{I met Diane in person at the 2018 Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She provided two post last summer after the summit. One last June on Musical Theater and YA literature--Hamilton is in the house. It was based on her breakout session. Find it here. Diane then provide another one in July--I really need a break, and Diane was there to help. The second time she followed up with post about YA and mental health. This is a research of Diane and it was great post. Find it here. 

Another fun connection is that she and Kia Richmond met at the summit. Kia is also a contributor to the blog and has a book on YA and mental illness. They became fast friends. You can find Kia's post here. Professional learning is often just as much about friendships and connections as it is collecting materials to use in the next class.

Thanks Diane, for contributing once again.

(Throughout Diane's narrative you will find images of other novels that depict the issues she is addressing at the bottom they will be together in a slide show.)
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​Recently, I was able to bring together two interests of mine, one new and one longstanding. I’ve recently become more acquainted with musical theater, and I have spent years reading YA literature of mental illness; so, imagine my excitement when I realized that both of these subjects come together Dear Evan Hansen!

When my colleagues and I at Moorpark College began teaching Hamilton a couple of years ago, a particularly avid theater fan in the class told me about Dear Evan Hansen. I knew I wanted to explore the musical theater genre further, so I immediately ordered the book and the soundtrack, and then I saw one of the Hollywood Pantages Theater performances in November of 2018. With its focus on teens, social media, and mental illness, I knew the play would be a great selection for my introduction to literature class at the community college where I teach. I usually theme this class as a young adult literature class, but sometimes I struggle to find plays because there is not a large body of YA drama--YA literature, after all, almost always means YA novels.

​Indeed, the play Dear Evan Hansen has recently been adapted into a young adult novel. While my class studied the play, and my references will be to the text of the play, both versions are great ways to get teens talking about mental health. From Evan Hansen’s suicide attempt to Connor Murphy’s completed suicide, and from Evan’s social anxiety to Connor’s drug addiction, the text can inspire many conversations about mental illness and wellness.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in every five teenagers is experiencing a mental illness. In a class of 25 people, that means five of your students may have mental illness. More likely, you have a class of 30 or 40, so up to eight students may be having mental health struggles. Even when students don’t struggle with their own mental health, they may know a friend or family member who does. Half of all sufferers will experience the onset of symptoms by age 14 and three quarters by age 25, so high school and college is the time when many students or their friends may fall ill. Therefore, it is especially important to build awareness in the school/college environment, and stories such as Dear Evan Hansen can help us build that awareness.

As Kia Jane Richmond has argued right here in YA Wednesday as well as in The Language Arts Journal of Michigan and The ALAN Review, the language we use when we talk about mental illness can be used to challenge or reinforce the stigma that exists in our society today about mental illness. Dear Evan Hansen provides us and our students with many fruitful opportunities to examine the language that characters use to talk about mental illness and the consequences of that language use. 

​The play opens with Evan, a sufferer of social anxiety, doing his therapy homework. He is supposed to write himself letters that begin, “Dear Evan Hansen: Today is going to be an amazing day, and here’s why” (1.1). As he writes, though, he ostensibly fails to lessen his anxiety as he rambles on about his crush, Zoe, and his sweaty hands at their last encounter. When Evan’s mom, Heidi, comes onto the scene, she is clearly eager for Evan to get better. She is disappointed that he didn’t order himself dinner the previous night because he doesn’t like to speak to delivery people. She equates his illness with immaturity when she says, “You’re a senior in high school, Evan. You need to be able to order dinner for yourself when I’m at work” (1.1). While Heidi’s frustrations are understandable, equating mental illness to childishness is inaccurate and insulting. Furthermore, Heidi speaks to Evan in an overly enthusiastic voice, one more suited to a young child than to a teenage son. It’s as if boundless optimism is needed when addressing someone with mental illness, as if optimism alone will cure Evan. This sentiment is also reflected when she begins to sing the opening number of the play. Heidi asks, “Can we try to have an optimistic outlook? / Can we buck up just enough / To see…the world won’t fall apart? / Maybe this is the year we decide / We’re not giving up before we’ve tried” (1.1, “Anybody Have a Map?”). These lines suggest misconceptions of mental illness. For one thing, willpower alone cannot conquer a biological brain disorder. In addition, Heidi’s lyrics unfairly assume that Evan has not even tried to overcome his anxiety. 

When Connor Murphy arrives at school, it is clear that his reputation precedes him. Connor has been labeled since second grade, when “he threw a printer at Mrs. G….because he didn’t get to be line leader that day” (1.3). By the time we meet Connor during his senior year of high school, he is known as “batshit out of his mind” (1.3). With this history, Evan’s friend Jared feels perfectly comfortable greeting Connor with a taunt: “Hey, Connor. I’m loving the new hair length. Very school shooter chic” (1.1). Jared then calls Connor a “freak.” When Evan awkwardly laughs, Connor turns defensive: “I’m not the freak…You’re the fucking freak” (1.1). After Connor pushes Evan, Connor’s sister Zoe, who has witnessed the incident, apologizes to Evan, dismissing her brother as “a psychopath” (1.1). So, in just one act, a character who has had emotional disturbance since childhood is referred to as a “school shooter,” a “freak,” and a “psychopath.”
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Not just Connor’s classmates but also Connor himself uses derisive language to refer to mental illness. In Scene 2, Evan and Connor have an encounter that will drive the rest of the plot. Evan has written one of his therapeutic letters to himself. Connor finds it while both boys are in the computer lab. When Connor finds Evan’s letter, in which Evan has mentioned his hopes for developing a relationship with Zoe, Connor accuses Evan of composing the letter just to make Connor “freak out” so that Evan can “tell everyone [he’s] crazy, right?” (1.2). Earlier in the scene, Connor had mockingly signed Evan’s cast (his arm is broken from a fall from a tree), saying, “Now we can both pretend that we have friends” (1.2). Both remarks show that Connor is aware of his marginal status among students and clearly hurt by it. Certainly, language and labels have stigmatized Connor, who ends the scene by absconding with Evan’s letter. 

When discussing what happens next, my first impulse was to write, “Connor commits suicide shortly thereafter.” But the language we use to talk about suicide needs examination as well. Since suicide is the “3rd leading cause of death in youth ages 10-24” (NAMI), it is important that our students know how to talk about it. Talking about suicide properly can contribute to a social climate which can save lives. Because stigmatizing language about suicide can discourage people from asking for help, professionals are calling for us to stop using the phrase “committed suicide” and replace it with “died by suicide” instead.

In a helpful article in the Huffington Post, one psychology professor explains, “Using a judgmental or degrading language prevents us from recognizing mental health problems, seeking help and providing help” (Debiec qtd. in Holmes, 2019). Experts contend that “Simply put, ‘committed suicide’ conveys shame and wrongdoing; it doesn’t capture the pathology of the condition that ultimately led to a death. It implies that the person who died was a perpetrator rather than a victim” (Holmes, 2019). Nine out of ten suicides are the result of an underlying mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

​The experts call on us to treat deaths due to mental illness with the same respect as those that occur due to physical illness and not suggest that victims of mental illness were in full control of their behavior. To illustrate how the brain of a severely mentally ill person is not functioning in the same way a normal brain that could be held accountable for “committing” an act, I like to show students the Mayo Clinic’s brain scan of the depressed versus non-depressed brain. Thus, the phrase Connor’s dad uses in the play, “Connor took his own life” (1.4), and the phrase Evan uses, “killed himself” (2.7), are just as objectionable as “committed suicide” because they place the sole responsibility for the death on Connor rather than on the mental illness.

After Connor’s death, the parents of all the high school students are notified. Heidi, responsibly, broaches the subject with Evan: “Hey. I, um, got an email from your school today. About a boy who killed himself?” (1.7).  However, she is too uncomfortable to discuss the topic at any great length and too easily accepts Evan’s lie that it’s a different Connor, not the deceased Connor, who has signed Evan’s cast. After asking Evan if he is “okay on refills” for his prescription anxiety medication and telling him that she loves him, Heidi lets the matter rest (1.7). Heidi is again too eager to accept the idea that Evan is fine when he stops taking his medication in Act 2.

​Medication noncompliance is very risky, but Heidi’s response, though it includes some surprise and a couple of questions, is “Well, great. That’s great. It’s...I’m proud of you” (2.2). Her response suggests that not needing medication is something to be proud of. This belief contributes to a social atmosphere of shame for those that need medication. It also suggests that Heidi is uncomfortable talking about mental illness with Evan and would rather end the conversation than pursue it. It is not until the end of the musical that Heidi and Evan realize how much their refusal to discuss mental illness at all has hurt their relationship. So, while for much of the play Heidi is supportive on the surface and doesn’t use unkind words when she discusses mental illness, her refusal to talk much about it, coupled with Evan’s refusal to talk about the subject, show the danger of the absence of language to discuss mental illness. So, while in some parts of Dear Evan Hansen, hurtful name-calling is used to discuss mental illness, in other situations, there are simply no words at all.

A lack of adequate vocabulary can be likewise blamed for the way that Evan’s classmates respond to his tale of falling out of a tree and waiting for help that didn’t come. Jared responds, “Jesus Christ…” but Evan redirects the conversation before the boys can have any meaningful conversation about the acute sadness of the incident. In the next scene, Connor laughs, “That is just the saddest fucking thing I have ever heard. Oh my god” (1.2). These stunted conversations show just how badly teens need an atmosphere of social acceptance for discussing serious emotional and psychological issues.

Underlying both of these conversations is the fact that Evan is actually hiding his suicide attempt by telling people he fell out of a tree. The stigma of suicide is so great that Evan is afraid of what his own mother would think of him if she knew the truth: “You’ll hate me…You should. If you knew what I tried to do. If you knew who I am, how…broken I am” (2.9). This is not the first time Evan has used the metaphor of “brokenness” to describe mental illness. His broken arm and cast provide the iconic image for most of the musical’s publicity materials, and the message of the first act finale song is, “And when you’re broken on the ground / You will be found” (1.12, “You Will Be Found”). In an angry outburst at his mother, Evan demonstrates his internalization of the social stigma against people with mental illness: “They [the Murphy family] don’t think that I’m, that there’s something wrong with me, that I need to be fixed, like you do…I have to go to therapy, I have to take drugs” (2.7). The implication is, of course, that needing therapy and medication is shameful.

Evan has been spending time with the Murphy family because Larry and Cynthia Murphy, Connor’s parents, assumed the two boys were friends after finding the “Dear Evan Hansen” letter on Connor’s person after his death. They assumed it was a suicide note written from Connor to Evan and thus an indicator of deep friendship. Evan, who initially didn’t want to disabuse a grieving mother of the notion that her disturbed son did indeed have a close friend, lets the lie grow bigger and bigger as a project for remembering Connor makes Evan popular at school and on social media.

In closing, I’d like to look at the Murphy family’s use of language to describe Connor’s addiction, illness, and suicide. Since Connor’s emotional dysregulation began in childhood, it is not unreasonable to assume that an underlying mental illness accompanies his drug addiction (which remains unspecified throughout the play), even though addiction disorder, in and of itself, constitutes a mental illness (see K. J. Richmond’s Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature). Often, alcohol or drug addiction co-occurs with another mental illness.

​The National Institute of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) tells us, “Multiple national population surveys have found that about half of those who experience a mental illness during their lives will also experience a substance use disorder and vice versa.” Studies have also found that “over 60 percent of adolescents in community-based substance use disorder treatment programs also meet diagnostic criteria for another mental illness” (NIDA). One explanation for this co-occurrence or dual diagnosis is that people suffering from mental illness may attempt to self-medicate with alcohol or drugs. ​

Zoe, Connor’s sister, is initially not willing to recognize Connor’s mental illness as such. Early in the play, Zoe attributes Connor’s behavior to a lack of moral character. When Cynthia, Zoe and Connor’s mom, says, “Connor was…a complicated person,” Zoe angrily contradicts her: “No, Connor was a bad person” (1.6). Soon thereafter, Zoe fights against the family’s and society’s tendency to idealize the dead in her song, “Requiem.”

In it, she asks,

“Why / Should I play the grieving girl and lie? / … I will sing no requiem / Tonight / … After all you put me through / Don’t say it wasn’t true / That you were not the monster / That I knew” (1.9).

​In addition to calling Connor a “monster,” in her song, Zoe also compares Connor to a fairy-tale “villain.” At this point it might be helpful to discuss with students that, while we may not agree with Zoe’s name-calling, she has a right to her feelings of terror and anger. After all, addiction and mental illness don’t just affect the sufferer but also his/her loved ones as well. Certainly, Connor’s behavior was troubling; Zoe tells us that it included “trying to punch through [her] door, screaming at the top of his lungs that he’s going to kill [her] for no reason” (1.9). We should remind students that point of view is important when discussing stories of mental illness and that each person’s perspective is different and valid. 

Zoe also criticizes her parents’ handling of Connor’s illness and addiction. She accuses her father of trying to “punish” Connor and treat him like a “criminal” (2.9). These terms certainly reflect the criminalization of drug abuse and could inspire a discussion with students about how addiction is now considered a medical condition and that efforts to rehabilitate rather than punish are favored by experts. At the same time, Zoe also condemns her mother’s leniency: “You let him do whatever he wanted” (2.9). This could lead to a discussion about the hard work that rehabilitation from addiction entails.

Larry and Cynthia criticize each other’s approaches. Cynthia uses phrases with negative connotations, such as “Do nothing” and “Wait and see,” to describe Larry’s response to Connor’s struggles (2.9). Larry describes his own approach in a positive light, as one rooted in an ethic of hard work. While this gives the viewer/reader/listener a more sympathetic view of Larry, his sentiments suggest the popular misconception that hard work alone can conquer mental illness. In his song, “To Break in a Glove,” which is ostensibly about more than baseball, he uses phrases and words like “stick it out,” “it’s the hard way, / but it’s the right way,” “commitment,” “grit,” and “follow through” (2.3). Cynthia also bitterly recalls Larry’s response to Connor’s first threat of suicide: “He just wants attention” (1.9).

​This phrase is a common, but dangerous cliché. Students should be advised to take any threat of suicide seriously. Larry, in turn, accuses Cynthia of “lurching from one miracle cure to the next” (1.9). At this point, students could explore the difference between the concepts of “recovery” and “cure.” Most mental health advocates and addiction experts remind us that while “cure” is impossible, “recovery” is absolutely possible. While a mental illness or predisposition to addiction will never go away, it is possible to manage these conditions and lead a meaningful life. (For a detailed discussion of YA novels that emphasize the road to recovery, please see my article about disability narrative theory and mental illness fiction.) Fortunately, this is a lesson that Evan finally begins to perceive at the end of the musical: “Dear Evan Hansen: / Today is going to be a good day and here’s why. Because today, no matter what else, today at least…you’re you. No hiding, no lying. Just…you. And that’s…that’s enough” (1.9). 

Emmich, Val. (2018). Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel. With Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul. New York, NY: Hachette.

Holmes, Lindsay. (27 Mar. 2019). “Why you should stop saying ‘committed suicide.’” Huffington Post.

Levenson, Steven. (2017). Dear Evan Hansen. Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. New York, NY: Theater Communications Group.

Mayo Clinic. (1998-2019). “PET scan of the brain for depression.”

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (21 Sept. 2016). “Mental health facts: Children and teens.”

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (n.d.). “Mental health facts in America.”

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (2019). “Why care?”

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (2019). “Infographics and fact sheets.”

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). (Feb. 2018). “Common comorbidities with substance abuse disorders.” National Institute of Health.

Richmond, K. J. (23 Aug. 2017). “Language and symptoms of mental illness in young adult literature.” Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday.

Richmond, K. J. (2018). Mental illness in young adult literature: Exploring real struggles through fictional characters. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio/Libraries Unlimited.
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Richmond, K. J. (Fall 2018). “An examination of mental illness, stigma, and language in My Friend Dahmer.” The ALAN Review 46 (1), 42-53.

Until next week.

From my earliest recollection, I heard stories about how my father had been tormented at school as a child. Every day without fail he was the first one out of his classroom, racing with all his might to get home. He had to be. Being slow meant a severe beating or maybe worse. So he ran. Outdistancing his tormentors, he dared to find safety racing along the dangerous cliffs that outlined his small island as the other children threw stones at him.

This image haunted me, ingrained permanently in my mind. I could taste the salt in the air as he sweated, desperate to outpace his adversaries. Listening to these stories, the same question always popped in my head: Why? Why did these brutes attack him? Where were his parents? Why didn’t a teacher or someone step up?

Where was justice?

My father was one of those very few who survived. He was part of the only Jewish family that remained on the island, while witnessing his aunts, uncles, cousins all shipped off to their deaths. They were saved by a falsified baptism certificate and a lone Nazi officer who didn’t follow orders. That is why I’m here today. But my father’s story has a happy ending. After the war, he relocated with his parents to a refugee camp in Italy (not a comfortable place). There he waited six years for the opportunity to migrate to the United States. Arriving with his mother, he worked and studied to ultimately become his high school’s Class Valedictorian and then earn a Ph.D. in Sociology.
           
Significantly, he also had a daughter. A daughter who liked to make up stories and draw pictures and was always asking “why?”.
           
So I have this very real and very troubling family history. It is completely factual and, as we know, reality is sometimes harsh. While hearing these stories, I started filling in the gaps with the what-ifs. What if it wasn’t a boy? What if it was a girl, and someone I identify with? She could be someone tough and beautiful, but by no means an average girl who bends to someone else’s will. Instead, she’s a fighter, who’s smart enough and brave enough to use whatever tools she has at her disposal—even drawing inspiration from her enemies’ own legend in order to survive.
           
This unique character deserved a unique name. And thus, Oriana was born.
           
How would someone like Oriana, set apart from the other subservient girls, fit in with her own people? She lives on a small island that doesn’t even have electricity, where she collects water every morning from a well. She comes from a culture where girls don’t speak out, let alone act out. Everything about Oriana stands out.
           
But I still needed to flesh her out. What if, unlike my father, she struck back when attacked?
           
Maybe it’s not even herself she’s protecting but others that need help. Perhaps she finds wounded animals in the island and heals them.
           
How would she do this? Would someone help her? No, she’ll have to help herself and make her own rules, which will only get her into more trouble.
           
Next I added elements of my grandmother and grandfather’s love story. My grandmother Eleonora was considered the most beautiful girl on the entire island. After WWI, my grandfather, a handsome Italian soldier, arrived and fell desperately in love with someone he had no business to claim. Theirs was a mixed marriage between a Sephardic Jew and a Catholic. Oh, no. The forbidden. Intriguing, right? 
           
This bit of history became Ezra Mercer in my story: a complete stranger who Oriana at once considers to be the enemy, as she should. Yet this mysterious, dashing boy turns out to be the only one brave enough to offer Oriana his hand. He comes from the supposedly rich Hugganoff family from the mainland. He has no business in the small island of Madera, let alone selecting a wife from the Outcast population.
           
I transposed reality into fantasy. I mean, that is how my grandparents got together. An impossible match, made possible through true love. But more importantly, I used reality to give a heartbeat to a fictional story. Because now Oriana believes that love is possible for a girl known as NELIEM. Which means this fierce, self-effacing fighter suddenly has something to lose.
           
Drawing seeds from my family’s stories, I gradually grew my own small garden. Loosely based on actual events, I reimagined history with ancestral ghosts, magical traditions, and thus an endless source of new possibilities. In creating two distinct and conflicting cultures, one based on Judaism and the other paganism, I took reality and remolded it, challenging the norms while creating a vibrant, exciting world.
           
​I took something old and made it new. 

After reading NELIEM, have your students and young readers contrast nonfiction and fantasy inspired by personal history with the following prompts:
 

1. Discussion Prompt: Create a T-chart to compare and contrast the real events on Rhodes with the events in NELIEM. When and where does real history show up in the book? How is reading NELIEM similar to and different from reading a traditional history book? What do you gain from reading a fiction story based on history, compared to what you gain from reading a historical narrative from a person or textbook?
2. Creative Writing Prompt: Briefly describe a story from your family history or a historical event. Take the main “characters” and events and imagine how it could have gone differently if it happened to a different person or in a different world. Write a page describing this new situation.
3. Genre Discussion Prompt: Take something that happened to you recently that had an emotional impact, and write it down in 2-3 sentences. Now, re-write those sentences happening in a fantasy setting. Now re-write it happening in a historical fiction setting. What had to change? What stayed the same?

 
Thank you so much for having me on the blog. I look forward to the Educational Summit next week.

Until next time! Or, maybe I will see you at the summit.

  A little over a year and a half ago, I meet Jon McGoran at the KidLitCon 2017 in Hersey Pennsylvania.  I  can't believe it has been that long. i enjoyed meeting Jon and I loved hearing him talk about his book, Spliced. i knew that I had many students while I was teaching that would have loved this book. I have been meaning to feature Jon during one of my special author editions of Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday. Well, here it is at last. Thanks, Jon for waiting.

If you love books. I hope you get a chance to attend a KidLitCon event. They are fantastic. I meet several fantastic authors. A couple more will be featured on this blog eventually. Please be patient. I also meet Phil Bildner, who has connected me to even more authors and he will be one of the featured authors at the 2019 Summit on Teaching YA Literature at UNLV. See the link at the bottom of the page.

 Jon is one of the guys who writes in a variety genres. Jon also has a series of ecological thrillers written for the mainstream adult market. If you are true fan of the thriller, you should check out his website. You find descriptions of the rest of his books and short fiction as well. 

Jon is relative new to the YA classification. As I mentioned I know students who will love Spliced and the good news for them is that the sequel, Splintered, is officially out this week (May 15, 2019). 

Science and YA literature provide an opportunity for those students interested in science, experiments, and general exploration to find something books that explore the things they are interested in fiction. Too often we seem to force them to read within genres that don't match their interests.

To capture their interests, you might have your students explore Jon's Splice Yourself Page.  There they can explore mixing species. They might even find an example of what they might look like mixed with their favorite animal.

Until next time.

I know that I say this a  lot, but I love it when a guest contributor supplies a post about which I know all most nothing. This week Briana Asmus returns with a post about Manga. While I have read a few, I have nothing important to say. Briana does.

A little over a year ago Briana contributed a post about YA books that consider how we define a border. It was informative and well done. Our issues with border and people who want to cross the border remain. These are human issues and some of prepare teachers who work with students who live in the realities of border crossing and undocumented existence. It is worth reading again. (Find it here)

Briana Asmus is Assistant Professor and Director for ESL and Bilingual Programs at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. She can be contacted at bma004@aquinas.edu. ​

Until next time.

One of the great perks of working on this blog is the opportunity to read and think about what my colleagues are thinking. Many of my colleagues are doing a variety of interesting things. I like reviewing their pedagogical activities, their theoretical ideas, and their fresh take on old practices. Most of us who teach young adult literature do some sort of book talk activity. Many of us include self-selected book picks. It is unlikely that we all do them the same way. I am constantly amazed by the creative and engaging ways my colleagues teach. More often than not, I find myself modifying my own practices. 

This week, Mary Warner talks about using book talks to helps students choose their reading selections and then how they go about discussing and then identifying their favorites.  I always enjoy Mary's contributions. You can find her previous post here, here, and here. Go ahead and click on those previous links. You won't be sorry.

​This blog addresses multiple topics under the umbrella of one of the overarching goals in my YA Literature course (designed primarily for upper division English prep for teaching majors, but including majors in literature, creative writing, and professional/technical writing) -- to introduce students who are future teachers and writers to as many newer YA authors and books as possible.  The definition of newer here includes books published since 2013, though occasionally dominant books like The Book Thief or Deadline make the list. Typically, students coming into my YA course have a limited sense of the range and potential of YA lit.  They know of The Hunger Games, The Harry Potter series; they frequently have been turned off by chick flick or romance novels.  Thus, strategy number one the Book Pass expands their knowledge of the range, genres, and potential topics “trending” in YA.  

​I do the Book Pass in the second week (or second class session) of the semester – prior to describing the Book Talk assignment.  Students need to have paper ready to record titles that attract their attention, tap into their favorite genres or challenge their assumptions – and capture their interest as a book they might use for the Book Talk. The procedure is simple; though I model with a novel what they need to do in the 1-2 minutes for review: 

I come to class with 60-80 books (more if I can manage) – here’s where my ALAN workshop treasures and ARCs get their greatest advertising.  I give every student a book, face down, until everyone has a book and then start the “timer.”  Every 1-2 minutes, I simply say “pass”; students give the book to the student on their left, and the process continues for 40 – 45 minutes, giving the opportunity to see at least 20 books.  Yes, students could simply be given a list and go to author’s websites, but the Book Pass allows for the actual not the virtual.  Many times, students comment that their interest in and desire to read a book only happened because they “saw” and handled a book during the Book Pass or because of comments I might offer about the books.

The Book Talk assignment provides one venue for getting students reading and promoting their favorites.  Each semester I provide a list of options from which they select.  They can’t take a book they’ve read previously – the goal is to expand the YA reading list! No two students can do the same book either – again learning of more books and authors is our aim. The book selection list for the Spring 2019 class can be found at this link the specific handout is “Choices for Book Talks.”
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At the same link, the “Elements of Book Talks” handout details the requirements for the oral and written components of the assignment.  The heart of the matter for the written component – here’s another central insight I want future teachers to consider – is the choice of three quotes that convey the significance of the novel.  The Book Talk assignment should take presenters and listeners far beyond trivia; identifying three essential excerpts and explaining their importance demands a careful and thorough reading.  

​My students email an e-copy to be uploaded to my webpage and displayed as they do their oral presentations.  Book Talks from Fall ’17, Spring ’18, Fall ’18, and Spring ’19 (a glitch is preventing the Fall ’16 book talks from displaying) are on the Students page of my website.

The next “step” in identifying the “winners” – those books chosen in multiple semesters – led me to compile a list of the student choices in Fall ’16, Fall ’17, Spring ’18, Fall ’18, and Spring ’19.  (A disclaimer: the books reviewed during the Book Pass in a given semester definitely affect the selection.  I only acquired some works like Len Vlahos’ Life in a Fishbowl Cath Crowley’s Words in Deep Blue or Adam Silvera’s History is All You Left Me in the last year.) Enjoy the list – see if the selections match what you might share with students.

​Book Talk presentations take place over the course of the semester – seldom more than five presentation in a single class.  During the presentations, my students complete a Response Guide, specifically noting “Response to the Book or to the Presenter/Presentation” and “Ideas to Remember.”  After a significant number of presentations, I have a part of the Sustained Silent Writing prompt asking students to “Describe 3 of the book talks presented to date. Discuss what you liked about the presentation or why you’d like to read the book.”  From Fall ’18 and Spring ’19, the following books emerge as the ultimate “winners.” For several of the books appearing as favorites, the book talk presenters simply “sold” the book well.

Cath Crowley’s Words in Deep Blue
Frances Hardinge’s A Face Like Glass
Brendan Kiely’s The Last True Love Story
Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places 
Erika Sánchez’s I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Adam Silvera’s History is All You Left Me
Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give
Len Vlahos’ Life in a Fishbowl

Until next time.

This week's post will be short. I want to talk briefly about teaching poetry and remind everyone about the 2019 Summit on Teaching YA Literature.

First, over a month ago Sarah Donovan invited people to write a poem a day during the month of April. I though about it, but just knew I couldn't (wouldn't) do it. Writing poetry can be daunting. It has always made me uneasy. I get it when students are reluctant to write poetry. 

I thought about the invitation. I kept asking myself what can I do to think about poetry more frequently during April. I really can't add much more to the blog posts that both Lesley Roessing and Padma Venkatraman have written for this space. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post that referenced their work. (please see that post http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/a-poem-a-day-during-april-of-course) There are links to their posts and to several adolescent verse novels that I love. 

I decide that I could commit to posting a poem a day on my personal Facebook Page and then I shared it to my Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday Facebook Page. I generally avoided making any comment. Just the poem. 

I have really enjoyed reading and selecting all of these poems. Many have been favorites for a long time. Some are poems I revisit frequently: Hopkins' As King Fishers Catch Fire, Hughes' The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Yeats' Among School Children, Lowell's For the Union Dead, and Roethke's I Knew a Women.   

I didn't figure out everything to help my students when I was an AP literature teacher. I did find one discovery that helped with poetry. I hated the three or four week poetry unit. I dropped it. 

Instead, I started doing poetry every Monday. Usually, I would focus on a single poet and three to five poems. The primary reading for the week was for the student to read each poem at least three times. Of course, they were always in the middle of a longer work. It didn't matter, Monday was for poetry. We started by selecting one of the poems and then we waited for a volunteer to read it aloud. Then, without comment some else read it. After the second reading we could be discussing--structure, symbols, figurative language, etc.

I loved the reading. Many might think that students would resist this public reading. Remarkably, they took to it quite well. Most started reading them out loud to themselves over the weekend. They learned something about listening. 
They heard the beauty in The Solitary Reaper or in The Windhover. The students became better listeners. Because we looked at poetry all of the time, the idea of writing about a poem for the AP exam became less daunting.

I woke up and started doing the same thing with student who weren't in my AP class. Guess what? It worked. I should have done it sooner.

So my efforts aren't lost, I made a list with the links to the poems. I want to do it again next year. For your enjoyment here is the list.

Now a bit about the 2019 Summit on the Teaching of Young Adult Literature. Please come and join the fun. It begins four weeks from today. It is going to be fun. The Weekend Picks between now and then will feature books by the visiting authors. Make sure to check them out.

You may not know it yet, but you really do want to hear the keynotes speeches by Phil Bildner, Padma Venkatraman, and Meg Medina. 

The breakout presenters are all handpicked for their expertise and their ability to guide teacher towards better, more meaningful engagement with students. Go to the 2019 Summit page, Read the bios and look at the current draft of the program for an abstract of each presentation. It will be an enriching experience.

Until next week.