There is almost always are reason for special YA Wednesday post. At the same time, I only have so much time to work on the blog with all of the other pending projects and teaching obligations. It is a gift when someone else has a great idea. The YALSA Nonfiction Awards are announced on Monday.  So, Nancy Johnson's quick survey of the finalist is, indeed, cause for a special Saturday post. Thanks Nancy.

​I'm certainly not the only reader who finds nonfiction captivating and rewarding. When I taught middle and high schoolers, nonfiction often motivated my students who didn't choose to read, those who expressed disdain for short stories and feigned boredom for novels. Nonfiction, however, was their sweet spot. Why then, was it rarely included in our English/language arts curriculum? I'm guessing it's partly because English majors, English teachers, and English curriculum privileges fiction. Fortunately this is changing. In recent years, I've included more nonfiction in literature circles/book clubs. We read it in both my children's and young adult literature classes and in my English education classes. My hope is to recruit new nonfiction fans (including future English/language arts teachers) who will, in turn, bring more nonfiction in their classrooms. Not the put-'em-on-a-pedestal biographies many of us remember reading. Not the facts-and-figures, dry recounting of historical events. And definitely not the culturally biased, uncomplicated, and homogenized versions of the past that hold little connection to the present.
 
What I'm promoting is stellar nonfiction written for today's teens. The best-of-the-best nonfiction bear shiny stickers that didn't exist during my reading love affair with Kon-Tiki; awards such as the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction (and the Sibert and Orbis Pictus Awards). Ten short years ago the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, granted this nonfiction award for the first time. On Monday, January 26th, the winner of the 2020 award will be announced. Guaranteed, it'll be a book that's totally satisfying, accurate in its information, engaging in how it's presented, and likely to captivate teen readers who often find the complexities of real life far more interesting to read about than fiction.  

YALSA's Award for Excellence in Nonfiction recognizes the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18) during a Nov. 1 – Oct. 31 publishing year. A shortlist of up to five titles is named in early December with the winner announced at the annual ALA Youth Media Awards. The four other titles are then named as honor books.
 
The purpose of the award is to recognize the importance of the genre, to promote the growing number of nonfiction books published for young adults, and to inspire wider readership of nonfiction. A committee of nine members reads, discusses, and narrows down from a long list of possible titles to a short list of finalists, based on criteria established for excellence in nonfiction. If you're interested in learning more about the criteria, as well as this award, go to http://www.ala.org/yalsa/nonfiction-award. If you want to nominate a nonfiction book written between Nov. 1, 2019 and Oct. 31, 2020 the committee will receive your recommendation, but it must be submitted on the official suggestion form and offer a convincing rationale and summary of your nominated title.  http://www.ala.org/yalsa/nonfiction-award-suggestion-form

​Free Lunch, written by Rex Ogle (Norton Young Readers)
In his debut memoir, Rex Ogle tells the penetrating truth about his family’s experience with poverty, his embarrassment and shame of being a "free lunch" kid, and the lingering effect is has on their relationships. The voice and emotion of a middle schooler is clear and powerful in this story of trauma and resilience and he displays a balance between violence and levity. Ogle doesn't sugar-coat the cruelty of poverty and abuse, but does offer realistic optimism and believable hope. Often uncomfortable to read, Free Lunch invites conversations about the burden of chronic poverty in the United States, where 43% of children live in low-income families.

​The Great Nijinsky: God of Dance, written and illustrated by Lynn Curlee (Charlesbridge Teen) 
Lynn Curlee's striking portraits and engaging prose introduces Vaslav Nijinsky, a wild and free dancer who rapidly ascended to stardom before succumbing to mental illness. Unencumbered by sexuality and gender norms, Nijinsky's life and personality was both extravagant and tragic. What makes The Great Nijinsky notable is the combination of Curlee's illustrations, the book's stunning design, and the uncompromising frankness of the writing. Niinsky's personal story begs the question of whose life is worthy of a book and pushes the boundaries of biographies written and published for young adults.

A Light in the Darkness: Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust, written by Albert Marrin (Alfred A. Knopf) 
In another untraditional biography, Albert Marrin's A Light in the Darkness presents a heart-wrenching look into the history of WWII set in the Warsaw Ghetto. Marrin weaves together the philosophies and actions of two starkly different people:  Doctor Janusz Korczak, a pediatrician-turned-orphanage-director who championed children’s rights, and Adolf Hitler, a racist fanatic who designed policies that led to the manipulation and murder of children. Complicated and masterfully told, this meticulously documented story raises questions about good and evil and is likely to provoke conversations about current events and policies.

​A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II, written by Elizabeth Wein (Balzer + Bray)
Award-winning historical fiction writer Elizabeth Wein turns to nonfiction to introduce corps of female Russian aviators who fought in World War II as pilots, mechanics, and navigators. Wein uses rich details, compelling personal stories, and thrilling accounts of the lives of these airwomen to reveal "How come I didn't know that?" history and showcase how restrictive misogyny and societal norms can be overcome. Teens will be drawn to the bravery and camaraderie of these women and their dedicated duty to serve. The intention and perseverance necessary to change history is grounded in Wein's extensive research for A Thousand Sisters.   

​Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of “The Children's Ship" written by Deborah Heiligman (Henry Holt)
In a previously untold historical account of hope and heartache from the 1940s, Deborah Heiligman's Torpedoed recounts the story of a passenger ship setting sail from Britain, carrying 200 passengers, many of them children hoping to escape the dangers of war. Unexpectedly, the ship was struck by a torpedo, and a race to save the passengers began. Like compelling fiction (which it is not!), this page-turner tells the harrowing true story of ordinary people under extraordinary circumstances and shows how tragedy can -- and did -- bring out the best in people. Heiligman's four years of research and extensive back-matter confirms the accuracy and authenticity of this true story.

Until next time.

One of the great readers and advocates of Young Adult Literature, Lesley Roessing is at it again. This time she discusses Middle Grades and Young Adult Literature in the Short Story format. Take a look. In case you have missed them, you can find the rest of Lesley's posts on the Contributor's page.

We are facing a literacy crisis; more than 30 million adults in the United States cannot read or write above a third-grade level (ProLiteracy). But even more startling than statistics on illiteracy, the United States has become an alliterate society; over 50% of people who can read, choose not to.
 
There are a multitude of reasons for including short stories in the curriculum and student reading. 

Many readers have not built up reading stamina. When they do read novels, they choose novels below their reading levels, they abandon novels before finishing, or they read Spark Notes, summaries, or find other ways to avoid actually reading. Short stories are, by definition, short. Short stories range in lengths, varying from 1,500 to 10,000 or more words. Therefore, reader stamina can be slowly increased with complete texts, while giving readers a sense of accomplishment because they have finished an entire text.

Short stories are engaging. Because of their length, short stories are precise with their delivery and are designed to capture the attention of the reader quickly. Readers meet characters who have goals which they accomplish after overcoming conflicts by making decisions. In other words, each short story includes all plot elements, and since short stories are focused on one plot rather than complicated with subplots, they are easier to follow for emerging readers of any age or level. For this reason, short stories can provide a bridge to longer works.
 
Short stories also are valuable resources when classes or students are short on time or when students neglect to bring their independent reading books to class.
 
Short stories provide useful teaching tools. At the beginning of the year, before tackling a class novel, I used short stories to teach or review literary elements, author’s craft, and to teach and apply reading strategies. I would choose a short story based on the element, such as setting, that I wished to highlight in my focus lesson and would also use that short story to focus on a reading strategy. We would then put it all together when reading our whole-class novel.
 
Short stories can be employed as an introduction to, and practice for, Book Clubs. Teachers can employ Short-Story Clubs to teach and practice Book Club social skills, such as preparing for and holding effective discussions, and for practicing meeting strategies and guidelines before a class embarks on novel book clubs (see Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide for Book Clubs across the Curriculum for more on short story and other text clubs). Short-Story Clubs offer the same opportunities as Book Clubs; members of a club can read and discuss a short story over 1-2 meetings and make a short presentation for the class. Advanced readers could read different short stories on the same topic or theme within a Club, comparing and contrasting stories individually read, or each Short-Story Club member could read a different story by the same author and the members could analyze the author’s craft.

Anthologies, such as the 25 listed below, offer many advantages to emerging, reluctant, and proficient readers:

1. They introduce students to new authors, most of whom have written YA novels which students might become interested in reading.
2. The stories/essays in most of these anthologies are  centered around a topic (sports) or theme (prejudice), offering differing perspectives and voices on that topic or theme.
3. Anthologies contain stories of various lengths, reading and interest levels, genres, and formats, allowing readers to find one or more stories that match them as readers.
4. Anthologies, especially the more current publications, offer culturally-diverse characters and authors as well as an assortment of genres and perspectives.

A middle school and high school teacher for twenty years, Lesley Roessing is the former Founding Director of the Coastal Savannah Writing Project at Georgia Southern University (formerly Armstrong State University) where she was also a Senior Lecturer in the College of Education. In 2018-19 she served as a Literacy Consultant with a K-8 school and now works independently, writing, providing professional development in literacy to schools, and visiting classrooms to facilitate reading and writing lessons. She can be contacted at [email protected].
 
Lesley is the author of Bridging the Gap: Reading Critically & Writing Meaningfully to Get to the Core; Comma Quest: The Rules They Followed. The Sentences They Saved; No More “Us” & “Them: Classroom Lessons and Activities to Promote Peer Respect; The Write to Read: Response Journals That Increase Comprehension; the recently-published Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs across the Curriculum and has contributed chapters to Young Adult Literature in a Digital World: Textual Engagement though Visual Literacy and Queer Adolescent Literature as a Complement to the English Language Arts Curriculum, and the upcoming Story Frames. She served as past editor of Connections, the award-winning journal of the Georgia Council of Teachers of English and, as columnist for AMLE Magazine, shared before, during, and after-reading response strategies across the curriculum through ten “Writing to Learn” columns. 

Last week was a big week for Jason Reynolds and for the entire YA literature community. Being named as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature is a remarkable achievement. His appointment follows on the heels of excellent authors who have also held the position (see the slideshow below). The field of Young Adult Literature is blessed by the books and by the contributors of these fine authors. 

Jason has a lot to offer scholars, librarians, teachers and most importantly, adolescent readers and future readers. Yes, that is right, even Jason was a once a future reader. He has stories to tell and, equally as important, Jason is a good listener. He is perfectly placed to encourage young people to share their stories. It wouldn't surprise me if in 10 to 20 years when the Library of Congress announces a another Ambassador that he or she will have a story to tell about reading, listening to, or having a conversation with Jason Reynolds.

I am forever in debt to Jacqueline Woodson for introducing me to the work of Jason Reynolds in a brief conversation. I am placing this post here as a way to mark Jason appointment. i will also be adding news, new book reviews, and other video that will help chronicle Jason's experience as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.  Enjoy the videos and the news stories. Bookmark the page and return every so often to found out just exactly what Jason is up to.

Author Jason Reynolds Speaks On His Latest Book, "Look Both Ways"

Jason Reynolds of the Long Way Down

Jason Reynolds On His Novel, "Long Way Down"

Author Jason Reynolds talks new book, gets a call from Queen Latifah

How poetry can help kids turn a fear of literature into love

Jason Reynolds: 2016 National Book Festival (Ghost)

Until next time.

Here is the first guest blog post of the new year and it is a dandy. Erinn Bentley discusses a project that involves teachers, preservice teachers, students and teacher educators. In reality, while Erinn and I have been to many of the same conferences and the same sessions our face to face conversation have been limited. We tend to meet just before or after a session or we pass in the halls on the way to something else and we chat for a minute. We do have a fairly robust communication through email and on the blog. She has contributed in 2017 and 2018 and will start the 2019 year. 

Even though I don't know her very well, I do know that she is a fantastic person. How? She reads to and with her children. In my book that makes a great person. In fact, her second post was about reading with her son, Noah. Her first post was about reading YA and children's literature with students on a study abroad program--they read Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, and some of the Chronicles of Narnia in Oxford England. You see, she really is a great person.

For most folks, January marks a time for resolutions, clean slates, and fresh beginnings. For educators, though, this month is not quite the half-way point in the academic year. Returning to our classrooms after the holidays, we face restless students, looming standardized tests, and a long stretch until spring break. Back when I was a middle school teacher, I was always looking for ways to beat the “winter blahs” and bring energy and creativity into my classroom. As a current teacher-educator, I am still in search of such strategies. Recently, I had the pleasure of partnering with an awesome local ELA teacher, Kim Evans, to test out a creative strategy for teaching YA literature: The Book Bistro. Today, I would like to share our experiences hosting this Book Bistro among her 7th and 8th grade students and my pre-service English teachers.

​What is a Book Bistro?
“Book Bistro is an independent reading strategy for encouraging students to read books on their own, bring books to class for a scheduled event, and linger over books in a cafe atmosphere” (Kasten & Wilfong, 2005, p. 857). Kim and I scheduled our Bistro to take place in her classroom all day on a Friday in January. Kim’s 7th and 8th grade students were the “guests,” and my pre-service English teachers hosted the event. Prior to this day, my pre-service teachers had been enrolled in a YA literature class offered as a 3-week (abbreviated) January-term class at Columbus State. They had studied multiple texts and each chose 2 YA novels to share with the middle school students during the Bistro. (Note: None of Kim’s students had previously read these novels). 

Kim and I are neither the first nor last teachers to use this strategy to encourage, inspire, and support our adolescent readers. Other Book Bistro variations include:
​

• The teacher facilitates Book Bistro by choosing titles and assisting students in find the best “match” for them.
• Students facilitate Book Bistro by presenting self-selected texts to their peers (Kasten & Wilfong, 2005).
• Students partner with pre-service teachers as “pen pals” to read and discuss texts together through notebooks (Wilfong & Oberhauser, 2012).

 
Finally, if anyone is interested in seeing which titles were presented at our Bistro, please visit our class website. Together, we created resources for teaching Gratz’s Refugee on this site.  Additionally, each pre-service teacher created a website focused on 2 self-selected YA novels.
 
Bon Appetit! 

Until next time.

The New Year always seems to catch me by surprise. It always seems to be NCTE, the ALAN Workshop, Thanksgiving, get ready to end the semester,  and then hurry up and getting ready for Christmas. Spend time with friends and family and then all of the sudden it is the New Year.

As many followers of the blog know, I try to write twice a month and pass on the duties to others every other week. It makes for variety and it helps the blog cover books and issues that aren't always on my radar.  I try to make room for special topics or for people who have an idea that needs to be shared. I have quite a few ideas on the back burner for 2020. 

I also have a variety of contributors line up and ready to go. The following all have assigned dates and and are thinking about their posts: Erinn Bently, Nancy Johnson, Celeste Trimble, Kate Kedley, Briana Asmus, Deb Van Duinen, Gretchen Rumohr, Kelli Sowerbrower, Leilya Pitre, Jeff Buchanan, Jackie Mercer, Sean Kottke, Margaret A Robbins, Anne Bird Cramer, Ashley D Black, Cindy Koudelka, Ashley Boyd, Janine Darragh, Diane Srofano, Anita Dubroc, Lesley Roessing. Those in red are contributing for the first time. The others have contributed before and many of them over several years. There are several other past contributors who I hope will contribute in 2020 as well. We will see.

I will be spending a lot of time organizing and planning for the 2020 summit. The past two years have been great. It doesn't happen or go forward without the help of a lot of people. Unfortunately, one of the people who helped the most has moved on to greener pastures. Sheila Bray has worked as an administrative assistant in the Dean's office since I arrived at UNLV. Her expertise in organizing meals, creating contact lists, and working through a variety of snags has been hard to calculate. She left just before the break and I am sure it will take awhile to replace her and I have the sneaky suspicion that I will be on my own. 

The best news is that many of the moving parts are in place. We have keynote authors scheduled and we have a few others who will be participating and presenting as well. One of the interesting developments is that we will have a "shadow" children's literature day on Thursday that will intertwined with the research focus of the Summit on that same day. Matt will be the featured author on that day. This helps us integrate the elementary school personal in the Las Vegas area.

As you can see below, the all of the authors, Steve, Ashley, and Chris, are interesting and have books worth reading. So, get started. Their pictures link to their website.  The information about the summit will be update in Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday on the Summit 2020 page. You can submit a proposal to present at the conference a this link. Registration will be open soon.

We have been planning to include more children's literature at the summit. We have finally done it. Matt de la Peña is coming and he is a perfect fit. He has won the Newbery award and has books that fit every possible category from picture books to sophisticated realistic YA fiction. What a treat. You can register for just the Children's literature day. It will be a great day with a keynote from Matt and the opportunity to participate in a writer's workshop with him as well. Of course, I recommend that you register for all three days in order to hear and interact with every author.

Fortunately, I have the opportunity to attend a dinner or two hosted by a publisher. This year I was invited to a dinner by Source Books and I was blown away by I'm Not Dying with you Tonight. More to the point, I was totally engaged by Kimberly and Gilly. Their show needs to go on the road. They should be speaking everywhere. They can move you from laughter to tears and back again in a heart beat. I knew they need to be at the summit and speaking to Las Vegas teachers. Their frank discussion of racial tension in person and in their wonderful book needs all of the exposure it can get. I am especially moved move by their spirit of cooperation and collaboration. The friendship comes first as they model how to explore the difficult position we find ourselves in within our country, our communities, and our schools. Kimberly and Gilly, I can't what to host you at UNLV. 

Finally, after a long haul Shanetia Clark and I have this book in print. It is available on Amazon at this link. This has been a passion project for both of us and even though we have had some family issues that have slowed us down, it is here and volumes 2 and 3 will soon follow. We hope to be presenting on the content of all three at NCTE 2020. Stay tuned. As many readers of the blog know, diversity is under represented in YA and children's literature. This first book focuses on the four award winning authors who helped pave the way beginning in the 1960 and touching decades until today. Indeed, Mildred D. Taylor's final installment in the Logan family saga, All the Days Past, All the Days to Come, was just published. 

Of course, we hope you buy it. At the very least, we hope you request that your school or university library has a copy. 

Guess what? It is available from the publisher with a discount! Here is the link to the book on the Rowman and Littlefield site. Here is the link to the discount.

Okay, what are you waiting for click on the link.

Until next time.