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Is Your District Prepared for a Book Banning Campaign? Here’s What to Do BEFORE a Book Banning Campaign Begins by Sam Morris

3/29/2023

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​Sam Morris is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. She is also the program coordinator for the B.A in English, with Secondary ELA Licensure. Her current research focus is the role that YA can play in encouraging adolescent empowerment and agency.
Is Your District Prepared for a Book Banning Campaign? Here’s What to Do BEFORE a Book Banning Campaign Begins by Sam Morris
I love writing about young adult literature. I’m beyond disappointed that this post cannot be about some of the books that I’ve been reading lately. 

Sometimes, I feel like I live in the town from Footloose. Except, when the townsfolk of Beaumont decided to move past outlawing dancing and began to burn books, Reverend Shaw stopped them, shouting, “When did you all decide to sit in judgment? Who elected all of you to be the saviors of everybody’s souls in Beaumont?”

Book banning is an insidious practice; in 2023, it is an exercise in minority rule that borders on tyranny. How did we get here? How do we protect books written for adolescents as well as the adolescents who read them?
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Understand “The Game”

Just say “no.” If you grew up in the ‘80s like I did, you’ve heard that statement a lot. Our parents told us to say “no” if a stranger offered us candy or a ride, and Nancy Reagan told us to say no to drugs. In the ‘90s, when we began to have productive conversations about consent, we heard once again that familiar refrain: Just say “no.”

We learned to say “no” when someone wants to do something to us that will hurt us. We learned to say “no” to people who operate in bad faith, who think that the rules don’t apply to them. When someone thinks that they can come to a school board meeting and demand ten, fifty, or one hundred books be removed from the entire school district, they are operating in bad faith and, likely (depending on your school district’s book challenge procedure), don’t think the rules apply to them. 

When that happens, you can just say “no.”

These would-be censors are playing a dangerous game, and they are winning. Why do they do it? Because they think there is a special set of rules that exist for them that they can force everyone to abide by. Why are they winning? Because we don’t think censorship is a game, so we choose not to play. Acquiescence to their demands, however, is not the right way to refuse to play. 

If you keep up with the news about these book challenges, you might have heard about what has been happening in my local school district. In October 2022, two complainants, within hours of each other, submitted lists of ninety-six and ninety-seven books, respectively, that they wanted removed from all library and classroom shelves. (The lists, by the way, were identical, except the second list included Ibram X. Kendi’s book Stamped.) 

While the complainant whose list did not include Stamped admits to being a member of Moms for Liberty, she claims that that affiliation is not relevant to the complaint. While Booklooks.org is not affiliated with Moms for Liberty, the complainant used Booklooks.org to compile her list of books that she wanted banned. There have also been reports that Moms for Liberty groups in other states have used Booklooks.org in conversations about books that they believe have questionable content.
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Books were removed from library and classroom shelves so that an evaluation about each book’s merit and potentially objectionable content could be made. As of March 15, 2023, thirty-six books (including Stamped) have been returned to shelves, although some have been restricted to grades 9-12 only. Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us, Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes, and Jesse Andrews’ The Haters have been banned from Beaufort County Schools for a period of no less than five years.

Since October of 2022, our local newspaper has published no less than thirty articles about these book challenges. The school district has estimated that it will spend at least $8,500 on this review process. Meanwhile, an informal poll taken by our local newspaper revealed that the overwhelming majority of respondents believe that every step of this process has been wrong.

Here are three more things that we know: 
1) Book removals and bans are censorship.
2) Censorship is an attempt to erase American history.
3) Censorship erases the voices of LGBTQ+ youth and other marginalized communities from the classroom.
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Avoid These Three Mistakes

1) Don’t assume that your district will not be targeted. The groups behind these challenges are organized at a national level. They are not public institutions that are bound by district regulations and state law. They have plenty of time, energy, and resources–much more than your district does.

2) Don’t assume that these are the same kinds of book challenges that you might have read about in James Moffett’s Storm in the Mountains (1988) or Joan DelFattore’s What Johnny Shouldn’t Read (1992). Your town is not in danger of becoming the town from Footloose. Your town is in danger of becoming an unsafe place for children and adolescents from marginalized communities. These book challenges are operating in concert with the hundreds of bills working their way through state legislators that seek to fundamentally shift what students are allowed to learn and which groups of people have the right to exist. 

3) Don’t assume that book challenges are about the books. In 2023, book challenges are not about books! They are about the people who are represented by the books. When you or your district choose to play the would-be censor’s game, you are telling entire groups of people that they do not matter. Scores of children, adolescents, and adults across the country have heard that message loud and clear.

Know Your Procedures to Avoid Unforced Errors

Our local school district had a form entitled “Request For Reconsideration of School Library Materials Form.” The school district publishes all Freedom of Information Act requests and results on its website, so we know the following about the complaint form submitted by one of the complainants:

1) For “Title of Material,” the complainant wrote “96 Books provided.” This request can and should have been denied because no specific book was asked to be reconsidered. Is that what a fussy teacher would say? Yes, but it is okay to be fussy when it comes to protecting our students’ right to read.

2) When asked if the complainant had read the material, she checked “no.” If your district’s policy does not stipulate that a complainant has read the book that they find objectionable in order to object to it, consider advocating for a change to that policy. If a degreed professional has ordered a book for a school library, perhaps a complainant should have to at least read the book in question before demanding its removal.

3) In response to what the complainant finds objectionable, she wrote, “To normalize and expose to minors explicit [material].” I chose not to provide here what the complainant listed as explicit, but I find the implication that authors, librarians, teachers, and other school officials are committing multiple crimes to be repugnant and representative of a lack of civility. If your school board meetings have procedures to deal with repugnant behavior and/or harassment, consider that language on forms and in correspondence should be held to the same standards.

4) When asked how the complainant perceives students would be affected by material, she wrote, “What I perceive is not in question. It is against the law to disseminate material that is harmful to minors.” I interpret this answer as “I don’t know.” Again, the bar to a book challenge ought to be higher than–well, nothing. Consider making sure your district’s guidelines are specific and put an actual burden of proof on the complainant.

5) Finally, when asked what action they would like taken by the district, the complainant wrote, “Immediately remove the material from all schools and enact a policy to ensure no more material of this nature is allowed to make it into the district whether in school libraries, assigned in curriculum, or in classroom libraries.” Ultimately, the action requested is an overreach. The parent is demanding unilateral power over a public government entity. That is not a valid demand.

Some other procedural notes to consider:

Our current local school district procedure for considering books that have been challenged is a committee that may be comprised of seven individuals, ranging from district teachers, staff, parents, and other community members. Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us was removed by a committee of five members, and Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes was removed by a committee of three members. 

Community participation in these committees is randomized; I have yet to be selected to participate in any of the committees despite putting my name in to serve back in November of 2022. I find it troubling that anyone can demand that books be removed from school libraries and classrooms, but someone who teaches, researches, and publishes on YAL, secondary education, and censorship has to be “randomly chosen.” Meanwhile, Jodi Picoult’s book about a school shooting was banned by a committee of three people. Just a reminder: there were 51 school shootings in the United States in 2022.

Every district should have a process in place to allow a parent to request that their child not be required to read or not have access to certain books. Nearly every district already has that process already. Perhaps it would be worthwhile for districts to have a process in place for a parent to have the ability to shield their child from a broad spectrum of books based on maturity rating and/or content. Consider adopting such a broader policy to prevent these sorts of bad faith challenges.

What districts should absolutely not do is allow one parent to dictate how all other parents decide to raise their children. If book banners want the freedom to dictate how they raise their children, then districts must ensure that their policies shield other parents from parental overreach.

​When Principles Matter and When They Don’t

My university has chosen not to publicly denounce censorship in general, the people who are seeking to ban the books, or the school district personnel who have enabled the book-banning. Something about upsetting the apple cart. Well, the apple cart is on fire, and now no one will have any apples. Civility is not more important than watching freedom and liberty burn.

A funny thing about civility, while we’re on the subject: It is very difficult for school officials to handle a delicate situation such as book challenges when people attend district meetings, shout, make threats, and file actual criminal complaints with the local sheriff’s office. 

However, there are many university faculty, government officials, and elected representatives who do want to provide support. While it would be nice for them to do so unprompted, especially considering how stressful and time-consuming dealing with these would-be censors can be, don’t hesitate to ask for help. Better still, though, reach out before the challenges occur.

Rally Your Stakeholders–NOW!

Contact your local universities and colleges to figure out how you can make a stand together when the time comes. If necessary, remind them that these people will come after their libraries and bookstores. Remind them that, if books are banned, it will be a lot more difficult to ignore those bans when the same people behind these campaigns have convinced the state legislature to eliminate tenure.

Contact local law enforcement agencies. Ensure that they are aware of the kinds of criminal complaints that have been made against district personnel in school districts across the country. Provide appropriate background as well as district procedures for book challenges. It is one thing to know that these criminal complaints are ridiculous and offensive; it is quite another to know that law enforcement is on your side. 

Are your district’s librarians having discussions with your city/county public librarians? College and university librarians? For those who graduated from an ALA-accredited MLIS program, do those ALA-accredited institutions have any support that they might be able to lend?

Has your district’s legal department had a conversation with your state’s local ACLU office yet? Now would be a very good time for that. The same is true for any friendly state or national legislator.
Final Thoughts

The Clash have a song called “Know Your Rights.” The funny thing about rights is that they are theoretical until you need them. We only find out how real those rights are when they are tested. When a school district chooses not to dismiss a bad faith complaint outright, follow procedure when a proper complaint is made, or stand up for the principles of public education in general, rights remain untested and hypothetical.

Teachers and librarians–we are highly trained, yes. We are also fallible, and we certainly do not hold ourselves in any esteem above parents and other community stakeholders. We want parents to be involved in the work that we do. We invite dialogue, and we will never require a student to read a book that a parent wishes them not to read. At the same time, the ways in which book challengers are conducting themselves is irresponsible, dishonest, and reprehensible. 

We do not have to deal in good faith with those who operate in bad faith. Do you remember what else they taught us to do when someone who means to do us harm attacks us? Make as much noise as you can. Now is not the time to be nice. Now is not the time to be afraid of who might misinterpret what you have to say if you don’t phrase it in just the right way. Now is the time for you to tell all the children, adolescents, and adults from all marginalized communities that you have our backs–that you won’t play this game anymore.

Because, as Reverend Shaw asked that crowd of book-burners, “When you’ve burned all of these, what are you going to do then?” Ask yourself that same question; if you know the answer, why would you allow these book-banning campaigns to continue?
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A True Culture of Belonging: Homage to Jason Koo & Brooklyn Poets by Darius Phelps

3/22/2023

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Darius Phelps is a doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is an adjunct professor at CUNY Queens, Hunter College, Teachers College, and intern at Brooklyn Poets.  An educator, poet, spoken word artist, and activist, Darius writes poems about grief, liberation, emancipation, reflection through the lens of a teacher of color and experiencing Black boy joy. His poems have appeared in the NY English Record, NCTE's English Journal, Pearl Press Magazine, and ëëN Magazine’s The 2023 Valentine Issue.  Recently, he was featured on WCBS and highlighted the importance of Black male educators in the classroom. Darius can be contacted via email at: dmp2219@tc.columbia.edu.

A True Culture of Belonging: Homage to Jason Koo & Brooklyn Poets by Darius Phelps 
The late bell hooks stated “Poetry sustains life. Of this I am certain. There is no doubt in my mind that the pain of poverty, whether material or emotional lack, can be eased by the power of language. I know this intimately.” When I think of my relationship with poetry, this quote captures my feelings wholeheartedly. Throughout my childhood, writing poetry started off as a hobby that ended up being a source of comfort, healing, and restoration when I lost  my grandfather a decade ago. Never taken a class or received any formal training, I’ve always picked up the pen and let it guide me, no matter where or how deep into my emotions. Books and the use of words taught me how to grasp what I feel on a daily basis, whether that be a spectrum of emotions or even working through my grief as I processed my loss.
As a doctoral student, male  educator of color, and marginalized voice — I’ve never felt like I have truly belonged somewhere, in any capacity. Every room I walk in, someone has always tried to either silence my voice, dim my light, or ultimately eradicate me to keep me from walking in my purpose.  With my matriculation through school and earning degrees from predominantly white institutions, this has weighed even more on my soul. In the midst of my doctoral journey, especially as I near the end, I found myself backstabbed, ostracized, and eradicated in so many forms. Every room I walked in, teachers and peers overlooked my ideas, dismissed my experiences, micro-manage my projects, and even told me my story would not  resonate with anyone. Struggling to get a grip on my passion, my motivation for even moving to New York City in the first place, these events intensified this feeling of loneliness and isolation. 
 In August 2022, I knew I needed a change in my life and was ready to get back to pursuing my passion, particularly one that felt natural, organic, and made me feel at peace. It was during this time that I stumbled across Brooklyn Poets  and began attending one of the Drop In Classes, titled “A Draught of Vintage: Poetry Happy Hour with the  Founder and Executive Director, Jason Koo. This class detailed that “In the spirit of John Keats, in this weekly drop in class, we will drink from the cup of poetry and “leave the world unseen” --- oddly, by studying under Koo himself, I have never felt more seen and heard, both as a man of color, but most importantly, as a poet. 
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When I think of poetry,  the pioneering work of Koo, and Brooklyn Poets, I am reminded of this quote from bell hooks from “Belonging: A Culture of Place”: “I dreamed about a culture of belonging. I still dream that dream. I contemplate what our lives would be like if we knew how to cultivate awareness, to live mindfully, peacefully; if we learned habits of being that would bring us closer together, that would help us build beloved community.”  Jason Koo and Brooklyn Poets  have provided for me, a true community, one that I still revel in my thoughts, trying to grasp the genuine love, amount of  appreciation I’ve been shown, and how I have grown collectively. 
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​Prior to my TEDx talk, “Fingerprints Upon My Heart” in 2017, I had never performed  spoken word or even read my poetry out loud. Under Koo’s mentorship and guidance at Brooklyn Poets, I have regained my confidence and discovered my voice, one that  reverberates off the walls in its true power, commanding every body and spirit to listen, as I walk on my road to renaissance.  When a true, inclusive brave space has been established, all members of the community learn how to honor each other’s experiences and opinions with respect in order to reach a place of true understanding where various talents and abilities can shine. Voices of marginalized people and communities have been silenced for many are uncomfortable exercising their right to free speech due to class for decades, and now is the time for us to speak our truth. (hooks, 2014) There is power in our narratives, our trials, tribulations, and triumphs. As educators and professors of the Academy, we should be devoting our time and energy to cultivating brave spaces, where every soul, especially our adolescents, can soar.

The carefully selected and curated works for literature,  such as More than Mere Light by Jason Koo, Javier Zamora’s Solito, Jose Olivarez’s Promises of Gold, and Megan Fernades’s Good Boys,  evident from the work selected by Koo and staff at Brooklyn Poets, specifically poetry from diverse poets deserve to be amplified, for they tell the authentic narratives of those who, like myself, have been silenced in some aspect. When these tales are told in the form of poetry, it holds even more power.  Without a doubt, poetry helps us become better teachers for our students and we can highlight YA poets such as Elizabeth Acevedo, Margarita Engle, Jacqueline Woodson, and Dean Atta. With poetry, we learn to speak well and with emotion, how to emulate that emotion, and are more attentive to words and the emotions that they convey. 
The world of poetry opens up our minds to be able to explore our own voice and even find a new one in the process. Poetry can teach us about ourselves and others in a deep and meaningful way. Instead of writing or reading a generic story about us or someone else, poetry provides the freedom for the writer to not only feel, but to fully experience exactly what the writer went through. During that journey, the reader’s experience becomes enhanced with the use of similes, metaphors, alliterations, imagery, foreshadowing, and other literary devices. These factors that poetry can offer is what makes our writing that much more personal and what’s personal for us can end up being a universal message for our readers and our students. 
With the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, there has been a radical moment towards making sure diverse voices are amplified, heard, and appreciated. bell hooks states that  “To indoctrinate boys into the rules of patriarchy, we force them to feel pain and to deny their feelings.” Oftentimes, young men, particularly those of color, are hesitant to show any kind of emotion or vulnerability, or identify with issues such as race, prejudice, bullying, and loneliness.  As a male educator of color  I am determined  to inspire, embolden, and encourage those who come from backgrounds similar to that of my own, showing and teaching them the power of the pen and being vulnerable through poetry, the way Jason Koo has been for me. 
In a world full of hatred and racism, we should be spreading the message of love, community, and strength while fostering identity and cultural representation. These messages could very well be something that our students and fellow educators have yet to experience in their lifetime and I will do everything I can to bring awareness to this issue. Our narratives, especially as people of color,  deserve to reflect the same, for this is the vision that I bring and will advocate to make sure it happens. Every soul deserves a true place of solace, like Brooklyn Poets. If educators and curriculum writers could adopt the same mindset as Jason Koo, then maybe we’d finally be on the right page to building a better world for our future leaders of America; one where all voices are worth celebrating. 

References: 
hooks, B. (2008). Belonging: A Culture of Place (1st ed.). Routledge. 
hooks, B. (2014). Teaching to transgress. Routledge.

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New Adult (NA) Literature Helps Readers Look Ahead to College, Careers, Relationships, and Active Engagement in Life after Adolescence by Dr. Sharon Kane

3/15/2023

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​We welcome Sharon Kane back to YA Wednesday today!  Dr. Kane is a professor in the School of Education at the State University of New York at Oswego.  She is the author of
Literacy and Learning in the Content Areas: Enhancing Knowledge in the Disciplines (2019, Routledge) and Integrating Literature in the Disciplines (2020, Routledge). A new book, Teaching and Reading New Adult Literature in High School and College (2023, Routledge).  


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New Adult (NA) Literature Helps Readers Look Ahead to College, Careers, Relationships, and Active Engagement in Life after Adolescence by Dr. Sharon Kane
I’m always saddened when I hear parents, teachers, or students themselves talking about senioritis as if it were an inevitable condition in teens who have met most of their graduation requirements and are just biding time until they get out of high school. Senior year is a perfect time for librarians, teachers, and/or community volunteers to organize courses or book clubs where participants read New Adult literature, aimed at readers between the ages of seventeen and mid-twenties. As students count down the months and weeks before they begin their post-high school life, they can benefit from reading fiction and non-fiction relating to college academic life; early career exploration; new, changing, and deepening relationships; and civic responsibilities that are part of what some call adulting. At the same time, they can relish the pleasure of reading and the great conversations that happen when people come together over books.

One of the major stresses of senior year for many is the college application process, followed by the period of hoping for acceptance while fearing rejection. We can introduce our students to literary friends who have been through this scenario. Here are a few.
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Rising senior Felix Love, in Kacen Callender’s Felix Ever After (2020), is participating in an art program in hopes of winning a scholarship to Brown University. Besides that pressure, he’s dealing with continuing identity and relationship issues. He knows he is Black, queer, and trans. But unfolding events cause him to realize aspects of his identity are more nuanced than he realized. In Kelly Loy Gilbert’s When We Were Infinite (2021), five Asian American high school students, bound together by friendship and music, make a pact to go to the same college. What could go wrong? Well, for one thing, Beth is accepted at Juilliard, while Jason is not. Beth narrates the story of how the five friends grow, change, heal, stretch, and ponder identities as the year progresses. 
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Liz Lightly, in Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me in a Crown (2021), has high ideals; she wants to study medicine and be in a college orchestra. But when the scholarship she was counting on doesn’t materialize, her only option seems to be to join the competition to be prom queen (yuck!), the winner of which will be awarded a $10,000 scholarship. Charming As a Verb (2022), by Ben Philippe, features Henry, who desperately wants to attend Columbia; he and his immigrant father have both worked so hard to make this goal a reality. But when his college interview doesn’t go well, worry takes over. His intense classmate Corinne becomes a huge part of Henry’s emotional, social, and ethical learning curves during his final semester of high school. 
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New Adult literature can also address the needs and interests of college students. I designed and taught a course on NA literature that was restricted to incoming first-year students. We began with Fangirl (2013), by Rainbow Rowell, where students met Cath on her first day of college, then followed her through freshman year. Some readers identified with Cath; others found her annoying. The story helped us to talk about topics including anxiety; academic integrity; abuse of alcohol; roommate issues; changing relationships with parents as students become increasingly independent; college friendships and romances; and more. We went on to meet other literary college students, such as Marin in Nina LaCour’s We Are Okay (2019). Her story opens at the end of her first semester, when all other students have left for semester break but Marin is staying in the dorm. Readers quickly realize that Marin is in trouble, and they take in details that help them figure out why she left California for New York by herself; why she hasn’t contacted her former lover and best friend; and why she is now seemingly in a severe depression. This story provides opportunities for students to learn about mental illness and to discuss ways to handle situations when their own lives or those of their friends are in turmoil. 
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There are numerous books featuring college students navigating various challenges. In Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman (2022), by Kristen R. Lee (2022), Savannah, who had hoped to attend a nearby historically Black college, finds herself as a scholarship student at an Ivy League school, where she encounters microaggressions as well as overt racist behavior from the day she moves into her dorm room. Did she make a mistake, pursuing her mother’s dream instead of her own? This book could be paired with Every Body Looking (2021), by Candice Iloh, a novel in verse narrated by Ada, who does enroll in a historically Black college. She struggles in her Accounting class, which she neither understands nor cares about. She seems not to care about her new job, or her beginning relationship with a young man. So what does she care about? What will make her happy, and feel true to herself? Readers watch Ada as she watches another young woman dancing; she finally meets Kendra, and attends dance classes with her. Ah….
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We know that college is not for everybody, so we need to make books available to our students who wish to defer college, perhaps to travel; or to find opportunities to learn new skills and grow through a job. In Teaching and Reading New Adult Literature in High School and College (Kane, 2023), I offer one text set filled with titles having to do with a gap year, and another with books about food-related careers (some involving college, some not). In I.W. Gregorio’s This Is My Brain in Love (2020), Jocelyn and aspiring journalist Will create a business plan and investigate marketing and advertising strategies to try to save Jocelyn’s family’s Chinese restaurant. As they learn to appreciate each other’s cultures and cuisine (Chinese and Nigerian), they fall in love. Arsenic and Adobo (2021), by Mia P. Manansala, delivers a food-related mystery. Lila is helping her Tita Rosie try to save her floundering restaurant. Her former boyfriend Derrick, a food critic, is trashing the restaurant with bad reviews—until he dies while eating at Tita Rosie’s place. Lila becomes the prime suspect, and must investigate the murder herself, since the police are too busy pinning the crime on her to find the real killer. The novel offers plenty of romance, along with vivid descriptions of food and drink. 
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College doesn’t last forever. What comes after that? I recently read Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (2022), where we come to love characters who have successful careers in video game development. The story demonstrates creativity, collaboration, and changing relationships as Sadie, Sam and Marx mature through their post-college years. 

I devote one chapter of my book to NA literature dealing with changing relationships during the late teen years and the twenties. One text set offers books involving fake dating (which can usually lead to deeper reflection on what can make romantic relationships authentic, healthy, and mutually satisfying). Another features literature about how family dynamics change when New Adults leave home for college or new locations. One book that fits both lists is Alexandria Bellefleur’s Written in the Stars (2020). Elle, who has a job as a horoscope reader/writer and astrology-related app creator, is fake-dating Darcy, referred to by Elle’s mother as the actuary. It seems to Elle that her mother reduces everyone to their profession, and she imagines that her mother must think of her as Elle, the disappointment. The novel explores parental pressures and expectations while simultaneously showing two young women who learn to appreciate each other’s strengths and to love without judgment. 

There are many more examples of New Adult literature that can be matched with readers in their teens and twenties who are looking for pleasure reading and/or books that will help them stretch, navigate difficult situations, find purpose, explore identities, and find support as they and their circumstances evolve. You can find more book talks in my YAWednesday post of March 30, 2022, The Value of the Youth Lens when Reading YA. And great new NA books are being published all the time, such as Anna-Marie McLemore’s Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix (2022). The Author’s Note explains, “I wanted to write Jay Gatsby as a transgender young man making an increasingly infamous name for himself in 1920s New York…. I wanted to write Daisy as a Latina lesbian debutante who passes as white and straight …. I wanted to write Nick Carraway as a Mexican American transgender boy who falls in love with the mysterious boy next door ….” (unpaged). 

New Adult literature is a category that will continue to grow. We readers, whether teachers, librarians, students, recent graduates, or others, can continue to grow too, as we revel in the great books inviting us into the world of the New Adult. 

References

Bellefleur, Alexandria. (2020). Written in the Stars. Avon.

Callender, Kacen. (2020). Felix Ever After. Balzer + Bray.

Gilbert, Kelly Loy. (2021). When We Were Infinite. Simon & Schuster.

Gregorio, I.W. (2021). This Is my Brain in Love. Little, Brown.

Iloh, Candice. (2021). Every Body Looking. Dutton Books.

Johnson, Leah. (2021). You Should See me in a Crown. Push.

Kane, Sharon. (2023). Teaching and Reading New Adult Literature in High School and College. Routledge.

LaCour, Nina. (2019). We Are Okay. Penguin Books.

Lee, Kristen R. (2022). Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman. Crown Books.

Mansansala, Mia P. (2021). Arsenic and Adobo. Berkley.

McLemore, Anna-Marie. (2022). Self-made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix. Feiwel & Friends.

Philippe, Ben. (2022). Charming as a Verb. Balzer + Bray.

Rowell, Rainbow. (2013). Fangirl. Saint Martin’s Griffin.

Zevin, Gabrielle. (2022). Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Knopf.



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The March Madness Method Part Two: Teaching A Group Read of Sports Novels by Dr. Christian Gregory

3/8/2023

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​We welcome back Christian Gregory for his second in a two-part series!  Dr. Gregory is an Assistant Professor at Saint Anselm College, teaching courses for preservice teachers in methods, pedagogy, the graphic novel, and Young Adult Literature.  He has written chapters on the history of both YAL and the graphic novel and published in 
English Journal, English Education, the Journal of LGBTQ Youth, and the  International Journal of Dialogic Pedagogy. His research interests are diversifying the canon, dialogical theory, and queer studies. 
The March Madness Method Part Two: Teaching a Group Read of Sports Novels by Dr. Christian Gregory
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Life Inside and Outside the Arena

Last week I laid the groundwork  for discussions which focus both on the sport and the overlay of intersectionality, be it gender, race, or sexuality. If boxing and sport are narratives indicative of the larger narrative of life, then I ask students to consider how these issues within the sport may intersect with the larger systemic oppression such as racism, sexism, or homophobia, offering a series of questions to elicit student thinking: 

  • How might you apply these tropes to the characters you are tracking in the novel? 
  • Do they use their innate skills to navigate their way through the sport and the world to success? 
  • Do they bob and weave to avoid the challenges that face them? 
  • Or must they endure the adversary face-first with some degree of tension and difficulty? 
  • Last, since many YA novels that focus on gender, race, or sexuality as well as the sport, consider how these issues may intersect with the sport, and how those identities may create obstacles due to any form of systemic oppression such as racism, sexism, or homophobia.  

For writers of YAL, this sport story can offer the form of analogy.  Does the game and fight inside the arena (or playing field or court) rest in concert or contrast to the lived experience of the protagonist? Is the sport a refuge from the turmoil of home and life? Is it merely and extension or micro-replication of the larger issues at hand? Even Starr in The Hate U Give cannot escape microaggressions on the court, even in a friendly practice game with friends. Inviting students to consider the two realms, the real and the field, against one another can help students refine elements of contrast and analogy. For if the two realms operate in contrast, then the sport serves as some comfort, the team or teammates, a second family; in contrast, if coordinated, then the play on the field is merely a microcosm of the larger injustice in the world. 

Focusing on the Coach-Athlete Dyad 

Another mode to invite discussions would be to have students consider the relationship between the coach and athlete. Nikolajeva (2010) writes notably about aetonormativity, or the idea that behind every confused youth is the wise elder offering the benefits of adult norms and normative behavior. This application may, of course, apply not only to parents but also their high school equivalents: teachers and coaches. Petrone, et al. (2015) uses this as one of the framing questions for the Youth Lens. Adapting this to sports books, one may examine some of the archetypes of coaching. Two modes can be traced through the varied styles of Indiana’s Bobby Knight, who would famously badger his athletes and famously threw chairs; and, in contrast, UCLA’s John Wooden, who knew the players personally, acted as parentis in loco, offering a more laid back, encouraging, positive style. This may provide an initial entry into any given coach model. Take for example the sadistic coach in The Chocolate Wars, who abuses his position of power in coaching new quarterback, Jerry Renault.  This is what CJ Pascoe (2007) has defined as hegemonic masculinity, or the type gender practice that in its construction of hierarchy supports gender inequality.
 
The 3+1Cs Model of Coaching

Archetypes and methods of coaching have been examined by in several articles, most notably by Jowett and Shanmugam (2016), who developed the notion of the “3+1C Model” within the coach-athlete relationship. Four features make for success: closeness (trust, respect, care and support); commitment (the capacity to form and continue a close bond to ensure performance); and complementarity (which involves the responsiveness and openness and a degree of shared behaviors); and coorientation, the extent to which the coach and athlete share “common ground” and imaginatively see one another’s perspective.  

With this framing in mind, students can examine the relation between the coach and team or coach and protagonist. What might be the level of trust? What is the coach’s investment in the success of each athlete? What features constitute this dyadic relation? Collaborative? Competitive? Such a discussion can move across narratives, and students will be able to share their evidence from each work at hand. One note for teachers is that YAL and fiction in general is often predicated on conflict, and it may be that coaches or teachers are forces of antagonism rather than support.  Still, students in considering this 3+1C model may pull from both the world of the novel and their own lived experience or knowledge of the coach-student relation. 

Distant and Wide Reading Across YA Sports Reads

By providing a common frame or lens, the class can operate more as a kaleidoscope of responses across the genre. In this way, the classroom operates to comb the field of YA rather efficiently in classroom discussion. New Critics would have the teacher center one text, typically a canonical text, and consider the formal operations within that text, such as setting, theme, symbols and allusions. But this March Madness Method is more akin to Moretti’s distant reading (2010), which moves across large sets of texts rather than within a given text.  YAL is ideal for this distant, mad reading.  As we know, YAL breaks the canon and useful reading lenses provide the necessary method to track tropes across a variety of texts. Mad? Yes. Necessary. Absolutely.  Gratifying? Moving across a dozen or so of texts in one class feels closer to sociological-literary studies. In my classroom experience, students are more likely to read books they select on topics of interest to them. The resulting discussion feels like exponential work, as we cover over 12 books in one discussion. Moreover, the lateral investigation across texts feels gratifying for students. It values breadth. Yet the precision of though in considering the sport-coach-athlete relation, even in light of their own experience seems to invite an engagement of analysis, a subjectivity of response, that often goes undervalued. Here, the Madness Method provides both breadth and emotional depth to discussion. ​

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References

Buehler, J. (2016). Teaching reading with YA literature. NCTE

Nikolajeva, M. (2010). Power, voice, and subjectivity in literature for young readers. Routledge. 

Jowett, S., & Shanmugam, V. (2016). Relational Coaching in Sport: Its psychological underpinnings and practical effectiveness. In R. Schinke, K.R. McGannon, & B. Smith (Eds), Routledge International Handbook of Sport Psychology. Routledge.

Moretti, F (2000). Conjectures of World Literature. New Left Review. 

Oates, J.C. (1985). “On Boxing” New York Times.

Oates, J.C. (1987). On Boxing. Harper Collins.

Pascoe, C.J. (2007). Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. University of California Press.

Petrone, R, Sarigianides, S.T. and Mark A. Lewis. (2015) The Youth Lens: Analyzing Adolescence/ts in Literary Texts. Journal of Literacy Research (46)4, p. 506-533.


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The March Madness Method Part One: Teaching A Group Read of Sports Novels by Dr. Christian Gregory

3/1/2023

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​Christian Gregory is an Assistant Professor at Saint Anselm College, teaching courses for preservice teachers in methods, pedagogy, the graphic novel, and Young Adult Literature.  He has written chapters on the history of both YAL and the graphic novel and published in
English Journal, English Education, the Journal of LGBTQ Youth, and the  International Journal of Dialogic Pedagogy. His research interests are diversifying the canon, dialogical theory, and queer studies. 
The March Madness Method Part One: Teaching A Group Read of Sports Novels by Dr. Christian Gregory
I am an assistant professor at a small liberal arts college in New Hampshire with a large proportion of student-athletes. Of the 1,900 or so students on campus, the college has estimated that 42% of the population are either on a team or play on some intramural sport.  And, of course, the college, just one hour out of Boston, resides in the halo of the New England Patriots, the Boston Bruins, and the Red Sox. In a recent class I taught, I gave students the option of designing a short graphic novel chapter.  Knowing my class population of student-athletes, I offered the option to render a sports game into graphica. Many returned to their favorite football game by the Patriots, reviewing the footage for stills they could use to shape the narrative for their final project. Needless to say, March isn’t the only month for sports madness at a small college in New England. 

Responsive to this population of fans and athletes, I have adjusted my curriculum accordingly. In my course Adolescent Literature, I have been inspired by the work of literacy scholars who trumpet the need for student book selection, which they deem essential for engagement, literacy, and student success (Buehler, 2016). For the instructor, this “savy and strategic matchmaking” (p. 87) is key; yet for some classrooms, teachers may not wish to sacrifice the benefits of collective discussion for small group reads.  How then can we allow for student choice while inviting topical conversation?

My response is March Madness pedagogy. I invite students team up for reads in teams of two, three, or four, and select book of interest to them within an All Sports Read (See list of possible titles for your classroom next week, in Appendix I). I do suggest a curated list by the instructor. Last year, I provided titles I thought offered diversity of race, gender, sexuality and culture.  Each student was allowed to select from the curated list, and no student was allowed to read alone. This program of study was to ensure another reader of each title in class: to both encourage completion and bolster discussion in small groups. Small group reads in middle and high school are nothing new in curriculum, but whole class discussions on topic may be less so. Were a classroom teacher to take this on as a practice, an all-sports read, I would like to offer a pedagogy that respects the differentiation of titles while embracing common themes. 

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Consider the Essence or Ontology of the Athlete

One way to invite students into small group discussion is to focus on the athlete and their relation to the sport or their identity as an athlete. I offered my students an introduction to the two opposing ontologies of noted boxers, Muhammad Ali and Jake LoMatta. Joyce Carol Oates (1985) offers that even sports have their own narratives: “Each boxing match is a story, a highly condensed, highly dramatic story--even when nothing much happens: then failure is the story.” 

In her book On Boxing, an elaboration of the NYTimes article, Oates highlights the modes and ontologies of several boxers. Two of her descriptions have forever remained in my memory: Muhammad Ali and Jake LaMotta. Each entered matches with a distinct philosophy of the fight, positions suggestive and emblematic of world views. The first, Jake LaMotta entered the ring with the understanding that he would outlast any opponent. As he fought, he became less and less interested in dodging any punch that came his way; instead, he was simply able to endure the throws and jabs of his opponent. He trained for and felt that he could simply outlast his adversary and endure any more pain. 

By contrast, Ali was a fighter who predicated his boxing on finesse, on the bob and weave and his capacity to never be hit in the face. Famously he claimed, “My face is so pretty, you don’t see a scar, which proves that I’m the king of the ring by far.” LaMotta accepted the hit took the punishment; in stark contrast, Ali agilely dodged it. 

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My point here is to present two manners of being of the athlete in sports: one based on the endurance of great pain and the other, based on the extraordinary skill and bravura of it all. I present the students with these images of the face of LaMotta and Ali, each a registration of one’s relation to pain in sport: how one might endure it and how one might avoid it altogether. In my mind, I compare Michael Jordan, Simone Biles, Tom Brady, the Olympic women’s soccer team, and imperturbable mountain climber Alex Honnold to the skills of Ali – a sort of transcendent technical skill that leaves spectators in awe.

By contrast, I offer other extraordinary talents who, while succeeding, nonetheless, endure either physical or psychic pain to succeed. I think of Hall of Famer Mike Webster of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who was known to endure great hits on the field; or Colin Kapernack, who suffered more psychic offences, and Serena and Venus Williams, who like Kapernack, faced racial battle fatigue in the face of systemic oppression, but unlike him, had to contend with the intersectional oppression of sexism. By offering such examples, teachers invite students to judge the protagonist-athletes in their works as demonstrative of one or both of these modes of existence. 

Of course, since novels are predicated on conflict and grief, students may situate their main character with LaMotta ontology. Certainly, the YA classic novel, The Chocolate War features a main character who endures the physical beat down on and off the football field.  Yet instructors may easily point to other figures, such as Kareen Abdul Jabar, who seem to skillfully manage the conflict on the court with ease, while suffering the blows of systemic racism off.  

Next week, I will focus on ways that teachers can guide discussions which focus both on the sport and the overlay of intersectionality, be it gender, race, or sexuality.  Come back for Part Two!


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    Dr. Gretchen Rumohr
    Chief Curator
    Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English and writing program administrator 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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    Meet
    Evangile Dufitumukiza!
    Evangile is a native of Kigali, Rwanda. He is a college student that Steve meet while working in Rwanda as a missionary. In fact, Evangile was one of the first people who translated his English into Kinyarwanda. 

    Steve recruited him to help promote Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media while Steve is doing his mission work. 

    He helps Dr. Bickmore promote his academic books and sometimes send out emails in his behalf. 

    You will notice that while he speaks fluent English, it often does look like an "American" version of English. That is because it isn't. His English is heavily influence by British English and different versions of Eastern and Central African English that is prominent in his home country of Rwanda.

    Welcome Evangile into the YA Wednesday community as he learns about Young Adult Literature and all of the wild slang of American English vs the slang and language of the English he has mastered in his beautiful country of Rwanda.  

    While in Rwanda, Steve has learned that it is a poor English speaker who can only master one dialect and/or set of idioms in this complicated language.

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