DR. BICKMORE'S YA WEDNESDAY

Meet the YA Wednesday Curators!

1/12/2022

Hi, all! Gretchen here with some updates and introductions. As Dr. Bickmore has stepped back from blog work for now in order to serve the Uganda Kampala Mission, we welcome some new blog curators for YA Wednesday. These curators will be helping with our Monday Motivator posts as well as our Weekend Picks, rollling up their sleeves to send contributor reminders, provide book cover pictures, insert hyperlinks, and copyedit submissions. Widening our curator community widens our overall YA circle, spreading our admiration for YA literature farther and wider--our own mission of sorts. Below are our curators.

Dr. Gretchen Rumohr, YA Wednesday Chief Curator

I am preparing a future YA Wednesday post for a more developed introduction, but at the very least, I'd like to say that I am delighted to work as YA Wednesday's chief curator. I have worked with Dr. Bickmore on many projects, but this very big project takes the cake! Since last spring, Steve has provided hours of blog-related instruction and explanation, preparing me for this transition. I am certain that I will make mistakes, but I am grateful for a stellar team of co-curators who will help things along.
A bit about me: I serve as a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where I teach writing and language arts methods. I am also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. At Aquinas, I find tremendous joy and purpose in matching each of my students with the right YA books, and I am an absentminded professor when it comes to which books my students borrow and return. At home, I find tremendous joy and purpose in my four girls--all YA lovers--as well as running, hiking, and canning. I should also mention Gracie, my five-pound Yorkshire Terrier, who serves as a steady lap-dog whenever I read a book.

Monday Motivator Curators

We are excited to share Monday Motivator posts, which will describe pedagogical ideas that can be done that very day or week. Below are our Monday Motivator curators.

Abbey Bachman

Abbey hopes to share her knowledge as well as learn more resources for teaching YA lit and reading new and relevant YA picks. She was a secondary English teacher for 11 years before earning my PhD in Curriculum & Instruction. Her research centers around student choice in texts and the classroom, so staying relevant on new YA books is a passion that she shares with others.

Jason DeHart

In all of his work, Jason hopes to point teachers to quality resources and books that they can use. He strives to empower others and not make his work only about him or his interests. He is a also an advocate of using comics/graphic novels and media in classrooms, as well as curating a wide range of authors.

Melanie Hundley

Melanie is a voracious reader and loves working with students, teachers, and authors. As a former middle and high school teacher, she knows the value of getting good young adult books in kids' hands. She teaches young adult literature and writing methods classes. She hopes that the Monday Motivator page will introduce teachers to great books and to possible ways to use those books in classrooms.

Emily Pendergrass

Emily loves reading, students, and teachers! And her favorite thing is connecting texts with students and teachers. She hopes that the Monday Motivation page is helpful to teachers interested in building lifelong readers and writers!

Weekend Picks Curators

Our Weekend Picks feature returns for 2022! In these posts, guest contributors take book selfies with their perfect weekend read. Below are our Weekend Picks curators.

Nikki Bylina-Streets

Nikki is a elementary librarian who just keeps reading YA literature. She is a constant advocate for reading at every level. You can also follow her through her Instagram account dedicated to my school library work. @thislibraryrocks

Cammie Jo Lawton

Cammie is especially interested in how YA can affect readers, create empathy and possibly shift thinking. I think it could be interesting to incorporate interviews or choice picks by scholars in the field of YA texts that are promoting/have promoted growth and change in connection to self or others.

Leilya Pitre

Leilya taught English as a foreign language in the Ukraine and ELA/English in public schools in the US. Her research interests include teacher preparation, clinical experiences, secondary school teaching, and teaching and research of Young Adult and multicultural literature. Together with her friend and colleague, Mike Cook, she co-authored a two-volume edition of Teaching Universal Themes Through Young Adult Novels (2021).

Moving Foward

Kudos to these new curators! Together we will bring exciting new YA content for 2022.

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A Farewell and a Passing of the Torch.

1/5/2022

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Well, the day has arrived. This is my (Steve Bickmore's) last scheduled regular YA Wednesday post for a while. I have officially retired beginning Dec. 31, 2021. Clearly, I am still reading and talking with people about Young Adult literature. (You can check my end of the year post that featured Bick’s Picks for 2021.) After 43 years of teaching at various levels I am taking a break from day-to-day work.

I have a couple projects that should be done in the next several weeks. Wish me luck. My wife and I are also going to serve a church mission in the Uganda Kampla Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which includes South Sudan and Rwanda). We leave on April 11, 2022 and, as you might imagine, we have a lot to prepare for. We have shots to take and grand kids to visit as we explore the information we need to know about our first placement in Kilgali Rwanda.

I knew this day was coming, but the blog has been an important part of my work and my life for the last 8 years. It began in a mild fashion in the summer of 2014 and began in earnest in the late summer of 2015 as a weekly post. It has grown as I have contributed less and less and more and more guest contributors have take the stage and shared their ideas. A few years ago, the popular Weekend Picks feature was added. The blog has always made a place for special posts based on an interesting topic or something that matches what is in the news or an event. Lesley Roessing posts often matches this category has she discuss books that center on 9/11 and its consequences or books featuring strong girls. Or the even more recent discussion of Latin American and Hispanic Heritage month by Alex Torres. To make room for these posts the blog will feature a post on Monday called the Monday Motivator. These will primarily be prepared as an immediate resource for teacher to use for a mini lesson or as a resource that can be immediately shared with students.

For at least the next 18 months, Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday will be in the competent hands of Dr. Gretchen Rumohr. Gretchen and I have been writing partners on several projects and she is a frequent contributor to the blog producing regular posts and as one of the early and regular contributors to the Weekend Picks feature. Gretchen has been actively learning the ins and outs of curating various parts of the blog for the last 8 months. She is ready to go.

In order to keep working with the blog fun and a labor of love instead of a burden, we have recruited others to help with the curation of the Weekend Picks and the Monday Motivator. Gretchen will oversee the whole project and curate the weekly Wednesday posts. Leilya Pitre will head up the weekend picks with the help of Nikki Bylina-Streets and Cammie Jo Lawton. The Weekend Picks will now function as a blog within a blog instead of as a running page with each new pick at the top. This allows the contributors to write them in advance and then the team of curators can prepare them and schedule them to post on the appropriate Friday. The same will be true for the Monday Motivators under the direction of Melanie Hundley as the chief curator with the help of Emily Pendergrass, Abbey Bachman, and Jason Dehart. We hope you follow along.

As I leave, I hope that some of you will check out some of my previous posts. They can easily be found under this link.

Some of my favorite posts are the Bick’s Picks at the end of the year. Here is the link to the most current and it has links to the other years.

I have developed some favorite authors over the last several years. I like a lot of authors, but these few warm my heart with every book .

Jo Knowles

Jason Reynolds

Padma Venkatraman

Sharon Flake

A.S. King

Andrew Smith

Rich and Sandra Neil Wallace

K. A. Holt

Kathrine Erskine

Kimberly Willis Holt

Tiffany D. Jackson

Until the next year or so. Until then Gretchen will be running the show.

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Bick's Picks for 2021

12/31/2021

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Here are my picks for 2021. Another hard year no matter how you look at it. Many of my colleague report reading and writing less than previous years. Those of us who work with teachers in PreK - 12 settings know that they have faced too many challenges. It really is time to confront how we value and support public education. I found myself doing more late night reading than in other years. I am not sure that is a good thing. I do know that I found myself stunned by the quality of the writing and the power of many of the texts I read. In one case I finished a book at went directly to the computer to write a letter to the author. In a couple of other cases I sought out the author for an interview.

Several of the others on the list are debut authors. I love finding these new books. Sadly, some new authors get a lost of press when a large publisher decides it is worth the push. Often, they are exactly right. Other time, a debut author quietly slips into the scene relatively unnoticed. If these is a title or an author in this list or in the list of the honorable mentions that you don't know, I hope you check them out.

Before you get lost in the new list take a minute to read through my previous lists. I still think the books on my lists have held quite well. Browse around a bit and see if you agree.

http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/bicks-picks-for-2016
http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/bicks-picks-for-2017
http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/bicks-picks-for-2018
http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/bicks-picks-for-2019
http://www.yawednesday.com/weekly-posts/bicks-picks-for-2020

Bick's Picks for 2021

I really don't have a problem finding 10 books I really love. The problem is finding only ten. Some years I have fudged the number and placed a few more on the list. Last year, I picked ten and then place a few on an honorable mention list.

This year I selected ten and then added another ten. I had a couple of distinguishing markers. The books in the first list had to be published in 2021 or will be published early in 2022. Some of the books in the list of honorable mentions I books I was a bit slow to get to, but wow, I was glad I did.

Born Behind Bars by Padma Venkatraman

I have been reading Padma's books for nearly 15 years. I think they are all fantastic. Nevertheless, most readers believe she really hit a new stride with the publication of The Bridge Home. It was one of the finest middle grade offerings in several years. I received an early ARC of Born Behind Bars and was once again struck by the cover art. The publisher was wise enough to use the same artist that was used for The Bridge Home. Both books are set in her native India and focus on children who are left to their own devices on the streets.

The cover art is gorgeous, but I would read a book by Padma if it were wrapped in newsprint. After a couple of days, I sat in my chair and just keep reading. I finished at about 2:00 am. The book is stunning in many ways, but my favorite aspect is the strong character development. These characters beg the reader to embrace them and I find it hard to believe that most readers could withstand the draw of Kabir and Rani. Enjoy and spread the word.

The Other Talk by Brendan Kiely

These year my list include a good share of nonfiction. I find myself reconsidering how I work as an ally. Brendan's book is helping me do that.

Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna Alda P. Dobbs

I met Alda last Spring as she and other debut authors prepared to present at the 2021 UNLV Summit. I found her to be kind and generous. More importantly, her novel is wonderful.

Race against Time by Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace

While this is a piece of nonfiction, it reads like a fast paced suspense novel. Don't Google the names, just read and go along for the ride.

You’d be home now by Kathleen Glasgow

I felt that Kathleen's first two books were wonderful. With this current book she proves she is, without question, a force to be reckoned with as every publication hits the shelves.

At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

One of the best dystopian books I have read in a long time, plus it considers how we might treat each other in a pandemic.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Another work of nonfiction that had me considering how much I know about anything. This is clearly a work just worth the read, but full of cross-curricular opportunities.

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

I am fairly new to the works of David Arnold, but I will be checking out everything.

The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

One of the best novel of the year without a doubt and a great "who done it" as well.

Lobizona by Romina Garber

While I don't read a ton of fantasy novels of any kind, this novel had me from the beginning and I am waiting to get my hands on the sequel.

The books in the group of Honorable Mentions are spectacular. They range from novels in verse, historical fiction, Non fiction, memoirs, suspense, and even some horror. A couple are just good old fashion stories that draw the reader into their narrative. A couple are a few years old but they continue to be talked about in a variety of ways. Each image is linked to a place to by the book. There you can find a few reviews.

Regardless of your reading tastes, one of these books will be just perfect. Don't hesitate to pick one up.

Until next time.

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Here’s to (New Year) Beginnings by Rob Prickett

12/29/2021

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Rob Prickett is closeing out 2021 with the final post of the year! Thanks Rob!

Here’s to (New Year) Beginnings

Rob Prickett

So, the last YA Wednesday blog of 2021. If you are like me – you breathe a sigh of relief while at the same time screaming unbelievably, “How is this possible?” This is where my mind is fighting with itself currently. It’s the timing of this blog post that struck me (literally, as I am banging my head on my desk like that meme from The West Wing) – the last blog post of 2021. After the last year (or two or fifty – I seem to no longer have any sense of time), I was struggling with what to focus on in this post – endings (after all, 2021 is ending)? 2021 reflection (it’s what we do this time of year)? My anniversary (12.31 – always easy to remember/ always a party going on to celebrate – going on 27 years)? New Year’s Eve, itself? Jude Law’s Birthday (12.29)? But what I realized is that all of these could result in some melancholy, some sadness (except for my anniversary – Love you, Meg!). I don’t know about you but these days I need positivity. I need inspiration. I need possibility. And that’s part of this time of year.

So, I’ve decided to be inspired and positive by looking at the other side of the timeline – looking forward to new beginnings. January 1, 2022 is only a few days away! After all, New Year’s Eve is really the celebration of the new year . . . of what’s coming. . . of what’s possible in the unknown of this linear timeline of life. We excitedly countdown to midnight when the new year starts. We kiss someone – anyone (except for me – anniversary, remember – Love you, Meg!) – to start the new year off right (?) – in love (?) – not alone (?) – with potential (?). . .

I do a mini lesson/modeling on predictions in my Adolescent Literature class by reading a children’s picture book to the class and then having them predict what’s going to happen next in the story. And because it is a children’s book, they can find out if their predictions come true quickly. We then transition to the discussion of/analysis of/prediction of/ modeling of some of Book #1 of the YA series that they have just read (past series included: Arc of a Scythe, Chaos Walking, Children of Blood & Bone, Origami Yoda, etc.). These discussions focus on predicting where the series will go after and the possibilities inherent after reading the beginning book in the series.

With a nod toward the possible and to remind us all that everything can start off right (even if you don’t know where it is going) – here’s some of my favorite YA beginnings (see what I am doing here? – reflecting back and yet looking ahead) . . .

“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” – The Graveyard Book (Gaiman)
“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.” – Feed (Anderson)
“He’d stopped trying to bring her back.” – Eleanor and Park (Rowell)
“The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World.” – Going Bovine (Bray)
“The day I came squealing and squalling into this world was the first time someone tried to kill me.” – Dread Nation (Ireland)

Some of my favorites have additional aspects to their beginnings beyond just the text – such as these amazing graphic novels . . .
6. “I’ve hated sports every since I was a little kid, especially basketball.” – Dragon Hoops (Yang)

7. “This is how I feel every single day of my life like I’m falling without a parachute.” – New Kid (Craft)

8. “My name is Jensen, Jensen Graham. I may be just a regular kid at regular Berrybrook Middle School . . . but I am going to save the world.” – Brave (Chmakova)

Many of us just “returned” from the virtual ALAN Conference not too long ago. Many of us have experienced the absolute joy of receiving the ALAN Book Box – Christmas before Thanksgiving. When I opened my box this year, I immediately found another new book or two or five . . . and inevitably, a new favorite this year. I was immediately excited to read this beginning . . .

“Baba says only wicked things happen after midnight, but I know better.” – Beasts of Prey (Gray)

So, as we get ready to celebrate the possibilities . . . Here’s to so many fantastic beginnings in YAL. Here’s to being inspired. Here’s to being motivated. Here’s to the beginning of 2022 – May it bring us all our own opening lines full of potential. Happy New Year!

Dr. Robert Prickett is currently Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences and Interim Department Chairperson, Interdisciplinary Studies and Professor of English Education at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. It is this last title – he still teaches adolescent literature every spring despite his administrative duties – which allows him to always look forward to the start of a new spring semester and calendar year.

Until next time.

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Let the Creativity Bloom: Final Projects for the Young Adult Literature Course by Leilya Pitre

12/22/2021

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I love it when you get to see former students flourish. Without question Leilya Pitre has continued to grow and have success as a professor of English education. There is no doubt that I learned more from her than she did from me. This week we all get to take look at how she is fostering creativity among her own students. Thanks Leilya!

Let the Creativity Bloom: Final Projects for the Young Adult Literature Course
by Leilya Pitre

Every spring I teach a YAL course in which we learn about adolescent experiences in literature. We read, think, interpret, analyze, write, and have rich conversations throughout the semester. While it does not get boring, it seems painstaking because most of the tasks are associated with grades, i.e. academic performance. To alleviate the anxieties surrounding the end of the semester, I offer my students to complete a creative project that enhances their thinking about the characters, events, and outcomes and brings them joy of crafting without stressing about the grade. They have a choice to do whatever they want, and as a result, the final creative project becomes enjoyable and even helps raise final grades.

Announcing the project early in the semester and reminding about it every couple of weeks jumpstarts students’ thinking and focuses their attention on various ideas as we progress through the novels. They may choose one, two, or several YA novels, including the novels of their choice for this task. To begin the creativity flow, we complete Body Biography projects, as described by Smagorinsky in Teaching English by Design (2008, pp. 36-37). This small-group project engages students to think beyond the traditional character charts or reading logs as it allows employing symbolism when considering both surface and inner complexities of the character’s psyche, actions, and reactions to the events. Formerly, the project was completed on a human-size poster paper, and all the drawings, writing, and coloring were finished manually. After finalizing the art part, each group collectively writes an essay explaining all the symbolic representations and choices included in the poster. With the move to online teaching and access to technological tools, the project can be executed using multimedia resources. Below are some Body Bio examples from the last spring semester.

Following the body biography project, students think about their own ways to represent learning throughout the course. Since the spring of 2020, I have decided to give students a freedom of choice, and do not regret it. Here are a few of the ideas that might be useful to explore in the secondary English classroom or a college course. Some of them are more laborious than others, but all of them require students’ critical and analytical thinking and efforts to implement the idea.

The Young Adult Cookbook
Who doesn’t like to eat? Right, we all do! Maddie P. (with the permission of my students, I use their real first names in this post), as a true Louisianan, where food culture is rich and central to any event, decides to showcase food mentioned in some of the YA novels. She notices that almost in every text of the course characters mention food they like either at their favorite food joints, self-prepared, or cooked by parents. Maddie examines three novels: Love, Hate, and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed (2018), I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman (2018), and The Music of What Happened by Bill Konigsberg (2019). She chose Maya’s Mouthwatering Biryani and Tandoori Chicken (Ahmed, 2018, p. 9), Max’s Cloud Eggs (Konigsberg, 2019, p. 107), Jordan and Max’s World Famous Organic Homemade Prickly Pear Frozen Lemonade (Konigsberg, 2019, p. 110), Freya’s Grilled Cheese Sandwich (Foreman, 2018, p. 120-121), and Harun’s Family Seekh Kebabs (Foreman, 2018, p.189). Since there are no pictures or recipes provided in the novels, Maddie has researched the dishes, found the images and recipes, and created The Young Adult Cookbook.
During her presentation, she explains the history of each dish and emphasizes their cultural value. The discussion naturally moves onto eating habits of teenagers. When I am writing this part, my husband is grilling chicken and ribs on the back porch. I am tempted to add this to The Cookbook.

Maya's Mouthwatering Chicken Biryani

Max's Cloud Egg

Jordan and Max’s World Famous Organic Homemade Prickly Pear Frozen Lemonade

Harun's Family Seekh Kebabs

The Pitres' Backyard BBQ

Freya's Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Thematic Explorations Across YA Novels
This idea and implementation belongs to Jacob B. who created three thematic posters inspired by nine out of twelve novels we read in class: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Freaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oats, Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Pena, Hate List by Jennifer Brown, My Name is Parvana by Debora Ellis, All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner, I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman, and The Music of What Happened by Bill Konigsberg.

The first poster exemplifies the theme of hope with a vital implication that hope requires maintenance. It has to be sustained, relentless, and unyielding to life encounters adolescents experience daily. As symbolic representations from each novel, Jacob has chosen Parvana's worksheet of fractions (Ellis, 2012), Valerie's black notebook with the famous Hate List (Brown, 2009), and Max’s portrait of Jordan (Konigsberg, 2019).

Finally, Jacob introduces the theme of personal growth via creating bonds with friends claiming that it is easier if adolescents are not alone in their struggles, but “tethered” as Hannah confesses (Polisner, 2016). This third poster draws from The Memory of Things, I Have Lost My Way, and Mexican Whiteboy and employs images of Hannah’s swan wings (Polisner, 2016), Freya’s grilled cheese sandwich (Foreman, 2018), and Uno’s mitt, holding a baseball and cash (de la Pena, 2008).

The theme of ugly truths is examined through Speak, Freaky Green Eyes, and All American Boys. Through this analysis Jacob insists that ugly truths must be confronted to be rectified. He includes a branch from Melinda’s tree (Anderson, 1999), Quin’s t-shirt (Reynolds & Kiely, 2015), and Krista’s journal (Oats, 2003) as symbolic images reflecting this theme.

Reimagined Book Covers
This class includes students with different majors. One of them is Jillian; she is an Art major focusing on photography. For this course, she creates the new book covers for two novels: The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger, 1945) and Exit West (Hamid, 2017). I will explain The Catcher in the Rye cover here.

In order to recreate the disturbance Holden’s (Salinger, 1945) inner world is undergoing, which conflicts with reality, Jillian has crafted a composition which is seen from an unorthodox angle. Because Holden’s disillusionment with the world results in a changed worldview for him by the end of the narrative, she decided to animate the “camera” through which the artwork is being viewed. By turning it on its side, viewers may feel compelled to turn their head to perceive the artwork from a more natural-feeling angle, adjusting their perspective, just as Holden had to adjust his.

Additionally, by setting the camera on its side, the rye-covered cliff upon which Holden stands becomes affected by visual gravity. One motif which recurs throughout Salinger’s novel is that of falling. This motif represents the loss of innocence—a trial through which every adolescent must go if they to reach adulthood. Because of this compositional choice, viewers may feel that Holden’s stability upon the cliff is impossible or short-lived. He is at risk of falling, and Jillian intentionally chooses to make such a fall seem inevitable. The gestures of the clouds emphasize this gravity, as they are drawn to appear as though they are being dragged down by its force. As a result of such a projection, the book cover itself prompts critical thinking and requires readers to adjust their perspectives.

Creative Writing
Several students have tried their hand in creative writing—rewriting one of the novel’s final chapters, adding another chapter, or responding to the novels with an original writing. One of them, Ellie H., has attempted to write a sequel to Anderson’s Speak (1999). She entitles the sequel Listen, makes a book cover, and writes the first chapter. See the book cover to the right.

My favorite creative writing so far is a poem Tethered written by Sara S. integrating the idea of connectedness from Gae Polisner’s The Memory of Things (2016) and including it to Freya’s dream from Foreman’s I Have Lost My Way (2018). I would like to conclude this post with Sara’s poem:

Tethered

It rises,
a cloud of ash and smoke.
Rain falls
in sheets of glass.
Shapes
move toward me,
surround me,
push me
down…
                                                down…
                                                            down…
a path unknown.
(Yet I know it all too well.)
Push me outside of my fortress.
                        No.
                                    My nest.
I am a bird.
            See.
                        Feathers.
Grounded.
Take flight.
Grounded.
                                    Take flight!
I am wounded.
(I know this pain.
Loss.)
I am lost
as I search
for clarity.
The shapes
            buzz
                        all around me.
            They begin to
clear.
                                    I push trough them,
                                                past them,
                                                where
water meets sky.
I will take off.
            Fly,
                        now…
                                    No.
Fate has clipped my wings.
Fate is pulling me
            back into shapes,
                        bodies.
“Look at me…”
Fate whispers.
“Open your eyes…”
Eyes,
            one blue,
            one green.
Pulling me
through bodies of
ash.
“Freya.”
I hear
my name.
(But Freya is not here.
I am not Freya.)
I am a bird…
            No.
                        I am
                                    a girl
                                                with wings.
And this
            is only
            the beginning.

Hope the readers of Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday’s have a wonderful holiday season with their families, loved ones, and friends. See you next year!

Leilya Pitre, Ph. D., taught English as a foreign language in the Ukraine and ELA/English in public schools in the US. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor and English Education Coordinator at Southeastern Louisiana University where she teaches methods courses for preservice teachers, literary analysis, American and Young Adult Literature courses for undergraduate and graduate students. Her research interests include teacher preparation, clinical experiences, secondary school teaching, and teaching and research of Young Adult and multicultural literature. Together with her friend and colleague, Mike Cook, she co-authored a two-volume edition of Teaching Universal Themes Through Young Adult Novels (2021).

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Bridging literacy and mental health themes through YA literature: A starting point for the ELA classroom by Jason S. Frydman and Brooke Eisenbach

12/16/2021

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Jason S. Frydman is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Lesley University. He is a nationally certified school psychologist, registered drama therapist, and has extensive clinical experience working with middle-level and high school students over the past 13 years. His research focuses on trauma-informed programming for K-12 students and the implementation and utilization of the creative arts therapies in the school setting.

Brooke Eisenbach is Associate Professor of Middle and Secondary Education at Lesley University. She is a former middle level English and YA Literature teacher and virtual school teacher with over ten years of experience. She has received several teaching awards including the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Outstanding Middle Level Educator Award.

Bridging literacy and mental health themes through YA literature: A starting point for the ELA classroom by Jason S. Frydman and Brooke Eisenbach

According to the United States Department for Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), an estimated 49.5% of adolescents has had a mental health disorder at some point in their lives (NIMH, 2021). This includes such diagnoses as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, all of which can present challenges across emotional and behavioral domains. As adolescents face a diverse array of challenges related to mental health, they may be at an increased risk for negative social and academic outcomes (Kaltiala-Heino et al., 2000; Merikangas et al., 2010). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has expanded these risk factors, intensifying challenges related to adolescent mental health. In a review of 16 studies conducted between 2019-2021, it was reported that adolescents experienced increases in anxiety, depression, substance use and abuse, and trauma as a result of the pandemic. Notably, it was indicated that adolescents generally have poor or underdeveloped coping skills, which leaves them vulnerable to common or emerging high stress situations (Jones et al., 2021).

What may be further compounding these contributing factors to mental health challenges are the associations with common stigmas of mental illness that have the potential to leave affected youth internalizing shame in seeking out support (O’Driscoll et al., 2012). Adolescents and their teachers may unknowingly accept and internalize stigmas surrounding mental illness. An unintended consequence of this is that the topic of mental illness/mental health becomes taboo for classroom discussions, reading and activity.

Young adult (YA) literature has the potential to serve as an entryway into enriching the social and emotional development of our adolescent learners while encouraging normalization of mental illness and mental health support. Our recently published book, Fostering mental health literacy through adolescent literature, centers contemporary YA literature in the middle and high school classroom as a starting point for engaging readers in the complex work of normalizing issues surrounding mental health.

In order to help our students in this way, we need to first engage them in meaningful instruction of mental health literacy. Mental health literacy refers to one’s knowledge of mental disorders and how those thoughts are used to promote awareness, understand appropriate symptom management, and recognize supportive and preventative actions (Jorm, 2000). Using YA literature to introduce and engage readers in mental health literacy have been positioned as having positive effects for students struggling themselves and those who may encounter mental illness indirectly, such as through a relative or friend (Aziz et al., 2019; Hall, 2020). The effective use of identified books can teach adolescents how to recognize, cope with, and seek help for their mental health challenges; skills that will enable them to succeed beyond the classroom walls (Moore & Begoray, 2017; Richmond, 2014, 2019).

Research has shown that stigma about mental illness can be mitigated through targeted education that challenges harmful stereotypes, personal contact with people with mental illness, and social activism (Maumbauer et al., 2018). Young adult literature is a terrific tool to address all these targets; alongside providing direct information on mental health and offering invitations to engage in social activism, we can use YA literature to introduce and humanize characters with mental illness or mental health needs in an effort to forge empathy, understanding, advocacy, and ally-ship in our classrooms.

However, it is important that teachers always remain vigilant in our understanding that certain texts might unknowingly trigger students or risk further engaging them in behaviors or beliefs that might pose a risk to their mental or physical health. For this reason, Fostering mental health literacy through adolescent literature intentionally and explicitly includes the voices and ideas of counselors, therapists, and psychologists familiar with adolescent development and needs. In this edited text, chapters are co-authored by teams composed of both educators and mental health specialists to highlight and explore a variety of contemporary YA literature featuring characters experiencing issues related to mental health. Along with providing orienting information on mental illness/mental health, chapters offer practical instructional approaches for the ELA classroom that attend to both ELA and mental health themes present in the featured YA novels. Regarding ELA literacy skills and domains, authors have collaborated on ways of enhancing understanding in such areas as critical research, understanding of characterization, figurative language, the hero’s journey, and more. Both ELA and mental health themes are grounded in specific pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading strategies that are tailored for the ELA classroom.

Our hope is that fostering mental health literacy through adolescent literature will provide teachers and students a gateway into brave spaces for respectful exploration of mental health themes through thoughtful discussion and committed engagement with YA literature.

Below is the list of novels featured in the book and the associated mental health themes that are explored. Novels are listed in order of presentation:

A Sky for Us Alone by Kristen Russell (2019); Issues of rural life and rurality
The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds (2015); Grief and Loss
Good Enough by Jen Petro-Roy (2019); Eating disorders
I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez (2017); Transgenerational transmission of trauma
Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka (2018); Substance use
When Reason Breaks by Cindy L. Rodriguez (2015); Depression and suicide
Heroine by Mindy McGinnis (2019); Opioid use and abuse
OCDaniel by Wesley King (2016); Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Scars by Cheryl Rainfield (2010); Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), self-harm, sexual abuse
Saving Red by Sonya Sones (2016); PTSD, schizoaffective disorder, anxiety
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (2009); Symptoms of eating disorders
The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten (2013); OCD, hoarding

13. The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork (2017); Depression, suicidal ideation, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia

References
Aziz, J., Wilder, P., & Mora, R. A. (2019). YAL as a tool for healing and critical consciousness. ALAN Review, 46(2), 71-78.

Hall, M. (2020). Bibliotherapy and OCD: The case of Turtles all the way down by John Green (2017). New Horizons in English Studies, 5(1), 74-87. http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/nh.2020.5.74-87

Jones, E. A., Mitra, A. K., & Bhuiyan, A. R. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on mental health in adolescents: a systematic review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(5), 2470. http://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052470

Jorm, A. F. (2000). Mental health literacy: Public knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 177(5), 396-401.

Kaltiala-Heino, R., Rimpelä, M., Rantanen, P., & Rimpelä, A. (2000). Bullying at school—an indicator of adolescents at risk for mental disorders. Journal of adolescence, 23(6), 661-674. https://doi.org/10.1006/jado.2000.0351

Merikangas, K. R., He, J. P., Burstein, M., Swanson, S. A., Avenevoli, S., Cui, L., ... & Swendsen, J. (2010). Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in US adolescents: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication–Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49(10), 980-989. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2010.05.017

Moore, A., & Begoray, D. (2017). “The Last Block of Ice”: Trauma literature in the high school classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(2), 173-181. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.674

National Alliance on Mental Illness. (2021). Mental health by the numbers. https://www.nami.org/mhstats

O’Driscoll, C., Heary, C., Hennessy, E., & McKeague, L. (2012). Explicit and implicit stigma towards peers with mental health problems in childhood and adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(10), 1054-1062. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02580.x

Richmond, K. J. (2014). Using literature to confront the stigma of mental illness, teach empathy, and break stereotypes. Language Arts Journal of Michigan, 30(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.2038

Richmond, K. J. (2019). Mental illness in young adult literature: Exploring real struggles through fictional characters. ABC-CLIO: Libraries Unlimited.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health. (2021). Mental illness. Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness.shtml

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Navigating Our Way: The Role of Human Geography and Globalization In the Middle School English Language Arts Classroom by Bird Cramer

12/14/2021

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We happily welcome Bird Cramer for YA Wednesday today. An upper level teacher and coordinator of curriculum and instruction, Bird teaches a little bit of everything and designs curriculum at a small independent school in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York. Hold on to your hats! Bird will be sharing methods--and texts--that help our students consider histories of human geography, and ways that they can advocate for a better world.

Navigating Our Way: The Role of Human Geography and Globalization In the Middle School English Language Arts Classroom
Bird Cramer

With every year, I become slightly more adept at looking at the needs of my middle school students, my school, the community, the country, and our global community. These lenses create a curriculum that reflects diverse and sometimes diverging interests. My constantly curious middle schoolers want to understand how their actions impact the world around them but can get lost navigating the way. In the past few years, I spent a great deal of time weaving pathways between the past, present, and future of our planet and with the novels we read.

As teachers, we know the importance of having the vocabulary to define the wide perspectives of our world. Globalization and human geography may not be terms we think of as being in our classrooms but they are in everything we do. Human Geography is, as defined by Wikipedia, the study of humans and their relationships with communities, cultures, economies, and interactions with the environment through studying their relations with and across locations. Globalization is completely intertwined with human geography, one guiding the other until it is becoming harder to pull them apart. For our students, the pull is almost negligible.

The ELA classroom is one of the best places to discuss these interactions as literature is always the gateway. How else do we explore a novel but through its people and their interactions with one another? We cannot separate the characters from their settings, cultures, and communities. By combining a choice chapter or two of a trade book with a class novel and new vocabulary, we can provide our students with another way to look at themselves, their surroundings, and their fellow humankind. This post combines new titles with ones that have proven themselves over the years.

I start this exploration with the same way that NCTE started this year, with The 1619 Project: Born On The Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson and illustrated by Nikkolas Smith. This book is a profound reminder of the effects unchecked globalization has on populations around the world and the impact of centuries of forced human migration. The classroom question of tracing your ancestral land carries a heavy weight for so many students when your ancestors were bought and sold. However, this is the narrative that way too many of our schools teach students. This book corrects that narrative and teaches the bitterness and the cost of unchecked greed on our humanity.

Next year, I will follow 1619 with a chapter from Globalization: Why We Care About Faraway Events by Carla Mooney and illustrated by Sam Carbaugh. It is geared towards middle school students and paves the way for substantial connections. Divided into seven chapters, the colorful pages are full of sidebars, comics, QR codes, and primary sources. Chapters exist independently and can be used to match specific fiction titles in the classroom. The book itself breaks globalization into easily digestible topics such as money, trade, laws, cultures, and the future of globalization. Each chapter ends with a series of discussion questions that pair easily with novels.

Chapter Six, “Crossing The Cultural Divide”, weaves together the causes of cultural globalization and their effects on local cultures from dress and food to languages and war, and ends with cultural extinctions. This chapter can fit with almost any novel in today’s classroom, the second being Ann Clare LeZotte’s Show Me A Sign. Set in 1805, Show Me A Sign is an incredible book for a multitude of reasons, one of which being that, by page 39, LeZotte tackles the evolution of a language, the English colonization of Wampanoag (Massassachusettes) as well as the biases against freed slaves and the Wampanoag themselves as they try to take back the land that was promise by the Massassachuesttes government. All at the same time, LeZotte’s heroine, Mary Lambert questions her privilege of living on land that, while being in her family for over one hundred years, may not be her land at all. Before she can continue further on this journey, she is kidnapped for “scientific endeavors' ' as Mary is one of many on Martha’s Vinyard who descended from deaf forebearers. This book traces the results of so many far away events and how they all coalesced to form the creation of The United States of America.

The Wall: Growing Up Behind The Iron Curtain by Peter Sis is the brilliantly illustrated memoir of his childhood and adolescence in Cold War Prague, a time which highlights a large shift in globalization. Cleverly disguised as a picture book, the sophisticated subject matter meant my middle schoolers poured over the pages as it greatly helped them understand the global impact of the Iron Curtain and The Cold War. This book is an excellent example of an antithesis of cultural globalization while also aiding to clarify a social and political moment in history that can be difficult for students to understand.

Naomi Shihab Nye’s Voices In The Air: Poems For Listeners contains free verse poems that touch down on all continents except Antarctica. She travels the world through the eyes of activists, authors, artists, and disruptors that span centuries and includes biographical notes at the end of the book. She merges both past and present, effortlessly bringing historical figures forward to meet wars, refugees, and her own people in Jerusalem. She walks many roads from activist to friend and her prose engulfs us like the oceans she travels across. Her collection is human geography in lyrical form and crosses so many cultural divides.

American Border Culture Dreamer: The Young Immigrant Experience From A To Z by Wendy Ewald is the result of a public installation in Philadelphia where she collaborated with eighteen high school students who were first or second generation immigrants to the United States. Each page contains original artwork and text designed and written by the subject(s) of the photo. The work covers issues close to the artists’ hearts while also introducing how these universal themes intermingle with cultural, political, and social experiences of transitioning to living in.a new country. The issues range from being a DREAMer to the corruption in Tajikistan in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union (see The Wall) and the wearing of cultural apparel in a new home country.

Another chapter in Globalization, “In The Name Of The Law'', discusses The UN Human Rights and The International Court of Justice, which pairs well with American Border Culture Dreamer and Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamad’s When Stars Are Scattered, a graphic novel memoir that gives students a window into the lives of Omar and his brother Hassan, who spent 15 years living in the Dadaad UN Refugee Camp complex in Kenya. It can also be used to discuss The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman and the other ten phenomenal books in Marshall George’s Around The World YA Wednesday blog post.

Clean water is such a precious commodity both nationally and internationally as illustrated in When Stars Are Scattered and The Bridge Home. Nancy Castaldo, who has authored many STEM books, will release When The World Runs Dry in January of 2022. This book examines the effects of globalization on the water cycle and how it creates human migration in the name of drinkable water. She also centers on water issues in the United States and there are some incredible fiction books that pair well with these moments, my favorite being We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade. My sixth graders were inspired to find environmental activists their own ages from their own country. Goade’s illustrations pulled them and the combination of the illustrations and text created space for students to draw comparisons with water issues in their own communities, communities in the United States, and communities around the world and the traits that bind these communities together.

Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman tells the story of a California drought that does not cease to end until the water runs dry. While set in an undisclosed time in the future, the sad truth is that the drought that ravages through Southern California was devastating Cape Town, South Africa, right before the time of publication. The main character, Alyssa, along with her younger brother, are left to find their way through a city engulfed in chaos and violence. This book blurs the lines between science and realistic fiction, an interesting place to hold discussions about or pave the way towards solutions to the water crisis in our country and on our planet.

After attending NCTE this year, I feel that I must include some multimodal texts. For water and the United States: flooding, droughts, or pollution problems can now be traced through maps. Human migration has been animated by the brilliant mind of Hans Rosling, a co-founder of Doctors Without Borders. Dr. Rosling created Gapminder, an independent educational non-proﬁt ﬁghting global misconceptions.

One can find information on innumerable global issues from refugee numbers, water in homes, economic growth, population data, monthly incomes throughout the world, and global CO2 emissions, all themes tackled in the above mentioned novels.

This process continues to ebb and flow with my students’ curiosity about different topics but the commonality of the pull of our place in the world and how globalization plays a role in it continually resurfaces, especially as we dig deeper into social justice issues and the incredible selection of novels written in the past few years. We live in such incredible times.

References

Ahmed, S. (2018). Being the change: Lessons and strategies to teach social comprehension. Heinemann.

Castaldo, N.(2021, November 21). Teaching Climate Change Impacts on Our Food and Water Supply. [Panel Presentation]. Teaching For Climate Justice. 2021 NCTE Annual Convention.

Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2021, June 28). English language arts standards: history/social studies: 6-8 grade. http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RH/6-8/

Gapminder (2017) Bubble chart of CO2 emissions of united states and cambodia. [Interactive infographic]. Gapminder.org.

Gapminder (n.d.) Aye family, myanmar: Dollar street. [Interactive Video Set]. Gapminder.org       https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street?active=5fd03e3df2d9500e43590658

George, M. (2021, October 20). Around the world in a dozen ya novels: windows, mirrors, and doors
that show the trials, tribulations, and hope of teens in challenging circumstances. Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from  http://www.yawednesday.com/weekly-posts/around-the-world-in-a-dozen-ya-novelswindows-mirrors-and-doors-that-show-the-trials-tribulations-and-hope-of-teens-in-challenging-circumstances-by-marshal-george.

Human geography. (2021, October 12). In Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_geography

Short, K. (2021, November 21). Exploring The Human Impact of Climate Change. [Panel Presentation]. Teaching For Climate Justice. 2021 NCTE Annual Convention.

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In Support Of... by Dr. Kristen Hawley Turner

12/13/2021

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We are pleased to welcome Dr. Kristen Hawley Turner for today's Monday Motivator. A professor of teacher education and program director at Drew University, Kristen maintains a personal blog, is the founder and director of the Digital Literacies Collaborative and serves as an editor for Teachers, Profs, Parents: Writers Who Care. Kristen's author page can be found here. I (Gretchen) have appreciated Kristen's creativity, insight, and strength; her perspective as both a parent and a professor is especially valuable when considering students' right to read. All of us must practice vigilance in the face of today's book challenges. Thank you, Kristen, for motivating us.

In Support of...by Dr. Kristen Hawley Turner

It’s Monday, and it’s time to get motivated!

Yea, right. It’s hard to get motivated to do much of anything anymore. Educators have been inundated with complaints, anger, and vitriol lately. Whether you have experienced it personally or watched it through your feed, you feel it. As teachers, we have the expertise to be strong advocates for our profession and for our students, but it is hard to stand up in your community.

Censorship is not new, but it seems that this time around the "conversation" about curriculum is particularly brutal. Recently, parents have been harassing school board members, administrators, and teachers with complaints about everything from sex education to Critical Race Theory. When parents attended my local school board meeting last month to call for the exclusion of Dear Martin (Nic Stone), I knew I had to speak up. I had to find the energy to put my thoughts together and the conviction to share them publicly. I hope that my letter to my local school board inspires you to keep advocating for your students and yourselves as experts in your field.

It doesn't matter what completes the "In support of..." stem that I used in the title of this post. We know what is right, and we, as trained professionals, can stand for it.

Dear Members of the Board of Education:

I understand that at the recent Board of Education meeting, parents raised concerns about the inclusion of Dear Martin in the ninth grade English curriculum. I would like to voice my support for both this text and the educators who selected it.
Dear Martin is a coming-of-age novel. In the same way that classics like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Separate Peace, and The Catcher in the Rye depict characters who encounter life’s challenges, develop their identities, and grow into adult perspectives, Dear Martin offers teen readers the story of an adolescent. A primary difference between Dear Martin and the other texts I listed here is that the main character in Dear Martin is Black, and the book documents his perspective. The others all showcase White characters and perspectives.

In terms of content, Dear Martin is the story of a Black teenager who deals with typical adolescent questions. He navigates teenage angst by writing letters in a journal to Martin Luther King, Jr., drawing strength and guidance from his understanding of this historical figure. He has to decide whether to stay in a bad relationship with the prettiest girl in school or to admit that he has feelings for his best friend, a girl that his mother would not approve of. He needs to decide if he wants to go down a path with a group of friends who will likely get him into trouble. He struggles to understand himself and to stand up for what he believes.

These timeless themes can be seen in texts we all likely have read in school - Romeo and Juliet, The Outsiders, Lord of the Flies. What the field of literacy education has learned since we read these “classics,” however, is that young adult literature that deals with contemporary issues where adolescents can imagine their own or others’ lives better engages teen readers than do stories that seem out-of-date to them.

Furthermore, literature can offer both “mirrors” where students can see themselves represented in the curriculum, community, and society at large and “windows” where students have the opportunity to look beyond their own experiences to understand the experiences of others. It is important for all students to have opportunities both to see themselves and to view the perspectives of others.

When I watched the Back to School night video for ninth grade English, I was very pleased to see that multiple perspectives were offered to ninth graders in the district. The district should be commended for including authors such as Steinbeck, Lee, Hansberry, Satrapi, Tan, Weisel, Shakespeare, Stone, as well as traditional myths like the Odyssey. These texts span a range of eras, geographical origin, and cultural perspectives. It is through talking about stories and grappling with the issues that characters/people face that teens learn about both themselves and others.

By reading a range of texts, ninth graders will be encouraged to think critically about the world in which we live, to identify problems to be solved and to develop solutions to address these issues. This process is in line with the mission of the IB World School.

Dear Martin, written by a Black author and showcasing the perspective of a Black character, is an important text in the list above. It is one of the only truly contemporary selections, where the author is both still living and still publishing regularly. It also reflects issues of society that our teens face every time they log onto the internet. By depicting the story of a young Black man who is unnecessarily arrested, the book offers access points for discussion about real-life news stories, all while connecting to the important history of the United States and the Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. All of the characters in the book, regardless of the identities they hold - White, Black, Jewish, Affluent, Working Class, Teen, Adult - confront, discuss, grapple with, and grow from the events in the story that parallel contemporary news stories regarding #Blacklivesmatter, racial unrest, discrimination, language use, and other socially important topics. Opening a space to discuss these very real issues in the context of a fictional story provides opportunities for dialogue among peers that can lead to deepened appreciation for the experience of others, also a hallmark of the IB Learner Profile.

It is important to note that approximately 18% of the district's student body identifies as non-White according to the latest demographic data available from the state. Including texts that provide both mirrors for and windows into the experiences of people of color should be a district imperative in order to meet the goals of being an IB district, and, perhaps more importantly, to be responsive to the needs and identities of all students in the district.

In closing, I want to address the concept of Critical Race Theory (CRT) that has been raised in conjunction with Dear Martin. CRT is a theoretical framework that is taught in graduate schools as a lens through which to view societal, economic, and political structures. It is explicitly taught as a theory in the same ways that other philosophical, social, and economic theories are taught at the advanced levels.

CRT is not taught by reading a young adult novel or discussing the history of race and racism in the United States. Inclusion of all learners and respect for individual identities is also not CRT. CRT is unrelated to Dear Martin as it pertains to the ninth grade curriculum. Rather, the journaling, discussion, and sharing that students did during the unit helped them to (1) consider their own opinions and the perspectives of others, (2) reflect on some prominent contemporary issues in society, and (3) develop as readers and writers. In this way, the choice of this text is in line with the IB Learner Profile and World School Mission.

The educators in the district are well-trained and highly qualified. They deserve our respect in making choices that serve all students. I support their decision to include Dear Martin, and I would be very disappointed to see any censorship of this book from the curriculum.

Sincerely,

Kristen Hawley Turner, PhD
Parent of Twin 9th Graders

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How One Box Refreshed My Heart by Cindi Koudelka

12/8/2021

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I first met Cindi at UNLV Summit in 2018. She is one of those remarkable book worms that reads so many books you wonder how she finds the time. We have kept in touch over the years and she keeps coming to the Summit. Yeah!

Once again, Cindi has some wonderful reading suggestions.

How One Box Refreshed My Heart

Cindi Koudelka

There are so many things I miss about attending live conferences, and I look forward to the day when we return to casual yet powerful conversations between brilliant sessions, encounters with authors, and perusing through aisles of glorious young adult novels. It was on a particularly challenging day when my ALAN box showed up. I was so excited, but I didn’t have time to dig into it. Instead, I dragged it to school and had an official “unveiling” with a group of students. The absolute joy we shared as we dug through the box together and found a variety of novels refreshed my heart. It was energizing to engage in conversations about books and see the excitement on the students’ faces as they found books that called to them. I went from a very full box to a nearly empty box in less than an hour! These are a few of my favorites from the box.

The links for the titles take you to my favorite “black woman owned bookstore and gallery space” in Chicago, Semicolon. Not only do they carry an amazing selection of books that can be shipped anywhere, but they host #cleartheshelves events where they invite CPS Students into the store to pick out whatever books they want free of charge.

Me (Moth) by Amber McBride
Oh my gosh - this book is so beautiful. It is a novel in verse about a girl whose family was killed in an accident. As she struggles with her grief and her sense of isolation, she ends up taking a road trip with a boy who is also searching for his roots. The story beautifully embeds history and culture into what could have been a typical teen love and road trip story to make this a much more complex exploration of life, love, grief, identity, and family

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
This historical fiction novel examines both gender identity and culture amidst the backdrop of 1950s San Francisco. The Lesbian bar, The Telegraph Club, becomes a haven for seventeen year old Lily Hu when she falls in love with Kathleen Miller. As Lily comes to understand her sexuality and must deal with her father’s potential deportment due to the Red Scare, she must navigate multiple worlds and find herself in the process. In spite of the complex intersection of racism, immigration, and homophobia, the story weaves the elements seamlessly mirroring the realities of life.

Huda F Are You by Huda Fahmy
One of my students saw the title, and began giggling uncontrollably at the play on words with her name. Once he sat down to read it, he discovered a graphic novel different than he was expecting…which was perfect. This funny and poignant book tells Huda’s story as she tries to understand who she is as she moves from being the “Hijab girl” to her new school where she finds a multitude of girls who wear Hijabs and have identified themselves in other ways. She must dig more deeply to find out who she is in the world.

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
Fantasy lovers will adore this one. It blends traditional fairy tales and East Asian folktales to tell a beautiful story of Shiori'anma, the only princess of Kiata who must hide her magic. When her stepmother discovers her secret, she is banished and her brothers are turned into cranes. She is told that if she speaks, her brothers will die, one by one. Alone and unable to share the burden with anyone else, she must find a way to save her brothers and the kingdom. The fast-paced action and complex characterizations in this book make it a compelling fantasy for all readers.

Dr. Cindi Koudelka (koudelka21@gmail.com; @cmkoudelka) is a Curriculum Specialist with National Board Certification in Adolescent Young Adulthood/English Language Arts at Fieldcrest School District in Illinois and an Adjunct faculty member at Aurora University. Being a bibliophile and school nerd, she holds multiple certifications from PreK - 12 and is an active member in several literacy and research organizations. Her research interests reflect her passion as a youth advocate by focusing her work on critical adolescent literacies, young adult literature, positioning, and youth participatory action research.

Until next week.

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An Interview with Marieke Nijkampe

12/1/2021

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A couple of weeks ago I was able to interview the wonderful Marieke Nijkampe. It was a great opportunity.

A few weeks before that, I had received an Advanced Readers Copy of At the End of Everything. What a gift. Some how along the way, I had missed reading one of Marieke's novels. Sadly, I had a copy of This is Where it Ends in my to be read stack, but it never quite made it to the top. What a mistake.

I am not quite sure why I started At the End of Everything, but what a pleasant surprise. As I finished the book I knew that I wanted to interview Marieke if I could make the arrangements. Once again, a big thank you to all of the hard working people at source books.

In short, Marieke is now one of favorite authors and I have been inhaling her books as a fast as I can. I really don't think it matters which book you start with, but get started.

Since we have all been living through a pandemic, I suggest beginning with At the End of Everything.

As tough as it has been Marieke manages to imagine a pandemic scenario that is worse. Think The Walking Dead mashed together with Wentworth, but image all of the incarcerated are teenagers and the guards have left them to their own devices. Contact with the outside world is problematic at best. Well, that gets close to the tone and feeling of her book.

Below, is an the interview. I really had a great time chatting with Marieke. I appreciated that she made the time to connect with me from across an ocean and multiple time zone. If you don't know her work it is time you started reading. As you wait for the books to arrive, take a bit time to enjoy the interview.

Marieke was also kind enough to answer a few more questions

Before you take off, take a quick look at more of Marieke's books.

Until next week!

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