A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about M. T. Anderson’s Symphony for the City of the Dead, (indeed a great book), and promised to follow up with a Part 2 that would be dedicated to a discussion of Steve Sheinkin’s Most Dangerous. I was side tracked by the events in Orlando. After that Sunday, I sat down to write and I just could not stop thinking about the event and the associated news coverage. Without much deliberation, I found myself responding in writing and I ended up with "Say His Name!" Before I return to the value of reading YA nonfiction, I have to give a shout out to Matt de la Peña. I know, another distraction. In his Newbery acceptance speech Matt not only captures why we, as teachers and librarians, keep screaming about more independent and self-selected reading, but he punctuates the speech with important moments from his own reading history. Elegantly, he references a few moments when he was an engaged reader. It is important to note that he only recognizes them now, as an adult, with the added benefit of hide site. For many years, he classified himself as a reluctant reader, but educators, at several levels kept nudging him towards the next reading experience. I hope you take a moment to read his speech. It is great for students, preservice teachers, librarians, and any educator who wonders if the individual struggle to talk with a student and to recommend a book is worth the effort. By the way, it is worth the effort every single time.
I have always found reading history fascinating, I like reading it as an adolescent. From time to time I turn to historical YA texts as a break from tons of YA realistic fiction I seem to inhale. I try to keep up with the new YA historical nonfiction, but some of what the authors are calling history doesn’t seem that long ago. Okay, we have been over this ground before. I am getting old. As a result, some of the events that are showing up in historical YA fiction are events I have lived through. Over the last decade if you have watched the nominations for various young adult award lists, it is hard not to notice that Sheikin’s name keeps showing up. Sheikin has been on my “you had better get to this soon or you are slacker” reading list for quite some time. As a keynote at the Youngstown State University English Festival, I had the opportunity to read and discuss with adolescents his fantastic book, Bomb,--no jokes,--the events in that book are a decade or so before my arrival in to this world.
Sheikin’s book that caught my attention and held my attention, however, was Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War. For me, this book was a riveting account of a period in history that I thought I knew relatively well. I lived it. We cared about the draft during the Vietnam War and its consequences. I graduated from high school in 1973, I remember the discussions, the protests, the news coverage, the riots in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic convention, the music of the time, Watergate, and President Nixon’s resignation. At the same time, I had heard of the Pentagon Papers, but I didn’t know the details and the players—who knew how much G. Gordon Liddy got around.
For the last 15 years, I have often wondered why high school and college students seem less engaged in the combat activities that American soldiers are involved with now that take place in wide variety of locations throughout the Middle East and Africa. Are they not engaged because of the fact that there is not a draft? Certainly the cost of our military activity has affected the economy. We are and will continue to incur costs to care for our returning veterans now and for years to come; and we should. Who are our current “Ellsbergs” trying to get our attention and the ears of politicians and policy makers?
For the last 15 years, I have often wondered why high school and college students seem less engaged in the combat activities that American soldiers are involved with now that take place in wide variety of locations throughout the Middle East and Africa. Are they not engaged because of the fact that there is not a draft? Certainly the cost of our military activity has affected the economy. We are and will continue to incur costs to care for our returning veterans now and for years to come; and we should. Who are our current “Ellsbergs” trying to get our attention and the ears of politicians and policy makers?
Sheinkin’s treatment of Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers is sensitive and well documented. As I read, I felt that I was carefully introduced to a man who cared deeply about his country and wanted to help. It is often difficult for us to decipher the difference between propaganda and the “real” story. In most cases, there are levels of truth in the propaganda dispersed by parties on both side of an issue; nevertheless, it is often difficult for us to understand the various nuances in the midst of a contemporary moment. As a result, it makes it even more important that we, as educators, engage in more accurate cross-curriculum instruction that engages students in deep moments of critical thinking. Combining Most Dangerous with other books like: Death Coming up the Hill, (Crowe); March, (Lewis, Aydin, & Powell); Slaughter House 5, (Vonnegut); Revolution, (Wiles); Fallen Angels, (Myers); The Things They Carried, (O’Brien) and a host of other YA and more traditional selection about war, adds a policy and protest dimension about war on the home front that many classroom only discuss briefly or not at all. A teacher who wants to provide students the opportunity to think deeply about the events surrounding the Vietnam War might use Most Dangerous as a touchstone text for the entire class and then allow them to select a supplemental text from a well-informed lists. Once again, I find myself advocating for more student self-selection. When students engage in comparison contrast activities they think more critically about the topic at hand.
In a time when young adult literature is enjoying a renaissance of publishing, it is hard to keep up on every book in every genre. However, I highly recommend that you read Most Dangerous as soon as you can. It won’t surprise you that this book was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2015. Your colleagues in the social studies will thank you if you introduce them to this book and perhaps you can find room for collaboration across departments. Furthermore, it won’t surprise you that Sheinkin has been a finalist in two additional years. Once for The Port Chicago 50 in 2014 and for Bomb in 2012. Sheinkin has become a writer I watch. Those two titles combine with two earlier works, Lincoln's Grave Robbers and The Notorious Benedict Arnold, that show that he has already produce an interesting body of work. I can’t wait to see what topic he will explore next.
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