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Sports and YA: Introducing an Approach to Using Sports Literature in the Classroom and a Text Full of Advice.

2/22/2017

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In this post, Dr. Dawan Coombs from Brigham Young University provides and introduction and an overview of the reasons to get your hands on a new fairly new edited book. Dawan was one of the contributing chapter authors to Alan Brown and Luke Rodesiler's Developing Contemporary Literacies Through Sports: A Guide for the English Classroom. Thanks Dawan for this wonderful post.  Now, if we can get all of the contributing authors to share this post around. We just might get a few more copies of this text into libraries and in the hands of teachers. Sports lover or not, this is a go to text.

Alan Brown and Luke Rodesiler will be talking more about the book in a Live Web Seminar produced by NCTE called “Critical Literacy at the Intersection of Sport and Society” this week on February 23rd.
​As I entered the classroom my eyes immediately gravitated to his Oregon O. The year was 2013, it was the second week of January, and Chip Kelly’s Oregon Ducks had just claimed a Fiesta Bowl championship, ending the season as the number two team in the nation. Anyone who knew anything about college football knew it was a beautiful time to be Ducks fan—a bond that the kid in the Oregon hat and I shared.
 
I had come to this particular high school classroom to do some research with struggling adolescent readers, which was where I met Dylan, the fan in the Oregon hat. Turns out he wasn’t just a football fan—he was also a football player. His 230 pound, 17-year old frame mostly fit in his desk and he talked willingly about his team as well as his performance at the state wrestling tournament the previous year. He also spoke proudly of his Native Americana heritage, his mother’s and sister’s experiences as college athletes, as well as obstacles that prevented them from finishing. He hoped to follow in their footsteps one day and compete in intercollegiate athletics, but also to finish his degree. However, with a smile and a chuckle he recognized finishing may pose a challenge because of one problem: he didn’t like to read.
 
Dylan struggled a lot in his classes, partially, he said, because he didn’t enjoy reading and he never finished books. But before I could probe into the “whys” behind these statements, he paused and thought for a moment. I waited. He then explained that he had actually finished one book, a YA novel given to him by his teacher called Gym Candy by Carl Deuker. He then detailed the story of a freshman football player driven to succeed. Amidst the athlete’s preparations, a personal trainer suggests he take supplements, which led to steroids, and then to a dramatic life-or-death struggle. As Dylan completed his commentary on Gym Candy, he shared his opinions on steroid use, the complexity of the situations characters faced in the novel, and his assessment of the book. Without much of a break he then proceeded to tell me that he was also reading a nonfiction book called When the Game Stands Tall: The Story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football’s Longest Winning Streak by Neil Hayes. The book, which had been assigned reading for his football class (you have to love a high school coach who actually makes reading a part of football class, right?), detailed the real-life experience of a California high school football team that won 138 consecutive games. Similar to the details he shared about Gym Candy, Dylan—my self-proclaimed non-reader—freely and articulately shared highlights, stats from and his opinions about When the Game Stands Tall. 
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​Later, as I reviewed his transcript, I noticed that Dylan provided almost a page of typed, single-spaced commentary detailing these books, his reactions, and his analysis. Dylan really was a reader—or, at least he was a reader when teachers connected him with young adult fiction and nonfiction titles that provided opportunities for him to think critically about topics he loved. It was students like Dylan who prompted my initial interest in Alan Brown and Luke Rodesiler’s project that recently resulted in the book Developing Contemporary Literacies Through Sports: A Guide for the English Classroom published by NCTE. In this edited collection, Brown and Rodesiler draw on the work of English education scholars, young adult authors, teachers, and researchers to weave together both a compelling rationale for the inclusion of sports in the English curriculum, as well as lesson ideas to help teachers and students probe the impact of sports culture. Centered on interrogations of power, bias, and dominance in the sports, the editors introduce the phrase critical sports literacy (xxiii) to describe approaches that critically examine, deconstruct and interrogate sports and sports culture. In the seven sections that follow, teachers and researchers share ideas for implementation that focus on facilitating literature study, providing alternatives to traditional novels, teaching writing, engaging students in inquiry and research, fostering media and digital literacies, promoting social justice, and developing out-of-school literacies. 
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​Many of the chapters in the book describe approaches that would appeal to students like Dylan, inviting them to use interesting and compelling YA novels for critical examinations of sociopolitical issues through social action. For example, Alan Brown’s chapter invites students to read excerpts from Slam! by Walter Dean Myers alongside a New York Times article to consider multiple viewpoints and question assumptions about urban teens. In her chapter, Nicole Sieben uses the novel Openly Straight (Konigsberg) to help students deconstruct bullying. A contribution by Katrina Gonzales draws on excerpts from Matt de la Peña’s novel Mexican White Boy to teach students to question the dominant culture and identify alternatives to assimilation, and a chapter by Mark Lewis uses The Scorpio Races (Stiefvater) to invite students to evaluate the role of emotion in sports. Katherine Mason Cramer explains how excerpts from YA texts that feature lesbian, gay and transgender characters—such as Parrotfish (Wittlinger), The Miseducation of Cameron Post, (Danforth), and Out of the Pocket (Konigsberg)—can be used interrogate issues of language and power in high school sports and school culture. Finally, Bryan Ripley Crandall examines how books like The Crossover (Alexander) might be used to promote dialogue among students about the rights of youth from around the world. 
​In addition to tapping these compelling and powerful young adult novels, the contributions in Brown and Rodesiler’s book also invite teachers to incorporate other sports-based texts into these critical inquiries. As Dylan’s love of When the Game Stands Tall demonstrated, nonfiction sports-based texts appeal to readers and many of the ideas presented in the lesson ideas center on inquiries driven by nonfiction texts. For example, Quentin Collie and Geoff Price describe how podcasts from Grantland, ESPN, and other sources work as mentor texts to help students create their own sociopolitical commentaries that they produce as podcasts. Another chapter by Lisa Beckelhimer invites students to use pieces such as “If It Ain’t Rubbin’, It Ain’t Racin’: NASCAR, American Values, and Fandom” and other articles available through EBSCO, as well as documentaries and other sources to help students question the role of culture and context in sport. Also drawing from a range of print and film nonfiction sources, Ryan Skardal uses excerpts from Britney Griner’s memoir In My Skin: My Life on and off the Basketball Court as well as interviews, articles, and media footage to identify connections between authorship and identity. It’s among these chapters that I’d situate my own contribution to the book that invites students to research the true stories behind the reel adaptations of many of sports most famous onscreen moments. 
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​There’s certainly a place in these critical examinations for the classics—chapters use depictions of sport in The Great Gatsby to practice applying different lenses for critical analysis or to delve into thematic analysis across mediums using The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. But many of the chapters in this collection invite teachers to push the boundaries of the traditional definition of texts. For instance, the classic genre of the sports trading card becomes nine innings of research, writing, and publishing in Billy Gerchick’s chapter about using trading cards to teach writing and presenting skills. David Pegram uses the animated graphic novel Bottom of the Ninth by Brian Woodward to help student learn to read images in order to ascertain meaning. Hannah Gerber’s chapter uses research into sports-based video games or eSports as a segue to introduce students to craft arguments and even college essays. In his chapter, Luke Rodesiler uses cartoons, headlines, film and articles to teach satire, only to invite students to create remixes and their own satiric creations using Mozilla’s X-Ray Goggles. Fantastic supplemental resources for these and other chapters in the book are available on the companion website.
Each of the seven sections is introduced by scholarly perspectives written by English education scholars. These contributions situate and support the teaching approaches described in the book. For instance, Chris Crowe’s contribution provides a concise but valuable discussion of the value sports-based inquiries bring to English and language arts classrooms. At the beginning of another section, Wendy Glenn highlights how investigations of sports and identity invite students to examine the forces that shape their worlds. Carl Young’s chapter describes a rationale for the inclusion of not only sports-based literacies, but also the wide variety of text types incorporated in many of the lesson ideas.
 
At the close of each section, the voices of well-known YA authors bring the reader back to where we started—with stories that demonstrate the impact sports can play in learning. Bill Koningsberg’s “Fag on the Play,” details a very personal experience that served as the inspiration for a scene in his novel Openly Straight while posing questions about our readiness to raise diversity questions in the classroom and on the field. Chris Lynch’s author contribution details his own experience with sports literature and its value for reluctant readers. Other contributions written by authors Ann E. Burg, Chris Crutcher and Rich and Sandra Neil Wallace speak powerfully to the larger thesis of the book. And as I read Alan Lawrence Sitomer’s description of Gerald, the high school basketball star, and his conflict with an English teacher, I am reminded of a scene not unlike others that play out across the country as students and teachers view the mental activity of reading as being at odds with the physical activity of sports—which brings me back to Dylan.
​Throughout the rest of Dylan’s interview, he talked about challenges he faced in school while reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, writing argumentative essays and engaging in other fairly traditional English class experiences. As I listened, I silently wondered if he really would get that scholarship or succeed in all the ways he dreamed of succeeding as I contrasted his experiences and reading failures with the two reading triumphs he shared earlier. At the time, I had neither the words nor the opportunity to encourage Dylan’s teachers to build on his sports-based experiences. If I could do it over again, I would have shared Alan Lawrence Sitomer’s aptly-framed sports metaphor when he quotes a friend who explained, “You don’t bait the hook with what the fisherman likes; you bait the hook with what the fish likes” (32).
 
If we want students like Dylan to venture into our literary worlds and develop the literary skills we value, an approach that considers sports and sports culture, as highlighted in Brown and Rodesiler’s book, is one worth exploring. 
Dawan can be contacted at: dawan_coombs@byu.edu
Alan Brown and Luke Rodesiler will be talking more about the book in a Live Web Seminar produced by NCTE called “Critical Literacy at the Intersection of Sport and Society” this week on February 23rd. 
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Unconventional YA Love Stories. A List of Romantic Reads to Finish off the Week.

2/15/2017

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Who knew that the day after Valentine's day was going to be so busy. After a day full of meetings, I was left thinking about a little more romance. I decided to put together a quick list of "romance" books that I like. I don't drift to the genre automatically. i tend to select realistic fiction when I get the chance. Some of these my not seem like traditional romance selections and others will. The one guarantee is that these books are reader approved. I like them and these are books that students have always liked. In this short post I will list the author attached to the authors website when possible and each cover images is linked to a Kirkus review so that you can have an outside view of the book. Enjoy!
We start with a Rainbow Rowell selection, Eleanor and Park.
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Stephanie Perkins' Anna and the French Kiss was one of my first attempts at reading YA romance. I enjoyed the experience.
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I think that Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl is an interesting take on the a story. What do you think?
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I don't think I have ever had more fun with a Romeo and Juliet remake than I did with Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies. Zombies with a touch of classic vinyl, what more do you need.
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Benjamin Alire Saenz's Aritstotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is one of the most important romance novels written in the last ten year. Just sayin' and clearly my opinion. :)
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Every Day by David Levithan takes an interesting approach to the challenges of young love. Romance and little bit of fantasy never hurt anybody.
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In my opinion, Angela Johnson's The First Part Last deserves all of the praise it garnered when it was first published in 2003. Maybe it is time for new generation to explore this novel.
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Only a few books have premiered with as much success as John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. If you don't know this book maybe it is time to find out what the fuss was all about. Oh, and then there is that movie.
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This next book by Jennifer Niven took me absolutely by surprise. I loved it. 
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I think there is no question that Sarah Dessen is the queen of the YA romance novel. If you a hesitant to embrace the genre, try this one.
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Perhaps I am just sucker for YA romance novels built on music, but David Levithan and Rachel Cohn's Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist is a winner. Once again, the novel is better than the movie, but that is worth a night on the coach as well.
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While Sarah Dessen might be the queen of the YA romance novel, Simone Elkeles is the queen of the edgy YA romance novel. 
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An Overview of the Work of Ellen Wittlinger and an Interview to Boot.

2/10/2017

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I have been reading Ellen Wittlinger in earnest for about 15 years. I  causally read and recommended YA throughout my teaching career. I wish I would have done more, but there we are. I knew the early books from the late 1960s and the 1970 quite well, but missed a lot in the 80s and 90s. It certainly has been fun trying to catch up. When I entered graduate school and was given the opportunity to teach a YA course, it has been nonstop reading and enjoyment ever since.

When I began to include a monthly author feature, one of the authors I wanted to reach out to was Ellen. Reading Hard Love was one of the great finds of that early binge reading. Several years later she offered a rich gift to the YA world with Parrotfish. When we connected I was given the opportunity to read her newest novel, Local Girl Swept Away. Occasionally, my wife accuses me of liking everything I read; not true. I am a good reader of reviews and from time to time I don’t finish a novel I start. (A privilege we don’t offer students very often, that adult readers take all of the time.) Without a doubt, Local Girl Swept Away stole my imagination and took me away. This is a complex novel that reminded me of both the adult and YA fiction of Joyce Carol Oates, an author who doesn’t get enough credit for her YA fiction. It also reminds me in tone and theme of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars.
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Local Girl Swept Away is a novel of mystery and intrigue based on the friendship and betrayal of four friends. The novel’s narrator, Jackie moves from an innocent follower to more self aware adolescent who discovers how to nurture her artistic talents. Along the way, the four characters discover their individual strengths and weakness as they learn to stand alone before they can rebuild friendships. This is a novel with excellent characters, great narration, and complex themes that needs to be on your list of recommendations.
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It would be hard to overstate the power of both Hard Love and Parrotfish. For example, it is high praise when John Green give you credit as a source of inspiration: "Ellen Wittlinger's Hard Love was one of the books that inspired me to write young adult novels." I remember how this novel valued out of school illiteracies and embraced marginalized identities.  When I first read Parrotfish, I was amazed by the passion and empathy that existed in the tone of the narration. Wittlinger was another groundbreaking novel that joined Julie Anne Peter’s Luna and a few others that allowed transgendered adolescents to see themselves in books. It is would almost be enough to say that these books just helped kids, but Parrotfish is quality fiction that also happens to be helpful in opening further conversations.  
The three novels I have touched on here provide a quality starting point. The rest of her novels offer discussions of complicated issues as well. They range from religious zeal, abuse and murder, and homelessness.  It seems to me that if all of these books were on your classroom shelves, most of your students could find something that matched their interests. I think you will enjoy rereading those you know and discover others that will stay with you. ​Each novel's image in the following slide show also has a link to a review. 
​Please read below Ellen’s answers to a series of interview questions. 
You can find our more about Ellen on her webpage here and you can follow her on Facebook. Until next week.
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Trending Now: YA, Current Events, and Taking Action

2/8/2017

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This week's guest contributor is Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil. Like many of our posts over the last couple of months, she points to books that helps adolescents think about current events and how to move to understanding or to action. This post also reminds us about the abundance of quality "informational" YA texts.
Recently, I was contacted by a middle school social studies teacher who asked me to recommend young adult nonfiction texts that would help his students understand and respond to current events. Using resources such as The Nerdy Book Club, The National Book Award nominations, and YALSA, I created a list, and I’ve shared a few of my picks below.

Which current events?

Our current news cycle can determine which events to explore. For appropriate, grade-level, nonfiction texts,
Newsela proves to be a valuable, relevant, cross-curricular resource.  

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Given Trump’s recent immigration order, This Land is Our Land: A History of American Immigration by Linda Barret Osborne can help students familiarize themselves with the history, attitudes, and current policies on immigration. Additional, immigration-related book suggestions from previous YA Wednesday blog entries are here.
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​To better comprehend human rights violations that may result in the necessity of fleeing one’s country, A Long Way Gone:  Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,  Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping War in Sudan, and graphic novel Child Soldier:  When Boys and Girls are Used in War are good possibilities.  
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For students that followed the last election closely, Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History by Karen Blumenthal introduces students to American politics.  The text is fully  updated to include the 2016 election. 
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​Acknowledging the sugar consumption habits of most Americans, Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson considers the global impact of sugar as well as broader food justice themes.
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To address the recent attention on the Dakota Access Pipeline project and accompanying protests, an unconventional nonfiction text is the award-winning Looks Like Daylight: Stories of Indigenous Kids by Deborah Ellis, which shares the daily lives, interests and opinions of Native American young people. 
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It’s been mentioned on YA Wednesday before, but deserves a mention again: for students following nonviolent demonstrations such as the Women’s March on Washington, Lewis, Aydin and Powell’s March graphic novel series provides a historically accurate, compelling, and inspiring background.
 
Moving from current events toward advocacy
Along with interest and engagement, the above texts can bring feelings of helplessness and apathy.  Indeed, our goal is to not only help students know about what is happening in our world, but also help students form opinions and take action. The texts below can help students consider their work as well-informed, passionate agents of change.
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​Michael Burgan’s Breaker Boys: How a Photograph Helped End Child Labor tells the story of photographer Lewis Hine, who used his art to bring new awareness to child labor.  Hine used his camera to educate others on the challenges of the working poor.  Overall, Hine’s story affirms the power of visual images and reminds us that our talents can change the world. 
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I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai describes Yousafzai’s active advocacy on behalf of girls’ education, peace, and human rights.  Simply put, Yousafzai can inspire bravery and action in both global and local contexts.
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Eyes Wide Open:  Going Beyond the Environmental Headlines considers how politics, psychology, history, economics and the media affect environmental issues, and specific ways that a person can use this information to make an impact.
The Teen Guide to Global Action by Barbara A. Lewis helps students consider which issues they plan to tackle and provides suggestions on how to mobilize. Be A Changemaker: How to Start Something that Matters by Laurie Ann Thompson follows a similar path.
 
The suggestions above are in no way comprehensive; you can easily find--and add suggestions to--a more complete list here.  Overall, my hope is that quality YA nonfiction texts can help our students “read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.10), but with an increased interest, newfound mastery of current events, and intense hunger for social change.

Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil
Aquinas College
ghr001@aquinas.edu

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Who Wants to Spend the Day with Laurie Halse Anderson and Ashley Hope Perez?

2/2/2017

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The Kennesaw State University Literature Conference- March 20 and 21, 2017
 
Registration closes March 1 and the Call for Proposals closes February 15. We would love to see you in Kennesaw!   Register at http://lcya.kennesaw.edu

This conference is a great event. Bryan Gillis and his colleagues, Dr. Sanjuana Rodriguez and Natasha Thornton, put together two days that offer teachers, librarians, and academics a good introduction to Children's and Young Adult Literature. This year's event brings in some heavy hitters. You should consider attending. I will let Bryan walk you through the details.
​The KSU Conference on Literature for Children and Young Adults provides teachers, preservice teachers, public and school librarians, media specialists, and school administrators with a two day experience in which they have the opportunity to listen to and interact with several highly acclaimed children's and young adult authors as well as attend presentations from master teachers and experts in the field on all facets of literacy instruction. 
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Laurie Halse Anderson
I first met Laurie Halse Anderson when I was pursuing my doctorate at Arizona State University, circa 2005. Dr. James Blasingame was directing his annual Arizona Young Adult Literature Conference and Laurie was scheduled to be the keynote speaker. When Dr. Blasingame introduced me to Laurie, I remember thinking, I’m about to meet this rock star of an author, the woman who wrote Speak. What will I say to her? As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. Laurie was the nicest, most down to earth person I had ever met. No surprise to those of you who have had the privilege to meet her before or since.

Twelve years later, so many awards, so many award-winning books, and so many young adult lives changed for the better, Laurie hasn’t changed one little bit. Since 2005, I have worked with so many wonderful authors in my role as Director of the Kennesaw State University Literature Conference, and Laurie is not just one of the greatest authors of our generation, period, she is one of the kindest, most giving people I have ever met.
 
Laurie will be spending the day with us on March 20th at the KSU Literature Conference. This is a rare treat as Laurie rarely does all day events like this anymore unless they are associated with a book tour. After all, we need her to keep her writing time sacred! Laurie will give a keynote, be involved with a couple of breakout sessions, and she will be signing her books (all of her books will be available on site). Best of all, due to the intimate nature of our conference, you will have the opportunity to just hang out with her and our other authors.
​Ashley Hope Perez
Ashley Hope Perez was a finalist for the Walden Award this year for Out of Darkness. As soon as I read this amazing book, I contacted Ashley and asked her if she would please come to our conference. I had the opportunity to hang out with Ashley at NCTE this year, and what a fascinating person she is. In addition to being an all-around lovely individual and fantastic writer, she is an assistant professor of comparative studies at Ohio State University. As a literacy advocate, her goal is to foster meaningful reading and writing experiences, especially among Latina/o children and teenagers. Her writing on young adult literature reframes recent discussions of “dark” and “edgy” fiction to emphasize how real readers negotiate encounters with challenging stylistic and thematic elements. Ashley will also be with us on March 20. 
​On March 21, we welcome Deborah Wiles, author of Each Little Bird that Sings, Countdown, and Revolution. Also joining us on the 21st will be award-winning children’s author Carole Boston Weatherford, whose works include Before John was a Jazz Giant and Freedom in Congo Square.
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21,467,385 Attendees at the Jan 21, 2017 Women’s March Across the USA!! (An Alternate Fact) Don’t They Need Something to Read? Strong Women in YA Literature (and children’s).

2/1/2017

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​Two weeks ago I offered a reading list for Betsy DeVos, on the following Saturday women took to the streets of the United States and throughout the world in amazing numbers. I guess I can say that I sparked the national event, but that would probably be a slight exaggeration. Instead, I will just report the most current count—through alternate facts—which is now about 21,467,385. I am astonished by the number of women who marched for a variety reason. It was heartwarming and inspirational. Thank you.

At the same time, I couldn’t help but think that Ms. DeVos needed another list of YA books that would introduce her to some powerful female characters, many of whom had experiences that she would find foreign. The benefit of such a list goes beyond just helping Ms. DeVos; it is a list that could be posted and offered to our students. Those who marched might also  be interested in a list of common texts that they could discuss as they emulate Alice Paul or Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This list came to mind quickly. So many books asked to be jotted down, that I limited the list to books that were not in a series. We can do a post about series book on another day. Enjoy. Oh, and keep passing these lists on until Ms. DeVos has plenty YA titles to read.

Brief descriptions follow: 
​My children loved Harriet the Spy. I am not sure how many copies we went through. I even knew a few women at college, who cherished the book so much they brought it with them to college. Louise Fitzhugh left us too early.  If you don’t know it, it might be the book for the top of your list.
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One of the great gifts of college is the opportunity to meet great, creative people. I was fortunate enough to share a couple of classes with Ann Cannon. Many Salt Lake City residents have been entertained by her witty writing for years. I have been reading her for years. Cal Cameron by Day, Spider-Man by Night. My pick from among her books for this list is Charlotte’s Rose. This book tells the story of Charlotte who travels with her father across the ocean from Wales to Boston, then by train to Iowa and then the remaining distance to the Salt Lake Valley by handcart. You will find a strong American heroine here.
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​Hopefully, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret needs no introduction. Nevertheless, it might. Perhaps, just enough time has passed that teachers and librarians should be introducing this book by Judy Blume and the rest of her collection to a new generation. 
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Kathyrn Erskine’s Mockingbird is a book that stays with me. While Caitlin’s Asperger’s condition makes it hard for her to empathize with others, she grows and improve upon her communication skills. I hope to die having developed the insight and kindness that Caitlin has mastered. 
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We bought our first house in the suburbs Salt Lake City as one of many in a large grouping of homes that qualified 235 loans. The area was full of new teachers, police, fireman, carpenters, and host of others trying to make it on pay that would have most us qualifying for free and reduced lunch for our children. One of the great gifts was that we moved next to the Nguyen family. Our oldest children grew up with their oldest grandchildren that lived in this wonderful multigenerational home. They work together to support each other and we attended the weddings of their youngest daughters. I mourned with the family when Mr. Nguyen died. We had many silent conversations as we smiled through the chain link fence that we both paid for as we tried to encourage our grass from brown to green.
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Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai warmed my heart. It caused me to think fondly of my time with this wonderful family. They tolerated our loud dog and generously provided 4th of July fireworks for the entire street. It was an American place that I loved. I am glad they we embraced our neighbors and that they embraced us.
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Leila Sales’s great novel, This Song will Save Your Life traces a girl’s life from despair to joy. The story confronts a young girl without hope who moves forward as she finds a passion for music. If you are wondering how music and YA literature can work together, this book is a great option.
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Once again, Sharon Flake creates a tour de force with Unstoppable Octobia May. In this period novel, set in the 1950s Octobia May sets out to solve a mystery. Is the man boarding upstairs a vampire?   
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Many of us read A Wrinkle in Time and found our first introduction to fantasy and we were on our way. I don’t think that we should forget that the protagonist, Meg, is a strong female who takes on this journey. If you were part of a generation that missed this wonderful novel because you were engaged with other great books, then give Madeleine L’Engle’s novel a test drive. 
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Laurie Halse Anderson has been a sparkling light in the world of Young Adult literature sense the publication of her first novel, Speak. Given its impact, it is hard to belief it wasn’t a starred review when Kirkus reviewed the book. Starred or not, it is safe to say that few books have had a more positive influence in the lives of young readers than Speak.
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I have been watching Padma Venkatraman’s career has a young adult novelist since I moved to academia. Her novels offer a view to worlds that are quite a departure for most of her readers. She creates strong female characters that challenge most readers’ stereotypical notions of girls in foreign countries. In A Time to Dance Veda learns to dance and regains confidence and grace after she loses her leg in an accident. This verse novel creates a beautiful, inspirational story worth your time and attention.  
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There is absolutely no denying the impact of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. It has been inspiring both teachers and students for years. While the arrival of the Go Set a Watchman as altered how many view Atticus Finch, it will have very little impact on how readers will respond to Scout and quest for understanding and empathy. If you are a reader and have not yet discovered this novel, perhaps, just because a teacher assigned it, it is time to remedy the situation.
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Sapphire’s Push is novel that is at times rambling and a bit unfocused in pure character development. At the same time, it would be mistake to discount the power of the story that shows Clareece Precious Jones raising from abuse and neglect. 
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The novel Luna is clearly the story of Liam’s journey to become Luna. At the same time, I have always felt that much of the power of novel rest in Regan’s strength. Regan loves of Luna is a great example of patience and understanding. Julie Anne Peters has delivered a novel that enlightens an important identity issue.
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It is hard to image a student getting through the American education system without an introduction to The Diary of Anne Frank. It seems important into day’s political climate to remind people that they are rarely taught the whole story. Her family tried several times to immigrate to the United States with no successful. Nevertheless, Anne story has placed her as one of the most beloved female character in literature.  
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Shannon Hale’s novel, The Goose Girl channels a Grimm’s fairy tale and reminds us how many strong girls exist in fairy tales. For many young readers, some version of a fairy tale is their first introduction to strong female heroines. I think this is especially true in the original versions.
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The Great Gilly Hopkins offers readers a character full of spunk and adventure. For nearly forty years, Katherine Patterson’s Gilly has provided readers with a survivor worth getting excited about.
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​Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond is one of the finest children’s historical novels. Kit Tyler’s journey reminds us that perhaps the mixing of cultures in American has never been simple. While we seem to find empathy for fictional characters and situations, can we generate it for actual real situations and people?
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Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block reminds one of the most avant-garde books ever written for adolescents. The characters and their lives are unconventional and forces us to reconsider traditional notions of adolescence. The characters demonstrate a sense of freedom and responsibility that often gives readers hope and often drives adults nuts.
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 Firebird by Misty Copeland is a beautiful book. Christopher Myers illustrated the wonderful book. In her first book for children, this soloist with the American Ballet theater tells an inspirational story of hope and vision to another potential dancer. Young girls need books that offer windows that show possibilities and mirrors show them people that look like them can achieve those possibilities. 
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The Book Thief, while not specifically written for adolescents, has certainly been adopted by this age group. It is frequently taught and adds another book to the list of holocaust novels. When Death narrates a novel, it is hard to forget its specter hovers over the story. This book reminds us of the power of a story and how and individual can make a difference in the face of danger and immoral actions.  
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I hope you enjoy the books. Remember to take one with you on your next march. They are great for conversation and might even run it to Betsy DeVos who needs to add to her library.
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    Dr. Gretchen Rumohr
    Chief Curator
    Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods.   She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

    Dr. Steve Bickmore
    ​Creator and Curator

    Dr. Bickmore is a Professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and a past president of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

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