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  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023

Weekend Pick for January 27, 2023

1/27/2023

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Weekend Pick for January 27, 2023

​​Welcome to the final Weekend Pick for January! The year is well on its way, and I hope it will continue to be fulfilling and bring many of your plans to the desired results. As always, I am here to offer books—old and new—to remind about great stories for young and not so young adults. Meet A Girl Named Mister by Nikki Grimes.
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Meet the Author: Nikki Grimes
 
Nikki Grimes is a New York Times bestselling author and recipient of several literary awards, including the recipient of the 2022 Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2020 ALAN Award for outstanding contributions to young adult literature, the 2017 Children's Literature Legacy Award, the 2016 Virginia Hamilton Literary Award, and the 2006 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.
 

A prolific artist and author, Grimes wrote many award-winning books for children and young adults including the Coretta Scott King Award winner Bronx Masquerade; the Coretta Scott King Author Honor books Jazmin's Notebook, Talkin' About Bessie, Dark Sons, The Road to Paris, and Words with Wings; Horn Book Fanfare for Talkin' About Bessie; ALA Notable books What is Goodbye? and Words with Wings. The list goes on with the popular Dyamonde Daniel chapter book series, and picture books and novels including  Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope and, most recently, Garvey's Choice and One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance.
Today, I want you to consider reading her novel A Girl Named Mister (2010).
A Girl Named Mister by Nikki Grimes
Published by Zondervan in August 2010, the novel tells a story of Mary Rudine, better known as Mister.
​"This novel in poetry looks clearly at both teen pregnancy and struggles with faith... The language is intimate and immediate," according to 
Kirkus Reviews.

Mister faces a personal crisis of faith when she succumbs to sweet words and sexual pressures from her boyfriend Trey. She finds herself facing increasing guilt and distance in all of her relationships and must come to terms with the reality of her pregnancy.
Throughout the novel, readers witness Mister’s struggles. How will she break the news to her mother?  How will she face people for whom stigma is a guiding post? What happens with faith and how is it possible to faithful and sinful at the same time?
Mister learns how to accept forgiveness and support as she finds comfort in the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and eventually opens up to her friends and family.
It is a fast-read that pulls the reader into the immediacy of Mister’s thoughts and emotions.
Outside theme of teen pregnancy, it deals with many relatable teen struggles.
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Points of Analysis
  Universal Themes/Topics:
  • Teen Pregnancy
  • Social Isolation
  • Communication
  • Faith
  • Identity
 
 Theoretical Lenses:
  • Gender
  • New Historicism
  • Reader Response
  • Faith
  • Social Class
 
  Some Possibilities for Teaching:
  • Poetry and its forms
  • Multiple Plot Lines
  • Parallelism
  • Character Development
 
 Censorship concerns might be raised:
  • Sexual content is vague, but present. 
  • Violence: One scene that could be considered graphic describes the stoning of a Jewish woman that had committed adultery.
  • Controversial issues: Faith can be a sensitive topic to approach in the classroom. There is also a line that alludes to abortion issue, which may spark questions or disapproval. 
Foreseeing probable issues with censorship, Nikki Grimes has published Banned Books Resource List on her website. Please, follow the link to access it:
https://www.nikkigrimes.com/banned_books_resource_list.html 

There are so many other books by Nikki Grimes to explore. Please, look through the gallery.
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Thank you for reading,
Leilya
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Weekend Pick for January 20, 2023

1/20/2023

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Weekend Pick for January 20, 2023

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 2022 click here
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.

Wonder (2012) by R. J. Palacio
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Our next guest contributor to the Weekend Picks is Kaleigh Carter. Kaleigh is a teacher candidate in her second semester of Residency at Southeastern Louisiana University. She successfully undergoes her student teaching in a high school English classroom. Despite of a heavy load, she enjoys reading and sharing her favorite books.
Determined to choose kindness and compassion, Kaleigh introduces a 2012 novel by R. J. Palacio, which has become New York Times Bestseller for over five years. In Wonder, Palacio, treats us to a story of a boy, who is born different, but brave enough to face his fears.

The inspirational quote on the cover of the novel, “You can’t blend in when you were born to stand out,” perfectly encapsulates the heart of this novel. R.J. Palacio’s Wonder will make you laugh, cry, and feel just about every emotion within your capacity. Have your tissues ready when you read the inspiring and heartbreaking story of August (Auggie) Pullman, a boy born with facial deformities who braves the challenge of joining his very first mainstream school in the fifth grade. 
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R. J. Palacio
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Auggie Pullman has been homeschooled and isolated from peers his whole life until he starts attending Beecher Prep Middle School where he faces the challenges of bullying, discrimination, and other cruelties of middle school life. Palacio skillfully structures the novel, and readers are able to see multiple perspectives of Auggie's life through the eyes of his family members.
Though Augie is unsuspecting of all of the stares, gossip, and avoidance of those around him, his big sister Via, however, is not. In true big sister fashion, Via is extremely protective of her brother and loves him deeply, but audiences see that she is also going through her own struggles. Since her parents show most of their attention to Augie, Via struggles feeling neglected. It seems that her parents don’t see that she is facing her own set of struggles as she begins high school.
Auggie’s parents, Nate and Isabel, balance one another as Isabel is afraid to let go and Nate understands that Auggie cannot be sheltered forever.
          
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The novel is full of quotable statements, and I offer you here three of them as an example. 

​ The highs and lows of the Pullman family are masterfully and beautifully captured by Palacio. This novel is a must-read for not only middle school-aged kids, but everyone; as it is sure to spark a sense of 
wonder in all. ​

​Thank you for reading and see you here next week,
Leilya 
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Weekend Pick for January 13, 2023

1/13/2023

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Weekend Pick for January 13, 2023

​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 2022 click here
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.
 

​This week's suggestion is brought to you by Jacob Blocker, another student of mine who is in his residency year. Soon Jacob will be teaching a class of his own, but today he is actively engaged with teaching methods, pedagogy, and constant search of the books that are relevant to secondary school students. 
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Jacob Blocker
Pinned (2012) by Sharon Flake
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Sharon Flake
​Pinned is a young adult novel by Sharon G. Flake that centers around the budding romance of two differently abled African American teens: Autumn and Adonis. Autumn is a girl who excels in wrestling and cooking. She’s an immediately likable protagonists with an outwardly cheerful disposition and tomboyish bravado. Adonis is a boy who excels academically and carries himself with a maturity that often seems beyond his years. He is well respected but lacks Autumns approachable charm, something that may make him read as unreasonably harsh early on. What complicates the tentative teen romance are the problems the characters “wrestle” with. 


Autumn struggles with math and reading to an extent that endangers her academic future. Adonis was born without legs, and his haughtiness stems from his fear of being perceived as weak. A traumatic experience of bullying prior to the events of the novel has left him embittered and distrustful towards his normally-abled peers.
The dual protagonists take turns narrating the events of the story. Flake’s use of first person is excellent for placing the reader into the minds of the distinctive teens. Adonis’s dialogue and narration is written in Standard American English which reinforces the character’s adherence to academic and professional standards. In contrast, Autumn speaks and narrates in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). The use of AAVE gives Autumn’s side of the narrative a cadence that is immediately recognizable. The effect is convincing, with the two protagonists truly reading as distinct characters. It is important to note that Flake never sacrifices easy readability for style. The book’s writing is clear and approachable, often using highly direct wording and structurally simple sentences.
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​The simplicity of Flake’s writing is most effective when the characters reveal blunt truths about themselves. Adonis reflects on his experience of near fatal bullying in which he was tossed into a pond. He succinctly explains the lasting impact of the event by stating, “They put me in that pond, and changed me. I went from being the supermature, brilliant young man who happened to be in a chair to the boy in the chair who almost drowned” (11). Autumn tells the reader, “I’m a great cook and wrestler. Gonna make Adonis a great girlfriend, too. But reading — that’s gonna take me down” (8). Both statements reveal the core of the protagonists, their ambitions, and what holds them back.  
What makes Pinned appealing is how Flake believably and neatly handles developing the two oppositional yet romantically drawn teens and fits them in a believable setting. Autumn’s struggle to keep pace in class and Adonis’s complex around his disability are portrayed without downplaying or aggrandizing the characters’ angst. The adults of the story are handled with sympathetic realism, with Flake giving enough clues, whether it’s Miss Baker’s frustrated attempts to motivate Autumn academically or signs of Mr. Epperson’s declining health, to convey that even grownups face their own personal battles. Flake’s adults are never fully regulated to the background even as they don’t hold the stage.
Pinned is a straightforward but close look at how two contrasting characters can be deceptively similar when viewed otherwise strong people thrown off balance. The novel is a quick, easy read with well-developed adolescent characters and a poignant message about interpersonal prejudice and overcoming mundane adversity.
There are other books authored by Sharon Flake. Check them out as well.
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Stay well and keep reading, friends!

Till next week,
​Leilya
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Weekend Pick for January 6, 2023

1/6/2023

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Weekend Pick for January 6, 2023​

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 2022 click here
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.

It is a New Year! A year of new hopes, dreams, opportunities, and choices! Let’s hope to live in a better world! Let's dream to overcome prejudices and unknown challenges! Let's  choose to be kind to each other and people around us! Let’s choose to be compassionate and caring! Let’s choose to read books because they help us see people, who similarly to us experience life with all its worth and lessons!

So from all of us at Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday, Happy New Year! Here is to a new year of reading, thinking, and enjoying human wisdom, talents, and infinite bravery to face reality!
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Leilya A. Pitre
​I begin this year’s Weekend Pick on Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday blog with Kim Liggett’s novel The Grace Year (2019). It is brought to you by one of my English Education majors, Maggie Tregre. Maggie is in her second semester of residency; her reading interests are wide, but she always keeps in mind her students. This is a good sign, right? 

​The Handmaid’s Tale
meets The Hunger Games meets Lord of the Flies
in Kim Liggett’s dystopian YA thriller The Grace Year
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Maggie Tregre, a resident teacher
​

In Garner County, all girls are banished to the wilderness for a year when they’re 16 to release their feminine magic into the wild. They must purify themselves before returning home, where some will be married, and some will have to work. When Tierney James enters her grace year, she quickly realizes that everything she fears about the grace year—including poachers that hunt the girls for sport and disappearances that can’t be explained—is nothing compared to the girls she must survive with.
​
Meet the Author
Kim Liggett originally pursued a career in music in the 1980s and sang backup for some of the biggest rock bands in the country. In 2015 she published her first novel, Blood and Salt. Her other works include Heart of Ash, The Last Harvest, and The Unfortunates.
Backstory
In an interview with Brazos Bookstore, Kim Liggett revealed that she was inspired to write The Grace Year after watching a young girl, maybe 13 years old, board a train to return to school. Her parents seemed relieved to be free of her, and the men in the train station were eyeing her for a bit too long. The other women seemed to look at her with pity or jealousy for her childlike innocence and happiness. 
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Kim Liggett
Potential Topics
The major topics in this novel include feminism/gender equality, coming-of-age, gender roles, oppression, and individuality vs conformity.
This book could be examined through any critical lens, but these may be the most interesting to explore: gender, new historicism, psychological, and reader-response.
Many of the topics and themes in this novel could be explored through a creative activity, such as a poetry exercise exploring gender roles, oppression, or individuality. This novel would also pair well with nonfiction articles pertaining to women’s rights or other dystopian stories revolving around gender.

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​Reviews
“The bones of Liggett’s (The Unfortunates, 2018, etc.) tale of female repression are familiar ones, but her immersive storytelling effortlessly weaves horror elements with a harrowing and surprising survival story. Profound moments lie in small details, and readers’ hearts will race and break right along with the brave, capable Tierney’s. The biggest changes often begin with the smallest rebellions, and the emotional conclusion will resonate. All characters are assumed white. Chilling, poignant, haunting, and, unfortunately, all too timely.”                  
                                                                                                                           -Kirkus Reviews

​Happy reading, friends!
Till next week,
​Leilya

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    Curators for the Weekend Picks

    Leilya Pitre
    Leilya taught English as a foreign language in the Ukraine and ELA/English in public schools in the US. Her research interests include teacher preparation, clinical experiences, secondary school teaching, and teaching and research of Young Adult and multicultural literature. Together with her friend and colleague, Mike Cook, she co-authored a two-volume edition of Teaching Universal Themes Through Young Adult Novels (2021). ​
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    Cammie Jo Lawton
    Cammie is a current doctoral student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and serves the Center for Children and Young Adult Literature as a graduate research assistant. She is especially interested in how YA can affect readers, create empathy and possibly shift thinking. 
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    Nikki Bylina-Streets
    Nikki is a elementary librarian who just keeps reading YA literature. She is a constant advocate for reading at every level. You can also follow her through her ​Instagram account dedicated to my school library work. @thislibraryrocks
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