A Farewell and a Passing of the Torch.

Well, the day has arrived. This is my (Steve Bickmore's) last scheduled regular YA Wednesday post for a while. I have officially retired beginning Dec. 31, 2021. Clearly, I am still reading and talking with people about Young Adult literature. (You can check my end of the year post that featured Bick’s Picks for 2021.) After 43 years of teaching at various levels I am taking a break from day-to-day work.

I have a couple projects that should be done in the next several weeks. Wish me luck. My wife and I are also going to serve a church mission in the Uganda Kampla Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which includes South Sudan and Rwanda). We leave on April 11, 2022 and, as you might imagine, we have a lot to prepare for. We have shots to take and grand kids to visit as we explore the information we need to know about our first placement in Kilgali Rwanda.

​I knew this day was coming, but the blog has been an important part of my work and my life for the last 8 years. It began in a mild fashion in the summer of 2014 and began in earnest in the late summer of 2015 as a weekly post. It has grown as I have contributed less and less and more and more guest contributors have take the stage and shared their ideas. A few years ago, the popular Weekend Picks feature was added. The blog has always made a place for special posts based on an interesting topic or something that matches what is in the news or an event. Lesley Roessing posts often matches this category has she discuss books that center on 9/11 and its consequences or books featuring strong girls. Or the even more recent discussion of Latin American and Hispanic Heritage month by Alex Torres. To make room for these posts the blog will feature a post on Monday called the Monday Motivator. These will primarily be prepared as an immediate resource for teacher to use for a mini lesson or as a resource that can be immediately shared with students. 

For at least the next 18 months, Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday will be in the competent hands of Dr. Gretchen Rumohr. Gretchen and I have been writing partners on several projects and she is a frequent contributor to the blog producing regular posts and as one of the early and regular contributors to the Weekend Picks feature. Gretchen has been actively learning the ins and outs of curating various parts of the blog for the last 8 months. She is ready to go.

In order to keep working with the blog fun and a labor of love instead of a burden, we have recruited others to help with the curation of the Weekend Picks and the Monday Motivator. Gretchen will oversee the whole project and curate the weekly Wednesday posts. Leilya Pitre will head up the weekend picks with the help of Nikki Bylina-Streets and Cammie Jo Lawton. The Weekend Picks will now function as a blog within a blog instead of as a running page with each new pick at the top. This allows the contributors to write them in advance and then the team of curators can prepare them and schedule them to post on the appropriate Friday. The same will be true for the Monday Motivators under the direction of Melanie Hundley as the chief curator with the help of Emily Pendergrass, Abbey Bachman, and Jason Dehart. We hope you follow along.

As I leave, I hope that some of you will check out some of my previous posts. They can easily be found under this link.

Some of my favorite posts are the Bick’s Picks at the end of the year. Here is the link to the most current and it has links to the other years.
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 I have developed some favorite authors over the last several years. I like a lot of authors, but these few warm my heart with every book    .

Jo Knowles

Jason Reynolds

Padma Venkatraman

Sharon Flake

A.S. King

Andrew Smith

Rich and Sandra Neil Wallace

K. A. Holt

Kathrine Erskine

Kimberly Willis Holt

Tiffany D. Jackson

Until the next year or so. Until then Gretchen will be running the show.