​One of our students’ favorite activities is to create blackout poems in which they would take an original piece of text and “blackout” certain words or phrases to create a poem with a whole new theme or perspective on the existing theme. Crystal Simone Smith takes that to a whole new level in her book, Dark Testament. Not only does she create a poem, but she has transformed an entire book to create a set of poetry that examines the ugly truth of violence against black and brown people. 

In Dear Medusa by Olivia Cole, sixteen-year-old Alicia Rivers discovers how quickly she has been ostracized by her school as some type of maneater; a Medusa who uses sex as a weapon. But like most people, they have forgotten that Medusa’s origin story, she begins as an ingenue raped by Poseiden and is turned into the monster by Athena for desacrating her temple…punishing the victim. Alicia is also a silent victim and in this lyrical novel - in - verse, we feel her pain with a soul crushing force created by Cole’s imagery and melodic lines. Ironically, even though Alicia is surrounded by wolves—men who act as predators and use her for sex as well as people who should protect her but have abandoned her, she also finds saviors—girls who become friends because they too are struggling with their own voice and identities. Here, Cole’s words deliver hope and the power in sisterhood when we stand up and support each other. ​

Katherine Applegate has done it again, taking the story of a real animal and turning it into a heart-warming fictional story. This time it is not a gorilla, but the story of sea otter pups who are raised by surrogates at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. If you are a fan of The One and Only Ivan series, like we are, you will enjoy reading Odder while you wait for the latest installment featuring Ruby to be released in May.  

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Cindi Koudelka (@cmkoudelka) is a Curriculum Specialist with National Board Certification in Adolescent Young Adulthood/English Language Arts at Fieldcrest School District in Illinois and an Adjunct professor at Aurora University. She is involved in multiple literacy research organizations through which she has presented and published on various educational topics. Her research interests focuses on critical adolescent literacies, young adult literature, positioning, and youth participatory action research. She is a youth advocate who believes in the power of literacy to disrupt systemic oppression.  Her passion is to help adolescents reflect critically and foreground activism, community, and love. 
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Katie Russell has taught in a variety of educational settings over her 11+ years in education. She has always had a deep love for reading and discovered during her first year of teaching that her desire was to help struggling readers. Shortly after, she returned to Southern Illinois University to obtain her Master’s Degree in Reading and Language Studies. She worked as a Reading Specialist before moving into the field of special education. Katie now works at Murphysboro Middle School as a special education teacher for sixth grade. Katie is the Past President of the Illinois Reading Council and has presented and numerous local, state, and national conferences. ​

​If you are like us, you are very excited about the TV series featuring Kwame Alexander’s book, The Crossover premiering this week on Disney+. That book motivated many of our students who identified as non-readers to read. The relationships that he created through a novel-in-verse format connected for many readers as they identified with Josh, Jordan, and their father as they connected through basketball, and faced the challenges of growing up, change, and loss. 

​Alexander’s newest book, The Door of No Return, however, is even more powerful as he weaves the tale of 11 year old Kofi Offin who gets stolen from his home in Ghana in 1860 and sold into slavery after a family tragedy. Kofi’s powerful connection to his family is his grounding force, allowing him to hang onto his humanity while facing the inhumanity of others.
Since April is national poetry month, this book seems particularly appropriate as Alexander’s beautiful and lyrical writing is juxtaposed with the harsh realities of our history. He so masterfully brings the reader into the joy of Kofi’s life at the beginning, and demonstrates how colonialism can be embedded so insidiously into life with Mr. Phillips’ portrayal. But then Kofi’s life slowly begins to unravel and the reader is taken on a gut-wrenching journey that is all the more horrific because it is based on an ugly truth.