DR. BICKMORE'S YA WEDNESDAY

ALAN Workshop 2022 Excitement: Tips for Newcomers by Dr. Gretchen Rumohr

11/16/2022

Well, everyone! Today is the day! NCTE2022 is finally happening–and that also means that YA lovers will gather for the ALAN Postconvention Workshop.

When I first started going to NCTE, people would tell me to attend ALAN. I would roll my eyes. “Me? With my busy schedule? I can’t take two more days for travel.” As time went on, though, I heard more and more about this incredible workshop–that I’d be able to meet authors, listen to thought-provoking keynotes and panels, and receive the HUGE MAGIC BOX OF BOOKS.

I have to say, the virtual ALAN workshops were productive and interesting–especially since I was able to bake pies while watching panels. But this year, I am eager to reconnect face-to-face with colleagues, open that book box in that ballroom, and learn even more about rising YA authors and their stories.

For some of you new to the workshop, the ALAN community has advice! Here are some pointers from the Facebook ALAN group. And if you aren’t registered for the workshop this year, plan on attending in Columbus, Ohio for 2023!

Get there early, as Neil Klein advises. There will be many other attendees eager to receive their programs, open their boxes, and stake out a spot in the ballroom.

Be prepared to pack your books, or to ship your books home. Now, there’s a bit of debate about this–some prefer to ship books media mail (like me), some prefer to ship books priority, and others pack an extra suitcase for a carry-on. In case you are wondering, there will be shipping options close to the workshop.

Get ready to receive some books from authors you know well and some authors you may not be familiar with. This will be true for everyone–and everyone’s boxes will be different. Daria Lynn breaks it down for us: “You won't get everything you hope for and it may not all be for the grade level you work with. Please be gracious. Each publishing company DONATES those books but not every company can give 500 of every book. Plus, part of the fun is trading with other people.” #ALAN22Trades is one way that you can trade with others.

Be sure to attend the Sunday evening reception (5-7:30 at the Hilton) and be social. You’ll be able to meet other ALAN attendees, play YA trivia, and meet your favorite authors. Jordan Sonnenblick reminds us: “Please don’t be shy. The authors WANT to meet you.” Speaking as a true introvert, these events can seem overwhelming at times–however, I have found that the excitement of meeting ALAN authors makes for a rather friendly reception atmosphere. Make a point to be there and introduce yourself to a few other people. You’ll see them next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. This workshop is where some lasting friendships are made. Do your best to be social! You won’t regret it.

Dress for comfort. ALAN is about relaxing, connecting with others, and going wild about all of these new YA books. It’s unnecessary to dress formally in this atmosphere. Bring those jeans and yoga pants! The conference room may be cold, so bring a sweater.

As I write this post, I am frantically checking my flight updates, crossing my fingers that this Midwest snowstorm holds off just two more hours so I can get on that plane. See you all in Anaheim for NCTE22 and ALAN22!

Photo credit to Noah Schaffer–who will be dearly missed at this year’s workshop!

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The Role of Literacy Within YA Texts by Dr. Brady L. Nash

11/9/2022

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Continuing the conversation begun by Michelle Falter a few weeks ago, we welcome Brady L. Nash to the blog today to consider how characters' own literacies should be considered when we study YA texts.

Dr. Nash is an Assistant Professor of English Language Arts at Miami University (Ohio) and a former secondary English teacher. In his teaching and research, he focuses on the preparation of future teachers through critical approaches to ELA curriculum and instruction.

The Role of Literacy Within YA Texts by Dr. Brady L. Nash

Young adult literature is one of the few genres of literature in which the genre is explicitly defined by the age of the characters and the anticipated readers (For more, see Michelle Falter’s recent post on this website exploring the definition of YA). This genre construction creates a rhetorical situation in which adult writers compose worlds for youth with a mind to how young people - specifically - make meaning with the text and with characters. Each young adult text represents and contributes to an imagined version of how the world does or could work.

Within the worlds, lives, and activities of characters depicted in YA, there is a wealth of literacy practices on display. Characters read novels in their English classes, blog in their freetime, write in diaries and writer’s notebooks, compose songs, lyrics, videos, watch TV, read poetry. They do all of the literate things that people in the world do. This raises the question for teachers as to how YA texts represent literacy for students, and how YA texts teach students something about the way literacy operates in the world.

Below, I consider several texts in which the literacy practices of the characters play an important role in their lives and in the stories told within the texts. Considering the role of literacy within YA texts could be something for teachers to consider as they choose which books to recommend to students or as they help students pick books that may connect to their own literacy practices. This topic could also be one that teachers invite students to explore, analyze, or consider as part of larger class discussions, projects, or activities.

Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero is a novel told through the protaganist’s (Gabi) diary entries. In this sense, every word on the page functions as a showcase and extension of her literacy practices. Gabi takes creative writing courses, reads and writes poetry, mediates her life experiences through her personal writing, and dreams of attending The University of California Berkeley as an English major. Gabi also navigates her experience as a Mexican American within a culture of literature that has not traditionally celebrated writing from people who look like her and challenges related to others’ perceptions about her weight. Each of these experiences are told to us through writing (writing that exists both in the world of the novel and the world we live in). Writing is not only the medium for the novel, but also much of its content, as we consider how Gabi uses her writing both in and outside of school to make sense of herself and of the world.

On the Come Up, the highly anticipated follow-up to Angie Thomas’s heralded young adult novel, The Hate U Give, follows Bri, a teenage rapper living in the aftermath of her father’s murder and her mother’s recovery from addiction. Like Starr in The Hate U Give, Bri attends an elite, predominantly white high school; after being targeted and assaulted by security guards at school, Bri writes a song about the incident that goes viral, bringing her more attention as a lyricist, rapper, and activist than she had bargained for, with students at the school, neighborhood gangs, and the media all taking notice and reacting. Although much could be said about the ins and outs of the story, the role occupied by Bri’s writing and music production highlights the powerful impact of words and art to spark action - and re-action.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell follow’s Cath’s life as a first year student at The University of Nebraska, with a particular focus on her experiences as a writer of fan fiction stories, many of them erotic, constructed in the world of the Simon Snow book series, loosely based on Harry Potter. The plot is filled with family and social dillemas, and twists and turns related to both. Central conflicts related to Cath’s writing life include the perceived validity of fan fiction in comparison to traditional or normative writing (presuming we don’t count the likes of classic remixes such as Paradise Lost or Hamlet as fan fiction) and the social experiences of Cath as she navigates a literacy practice that, though it brings joy to millions of readers and is deeply important to her, goes largely unrecognized in her life.

Rani Patel in Full Effect by Sonia Patel focuses on the life of Rani Patel, an up and coming battle rapper who faces both family and political struggles as her Moloka'i community in Hawaii battles for water rights in the face of corporate developments. Rani’s Gujrati heritage and family culture leave her feeling a bit stuck in-between worlds, not quite at home with the values and experiences of either her family or her peers. To complicate matters further, she is grappling with surfacing memories of abuse from childhood. In the swirling midst of these problems, Rani’s engagement with poetry and rap music - as a listener/reader/writer, and eventually, her own performances, serve as powerful forces for her as she deals with this array of personal and political challenges, helping her to develop a sense of self in a world that has been anything but inviting of her.

In each of these novels, writing, reading, and varied forms of multimodal literacy play important roles in the lives of the characters and the progression of the plots. They each showcase a possibility for literate engagement outside of the narrow confines of school walls, standardized tests, or the next grade. They showcase the intimacy of literacy to our lives and just might serve as possible models of ways of being literate in the world.

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Transgender Awareness Week: Mourning, Empathy…and Maybe Even Some Joy by Dr. Sam Morris

11/2/2022

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We welcome Sam Morris to YA Wednesday today! Thank you, Sam, for helping us to understand how to incorporate transphobia awareness into our teaching of YA Literature.

Dr. Morris is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. She is also the program coordinator for the B.A in English, with Secondary ELA Licensure. Her current research focus is the role that YA can play in encouraging adolescent empowerment and agency.

Transgender Awareness Week: Mourning, Empathy…and Maybe Even Some Joy by Dr. Sam Morris

This year, the week of November 13th-19th is Transgender Awareness Week. November 20th is also the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to honor and to mourn those who have lost their lives due to anti-transgender violence. As a trans woman, I must admit that—in this current social and political climate—I’d like to be a little less visible.

I discovered that I was trans later in life. Ironically, I may never have discovered this truth about myself had it not been for a certain YA author’s remarks during the summer of 2020. As I move forward in a world that grows stranger and more hostile every day in a body that grows finally more familiar and comfortable every day, I realize that I am the only trans person that many of my colleagues and students know.

Although that reality is rapidly changing! According to the UCLA Williams Institute, there are 1.6 million folks over the age of thirteen who identify as transgender in the United States; one in five are adolescents between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. When I think about Transgender Awareness Week, I think about the joy that results in finding out who you are, and I think about how important empathy is in all of our lives. In The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick provides several axioms that she argues are central to understanding queerness; the first of those axioms is, “People are different from each other” (22). If you are happy with the sex that you were assigned at birth, there is no requirement for the person next to you to be similarly happy. But that’s only one piece of what it means to be trans.

What does it mean, then, to be trans? As C.N. Lester puts it in Trans Like Me, “It seems to have far less to do with gender than it does with broader issues of empathy and humility, and a willingness to understand that we are each the experts on our own lives” (37). When we truly understand Sedgwick’s first axiom, we begin to see the pain and suffering from which many youths suffer because of the rigidity of a social system that is more arbitrary than perhaps many would care to admit. Instead of asking ourselves how many trans children, adolescents, and adults are out there, I think we should be asking how many more trans folks are out there? How many people continue to hide who they are or are simply never able to make that discovery? Fighting transphobia is something that we must do, and we fight transphobia the same way that we fight racism, xenophobia, religous persecution, and homophobia: knowledge and action. Censorship has become one of the key themes of 2022. While others seek to take books out of the hands of adolescents, here are some books that I suggest putting into their hands.

Becoming Nicole (2015) - Amy Ellis Nutt
Nicole Maines played Dreamer, the first transgender superhero, on CW’s Supergirl (2015). A few years before appearing in Supergirl as well as cowriting Dreamer’s comic-book debut in Superman: Son of Kal-El (2021) and starring in the vampire film Bit (2019), Maines and her family were the topic of Amy Ellis Nutt’s book Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family. The book is an account of Maines’s realization that she was a trans girl and her family’s fight for Maines to receive appropriate medical treatment and social acceptance.

“If there is an inner distress,” Nutt writes about transgender children and adolescents, “it arises from knowing exactly who they are, but at the same time being locked into the wrong body and therefore being treated by others as belonging to one gender when they really feel they are the opposite. The dysfunction arises not from their own confusion, but from being made to feel like freaks or gender misfits'' (29). Nutt’s work helps to frame both how damaging and confusing ill-informed narratives about being trans can be and how helpful YA novels that feature trans characters will become.

Cemetery Boys (2020) - Aiden Thomas
Yadriel is a member of a Latinx community of brujx, who value traditions, many of which involve gendered roles and spaces. When Yadriel begins to live as a boy (i.e., transmasc), he is denied the ritual induction for a brujo. Yadriel is convinced, however, that he deserves to be blessed by Lady Death as a brujo. Should it take multiple demonstrations of magic and saving an entire community from destruction to be gendered correctly? Perhaps not, but that is the quest that Yadriel must undertake. Thomas’s message of community echoes a common theme in YA that features trans protagonists: the concept of being enough to occupy certain spaces. Parents, family, friends, teachers, classmates, pastors, lawmakers, career professionals, and virtually every other person on this planet can be a source of contestation for transgender adolescents. The site of confusion and denial most common amongst trans youths? Themselves.

Trans youths need allies because figuring out how to be trans at the same time as figuring out how to be you is difficult enough without anyone else making it more difficult. When adults cease trying to restrict and legislate trans youths out of existence, the real work of an empathetic and access-oriented society can truly begin.

Can’t Take that Away (2021) - Steven Salvatore
An irony of being a trans child, adolescent, or adult is the assumption that all trans people understand what it means to be trans. On the one hand, transphobes are so sure of their position; on the other, the journey to understanding what it means to be trans for each individual can take a lifetime. While many trans people may find their truest self at the other end of a traditional binary, many find who they are at a point somewhere else on the gender continuum. Others still find their identity to be an ever-shifting conception of gender—a further “queering” of gender. This process of discovery comes under even greater scrutiny in childhood and adolescence, when adults are eager to reduce young people’s decisions about identity to “phases” that aren’t worth serious consideration.

The opening scene of Salvatore’s Can’t Take that Away demonstrates the instability at play here. After Carey, a genderqueer adolescent, makes an interpretation of Holden Caulfield that involves a comment on “the plight of the straight cisgender bro,” his antagonist responds, “You don’t know shit. Are you gonna let he/she/it talk to me like that, Mr. Kelly?” (4). In this opening chapter, Salvatore collapses multiple complex debates about identity into the experience of a single adolescent. What readers must remember is that every trans child or adolescent has to negotiate these debates every day. The transphobic classmate, meanwhile, has no complexity to negotiate; even the teacher, who must negotiate between supporting LGBTQ+ students and keeping his job, only has the one complexity to negotiate.

Carey is not sure who he is, just that he is not part of the traditional gender binary. This uncertainty should be perfectly fine if adolescence is truly a time to wrestle with questions of identity. The central conflict of Can’t Take that Away is what happens when Carey is cast as Elphaba in the high school’s production of Wicked. Salvatore explores the issues that being genderqueer can present, but not at the expense of queer joy.

Victories Greater than Death (2021)/ Dreams Bigger than Heartbreak (2022) - Charlie Jane Anders
Charlie Jane Anders’s Unstoppable series is a showcase of what empathy looks like when it is valued or devalued. Tina is no ordinary human; she is the reincarnation of Captain Argentian of the Royal Fleet, a legendary intergalactic war hero. Whisked away from Earth and forced to choose Tina’s human body or Argentian’s alien body (and memories!), Tina begins to wonder whether she is truly trapped in the wrong body or not. Meanwhile, while the Royal Fleet may see the definition of “the right body” differently from the transphobes on Earth, they still lack empathy for those who do not look like them–i.e., alien species who do not possess humanoid-shaped bodies. Anders’s work of science-fiction and fantasy is an educative experience in intersectionality.

“To be trans,” Lester writes, “you have to be surer than you’ve ever been, because being trans is what you are when you’ve exhausted every other option” (42). When Tina brings some of Earth’s “best and brightest” onto the ship, she meets Elza, a transfemme girl. Elza, having been exiled by her parents and then by a hacker collective, finds community, friends, and love in the midst of a galactic war. In the sequel, Dreams Bigger than Heartbreak, Elza becomes one of the narrators. Now that the reader can experience Elza’s point of view, they can see that, even in space, the trauma of Earth and its many transphobes does not suddenly go away. Learning to live in one’s body is difficult enough; it is a victory to be celebrated, not demonized.

Nicole Maines provided Nutt with these thoughts at the end of Becoming Nicole: “I do not go through life thinking, ‘I’m trans, I’m trans, I’m trans,’ on repeat. I love bingeing on Netflix, I’m obsessed with food and video games, and I can’t stand weather below freezing. I don’t want to say my life is just like any other eighteen-year-old girl’s, though” (qtd. in Nutt 263). During this Transgender Awareness Week, I’ll be thinking about why a trans girl’s life—or the life of a trans boy, a nonbinary adolescent, a genderqueer adolescent, or an intersex adolescent—has to be different than any other adolescent’s life. One thing I know for sure: those trans adolescents? Whether you know it or not, they are students in your classrooms right now.

References
Anders, C. (2022). Dreams bigger than heartbreak. Tor Teen.
Anders, C. (2021). Victories greater than death. Tor Teen.
GLAAD. (n.d.) Transgender day of remembrance. GLAAD. https://www.glaad.org/tdor
GLAAD. (2022). Transgender awareness week. GLAAD. https://www.glaad.org/transweek
Lester, C.N. (2018) Trans like me: Conversations for all of us. Seal Press.
Nutt, A. (2015). Becoming Nicole: The transformation of an American family. Random House.
Salvatore, S. (2021). Can’t take that away. Bloomsbury YA.
Sedgwick, E. (1990). Epistemology of the closet. University of California Press.
Thomas, A. (2020). Cemetery boys. Swoon Reads.
Williams Institute. (2022) How many adults and youth identify as transgender in the United
States?. UCLA School of Law Williams Institute. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/
publications/trans-adults-united-states/

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Remembering Gary Paulsen for Nightjohn by Stephanie Robillard

10/20/2022

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Stephanie Robillard (she/her) is finishing on her dissertation at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford, studying Race Inequality and Language in Education (RILE) with a focus on English Teacher Education. Her doctoral research addresses the ways Black girls and their teachers navigate classroom conversations about enslavement in the United States. Prior to studying at Stanford, Stephanie served as a middle school teacher, librarian and as a lecturer in the School of Education at UC Berkeley, where she earned her Master’s Degree in Education. Stephanie currently serves as Board Co-chair of the ELATE Graduate Strand.

Remembering Gary Paulsen for Nightjohn by Stephanie Robillard

October 13, 2022 marked the one year anniversary of Gary Paulsen’s passing. He was a young adult literature lumanari, probably best known for his wilderness survival novel, Hatchet. However he will always be a hero to me because of his lesser known book, Nightjohn.

Published in 1993, Nightjohn is the lyrical story of Sarny, an enslaved girl, who learns to read and the consequences that follow. In fewer than 100 pages, and less than an hour on audio, Paulsen documents the violence inherent to enslavement in the United States while balancing it with the joy of learning and literacy.

At the time of the book’s publication, there were very few young adult novels that addressed enslavement in the United States. Paulsen originally wanted to write a book about Sally Hemings, the woman who was “owned, raised, and subsequently used by Thomas Jefferson without the benefit of ever drawing a single free breath” (p.7). However, while reading narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, Paulsen became interested in the ways enslaved people engaged in fugitive literacy practices, that is, how they learned to read despite the risk of dismemberment should they be caught.
Most books with themes of racial inequality include a sympathetic white character who supports or fights on behalf of those oppressed. The uniqueness of Paulsen’s Nightjohn is that there are no white characters who serve as allies to the enslaved. This is a remarkable feature. In fact, the only white character in the novel is Waller, the violent enslaver whom Sarny calls, “dog droppings and pig slop and worse things yet” (p.10). Unlike texts that include heroic white characters with whom white readers can align, Nightjohn forces all readers to align with the enslaved or the enslaver.
In Nightjohn, we witness the cruelty and depravity inherent to enslavement in the United States. Most young adult books about enslavement sidestep the explicit violence by which enslavers held their position. Paulsen does not shy away from this, particularly when describing the consequences of violating the rules of the plantation. In an interview with Minneapolis Public Radio, Paulsen discussed his decision stating, “this book is, is the truth… It is rough and it has some hard things. But it happened to 12 year old girls, and it happened to kids, and so kids should be able to know about it. It’s very important to me.”

What stands out to me the most about Nightjohn is the way that Paulsen incorporates themes of resistance. The laws that governed an enslaved person’s life, the Slave Codes, restricted freedoms in multiple ways. Delie, a mother-figure, prays for freedom, whispering into a kettle so as not to be heard. She tells Sarny never to tell anyone because it was illegal to pray. Pawley, a young man, visits a girl at another plantation overnight - leaving each night without permission, exercising control over his own body. Sarny understands that it is illegal for her to learn to read and write, yet she continues to desire and seek out this knowledge. John knows it is illegal for him to teach, and yet he continues to do so because, as he says, “We all have to read and write so we can write about this—what they doing to us. It has to be written” (p. 58). Through these multiple examples, enslaved characters are shown resisting oppressive laws and acting as agents of their own liberation.

My students greatly enjoyed reading Nightjohn. They appreciated Paulsen’s attention to language, as he incorporates elements of Black English into the dialogue. I recall one student saying, “I’ve never read a book where they talk like us.” Students also rejoiced at the conclusion, even as Sarny remains enslaved. At the end of the unit, I would always ask students if they liked the book. Given the challenging content, some students would say no they did not like the book. However they always said they were glad to have read it.

Almost thirty years later, Nightjohn remains an important teaching text for me. While my middle school students have been replaced by credential candidates, I continue to teach the novel as it raises additional questions that are essential for them to consider. Whose stories are allowed to be told? Who should author them? At what grade is reading about racialized violence appropriate? Who is protected from hard histories and to what end? These are questions teachers must contend with, especially with the increase in book banning and anti-CRT legislature.

In the years since Nightjohn’s release, other books have been published that are equally powerful in their representation of enslavement. Sharon Draper’s Copper Sun, and Armstrong Dunbar’s Never Caught and Kwame Alexander’s The Door of No Return or Yuval Taylor’s anthology, Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as Told by Themselves are a few. Given the brevity of Nightjohn, it would pair nicely with these or with Octavia Butler’s Kindred or even The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. I believe it continues to have a place in the classroom.

Gary Paulsen will always be remembered for Hatchet. However, in my heart, his greatest work is that of Nightjohn.

Books Mentioned:
Alexander, K. (2022), The Door of No Return. Little.
Butler, O. E. (2004). Kindred. Beacon Press.
Draper, S. M. (2008). Copper sun. Simon and Schuster.
Douglass, F. (2014). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Other Works. Simon and Schuster. Dunbar, E. A. (2017). Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge. Simon and Schuster.
Paulsen, G. (2009). Hatchet. Simon and Schuster.
Paulsen, G. (2011). Nightjohn. Laurel Leaf.
Taylor, Y. (2007). Growing up in slavery: Stories of young slaves as told by themselves. Chicago Review Press.

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What is YA Literature Anyways? by Dr. Michelle M. Falter

10/12/2022

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Michelle M. Falter is an Associate Professor of English Education in the Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences at North Carolina State University. Currently, her research and scholarship are comprised of three major strands: critical approaches to teaching literature/texts (young adult and canonical), emotion and affect in teaching English Language Arts, and English teacher preparation and development. She can be reached at mfalter@ncsu.edu

What is YA Literature Anyways? by Dr. Michelle M. Falter

What is YA literature anyways? For me, it is a combination of factors. Does it have a teen main character? Check. Is the story told through a teen’s perspective? Check. Is the book marketed to teens? Check. Do I recognize the author as someone who publishes other teen books? Check. Does the book cover depict teenagers? Check. I have learned, however, that for my undergraduate students (ages 18-23) who have grown up in the era of having YA books all around them, they actually struggle determining what a YA book is. Some of that may have to do with the fact that YA literature isn’t a genre, but instead more of a nebulous category. This semester alone I have had students ask to read Lord of the Flies, Maus, To Kill a Mockingbird, and El Deafo, for their choice reading in my YA course. I have wondered if this is because a) they assume any book that has a kid in it is YA lit? b) their middle/high school ELA teachers have been saying these are YA texts? or c) maybe they believe that if a teen wants to read the book then it is YA by default? I am not sure. My students don’t seem to know either. All of these are excellent texts, but not, in my estimation, young adult. But, it made me think. Maybe my definition of YA Lit is too restrictive. Maybe distinctions between adolescent, childrens, middle grades, and new adult contemporary fiction, and canonical texts with teen characters don’t matter so much anymore.

Because I do think definitions matter, I decided to see what other scholars, teachers, and librarians from English and English Education fields who research and teach young adult literature had to say about this topic through a short Google Form questionnaire I posted in various YA lit Facebook groups. Here’s what they had to say:

Q: How do you define YA literature?

A: The most common answer I received noted that YA literature is literature that is written and marketed expressly for adolescent readers, defined as ages 12-18, although some went as high as 22 and as low as 11 years of age. This response indicates that intentionality of audience is important to scholars and teachers of YA literature. However, at least one person noted that sometimes YA literature is in part defined by readers, and can defy authorial or publisher intent. The Book Thief is an often cited example for this case, as Markus Zusak and his publisher first marketed the book for adults, but it was so widely received by adolescent audiences, that they remarketed it to teens.

Another key feature is that the protagonist of the story must be an adolescent, again of the same age range as stated before (approx. 12-18), and told through their perspective (i.e. first person narration). Others noted that additionally, the adolescents demonstrate growth and movement toward independence and adulthood through the novels, they learn to negotiate the power structures present in society, they focus on identity development and rites of passage (whether informal or formal). In addition, the issues and topics in the book are relevant to adolescent lives.

Q: What is a text that is quintessentially YA literature, in your estimation?

A: Several books by Laurie Halse Anderson were mentioned, including Speak and Wintergirls. One respondent wrote, of why they chose Speak: “This book focuses on a teen character who has experienced trauma. The primary setting is a high school. Melinda is a freshman in high school dealing with the trauma of a rape. Young people her age are the explicit audience for the book to show survivors they are not alone and to provide a window for others to think about the messages other people's behaviors send.” Another noted that Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is quintessentially YA lit because “the main character (Lia, a high school senior who lives with anorexia nervosa) grapples with issues such as identity and self-understanding, friendships and romantic relationships, and her future as a young woman.”

In addition to books by Laurie Halse Anderson, the following additional texts were shared as being quintessentially YA:

Internment by Samira Ahmed: In this novel the main character is a teenage girl navigating relevant and relatable adolescent issues of identity, relationships, family, racism, trust, and power (among others); the writing is accessible, characters are diverse, and narrative is heavy on dialogue (versus exposition); the author relates these issues to adolescents readers through familiar experiences (e.g., disagreements with parents), common concerns (e.g., developing friendships) and current issues (e.g., societal racism) while engaging readers through a fast-paced plot and 1st person POV.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart. The novel features a sophomore in high school aspiring for the first time to chart her own identity in ways that violate the expectations of her family and friends while falling in love with a boy who expects her to be conventional. She is also not always entirely likable. And it is a smart book that reveals how language and tradition suppress creativity and equality (the boarding school she attends is named Alabaster for a reason!)

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It is fast-paced, features a 17-year-old protagonist, is written in the 1st person, involves a journey of identity formation, has a happy ending, is generally optimistic, contains no explicit sexual content, and has a strong appeal to teenagers because they can relate to the main character’s responses to the central conflicts. The main character is still in school and must respect parental figures — she is not independent yet.

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner. The book features three teenage protagonists in rural Tennessee all on the cusp of graduating high school. The story deals with issues important to them, the angst of growing up and next phases of life, and choosing a path forward for themselves. Does not shy away from teens dealing with real or “adult” issues.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Like most modern YA, it has a protagonist who is a high school student and the story is rendered through her perspective and at her emotional level. The writing style is also extremely accessible, not dense or elevated. However, as a romance with themes such as alienation and disapproval of parents, it is less likely to be of interest to young children.

Additional books people suggested included:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Feed by M.T. Anderson

Q: What is a text that some people may believe is YA literature, but is not in fact YA literature, in your opinion?

A: The first set of books mentioned were texts such as: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn by Mark Twain, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (specifically), Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. In each of these cases, the respondents noted that the texts actually have children as main characters (under the age of 12) and were either intended for adult or children readers (and not adolescent readers).

The other set of books people noted were canonical texts that are often taught in schools, such as
Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, 1984 by George Orwell, Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare, or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Several stated something similar to this respondent who argued that the confusion might come from “the mistaken belief that books commonly taught in high school English classes are necessarily YA….”

Two interesting, and perhaps debatable, texts people proposed as not being YA are Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. One person noted that Salinger did not write Catcher for an adolescent audience, and as such it does not meet the definition. Another noted that Sarah Maas’ book certainly has appeal to older young adults but the content is “designed to titillate the reader” through explicit “sexual content,” and the character is 19 and living independently away from her family, and therefore not a “young” adult text.

Q: Do distinctions between different categories of kidlit matter (e.g. childrens lit, middle grades, new adult fiction)?

A: It appears that the majority of scholars, teachers, and librarians agree that the distinctions matter. One respondent noted, “I do think the distinctions matter because the intended readership is different. There are different writing craft moves and vocabulary used, different references and allusions, different levels of age appropriateness, etc.” Another person who works in the childrens’ publishing world noted “The distinctions absolutely matter, because why else am I publishing these books except because their audience needs them in some way? Children are at different development points at different ages, and general age groups allow us to target books to their developmental needs as well as their interests.” Another scholar noted how for a long time adolescent literature was not deemed as worthy of academic study, and as such having these distinctions is very important to legitimize adolescents in and of themselves. One person wrote, “I think more and more we are carving out a space for YAL as its own category separate from but related to children’s literature. It has become too distinctive and deals with many more real world issues and with adolescents being capable and independent human beings. I think this is starting to happen in middle grades literature too where we will have four distinct categories of literature for young people after adding “new adult”. The major distinction from canonical lit is that YAL is written in modern language that adolescents relate to and can consume more easily, and in many cases YAL offers the same rigor as the canon. “

However, one person did note that these distinctions can also be problematic and limiting. They wrote: “I find these descriptors to be restrictive structures imposed by publishing and k-12 education that do not accurately represent the range of material embraced by teenage readers. They represent adult desire to confine young readers for the market or to suit what adults think young people need.”

Q: Just for fun, I posed the following: Aliens have attacked and we have an hour to save the literature of the world. The thing is, only YA Lit is worth saving! If you could only bring 3 YA books to help repopulate all of literature, what would you put in the bunker?

A: Here’s what they had to say:

The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak
Feed by MT Anderson
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume;
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
The Unstoppable Wasp illustrated by Jeremy Whitley
Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens by Marieke Nijkamp
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
I Kissed Sarah Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Redwood and Ponytail by KA Holt
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

So, what do you think? Do you agree with these answers? Are there other considerations that weren’t brought up that need to be unpacked? Are there other books that were overlooked? I think as YA literature continues to be in the spotlight for a variety of reasons, it is important (I think) to be on the same page about what it is and what it can do for adolescents.

Author's note: Thank you to my YA colleagues across the world who were willing to share your answers so that I could compile and create this post, including but not limited to Heather Matthews, Miranda Green-Barteet, Alyssa Lowery, Melanie Shoffner, Tara Gold, Shelly Shaffer, Katie Sluiter, Alisha White, Hunter Strickland, Christiana Salah, and Stacy Whitman.

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Modern Portrayals of Antisemitism; or How I Stopped Just Kvetching and Embraced the Struggle by Dr. Heather J. Matthews

10/5/2022

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Heather J. Matthews, PhD, is an assistant professor at Salisbury University. Her specialization is in children’s and young adult literature. She is specifically interested in diverse representation within children’s literature.

Today's focus, on antisemitism as shown in current events as well as our everyday life, shows the power of YA literature as an antidote to hate. Thank you, Heather, for this post!

Modern Portrayals of Antisemitism; or How I Stopped Just Kvetching and Embraced the Struggle by Dr. Heather J. Matthews

As I write this blog, I have been following two recent news stories surrounding Judaism in America.
The first story involves the Keller Independent School District, located in Keller, Texas. Keller ISD found itself the center of the conversation regarding book banning in recent days when the news broke that the district temporarily removed 41 books from its libraries while employees review the challenged books to determine appropriateness (Lopez, 2022). The list of books which were removed includes such titles as the graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl (1967), amongst others (Keller ISD, 2022). You may remember reading versions of this headline touting that Keller ISD had removed the Bible from its libraries’ shelves, but the list of 41 books under consideration include other titles like Mike Curato’s masterful Flamer (2020), George M. Johnson’s beautiful All Boys Aren’t Blue (2020), and Toni Morrison’s heartbreaking The Bluest Eye (1994). Upon examination, the challenged books had many commonalities: overwhelmingly, the list represents findings from PEN America’s 2022 report on banned books in America, which found that “a profound increase in both the number of books banned and the intense focus on books that relate to communities of color and LGBTQ+ subjects…” (2022). For me, the removal of the Anne Frank’s diary is startling and concerning for many reasons, but it isn’t surprising – the text is challenged often, and like recent removal of Maus (Spiegelman, 1990) from a Tennessee school curriculum, accusations often boil down to antisemitic accusations.

The second story comes out of Knoxville, Tennessee, which served as my home for the last three years. In this story, a Jewish couple was denied help from a state-sponsored adoption agency because of their Jewish identity. You read that right – a Jewish couple was rejected from a state-funded agency because of their religion (Whetstone, 2022). The Tennessee Department of Child Services was subsequently sued, in the first of what will surely be many strikes against the Tennessee’s adoption bill of 2020, which allows state funded agencies to discriminate against specific couples in matters of child adoption if placing the child will “violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies” (Ebert, 2020). On July 5th of this year, a panel of judges dismissed the lawsuit brought by the Jewish couple, and by the time you are reading this sentence, the case could be going to appeals (Associated Press, 2022). Chances are, you haven’t heard this story, but it has garnered attention within the Jewish community of Knoxville and in other similar communities in other similar locations, who wait to see what precedent this court case will set.
Perhaps you might remember watching a video this last winter of a snowplow directly seeking out two Jewish men on the side of the road, covering the men with snow and ice while the driver laughed (Reilly, 2022). Or, perhaps you saw recent Anti-Defamation League (or ADL) statistics which shows that antisemitic hate crimes rose in 2021 to an average of more than seven incidents per day across the United States (ADL, 2022). Or, perhaps like me, you saw more localized examples of antisemitism – threats causing synagogues to close, or antisemitic graffiti and vandalization in your community schools, centers of worship, libraries, universities, and sidewalks.
All that to say, antisemitism has been on my mind as of late. It has been on my mind for the last 30 years of my life, and stays on my mind on a daily basis. Don’t get me wrong, this is not an airing of grievances. This kvetching (Yiddish for “complaining”) is purposeful – frankly, much of antisemitism is difficult to identify, and difficult to remedy. It is my belief, however, that to battle antisemitism, we need to scrutinize the media we take in. If you’re reading this blog post, then I would wholeheartedly suggest your YA reading habits as a place to begin. So, begin we shall!
Before going any further, I would like to define a term, as many good scholars do. Throughout this post, you’ll see the word “antisemitism” styled as such. This is based on the recommendations of the ADL, who recommend the spelling “antisemitism” instead of “anti-Semitism.” This change highlights two distinct differences: a removal of a hyphen, and a lack of capitalization (ADL, n.d.). This change is also reflected in the Associated Press, which announced in 2021 that they too would embrace a lack of hyphenation or capitalization (Bandler, 2021). These changes are to reflect that using a hyphenated term (anti-semitism) implies that the term “semite” or “semitic” is in reference to a group of people, when in fact, “There is no such thing as a Semitic peoplehood” (ADL, n.d.).
The very first step any reader can take in pushing back against antisemitism is to diversify your reading habits to include more Jewish representation. Like any other demographic group, specifically seeking out Jewish characters in YA lit is not necessarily a difficult task to undertake. There are entire blogs and Facebook groups dedicated to discussing, reviewing, and upholding Jewish representation in youth literature. Goodreads has several lists of Jewish YA books, as does the Association of Jewish Libraries and the Jewish Book Council. PJ Our Way publishes and disseminates Jewish YA lit each month to eager readers, and the American Library of Association awards the Sydney Taylor book award and manuscript award each year to exemplary Jewish literature. All of these places and more showcase and uphold Jewish representation in YA literature, and are fine places to start one’s journey if you wish to assess the quantitative elements of your reading habits or book collections.
However, I would urge you to look beyond simply counting the Jews on the pages, and look at the quality of the Jewish representation. Specifically, I urge you to look for antisemitic representation within the YA you consume. When considering antisemitic representations of Jews in literature, there are a few main stereotypes and tropes, as identified by the Jewish Book Council (Baum, 2017), but this list certainly is not an exhaustive one. For example, the goblins within the world of Harry Potter (Rowling, 1998) are a fairly obvious example of antisemitic Jewish representation – long nosed, greedy creatures, solely interested in matters of money and banking seems a little on the nose (if you’ll pardon the pun).
How can we combat this? One solution is to seek out books which name and fight against antisemitism. I find myself craving texts like The Assignment (Wiemer, 2020), which shows young people that they can directly fight against antisemitism, even if they aren’t Jews, and even if it is scary or unpopular to do so. Texts like Some Kind of Hate (Littman, 2022) (which I read recently for the Sydney Taylor Shmooze, a predictive blog which examines children’s and young adult novels with Jewish elements to speculate on the year’s Sydney Taylor book award winners), which explores internet radicalization and antisemitic domestic terrorism.

At the same time, I find myself desperate for books like They’ll Never Catch Us (Goodman, 2021)– books which feature Jewish characters who are unlikeable, but not for antisemitic reasons. Novels like Color Me In (Díaz, 2019), which highlights intersectional Judaism, or Cry of the Giraffe (Oron, 2010), which highlights Jewish struggles across the world. Of course, there are too many books to name which portray positive Jewish experiences, and for those I am thankful as a scholar and as a reader, but books which highlight the multiplicitous iterations and facets of Judaism in all of their difficulties – these are the books which I believe are most valuable in the fight against antisemitism.

To loosely paraphrase from Birnbaum’s Ethics of the Fathers, it is no one person’s job to finish the fight against evil, nor are we allowed to neglect it (1949). The fight against antisemitism is literally centuries old, and yet is a constant threat against Jewish people every day. To engage in the fight against antisemitism is not the sole duty of one person, and it is not reasonable to expect that one person alone can win – however, it is each person’s job to engage in the struggle against antisemitism. Our bookshelves and our reading habits are just one small way to take on antisemitism.

Works Cited
The Associated Press. (2022). Judges panel dismissed lawsuit filed by Jewish couple alleging adoption bias. Knox News. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2022/07/05/tennessee-judges-dismiss-adoption-lawsuit-filed-jewish-couple/7813787001/
Anti-Defamation League [ADL]. (n.d.). Spelling. https://www.adl.org/spelling
Anti-Defamation League [ADL]. (2022). ADL audit finds antisemitic incidents in United States reached all-time high in 2021. https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-audit-finds-antisemitic-incidents-united-states-reached-all-time-high
Bandler, A. (2021). AP changes spelling of “anti-Semitism” to “antisemitism.” Jewish Journal, https://jewishjournal.com/news/336003/ap-changes-spelling-of-anti-semitism-to-antisemitism/
Baum, D. (2017). The 12 most stereotypical jews in literature. Jewish Book Council. https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/the-12-most-stereotypical-jews-in-literature
Birnbaum, P. (1949). Ethics of the fathers. Hebrew Publishing Co.
Curato, M. (2020). Flamer. Henry Holt and Co.
Ebert, J. (2020). Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signs controversial adoption bill, which takes effect immediately. Knox News. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/24/tennessee-adoption-bill-gov-bill-lee-signs-controversial-law/4567731002/
Díaz, N. (2019). Color me in. Delacorte Press.
Frank, A. (1967). The diary of a young girl. Doubleday.
Goodman, J. (2021). They’ll never catch us. Razorbill.
Johnson, G. M. (2020). All boys aren’t blue: A memoir-manifesto. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Keller Independent School District [Keller ISD] (2022). Current book challenges. https://www.kellerisd.net/Page/7364
Littman, S. D. (2022). Some kind of hate. Scholastic.
Lopez, B. (2022). Keller school officials order 41 books – including the Bible and an Anne Frank adaptation – off of library shelves. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/16/keller-isd-removes-books/
Morrison, T. (1994). The bluest eye. Plume.
Oron, J. (2010). Cry of the giraffe. Annick Press.
PEN America. (2022). Banned in the USA: Rising school book bans threaten free expression and students’ first amendment rights. https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/
Reilly, P. (2022). NJ man fired after video shows two men plowing snow onto Orthodox Jewish men. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2022/02/06/new-jersey-man-donny-klarmann-fired-after-video-shows-two-men-plowing-snow-onto-orthodox-jewish-men/
Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone. Scholastic.
Santana, S. (2022). San Antonio’s Temple Beth-El cancels services as FBI investigates potential threat. My San Antonio. https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-synagogue-temple-bethel-17294598.php
Spiegelman, A. (1990). Maus: A survivor’s tale. Pantheon Books.
Whetstone, T. (2022). Tennessee-based adoption agency refuses to help couple because they’re Jewish. Knox News. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/20/holston-united-methodist-home-for-children-adoption-tennessee-refused-family-jewish/6582864001/
Wiemer, L. (2020). The assignment. Ember.

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Myths, Legends, and Histories: How the Printz Awards Re(Present) Racialized Stories by Dr. Ashley D. Black

9/28/2022

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Dr. Ashley D. Black is an Assistant Professor of English Education at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO. She teaches courses in Young Adult Literature, adolescent literacy, and writing pedagogy and is interested in Critical Whiteness Studies and racial literacy development.

Her most recent article, “Starting with the Teacher in the Mirror: Critical
Reflections on Whiteness from Past Classroom Experiences,” appeared in a spring issue of The Clear House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues, and Ideas.

Myths, Legends, and Histories: How the Printz Awards Re(Present) Racialized Stories by Dr. Ashley D. Black

As a teacher educator, I consider many factors when selecting texts for inclusion within my Young Adult Literature course reading list; for example, I strive to identify texts that are timely; include literary cohesive representations of YAL as a genre; consider potential for increasing students’ reading interest, engagement and motivation; and focus on inclusivity related to diverse authors and stories. Furthermore, in a saturated YA market, navigating the abundance of published texts can feel daunting, and lists like the Printz Awards provide those searching for new books a good starting point in that search. The impact of the Printz Awards can be linked to the curricular decisions teachers, teacher educators, and librarians make when selecting YA texts for instruction and/or inclusion within school and classroom libraries.

In a previous blog post in July 2020, I wrote about using summer sessions of my Young Adult Literature course to explore the Printz Award Winners. This has been a curricular move I have replicated, and returning to the same text set for several summers has deepened my analysis of both their content and sociocultural contexts. As such, I would like to use this space to share my critical content analysis (Short, 2017), which I am currently engaged in writing, on the Printz Award Winners from the last decade through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) (Jupp et. al, 2016). These lenses afford researchers the opportunity to interrupt how whiteness (defined here as a social construction, unearned privilege, and ideology/racial discourse) operates systemically and to challenge conditions of inequity.

This critical content analysis has been driven by the following research questions:

How have the authors positioned characters of color in the Printz Award Winners from 2012-2022?
In what ways are issues of race re(presented) within the Printz Award Winners from 2012-2022?

The last decade of Printz Award Winners has recognized stories from diverse authors in a variety of genres that offer YA readers the opportunity to see themselves and those unlike them in authentic ways. The list below includes the text set used for this critical content analysis.

Acavedo, Elizabeth. (2018). The poet x. New York: Harper Teen.
Boulley, A. (2021). Firekeeper’s Daughter. New York: Henry Holt.
King, A.S. (2019). Dig. New York: Dutton.
LaCour, Nina. (2017). We are okay. New York: Dutton.
Lake, Nick. (2012). In darkness. New York: Bloomsbury.
Lewis, John, et. al. (2016). March: Book three. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf.
Nayeri, D. (2020). Everything sad is untrue (A true story). New York: Levine Querido.
Nelson, Jandy. (2014). I’ll give you the sun. New York: Dial.
Ruby, Laura. (2015). Bone gap. New York: Balzer + Bray.
Sedgwick, Marcus. (2013). Midwinterblood. New York: Square Fish.

To answer the first research question (How have the authors positioned characters of color in the Printz Award Winners from 2012-2022?), I began by identifying the race/ethnicity of the primary characters of each text using these categorical codes: white, Black, Latinx, Native American, Middle Eastern, and other, and a summary of these codes is represented in the chart below.

I also considered the racial and ethnic representation outside and alongside the primary characters to include other characters who (1) operate in correlation to the primary character and/or (2) operate to develop the plot.

What stands out to me is that the inclusion of diverse races and ethnicities is multi-layered; while 50% of primary characters are white, the representation of characters of color represents a greater variety and inclusivity. This diverse representation also continues when considering the race and ethnicities of comprehensive characters, with the exclusion of Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick (fantasy).

These findings within themselves may not be surprising for YA readers who have noticed a shift in the last two decades towards YA texts seeking to give a voice to marginalized, othered communities. However, when addressing the second research question (In what ways are issues of race re(presented) within the Printz Award Winners from 2012-2022?), I have found a correlation between the race/ethnicity of primary characters and racialized sources of conflict.

In the chart above, I define an explicit source of conflict as one that positions racial issues at the center of the conflict for the primary character. For example, as an Iranian refugee, Daniel in Everything Sad Is Untrue (Nayeri, 2020) struggles to find acceptance from his white peers in Oklahoma. Language and cultural barriers place Daniel at the center of bullying and racism as he tries to adapt to his new surroundings.

Conversely, implicit sources of conflict are ones in which racial issues are subverted, operating as subtext. Boulley’s (2021) protagonist, Daunis, finds herself as an informant for the FBI, investigating meth production and distribution in her Ojibwe tribe. While the investigation itself is not the product of criminal injustice, it highlights the colonized history of Native cultures and the consequences that ensued.

Lastly, the not a source of conflict category represents texts in which racial issues were not a factor within the text even though diverse characters may be present. In Nelson’s (2014) I’ll Give You the Sun, Noah and Jude are white characters dealing with the death of their mother and its effects on their family. Likewise, Bone Gap (Ruby, 2015) centers on the disappearance of Roza within a supernatural Midwestern town.

A cross-analysis of race and ethnicities of primary characters alongside racialized sources of conflict reveals that for the five texts that include primary characters of color, racialized conflicts are present, both explicitly and implicitly. There is not one text within this list with a primary character of color whose central conflict that does not revolve around issues of race. Yet, for the other five texts featuring white primary characters, only one (Dig., King, 2019) contains an implicit racialized source of conflict and is a non-factor in the other four texts in this category.

These findings might lead us to ask: why are white characters immune from racialized conflict while characters of color are not? How might white character centric texts reinscribe issues of white supremacy and privilege by lacking cultural or ethnic characteristics? How do diverse representations within this text set challenge the notion of the “single story”? How might these stories, grounded within racial conflict and/or trauma, affect our students of color?

I do not have answers to these questions, but I am working through them alongside my pre-service teachers who will one day enter middle and secondary English classrooms. When they do, I hope they are able to select texts that are both challenging and comforting to their future students. I hope that they seek out authors and stories that are varied and layered and lead to deeper levels of understanding. Lastly, I hope that they interrogate award winning lists with a critical eye.

References
ALA American Library Association. (2022). The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. YALSA. https://www.ala.org/yalsa/printz
Jupp, J. C., Berry, T. R., & Lensmire, T. J. (2016). Second-wave white teacher identity studies: A review of white teacher identity literatures from 2004 through 2014. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 1151-1191.
Short, K. G. (2017). “Critical content analysis as a research methodology.” In H. Johnson, J. Mathis, & K. G. Short (Eds), Critical content analysis of children’s and young adult literature: Reframing perspective (pp. 1-15). Routledge.

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Sealing in Whiteness: Williams-Garcia’s A Sitting in St. James by Dr. Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides & and Dr. Carlin Borsheim-Black

9/21/2022

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Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides is Professor of English Education at Westfield State University. Her research interests include antiracist teaching in the ELA classroom through literature, the study of social class through literature, and representations of adolescence in YAL. Her recent book, co-authored with Carlin Borsheim-Black, earned AACTE’s 2022 Outstanding Book Award in Education.

Carlin Borsheim-Black, Professor of English Education at Central Michigan University, researches possibilities and challenges of antiracist teaching, especially in predominantly white spaces. Her recent book, Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students, co-authored with Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, was nominated for the Grawemeyer Award for Education.

Sealing in Whiteness: Williams-Garcia’s A Sitting in St. James by Dr. Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides & Dr. Carlin Borsheim-Black

Though Rita Williams-Garcia has received extensive recognition for novels like One Crazy Summer and its two sequels, as well as Jumped, No Laughter Here, and Every Time a Rainbow Dies, far less attention has been given to her 2021 historical fiction novel, A Sitting in St. James. Our post seeks to address this gap. We do so not by discussing all the beautiful merits of this novel, but by showcasing how this slavery story, written by a Black author, cleverly depicts whiteness in many ways, but especially through the symbol of the portrait sitting.

Summary
Set in St. James Parish, Louisiana in the 1860’s, A Sitting in St. James is the story of the Guilbert family. The matriarch, Madame Sylvie Guilbert, finds herself in Louisiana after Bayard Guilbert travels to France to coerce her into marriage. Madame journeys, first to Haiti and then to America with little more than a family heirloom, a signet ring that connects her to her family’s vineyard and the social education she received as a member of the queen’s court.

After Bayard dies, Madame is left to run the struggling plantation with her son, Lucien, and his son, Byron, who is expected to marry well and produce an heir to keep the plantation viable and to carry on the family legacy. From her salon, Madame Guilbert tries desperately to hold her family to rigid social norms of polite French society--the old world--as their last best hope for marrying Byron off to a family of higher status and social standing. In 19th century Louisiana, with its complex mix of racial and socioeconomic standing among whites, slaves, free Blacks, and mixed-race people—retaining this status serves as one of the central conflicts of the novel.

A key strategy for sealing in her own and her family’s social standing is Madame’s insistence on sitting for a portrait, one the family cannot afford, that is to be completed by a French painter descended from a painter who portrayed Queen Marie Antoinette herself. We see this portraiture effort—the sitting—as a central symbol helpful for unpacking the ways in which whiteness attempts to work to seal in its power.

Symbolism
Whiteness as property. Readers are educated as to the purpose of sittings for portraits alongside Jane, Madame’s protege, the daughter of a wealthy neighbor who cannot seem to take on apt gender norms for a young lady. As Madame displays the jewelry she will wear, the way she will dress her hair for the sitting, she explains to Jane, “You see, a portrait is for eternity” (306). Comparing the sitting to an important party, Madame continues, “[W]hat happens at the party can last a lifetime, for the lifetime of the children and grandchildren to come” (307). As such, a portrait—like the complex social negotiations of 19th century formal parties—affects the social standing for current and future generations, something Madame seeks to stabilize for herself and her progeny given the family’s financial troubles.

So what is the social standing that Madame seeks to reinforce, to establish, to ensure? Her connection to the French royal court of Queen Antoinette and the social power that came with that. Her wealth, signified by the ring smuggled out with her from France. But also, in the slave-owning, plantation setting of 1860s Louisiana—and in a home where her profligate son, Lucien, seeks to introduce his mixed-race daughter, Rosalie, as a member of the family—she also seeks to seal in her whiteness and its place in the racial social hierarchy. The sitting, then, functions as a key symbol of whiteness: an opportunity to seal in racial identity and social class status onto canvas for eternity. It is one of the more valuable things she has to pass down to future generations.

Whiteness is an illusion, an invention. Racial and social status are both constructs, Madame’s social standing an illusion. The irony of the portrait is that Madame cannot afford the luxury at all. The portrait artist, Le Brun, begrudgingly agrees to do the painting as a favor to Countess Duhon, the favorite aunt of Madame’s future daughter-in-law. And Madame and Lucien know they will have to leverage what they have left to finance the purchase of the portrait.

“No one in polite society follows these practices. And when they do it, it is all for show” (425). Though Le Brun makes this statement about a different social practice, it easily works to sum up his view of her worldview as well, and even of portraiture. Le Brun is part of a group of artists who work to experiment aesthetically through portraiture, including by focusing on subjects like the Black field hands cutting cane outside, something that outrages Madame. He is aware of how Madame sees the enslaved people on her plantation and how she seeks to use the portrait strategically in society. Given his concerns about the family’s ability to pay him for his work, readers might expect some tension around the entire sitting, tension that proves satisfying in its ultimate handling.

Sitting for a portrait is an outdated practice, one that “polite”—wealthy, white, European—society used to engage in but does no longer. It was intended to offer viewers a curated view of someone powerful, often with invented details to secure the subject’s social—and often political—status.

Yes, portraits work to affect the workings of those social constructs, but ultimately, they also present artists—and viewers—and in this case, Madame’s intended audience, for an opportunity for subversion and disruption of those very social norms. And, in the hands of Williams-Garcia, this subversion works to satisfy readers’ disgust with the social norms Madame seeks to uphold.

Whiteness is a detriment to us all. Though we do not want to spoil this novel for readers, we will say that in Williams-Garcia’s hands, it is the stubborn clinging to whiteness, and its entanglements with classism, that lead to downfall. Relentless attachments to class and racial hierarchies lead to the greatest disappointments in this novel, since those willing to budge suffer far less.

To close, we want to help teachers, perhaps, guide students to understanding whiteness by suggesting they pair this novel with views of Kehinde Wiley’s subversive portraits. Teachers could juxtapose Jean-Louis David’s (1801) “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” against Wiley’s (2005) repetition of it in his “Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps.” Asking students to consider how Wiley takes up traditional features of portraiture in his image of the Black man whom he met on the street will go very nicely in a rigorous consideration of treatment across these two texts.

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YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

9/14/2022

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Roy Jackson is a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh in Information Sciences researching LGBTQIA+ book banning in Pennsylvania. In his spare time he enjoys hiking and traveling with his husband.

Erinn Bentley is a Professor and Program Coordinator of English education at Columbus State University, where she mentors pre-service teachers and leads study abroad programs. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and traveling.

YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

There is a massive wave of educational reform sweeping state legislatures across the nation. According to the exhaustive data Pen America has collected, over two hundred educational bills have been introduced specifically silencing educators from teaching and discussing certain topics. Thankfully, many of these bills have died, but an alarming number of states have, or will, pass ones that are concerning. Their aim is to prohibit the discussion of what certain politicians see as divisive topics. The language of these bills seems aimed at preventing students from feelings of guilt or discomfort in class. But to be clear, these bills are only meant to prevent one specific group from these feelings. That group is mostly white, straight males. Because erasure of other students does not cause them harm and discomfort. The bills specifically target discussions around CRT, LGBTQIA+, and gender issues. To educators, having uncomfortable conversations is a part of the core of education. We must take students out of comfort zones and present them with an array of issues and viewpoints to challenge and grow their worldviews.
One such topic that seems of utmost importance to explore is specific to the population these bills are seemingly trying to protect. That topic is toxic masculinity. At its most basic definition, toxic masculinity can be described as cultural pressures for boys and men to behave in a certain way. Those ways are negative. They harm themselves and others. They increase behaviors like bullying, homophobia, sexism, and racism. However, there are vast ways to present alternatives to the negativity of toxic masculinity. One way is through literature. The following books approach the topic of toxic masculinity in varied ways. They explore the root causes of them and are teaching tools to uncomfortable conversations that can lead to extraordinary positive change.

The New David Espinoza by Fred Aceves

In The New David, Aceves’ protagonist is routinely bullied for his slim physique. This impacts his mental health and ability to accept himself. He is physically assaulted, regularly verbally harassed, and shamed on social media by his bully. He vows to get bigger over the summer after junior year only to fall into a group of men who are injecting illegal steroids. David begins his addiction to the gym and the drugs with the hopes of senior year starting out with revenge. But that fantasy never comes to fruition. Instead, he is shamed again by his bully who outs him for his illegal drug use and harassed and shamed on social media for this.
The novel explores layers of toxic masculinity that prey on young men. It isn’t just about what it means to not only be a man, but what a man should look like. David cannot accept himself physically. When he erroneously believes getting bigger muscles will solve his problems, the steroids come with a side effect in the form of physical violence not only to his enemy but to his family. The violence is a repetition of the toxic masculinity on an extreme level that he once faced from his bully.
The root cause of David’s toxic masculinity isn’t familial as often the case. His father is caring and supportive. Instead, it is akin to media portrayals of the male physique. It causes eating disorders and unhealthy life choices. David sees his appearance as the most important aspect to combat the abuse he endures. He doesn’t seek out adults in school or at home for help. That may be because he doesn’t see that as an option. He won’t tell anyone about the abuse as it is seen as not masculine to tell. As educators, we can meet the needs of students like David in a variety of ways and this book opens our eyes as adults to what may be lurking in the minds of young men.

Alan Cole Is Not A Coward by Eric Bell

Alan Cole’s life is one of generational toxic masculinity. Alan’s father forces his sons to lie at his company dinner to make an appearance in hopes of them making him look good. An artist, Alan must hide that and instead pretend to play sports and be a real boy. The father treats his mother in a dominating, unloving manner. His older brother abuses him physically and mentally, engaging him in dangerous games he doesn’t want to play. But Alan is gay, and his brother uses that information to torment him and get him to do things he shouldn’t. The novel ends with Alan outing himself and finding self-acceptance.
Bell has crafted a very important example of generational toxic masculinity. Alan’s older brother is humiliated and abused by his father, and feeling powerless, takes his abuse out on Alan. Bell shows how the power of generational influence passes toxic masculinity down from father to son, and brother to brother. As an educator, Bell presents small scenes with teachers that are powerful. Using a parent-teacher conference, Bell constructs a scene where a teacher can be an ally to their student. It is a small, but powerful moment that resonates.

Girl Made of Stars, Ashley Herring Blake
Blake’s novel takes the messiness of toxic masculinity and ramps up the chaos and messiness of it even more. The protagonist, Mara, is a twin whose brother is accused of rape. Through her eyes, readers see how seemingly liberal, well-intentioned parents immediately fall into the trap of the male trope to support their son. The school seemingly doesn’t address the issue at all, even though it appears to be a school where SEL would be the normed, yet when the student who is raped comes back to school, she is met with vile shaming and words. Blake’s novel isn’t clear and easy regarding outcomes, but the chaos that envelopes the novel is perhaps the most real regarding just how toxic American masculinity is.
Not an easy read, this novel shows how difficult it can be for victims of assault to tell their stories, especially when one is attacked by a person one trusts and, perhaps, loves. It also shows how “the system” - whether legal, familial, and/or educational - can fail victims by not bringing about justice or providing them with support. Mara’s shattered relationship with her brother prompts readers to consider just how well any of us can truly know the people we care the most about in our lives. In spite of all the painful and messy topics explored, this novel is written with tenderness and offers moments of hope and glimpses of self-discovery.

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YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

9/14/2022

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Roy Jackson is a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh in Information Sciences researching LGBTQIA+ book banning in Pennsylvania. In his spare time he enjoys hiking and traveling with his husband.

Erin Bentley is a Professor and Program Coordinator of English education at Columbus State University, where she mentors pre-service teachers and leads study abroad programs. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and traveling.

YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

The New David Espinoza by Fred Aceves
In The New David, Aceves’ protagonist is routinely bullied for his slim physique. This impacts his mental health and ability to accept himself. He is physically assaulted, regularly verbally harassed, and shamed on social media by his bully. He vows to get bigger over the summer after junior year only to fall into a group of men who are injecting illegal steroids. David begins his addiction to the gym and the drugs with the hopes of senior year starting out with revenge. But that fantasy never comes to fruition. Instead, he is shamed again by his bully who outs him for his illegal drug use and harassed and shamed on social media for this.
The novel explores layers of toxic masculinity that prey on young men. It isn’t just about what it means to not only be a man, but what a man should look like. David cannot accept himself physically. When he erroneously believes getting bigger muscles will solve his problems, the steroids come with a side effect in the form of physical violence not only to his enemy but to his family. The violence is a repetition of the toxic masculinity on an extreme level that he once faced from his bully.
The root cause of David’s toxic masculinity isn’t familial as often the case. His father is caring and supportive. Instead, it is akin to media portrayals of the male physique. It causes eating disorders and unhealthy life choices. David sees his appearance as the most important aspect to combat the abuse he endures. He doesn’t seek out adults in school or at home for help. That may be because he doesn’t see that as an option. He won’t tell anyone about the abuse as it is seen as not masculine to tell. As educators, we can meet the needs of students like David in a variety of ways and this book opens our eyes as adults to what may be lurking in the minds of young men.

Alan Cole Is Not A Coward by Eric Bell
Alan Cole’s life is one of generational toxic masculinity. Alan’s father forces his sons to lie at his company dinner to make an appearance in hopes of them making him look good. An artist, Alan must hide that and instead pretend to play sports and be a real boy. The father treats his mother in a dominating, unloving manner. His older brother abuses him physically and mentally, engaging him in dangerous games he doesn’t want to play. But Alan is gay, and his brother uses that information to torment him and get him to do things he shouldn’t. The novel ends with Alan outing himself and finding self-acceptance.
Bell has crafted a very important example of generational toxic masculinity. Alan’s older brother is humiliated and abused by his father, and feeling powerless, takes his abuse out on Alan. Bell shows how the power of generational influence passes toxic masculinity down from father to son, and brother to brother. As an educator, Bell presents small scenes with teachers that are powerful. Using a parent-teacher conference, Bell constructs a scene where a teacher can be an ally to their student. It is a small, but powerful moment that resonates.

Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles
Poignant, and at times hilarious, this novel may be lighthearted, but Giles’ commentary on toxic masculinity is serious. In pursuit of his childhood crush, Del accidentally joins his church’s Purity Pledge group. He simultaneously enrolls in his high school’s sex education course and becomes increasingly confused with the two group’s mixed messages. Meanwhile, his peers cause a commotion when 9 girls become pregnant at the same time. As the novel progresses, Del must face the fact that he may not be the “good guy” he thinks he is and confront his past and present treatment of the females in his life, ultimately leading to a redemptive end to this narrative.
Giles does a wonderful job capturing teenage uncertainty when it comes to sex itself, hormones and the embarrassing ways they manifest among teens, sex eduation, and what “it means” to be a certain kind of boy or girl. This novel explicitly addresses the slut-shaming that often happens to females and acknowledges that males are revered for their sexual activty. One such scene portrays Del’s father, who admits to his role in perpetuating masculine toxicity. He says, “‘Junior. It’s not all your fault, because I’ve been encouraging you in a way my father and my uncles and a bunch of other guys I looked up to encouraged me…like it’s a rite of passage. ‘Go get the girl..’” (Giles, 339). Del is, in spite of his bravado, a virgin, which spins the plot into interesting directions.
Overall, the characters and situations are relatable and realistic. Some of these situations are awkward, but the humor throughout makes this a good text to dig into toxic masculinity, evangelical Christianity and sex education, and overall adolescent identity development .
Girl Made of Stars, Ashley Herring Blake
Blake’s novel takes the messiness of toxic masculinity and ramps up the chaos and messiness of it even more. The protagonist, Mara, is a twin whose brother is accused of rape. Through her eyes, readers see how seemingly liberal, well-intentioned parents immediately fall into the trap of the male trope to support their son. The school seemingly doesn’t address the issue at all, even though it appears to be a school where SEL would be the normed, yet when the student who is raped comes back to school, she is met with vile shaming and words. Blake’s novel isn’t clear and easy regarding outcomes, but the chaos that envelopes the novel is perhaps the most real regarding just how toxic American masculinity is.
Not an easy read, this novel shows how difficult it can be for victims of assault to tell their stories, especially when one is attacked by a person one trusts and, perhaps, loves. It also shows how “the system” - whether legal, familial, and/or educational - can fail victims by not bringing about justice or providing them with support. Mara’s shattered relationship with her brother prompts readers to consider just how well any of us can truly know the people we care the most about in our lives. In spite of all the painful and messy topics explored, this novel is written with tenderness and offers moments of hope and glimpses of self-discovery.

1 Comment

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