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  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023

Weekend Picks for August 26, 2022

8/26/2022

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Weekend Picks for August 26, 2022

PictureThank you, Katie Sluiter, for sharing your recommendations this month!
 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.
​


Other Words For Home by Jasmine Warga

A couple of my standing routines in my eighth grade ELA classes are that we always set aside time to silently read AND I always silently read with my students. This is how I sneak middle grade and young adult literature into my packed doctoral student reading schedule. Of all the books I read last school year, my most favorite to book talk to my students was Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga.

Jude is a middle school aged girl who lives with her older brother and parents in Syria at a time when the country is getting volatile. Her father sends Jude and her mother to live in Cincinnati with her mother’s brother and his family, while he stays behind to protect their home. Jude’s brother makes the choice to join the revolutionaries in the fight against the oppressive government, possibly putting him in grave danger.

Told from Jude’s point of view in verse, Other Words For Home reveals the challenges that many immigrant children--particularly from the Middle East--face when they come to the United States. When Jude first arrives everything seems too loud, too big, and too strange. She and her mother don’t speak English and the people seem to have labeled her as “Middle Eastern”--a term that is loaded with mixed emotions.

I have a soft spot for novels in verse anyway, but Warga tells Jude’s story so beautifully that I found myself giving my classes just a bit more time to silently read so I could read more as well.

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Weekend Pick for August 19, 2022

8/19/2022

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Weekend Pick for August 19, 2022

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.
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Katie Sluiter

None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio

Every spring I survey my eighth graders on what types of books they would like to see more of in my classroom library and curriculum. The past couple years students have made their wishes for more LGBTQ+ stories known. This summer I have worked to add some new titles to my classroom library, but I thought I would share one that is routinely checked out each year: None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio.

While I have many books featuring characters who identify as part of the LGBTQ community, this is the only one that has a character who is intersex. The main character, Kristin, is one of the most popular girls in school; she is a star on the track team, has a full scholarship to college, is dating one of the most popular guys in school, and is just voted homecoming queen. After a visit to the doctor, Kristin finds out that while she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes and “parts”.
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I. W. Gregorio
While Kristin is confused and figuring out how to deal with her body and her new knowledge, her “diagnosis” is leaked and becomes the topic of all the gossip at her school. None of The Above creates a window into a little talked about portion of the LGBTQ community while dispelling myths and stereotypes.

I wish there were more books that tackled this topic for teens who are struggling with their own identities.
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Weekend Pick August 12, 2022

8/12/2022

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Weekend Pick August 12, 2022

PictureCheck out Katie Slutiter's blog! http://sluiternation.com/2022/07/becoming-a-toli-educator/
​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.
​

 the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race by Alverne Ball & Stacey Robinson
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I’ve spent the better part of my summer working with educators from around the US and Europe on the topic of “teaching during troubled times.” While grounded in the work of Holocaust studies, we spent a considerable amount of time looking at how aspects of the Holocaust parallel many atrocities committed on American soil. Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre was one we focused on.

In my attempt to diversify the history my eighth grade ELA students have access to, I was thrilled to be the winner of a classroom set of Across the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre by Alverne Ball & Stacey Robinson from ALAN’s 2021 virtual conference.

This nonfiction comic is a quick read that showcases the details of how Greenwood, Oklahoma was built up by African Americans succeeding regardless of enormous adversity. The narrative is told in simple sentences with names in bold, which gives students easy to find keywords for further research. The images are full color with positive representations of African Americans front and center.

The graphic novel also gives voice to those affected by the horrible destruction of the community and people of Greenwood and the resilience it took to rebuild. After the narrative is the essay “In Search of Our Fathers’ Gardens” by Reynaldo Anderson and Dr. Colette Yellow Robe that gives a more indepth look at how “the invasion and destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 is a legacy of white supremacy and systematic racism in the United States toward people of African descent and American Indians” (49).

I can’t wait to bring this one to my classes as a way to explore a part of American history that is tragically overlooked, and as a way to spark great conversations about how violations against human rights often take similar routes in their modes to oppress and exterminate people.



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Weekend Pick for August 5, 2022

8/5/2022

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Weekend Pick for August 5, 2022

PictureIntroducing our Weekend Picks contributor for August (Drum roll, please!) Katie Sluiter! She is a teacher, writer and doctoral student.
 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.
​

Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs

My favorite genre for summer reading is historical fiction. It’s hard to talk up historical fiction to my eighth graders when it doesn’t reflect their history. I have been working to diversify the history represented in the historical fiction section of my classroom library, and Alda P. Dobbs’s book, Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna is one of my favorites.

Inspired by stories from her great-grandmother, Dobbs tells the story of twelve-year old Petra Luna in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution. Petra Luna’s mamá died during the birth of her baby brother Luisito leaving her and her sister Amelia with their papá and abuelita. Papá is carried off by soldiers and forced to fight with Los Federales against the Revolucionarios with no promise that he will ever return to them. Petra Luna, Amelia, Luisito, and Abuelita flee to the north battling the harsh deserts of Mexico dreaming of the day the will be reunited with Papá.

Petra Luna never lets go of her dreams--especially her dream to learn to read and go to school. Abuelita calls these “barefoot dreams” because “They’re like us barefoot peasants and indios--they’re not meant to go far.” Petra doesn’t listen though and will stop at nothing to keep her familia safe and lead them to a better life in the USA where she can finally realize her barefoot dreams.
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My favorite thing about this book is that Dobbs doesn’t paint Petra Luna and her family as victims, but also as survivors and fighters. It’s such a positive, affirming history of Mexican resistance and resilience that is needed not just for my Latinx students, but for all my students to witness.
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Alda P. Dobbs
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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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