse or each club could read a different format; by topic, i.e., sports, dancers, writers; by theme, such as resilience, immigration, mental illness; by cultural of memoirists; by time period; or other categories. Essay memoirs, in an author’s collection, such as Gary Soto’s  A Summer Life, or in a collection of memoirs by different authors, such as the collections listed above, each memoir club could read one memoir. Other types of Memoir Clubs can be organized around picture books or memoir-type biographies.
 
Memoir Clubs directions, strategies, and ideas for comparing/contrasting memoirs with other clubs or for club presentations to the class are described in Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs across the Curriculum. 

                                                                                   ----------------------
A middle school and high school teacher for twenty years, Lesley Roessing is the former Founding Director of the Coastal Savannah Writing Project at Georgia Southern University (formerly Armstrong State University) where she was also a Senior Lecturer in the College of Education. In 2018-19 she served as a Literacy Consultant with a K-8 school and now works independently, writing, providing professional development in literacy to schools, and visiting classrooms to facilitate reading and writing lessons. She can be contacted at lesleyroessing@gmail.com or through Facebook Messenger.
 
Lesley is the author of

•  Bridging the Gap: Reading Critically & Writing Meaningfully to Get to the Core; 
• Comma Quest: The Rules They Followed. The Sentences They Saved; 
• No More “Us” & “Them: Classroom Lessons and Activities to Promote Peer Respect; 
• The Write to Read: Response Journals That Increase Comprehension;
• Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs across the Curriculum
• and has contributed chapters to Young Adult Literature in a Digital World: Textual Engagement though Visual Literacy; to Queer Adolescent Literature as a Complement to the English Language Arts Curriculum, and to the upcoming Story Frames.

 
Lesley served as past editor of Connections, the award-winning journal of the Georgia Council of Teachers of English. As a columnist for AMLE Magazine, she shared before, during, and after-reading response strategies across the curriculum through ten “Writing to Learn” columns. 

Until next time.

This week's post deals with book clubs within a pre-service class and follows on the heels of the post written by Kelli
Sowerbrower. Her post focuses on how high school students define YA literature. Kelli's post doesn't deal directly with clubs, but many of the students who wrote participate in a book club at Kelli's school. Here, Leilya Pitre, one of my former doctoral students, provides a glimpse of how her students have incorporated  online book clubs as they have moved to online learning as part of the COVID-19 quarantine measures. I am excited about how she has outlined her YA course. I know that I am going to be moving some of these ideas into my courses.

This post was initially planned as a thematic approach to exploring young adult literature with the preservice English teachers, and then COVID-19 happened. First, we heard some distant news about people in China, and then Italy was hurt with staggering numbers of those who contracted the virus. Now it is in our house – the USA,—and daily updates of the numbers of infected and those who lost this battle are frightening. Thus, this entry still remains thematic, but is devoted to resilience, love, and hope—things that keep us going.

When I developed a course on exploring adolescent experiences in literature in December, I chose a dozen of novels that were published in chronological order, from The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger, 1945) to The Music of What Happens (Konigsberg, 2019). There was no specific, thematic order in mind. The plan was to let each student select a novel and lead a class discussion on it. So we read a novel a week, explored it through discussions in class, and completed a project, which my students could later employ in their own teaching. For example, we created a Character Web and a Theme Development Map with The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger, 1945), a Tree Activity with Speak (Anderson, 1999), a Novel in Sticky Notes with Freaky Green Eyes (Oates, 2003), Daily Masquerade Project with American Born Chinese (Yang, 2006), and Picking up the Pieces Activity with Hate List (Brown, 2009). If any of the readers are interested in these projects, I can email you the description and instructions, and you may modify it for your students. 

Since we are not in our regular classroom, Randy, this week’s novel presenter, emailed me the day before our Google Meet class session and suggested to “treat it more as a general book club type.”  Before our class meeting, he shared with me the presentation notes entitled “The QuaranTEAM Meeting” (you gotta love this boy’s sense of humor) and outlined the general rules for our Book Club. Explanations aside, they boil down to these four:

• Let others answer first.
• Make connections between comments.
• Occasionally direct questions toward quiet people. 
• Don't feel obligated to get through all the questions. 

It seemed like nothing major, but I greatly appreciated the very act of thinking about how to accommodate each of the classmates. Being respectful, keeping an open mind, and being free to express thoughts goes without saying in my classroom space.  

In a Forum response to the novel, prior the class discussion Reagan, one of my students wrote: “I don’t think we could’ve read this novel at a better time. Though we aren’t dealing with a terrorist attack, we are all currently experiencing a global pandemic. Much like 9/11, our country has never seen an enemy like this.” Echoing Reagan, Dominique expresses the same idea, admitting that “reading the novel, I could not stop myself from comparing it to the situation going on right now. There are many differences between the coronavirus pandemic and the terrorist attack, but something that the two catastrophic events share is the anxiety and uncertainty caused by them.” We all can relate to these feelings.

Responding to Dominique’s entry, Hannah’s comment demonstrates how we too, much like Polisner’s characters, have to adapt to the changed reality: “While the quarantine may not seem as immediate or terrifying, it is certainly impacting our world in ways we never expected, and we are having to alter our daily routines, similar to the ways the characters did in the story.”

Moving from the Forum discussion to a Book Club format via Google Meet, Randy led the session beginning with his peers’ first reaction to the novel. Most of them are 21-24 year-old young adults, who do not remember or have vague memories about September 11 of 2001; nonetheless, there wasn’t anyone who didn’t connect with the novel and its characters. For Louisianans, connections are easy to make—here we are frequently weathering heavy storms, hurricanes, and some are still dealing with a historic flood of 2016, which left thousands of families homeless. The locals know firsthand what a tragedy is. They also know how strong, caring, loving, and resilient our communities are. If you haven’t heard about the Cajun Navy yet, click on the link. (There is also documentary film produce for the Discovery channel.) You will see that our people will drop everything and rush to help the others who have it tougher at the moment.

My preservice teachers quickly noticed how Polisner’s The Memory of Things accentuated people’s nature to unite in times of trials, how New Yorkers came together to honor people who were lost, people they did not know, by hanging pictures and lighting candles. Strangers sympathetically smiled to each other through the heavy air filled with dust and ashes. Hannah also believes that “this book was written to show the resilience and perseverance of humanity to continue moving forward and to not forget tragic events, but to grow from them and to grow together.” 

It was that immediate connection and relevancy that drew my students’ attention to this YA novel. They wanted to discuss Kyle and H’s experiences because they felt they too encountered pain and loss in their own lives. Everyone could add something to what Caitlin shared: “I have had several tragic things happen. I watched one of my grandfather’s fade from this world because of Alzheimer’s. I helped take care of my grandmother after he passed until she passed from cancer five years later. We flooded in 2016. I watched my Aunt die from complications with Leukemia. Just like Kyle and H, I had to learn how to deal with all those losses.” This conversation steered towards emotional trauma, which might be invisible, but not less destructive than a physical wound.

Discussing trauma and how to heal, Reagan notes that “there is no rule book for something of this magnitude,” continuing: “That is why we have the trauma bonding that happened between Kyle and H.”  She further explains that if two or more people endure a traumatic experience together, they have a strong bond. People tend to cling to each other when they are lost and scared. In the novel, the two young people meet under extreme circumstances, have to stay together for a few days, and fall in love. The questions some of my students pose are: So, Kyle and H bonded and fell in love because of shared emotional trauma.  Does that make their bond weaker or less valid? Would they fall in love if it weren’t for 9/11 events? The answers vary, until Jade, one of the two graduate students I have in class, declares that H and Kyle’s relationship are not “less legitimated based on how they met and got close to one another. Unlike the couple in Hate List, they are bonded by grief, fear, and confusion, but not hatred. They are not compelled to each other because of the people they hate, rather they are drawn together by the people they have loved and lost.” Their love may not last long, just like the first teenage love of millions of other young people, but it is genuine, gentle, and real at the moment. This love helps them survive. 

Another intriguing question suggested by Randy to continue discussion was: Is Kyle helping H or is H helping Kyle? His classmates seem more agreeable on this one and believe that both characters need and help one another cope with personal tragedies coupled with the entire country’s catastrophe. “H helps Kyle in dealing with external conflict while Kyle helps H with internal conflict,” concludes Randy. Perhaps, Kyle needs help even more longing for sense of normalcy and occupying himself with mundane task as doing laundry, preparing breakfasts, taking extra care of his Uncle Matt, and protecting Hannah. The world, as he knows it, has broken into myriads of pieces, and being unable to fix it, Kyle does little things he can control.
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By the end of the novel, readers sense hope and know that our major characters are going to be okay. “Hope is the thing with feathers,” claims Emily Dickinson in her famous poem, and H, who is literally wearing feathers at the moment we meet her first, becomes Kyle’s hope in the novel. In his Forum response and later in class, Daniel thinks that “the girl represents blissfulness. She is innocent and her wings make her an angel who is just squeaky clean and innocent. Kyle views her as important but fleeting, like happy memories that we all wish to relive and relish when life is falling apart around us.” He wants to save her, so she can save him.

I would like to conclude this post with a couple of quotes from my students. They wrote an after-class journal entry responding to a question: How do we find hope when we are broken? Here is what Tyler wrote:

Every day we walk around putting walls up. We don’t want to be weak or hurt. Because that stuff sucks. Then why is it that inside of all that chaos and misery there is also happiness and connection? Who decided on that nonsense? I don’t know, but what I do know is that moving on is worth the risk.
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Whenever life feels out of control, off track, or just plain chaotic, know that you are more than those things. We are more than the sum of our intentions and the sum of our mistakes. We are the liminal. We are the doorway, and we get to decide what comes next. So let your heart out every once in a while. Take it out for a walk. Let yourself feel again. Let yourself heal and be vulnerable. 

Finally, there is Lisa Viviani, an exchange student from Italy (yes, that very Italy) in my class this semester. She is also a graduate student. In response to destructive events in her life, Lisa confesses: 

I cry a lot, I feel angry, I feel empty. But then I realize it's just life, and sometimes you cannot control it. So I keep moving on. Maybe starting from small daily things, like Kyle did, doing laundry or cooking breakfast. I know that, even when my world collapses, the world outside keeps moving on. I can find the way to keep moving on with it too.

The people of this country have survived the devastating aftermath of 9/11, will conquer the present pandemic virus, and will keep the memory of things, along with Gae Polisner and her heroes—H and Kyle—because we are “tethered,” tethered to each other. I also have a hope for my preservice teachers that one day they will walk into their own classrooms and bring these priceless memories to their own students. They will teach them to always hold on to hope.

Until next time.

We have another great post for a time of isolation and confinement. I hope most ELA teachers are primarily asking their students to read and write. If they do that, we can work with the rest. Who knows they might even discover a few things on their own.

Today's guest contributor is Kelli Sowerbrower. Kelli and I meet so long ago I can't remember when it was. I know that we immediately decided that our mutual interest in books and reading would make us friends and, indeed, such is the case. Like Kelli explains below, I was also always a reader. As the photo below indicates, Kelli was one of the presenters at the UNLV 2015 Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature.  She continues to engage students in the ELA classroom. 

We found each other. Meeting once a month to either talk about the suggested book, or any book, we met. Then this blog came up in our conversations, I knew it was a chance for my kiddos to write about their experiences. So, I posed this question to not only my book club readers, but to all my readers: Why YA Lit? Why read? What you will find below are several of the responses from high schools students ranging from sophomore to senior. This is an argument coming about why we need choice reading in our classrooms. Why we need current titles in our classrooms. Why we need diversity in our classroom titles. Why we should continue to move to a novel based curriculum where possible. Why we should always start a book club. ​

Issac Cox (junior): His current favorite author is Misa Sugiura or Becky Albertalli
YA literature is something that I’ve been reading even before I would consider myself a young adult. Although I have broadened my interest into other genres of books, YA Literature is something I will always hold near and dear. For me, discovering YA literature was the first time I could really form my own opinions and start discovering myself as a person. Throughout elementary and middle school the reading we did in class were only for educational purposes: the books didn’t challenge my growing mind. When I began to read on my own, I discovered a whole different species of books: Something I could connect with on a personal level. When I began reading YA novels, it was the first time these confusing emotions I had inside me had actually been put into writing, and became something I could translate into words. YA literature opened a whole new door in my life where I could suddenly describe complex emotions lik

It was pretty hard to make friends because even if I could communicate with them, my social skills were lacking, and they most of the time couldn’t understand me. So I would go to the library instead of being in class or at recess. I quickly realized that it was just easier for me to be reading constantly because then people wouldn’t bother me, and I would blend in more. It’s kind of sad, but that’s how I started reading.
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However, how I got invested in reading and literature was the Geronimo Stilton book series. These books helped me experience language in a new way because some words were displayed in a different font (ex. The word “cheese” was in a font that looked like cheese, etc). I found these books when I was in the 4th grade, and up until that point I kind of figured that words by themselves were meaningless unless put into a strand. It’s kind of hard to explain, but if A is an adjective and B is the rest of the sentence and C is the meaning to the story I figured that no matter what A was, B would always lead to C. This made me completely rethink how much individual words matter.

​This is also why I read because sometimes there are things that are inside of you that you don’t realize until you read them off a page. And I know that these experiences don’t always have to come from literature, some people feel this way about music or art, but for me, it was. That’s why I love story writing and reading because it helps me find myself.

Until next time.