My good friend Lesley Roessing wanted to celebrate some book recommendations for her birthday as well. So now we have 20 for the 20th.  Here are some fantastic choices. While Lesley's words are the best, I added a link to the Kirkus review as well.

For more about Lesley, browse through the contributor's page for more of her brillant work. She is also the author of Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs across the Curriculum (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019)

If the title of Lesley's pick is in green it is Bickmore read and Bickmore approved.

It would be impossible to choose my top 20 novels, but from my reading of the last 2-3 years, these are among my favorites, based on story, writing, topic, and/or opportunity to generate important discussions. These titles present culturally (race, ethnicity, geography, religion, gender, age, socio-economic status, mental health) diverse characters and authors, genres, writing formats, and MG/YA designations. My list does not include any graphic novels (other than the graphics in Breakout), not because they are not as valuable, but because they are not among my personal favorites. Stan Lee said, “If you don’t care about the characters, you can’t care about the story,” and these are all characters who now live in my heart.

Until next time.

​I hope you are having a great summer. I know that I am. One of the things that makes it great is the opportunity to curate blog post from my contributors. Once again we have another great post, this time from Margaret Robbins. I continue to learn and gain new perspectives every time I talk with Margaret. I loved her last blog post in February of 2018. It was a remberance of Ursula Le Guin  at her passing.  I hope you check it out again. This time Margaret talks a bit about how rape and diet culture are evident in YA Novels on two, Shout and Asking For it and, to conclude, she suggests a few others that are worth reading as well. Thanks Margaret.

​YA authors are speaking out against sexual assault and the control of women’s bodies through their compelling stories. I’ve recently studied two compelling YA novels, Asking for It by Louise O’Neill and Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson, that serve as activist literature. Asking for It was released two years before the #metoo movement, and Shout was released two years after the #metoo movement began and 20 years after Anderson’s first novel about sexual assault, Speak. Speak was a work of fiction loosely based on Halse Anderson’s own survival of sexual assault as a young teenage girl. In response to the #metoo movement, Shout gives a more brutally honest poetic memoir account based on Halse Anderson’s real life rape, events leading up to it, and the aftermath; she decided that rather than speaking out, sometimes one must shout. Through their use of language, both novels point to the power differentials between women and men that instigate rape culture. Additionally, I would argue that both novels have passages that refer to the relationship between rape culture and diet culture. In my opinion, diet culture is a topic that needs more discussion in YA literature. 

Both novels involve people using language and texts, either consciously or not, to belittle women and to send women the message that their bodies are objects designed to please men. The diet culture, as part of patriarchal society, encourages women to be small, and unfortunately, this pressure to be thin also causes women to feel smaller psychologically. Both novels deconstruct these power relationships and the ideological state apparatuses (Althusser, 1971), such as small town culture and church teachings, that lead to these power differentials. Although the focus on diet culture in both novels is secondary to the issue of rape, it is nonetheless important to discuss, as the language surrounding both diet culure and rape culture leads to the subjugation and disempowerment of women, which can lead to sexual assault and violence.  

​Asking for It
In Asking For It (2016), the eighteen-year-old main character Emma experiences gang rape at a friend’s party. While getting ready for the party at which the novel’s pivotal incidents occur, Emma conveys thoughts about food that are unhealthy. Her brother says, “Is that all you’re going to eat? Mam left dinner for us.” Her response is, “eating is cheating” (p. 55). Her brother Bryan laughs off the comment, but later, he becomes eerily aware at how body obsession eventually comes to harm his younger sister. As feminist scholar Susan Bordo (1993) noted, “feminism imagined the human body as itself a politically inscribed entity, its physiology and morphology shaped by histories and practice of containment and control,” which manifests in such areas as corseting to shrink the size of the human body, rape, and unwanted pregnancy (p. 21). Slut shaming and fat shaming are both aspects of social control that are imposed upon women to maintain the status quo of male dominance. One cultural message that many women get is that we must remain small, not only in our physical bodies, but also in our ability to assert ourselves and to speak up when we are being mistreated. The quote “eating is cheating” shows that Emma has gained messages about discipline of the body in a punishing tone, akin to Marx and Foucault’s ideas on the “‘direct grip’ that culture has on our bodies” (Bordo, 1993, p. 16).  

Shout
Like Asking for It, Shout (2019) references the pressure for women to stay small through thinness. In the poem entitled “hippos,” the speaker notes that paralleling the magazine covers “of skeletal white privilege like the Kennedys” her parents “smothered/my hunger/by pinching my hips/grabbing the fat under my chin” starting when she was only eight, all the way through her twenties (p. 29). They called her Baby Hippo in an “insult disguised as love” and warned her that people would make fun of her “for being fat/so I might as well/get used to it” (p. 29). Scarring insults related to the body, which most women face at some point, can lead to negative feelings about the body. When the speaker was first raped, she did not tell anyone about it, perhaps in part due to the language surrounding shame she experienced as related to her body throughout her childhood. 

​Interestingly enough, this scene in Shout also points to the issue of privilege and weight. The Kennedy’s were able to embody the image of beauty in part because of their social capital and socioeconomic privilege. The speaker’s family was not well off, yet they were trying to uphold the media images of attractiveness. The parents’ possibly well-intentioned, but misguided encouragement of the speaker to look more like media images led her to feel disempowered in her own body, and media images and societal pressures have this impact on many women. Various forms of media serve as ideological state apparatuses that pressure women to uphold smaller physical appearances and demure demeanors. Although social media did not exist in the 1970s, television and written magazines contained advertisements that exerted the same pressure over women that social media now exerts on us today: We have an image to uphold, one that pleases the male gaze.  

​Diet culture and rape culture are not one and the same, but both involve the shaming of women. Therefore, I believe it’s pertinent that both Asking for It and Shout address the issue within a larger conversation about rape culture. Within classroom settings, feminist literature surrounding diet culture and encouraging women to remain small can be useful to discuss in relationship to YA literature, particularly YA literature related to rape culture. Perhaps, if women are no longer forced to remain small, we will feel more free to speak and shout our feelings to avoid and report incidents of sexual violence.   

Need more options? Try these as well:

1. Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu 
2. 52 Likes by Medeia Sharif 
3. Sadie by Courtney Summers (also, All the Rage by the same author) 
4. The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed 
5. Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson and Emily Carroll 
6. Sold by Patricia McCormick 
7. The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
8. Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks (Anonymous) 
9. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 
10. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen 
11. The Gospel of Winter by Brendan Kiely 
12. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton 

Althusser, L. (1971). Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (Notes towards an
investigation). In Louis Althusser, Lenin and philosophy and other essays (Ben Brewster,
Trans.) (pp. 127-186). New York: Monthly Review Press. (Reprinted from La Pensée,
1970).

Anderson, L.H. (2019). Shout (Advanced Readers’ Edition). New York, NY: Viking.

Bordo, S. (1993/2003). Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body.

Berkely, CA: University of California Press.
​
O’Neill, L. (2016). Asking for It. New York, NY: Quercus. 

One of my good friends and an occasional blog contributor, Katie Sluiter, managed to do something that I am still dreaming about--she attend nErDcamp!! I love the work of this group and the opportunities they provide for teachers and students. To make one thing perfectly clear, I think I have quite few friends at there this year--authors, academic, and teachers, but I picked on Katie. Thanks Katie for giving all of us who haven't attended an quick inside view.

Last year, I made some reading recommendations for my birthday. Well, it has rolled around one my time and my birthday is this week (July 12th). It makes me happy if people are reading and it makes me even happier if they read books that I love. Since I am under some deadlines and getting ready to go to the 2019 ELATE conference I am going to do it again. 

Some of these are books I read for the first time just recently and others are books that I keep thinking about after years have gone by. Some have made the Weekend Picks list and the others probably will be for too long. I hope many of you find these books familiar, if not, add them to your "to be read list" as soon as possible. 

Since my children aren't around for my birthday this year, I have rounded up these 12 suggestions and gathered them around me. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

In no particular order these are the books:
1. We Were Here by Matt de la Pena
2. Big Mouth Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
3. Read Between the Lines by Jo Knowles
4. Too Shattered for Mending by Peter Brown Hoffmeister
5. People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins
​6. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
7. Dig by A. S. King
8. The Wild Lands by Paul Greci
9. Holes by Louis Sachar
10. Dear Martin by Nic Stone
11. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
12. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Okay, to start, I am going to refrain from saying--I Love This Book--each time. Let's just take that as a given. Instead, I will add a link to the Kirkus review, link the picture and the title to a place you can get the book, an provide a couple of sentences of comment. Also, I haven't included books that I have recently talked about in the blog. If you browse the blog and find an author that I need to consider, I would love to hear about it.

This book stands alone as a great story, but for my friends who teach AP and honors classes and can't just wrap their minds around using YA in the classroom this might just be the ticket. At the 2019 UNLV Summit, we talked about how to included YA in the curriculum.  I think you can just teach these alone in a variety of formats. If, however, you can't seem to do that, We Were Here is a great companion book with Of Mice and Men. Read it, you will make the connection.

Joyce Carol Oates is a tremendous writer. She is also fantastically prolific. Among her many offerings is a collection of YA Novels. One might argue that many of her books are accessible to adolescent readers--especially the short stories. Most certainly a number of her books could and should be used in AP courses, but are they? Maybe we should be more aware of what she has produced in the YA classification. I suggest starting with Big Mouth & Ugly Girl. In an age of school tragedies this particular book still rings as important. Who is bad? Who is a threat and who isn't. 

Who hasn't wondered about the motivation of a random middle finger in response to what seemed to be a minor offense. Are some of us even guilty of returning the gesture. Jo Knowles' Read Between the Lines is fantastic exploration into motives and the actions of several people whose lives mingle unexpectedly. 

This book still rocks me even after a third reading. I have tried to promote Peter's book and I won't stop. Kids are surviors. It doesn't excuse the horrible things that people do to them or the conditions that people force them to live in. Too Shattered for Mending is ultimately a book of hope and book that signals, for me, a writer that everyone should be reading.

People Kill People is a beautiful book about a horrible topic. Once again, Ellen Hopkins hit a home run. When Gretchen, Shelly, and I were putting together the structure for the edited book about teaching about gun violence in the schools, we fully intended to included a chapter about this wonderful book. Alas, we ran out of space. We still intend to write about it in some format. That shouldn't stop you from reading this book as soon as you can.

Nina LaCour's We Are Okay is a book that took me completely by surprise. I read it on the advice of a colleague and loved it. It is coming of age story that honors intergenerational relationships. The truth is that living and making ones way in the world can be hard regardless of how old we are. Adolescent or Adult, we all have stuff we are trying to work through. Perhaps we should try harder to connect and see things from each others perspectives.

I read the first chapter of Dig and had to put it down. Those two pages where so beautiful, so perfect. I sat in amazement. The first chapter captures years of a couple's realtionship perfectly. I do indeed understand that some adolescents may not immediately fill the strength of that chapter, but they will relish the development of the adolescents characters. Readers will read with amazement as King weaves these characters together with her surrealistic magic. This book is Art with a capital A, pure and simple. It is literature worthy of reading and analysis and any level.

Do you love an outdoor story? Do you know kids who love Gary Paulsen? Do you know students who tell you that the last book they read was Hatchet, but they loved it? Then it is time for you to read Paul Greci's The Wild Lands. It is Paulsen with a bit of Disopia and end of days motif running through it. Paul and I meet many years ago at an ALAN workshop. We keep meeting year after year and now he has this wonderful book and a couple more 

I tell people frequently that if I were to teach AP literature again, the book I would use to begin the year is Holes. It has everything--race, feminism, class issues, magical realism, fractured naratives that weave back and forth through time. Furthermore it is a fantastic story. Kids love it and many will have read it as fifth or sixth graders and will quickly realise that you can read a book at more than one level. Students will quickly learn that they can master literary analysis. If you only know the movie do yourself a favor and read this book.

Nic Stone's Dear Martin is a wonderful debut novel. It is strong and vibrant. The character is remarkable. Stone uses the letter motif as if she was a seasoned writer. After a unjustice and brutal encounter with the police Justyce McAllister starts writing letters to one of his heroes -- Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. While a couple of books dealing with race and police burtality have recieved more press, Dear Martin should be considered in the same conversation. I keep coming back to it over and over.  

Meg Medina is riding a well deserved wave after being awarded the Newbery Award Medal for Merci Suarez Changes Gears, but at the same time no one should neglect her earlier YA novels. I was a fan of Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass from the beginning. It is a stunning exploration of bullying and isolation. I taught it last spring in a graduate class and I hoped that the students would like it as much as I did. Nevertheless, I was amazed at how universally they loved this book and how many wanted to share stories of their own marginalization while adolescents. this is a powerful book that should be around for a long time.

Again, i don't think we should have to make excuses for liking, for reading, or for teaching YA literature. Quality YA can hold its own. Jason Reynolds keeps proving it over and over again. Reynolds verse novel, Long Way Down, is another addition to strong and growing body of work that speaks to adolescents and adults. Sure, this novel could be used as a companion text with Dicken's A Christmas Carol, but why can't we just acknowledge that Reynolds is growing as an author, that his is a craftsman. His books stand on their own merit. The motif of the visiting ghost takes this book to a new level. Perhaps students won't know get all the themes and elements of craftsmanship are involved in the book, but they will remember it. Perhaps ,even more importantly, they will read it again and again.

Until next week.

One of my favorite categories of Young Adult literature is historical fiction. So much of what students study in the English Language arts (ELA) classroom is connected to an historical moment. All too often, students know so little about the historical moment except that it happened. The conversation between a social studies teacher and the ELA teacher doesn't often lead to discussion of curriculum or to collaboration. I am a firm believer in the power of cross curricular conversation and collaboration and would like to see a great deal more of it.

This week, Lesley Roessing contributes once again. She is a wealth of information and now she turns to some advice about how historical YA might enrich the lives of our students. As I mentioned, Lesley is a frequent contributor have tackled such topics as YA books about the 9/11 event and bullying. She has others so I hope that you will visit the contributors page and browse around a bit. 

​When I was in elementary and secondary school, I studied history or, rather, I studied about history. I memorized names, dates, events—1492,1776, 1865, 1945, Allies, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Magellan…  History was a timeline of people and events. But I didn’t get a sense of how people were affected by events, that issues had sides and circumstances, what the long range effect of war could be, or how events became part of history because of their meaning. There were no stories, just facts. And, of course, those facts came from our textbooks. Besides bias, lack of currency, singular perspective, and the myriad of other problems with textbooks, textbooks determine what students learn; they appear to be objective while deciding what is important, why, and to whom; and textbooks do not provoke critical thinking about issues.

​A few years later, I designed and taught a middle grades social justice course through story: novels, memoirs, and poetry. We examined the Holocaust through the play The Diary of Anne Frank and through reading numerous novels and memoirs; we studied Apartheid by reading Sheila Gordon’s Waiting for the Rain and some of Beverly Naidoo novels and short stories; we learned about modern Indian life and issues through I Heard the Owl Call My Name. My eighth graders became outraged at injustices, and moved to action, as they had not in any Social Studies/History classes.

Since then, I have continued to learn history through story. One of the most effective ways to learn about any historical event, and the nuances and affects of those events, is through a novel study—the power of story. Every historical event is distinct and affects people and places uniquely—and each is surrounded by misconceptions, misunderstandings, miscommunications, and differing and shifting perspectives. We may learn about history through textbooks and lectures, but we experience history through novels. And when we live it, we learn it; we do not merely learn about it. We discern the complex issues, and we feel empathy for all affected. We bear witness to the events we read ansd the plights of the people affected by those events.

Below are 20+ historical fiction novels through which I have learned the stories of those affected by historic events. There are a vast number of historical fiction novels, but these are the novels that I read and reviewed in the last 2 years. They are ordered chronologically by settings.

Engle, Margarita. The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist. HMH Books for Young Readers, 2013.
 
“I feel certain that words / can be as human / as people, / alive / with the breath / of compassion.”

The Lightning Dreamer shares the story of feminist Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, known as Tula. The story follows Tula from 1827, where 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 because reading and writing are unladylike. At 13 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 plan the writing of “a gentle tale of love,” a story about how human souls are “free of all color, class, and gender.”

The real Tula wrote that abolitionist novel and spread her hope of racial and gender equality. “Some people are born with words flowing in their veins.” -The Nuns

​Burg, Ann E. Unbound: A Novel in Verse. Scholastic Press, 2016.
 
Considering history through novels lets the reader experience, and make sense of, history through the perspective of those most affected by historic events, getting to know them as real people—their hopes, desires, ambitions.

Ann Burg’s verse novel Unbound does just that. The story invites the reader into the hearts and thoughts of the characters, especially the main character, Grace, a young slave in the 1860’s. Grace, who has light skin and blue eyes, lives with her Mama, her two young half-brothers and their father Uncle Jim, and old Aunt Sara who helped raise her. When she is called to work in the Big House, her Mama warns her to keep her eyes down, ”to always be good, to listen to the Missus, n never talk back…n not to speak less spoken to first,” (3)

Observing the heartless Master and hateful Missus, Grace can’t help but question why they can’t do anything for themselves “Why do grown folks / need help getting dressed?” (91) She wonders why Aunt Tempie silently ignores the unfairness and abuse, “Things’ll change, Grace / maybe even sooner’n later / but till thy do—‘ (91) and why Anna and Jordon have to bear beatings and mistreatment. Reading the Missus’ words and threats is more chilling than reading about the treatment by slaveowners in textbooks.

Eventually Grace angers the Missus, “You are nothing but a slave / who needs to learn her place.” (204), and when Jordan runs away and the Master needs the money to replace him, the Missus suggests selling Grace’s family. Grace recognizes that they also need to run away: “Not sure where my place is / but I know it’s not / the Big House.” (204), and they leave in the middle of the night. Helped by OleGeorgeCooper and others, they have to decide whether to go north or go deep. And even though Grace has a chance for passing as white and “a chance / of escaping for real / of livin like the good Lord / intended folks to live. / [She] has a chance to own herself…”(212-3), the family decides to stay together.

They travel through the treacherous swamp, but as OleGeorgeCooper tells them, “There’s nothing in the swamp / what’s worse’n / the stink / of bein a slave.” (261), and as they move through, “[Grace] feels part / of another world, / a beautiful world, / A world / what whispers ‘ Freedom.” (271)

Safe (relatively) and free in a settlement in the Great Daniel Swamp, Grace explains to her new friend Brooklyn, another runaway, “Everyone’s got a way of mattering. / The only thing / what doesn’t matter / is what color / the good Lord paints us.” (336)

Well-researched and written in dialect, this is an inspiring story of the maroons, enslaved people seeking freedom in the wilderness

Nielsen, Jennifer A. amzn.to/2IVlUC6Words on Fire. Scholastic Press, 2019.
​
“How do you destroy a people? You take away their culture. And how is that done? You must take their language, their history, their very identity. How would you do that?”I pressed my lips together, then looked up at her. “You ban their books.” (78)

Jennifer A. Nielsen’s newest novel takes place during the Russian occupation of Lithuania (1795-1918), specifically the time period between June and November 1893. After the January Uprising of 1863-1864, there was a forty-year ban on the Lithuanian language, press, and books. Young adolescent Audra lives on a farm with her parents and is illiterate—by choice. She chooses not to go to school or learn to read or write. When her parents are arrested and their house burned, Audra, who describes herself as “the girl who watched life from afar but rarely participated” (2) escapes, having been entrusted by her parents with a package to deliver. When she finds out that they risked their lives to deliver merely a book, she is dismayed.

Through her new friends—Lukas, Ben, and Milda, who are book smugglers like her parents—Audra learns to read, to write, and the importance of books to her people and to preserve her culture, and she willingly becomes a book smuggler, even again the wishes of these new friends who fear for her safety. “I’d seen a glimpse of myself as I wished to be, a reflection of who I might become if I allowed courage to enter my heart, or ideas to enter my head…. When I imagined the girl I wanted to be, it was the girl who smuggled books.” (111-112)

Constantly in danger, Audra becomes inventive, using her father’s magic and her awakening sense of story to evade and escape the Cossacks. She has complicated decisions to make as she tries to save both her parents from prison in Siberia, but at the same time, her new friends and herself. And the books.
​
A novel of adventure, danger, courage, secrets, ideas and ideals, and strong adolescent characters “honoring the knygnesiai—the book carriers, who are among the true heroes of Lithuanian history” (Author Acknowledgments). Words on Fire is another story that teaches a part of history we seldom study.

​Engle, Margarita. The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom. Henry Holt & Company, 2018.
 
Through Margarita Engle’s verse novels and her memoir, I am learning the history of Cuba and Cuban-American relationships more thoroughly and effectively than I ever learned about them in school. The Surrender Tree is the story of Cuba's three wars for independence and the story of Rosa, the nurse who saved lives and spirits through all of them. This novel portrays the lives and heroic actions of real people in the face of evil, letting the reader live history along with memorable characters.

Crowder, Melanie. Audacity. Philomel Books, 2015.
 
Audacity has become one of my all-time favorites historical novels and some of the best writing I have read. I usually choose books about more contemporary issues but am finding the same issues appearing throughout history, wearing different masks. Unfortunately oppression, intolerance, and treatment of refugees are not past, 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. What a wonderful "text" for a social studies class.

Bryant, Jen. Ringside, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2008.
 
I have always been interested in the Scopes “Monkey” Trial; I think much of America has—whether it be about religion vs science, text book and curricula decisions, the role of law and government in education, William Jennings Bryan vs Clarence Darrow, or Spencer Tracy vs Fredric March (Inherit the Wind).

Most of us know the Who, What, Where, When, and believe we know the Why – but do we? How often do we know the true story of historic events—and the stories behind the story, and the different perspectives on the story. Jen Bryant’s historical novel grants us the chance to observe the events of the Scopes Trial close up and personally.

Through this novel, written in the voices of those who had a ringside seat to this trial, readers secure a ringside seat to the trial, the people who participated in it, and the town that hosted it.

As the reader views the controversy and the trial from the point of view of nine fictitious, diverse characters (plus quotes from the real participants), each character develops as the story progresses. My favorite are the teenagers of Dayton, Tennessee; while meeting those on both sides of the issue and closely observing them, readers discover how the trial affects them, their relationships, and their futures. Peter and Jimmy Lee, best friends become divided by their beliefs; Marybeth is a young lady who finds the strength to stand up to her father’s traditional view of the role of women in society; and my favorite character, Willy Amos, meets Clarence Darrow and dares to believe what he can attempt to achieve. “’Well,’ I pointed out, ‘there ain’t no such thing as a colored lawyer.’”…”Do you plan to let that stop you?” (210)

The novel is powerfully written in multiple formats—free verse in a variety of stanza configurations and spacing decisions, a few rhyming lines here and there, and some prose. And the messages are powerful: Peter Sykes: “Why should a bigger mind need a smaller God.” (11); Marybeth Dodd: “I think some people can look at a thing a lot of different ways at once and they can all be partly right.” (131); and Constable Fraybel: “[Darrow] claims [his witnesses] are anxious to explain the difference between science and religious faith and how they made places in their heart and minds for both.” (143)

An epilogue shares the aftermath and the lasting effects of the trial. Every American History/Social Justice teacher and English-Language Arts teacher should have copies of this novel.

Bryant, Jen. The Trial. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2004.

Familiar with aviator Charles Lindbergh, I was not as knowledgeable about the 1932 kidnapping of his son and the resulting trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, but the most effective way to learn about it was through the eyes, and words, of seventh-grader Katie Leigh Flynn.

Katie is a resident of Flemington, New Jersey, a town where “nothing ever happens.” (5). Katie’s father left her and her mother years ago, and both Katie and her mother are compassionate about the plight of others. The Great Depression has begun; Katie donates food and clothing for less-fortunate children and, when the hotel’s assistant chef is caught putting food in his pockets, her mother says she will “find him an apron with larger pockets.” Katie supports her best friend Mike who “is not like / the other boys I know…he’s not / stuck-up or loudmouthed or silly” (10) and lives with his father, a drunk.

Katie, nicknamed “Word Girl” by the local newspaper editor, plans to become a reporter and keeps a scrapbook of news clippings and headlines, especially about Colonel Lindbergh and the kidnapping. When the Hauptmann is arrested and the trial comes to the local courthouse, her reporter uncle needs a secretary to take notes, and she takes six weeks off school to help. Thus, readers experience the 1935 trial through Katie.

During the trial, readers meet the Lindbergs; the judge; the defendant; the alcoholic defense lawyer who hasn’t won a case in years; prosecutor Wilentz; Anna Hauptmann who swears her husband was at home with her and their baby that night; a witness (paid by the prosecution); and Walter Winchell and other celebrities who come to town for the trial.

The story reminds us that at this time Hitler is in power and discrimination and his persecution has begun in Europe. But Americans are just as prone to prejudice and discrimination. The German bakery changes its sign to “Good American-Baked Bread and Desserts.” [Katie’s] “Mother shrugs, ‘Everything German is suspicious these days.’” (96) And Hauptmann is a German immigrant.

Prejudice is not limited to Germans. People talk about Katie’s friend Mike. “They say: ‘Kids like Mike / never amount to much.’” (24) He is accused of vandalism but when Katie wants to tell who really was responsible, he tells her,
“I’m a drunkard’s son.
You’re a dancer’s daughter.
Bobby Fenwick is a surgeon’s son.
His mother is on
the School Board,
the Women’s League,
the Hospital Auxiliary,
the Town Council,
If you were Mrs, McTavish,
[who is a member of
the School Board,
the Women’s League,
the Hospital Auxiliary,
the Town Council, (110)]
Who would you believe?” (112)

Truth moves to center stage for Katie (if not for anyone else). Thinking about the conflicting testimonies and absence of evidence, she reflects, “Truth must be … like a lizard that’s too quick to catch and turns a different color to match whatever rock it sits upon.” (126) She is careful to write down every word of testimony. “I say, ‘But when a man’s on trial for his life / isn’t every word important?’” (84)

The search for truth is the heart of Jen Bryant’s novel told in free verse. After her experiences, Katie is disillusioned with the American Justice System and says that “…everything used to lay out so neatly, / everything seemed / pretty clear and straight. / Now all the streets run slantwise / and even the steeples look crooked.” (151)

As in Ringside 1925, the novel ends with an epilogue and a reflection on “reasonable doubt,” media, and “the complexities of human behavior” and will lead to important classroom conversations, not about the trial, but about justice.

​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.

Nielsen, Jennifer A. A Night Divided. Scholastic Inc., 2015.
 
I remember when the Berlin Wall came down, but I did not really understand the story of its building and how it affected those on either side until reading A Night Divided.

In 1961 Germany—Russia controlled the East; Britain, US and France controlled the West. Gerta, her brother Fritz, and their mother live in East Berlin. Papa and brother Dominic had gone on a short trip to the West. On August 13 the wall went up—overnight—and one family, as were many, was divided. Twelve-year-old Gerta longed for her family and for freedom and a future.

“It wasn’t things I longed for…. I wanted books that weren’t censored.…I wanted a home without hidden microphones, and friends and neighbors I could talk to without wondering if they would report me to the secret police. And I wanted control over my own life, the chance to succeed” (125).

One day Gerta sees Dominic and father on the other side and interprets their message to dig a tunnel under the Death Strip to the West. Bravely, she and her brother Fritz risk everything—their friendships and even their lives—to try to reach safety and reunite their family.

A Night Divided is a narrative of events in history, but it is also a story of family and the bravery of even adolescents.

Bryant, Jen. Kaleidoscope Eyes. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2009.
 
This Jen Bryant novel in verse is yet another opportunity for readers to learn history through story, discovering patterns the pieces make.

“I lie down on my bed,
Point my kaleidoscope at the ceiling light,
Watch the patterns scatter, the pieces
Slide apart and come back together
In ways I hadn’t noticed before.” (149)

The time period of the novel is 1966-1968, but eighth-grader Lyza’s life is also affected by the years before.

She is affected by the “Unwritten Rules” that govern her close friendship with Malcolm Dupree—from tricycle days until now, they have “gotten along like peas in a pod.” (11) But it is a friendship that causes Lyza to experience the prejudice of the times and her town. “We sure didn’t make the rules / about who can be friends with whom / and we don’t like the rules the way they are…/ but we are also not fools… And so—/ in the halls, at lunch, and in class / Malcolm stays with the other black kids / and I stay with the other white kids…” (12) And when they meet new people and go to new places, they are wary and watchful in a way adolescents should not need to be.

Her every action is affected by her mother’s leaving two years before when Lyza was in sixth grade and “when our family began to unravel” (5). Her college professor father works all hours, taking on extra classes and leaving Kyza and Denise to their own devices and discipline. Denise gives up college and her dreams of becoming a doctor to work in the local diner and hang out with her hippie boyfriend, Harry.

The town is affected by war in Vietnam which causes Lyza to don her black funeral dress too many times, and “Not coming back” attains a new meaning. So much so, Lyza realizes that her mother is probably never coming back either. And when Malcolm’s brother Dixon is drafted and sent to Vietnam, feelings of helplessness overwhelm her,

“When someone you love
leaves,
and there is
nothing nothing nothing
you can do about it, not one thing
you can say to
stop that person whom you love
so much
from going away, and you know that today
may just be
the very last time you will ever
see them hear them hold them,
when that day comes, there is not much
you can do,
not much you can say.” (120)

Lyza’s grandfather dies and leaves her a mystery tied to pirate Captain Kidd, maps—old and current, a key, and a drawer, file, and documents numbers for the Historical Society of Brigantine. Lyza, Malcolm, and Carolann (“…whenever I am with Carolann and Malcolm at the same time…that’s when I feel almost normal.”) (15) spend the summer working out the mystery with the help of, surprisingly, Denise, and even more unexpectedly, Harry, Denise’s “strong, long-haired boyfriend” who is smarter, more resourceful, and more trustworthy than Lyza presumed.

It is a summer of spyglasses and kaleidoscopes, letting go, realization that “…my family might be messed up but my friends [a widening circle] are as steady as they come.” (214) A summer that is important to Lyza, her family, and the town.

“I take my kaleidoscope off the shelf…
I turn and turn and turn and turn,
Letting the crystals shift into strange
And beautiful patterns, letting the pieces fall
Wherever they will.” (257)

​Shepherd, Gail. The True History of Lyndie B. Hawkins. Penguin, 2019.
 
This story of 11-year-old Lyndie Baines covers a lot of territory, but it is primarily about truth and the effect of lies or sometimes just not knowing the truth. The novel also shares the effects of war on those who serve, their families, and their communities.

Lyndie’s father, his friends, and neighbors served in the war in Viet Nam. Some never returned, some returned with physical scars, and others, like Lyndie’s dad, returned with psychological scars, scars which affect their families and lives.

Lyndon Baines (yes, named after that Lyndon Baines), an avid student of history, knows this isn’t particular to the Viet Nam conflict; she has read many letters written by Civil War soldiers. She doesn’t realize just how damaged her father is, but she suspects that he and her mother, a former activist who now stays in her bedroom with constant headaches, are not quite okay. “I don’t think my parents know how to head us in the right direction” (24).

Lyndie struggles in her school, where she doesn’t fit in; she struggles in her new home with her parents, Grandpa Tad, her proper Southern grandmother Lady, to whom keeping family secret private and keeping to schedules is primary, even when the family needs help and even if perpetually-grounded Lyddie needs a normal childhood; and she struggles with the type of person she wants to be—more like her altruistic best friend Dawn. She is a fighter, but she also cares about things deeply.

And then D.B. enters the picture, a former foster child released from a juvenile detention center to live with Dawn’s family, at least for the school year. Lyndie decides she needs to save D.B. despite her father’s words, “Take care, what you lend your heart to” (73). Through her relationship with D.B., Lyndie learns that things are not always what they seem—with him, with Pee Wee, with her family.

When things come to a crisis on her twelfth birthday, Lyndie has to take steps to expose the truth, “’No,’ I correct myself. We’re not okay. Not really.’” (267) and make things right—for her, her family, and D.B., putting all the scraps together.

​Miller-Lachmann, Lyn. Gringolandia. Curbstone Books, 2009.
 
"The bigger the issue, the smaller you write."- Richard Price.
 
We read for many reasons but one essential purpose is to learn about our world, including its history, and to develop empathy for others. I found that, by teaching a social justice course through novels, my 8th graders learned about the effects of history on others, even others their age.
 
Lyn Miller-Lachmann's Gringolandia shares the story of high school student Daniel, a refugee from Chile's Pinochet regime, his activist "gringo" girlfriend Courtney, and Daniel's father who has just been released from years of torture in a Chilean prison and joins his family in Gringolandia.
 
Spanning 1980-1991 this novel would be a valuable addition to a Social Justice or History curriculum or in my personal case, a good read to learn a history generally not covered in curriculum.

Nesbet, Anne. The Orphan Band of Springdale. Candlewick Press, 2018.
 
This novel presents small-town life in the United States in 1941 prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor—before the U.S. was involved in the war in Europe. But through the story, we can see patriotism being emphasized, even in the schools, and the suspicions of those of German descent. In this small town in Maine, immigrants need to register and unions are coming to the mills in a direct clash with the powerful mill owners. As one classmate says, “[My Daddy] says we have to be really cautious these days, with all the countries over in Europe fighting each other and aliens everywhere.” (276)

In the midst of all this comes fifth-grader Augusta Neubronner, who, as the child of a German-born labor organizer, has had to move many times and live on ethics rather than money. As Gusta’s father flees the country and her mother tries to make ends meet, Gusta is sent to her grandmother’s orphanage in Maine, taking her beloved French horn, a family treasure which she loves with all her heart but is willing to sacrifice for her new family.

Living with her extended family and the orphans and fighting for their rights (and her father’s reputation), Gusta becomes stronger and more confident. There are many family problems and secrets, so she searches for her great-grandfather’s Wish that her mother told her about, “because her papa had taught her that whatever you can do to put things right in the world, you really must do” (295). But the more she finds out about the people around her, her more her wishes add up until she realizes she can’t name the one wish that would solve everything. And as her mother says, “Wishes are such sneaky things. You can never tell how they’re going to go, wishes.” (429)

This is a book about the importance of truth although sometimes a lie is necessary. And for a truthful person to tell a necessary lie “must take something a lot like love.” (406). It is a story of family and other relationships and acceptance and coming home. Based on the author's mother's family stories, it is a story that rings true.

​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.

Hopkinson, Deborah. How I Became a Spy: A Mystery of WWII London. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2019.
 
Mystery, spies, double agents, coded messages, a heroic dog, and WWII! How I Became A Spy takes place between February 18 and March 1, 1944, a time period which affected the successful invasion held on D-Day.

Bertie is a 13-year-old who lives in a London experiencing the Little Blitz attacks. Feeling guilt over his older brother’s serious injuries from the Blitz a few years before, Bertie lives in the police barracks with his father and serves as a civil defense volunteer with Little Roo, his dog trained to rescue people from bombed buildings.

During one nighttime raid, he meets a mysterious American girl, finds a notebook, discovers a young woman who is passed out on a street (disappearing by the time he brings back help), and he becomes involved in a mystery of intrigue. As he reads through the notebook, which belongs to a female French spy being trained by the Special Operations Executive, he finds that it contains coded messages that he needs to crack to save the woman and the secrecy of the planned invasion of Occupied France. Bertie joins forces with Eleanor, the American girl who was holding the notebook for her former French tutor and friend, and his best friend and classmate David, a Jewish refugee from Germany, who is well-versed in ciphers.

With only a few days until the trap is to be set for the double agent, the three have to determine whom to trust as they work to break the ciphers and put Violette’s plan in motion.

David encourages them, “Sometimes people do the impossible…look at me, and others who came here on trains. Thousands of us are here, and alive, only because a few people did what others thought couldn’t be done.” (179-180)

With references to Sherlock Holmes and quotes from the actual Special Operations Executive training lecture and manual, as well as practice cipher messages, this novel is a fun and exciting read through history with memorable characters, some of whom actually existed.

As the boys’ history teacher says, “…because we are living through a war against tyranny, we have a special responsibility…To learn from the past, understand the present, and change the future.” (191)

Ford, Jamie. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Ballantine Books, 2009.
​
This is a World War II story that focuses on race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, prejudice, and stereotyping. It is a love story and a friendship story between and among those of diverse cultures and in so, functions as a true multicultural story.

I have read many WWII stories but less about the war with Japan and those Japanese Americans sent to internment camps. In Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet readers see how loyal Americans (some second generation) were rounded up and sent to first one camp where they lived in horse stalls and then to another built in the middle of nowhere by their own labor. I have read no others novels that focus on the antipathy of the Chinese for the Japanese.

In this love story between Chinese and Japanese adolescents, readers can discover just how intolerance and stereotyping can destroy a family and how open mindedness in our newest generation can bring it back again.

This is a book for both adolescents and adults.

Engle, Margarita. Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba. Henry Holt and Co., 2009.
 
I have read many diverse Holocaust novels and memoirs set in Europe but have never read about the Jews who sought refuge in Cuba (other than passengers of the St. Louis, most of whom were turned away). In her novel Tropical Secrets, Engle shares the stories of Daniel, a young boy who is a Gernan Jewish refugee, unwittingly arriving in Cuba in 1939. It is also the story of Paloma, a Catholic native who is surviving a mother who left and a father who is profiting from the refugees, and David, also a Jewish refugee but from the pogroms, both serving as Daniel’s (and the readers’) “guides” to island life.

I found the verse to grow smoother and more lyrical as David (and I) adapts to Cuban culture--
creating an entirely new
sort of music,
the sound of a future
dancing with the past.

While this book also serves as a window into another time, another culture, it also served as a mirror for me. I grew up with friends whose parents were victims of the Holocaust and I have lived in communities where they eat pigs and shellfish and felt as the “other.”

This book is even more relevant today as xenophobia grows, no longer allocated to specific places or times. It is important that our children learn
A refugee,
not a spy.

Still, there is the terror
of being questioned
by police …

it will help them
understand
that those who feel safe today
could be the ones in need of refuge
tomorrow

Crowder, Melanie. An Uninterrupted View of the Sky. Philomel Books, 2017.

In a novel I read straight though, I again learned from Crowder, author of Audacity [see above]. An Uninterrupted View of the Sky takes place in Bolivia at the beginning of the 21st century and reveals how the United States’ role in the passage and enforcement of a law that violated the rights of citizens, especially the poor and indigenous peoples, led to innocent families living in prisons for years, hoping for the reform that has been slowly occurring. “Our lives are stretching out before us, unplanned and unpredictable” (p. 277).

Readers meet Francisco and his little sister Pilar and Francisco’s classmate and new friend Soledad, who become a part Bolivia’s prison children population. As they struggle to survive the violence of prison life and the streets and loss of family, they realize that education can help them make a change.
​ 
Suggestion: Pair with Deborah Ellis” I Am a Taxi, also about those who become caught in the Bolivian government’s war on drugs.

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.

Buxbaum, Julie. Hope and Other Punchlines. Delacorte Press, 2019.
​
For many people the world is divided into Before and After, the dividing line being September 11, 2001. Such is the case for Abbi Hope Goldstein and Noah Stern.

On her first birthday Abbi was saved by a worker in her World Trade Center complex daycare center. As she is carried out, wearing a crown and holding a red balloon, the South Tower collapsing behind, a photographer takes the picture that has branded her Baby Hope, the symbol of resilience. Abbi spends her childhood and adolescence in relative fame; strangers hug and cry, share their stories with her, frame and hang the photograph in their homes, and news outlets hold “Where is Baby Hope Now” stories.

Noah was a baby in the hospital, fighting for his life, on 9/11 when his father went back to his office in the World Trade Center for his lucky hat, never to return home. He and his mother now live with her new husband and Noah is obsessed with comedy.

At age 15, Abbi is experiencing a suspicious cough, keeping it a secret from her parents and grandmother. Connie, the daycare worker, has recently died from cancer, or most likely 9/11 syndrome, and Abbi takes a job as a camp counselor in a nearby town, looking for some anonymity and a chance at a “happily ever after” to the story that began with “Once un a time” (9/11). Unfortunately, Noah is a fellow counselor, recognizes her, and blackmails her into helping him interview the four people also in the iconic Baby Hope picture, convinced that the man in background wearing a Michigan cap is his father and also convinced, since his mother won’t talk about him, that his father chose not to come home after escaping from the Tower.

This is primarily a novel about relationships—shifting relationships with family, friends, ex-friends, strangers, and romantic partners. I absolutely adored these characters—Noah and Abbi especially (and their evolving relationship) and Noah’s BFF Jack, Abbi’s divorced-but-best-friends-and-maybe-more parents, her grandmother who is experiencing the onset of dementia, and even Noah’s stepfather who learns to make jokes.
 
But this also is a novel about the events and repercussions of 9/11, one that presents yet more facets than the other 9/11 novels that I read and reviewed previously, such as 9/11 syndrome, heroism and sacrifice, survivor guilt, and “[What] happens when the story you tell yourself turns out not to be your story at all.” (280)

To read about these other historical fiction novels centering on the events of 9/11, see my September 7, 2018 guest blog for this site at this link. 

When asked, students in social studies classes object to the fact that they only read textbooks; they explain that they desire information that helps them make sense of what they are reading and learning. When reading historical novels, they say that they truly understand the impact of such events on ordinary people living in extraordinary times and the places. (Roessing, Talking Texts) Obvious from the list in this blog, there are countless novels written on a variety of topics covered by the curricula and standards of social studies or history classes.

A middle 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. She currently serves as a Literacy Consultant with a K-8 school. She 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; and the newly-published Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs across the Curriculum. Lesley is a columnist for AMLE  Magazine and former editor of Connections, the award-winning journal of the Georgia Council of Teachers of English. ​

Until next week.

This is the week! As most people in the world of Children’s and Young Adult Literature know, Meg Medina (Oh! and she has a new webpage) won the Newbery Award and this week she delivered her Newbery acceptance speech at ALA 2019 conference. I was not fortunate enough to attend the convention this year, but I got to witnesses Meg present at our 2019 UNLV Summit just a few weeks ago.
​
While Meg was in Las Vegas, she was remarkable. She was kind and generous with her time, her intellect, and her wit. Her keynote for us was fantastic. I knew she would be wonderful during her ALA appearance. Indeed, she was. Her speech reminded me of my own adventures with bikes. 

Bikes for me have always been symbols of freedom and mobility. I learned on a large bike, I could barely reach the pedals, even after we had added blocks to the pedals. I pushed off from a curb headed down hill to gather momentum. To afraid not to be successful because the asphalt of the road looked too far away. Stopping became another adventure altogether.

I road them on paper routes, learning to balance bags and throw to the left and right as I road down the street. I quickly learned to appreciate what Meg called ape-hanger handlebars over the traditional low slung affairs that left the bags full of papers banging against my knees. I rode a bike not only to deliver the papers but to go back through the neighbor collecting the money that my customers owed. I rode them with my pockets full of money to the corner store.

I rode them to the swimming pool, to my friends’ houses, and through the neighborhood.
​
I road them through them through a divorce.

I rode them loaded with panniers across northern Nevada, Montana, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, California, Western Canada, Mexico, and from Boston to New York. I always carried loads of novels, but always a copy of Leaves of Grass. It felt right to ride slowly and deliberately across the country knowing that when I stopped I could read There was a Child went Forth, Song of the Broad-Axe, Song of the Open Road, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, When I read the Book, A March in the Ranks, Hard-prest, Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field, and When I head the Learn’d Astronomer.
​
As a teacher. I frequently rode my bike to work. I would take the direct route on my way there, but I often added a couple of miles going home. One year I rode all but four days; the snow was just too deep. Andrew Smith talks about doing a large majority of his writing while running. I can’t claim that level of productivity. I do claim to the calming influence of the solitary ride, the time to think, to wind down and be ready to be more present when I finally rode up the driveway.
​
Finally, and still, I ride to libraries. Like bikes, books take us on journeys. Journeys that let us look into the voyages of others. Those who may be very much like us and those who may be radically different. As we journey with the characters in books we build empathy about their situations. As we ride around with Merci  we begin to understand her relationship with her grandfather, her school mates, the rest of her family, and with her own desires.

While keeping up with ALA and Meg’s comings and goings on Facebook. I found another post about ALA that caught my attention. Jason Reynolds was the keynote speaker for the ALA convention.

No, Jason Reynolds didn’t talk about bikes, but he did talk about libraries. The segment of his speech that was post by ALA was titled ALA Annual 2019 – Jason Reynolds on Libraries. Just as Meg’s speech is not only about bikes, but about family and relationships. Jason’s keynote is not only about libraries, but about family and relationships and the libraries we might carry within.
​
His message rang true to my own experience. As he shared his emotional libraries that he created and shared with his childhood friend, I reflected on my own self-created libraries and the emotions and memories I have gathered in from books. I have been blessed to live in a world of books and a world of friends. 

In a small way, my weekend picks are a glimpse into the books that are wiggling their way into the libraries of my mind and of my heart.

Until next week.

Once again Kelly Bull is providing a blog post. Kelly provided a wonderful blog post about a year and half ago about book by Lita Judge. It was a great find for me. Lita Judge's book was an exploration of Mary Shelly and the story of her creation Frankenstein. The book has a ton of original art work. If you didn't catch that blog post you can check it out at this link. Kelly is another YA scholar who has a wealth of knowledge. I look forward to seeing her at the NCTE convention every year. In fact, her post this week foreshadows one of the topics she is working on for this years convention, YA world literature. Below she share some of her favorites.

A reminder, all of the book covers are linked to a place that will let you buy the book. If you don't know the authors that Kelly is recommending you should add a few of these to your shelves.

Reading world literature invites adolescents to learn cultures, customs, and traditions different from their own, opening doors to meaningful inquiry and discussion. Exploring culturally diverse texts written for young adults provides opportunities for students to unmask stereotypes and misconceptions, as well. Readers learn how they are both alike and different from characters on the page, deepening empathy for and understanding of others. This is especially important in our increasingly interconnected and global world where our students will need to understand one another outside of national borders. Reading world literature is “a fantastic way into the DNA of different cultures,” according to Martin Pucher.  ​Reading world literature deepens students’ understandings of cultures and builds their global competence.

Growing global citizens who confidently and competently read the word and the world is possible for English teachers who are conscious of the curricular decisions regarding text selection and instruction. James Banks argues that “Literate citizens in a diverse democratic society should be reflective, moral, and active citizens in an interconnected global world. They should have the knowledge, skills, and commitment needed to change the world to make it more just and democratic.” Without knowing more about the world, its countries, cultures, and citizens, our students would be ill-equipped to change it. This is why our students should be reading world literature: to both broaden and deepen their understandings of cultures and recognize that social issues such as poverty, inequality, injustice, violence, terrorism, and oppression require global solutions, according to Tom Bean, Judith Dunkerly-Bean, and Helen Harper. 

​World literature prompts readers to question, consider, and reflect on cultures and identities.  Which stories are being told, and who are the storytellers? In what ways are identities, geographies, and cultures privileged or stigmatized? And how do young adults connect with, critically reflect on, and carry forward stories from around the globe?  

Some FavoritesI’ve been reading more globally and gathering titles that I share with my students who are teachers. Many are thankful to have found new, engaging, diverse books and authors to bring into their classrooms. A few of our favorite titles are:
​
The Astonishing Color of After, Emily X. R. Pan 

From the Kirkus review: Grief, regret, and loneliness form the backdrop of a family’s life following a suicide, but a path for healing reveals itself in the form of a magical red bird.
here is a link to the Kirkus Review

Balcony on The Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine, Ibtisam Barakat

From the Kirkus review: This intense memoir paints a dark picture of growing up in Israeli-occupied Palestine, where “we are made to live with no land, no country, no rights, no safety, and no respect for our dignity.”
here is a link to the Kirkus Review

Diamond Boy, Michael Williams

From the Kirkus review: In this sprawling, messy but compelling epic, a teenager and his family join other desperate Zimbabweans seeking a future in Marange’s diamond mines.
​here is a link to the Kirkus Review

​This November at NCTE annual convention in Baltimore, I’m fortunate to be presenting alongside dear colleagues, Lois Stover and Cheryl North at our world literature-centered session: 
​
Eastern Literature for Middle Grade and Young Adult Readers: Inquiry into Cultural Knowledge & Experience. ​

Acclaimed authors Cynthia Kadohata (A Place to Belong), Padma Venkatrama (The Bridge Home), and S.K. Ali (Love from A to Z) will be discussing their new MG and YA books. We hope that you’ll join us for great discussions on heritage, culture, family, and belonging.

The Summit for 2019 is in the books. I wish I could tell you that I have taken a break, but that is certainly not the case. I have some writing deadlines to take care off. So, I hope to finish those before I head off to the ELATE conference in July. 

I do want to take a small break and give you a glimpse of what happened during the summit. In many ways this is just a photo essay. Noah Schaffer was the official summit photographer and all photos in this post were taken by him. By all means this isn't all of the photos he took, but it is a good sample.  You can follow him on Facebook.

My hope this week is to show you the keynote authors, the academics who presented the breakout sessions, and the attendees. So, if you attended look for your photo and share it with your friends.

​More about the Librarians who presented with come in a later post.

YA for All: Using YA Literature in the AP and Honors Class to Explore Similar Literary Quality
This session will discuss how many quality young adult literature can be used in honors and AP literature and language courses. Many books stand on their own or can be used as companion texts with many frequently used books within English Language Arts Classroom. One example is how the standard text Pride and Prejudice can be paired with Ibi Zoboi’s new text Pride. Often neglected are a host of quality nonfiction text that may be used to expand contemporary understanding of social justice issues. For example, Most Dangerous by Steve Sheinkin can be used to expand a student’s understanding of the Vietnam era politics. In similar manner, Blood Brother by Rich and Sandra Neil Wallace can shed light on the contribution and sacrifice of a white ally during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.    

​The Best Book I Ever Read: The Power of Young Adult Literature in the Classroom
Whether used for whole-class reads, student selected literature circles, or independent reading, YA texts have great power for engaging teen readers deeply in their reading, listening, thinking, writing, and meaning making processes. In this session, we will examine specific YA texts identified by students as lifesaving and pair them with instructional approaches that go beyond what Arthur Applebee and cohort called the IRE (initiation, response, evaluation) method. Teachers will receive materials and coaching on instructional methods and their delivery that will maximize students’ engagement with texts and heighten literacy skills.  

​Reimagining the English Classroom with Student Choice and Voice
Reimagining the English Classroom with Student Choice and Voice: In this workshop, teacher and author Sarah Donovan will discuss the need for curriculum design that centers students’ lives. She will highlight reading and writing workshop research, and then using examples of plans, book lists, project instructions, and student work samples, she will assist teachers in immediately designing curriculum maps that integrate student interests in a workshop model. Participants can expect to experience the workshop style with poetry reading, quick writes, and book talks so that they will witness, firsthand (and possibilities) of choice and voice in the English classroom. As a bonus, Donovan will show how this shift in planning will minimize time spent grading and maximize student engagement (and joy).

​Using Critical Theory to Engage Diversity in YA Literature
In this workshop, participants will learn about critical theories they can use with secondary students to engage diverse perspectives in young adult (YA) texts. Pairing critical theory with young adult literature supports rigorous reading, discussing, and writing about literature using high interest texts. Participants will be receive a sample unit plan that includes a list of recommended YA texts and an instructional plan to guide students through reading and discussing YA texts with diverse characters. The workshop will focus on using intersectionality as a lens for analyzing YA texts with diverse characters through two activities: 1) reading and discussing an excerpt from a YA text through an intersectional lens, and 2) adapting the provided unit plan to participants’ social and instructional contexts. An additional digital packet with research articles and research-based instructional practices using a variety of critical theories (e.g. a Youth Lens and Postcolonial Theory) will be provided.

​Examining, Discussing, and Writing About the Angry or Peaceful Mob Through YA Literature
In this workshop, Rumohr-Voskuil will share resources and activities that help students to examine and discuss the psychological reasons for the mob mentality.  She will then provide process-based writing activities that will help students further consider this issue.  Finally, related YA texts--and accompanying teaching materials--will tie it all together, suggesting ways that students can arrive at additional connections and consider positive social impacts in their own communities.

​Diverse Fantastic Characters and Where to Find Them: Decolonizing the Imagination in ELA Classrooms
In this workshop, Toliver will discuss the need for speculative stories that represent diverse characters. She will highlight the social justice informed origins of speculative fiction, and she will also include resources that teachers can use to find science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories that center diverse populations as protagonists. Lastly, using excerpts from speculative fiction texts, she will assist teachers in helping students to analyze the social justice metaphors present within speculative stories written by diverse populations.

One parting note. The events and photos of the summit will be archived at this link. Over the next few week's I will be adding photos of the summit taken by Noah Schaffer. The presenters will be providing some powerpoints, summarizes of events and links to their blogs or websites. Be sure to return frequently.

Of course, it is impossible to give you a complete view of the experience. There were too many moving pieces, too many conversations, and too many wonder moments to capture everything. The best things to do is plan now to come next year. The dates are set, so take a minute and put June 11, 12, and 13 of 2020 on your calendar. Please plan to join us. Our three author keynotes will be Ashley Hope Perez, Chris Crowe, and Steve Sheinkin.

Until next week!

Too often adults plan literacy events for adolescents without consulting them. Write X. Read Y. Think about Z. In reality, they might already be writing A, reading B, and thinking about C. They might even wish that someone else thought it was important. It was important for Phil Bildner to listen to what Elizabeth Acevedo wanted to write about. I listened to Sarah Donovan explain how her seventh graders selected their own reading. and how they liked sharing with her and each other. Adolescents are thinking deeply. Their thoughts are often not shared and under appreciated.

This week, Jason Griffith and a graduate student at Penn State University, Jocelyn Amevuvor, discuss student generated writing. They talk about a couple of projects and provide some wonderful resources. Enjoy.

“I’m so tired of this sensitive generation because all these little teen boys coming up and
talking about, ‘Oh my god, you get cramps? Well, have you have been kicked in the
nuts?’ Like, I don’t care that you were kicked in the nuts. You don’t get kicked in the
nuts for hours a day for like five days a week and every single month.” 

This quote, in which a middle school girl from Bronx Prep Middle School shares how she describes the extreme and cyclic pain of menstrual cramps to her male classmates, is one of my favorites from the recent winning middle school entry in NPR’s first-ever Student Podcast Challenge, which announced its winners last month. In just four-and-a-half minutes, Bronx Prep’s “Sssh! Periods” effectively challenges the societal taboo around discussing periods and issues related to menstruation. While the student podcasters use experiential anecdotes to well-establish why such a taboo is a specific problem at their middle school, they also go-beyond to explore why the stunted conversation is a problem in broader society. Specifically, this podcast taught me about “period poverty,” or the lack of access to menstrual supplies for low-income women. “Sssh! Periods!” is nothing short of a youth-driven call to action to bring this topic to public light for the benefit of “these little teen boys,” the squeamish aunts, and the teachers policing bathroom access, who are mentioned in the podcast, but also for the rest of its potentially broad audience.

The high school winner, though different in narrative approach, was no less impressive. In “Murderous Mary & the RISE of Erwin,” a student team from Elizabethton High School reclaim and reframe a 100-year-old notorious piece of local lore, the public hanging (via crane) of a circus elephant named Mary after she trampled an abusive handler. The student podcasters draw upon interviews with local politicians, archivists, community members, and citizens to first tell how public pressure, somewhat reminiscent of George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant,” led to the grisly event, as well as how the execution saddled the town of Erwin with a nasty reputation for decades. However, the student podcasters flip the script by featuring the conservation work of The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, an organization that developed in the historical shadow of Mary’s execution to provide a safe haven for captive elephants to receive care, live out their lives with the companionship of a herd, and raise public awareness about issues related to elephants both in captivity and in the wild.   

To that end, I’ve been working with Jocelyn Amevuvor, a PhD Candidate at Penn State University, to examine critics’ claim that young writers haven’t had enough life experience to write valuable and compelling memoir. We’ve been examining a decade-long sample of youth memoir as published in The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards’ yearly The Best Teen Writing volumes to showcase some of their national contest winners. 
​
In the next section, Jocelyn highlights the literary value of two recent youth memoirs to demonstrate the curricular value of youth-generated text and media. 

Several personal essays from the 2018 edition of The Best Teen Writing exhibit youth speaking to issues that define them. Two essays that do this particularly well are “Under the Shade of the Apple Tree” by Myra Kamal, who was 13 years old when she wrote it, and “Truths I’m Trying to Ignore” by Sophya Giudici-Juarez, who was 17. Both of these youth memoirs present children of immigrant families who are directly affected by larger social issues common in present-day America. 
​
In Kamal’s Under the Shade of the Apple Tree we see, through a youth’s eyes, the ways xenophobia and Islamophobia impact Muslim immigrant families in America. Kamal’s writing demonstrates beautiful symbolism through her father’s apple tree. She explains how he carefully planted and tended to the tree until it bore fruit. When a friend comes to visit, Myra’s family give her some apples to take home, but things take a turn for the worse when her friend’s family finds out her family is Muslim. Myra slows down the moment in which her neighbors come to pick their daughter up and hear Adhan, the call to prayer. She writes: 

“We didn’t know you were Muslim,” the mom explained to my mother. The tension in the air was thick and choppy.
“Yes, we are,” replied my mother with her head held high. (pp. 180-181)

Then, Kamal moves the narrative to the next morning when her family received a letter of complaint regarding her father’s apple tree and a request to tear it down. She takes a moment to reflect on that moment, writing, “However, the sad thing was that I automatically knew the reason for my neighbors’ actions. When did my innocence leave me?” (p. 181). Her reflection demonstrates her youth perspective as she considers the way she has become more keenly aware of the Islamophobic undertones of her neighbors’ actions. This short moment of reflection is a powerful example of the way youths are uniquely situated to convey a present glimpse into a moment that they likely would convey differently if they were an adult looking back.

​Giudici-Juarez also powerfully conveys her feelings as a Latin American immigrant trying to apply for college. Her essay begins at the start of her educational journey, and she uses short vignettes to take us through keystones of her journey. She describes first struggling with English in her American school and her own parents’ embarrassment in being unable to assist her with her homework. Her journey continues as she excels at both English and school in general. She provides a window into the home life of a bilingual immigrant youth. She described, “I am eight years old…My mother needs me to help my brother in school. I talk to his teachers and translate his reading questions for my parents. I show up to every open house with them, sit in on important conversations, and translate our mail. I know more about taxes than I need to,” (p. 174).  Her perspective redefines childhood experience, and highlights the way, as a child, she is participating in very adult things.  

As a high school student, Guidici-Juarez comes out on top, and yet, one of the most powerful moments in the essay is towards the end as she prepares to apply for college.  She writes, “I stare at blank applications until the Social Security number fills itself in,” (p. 174) demonstrating, without saying, that, as an immigrant, she does not have a number.  She goes on to describe her feelings, writing “I have never known a world where I was not less than or equal to. My future feels like an unfinished math equation,” (pp. 174-175). The evaluation of her story is implied, that all of her hard work is not enough. As a youth likely applying for schools as she is writing the essay, this part of the essay is particularly raw. 

Interestingly, both Guidici-Juarez and Kamal’s essay end in the unknown. There is no sure resolution. While Kamal’s father says he will refuse to tear down the apple tree, the reader does not know how this impacted the family’s life in their community. Similarly, Guidici-Juarez story is unfinished, as readers are left wondering whether she will be able to go to college or not. Other youths will likely identify with these feelings of uncertainty and appreciate reading about other young people who are struggling with their identities in the community or fulfilling their personal goals in the near future.  

​As Jocelyn’s analysis demonstrates, youth are able, in some cases perhaps more potently than adult voices, to effectively write about complex and pressing social issues like immigration and religious discrimination. These essays, the podcasts featured in the introduction, and much more quality, student-generated literature would make for valuable inclusion in our curricula and engaging discussion among our students. As readers consider the inclusion of student-generated literature in your classrooms, here are some resources to consider: 

Drummond, S. (2019, May 1). Here are the winners of the NPR student podcast challenge. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/05/01/713654812/here-are-the-winners-of-the-npr-student-podcast-challenge

Giudici-Juarez, S. (2018). Truths I’m trying to ignore. In Benzizoune, R. (Ed.) The best teen writing of 2018. New York, NY: Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

Jennings, L. B., Parra-Medina, D.M., Messina, D.K.S., McLoughlin, K. (2006). Toward a critical social theory of youth empowerment. Journal of community practice, 14(1): 31-55.

Kamal, M. (2018). Under the shade of the apple tree. In Benzizoune, R. (Ed.) The best teen writing of 2018. New York, NY: Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

Petrone, R., Sarigianides, S.T., & Lewis, M.A. (2015). The youth lens: Analyzing adolescence/ts in literary texts. Journal of Literacy Research, 46(4): 506–533.

Saragianides, S. T., Petrone, R., & Lewis, M.A. (2017). Rethinking the “adolescent” in adolescent literacy. Urbana, Il: NCTE. 

Until next time.

{I met Diane in person at the 2018 Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She provided two post last summer after the summit. One last June on Musical Theater and YA literature--Hamilton is in the house. It was based on her breakout session. Find it here. Diane then provide another one in July--I really need a break, and Diane was there to help. The second time she followed up with post about YA and mental health. This is a research of Diane and it was great post. Find it here. 

Another fun connection is that she and Kia Richmond met at the summit. Kia is also a contributor to the blog and has a book on YA and mental illness. They became fast friends. You can find Kia's post here. Professional learning is often just as much about friendships and connections as it is collecting materials to use in the next class.

Thanks Diane, for contributing once again.

(Throughout Diane's narrative you will find images of other novels that depict the issues she is addressing at the bottom they will be together in a slide show.)
​
​Recently, I was able to bring together two interests of mine, one new and one longstanding. I’ve recently become more acquainted with musical theater, and I have spent years reading YA literature of mental illness; so, imagine my excitement when I realized that both of these subjects come together Dear Evan Hansen!

When my colleagues and I at Moorpark College began teaching Hamilton a couple of years ago, a particularly avid theater fan in the class told me about Dear Evan Hansen. I knew I wanted to explore the musical theater genre further, so I immediately ordered the book and the soundtrack, and then I saw one of the Hollywood Pantages Theater performances in November of 2018. With its focus on teens, social media, and mental illness, I knew the play would be a great selection for my introduction to literature class at the community college where I teach. I usually theme this class as a young adult literature class, but sometimes I struggle to find plays because there is not a large body of YA drama--YA literature, after all, almost always means YA novels.

​Indeed, the play Dear Evan Hansen has recently been adapted into a young adult novel. While my class studied the play, and my references will be to the text of the play, both versions are great ways to get teens talking about mental health. From Evan Hansen’s suicide attempt to Connor Murphy’s completed suicide, and from Evan’s social anxiety to Connor’s drug addiction, the text can inspire many conversations about mental illness and wellness.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in every five teenagers is experiencing a mental illness. In a class of 25 people, that means five of your students may have mental illness. More likely, you have a class of 30 or 40, so up to eight students may be having mental health struggles. Even when students don’t struggle with their own mental health, they may know a friend or family member who does. Half of all sufferers will experience the onset of symptoms by age 14 and three quarters by age 25, so high school and college is the time when many students or their friends may fall ill. Therefore, it is especially important to build awareness in the school/college environment, and stories such as Dear Evan Hansen can help us build that awareness.

As Kia Jane Richmond has argued right here in YA Wednesday as well as in The Language Arts Journal of Michigan and The ALAN Review, the language we use when we talk about mental illness can be used to challenge or reinforce the stigma that exists in our society today about mental illness. Dear Evan Hansen provides us and our students with many fruitful opportunities to examine the language that characters use to talk about mental illness and the consequences of that language use. 

​The play opens with Evan, a sufferer of social anxiety, doing his therapy homework. He is supposed to write himself letters that begin, “Dear Evan Hansen: Today is going to be an amazing day, and here’s why” (1.1). As he writes, though, he ostensibly fails to lessen his anxiety as he rambles on about his crush, Zoe, and his sweaty hands at their last encounter. When Evan’s mom, Heidi, comes onto the scene, she is clearly eager for Evan to get better. She is disappointed that he didn’t order himself dinner the previous night because he doesn’t like to speak to delivery people. She equates his illness with immaturity when she says, “You’re a senior in high school, Evan. You need to be able to order dinner for yourself when I’m at work” (1.1). While Heidi’s frustrations are understandable, equating mental illness to childishness is inaccurate and insulting. Furthermore, Heidi speaks to Evan in an overly enthusiastic voice, one more suited to a young child than to a teenage son. It’s as if boundless optimism is needed when addressing someone with mental illness, as if optimism alone will cure Evan. This sentiment is also reflected when she begins to sing the opening number of the play. Heidi asks, “Can we try to have an optimistic outlook? / Can we buck up just enough / To see…the world won’t fall apart? / Maybe this is the year we decide / We’re not giving up before we’ve tried” (1.1, “Anybody Have a Map?”). These lines suggest misconceptions of mental illness. For one thing, willpower alone cannot conquer a biological brain disorder. In addition, Heidi’s lyrics unfairly assume that Evan has not even tried to overcome his anxiety. 

When Connor Murphy arrives at school, it is clear that his reputation precedes him. Connor has been labeled since second grade, when “he threw a printer at Mrs. G….because he didn’t get to be line leader that day” (1.3). By the time we meet Connor during his senior year of high school, he is known as “batshit out of his mind” (1.3). With this history, Evan’s friend Jared feels perfectly comfortable greeting Connor with a taunt: “Hey, Connor. I’m loving the new hair length. Very school shooter chic” (1.1). Jared then calls Connor a “freak.” When Evan awkwardly laughs, Connor turns defensive: “I’m not the freak…You’re the fucking freak” (1.1). After Connor pushes Evan, Connor’s sister Zoe, who has witnessed the incident, apologizes to Evan, dismissing her brother as “a psychopath” (1.1). So, in just one act, a character who has had emotional disturbance since childhood is referred to as a “school shooter,” a “freak,” and a “psychopath.”
​
Not just Connor’s classmates but also Connor himself uses derisive language to refer to mental illness. In Scene 2, Evan and Connor have an encounter that will drive the rest of the plot. Evan has written one of his therapeutic letters to himself. Connor finds it while both boys are in the computer lab. When Connor finds Evan’s letter, in which Evan has mentioned his hopes for developing a relationship with Zoe, Connor accuses Evan of composing the letter just to make Connor “freak out” so that Evan can “tell everyone [he’s] crazy, right?” (1.2). Earlier in the scene, Connor had mockingly signed Evan’s cast (his arm is broken from a fall from a tree), saying, “Now we can both pretend that we have friends” (1.2). Both remarks show that Connor is aware of his marginal status among students and clearly hurt by it. Certainly, language and labels have stigmatized Connor, who ends the scene by absconding with Evan’s letter. 

When discussing what happens next, my first impulse was to write, “Connor commits suicide shortly thereafter.” But the language we use to talk about suicide needs examination as well. Since suicide is the “3rd leading cause of death in youth ages 10-24” (NAMI), it is important that our students know how to talk about it. Talking about suicide properly can contribute to a social climate which can save lives. Because stigmatizing language about suicide can discourage people from asking for help, professionals are calling for us to stop using the phrase “committed suicide” and replace it with “died by suicide” instead.

In a helpful article in the Huffington Post, one psychology professor explains, “Using a judgmental or degrading language prevents us from recognizing mental health problems, seeking help and providing help” (Debiec qtd. in Holmes, 2019). Experts contend that “Simply put, ‘committed suicide’ conveys shame and wrongdoing; it doesn’t capture the pathology of the condition that ultimately led to a death. It implies that the person who died was a perpetrator rather than a victim” (Holmes, 2019). Nine out of ten suicides are the result of an underlying mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

​The experts call on us to treat deaths due to mental illness with the same respect as those that occur due to physical illness and not suggest that victims of mental illness were in full control of their behavior. To illustrate how the brain of a severely mentally ill person is not functioning in the same way a normal brain that could be held accountable for “committing” an act, I like to show students the Mayo Clinic’s brain scan of the depressed versus non-depressed brain. Thus, the phrase Connor’s dad uses in the play, “Connor took his own life” (1.4), and the phrase Evan uses, “killed himself” (2.7), are just as objectionable as “committed suicide” because they place the sole responsibility for the death on Connor rather than on the mental illness.

After Connor’s death, the parents of all the high school students are notified. Heidi, responsibly, broaches the subject with Evan: “Hey. I, um, got an email from your school today. About a boy who killed himself?” (1.7).  However, she is too uncomfortable to discuss the topic at any great length and too easily accepts Evan’s lie that it’s a different Connor, not the deceased Connor, who has signed Evan’s cast. After asking Evan if he is “okay on refills” for his prescription anxiety medication and telling him that she loves him, Heidi lets the matter rest (1.7). Heidi is again too eager to accept the idea that Evan is fine when he stops taking his medication in Act 2.

​Medication noncompliance is very risky, but Heidi’s response, though it includes some surprise and a couple of questions, is “Well, great. That’s great. It’s...I’m proud of you” (2.2). Her response suggests that not needing medication is something to be proud of. This belief contributes to a social atmosphere of shame for those that need medication. It also suggests that Heidi is uncomfortable talking about mental illness with Evan and would rather end the conversation than pursue it. It is not until the end of the musical that Heidi and Evan realize how much their refusal to discuss mental illness at all has hurt their relationship. So, while for much of the play Heidi is supportive on the surface and doesn’t use unkind words when she discusses mental illness, her refusal to talk much about it, coupled with Evan’s refusal to talk about the subject, show the danger of the absence of language to discuss mental illness. So, while in some parts of Dear Evan Hansen, hurtful name-calling is used to discuss mental illness, in other situations, there are simply no words at all.

A lack of adequate vocabulary can be likewise blamed for the way that Evan’s classmates respond to his tale of falling out of a tree and waiting for help that didn’t come. Jared responds, “Jesus Christ…” but Evan redirects the conversation before the boys can have any meaningful conversation about the acute sadness of the incident. In the next scene, Connor laughs, “That is just the saddest fucking thing I have ever heard. Oh my god” (1.2). These stunted conversations show just how badly teens need an atmosphere of social acceptance for discussing serious emotional and psychological issues.

Underlying both of these conversations is the fact that Evan is actually hiding his suicide attempt by telling people he fell out of a tree. The stigma of suicide is so great that Evan is afraid of what his own mother would think of him if she knew the truth: “You’ll hate me…You should. If you knew what I tried to do. If you knew who I am, how…broken I am” (2.9). This is not the first time Evan has used the metaphor of “brokenness” to describe mental illness. His broken arm and cast provide the iconic image for most of the musical’s publicity materials, and the message of the first act finale song is, “And when you’re broken on the ground / You will be found” (1.12, “You Will Be Found”). In an angry outburst at his mother, Evan demonstrates his internalization of the social stigma against people with mental illness: “They [the Murphy family] don’t think that I’m, that there’s something wrong with me, that I need to be fixed, like you do…I have to go to therapy, I have to take drugs” (2.7). The implication is, of course, that needing therapy and medication is shameful.

Evan has been spending time with the Murphy family because Larry and Cynthia Murphy, Connor’s parents, assumed the two boys were friends after finding the “Dear Evan Hansen” letter on Connor’s person after his death. They assumed it was a suicide note written from Connor to Evan and thus an indicator of deep friendship. Evan, who initially didn’t want to disabuse a grieving mother of the notion that her disturbed son did indeed have a close friend, lets the lie grow bigger and bigger as a project for remembering Connor makes Evan popular at school and on social media.

In closing, I’d like to look at the Murphy family’s use of language to describe Connor’s addiction, illness, and suicide. Since Connor’s emotional dysregulation began in childhood, it is not unreasonable to assume that an underlying mental illness accompanies his drug addiction (which remains unspecified throughout the play), even though addiction disorder, in and of itself, constitutes a mental illness (see K. J. Richmond’s Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature). Often, alcohol or drug addiction co-occurs with another mental illness.

​The National Institute of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) tells us, “Multiple national population surveys have found that about half of those who experience a mental illness during their lives will also experience a substance use disorder and vice versa.” Studies have also found that “over 60 percent of adolescents in community-based substance use disorder treatment programs also meet diagnostic criteria for another mental illness” (NIDA). One explanation for this co-occurrence or dual diagnosis is that people suffering from mental illness may attempt to self-medicate with alcohol or drugs. ​

Zoe, Connor’s sister, is initially not willing to recognize Connor’s mental illness as such. Early in the play, Zoe attributes Connor’s behavior to a lack of moral character. When Cynthia, Zoe and Connor’s mom, says, “Connor was…a complicated person,” Zoe angrily contradicts her: “No, Connor was a bad person” (1.6). Soon thereafter, Zoe fights against the family’s and society’s tendency to idealize the dead in her song, “Requiem.”

In it, she asks,

“Why / Should I play the grieving girl and lie? / … I will sing no requiem / Tonight / … After all you put me through / Don’t say it wasn’t true / That you were not the monster / That I knew” (1.9).

​In addition to calling Connor a “monster,” in her song, Zoe also compares Connor to a fairy-tale “villain.” At this point it might be helpful to discuss with students that, while we may not agree with Zoe’s name-calling, she has a right to her feelings of terror and anger. After all, addiction and mental illness don’t just affect the sufferer but also his/her loved ones as well. Certainly, Connor’s behavior was troubling; Zoe tells us that it included “trying to punch through [her] door, screaming at the top of his lungs that he’s going to kill [her] for no reason” (1.9). We should remind students that point of view is important when discussing stories of mental illness and that each person’s perspective is different and valid. 

Zoe also criticizes her parents’ handling of Connor’s illness and addiction. She accuses her father of trying to “punish” Connor and treat him like a “criminal” (2.9). These terms certainly reflect the criminalization of drug abuse and could inspire a discussion with students about how addiction is now considered a medical condition and that efforts to rehabilitate rather than punish are favored by experts. At the same time, Zoe also condemns her mother’s leniency: “You let him do whatever he wanted” (2.9). This could lead to a discussion about the hard work that rehabilitation from addiction entails.

Larry and Cynthia criticize each other’s approaches. Cynthia uses phrases with negative connotations, such as “Do nothing” and “Wait and see,” to describe Larry’s response to Connor’s struggles (2.9). Larry describes his own approach in a positive light, as one rooted in an ethic of hard work. While this gives the viewer/reader/listener a more sympathetic view of Larry, his sentiments suggest the popular misconception that hard work alone can conquer mental illness. In his song, “To Break in a Glove,” which is ostensibly about more than baseball, he uses phrases and words like “stick it out,” “it’s the hard way, / but it’s the right way,” “commitment,” “grit,” and “follow through” (2.3). Cynthia also bitterly recalls Larry’s response to Connor’s first threat of suicide: “He just wants attention” (1.9).

​This phrase is a common, but dangerous cliché. Students should be advised to take any threat of suicide seriously. Larry, in turn, accuses Cynthia of “lurching from one miracle cure to the next” (1.9). At this point, students could explore the difference between the concepts of “recovery” and “cure.” Most mental health advocates and addiction experts remind us that while “cure” is impossible, “recovery” is absolutely possible. While a mental illness or predisposition to addiction will never go away, it is possible to manage these conditions and lead a meaningful life. (For a detailed discussion of YA novels that emphasize the road to recovery, please see my article about disability narrative theory and mental illness fiction.) Fortunately, this is a lesson that Evan finally begins to perceive at the end of the musical: “Dear Evan Hansen: / Today is going to be a good day and here’s why. Because today, no matter what else, today at least…you’re you. No hiding, no lying. Just…you. And that’s…that’s enough” (1.9). 

Emmich, Val. (2018). Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel. With Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul. New York, NY: Hachette.

Holmes, Lindsay. (27 Mar. 2019). “Why you should stop saying ‘committed suicide.’” Huffington Post.

Levenson, Steven. (2017). Dear Evan Hansen. Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. New York, NY: Theater Communications Group.

Mayo Clinic. (1998-2019). “PET scan of the brain for depression.”

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (21 Sept. 2016). “Mental health facts: Children and teens.”

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (n.d.). “Mental health facts in America.”

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (2019). “Why care?”

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (2019). “Infographics and fact sheets.”

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). (Feb. 2018). “Common comorbidities with substance abuse disorders.” National Institute of Health.

Richmond, K. J. (23 Aug. 2017). “Language and symptoms of mental illness in young adult literature.” Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday.

Richmond, K. J. (2018). Mental illness in young adult literature: Exploring real struggles through fictional characters. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio/Libraries Unlimited.
​
Richmond, K. J. (Fall 2018). “An examination of mental illness, stigma, and language in My Friend Dahmer.” The ALAN Review 46 (1), 42-53.

Until next week.