Follow us:
DR. BICKMORE'S YA WEDNESDAY
  • Weekly Posts
  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023
  • Monday Motivators 2023
  • Weekend Picks 2021
  • Contributors
  • Bickmore's Posts
  • Lesley Roessing's Posts
  • Weekend Picks 2020
  • Weekend Picks 2019
  • Weekend Picks old
  • 2021 UNLV online Summit
  • UNLV online Summit 2020
  • 2019 Summit on Teaching YA
  • 2018 Summit
  • Contact
  • About
  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023

Weekend Pick for October 28, 2022

10/27/2022

0 Comments

 

Weekend Pick for October 28, 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.
American Street (2017) by Ibi Zoboi
For this weekend, I chose the work of incredibly talented, original, and truthful Ibi Zoboi. She was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and immigrated to the U.S. when she was four years old. With her debut novel, American Street (2017), Zoboi became the New York Bestselling Author. Her voice is fresh, strong, and authentic. 
Picture
Ibi Zoboi
Picture
One of my students, Jacob Blocker (in the picture below) is sharing his appreciation of Ibi Zoboi's novel.
Jacob is convinced that "authors write stories that need to be told," and as a reader he believes that "this story has to be read and discussed because it allows us to see the life of the kids caught up in the problems of our immigration system." It seems as if this neat and vital intersection of writers' and readers' needs is clearly demonstrated in Ibi Zoboi's work. 
​
​American Street presents a coming-of-age story of a teenage Haitian girl Fabiola Toussaint, who moves back home to the United States. Since Fabiola is an American-born citizen, she is allowed to re-enter the country while her mother is detained by the immigration authorities. The young girl moves in with her aunt’s family and gets reunited with the “three Bees”—her cousins. Now, she lives in Detroit on the corner of American Street and Joy Road.
Fabiola desperately misses her mother and home in Haiti. Surrounded by family, the girl often feels lonely and lost. Instead of retelling the story further, I will let you pick up the book and read. There will be some joyful, sad, and painful moments for our protagonist and people close to her. 
Picture
Jacob Blocker
I would also suggest to look at some other novels written by Ibi Zoboi.  You will not be disappointed. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
To learn more about Ibi Zoboi, check out the following link to the video:
 https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Ibi+Zoboi

Thank you for following Dr. Bickmore's Wednesday blog and keeping up with readings!

Till next time,
​Leilya
0 Comments

Weekend Pick for October 21, 2022

10/21/2022

0 Comments

 

Weekend Pick for October 21, 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.
​Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
Picture
Yaa Gyasi

I am personally impressed and inspired by Yaa Gyasi and her success. Born in 1989 in Mampong, Ghana, she published her debut novel Homegoing in 2016. The novel became an outstanding contribution to literature from the beginning. It won the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for best first book, the PEN/Hemingway Award for a first book of fiction, the National Book Foundation's "5 under 35" honors for 2016 and the American Book Award. Gyasi was awarded a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature in 2020.
One of my teacher candidates, Maggie Tregre​, shares her experience with the novel:

​Homegoing captures life and history of generations at the moments when living seems almost impossible. Yaa Gyasi's first novel describes the destiny of the individual  against the destroying power of the slavery machine, narrating remarkable characters whose lives are molded by historical forces beyond any possibility of choice or control. The novel follows the lineage of two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, born into different villages in the 18th century Ghana and traces this Akan family across seven generations after it is split into two by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It is more a collection of linked stories than a conventional novel. 
Picture
Maggie Tregre
If you follow the link, you will hear Yaa Gyasi talking about her novel:
https://youtu.be/IDB0y-dWDOE 

This is a must-read novel not only for aspiring young writers, but for teachers, educators, and adolescents. In this novel, history comes alive, raw, painful, and staggeringly real. 

Till next Friday,
Leilya
0 Comments

Weekend Pick for October 14, 2022

10/14/2022

0 Comments

 

Weekend Pick for October 14, 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.
 All Our Broken Pieces by L. D. Crichton (2019)
Picture
L. D. Crichton
As an avid reader, I have my favorite authors and preferable kinds of stories. We all do and often influence each other’s reading choices by suggesting books that are trending or gaining popularity among friends, YA experts, and colleagues. Fear of missing or ignoring a book that has been enthusiastically advertised and promoted is often driving these choices. However, from time to time, I pick up a book by an author I don’t know and just read. One of these books is All Our Broken Pieces by L.D. Crichton (2019), an author of The Enchantment of Emma Fletcher (2017).
While the story Crichton tells her readers is engaging, it took me a few days to read because it was raw and full of pain. I had to pause, think, and grieve with characters about their losses, whether emotional or physical. All Our Broken Pieces is a story of two teenagers, a girl and a boy, affected by an immense trauma and attempting to cope with it. They find each other and form a bond that helps them survive their tragedies and rediscover hope. Crichton narrates the characters that are believable, flawed, angry at times, resolute at other times, strong, yet extremely vulnerable. I am not going to retell you the story because I will give out some spoilers. Here are just a few teasers for you.
Picture
Picture
The story is told by both protagonists. Lennon, the girl (and yes, Beatles have something to do with her name), deals with a heavy case of OCD to the point that is unable to ride in a car without thinking someone she loves will die because of it. Her daily rituals, tapping, counting, and rearranging things create an overwhelmingly intense picture of her real struggles. Kyler, the boy, has survived the house fire that left a huge scar on his face. Since then, he wears hoodies and keeps his head down. A talented musician and songwriter, he plays in a school band with his friends, but refuses to perform in public. 
​The two adolescents are neighbors in a wealthy LA suburb; they go to the same school and are assigned to work on a group project for the English class together. As they grow to know each other better, Kyler’s fondness for the girl is vividly convincing when he describes her as “Lennon from Maine… with serious issues… who sews… and is broken… and beautiful… and badass…” ​Lennon, in her turn, records her fact: “I’m so in love with Kyler Benton. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Read it for yourself and see how these two strong adolescents cope with their trauma and mental health issues. Their story might help someone you know to heal. 
 
Until next time,
Leilya 
0 Comments

Weekend Pick for October 7, 2022

10/7/2022

0 Comments

 

Weekend Pick for October 7, 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.

​Welcome to the first October Weekend Pick! I, Leilya, will be entertaining your reading buds this month. We will visit some books and young adult novels that my students and I have enjoyed together or individually. I will begin with my choices this week.
In the Teaching of Literature course, I include methods of teaching prose—fiction and nonfiction, poetry, and drama providing teacher candidates with additional strategies and activities for a specific genre of literature. Last and this week we devoted to nonfiction informational texts. I chose Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case (2003) by Chris Crowe.
Picture
Picture
Chris Crowe
This book is authored by our NCTE and ELATE colleague, educator, and writer Chris Crowe. I love telling my students about writers I met personally. The first time I met Chris was at the NCTE convention in 2012. By that time, I had heard a lot about him from Dr. Steven Bickmore. Later Chris came to the first YA Literature Summit at Louisiana State University, where he was one of the featured speakers.
Before I “grew up” to teach in college, 
Chris Crowe graciously agreed to talk to my ninth graders with special needs. For those who doesn't know him, Chris Crowe is a  professor of English and English education at Brigham Young University specializing in young adult literature. In addition to his academic work, Crowe writes books for the young-adult audience. ​
Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe
​

​It seems there were many American tragedies in the history of this country; however, the kidnapping and brutal murder of Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old Black boy from Chicago, IL, visiting relatives in Money, MS, during summer of 1955 holds a crucial place. It is one of the focal points leading to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. In detailed, document-based narration, Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case (2003), Chris Crowe examines Emmett Till's tragic case, following the trial, which regardless of getting into the national spotlight, acquitted both of his white murderers.
Picture
As teachers, we looked at the external and internal structure of the book. We explored format and book structure, photographs, and the color of the fonts used. Further, we paid close attention to the timeline of the U.S. Civil Rights Events and further resources. My students shared their reactions to the book admitting how uncomfortable and unsettling reading of this book was for them. Some of them confessed that they did hear Emmett till's name, but didn't know the story. At the heart of our discussion was the question: is it ever too late for justice?
Picture

​ 
During class, I also introduced Crowe’s young adult novel Mississippi Trial, 1955 (2002), which is a fictional account of Emmett Till’s story from an adolescent protagonist's point of view. Both provide unique perspectives on this historic case and can be used in tandem during the conceptual teaching unit focused around the Civil Rights Movement, racial discrimination, or issues of social and criminal justice.  ​
If you have not read these books yet, it might be a good time to pick them up and learn something new.
​
Till next weekend,
Leilya
0 Comments

    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). ​
    Picture
    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. 
    Picture
    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
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022

Proudly powered by Weebly