Blog Archives

Sneak Peek! Join us for the Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature!

2/23/2022

All right--if you just want to cut to the chase and register, you will need to cool your jets and wait until next week. Our registration link will post March 2, 2022. For those of you waiting on proposal decisions, stay tuned--you will hear from us soon. For those of you who need further coaxing to register, today’s post is a shameless plug and sneak peek for the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. Titled Books, Classrooms, Communities: Young Adult Literature as a Lifeline, the Summit will focus on the ways our lives have changed post-COVID-19 and the ways that books come to our aid. We will feature Brandy Colbert, Varian Johnson, and Malinda Lo along with Ashley Hope Pérez, Brendan Kiely, and Alexandra Villasante, who will help us consider how we can use Young Adult literature as we navigate these challenges.

Pam Allyn (2020) acknowledges our students’ “significant challenges and traumas,” stating that reading is a “lifeline,” “help[ing] all students feel a sense of belonging, to feel less alone, and to work on their journeys of becoming passionate, thoughtful, curious people in the world in spite of the challenges these days have brought to them.” Allyn also affirms that reading can bring that sense of community to “all of us...who care for and love the children we serve. Reading, and stories themselves, are a lifeline for all of us.”

At the summit, English educators, practicing teachers, teacher consultants, and librarians will discuss how YA literature can bring ourselves, our students, our colleagues, our communities, to a healthier place. After all, YA books help our marginalized students find safety, purpose, and agency. We know that books save lives.

There are ways that books as lifelines are being questioned. As articulated a few weeks ago on YA Wednesday, our newsfeeds are barbed wires instead of lifelines, populated with angry parents challenging books that each of us have come to value and love--books that have saved our students’ lives.

However, Meg Medina, the 2019 Summit’s keynote, wrote, “Stop the Madness: Banning Books is Not the Answer'' on censorship:
To pull books from a school library because of the discomfort they create in adults is a recipe for disaster. It erodes the trust young people have in the adults in their lives and pushes them to secrecy. It undermines the studied opinion of professional librarians and educators. It supports a false idea that there is one version of life that is acceptable. And, it denigrates the work of authors who are brave enough to name experiences that are difficult and real.

Ashley Hope Perez, a keynote speaker at the 2020 UNLV Summit has aptly warned us that “attacks on books are proxy wars against people that some wish didn’t exist.” Laurie Halse Anderson, a keynote speaker at the 2018 UNLV Summit, has stated,“Censorship is the child of fear, and the father of ignorance. Our children cannot afford to have the truth of the world withheld from them. They need us to be brave enough to give them great books so that they can grow into the strong women and men that we need them to be.”

With that hope, join us to think about books as lifelines. We will discuss how our classroom libraries can be lifeline threads, reaching out to students both inside and outside the margins. We will consider how administrators can be encouraged to see YA literature as a lifeline. We will connect you with authors, colleagues, policies, and communities that will strengthen your advocacy and resolve.

This year the conference will be online one day and in person two days.

Day one (virtual) will focus on empirical or conceptual research in the field.

Days two and three (in person) will employ a practitioner focus.

Those participating in all three days are welcome to attend with us in Las Vegas in person on the first day.

We are eager for you to join us in Vegas so that we can collaborate and discuss the state and value of YA literature. See you in June!

0 Comments

Young adult literature for social justice by Dr. Alice Hays and Rupsy Bajwa

2/16/2022

1 Comment

We are thrilled to welcome Rupsy and Alice to the blog today so that they can share their ideas for teaching social justice with young adult literature. Especially since COVID-19 began, it has been difficult to connect with others, yet students' development of empathy is crucial. We must find ways to help students read meaningfully and understand different points of view. Planning for these goals, and using young adult literature, can help!

A bit about today's authors: Rupsy Bajwa was part of the founding cohort of residency teachers for the Kern High Teacher Residency Program, and is currently finishing her third year as an English teacher at Ridgeview High School. She is also a member of California Association of Teachers of English. Dr. Alice Hays received her Ph.D. in English Education from Arizona State University in 2017. Prior to embarking on her PhD career, she was a secondary English teacher in Arizona for 18 years. She is currently an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education at CSU Bakersfield.

Young adult literature for social justice by Dr. Alice Hays and Rupsy Bajwa

Getting Started

Education has changed post COVID, we have realized that all of the things that seemed to be working before are not working anymore. With this in mind, I began my third year as a Freshman English teacher, and I promised myself that I would uphold the following principles:

Incorporate more engaging activities
Spark curiosity
Prioritize listening and speaking skills with student led discussions
Have fun!

With these principles in mind, I developed a unit inspired by Dr. Hays’ book, Engaging Empathy and Activating Agency. We began the year with defining privilege. The privilege for sale activity was my hook for the unit, and I hoped to spark curiosity.

Before diving deep into the problems that our community faces, I wanted my students to first understand their own identities. It was important for them to understand what their stories are and how they fit in this world. We watched The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to understand how stories are told from the white perspective and how stereotypes define who we are. After watching the TedTalk, students worked on the single story project where they created images of their face displaying adjectives or phrases that showed how others see them on one side and how they see themselves on the other side.

Here’s where the fun came in! In order to define and answer essential questions like what is equality in America and what is activism, students read various articles on equality and youth activists that they chose. We then practiced academic discussion and started doing Fishbowls. Students who were typically shy came out of their shells and also made personal and community connections with the topics. Immigration, for example, is something that students have personally experienced.

From there, I moved on with surveying my students to find out which social issues they were most interested in. According to the results of the survey, the following topics were most popular in all of my classes:

Immigration
Racial equality/discrimination
Gender equality
Mental health
Abuse (domestic/drug & alcohol)
LGBTQ+

I worked with my librarian and mentor teacher to obtain books for each topic, and I set up my class for a book tasting. As my students walked in, they were intrigued and excited to try out the different books. And then something magical happened, the students picked out their YA novels and topics, I put them in literature circles, and they read. Students were engaged and invested. My favorite student comments were, “Ms. Bajwa I don’t even ever read, and I’m reading now” or “Ms. Bajwa, is today a reading day because I really want to know what happens next!”

While we wanted to provide lots of choice for students so that they were able to both focus on their issue AND find a book they really enjoyed reading, there are a few books that the students seem to be particularly engaged with depicted below.

The first book is the graphic novel, Hey Kiddo by Jarret Krosoczka. If you want to know how to pronounce his last name in addition to finding out a bit of the backstory on this book,, you can find a link to his book talk of Hey Kiddo here.

The power of this book comes from the images and realistic story-telling. The main character has a mother who is an addict, and he feels as though his life is out of control. Although his life is difficult and his mother is unable to be the parent he needs, he is surrounded by love and is able to feel some control over his life through art. Students who have chosen this book in the past tend to be reluctant readers, but highly enjoy reading this book. One of Rupsy’s students was talking to her group members about how she personally had not been through some of these things, but it helped her relate to her step-brother who has been through those difficult topics.

This is the empathy we are hoping to develop.

Another book is The Border by Steve Schafer, which is about four teens whose family is murdered by criminals, and their only chance at surviving is to flee Mexico. Students are loving the story, and have frequently asked to continue reading the book (which is always music to our ears). Interestingly, several students have opened up and shared stories of their own family members who have had to cross the border for their own safety. Ms. Bajwa feels as though the book is providing a sense of safety for those students, as they had not previously shared their stories with her.

The third book is Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas. While The Hate U Give has received critical acclaim and notoriety, Concrete Rose is an exploration of how the story came to be. Maverick is the son of a King Lord, although he has goals to escape the gang life. Fate, however, throws up barriers, and we see how Maverick navigates the harsh reality he faces. In the literature circle discussions, students talk about how Lisa (Maverick’s girlfriend) assumes that Maverick is just another drug dealer while another student chimes in and makes the connection that this is how America sees black people, they see them as thugs or people who do drugs. The student also mentions how wrong this is and the injustice it creates for black people in America. Student also talks about how he liked the part where Mavrick cries and it shows that he is not heartless. Another student brings up how he was stressed from caring for a newborn child, so that’s why Maverick is crying. Students show empathy for these characters in different ways.

There is nothing better as a teacher than to have students enthusiastic about reading a novel and taking subsequent action after the fact! This approach lends itself to students having a sense of purpose, joy, identity, criticality and intellect in addition to the typical skills taught in class. We’d love to share with you if you have other questions! Feel free to email us at ahays2@csub.edu or amardeep_bajwa@kernhigh.org .

1 Comment

Lessons for Writers & Lessons for Life: Stellar YA Nonfiction by Angie Beumer Johnson & Stefanie Wilcox

2/9/2022

0 Comments

Angie Beumer Johnson is a professor of English Language and Literatures at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, where she holds a joint appointment in the Teacher Education Department. She founded WORDBridge Now, LLC, to offer a live online community of authors, speakers, educators, and all committed to diversity and social justice. She enjoys researching, writing, and presenting with her students. Contact her at angela.johnson@wright.edu.

Stefanie Wilcox is currently a secondary preservice English teacher at Wright State University. Teaching is her second career, and she can already see how her first career adds value and perspective to this new adventure. She enjoys reading, writing, and traveling with her husband and children. Contact her at kunzler.2@wright.edu.

Lessons for Writers & Lessons for Life: Stellar YA Nonfiction by Angie Beumer Johnson & Stefanie Wilcox

Over the years I (Angie) have learned so much from reading YA nonfiction. I learned of 12th-century Japan from Pamela S. Turner and Gareth Hinds’ biography Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune, and of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in Ji Li Jiang’s memoir Red Scarf Girl. The adage holds true: The more we learn, the more we realize how little we know.

In addition to all we can learn from YA nonfiction, the craft of award-winning authors offers readers moments to feel deeply as well as models for our own writing. As it can be hard to “see the forest for the trees,” here we shine a spotlight on snippets of YA nonfiction writers’ craft.

Lessons for Writers

One such book that deserves a close reading is Boston Globe-Horn Book nonfiction winner and National Book Award long-lister Paula Yoo’s From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement. (How is it possible that I–Angie–as a young teen at the time of Chin’s brutal murder by Ronald Ebens, a white man, had never heard of this tragedy and travesty of justice–one even that the White House had commemorated decades later?)

Yoo deftly draws the reader in with poetic style, juxtaposition and suspense. She shares a comment from Ebens regarding the outcome of the trial: “I told my wife that morning she might as well put a stamp on my ass ‘cause they were going to be sending me away,” and when the sentence was announced, he commented, “[Y]ou could have knocked me over with a feather” (Yoo, 2021, p. 62.) While the tone of the comments can’t be determined with certainty, the everyday colloquialisms reinforce the lightness of the sentence:

“Probation. Three thousand dollars.
That was it.
[…]
They were free…for now (Yoo, 2021, p. 62).

Yoo’s simple but highly effective use of short sentences, italics, and paragraph breaks pack a punch, particularly as juxtaposed against the longer sentences and seemingly light tone of Ebens’ words.

The remainder of the book details the suspenseful “for now”–reinforced by the ellipsis–and immerses the reader in the unspeakable heartache of Chin’s family and fianceé, and the battle for a sentence commensurate with the horrific beating resulting in his death.

Lessons for Life

My (Stefanie’s) 9th-grader recently came home from school with the book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You; intrigued by the title, I felt compelled to read it. In this “not a history book” (Reynolds, 2020, p. 1), Jason Reynolds uses short, concise sentences to retell Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning in a way that engages YA readers.

Language is powerful, and choosing the right word or phrase draws the reader in. Reading Stamped felt like a one-on-one conversation with Jason Reynolds. Arriving at the Afterword of the book, Reynolds (2020) asks, “How do you feel? I mean, I hope after reading this not history book, you’re left with some answers” (p. 245). It took me a minute to realize that I had been reading a book and not personally conversing with the author.

As a teenager, I dreaded reading nonfiction because it was dry, boring, and overly academic. Reading YA nonfiction is the complete opposite experience. In the introduction of Stamped, Ibram Kendi describes Reynolds as “one of the most gifted writers of our time. I don’t know of anyone who would have been better at connecting the past to the present” (Reynolds, 2020, p. x). Both Yoo and Reynolds are conversational and write in a way that engages teens and young adults.

Many writers are stepping away from “Standard” English and using their natural voice to converse with their readers. Encouraging our students to use their voices in their writing celebrates diversity and invites inclusion.

The class I am student teaching in recently wrote about the theme of their unit text. We told the kids not to worry about grammar and just write. That authentic voice helped us gauge their understanding of the text and allowed us to have unique conversations with them about their ideas. Reynolds acknowledges the contributions that the youth of today are making and will make in the fight against social injustices “that [they] have not caused but surely have the potential to cure” (Reynolds, 2020, p. 252), and giving them a voice through their writing will help them examine solutions to today’s problems.

Intentionally choosing words to enhance meaning and being deliberate with punctuation and writing structure allows the authors of YA nonfiction to tell a story and take readers on a journey that enhances knowledge. The magic of YA nonfiction is that it engages readers while modeling how to write to draw readers into an authentic conversation.

Excellent YA Nonfiction
Anschel’s Story: Determined to Survive, by Renate Frydman (Holocaust survivor account based on audiotapes of interviews from the author’s husband)

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia, by Candace Fleming

I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World, by Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick

Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight for Justice, Bryan Stevenson

The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege, by Brendan Kiely

Positive: Surviving My Bullies, Finding Hope, and Changing the World, by Paige Rawl with Ali Benjamin (memoir of bullying based on HIV status)

Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, by Ji Li Jiang

Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition, by Katie Rain Hill

Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitusne, by Pamela S. Turner, ilus. Gareth Hinds

Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen, by Arin Andrews

This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work, by Tiffany Jewell

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Story of Black Lives Matter and the Power to Change the World, by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele

References
Reynolds, J., & Kendi, I. X. (2020). Stamped: Racism, antiracism, and you: A remix of
the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning. Little, Brown
Books for Young Readers.

Yoo, P. (2021). From a whisper to a rallying cry: The killing of Vincent Chin and the trial
that galvanized the Asian American Movement. Norton Young Readers.

0 Comments

Seen, Heard, Understood: Advocating for Banned YA Books by Dr. Gretchen Rumohr

2/2/2022

0 Comments

While book bans always catch my eye and raise my blood pressure, recent headlines featuring Art Spiegelman, Jerry Craft, and Ashley Hope Perez seem to be giving the movement new life. As we see bans in schools as well as public libraries, we are fortified by the American Library Association’s recent statement affirming the “right to read and access information freely.” We can be informed and encouraged by The National Council of Teachers of English’s Intellectual Freedom Center. We can remember that many book bans are rooted in racist ideas.

We continue to buy banned books– and some of the Weekend Picks on this blog will share recommendations. We can advocate for sound procedures for challenged books and talk to our local school board members about the value of pleasure reading. Perhaps we can serve on our local library board; hopefully we can vote for candidates that value literacy as we do.

Looking at frequently banned lists makes me nostalgic, like I’m seeing old friends. As a teenager, I speed-read Judy Blume’s Forever as I hid from my grandpa at the Rockford, Illinois Public Library. My mom brought me to the public library in Mason, Michigan every Saturday, where I checked out Christopher Pike and Sweet Valley High, falling in line with the mid-eighties horror and romance movement. Even then, I was reading banned books.

My mom was too busy with my three younger brothers to attend to banned book lists, let alone monitor what I read–and thank goodness. Those early reading experiences were just right, helping me to learn more about young adulthood and all of the issues that made it awkward and challenging: friendships, dating, drugs, drama, sex. In so many ways, reading those books validated my own experiences and questions, and helped me to think ahead to how I’d handle future problems.

This experience leads me to wonder: what are some current banned YA books that help our students feel seen, heard, and understood?

A book about sexual assault: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

It’s not surprising that Speak–finalist for the National Book award, winner of a Printz honor–persists as a bestselling, high-interest book. It’s also a frequently-challenged book. In fact, by 2020, Speak was the “fourth most banned and challenged book in the United States ‘because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity.’”

Some readers connect with Melinda due to her social problems; what high-schooler doesn’t feel, at some point, like the world is against them, that their parents don’t understand them, that they have no friends and that their teachers are clueless? Other readers connect with Melinda on an even deeper, more personal level: she has been sexually assaulted, and no one knows. Melinda is not alone: one in every six women will be victimized by sexual violence. As a survivor of sexual assault, I found myself frustrated, yet vindicated by Melinda’s situation. I understood all too well why she wasn’t telling her parents, why her parents failed to notice what was wrong, and how the school didn’t provide proper support. While my situation was not exactly the same as Melinda’s, reading Speak coincided with my decision to seek the help of a therapist 25 years after my own assault. Speak saved my life. It allowed me to grieve what was lost and move forward with joy.

A book about LGBTQ lives: Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

Based on a true story, Two Boys Kissing centers the story of 17-year-olds Harry and Craig, who wish to set the new Guinness World Record for kissing, while also telling the stories of other LGBTQ teens seeking love and belonging. The book is narrated by a Greek chorus made up of a generation of gay men lost to AIDS and features Levithan’s rich, descriptive prose. While the book’s literary merit brought a 2013 National Book Award Longlist among other honors, it has faced numerous challenges. Some challengers aren’t fond of the book cover and its depiction of same-sex affection; others are offended by what they describe as “explicit LGBTQ content.”

Responding creatively to concerns that the cover could deter closeted LGBTQ youth from buying or borrowing the book, Levithan says: “Even for the kids who don’t feel comfortable taking it out of the library or buying it in the bookstore yet, they know they are there. They know they are represented…you know that there is a part of you that belongs there, and is accepted.”

A book about young love and brutal abuse: Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez

In this Printz Honor book told from multiple perspectives, Perez describes East Texas in 1937, when the town revolves around the oil industry, school resources are directed toward white kids, and racial lines are rarely crossed. Even with such division, Mexican American Naomi Vargas and African American Wash Fuller fall deeply in love. While Wash has a supportive family, Naomi faces sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather and also serves as the main caregiver for her twin siblings. When a natural gas leak causes the third-deadliest disaster in Texas’s history, townspeople are looking for someone to blame, with tragic consequences.

Out of Darkness is honest and graphic, and portrays a star-crossed love story that many readers cannot shake. In describing Wash and Naomi’s love, Perez describes the kind of love that our young readers long for themselves. It also holds readers to difficult historical truths which, despite their value, some readers may find troubling. It employs a historically accurate vernacular which has been famously challenged and then circulated on TikTok. Perez has responded to critics and continues to advocate for the right to read this noteworthy book.

A book about the forgotten: Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

Jackson is a master of suspenseful, turn-on-a-dime plots featuring believable–but unreliable–narrators. In Monday’s Not Coming, Claudia searches in vain for her best friend, Monday Charles. She needs Monday so that she can face bullies and a learning disability, but Monday is nowhere to be found. Readers learn that Monday lives in gentrification-challenged, project housing and has an abusive mother. Despite Claudia’s persistent questions, her parents, teachers, and friends cannot tell her where Monday is. In fact, they cannot even remember when they last saw her. Eventually we learn that Monday has been murdered and stashed in a freezer. When Claudia learns of Monday’s fate, her understanding of events becomes fuzzy and her narration breaks down, leaving readers shocked and confused, but still engaged. After all, regardless of sequencing and details, main truths persist: Monday was Black. Monday was a girl. She lived in the projects and was loved by Claudia. She was brutally murdered and hidden, but no one seemed to even notice she was gone. Monday was forgotten.

Monday’s Not Coming has been challenged by parents calling it “dirty” and saying that its depiction of abuse makes them “uncomfortable.” Yet Jackson does not desire comfortable stories. The purpose of this story is to shake us up, to bring cognitive dissonance, to motivate us to do something. Monday’s Not Coming narrates the “disproporionate media attention on missing white girls and women.” Those being “triggered” by the book have the privilege of being triggered by the book rather than actual events in their own lives–all the more reason why we must read books about the forgotten, lest we forget.

A book about apathy and action: All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

All American Boys has been banned for its apparent profanity, drug use, alcoholism, anti-police views, and divisive content. In fact, in 2020, it was in the third position on the American Library Association’s list of most commonly challenged books in the U.S. This text speaks to current issues, however, and has also won critical recognition, having received a 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor, a Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature, and the 2016 Walden.

In this book, a young, gifted, and black young 16-year-old, Rashad, is mistaken for a shoplifter and is brutally beaten by a white cop. The beating is witnessed by several members of Rashad’s community and is also recorded on a video camera, and one witness–in particular, a white, male athlete named Quinn–must decide which side he’ll take. On one side is the cop who has been his father figure his entire life, and who is also guilty of police brutality. On the other hand is his classmate Rashad, who must begin to put his life back together. As Rashad’s and Quinn’s stories are told in tandem by Kiely and Reynolds, readers must take sides, just as the characters do. Such positioning brings representation: there are those who experience racism, those who may wish to take action, and those who are immobilized by apathy. This book is a welcome challenge to the apathy we witness regarding racial justice. Beyond being a current, relevant text, and one that encourages stance-taking, this text is rich with opportunities for discussion. It can also be supplemented with op-eds, media clips, and activities that mobilize. Given the hate crimes that have plagued our nation, we must help students relate to the injustices of their peers, discuss their part in systemic racism, consider positive solutions, and take action in ways that bring meaningful social change.

Now it’s your turn. What books would you add to the list? Together, we can advocate for representation and the right to read.

0 Comments

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

Sneak Peek! Join us for the Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature!

Young adult literature for social justice by Dr. Alice Hays and Rupsy Bajwa

Lessons for Writers & Lessons for Life: Stellar YA Nonfiction by Angie Beumer Johnson & Stefanie Wilcox

Seen, Heard, Understood: Advocating for Banned YA Books by Dr. Gretchen Rumohr

Dr. Steve Bickmore
Creator and Curator

Co-Edited Books

Archives

Categories

Blogs to Follow

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

Sneak Peek! Join us for the Summit​ ​on​ ​the​ ​Research​ ​and​ ​Teaching​ ​of​ ​Young​ ​Adult​ ​Literature!

Young adult literature for social justice by Dr. Alice Hays and Rupsy Bajwa

Lessons for Writers & Lessons for Life: Stellar YA Nonfiction by Angie Beumer Johnson & Stefanie Wilcox

Seen, Heard, Understood: Advocating for Banned YA Books by Dr. Gretchen Rumohr

Dr. Steve Bickmore​Creator and Curator

Co-Edited Books

Archives

Categories

Blogs to Follow

Sneak Peek! Join us for the Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature!

Dr. Steve Bickmore
Creator and Curator