What can we talk about in school?
 
Being gay?
 
Being Black?
 
Being Jewish?
 
Or perhaps, just being different?
 
And how kids – often needing to feel superior – ostracize kids who they believe are different too.
 
This is not a new story – and sadly, will continue as long kids gather in groups and look for someone to ‘pick on…”
 
Just for ‘fun’….
 
But, often, what starts as ‘innocent fun’ in school or on the playground – morphs into deadly consequences later in life.
 
And such is the story retold in Freedom Summer by Don Mitchell
 
I choose this book – not new, not recent, but certainly, timely – in light of the recent mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York – where a white supremacist 18-year-old – bought a firearm – legally – and proceeded to mass murder ten individuals – mostly African Americans – who were simply living their lives on an ordinary Spring day.
 
Once again, we remember – Charlottesville, Virginia – Charleston, South Carolina, - and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – all sites of mass shootings – all sites where the gunmen was motivated by hate – and the victims were singled out for their race, creed, color – and for being ‘different’.
 
With that in mind, it is time for teachers to share with their students - the true story of murder and the fight for civil rights and social justice in 1960s Mississippi. For there, on June 21, 1964, three young men – two white, one black - were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan for trying to help black Americans vote as part of the 1964 Freedom Summer registration effort in the South.
 
Sound familiar?
 
There – three young men – James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner – were murdered in cold blood – on a summer trip to register Mississippi voters – and their murderers - or rather murderer - was not convicted until forty-one years later. Told in crisp, clear and accessible language, this straightforward non-fiction account of this inspiring, yet horrifying tale of idealistic and courageous young people who wanted to change their country for the better – is a book that can be read in sections – or in its entirety – providing young readers – with a glimpse of an event that not only was one of the most significant events of the civil rights movement – but resonates just as soundly and profoundly today – as it did when it first occurred – nearly 60 years ago.
The murder of these three young men gained intense national attention and led to decades of investigations and newspaper accounts. Distilling court records, printed sources, and original interviews with surviving family members, the author, Don Mitchell, sets the ugly scene, recounting in detail the ensuing efforts to bring the killers to justice (or at least, as he puts it, "a measure of justice"), and offers biographical sketches of the victims and of four associated heroes who played important roles in the case.
For not until January 6, 2005, did a Mississippi Neshoba County grand jury indict one Edgar Ray Killen on three counts of murder. When the Mississippi Attorney General prosecuted the case, it was the first time the state acted against the perpetrators of the murders. Rita Bender, Michael Schwerner's widow, testified in the trial. On June 21, 2005, a jury convicted Killen on three counts of manslaughter; he was described as the man who planned and directed the killing of the civil rights workers. Killen, then 80 years old, was sentenced to three consecutive terms of 20 years in prison. His appeal, in which he claimed that no jury of his peers would have convicted him in 1964 based on the evidence presented, was rejected by the Mississippi Supreme Court.
On June 20, 2016, both the Mississippi Attorney General and a top prosecutor for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice, announced that there would be no further investigation into the murders. "The evidence has been degraded by memory over time, and so there are no individuals that are living now that we can make a case on at this point,” said the Mississippi Attorney General.
Complete with photos, endnotes and a bibliography, this smart piece of historical nonfiction should grace the shelf of any teacher – of every discipline – for easy reference – as a poignant reminder of what matters most in our lives – no matter the era, no matter the social milieu….
 
That every life matters
 
That every vote counts
 
And that the dignity and courage of one individual – can change the world – in matters large and small.
 
Young people should know – that the cruelty and brutality and killings – that they see today – in real time – is sadly, nothing new.
 
That inhumanity – no matter how ugly, how cruel, and how unfathomable – has always been real to life in America – and to understand its root causes, historical events – such as the fight for civil rights in the summer of 1964 in Mississippi – need revisiting and retelling.
 
And that hope – however, fragile – still endures.
 
This is a good read. I urge you to share with your students. 
 
Jeffrey S. Kaplan, PhD
Associate Professor Emeritus
School of Teacher Education
College of Community Innovation & Education
University of Central Florida
Orlando, Florida
Jeffrey.kaplan@ucf.edu

Looking for a good read?
 
This is an ‘oldy but goldy’ from the pen of acclaimed author Joan Bauer.
 
Do you know her? You should.
 
Joan Bauer is a Newbery Honor Medal best-selling author, screenwriter, songwriter, and inspirational speaker whose novel Rules of the Road was chosen as one of the top young adult novels of the quarter century by the American Library Association.
 
In the sequel to the Rules of the Road, Best Foot Forward, we meet up again with our intrepid teenage shoe saleswoman, 16-year-old Jenna Boller, who comes of age learning to manage a shoe store, run by her employer and role model Madeline Gladstone, the matriarch of Gladstone Shoes. Complicating matters is Jenna’s absent alcoholic father and her need to be supportive of both her mother and younger sister – while learning to navigate the ever-present chaos at her seemingly normal and idyllic summer shoe store job.
 
What could go wrong? Everything.
 
Gladstone’s recent merger with a larger company – think corporate buy-out – leads Jenna to untangling an unpleasant web of corporate corruption – as the new company challenges Gladstone’s time-honored way of serving its customers with honesty and distinction. Further complications ensue when Jenna learns that the merger with a discount shoe chain – has been orchestrated by Mrs. Gladstone’s less than scrupulous son, Elden.
 
And as if that weren’t enough, Jenna must also micromanage – and eventually role model – a new hire - Tanner Cobb, a guy with a past, a police record, and dangerously good looks – and to top it off – he once shoplifted from the store. Couple this with a budding teenage romance – one with a winsome looking Charlie from the local donut shop – and suddenly, you have a summer Jenna will always remember.
 
And so will young (and adult) readers.
 
I like Joan Bauer. In her sure hands, young readers are introduced to the realities of coming age through the eyes of emerging teen Jenna’s undying compassion and burgeoning confidence. Her deep and steadfast demeanor - always growing, always becoming – determined to put her ‘best foot forward’ – accompanied by vivid characterizations, crisp, believable dialogue, and true-to-life scenarios – pays off for not only for this earnest teen heroine, but also for her readers.
 
The beauty of young adult books is that there is something for everyone – from horror to reality, from science fiction to nonfiction, - there is a young adult book that will meet the needs and desires of adolescents everywhere – no matter their age, skills, and desires. For finding the right book for the right kid – is the job of any teacher, librarian, parent, and/or adult who cares about kids and reading.
 
All too often, though, well-meaning adults care more about ‘what’ kids read – than ‘that’ kids read. Yet, it is ‘that they read’ which is most important. For ‘that they read’ is what turns them into lifelong readers - who will, in-turn, nurture future young generations to do the same.
 
Joan Bauer is the perfect fit for kids who are looking for a good read about kids they know – summer jobs, they do – and less than perfect parents, they hope to change.
 
Jeffrey Kaplan, PhD
Associate Professor Emeritus
School of Teacher Education
College of Community Innovation and Education
University of Central Florida
Orlando, Florida
Jeffrey.Kaplan@ucf.edu
 
Senior Adjunct Professor
Dissertation Chair/Methodologist
College of Doctoral Studies
Grand Canyon University
Phoenix, Arizona 

​Jeffrey Kaplan is Associate Professor Emeritus, School of Teacher Education, College of Community Innovation & Education, University of Central Florida, Orlando and Senior Doctoral Dissertation Chair and Methodologist, Grand Canyon University. Phoenix, Arizona. Dr. Kaplan is Past-President of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (2012-2013) and former Chair of the NCTE Committee on Censorship (2013-2015).

​If I could select one book – just one book – to place in the hands of teachers – and parents – and world leaders – I would pick this one – Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish’s  How To Talk So Kids Can Learn at Home and in School (Scribner). This is not a new book (originally published in 1995) – by any stretch of the imagination – but it is a valuable book – and one that my education majors and minors – student teachers and graduate interns – simply, love.
 
Why? The answer is simple. The advice is pragmatic; the reading engaging, and the layout – fun!

Each chapter presents a different skill – on how to talk to kids so they will listen and learn – or at least, pretend – followed by a user-friendly narrative, edifying cartoon illustrations, and an easy to digest question and answer section. All designed and unified by one major principle – “kids don’t care how much you know – until they know how much you care.”
 
True, this is not a young adult novel. True, this is book that speaks directly to issues of diversity, racism, morality, sexuality, or any other ‘ism’ that teachers and parents and caregivers – and teens of all ages – must ‘wrestle’ with daily.
 
No, this books steps back from those issues – in leaps forward to demonstrate – in plain-spoken, friendly, yet informative language – how anyone – can establish a respectful environment for children and adolescents of all ages. This good, good read demonstrates how to precisely to create a world of equanimity and inclusiveness – by exploring the difference between words that demoralize and words that exemplify respect – between words that trigger hostility and argument and those that invite cooperation and compassion. For as the authors believe, ‘it is impossible for a child to think, to concentrate, to believe – without feeling respect, empathy, and desire.”
 
With specific illustrative instructions and clear-eyed examples, Faber and Mazlish walk us through the small changes we can make – as teachers, as leaders, as adults, - in the way we talk to students of all ages. One of my favorite chapters, “Seven Skills That Invite Kids to Cooperate,” presents alternatives to the ways we typically try to get students to follow instructions. Usually, teachers, in desperation, demand attention – and decry the child and the behavior – all at once. “Your essay is a mess – and so are you!” Instead, Faber and Mazlish recommend, “I really like what you wrote – can you think of one thing you can do to make it better?”  Simple, quiet and direct.

The authors’ easy-to-read style and realistic approach makes for an easy, absorbing whose principles can be applied immediately. With fun illustrations, concepts come to life in a way that written description often fails. In fact, I sometimes recall a piece of their advice because I saw it in cartoon form.
​
As a teacher educator, I have handed my students many things to read – articles, textbooks, young adult novels – and all have been received politely, respectively, and with a nod to the syllabus. None though has received the attention that this book always gets. “I love this book.” “This book is terrific.” “This book taught me so much!” “I wish my teacher had read this book when I was in school.”
 
That is why Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish’s How To Talk So Kids Can Learn at Home and in School (Scribner) is my Weekend Pick. Every teacher should have this on their shelf. Every teacher should read this book at the start of every school year. And every teacher should aspire to be the teacher who best exemplifies the principles espoused in this book – so they too can bring out the best in children and adolescents everywhere.

​Jeffrey Kaplan, PhD
Associate Professor Emeritus
School of Teacher Education
College of Community Innovation and Education
University of Central Florida
Orlando, Florida 32817
Jeffrey.Kaplan@ucf.edu
 
Senior Adjunct Professor
Dissertation Chair/Methodologist
College of Doctoral Studies
Grand Canyon University
Phoenix, Arizona 

​This is my last weekend pick for the month of April, so thank you for joining me in these reviews - and happy reading!

Sarah Fleming

​This book is so gorgeously creative in its storytelling, weaving the poems together amidst pages and pages of black ink sketches that shape our vision through Amal’s eyes and heart. Each poem takes us one step further into the very dehumanizing world of incarceration, and each poem is Amal’s desperate attempt to stay afloat in such an overwhelming sea of violence and despair. He turns to his poems, rhymes and sketches to see him through, along with the help of a new teacher and prison abolitionist Imani Dawson, who urges him to write his truth. The cover art pays tribute to the metaphors at work in his paintings, the beautiful butterflies that stand testimony to the chrysalis he and all the boys in the detention center must endure as the world seeks to rob them of their very souls. 

​About the authors - Ibi Zoboi is an exceptional writer, author of American Street (also a National Book Award finalist) and my personal favorite, Pride - a modern, Brooklyn remix of the classic Pride and Prejudice (a side note - I’ve taught Pride to my seniors, and they’ve loved it, so I highly recommend that one too!). You may recognize Yusef Salaam as one of the Exonerated Five, the wrongly convicted young men in the Central Park jogger case. Dr. Salaam is a poet, activist and inspirational speaker. While Punching the Air is not his personal story, it is informed by his own experiences as a young poet having been incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. This collaboration between Zoboi and Salaam, which both speak to in the end notes, is the end result of two people whose belief in the power of youth voices serves to remind us of all young people’s beauty and humanity.  

Until next week,
​Sarah

Rainy-day mysteries!
It's been a dreary few days up here in central New York, which means it’s a perfect time to curl up with a blanket, a cup of tea and a really good book. This weekend I have three mysteries to offer you, all certain to be engaging, quick, can’t-put-them-down reads to help you get through these April showers and into the days of sunshine that just have to be ahead of us, right?

The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis
My final pick for mysteries you can’t put down this weekend is called The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis. This one is just pure fun for all lovers of Edgar Allan Poe, as the settings, characters and storylines are borrowed from his most famous tales. Taking place in Amontillado Ohio, this is the story of young Tress Montor and her nemesis Felicity Turnado (get it already, right?). Tress and Felicity used to be best friends, but that ends when Tress’s parents mysteriously disappear and Felicity alone survives. This novel is told from the girls’ alternating perspectives (plus with a third poetic narrator told in the voice of Tress’s panther) and is the story of what happens when one girl’s horrific actions finally push the other one over the edge. Just as in “The Cask of Amontillado,” this is a story of the harshest revenge, and the details are shockingly similar. The reader is tempted to hope that young people couldn’t engage in such terrible treatment of one another, but as anyone familiar with the social realities of high school will attest, wounds run deep - and Tress can’t let go of her resentment for everything Felicity has that Tress herself had lost.  The Initial Insult is the first of a duology, and the end leaves you on a cliffhanger so be prepared to get the second installment in the series, The Last Laugh, which is out now. And that’s where I'll leave you, as it’s the next pick in my to-be-read pile too!

​Till next weekend!

Sarah Fleming continues April weekend suggestions. Welcome her new post!

Till next week,
​Sarah

April showers bring May flowers they say. We bring you Sarah Fleming, who will be our guest-contributor  for the entire month. Sarah is a 21-year veteran English teacher now working at SUNY Oswego as a teacher educator. She loves "all things young adult literature," and lives with her husband, son, dog and cat in Syracuse, NY. Her first weekend pick follows below, and because
April is a National poetry Month, Sarah begins with a verse novel by Elizabeth Acevedo.​

Are you looking for something to read? 
​Check out our weekly suggestions!Are your students looking for book recommendations?
Send them to browse through the picks for this or past years.
​
For the picks from 2021 click here
For the picks from 2020 click here.
For older picks click from 2019 click here.
For the even older picks click here.

I loved this story and the entirely relatable exploration of belonging first to oneself before anyone or anything else. I also really appreciate the fact that Gervais writes from experiential knowledge. As a self-identified hard of hearing author, Alison Gervais advocates for more stories with positive representations of disability stating, “It’s time we see more Deaf characters in books. It’s time we see more books celebrating sign language and Deaf culture." So this weekend, I echo Gervais's call for all of us to celebrate Deaf culture and powerful disabled female protagonists like Maya through picking up a copy of The Silence Between Us. It is a beautifully written, page turning tale of self-love. 

Thank you so much for following along with me for the picks this month, Women's History Month! I hope you found some books you loved, and I hope you continue to read stories celebrating all women throughout the year. Signing off for now.

Keep Reading!
xo
Cammie ​

If you are anything like me, Spring Break season has started or will start soon. So this weekend's picks are two trilogies for the series readers that enjoy beginning a tale that has more story to offer after the first book is finished! 

​The first trilogy pick for this weekend is for the true crime, podcast listening, mystery loving folx. One series I've loved over the last few years and just recently finished is Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. ​

The story arc starts with the series title, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, which introduces readers to protagonist, Pippa Fitz-Amobi. In the first book of the series, Pippa decides to investigate a seemingly "closed" case of the murder of local resident Andi Bell by, her then boyfriend, Sal Singh. However, to Pip, this case isn't as open and shut as the police and residents of the small town want everyone to believe. Through her investigation, new secrets emerge that raise the question of if the real killer is still out there? And if they will keep Pip from discovering the truth? The series continues with Good Girl, Bad Blood. After the investigation into murder and the publication of her true crime podcast, Pippa Fitz-Amobi finds herself wrapped up in a new investigation into the missing person's case of Jaime Reynolds. Though she had sworn off her investigating days, Jaime's disappearance on the anniversary of Andi Bell's murder is too much of a coincidence for Pip to ignore especially since the police won't do anything about it. With the help of Ravi Singh, Pip begins digging again and this time everyone is listening as she chronicles the unfolding secrets through her podcast. Will she find Jaime before it's too late? The concluding and final book in Jackson's series, As Good As Dead, finds Pip in the aftermath of her successful true crime podcast and weeks before her journey to start her first year in college interrupted by mysterious messages asking: who will look for you when you're the one who disappears? Pippa soon realizes these messages are escalating into threats leaving her and her loved ones at risk from an unknown stalker. When she starts to find connections between the stalker and a local serial killer caught six years ago, Pip wonders yet again if the wrong man was convicted of a crime. And the question that follows is if the real killer plans to make her his next victim? These three books had me turning pages and reading during the day. Jackson certainly perfects the dark and twisty by blurring the lines of our notions of what and who is "good" as well as raising important questions about justice. And if you want to know what Pip was like before beginning her true crime investigations, a short prequel, Kill Joy, was released in celebration for World Book Day! This series is the perfect mystery to keep you reading all weekend!  

If the dark and twisty is not your style, then I might suggest another trilogy I've loved (pun intended) that celebrates identity, family, friendship, and LOVE, Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved series.

This story explores the question of what would happen if all your crushes found out about how you feel about them...all at once! In book one, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox given to her by her mother. However, these aren't letters she's received; they are letters to each boy she's ever loved--five letters in total. Laura Jean has poured out her feelings because the letters are just for her eyes. Until, one day the hidden letters are mailed out and her love life suddenly becomes much more interesting than even she anticipated. In Han's second novel, P.S. I Still Love You, Lara Jean finds herself in an unexpected situation, actually in love with one of her crushes. But then, another crush from her past returns making Lara Jean question: is it possible to love two people at once? Finally, in the last book of the series, Always and Forever, Lara Jean, everything is going so well for Lara Jean--she is having the best senior year she could hope for and is madly in love with her boyfriend. BUT, change is on the horizon. When Lara Jean's plans become interrupted, she has to finally face the challenging decisions in front of her. Han's conclusion to Lara Jean's story raises the question we all face: when your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to? This series is so heartfelt and Lara Jean remains one of my favorite characters I've ever met while reading. I hope you enjoy her journey of finding self, family, and love as much as I did! 

Until next week, keep reading!
xo,
​Cammie