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Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday has a new Feature-- A YouTube Channel

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Winter is Fleeting (?): YA Books that Celebrate Summer by Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil

2/28/2018

2 Comments

 
This week's contributor is Dr. Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil. Gretchen has contributed in the past and her previous posts can be found here, here, and here. Gretchen and I also write and present together from time to time. Our most recent article appeared in the Middle Grades Review. It is an article that we wrote about cross-curriculum work between the Social Studies and English Language Arts with our colleague in Social Studies, Paul Binford (Paul has also written for the blog and his posts are here and here), also helped with the project.  You can download the article here. Gretchen is also one of the people who is helping plan the 2018 YA Summit in Las Vegas. Please come join us -conference hotels near the University will be announced soon, paperwork details, ugh. Gretchen will also be selecting Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday Weekend Picks for March 2018. Thanks Gretchen.
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I started this post on August 1, 2017, knowing I’d want to remember today.  On this warm August morning, I woke leisurely to the sun shining through the curtains, stretched, then settled in for a few more minutes of dozing.  One of my 6-year-old twins, who’d found her way into bed sometime during the night, snuggled in and sighed contentedly.  A haphazard stack of books lay on the nightstand.  

First, we did the mundane--laundry put away, beds made, water boiled for tea, bread toasted and buttered. Then we got more creative--delivered a meal to a friend, first stopping to see if the roadside stand was selling sweet corn (none yet--we were so impatient!).  And then we biked to the neighborhood park--racing down sidewalks, taking turns being the leader, weaving joyfully through sprinkler arcs and grass clippings on the shadowed cemetery road--the girls ready to swing and climb, me eager to read the newspaper. When we tired of the jungle gym, we rode bikes to the library. The girls charged ahead to the children’s section, barely looking back, and I settled in with Will Schwalbe’s Books for Living--a creative, reflective book that has made me recall, with gratitude, the books that have built my life, word by word.

​After lunch, I took 30 minutes of quiet meditation in my backyard.  Clouds mixing gloriously with sun, breeze cooling bare arms, I had a chance to breathe and think.  The cicadas buzzed loudly, signaling the nearness of fall and with it, the looming semester crazies. And now, as I write on this August afternoon, I sit at the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee. The late afternoon sun streams through the window above the sink, the faucet casting shadows that I never see in dreary Michigan February.  (And, to be honest, it’s the witching hour. One of the kids has started whining.  The other is crying about something that I can’t for the life of me understand, and I’m getting crabby. I just poured another kid a cup of coffee with cream--an act of desperation as I finish this post. I miss my work office a teensy bit. I know I’m being nostalgic about lazy summer days; I suppose I should also keep it real.  Every season has its ups and downs.)

In the middle of winter, I will wake in darkness, bundle up in a bathrobe and down-padded slippers to make breakfast, and rush my kids off to school.  I’ll run indoors on a treadmill instead of my favorite running route along the Grand River. I’ll cherish every moment of rare thaw days, when the sun shines through icicles and slushy puddles form on sidewalks.  I’ll allow extra time to drive on snowy highways and pay the sitter to take the kids sledding.  I’ll stealthily turn up the thermostat; my husband will exclaim loudly, disapprovingly at my chosen temperature.  In my office at Aquinas, I’ll write with a fleece blanket on my lap, the space heater running under my desk. So today, on this blessed, first-of-August day, I’m thinking about books that take me, and my daughters, back to summer.  Note to my future, February self:  the books below will sustain your summer-loving soul in the dead of winter!
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
Considering that The Penderwicks (Birdsall) is a “summer tale,” I read it at the perfect time: on a summer beach vacation.  And I found it to be tremendously entertaining.  Critics have drawn parallels between this work and Little Women, and I heartily agree.  Focusing on the summer adventures of four sisters, The Penderwicks represents so many things that I want my own four daughters to experience:  their love of writing and of stories, loyalty to one another, friendships with new people, adventures together and alone, a naughty dog, a supportive father.  With its apt descriptions of the carefree summer life, this book will warm your soul and inspire you to plan your next summer adventures--wherever they may be.
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Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson

I read this Newberry award-winning book about twelve-year-old Rollergirl wannabe, Astrid, with my daughter.  Roller Girl had all the markings of the summer coming-of-age tale:  the best friend drifting away, the discovery of new talent, the happiness found in new friends.  Jamieson’s depiction of Astrid’s summer reminded me of my own summers as a kid--boiling hot sidewalks, cold popsicles, and learning to bike, skate, and swim.  This is the perfect summer girl power graphic novel!

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Where I Want to Be by Adele Griffin
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This book describes experiences common to many of us:  old in-ground pools, dry fields of grass, green forests, fresh, sweet melon and buttered white rolls.  But Griffin’s book is also a complex ghost story that focuses on two sisters, meeting many YA readers where they can relate.  It walks a thin line between nostalgia and grief, between real-life and fantasy, between growing up and growing apart, and being separated by mental illness and death. We know from the very beginning that Jane has died--a unique place to start--and the first few pages stirred my longings for home by describing a grandmother’s “lavender hand cream, the pine soap in the floorboards, the mushroomy dampness and smoke in the wallpaper.” Griffin has a way with description, and is honest in her depiction of grief and mental illness, yet her story is lovingly told and gracious and left me with hope.  It is rich--only 150 pages--and can be savored as a summer porch read.  

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One Crazy Summer by Rita Garcia Williams
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Williams’ novel comes with high acclaim, having won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and being a National Book Award Finalist.  The book features eleven-year-old Delphine, in charge of her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, as the three visit their estranged mother in California.  They expect Disneyland, but instead, their mother sends them to a Black Panthers day camp, changing their relationships, and outlooks, forever.  Touching, funny, and historically accurate, this book should be on your summer (or wishing-for-summer) book list. Williams has written two sequels: P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama.
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The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis

While The Mighty Miss Malone doesn’t focus solely on summer, it explores the ways that our dreams of summer adventures and returning to school in the fall can be changed in an instant.  Deza, the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, expects to stay in Gary and flourish.  But instead, her family falls on hard times due to the Great Depression, and her father leaves--and is lost--as he searches for work.  The rest of this heartbreaking, yet tender, novel focuses on Deza, her mother, and her brother, Jimmie, as they look for their father, discover the true meaning of love and loyalty, and try to find their way home, together.
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The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord
The Names They Gave Us was the perfect read when a summer storm rolled in on an inland lake; I settled into the couch, rain and lightning framing the story.  I found myself enchanted with Lucy Hansson, who lives a safe and easy life until her mom's cancer reappears.  All that holds Lucy together--her reliable boyfriend, her faith, and her summer plans to work at her parents’ Bible camp--falls apart in an instant.  Instead, Lucy works at a summer camp for troubled kids, visits her parents on the weekends, and learns the meaning of love, and grace, when she meets new people and learns surprising family secrets.  On that rainy day,  I expected an easy, predictable book, but was thrilled with the risks and challenges that Emery Lord presented with this lovely story.
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
I read Saenz’s Printz Honor book on my side porch on a Sunday summer afternoon.  From the first page on, I didn’t want the book to end, and found myself reading the conclusion of the novel multiple times even after I finished it.  Featuring new friends Aristotle, who has a brother in prison, and Dante, who seems to know everything, this book is an archetypal summer read that draws on universal experiences: swimming at the community pool, learning more about one’s parents, deciding what kind of person to be, exploring what it means to stand up for true friendship, and discovering what it means to know, and truly love, another person.

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It Started with Goodbye by Christina June
June’s novel was a good read for an almost-summer day, when I sat on the patio of a coffee shop.  It features sixteen-year-old Tatum Elsea, a likeable, strong, smart protagonist who appears to be preparing for a horrible summer. Tatum’s been inadvertently involved in a crime, resulting in her being sentenced to community service.  To add to her stress, her father leaves the country, her stepmother’s rules are way too rigid, her perfect step-sister isn’t speaking to her, and her step-grandmother has been asked to babysit her. Tatum is able to make the best of things by flying under the radar, and makes new friends, establishes a graphic design business, and interacts with some amazing clients.  Throughout the summer, Tatum reconciles with those from whom she’s been estranged and gets an unexpected happy ending. This is a great book for teens and adults--especially those that wish to discuss their notions of safety and success.

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So--what about you?  Let’s share what’s in our summer reading stacks!

Dr. Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil is an Associate Professor of English, Aquinas College. She can be reached at: ghr001@aquinas.edu



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2 Comments

Voices from the Students: Joshua La Roche

2/26/2018

1 Comment

 
I am continuing to support student voices as 2018 continues. ​This week, I am providing Josh with an opportunity to share some of his thinking about young adult literature. If other academics out there have students who would like to talk about their experience, please let me know. I would love to highlight a student at least every month.
As an “non-traditional” UNLV undergrad aspiring to be a high school English teacher I spend a lot of time reading. Since Dr. Bickmore’s YA Lit course I have focused most of that time on the YA genres. Being a poor undergrad student (living off the VA) I have ended up mostly using my Kindle and it’s Kindle Unlimited program. That is how I came across The Cronos Files series by Rysa Walker, a story of a girl, Kate, who must travel through time to stop her maternal grandfather from turning a small turn of the 20th century cult into the largest religion in the world and the extermination of all “non-believers” in the early 21st century.
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After sitting through Dr. Bickmore’s class and reading while looking for his areas of concern (Race/Class/Gender), I found multiple appearances of the race and class subsets the Dr. Bickmore insisted on looking for, but what really got me was the historical items brought up with concern to gender. The first thing that really got my attention I have tried to fact check, since it is history and I personally believe in spreading the real version. In the second book, when Kate arrives in 1938 and the question on women voting is brought up.  In 1938 women had the right to vote, so Kate asks why the women in Georgia would have to follow their husbands. Her companion Kiernan tells her that husbands tell their wives who to vote for of sometimes go into the voting booth with their wives to ensure the women follow orders. While I was unable to find evidence of this, I also have a hard time thinking that, at least in rural areas, this was not the case. Back then the idea of having a wife that disagreed with the will of her husband seemed atrocious. I wouldn’t doubt that some of the same men who fought hard to ensure women wouldn’t get the right to vote would have also worked to control who the women voted for when they received that right.
​On the same train of thought, the third book brings up a woman that even the book admits is not mentioned in schools today, Victoria Woodhull. She was the first woman to run for president in 1872, well before women could even vote. Kate ends up visiting her in her journey to stop her grandfather (really, I think it was a ploy to bring forward long forgotten history but I’m not complaining). I found this to be something that is needed in high schools today. Whenever there is talk about the hardships of the time between the Civil War and WWII all that is typical taught is the situation of minorities (something that does need to be covered) or the period is glossed over quickly. In either case, rarely do students hear about the long list of women in those times that fought to bring equality to all. 
This series appealed to me with the deep first-person testimonies of historical events that are not really taught. Not to go into too many details the big points of each book 1) Chicago Worlds Fair 1893 and H. H. Holmes. 2) 1938 Georgia and a possible lynching of a black man for hitting a white man. 3) 1872 Visiting Victoria Woodhull. These are mentioned in detail that shows that Ms. Walker does her historical research. Details of Holmes’ “Murder Castle” and the struggles Kate has to escape bring the reader in and would entice a student to do further research. Her description of the lynch mob and how news of the fight has them riled up are twisted to the point that even those who saw it are willing to believe the lies. All of these details paint a clear view of early 20th life in a way that entertains while educating. The same goes with the interaction between Kate, Victoria, and the police that constantly arrest Victoria for just speaking her mind. 
All-in-all this series serves the purpose that many of my professors have said the new mission of English classes in the modern common-core/standardize testing atmosphere where only English and math are tested. Since English is the way for the test-makers to form tests in the social sciences these novels give the added benefit of having actual little-known history embedded in them and, at least to the curious students, will lead to questions and discussions in social studies. Maybe knowing about the first woman to run for president and looking into he political views will help advance a student into a higher calling or at least help breed questions for them to ask as they move on through their lives.
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Channeling Young Adult Literature: The Wonderful World of BookTube by Anderson and Wender

2/23/2018

13 Comments

 
Hi Everyone! This post is very exciting and, in reality, long overdue. I am thrilled that the two guest contributors, Tara Anderson and Emily Wender, have prepared such a wonderful introduction to BookTube and how Young Adult literature has such a strong presence in that space. This information is out of my wheelhouse, but I have learned a great deal from reading and preparing this post. I think that you will find the information useful if you are a scholar, a researcher, a classroom teacher, or a school media specialist.

* Drop to the bottom to find out more information about the 2018 Summit on the Research and Teaching of YA Literature to be held at UNLV.

​Channeling Young Adult Literature: The Wonderful World of BookTube by Tara Anderson and Emily Wender

​YouTube may not be the first place you think of when it comes to young adult literature. However, YouTube is home to a small, but growing, community of book-lovers known as BookTube. BookTubers take book reviewing and book fandom into their own hands, creating home-made videos featuring everything from book recommendation lists to bookish comedy sketches. Though BookTubers span all ages and reading preferences, many are young people with a voracious appetite for all things young adult literature.
 
BookTube does not exist in a formal space on the YouTube social network, but rather in the connections between avid readers who love to talk about books. The easiest way to discover this corner of the internet is simply to search YouTube for a favorite book or genre. Did you love The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas? Then you’ll definitely want to check out mynameismarines’ in-depth review of the novel. Love fantasy? Regan at PeruseProject has a video sharing an epic list of her favorite novels and series in the genre. To get you started with BookTube, we’ve linked both videos below!

Mynameismarines' review of The Hate U Give

Regan at PeruseProject

Why should I watch Booktube if I’m a teacher or a teacher educator?
For those of us who love YA Lit, we could easily be sucked into this world of book hauls and monthly reading wrap-ups. But what value does BookTube hold for us as teachers and teacher educators? BookTube can give us a window into the books that young people are reading and talking about. As educators, so much of our knowledge about YA literature comes from other adults and other education professionals. We learn about good books, and we recommend those to our students. But BookTube flips this model and gives us the opportunity to learn from young people who love books just as much (or maybe more!) than we do. Taking time to watch BookTube videos can be another tool to help build knowledge of great books that we can recommend to students or purchase for classroom libraries.
 
Many of the videos on BookTube are reviews of novels. In addition to whetting students’ appetites for books with booktalks, teachers and librarians can share video reviews (spoiler free, of course) with students to introduce them to new books. Moreover, teachers can give students the option of creating BookTube-style video reviews as part of a novel unit, literature circle, or independent reading project. Crafting a video review can employ a combination of traditional literacy skills and new literacies skills, including persuasive writing, storyboarding, and video editing. 

Ariel Bissett's review

BookTube is a great example of setting goals for reading and tracking ones’ progress toward those goals. Many BookTubers set a yearly goal for the number of books they want to read, share monthly TBR (“to be read”) lists, and challenge themselves to read more of certain genres and categories of books. The goals are set and tracked by the BookTuber, and progress is shared over time while other BookTubers offer cheers and recommendations in the comments. Letting students set and share their own reading goals for independent reading can give them ownership over the process while also introducing them to new book, authors, and genres. 

sarawithoutanH

In its focus on goals and its celebrations of books read, Booktubers model self-sponsored reading and reading communities. Video reviews also offer students diverse examples of what self-sponsored reading can look like. For those of us interested in YAL, these videos go beyond illuminating a reading habit or a commitment to the genre, although they do that in spades: these videos also show how reading YAL and vlogging about it can connect you to other readers. There is a whole world out there, and in each video, you get a snippet of the interactions about YAL that are building that world.
 
Take, for example, Farah Shamma’s booktube channel, which she describes as, “Diverse Booktube! A Muslim Arab book-lover and aspiring writer from the UAE talking about books and my writing journey!” 
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​In one recent video, Farah shares her own original “book tag,” or a series of questions to generate book reviews and recommendations. In this book tag (2017 in review), she takes headlines from the news and then transforms them into questions about books. Her first news headline for 2017? “The first ever female doctor was cast for Dr. Who!,” which Farah transforms into the question: “Who is your favorite female protagonist?” Farah tells the audience early on that she hopes they will do the tag, too, and all it takes is a quick glance at the comments from other booktubers to know that it caught on: the first comment of 28 from iLivieforbooks, “Oh I love the idea of this tag and great idea for the questions- and also thanks for the tag!!!” 
Farah’s channel, which is definitely worth checking out, is just one example of the ways young adult Booktubers share their choices as readers, their connection to community through YAL, their enthusiasm for reading, and their depth of knowledge. These are expert readers of YAL, which brings us to another reason to use them in class: Booktubers offer critical perspectives outside of academia that are worth listening to.
 
As readers with extensive experiences with YAL who both offer and respond to celebration and critique of novels, Booktubers have created their own hub of insight and commentary. They are informed and passionate readers whose videos can show how literary and discourse analysis can feel important, relevant, and accessible to our students and to us.
 
Look, for example, at Adriana’s critical commentary titled “How We Talk about Diversity and Queer Lit” on their amazing Booktube channel “perpetualpages.”
​In this review, Adriana both challenges and critiques the Booktube community for unwittingly closeting queer books, thus keeping them out of the readers’ hands who need them most.  They begin their critique with an admirably honest caveat, one that could probably stand at the beginning of the scholarly articles we might read and write:
 
Today I’m very scared to make this video because I know what I’m going to talk about means a lot to me and I’m terrified of getting it wrong, but I think I’m more terrified of staying silent. What I’m going to be talking about today is reading diversity or queer lit, and neither one of these topics are easy, neither one of these topics are simple, and I’m human.
 
They explain the exigence for their video, a recent vlogging event in the Booktube community: Top 5 Wednesday. The most recent Top 5 Wednesday, they explain, asked for Top 5 Favorite Diverse Characters, but unlike most Wednesdays, far fewer people posted. As Adriana begins, “I was disappointed by what I didn’t see.”
 
In her young adult literature course, Emily uses Booktube videos, such as this one by Adriana, to provide new appreciative or critical perspectives about a particular novel or a facet of YAL and its community of readers. For Emily’s students, Booktube videos can provide a window to online discussions that connect to the scholarship they are encountering in class and the discussions they are having amongst themselves. And Booktube demonstrates the many different ways readers (even academic ones) can approach YAL: with celebration, critique, concern, connection, laughter, desire, questions, etc. 

Getting Started

Are you ready to get started with BookTube? A good search on YouTube can produce videos and channels for all types of reading, but we’re recommending a few channels here to start your journey. In addition to the channels above, we recommend:
 
  • Francina Simone for critical perspectives on reading and writing YA
  • Thoughts on Tomes for short, informative reviews of fantasy and contemporary novels
  • TheBookTuber for creative videos on bookish themes
  • Taylortalksbooks for contemporary and romance recommendations
  • ChapterStackss for reviews on great thrillers and horror novels
  • InsaneReader for laugh-out-loud recommendation lists
 
And, if you or your students are feeling extra adventurous, why not start a channel? Here are some videos to get you started:
 
  • “How to Start a BookTube Channel” and “How to Improve Your Book Reviews” by emmmabooks“Advice for New BookTubers” and “Tips for New BookTubers by BookTubers” by readbyzoe
  • “How to BookTube” by Little Book Owl
  • “How to Start a BookTube Channel” playlist (6 videos) by readsanddaydreams
Emily Wender is a former middle and high school English teacher and current assistant professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at: emijw1@gmail.com

Tara Anderson Gold is a former middle school teacher/librarian, and current doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education. Her research centers on the intersection of adolescent literature and new media practices, and she is currently writing her dissertation on the wonderful world of BookTube. She can be reached at: andtara@live.unc.edu

Come be #VegasStrong and YA Critical

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It is time to register. Click on this link to register and find out more about the conference. (More information will be added--conference hotels, breakout sessions, related activities and readings.) This conference will have something for everyone. We plan to discuss how and why we teach this literature. We are also interested in discussing an overall research agenda: what are doing, what do we need to do more off, and what are we missing. How can we muster the resources to conduct larger scale classroom studies and what would it look like?

The research outlets for YA Studies will be discussed including the vast array of literacy journals, but with a specific look at the journals in our field. What has been published in The ALAN Review, The Signal Journal, and in Study and Scrutiny? How have the various Children Literature journals attended to Young Adult Literature? 

We just sent out proposal acceptances to different academics, teachers, and graduate students. Look forward to further announcements about who will be presenting and the topics that will connect to the questions above. In addition many topics will be of specific value to classroom teachers and school media specialists. Topics will include: "reluctant" readers, combining writing and reading, bibliotherapy, censorship, diverse text, bridging to the classics with YA etc. 

Until next week.
13 Comments

Remembering Julius Lester

2/21/2018

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I have been reading young adult literature in earnest since about 2002. Before then, I read in the classification from time to time and I followed some of the leading authors. I wish I had read more, but I am making up for lost time. I still remember the tremendous power of reading the Day of Tears for the first time. I recommend, this wonderful book as a starting point. 

I just found this new notice on Facebook.

From Lian.
On March 4th, at 2pm, we will gather for a synagogue memorial service at the Jewish Community of Amherst to celebrate the life of Julius Lester and honor him with music, stories, and prayers. A light reception will follow where attendees will have an opportunity to speak.

It you knew him and are in the area you might consider attending.
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However, I believe that reading his works, might be another important way to remember him. So, don't worry if you aren't close by. Get thee to a library. Shakespeare praises the immortality of the written word in Sonnet 18, 

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Thanks, Julius. I hope this brief post helps people remember you and your work. I look forward to the chapter I have scheduled to write over the next couple of months.
Pharaoh’s Daughter, (2000)
Guardian, (2008)
Time’s Memory, (2006)
Othello, (1995)
Day of Tears, (2005)  
To Be a Slave, (1968)
Cupid, (2007)
When Dad Killed Mom, (2001)
Long Journey Home, (1972)

Sources for brief biographies and commentary on work.

 A quick sources for a brief biography and a list of works is found on Wikipedia.
His webpage also has a page dedicated to his books with brief descriptions and some small reviews.
Publishers Weekly has a nice story from 2001 by Sally Lodge when he had three books in the same season

Obituaries From Major Newpapers

Here is a collection of Obituaries written about Julius Lester. I am sure there are more, but together these provide a nice overview of his life and work.

Julius Lester: The New York Times Obituary
MassLive: Tributes to UMass professor Julius Lester pour in from all over world
MassLive: UMass Professor Julius Lester dies at 78
Julius Lester: Publishers Weekly
Julius Lester: The Washington Pos

Facebook Condolences and Comments

Below is a collection of some of the comments people left on Facebook after Julius Lester passed on. Some of these people I know personally, some I do not know at all, and some I know through their work. This is a just a small sample of the comments that were left. I think it speaks to his wide spread influence in the world of children's and young adult literature.
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Jill Hermann-Wilmarth To honor him, go read all of his books. Share his work with children.

Nancy Johnson  With gratitude for Julius Lester's wisdom, talent, and generosity of spirit 

Sylvie Juliet Shaffer This is such a special book, and he was such a special man! Growing up in Western Massachusetts, we were in overlapping Jewish communities. I was so honored to have raised my voice in songful prayer with him many times. His memory is already a blessing - thank you for sharing this book in his honor, Donalyn Miller! Can you draw two random winners, and I'll purchase and send one in his memory, too? I love this book and have used it with my preschool-aged son to talk about race.

Karen Jamison Wiley Julius Lester!! May his memory be used for a blessing!!

William Stuart House A great loss. Rest in peace my amazingly creative, wise ole SNCC brother. You will be missed! My sincerest condolences to the family.

Ellen Fockler We shall miss his wisdom, his gracious, gentle kindness. Our world -- near and far -- is so much richer for his having been a part of it.

Adina Nechama Hirschmann My deepest condolences on the loss of a great teacher and gentle soul. His FB page was a bright refuge from the chaos, intelligence and thoughtful coherent discourse in the dark environment of false news, and a virtual classroom of study and rational discussion in an era of anti-intellectualism. I wish I had the chance to meet him in person, but having the gift of his brilliant mind and humor expressed here was the next best thing. Rest in peace.

Lee Piscioneri My deepest condolences to you all. Julius was my greatest teacher. Peace be with you and may Julius Rest In Peace.

Lonnetta Gaines I am grateful to God, for giving us Mr. Julius Lester, a man of prodigious talents with the grace and love to share those talents with the world. I am so saddened by his passing ... but also uplifted to know that his presence continues in the Cloud of Ancestral Angels. My condolences to the family. Lian, thank you for sharing these days with us -- he waited for you!

Helen Tinsley His brilliance, insight, and literary gifts will live on forever and continue to touch generations - as his character and persona will also live on in the hearts and minds of those who were touched by him vicariously through his works or personally! To his family- I morn with you! To his son Lian - your sharing of his last days gave us an even closer glimpse into the man he was and the man he raised (you) - surely he waited to cross over until you arrived! Blessings to you all! ❤️❤️

Jane Yolen I knew him--well--forever. Saw his changes, how the light filled him. His books and voice a blessing. He passed that Light on. I have do doubt that we all have pieces of it. His memory IS a blessing. Lian thank you for bringing us all along on this last voyage of his. He taught to the end.

Paula Hawkins My heart is breaking. I was hoping he would get better. I needed to tell him that I found his book, "Black Folktales", in the rare and out-of-print books section at Labyrinth Bookstore in Princeton and bought it to give to my grandson. He meant so muchto "the movement" and to me as a student entering college in 1968 looking for a way to articulate and validate my experiences. I needed to tell him what he meant to me.

Glenn Corbiere "When I read the news, night came early in my day." - John Mayall. A loss for humanity. Rest in Peace, Julius Lester

first drafted on 1/20.2018
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Connecting with Tanuja Desai Hidier!

2/15/2018

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Are you confused? I readily admit, when I started reading YA literature more seriously and critically in 2000, I was confused. I loved to read, I encouraged reading, I promoted reading, but I neglected to include YA lit in my curriculum except as an after thought or as a small project to fill a gap. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

I have worked hard to fill my own gaps and used books as windows into worlds that I did not know. I hope that this blog, my academic work, and the academic work of many others that support this platform serves as a reminder that it is never too late to do something different in the classroom. It is never to late to let students read what they want. It is never too late to let them form their own literature circles, to form a book group, to write a poem, or to try out any of the suggestions or ideas promoted by the more than 70 academic, authors, teachers, librarians and students have contributed to the blog over the past 2 ½ years.

I did, however, deliberately start to read books by people who were not me. Early after its publication I found Born Confused. If you don’t know this book, you should. It is a powerful narrative. Again, it is one of those books that stays with me. I suggest it to people all of the time. I would never say that it captures “the” Indian American experience, but it certainly is “an” Indian American experience and generally considered the first YA novel “ with a US female teen desi heroine”.
​

I reached out to the author, Tanuja Desai Hidier awhile ago for an interview. Ok, much too long ago. She was good to respond and is involved in some very cool stuff that highlights the 15th year anniversary of Born Confused and celebrates her second novel, Bombay Blues and the album she wrote to accompany the book.

I admit to having a busy semester—don’t we all? I am in my hotel room near the end of the AERA conference in New York City writing this introduction. I have walked around New York slightly afraid that I will run into Tanuja (Although, I think she is in London most of the time.). I am embarrassed that I let obstacles get in the way of publishing her interview and linking to her music and other projects. Tanuja is the best introduction to her own work. Below you will find a brief introductory biography and then a series of videos that will show you her work and the collaborative projects she has been involved with.
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Tanuja Desai Hidier is an author, singer-songwriter, and innovator of the ‘booktrack’ (albums of original songs to accompany her novels). Her first novel, Born Confused—considered to be the first ever South Asian American YA novel—turns 15 this year. Born Confused was recently hailed by Rolling Stone Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and Paste Magazine as one of the greatest YA novels of all time (on lists including such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, and Little Women). She is the recipient of the 2015 South Asia Book Award (for her second novel, Bombay Blues), the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and the London Writers/Waterstones Award, and her short stories have been included in numerous anthologies. Her most recent project--DEEP BLUE SHE (The #Mutiny2Unity #MeToo #WeMix) music video/PSA, based on a track from her second album, and featuring 100+ artist/activists (mostly women of color)—just went live. Outlook India calls it “The We Are The World of our times.” More info at: www.thisistanuja.com/DeepBlueShe.
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In the interview (found at the bottom of the post) Tanuja adds a question that she answer to introduce her project.
Here it is:

​And finally: What are you doing to celebrate Dimple Lala’s 15th?
Celebrating The We! Our communities, our storytellers, our culture-makers-and-shapers. With the DEEP BLUE SHE #Mutiny2Unity #MeToo #WeMix music video project—a year in the making (massive shoutout to editor Atom Fellows)--featuring 100+ artist/activists (including authors Marina Budhos; Gemma Weekes; Kat Beyer; Uma Krishnaswami; Elizabeth Acevedo; Cynthia Leitich-Smith; Paula Yoo; Sharbari Ahmed; Mitali Desai; Eliot Schrefer; Mira Kamdar; Nico Medina; Billy Merrell; Bill Konigsberg). In a way, Deep Blue She is my birthday promise to Dimple Lala: To keep celebrating the ‘skins’ we’re in, honoring our collective and individual voices. And it’s a thank you as well, to the communities I’m blessed to know and call home, for their dedication and determination to fight the good fight. To tell our stories. And be heard.
 
(And hopefully to offer support and concrete help so others can do so: all artist proceeds from sales of the remix at Bandcamp to charity.)

Deep Blue She

Please find all of the "We" in the above Video at
Tanuja's Website: http://thisistanuja.com/deepblueshe/

Below is a fantastic video about Tauja's journey from Born Confused to Bombay Blues
And now to the music!
And more music!

Here is the complete interview with Tanuja

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Columbine, Sandy Hook, Aurora Colorado, Orlando, Las Vegas, and now Parkland.

2/15/2018

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It seems like it is time to update this post. Three months and the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School keeps showing up. I think their collective and individual actions are making a difference. They are taking action and, indeed, there are people helping them and making space for there efforts. 

I keep trying. I looking forward to this week's summit. I am looking forward to the conversations that I know will provide me with some renewal. I am looking forward to understand the ideas and the plans of other in the field of English Education and specifically in the YA literature community.

There is still a lot to do, but this video helped me put things into perspective a bit as we try to put the finishing touches on a lot of things.

​Let's measure things with Love.
“It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference.” President Donald Trump, Feb. 15, 2018

My first response.

It is all I can do not to be flip or sarcastic about this response to the Stonemason Douglas High School Shooting. I am working on my 40th year in education. I tremble when I think about how many shootings there have been. (They say 18 so far in 2018? * Look at the bottom of the post for sources and definistions on "school shootings.) At the same time, I am grateful that I never had to personally experience a school shooting or return to a school after such an event. What I have experienced over and over again is no action. It never seems to be the right time.

I have work to do, but it is hard to concentrate. I just can’t imagine any teacher, administrator, or student who has been even remotely connected to such a tragedy facing a day of school.

Like my friend and colleague Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil, I don’t care to debate gun control over social media. You can come and talk with me. I will try to listen, I promise. But when we talk, please don't tell that the politicians who take money from the NRA care about children. If they have not and will not take action, they just don’t. And so I feel grief.

As I try to work, I know one thing. There will be grief. I have worked with teachers, students, and educators who care. I am proud of fellow English educators who are responding. Some may disagree with their language, their frustration, or their public posting of their feelings and anxiety, but it is a clear manifestation of their visceral grief.
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I want to say I am done with this issue, but I am not nor can I be. I will work hard to make a difference. I wrote my Republican Senator and told him that if he did nothing substantive I would walk to every house in my precinct over and over in opposition.

Where I am now.

This blog has been running in full force for almost three years. I have written about Orlando, about Las Vegas, and now about Parkland. Should I set a limit? Should I only write if there are more than ten deaths? Should I never write, but just pray?

I am a believer, yet, more than once I have asked in prayer, like man with the afflicted child, “Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief”
Mark 9:24.  I am also convinced that Faith requires work. As James 2:17-18 states “Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast Faith, and I have works: shew me they faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. James 2:17-18).


I do not disagree, it is a time for prayer, but moreover it is time for works, for actions.
 

Today, I am grateful that Michelle Falter and I are working on two edited books about dealing with death, trauma, and grief. I spent most of yesterday reading and editing chapters that will help teachers learn to teach and respond to these issues more directly. I will work on this project today. The work of these scholars gives me hope. I will try hope in the midst of grief. It is what I can do today.
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Sadly, no matter what actions are taken or not taken--Grief is here.

Here is an action

I revisit the advice and wisdom of Shelly Shaffer and invite you to do the same.

I want to say their names again, when I think about when I wrote about Orlando.

I want to look for the helpers when I consider the ways that Las Vegas is trying to be #lasvegasstrong.
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One final thought. I think both teachers and students will find some comfort when they read books that speak truth to their experiences of grief and violence. Books that confront fear, corruption, and powerlessness. Books that will move them towards action and towards hope.
​

I await your suggestions.
 A few links and discussions of what is considered a "school shooting."  None of the near "shootings" make me any more comfortable. I do a appreciate the comment that reminds me to provide sources.

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/02/16/how-many-school-shootings-have-happened-in.html

http://checkyourfact.com/2018/02/15/fact-check-18-school-shootings-2018/

https://www.popsugar.com/news/How-Many-School-Shootings-Have-Been-2018-44523849

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/14/school-shootings-in-america-2018-how-many-so-far

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5581283/school-shootings-2018-america-us-how-many-list-florida-parkland-shooting/

​https://www.snopes.com/2018/02/16/how-many-school-shootings-in-2018/

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On Valentine's Day, the Old and New: A Life-Long Love Affair with YA by Gary Salvner

2/12/2018

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Since I (Steve) began studying Young Adult in earnest 2002, I kept thinking about the legacy of the early writers and whether or not a default group of classics has been created within the classification. This is a great question and one that won't be resolved in one post. Nevertheless, one of the people you want in the conversation is Gary Salvner. His contribution as a scholar, as the executive director of ALAN, one of the founders of the Youngstown English Festival, and as an all round great guy assures his place in the conversation. In this post, he revisits his early involvement with Young Adult Literature and positions some questions about early authors and the continuing legacy of their works. 

Gary's post is a valuable addition to anyone's set of resources for teaching literature, for marking some foundations, and for directly suggesting that we now work to embrace wider diversity in our field. This is one that should be bookmarked and shared with students at every level. Who knows, you just might be inspired to reread a few books or discover some of these authors for the first time.

On Valentine's Day, the Old and New: A Life-Long Love Affair with YA by Gary Salvner

​Recently, I (Gary) had an occasion to think back on where we have been in the field of young adult literature.  I was gathering tributes for a memory book to be distributed this spring at our 40th anniversary Youngstown (OH) State University English Festival, and I found myself writing letters to many of the early titans in our field, including Richard Peck, Cynthia Voigt, Sue Ellen Bridgers, M.E. Kerr, Bruce Brooks and Robert Newton Peck.  I surveyed another list of former Festival guests who had left us--Robert Cormier, Paul Zindel, Rosa Guy, Norma Fox and Harry Mazer, and William Sleator—and I got to musing about what they had given us and how this currently robust field of young adult literature might have evolved since they were writing.
​About what they have given us.  Certainly they gave us touchstones: ​Cormier’s The Chocolate War, Zindel’s ​The Pigman,  Sue Ellen Bridgers’ lovely Home Before Dark, Voigt’s Homecoming saga, the futuristic House of Stairs by Bill Sleator, Bruce Brook’s marvelous Midnight Hour Encores, and Kerr’s great works addressing class and gender issues--Deliver Us from Evie and Gentlehands, for example.  These are works that still merit a place in any classroom library.  
As to how we’ve evolved, though, another feature of these early works struck me when I noticed how almost singularly “white” they are.  Those early days of young adult literature were not terribly different from most literature and popular culture of the 1960s and early ‘70s—an assertion of a dominant Caucasian culture that rarely so much as acknowledged the diversity of our land.

I remember back even farther than the 40 years of YSU English Festivals I’ve helped to run.  Almost fifty years ago I was standing in a middle school classroom in urban St. Louis, Missouri, one of my first teaching assignments.  The students were completely different from me—all African-American, most living in public housing projects (including the infamous Pruitt-Igoe, one of the most notorious experiments in high density public housing in America).  I recall feeling desperate about what I might give them to read. Our short story collection contained stories by O. Henry, Jack London’s “To Build a Fire,” Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” etc.  I don’t recall a single story in the book portraying young people who looked and lived like my students. (In fact, now that I think of it, I don’t even recall a single teen character in those works, and offhand, I can’t think of a single female protagonist.)  Rooting around in a St. Louis bookstore one day (there was no Amazon back then), I came across Frank Bonham’s Durango Street (published in 1965), one of our very first urban young adult novels, and tried it out with mixed success.  I was a rough go, connecting with those students.  
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By contrast, I think of the fresh diversity that YA lit has given young readers today.  Stories about African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and immigrants from many countries.  Stories that not only treat, but also honor, gender diversity, cultural variety, and ethnically rich settings and situations.  In some ways, we’ve come a long way from those early years of YA, and it’s been a good and fruitful journey.
           
But I also think of literary quality, and here the road seems to angle not as certainly upward.  Without a doubt, some YA writers today are giving us exhilarating, rich, and complex works—people like M.T. Anderson, Marcus Zusak, and Jennifer Donnelly.  The range of literary types—from contemporary fiction to fantasy to historical and dystopian fiction, to verse novels, graphic novels, and nonfiction—is, I think, broader than it has ever been, and that’s to be celebrated as we also acknowledge with the body of current YA literature that readers don’t all look alike, read alike, and search for relevance (or even pleasure) alike.  
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And yet that matter of quality. I wonder how contemporary YA literature stands against those early classics in our field.  Do we have writers shaping settings with as much care as Voigt does in taking us to the Chesapeake Bay region, or Rich Wallace does in Wrestling Sturbridge?  Do we have themes jump out with the same urgency as M.E. Kerr and Sue Ellen Bridgers deliver them? Do we have a contemporary work as stunningly complex in plot and structure as Cormier’s I Am the Cheese?  Do we have writers today who attend to every word stylistically as Richard Peck or Bruce Brooks did?  Has there ever been a better first line written than Cormier’s in The Chocolate War? (“They murdered him.”) Or S.E. Hinton’s in The Outsiders? (“When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.”)
But perhaps I’ve set up an unnecessary competition between early and contemporary works in our field.  Certainly the point isn’t to put them into battle and declare a winner—to assert that old is better than new, or vice versa.
           
Maybe here is the point:  As we survey the hundreds, even thousands, of new YA titles that are published annually today, perhaps we might simultaneously reach back for some of those great works that have served us for decades.  Perhaps we’ll find in re-reading them a realization that we’ve been given quite a remarkable foundation by these early writers.  Perhaps we’ll be tempted to pull them out for our students and say, “Here’s one to try. This is quite some book.”
           
I think I’ll go read The Pigman again.  It’s been a while.  
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Javaka Steptoe and Vogue Robinson at UNLV courtesy of the Gale A. Zeiter Literacy Center.

2/8/2018

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Javaka Steptoe  Illustrator  and author

Every year the Gayle A. Zeiter center hosts a Children's and Young Adult Literature Conference. The two professors who put this conference together are Dr. Sophie Ladd and Dr. Denise Davila. They do wonderful work. This year they hosted Javaka Steptoe and local Clark County Poet Laureate, Vogue Robinson.  It was a wonderful event. I enjoyed the vibrant art of Javaka and the moving poetry of Vogue. 

Javaka shared his book, Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. It was actually quite moving to hear him introduce and explore the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat. I confess that I did know his art very well. I loved how Javaka's book was both his creation and an homage to the work of another artist. Do yourself a favor and explore the works of both.
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I know, some of are thinking- "Hey Steve, this is a blog for YA." Yes, but beauty and art is found in different places. In his speech, that was mainly directed at teachers, Javaka admonished us to do our work based on four words. They are: Love, Me, Honesty, and Forgive. I was instructed. I hope that I try to love what I do. I strive to make "me" present in what I do and say. I think that I work to be honest --with me students, my work, and my passionate. Forgive, myself and my students. This was very powerful. Life can be a series of hits and misses. Let's strive to forgive and move forward with love and forgiveness.

Vogue Robinson

I love to listen to spoken word poetry. Vogue was an amazing find. I am going to have to talk to Denise about why I haven't been introduced to her sooner. Watch out secondary education students at UNLV, there will be a poet coming to you soon. Hit this link and like Vogue's Facebook page.
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I was attending the conference and just could resist archiving such a wonderful event.
Until next time.

​Steve
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The Lasting Influence: In Remembrance of Ursula Le Guin by Margaret Robbins

2/7/2018

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The occasion of this blog post is the sad passing of the esteemed author Ursula Le Guin. While she  wrote serious science fiction and fantasy for adults, her books are often discovered early by voracious adolescent readers. As a result, Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday Blog wanted to honor her accomplishments.

To that end, I thought of the work of Margaret Ann Robbins. I know that she works from a feminist poststructual framework and has a deep interest in graphic novels, fantasy, science fiction, and popular culture. You just might find her at a Comic-Con event. Last summer, I heard her presentation at the CEE conference--we will include it in this post. Thanks Margaret

Reading about the Life and Accomplishments of Ursula Le Guin

Ursula Le Guin passed away on Monday, January 22, in Portland, Oregon, at age 88. The New York Times Obituary by Gerald Jonas (with contributions by Daniel E. Slotnik) acclaimed Le Guin as a writer who “ brought literary depth and a tough-minded feminist sensibility to science fiction and fantasy”. According to The New York Times Obituary by Jonas, Le Guin was highly prolific and wrote more than 20 novels, a dozen books of poetry, over 100 short stories, seven essays, 13 children’s books, and five volumes of translation. She won the Hugo and Nebula awards for both The Left Hand of Darkness in 1970 and The Dispossessed in 1975, which also won the Locus Award.  The Guardian obituary described The Dispossessed as “intellectually formidable,” and it conveyed through fiction “her speculations about human nature and nurture.” Le Guin gained a Twitter presence in 2016 for refusing to blurb an all-male science fiction anthology. Throughout her work, Le Guin addressed sociocultural and sociopolitical issues that were ahead of her time, and her work warrants continued study.
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The Lasting Influence of Ursula Le Guin: Novels Worth Exploring and Parallel YA/Comic Texts

Literature becomes timeless when its themes are still relevant many years after publication. Ursula Le Guin has multiple works of speculative fiction that are worthy of study in classroom settings. My colleague Jennifer J. Whitley and I wrote a book chapter for the book Fantasy Literature: Challenging Genres (Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres) on teaching Fledgling by Octavia Butler and The Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin in secondary classrooms, with feminist poststructuralism as the primary theoretical perspective in mind. Please read our book chapter for more theoretical and pedagogical ideas on these and other speculative fiction works.
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As aforementioned, The Left Hand of Darkness won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1970. I believe young people today would be interested in the novel for the following reasons:
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The timely messages about immigration and respect for people from other lands: When Genly Ai comes to the planet Winter, or “Gethen,” to try to convince the people of the planet to join the government system of Ekumen (83 planets total), he has to learn to respect the customs of a land that is different from his. The idea of trying to persuade a planet to join a larger governmental body is akin to the imperialistic nature of the United States and other major world powers: We believe our ways of ruling to be superior and want to obtain more power by having more territories under our rule, or at least under or sphere of political influence. Students could have thoughtful discussions about how imperialism, both in literature and in current events, should be re-examined to avoid the danger of “us” and “them” binaries regarding foreign and political events. ​
Sexuality issues: In this novel, the human-like beings of Gethren are androgynous have the option to choose to be male or female at the height of their sexual cycle. This idea could spark discussions about assigned biological sex versus gender and how society could be different if people had more choice and freedom in both regards. As gender neutral bathrooms are becoming more common and gender binaries continue to be questioned, it is important for students to develop empathy for people who do not fit typical male/female binaries for gender performance and sex
Accessible language and short chapters: This novel, although not originally marketed as a Young Adult literature narrative, has chapters that are engaging with a solid mix of dialogue and description and that, with their fast pace, very much mimic the style of many YA speculative fiction novels I have read. I felt as though I was watching a movie while recently re-reading this novel and believe that young people would be drawn to the writing style.  ​
Outstanding world building: For the Hainish Cycle, the larger series of which this novel is a part, Le Guin created new planets and a whole entire new universe. The planet of Winter/Gethren is so beautifully described, I as a reader felt like I was there with the characters. It serves as an outstanding mentor text to students and aspiring writers in that regard, particularly those interested in speculative fiction universes. ​
Social issues being addressed: Jennifer J. Whitley and I elaborated on this idea in our chapter, and I also did so in my dissertation work. A trend I have noticed in this genre is that authors tackle social issues in alternative universes, such as race, gender, sexuality, and politics, that would be more difficult to do in realistic fiction for fear of hitting too close to home. When reading about these “tough topics” in other worlds, we as readers can remove ourselves enough to look at the social justice issues with a degree of objectivity, yet the resultant empathy building can apply to current world situations. ​
Parallels to other YA Texts: Many YA novels and comics have similar themes to this novel, such as Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins, and the new Ms. Marvel series by G. Willow Wilson. As I explained in my 2017 CEE Presentation, the characters in these narratives do not fit all of society’s expectations of their assigned gender and race, and through coming-of-age narratives, they achieve a sense of empowerment to be who they really are. The covers of these works are interesting to study in connection with discussions about race, gender, and political status in society.  ​
As follow-up, I now plan to read the first book of Le Guin’s Earthsea series known as A Wizard of Earthsea (1968). The next two novels of the series are The Tombs of Atuan (1970), and The Farthest Shore (1972), followed by the later novels Tehanu (Book 4 in the Earthsea series), Tales from Earthsea (a collection of shorter narratives)  and The Other Wind (the final Earthsea novel). These novels are considered important in children’s and YA literature circles. Many of them won awards, including both the Nebula Award and the Locus Award for Tehanu, the National Book Award for The Farthest Shore, and the World Fantasy Award for The Other Wind, among other accolades. I look forward to exploring these stories and hope that other educators and librarians will do the same, in order to honor Ursula Le Guin’s important legacy.
Back to Dr.  Bickmore again. I have known Margaret for awhile, but had the chance to hear her presentation at the 2017 CEE conference. In her talk she mentioned some of the books that she included in this blog  post. The title was Analyzing and Complicating Young Adult Literature: Characters Who Challenge Traditional Gender Roles. She has graciously allowed me to include the powerpoint of her presentation below.
Margaret A. Robbins has a PhD in Language and Literacy Education from The University of Georgia. She is a National Writing Project Teacher-Consultant and a Teacher-Scholar at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta, Georgia. She has peer-reviewed journal articles published in The ALAN Review, SIGNAL Journal, Gifted Child Today, Social Studies Research and Practice, and The Qualitative Report. She also has a chapter in the book Fantasy Literature: Challenging Genres, Edited by Mark A. Fabrizi, and a chapter in the recently published book Comic Connections: Reflecting on Women in Popular Culture, Edited by Sandra Eckard. Her research interests include comics, Young Adult literature, fandom, critical pedagogy, literacy communities, and writing instruction/practices. She can be contacted at: mar.writer@gmail.com
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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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