Follow us:
DR. BICKMORE'S YA WEDNESDAY
  • Blog
  • Contributors
  • Weekend Picks 2021
  • Weekend Picks 2020
  • UNLV online Summit 2020
  • YA Course Fall 2019
  • Bickmore's Posts
  • Weekend Picks 2019
  • Weekend Picks old
  • English Education, CIL 642 Resources
  • Contact
  • Music and YA
  • Zeiter LDC
  • YA Research
  • About
  • National Book Award for Young People's Literature
  • Books I Just Happen to Like
  • Writers as a Positive Influence
  • 2018 Summit
    • 2019 Summit on Teaching YA
    • YA Course Fall 17
  • Untitled

Meg Medina, Jason Reynolds, and the ALA Conference.

6/26/2019

0 Comments

 
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.
Picture
Picture
Picture
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.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Dr. Bickmore is an associate professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and the current president elect of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

    Co-Edited Books

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Chris-lynch

    Blogs to Follow

    nerdybookclub
    http://blogs.ncte.org/  
    yalsa.ala.org/blog/

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly