Working at a University has many rewards: working in your chosen field that is with other experts, working with undergraduate students, and being in an environment that has vibrant discussions about all sorts of topics. UNLV is one of the great Universities in the country. It is growing and has a diverse campus, in fact, it is one of the most diverse campuses in the United States. Another great pleasure of working at a University is interacting with graduate students. As I begin at UNLV, I am starting to work with super graduate student, Myra Infante-Sheridan. She comes to us with an assortment of accolades as a teacher and she is a published author. You should check out Combustible Saints and Other Stories.  A couple of weeks ago we found ourselves talking about National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) and I realized we had switched places; she was the teacher and I was the student. Oh sure, I knew few authors who write about Hispanic adolescents--Matt de la Peña, Sandra Cisneros, Pamela Muñoz Ryan, Benjamin Alire Sánez and a few more, but those are just enough names to throw out in a conversation. Not nearly enough to consider myself really informed. I asked Myra if she would serve as a guest contributor and point us to a few writers and books that can help expand our horizons. Oh, and if some of you are in the right circles, there might be a few politicians that can be offered these books. Myra, it is your turn.

Even though I am a Latina, I didn’t read my first book by a Mexican American author until I was in college. Like many others in underrepresented populations, reading a book that was culturally relevant to me validated my place in the world of literature. But, why did I wait until I was in college? Simply put, I didn’t know books by Mexican Americans existed. My gifted and talented and Advanced Placement classes stuck to the canon, and my school library basically followed suit.
So let’s remedy this situation for today’s students.

If you’re looking for some quality YA fiction by and about Mexican Americans, I highly recommend the following:
A Good Long Way by René Saldaña is set in South Texas along the Mexican border and shows us the lives of three teenagers: Beto, Roel, and Jessy. Beto runs away from home after a fight with his father about breaking his curfew, Roel is a smart kid caught between loyalty to his brother Beto and trying to be a good son and student, and Jessy wants to go to art school but first needs to survive day to day life with her parents whose toxic relationship should have ended years ago.
This book will appeal to reluctant readers because they will connect with the expertly crafted characters and situations. Saldaña does a great job of making us care about Beto, Roel, and Jessy. Teachers will love this book because it’s jam packed with all the literary elements they need to cover in class, and the book also provides plenty of opportunities to write about topics important to the reader. This book will not only appeal to reluctant readers because the beauty of the prose will also attract advanced students who will find find new layers of complexity with each new reading.

Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel by Diana Lopez tells the story of Erica “Chia” Montenegro who is trying to keep her family sane after her mother is diagnosed with cancer. Like Saldaña, Lopez is a talented writer that includes plenty of literary elements, making this novel ready to use for the middle school classroom. I love how we get glimpses of Mexican American culture in a modern world. In trying to negotiate the turmoil in her life, Erica gets involved in a charity event. This would be an excellent book to use for teachers interested in including service learning as part of their ELA classroom.

 Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall is about five sisters who find the dead body of a man and embark on an adventure to first return the deceased to his family and then find their missing father. What I love about this book is that it’s a retelling of the Odyssey using Mexican mythology and folklore. The book is rich with cultural references that will appeal to all students. As a teacher herself, Garcia McCall has written a book jam packed with literary allusions and imagery.

As if this wasn’t all inspiring enough, Saldaña, Lopez and Garcia McCall all have been public school English teachers who saw the need for culturally relevant books. So, what did they do? They wrote them!
All three authors are dynamic speakers that love to visit schools. You can contact them via their websites which are linked to each of there photos below:

The ALAN Conference begins two months from today.  It is probably not too late to sign up, but it is getting close.

    Every year after the main Convention of the National Council of Teachers (NCTE) is over, the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE (ALAN) holds a two day workshop focused on Young Adult Literature. In large measure, the event is dependent on the generosity of the publishers who support the authors who attend and provide books. Upon arrival, each attendee is given a large box of books. Every year, I have so much to attend at the conference that I don’t have much time to read. I immediately walk my box down to the closest shipping office and send it home. (Of course, I hold on to a few books.) The workshop is a whirlwind of panels, speeches, breakout sessions, and great conversations with colleagues and new acquaintances.  When I get home, I await the box, enjoy Thanksgiving with family, and when the books arrive I open it with the excitement of an early holiday present.

    I sort through the books and pick my first ten post-conference reads. Often, I look forward to a new offering from familiar author, but, just as frequently, I reach for a book from an author that is new to me. Every year I am surprised that I wasn’t aware of a great author with several fantastic books under her belt. Oh, well, there is no time like the present to find another great author.

sHere are five books and authors that made my top ten last year. (By the way one of the books of Jason Reynolds was in my top ten, but he got the space last week.)
1. Hit Count by Chris Lynch grabs the first spot. I love the gritty reality of Chris Lynch’s fiction. I have a long relationship with his fiction. One of my favorite academic productions is an article I wrote for the ALAN Review in 2008 (V 35, N2) on his novel Inexcusable. I finished Hit Count right away. In this book Lynch continues to provide a rugged portrayal of an adolescent’s relationship to sports. This book not only explores Arlo’s relationship to his family, his girlfriend and his sport—football, but delves into the dangerous consequences of concussions.  An issue that stays with us and shouldn’t go away. In fact, Will Smith will play Dr. Bennet Omalu in the upcoming film, Concussion. I love the way that Lynch present tough issues.

2.  He Said, She Said by Kwame Alexander was my second choice. It was a great year for Kwame. He won the Newberry Medal for The Crossover and he was an author keynote for the YA Conference at LSU in June. His work keeps finding its way into every syllabus I write. If you haven't introduced yourself to his work, get started. Kwame is a gem in the world of young adult literature.

3.  Andrew Smith's 100 Sideways Miles was a great prize. I am not the first to connect the fabulous narratives of Andrew Smith to the works of Kurt Vonnegut. Walter Mayes made that connection while introducing him at the ALAN Breakfast.  I first found Smith through Winger. I am still upset that I didn’t found his work earlier. I charged through 100 Sideways Miles, found great joy in The Alex Crow, and I just finished Stand-Off today. I believe his impact on YA literature is significant and worthy of promotion and academic investigation. I sense a blog posting on Smith in the very near future.

4. Kekla Magoon's How it Went Down was the fourth pick. Wow! A fantastic book that reminds us about perspective and forces us to contemplate how we respond to urban violence.  Now, Magoon finds her collaborative work about the early life of Malcom X  (X: A Novel) on the final list for the National Book Award. You can find a great review here. Magoon is establishing her place as a rising star. I can't wait for what she will publish next.

5. Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg is my last choice for this week. I enjoyed this book immensely. It fits into the category of realistic fiction placed within the setting of a boarding school. Think, The Catcher in the Rye, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, Winger, Prep, Anna and the French Kiss, A Separate Peace, Looking for Alaska, and, of course, the Harry Potter series.  Bill is near the end of a tour around the country in behave of the Trevor project. His books are witty and powerful. More importantly, they save lives. His efforts as an advocate are remarkable and I immediately read The Porcupine of Truth.

If you aren't familiar with these authors, you really should be. All of them have made a significant impact in the YA universe. The books I highlight here are fantastic, but, in addition,  each one of these authors has other books that are terrific.
The ALAN Workshop is just around the corner and the list of authors is fantastic. If you have been before, you know what I am talking about. If you haven't been, figure out a way to get there. Until next week.

On Amazon.com many author biographies are quite pedestrian, Jason Reynolds’ biographical statement is not, and it is quite poignant. Early on the biography states: “What Jason knows is that there are a lot -- A LOT -- of people, young, old, and in-between, who hate reading. He knows that many of these book haters are boys. He knows that many of these book-hating boys, don't actually hate books, they hate boredom.” Last week I promised to write about Jason Reynolds. In part, the promise was to remind me that I need to post every week. So here we go.

Jason Reynolds is a remarkable young writer who is constantly interesting. Upon the recommendation of Jacqueline Woodson I began to explore Jason’s presence on the web. His webpage is fantastic. When I first had a brief conversation with Jason, I remarked on how much I liked its presentation  before I talked about his fiction. As you visit the site, you quickly discover that he is a talented artist in the broad scope of the word. He writes, he takes pictures, he blogs, and it becomes clear he is fully engaged in the world around him. Charise Wallace, in an article on Afro.com, shows that while Reynolds acknowledges he “didn’t read any books until [he] was 17 years old…” he is doing his best to move kids past boredom.

I wish I knew people who lived in Albany, I don’t think I do, but I can assure you that I will encourage anyone I know in the area to look for this event that features Jason:

Jason Reynolds, young adult novelist and poet
November 17 (Tuesday)
Reading — 7:00 p.m., Huxley Theatre, NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center, downtown Albany

His visit will be part of the New York State Writers Institute. The event is co-sponsored by Albany High School and I hope all of the students attend. It will be worth their time.

While looking up current reviews of Jason’s books, I ran across another important reason to pay attention to books about diverse characters by diverse characters. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (the Library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) has not only picked Jason’s The Boy in the Black Suit as its current book of the week, but it also posted the CCBC Multicultural Statistics for 2015 on their blog http://ccblogc.blogspot.com/. Based on about 2,000 books, only 90 have been written by diverse authors. Not quite 5%,  several more are about diverse characters, but not over 10%. The year isn't over yet, but I'll bet we won't reach a satisfactory balance. There is still a lamentable lack of diverse books by and about a vast number of students that walk through the doors of our public schools every day. I think we have plenty of windows to the world. Let’s focus on mirrors. Let’s support diverse books; clearly we still need them. 

Frankly, there won’t be more diverse books if we, academics, teachers, librarians, parents, and readers don’t buy a few. School and public libraries should have an ample supply of diverse books, but 8 months ago I did find any of Jason’s books at the local library. He is easier to find now, but his books should be everywhere. If you want to help remedy the lack of diverse books, go buy one and today I am recommending one of Jason’s. Any of the books would be fine and rewarding. I could review them, but in this instance I am going to rely on the expertise and comments of others.

Second, for a brief review of another Reynolds’ novel, The Boy in the Black Suit, I return to the posting of CCBC. This is a tremendous novel of grief and recovery. I liked this book as much as I have liked any book in the last couple of years. It is a subtle and powerful narrative of an adolescent’s journey through the loss of a parent. Okay, so, I couldn’t resist a comment. For more information you should check out this interview with Jason about confronting grief in YA Literature on Gawker Review of Books.

Your third option is When I was the Greatest. For this novel, Jason Reynolds won the John Steptoe New Talent award . One of the best reviews of this book is a video posted on youtube by Tyrin Another good book review for this novel is posted on Laura Book Review.  This is a week where is is obvious that I need to thank all of the other people who have taken the time to think about Jason's book. I have made it a team effort and I hope you browse through the various websites I have linked to in this blog posting.

Hello Everybody.

I am starting the blog again after a three month hiatus. After seven great years at LSU, I have moved on to a new faculty position at UNLV in the Department of Teaching and Learning. My wife got a great opportunity at UNLV and I was lucky enough to come along as a trailing spouse. I loved my association with the LSU faculty and students in both the English department and the School of Education. I am already missing their contributions to my life and career. Fortunately, I am finding tremendous new colleagues and students at UNLV.

Now that I am situated in a new house in Las Vegas and beginning a new series of classes at UNLV, let the fun begin.

Coe Booth, Sharon Flake, and Sharon Draper also added to the week in a variety of ways. Conversations with all of them were enough to keep me engaged with the promotion of African-American young adult literature for a long time.

Coe’s work is one of the best examples of how to represent troubled adolescents. Many teachers work with these students and untold amounts of rhetoric have been spoken about how to teach them, how to police them, and how integrate them into society as productive citizens. Booth captures their essence and respects them for who they are and who they can become. One of the joys of last spring semester was a call from a librarian in a local Baton Rouge middle school, who explained how she was using Tyrell to engage reluctant readers. It was refreshing. Just as my graduate students were trying to figure out how they might use a book like Tryell, a local librarian provided a useful model—complete with a discussion of how the students in the program decided how to deal with “problematic” language.

Sharon Flake’s contribution included not only some discussions of her fantastic novels The Skin I’m In, Bang, and Pinned among others, but a vibrant introduction to her new novel--Unstoppable Octobia May. I loved this book and its quirky character who wants to solve mysteries, avoid Zombies, and grow up in the south. Again, if you haven’t read through her collected work you are missing out. Do your best to introduce your pre-service teachers or your secondary students to this fantastic author and her newest offering.

It was a great opportunity for me to meet Sharon Draper. I have admired her for a long time. First, she is a dynamic speaker. Second, she taught in public schools for as long as I did and we are both Milken Educators. Third, she is one of those marvelous educators who leads the way for others. In addition to her remarkable career as an educator, she wrote a few books. In fact, she has been one of the most productive young adult authors over the last twenty years. No classroom library is complete without a majority of Draper’s novels on the shelves. If your budget is limited, start with Tears of a Tiger, Romiette and Julio, Copper Sun, and Out of My Mind. These are all fantastic reads. On top of all of those recommendations, I would be a miss if I didn’t recommend Stella by Starlight. This wonderful novel is inspired by events within her own family. Listening to Sharon explain the history of her family reminds us of the story that probably exists within our own heritage.

All of these authors added to the conference and to my own understanding of young adult literature. We need diverse books in our college curriculums, in our classroom libraries, and in the scope of our research and critique.  I had a wonderful week that focused on African-American young adult literature, but it served, in large measure, to remind me of all of the ways that scholars and teachers of young adult literature need to be inclusive in our offerings and our understanding of diverse books.

One final note. One of the most important questions I asked during the last year was posed to Jaqueline Woodson. I asked her: “Who is the new African-American author that I should be reading that maybe I don’t know?” She didn’t miss a beat and replied Jason Reynolds. You know what? She was exactly right. Next week I will discuss Jason’s wonderful books and the start of a tremendous career.