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Registration is open for the virtual Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature!  Plan on April 21, 2023, 8:30-5:30 CST.  

Don't worry, it is easy to find.  Just go to YouTube and search for Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday.

Register here!

Remembering Gary Paulsen for Nightjohn by Stephanie Robillard

10/20/2022

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Stephanie Robillard (she/her) is finishing on her dissertation at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford, studying Race Inequality and Language in Education (RILE) with a focus on English Teacher Education. Her doctoral research addresses the ways Black girls and their  teachers navigate classroom conversations about enslavement in the United States. Prior to studying at Stanford, Stephanie served as a middle school teacher, librarian and as a lecturer in the School of Education at UC Berkeley, where she earned her Master’s Degree in Education.  Stephanie currently serves as Board  Co-chair of the ELATE Graduate Strand.
Remembering Gary Paulsen for Nightjohn by Stephanie Robillard
October 13, 2022 marked the one year anniversary of Gary Paulsen’s passing. He was a young adult literature lumanari, probably best known for his wilderness survival novel, Hatchet. However he will always be a hero to me because of his lesser known book, Nightjohn. 
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Published in 1993, Nightjohn is the lyrical story of Sarny, an enslaved girl, who learns to read and the consequences that follow. In fewer than 100 pages, and less than an hour on audio, Paulsen documents the violence inherent to enslavement in the United States while balancing it with the joy of learning and literacy. 
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At the time of the book’s publication, there were very few young adult novels that addressed enslavement in the United States. Paulsen originally wanted to write a book about Sally Hemings, the woman who was “owned, raised, and subsequently used by Thomas Jefferson without the benefit of ever drawing a single free breath” (p.7). However, while reading narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, Paulsen became interested in the ways enslaved people engaged in fugitive literacy practices, that is, how they learned to read despite the risk of dismemberment should they be caught. 
Most books with themes of racial inequality include a sympathetic white character who supports or fights on behalf of those oppressed. The uniqueness of Paulsen’s Nightjohn is that there are no white characters who serve as allies to the enslaved. This is a remarkable feature. In fact, the only white character in the novel is Waller, the violent enslaver whom Sarny calls, “dog droppings and pig slop and worse things yet” (p.10). Unlike texts that include heroic white characters with whom white readers can align, Nightjohn forces all readers to align with the enslaved or the enslaver. 
In Nightjohn, we witness the cruelty and depravity inherent to enslavement in the United States. Most young adult books about enslavement sidestep the explicit violence by which enslavers held their position. Paulsen does not shy away from this, particularly when describing the consequences of violating the rules of the plantation. In an interview with Minneapolis Public Radio, Paulsen discussed his decision stating, “this book is, is the truth… It is rough and it has some hard things. But it happened to 12 year old girls, and it happened to kids, and so kids should be able to know about it. It’s very important to me.” 

What stands out to me the most about Nightjohn is the way that Paulsen incorporates themes of resistance. The laws that governed an enslaved person’s life, the Slave Codes, restricted freedoms in multiple ways. Delie, a mother-figure, prays for freedom, whispering into a kettle so as not to be heard. She tells Sarny never to tell anyone because it was illegal to pray. Pawley, a young man, visits a girl at another plantation overnight - leaving each night without permission, exercising control over his own body. Sarny understands that it is illegal for her to learn to read and write, yet she continues to desire and seek out this knowledge. John knows it is illegal for him to teach, and yet he continues to do so because, as he says, “We all have to read and write so we can write about this—what they doing to us. It has to be written” (p. 58). Through these multiple examples, enslaved characters are shown resisting oppressive laws and acting as agents of their own liberation.

My students greatly enjoyed reading Nightjohn. They appreciated Paulsen’s attention to language, as he incorporates elements of Black English into the dialogue. I recall one student saying, “I’ve never read a book where they talk like us.” Students also rejoiced at the conclusion, even as Sarny remains enslaved. At the end of the unit, I would always ask students if they liked the book. Given the challenging content, some students would say no they did not like the book. However they always said they were glad to have read it. 
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Almost thirty years later, Nightjohn remains an important teaching text for me. While my middle school students have been replaced by credential candidates, I continue to teach the novel as it raises additional questions that are essential for them to consider. Whose stories are allowed to be told? Who should author them? At what grade is reading about racialized violence appropriate? Who is protected from hard histories and to what end? These are questions teachers must contend with, especially with the increase in book banning and anti-CRT legislature.
In the years since Nightjohn’s release, other books have been published that are equally powerful in their representation of enslavement. Sharon Draper’s Copper Sun, and Armstrong Dunbar’s Never Caught and Kwame Alexander’s The Door of No Return or Yuval Taylor’s anthology, Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as Told by Themselves are a few. Given the brevity of Nightjohn, it would pair nicely with these or with Octavia Butler’s Kindred or even The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. I believe it continues to have a place in the classroom. 
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Gary Paulsen will always be remembered for Hatchet. However, in my heart, his greatest work is that of Nightjohn.
 

Books Mentioned: 
Alexander, K. (2022), The Door of No Return. Little. 
Butler, O. E. (2004). Kindred. Beacon Press. 
Draper, S. M. (2008). Copper sun. Simon and Schuster. 
Douglass, F. (2014). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Other Works. Simon and Schuster. Dunbar, E. A. (2017). Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge. Simon and Schuster. 
Paulsen, G. (2009). Hatchet. Simon and Schuster. 
Paulsen, G. (2011). Nightjohn. Laurel Leaf. 
Taylor, Y. (2007). Growing up in slavery: Stories of young slaves as told by themselves. Chicago Review Press.
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What is YA Literature Anyways? by Dr. Michelle M. Falter

10/12/2022

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Michelle M. Falter is an Associate Professor of English Education in the Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences at North Carolina State University. Currently, her research and scholarship are comprised of three major strands: critical approaches to teaching literature/texts (young adult and canonical), emotion and affect in teaching English Language Arts, and English teacher preparation and development. She can be reached at mfalter@ncsu.edu
What is YA Literature Anyways? by Dr. Michelle M. Falter
What is YA literature anyways?  For me, it is a combination of factors. Does it have a teen main character? Check. Is the story told through a teen’s perspective? Check. Is the book marketed to teens? Check. Do I recognize the author as someone who publishes other teen books? Check. Does the book cover depict teenagers? Check. I have learned, however, that for my undergraduate students (ages 18-23) who have grown up in the era of having YA books all around them, they actually struggle determining what a YA book is.  Some of that may have to do with the fact that YA literature isn’t a genre, but instead more of a nebulous category. This semester alone I have had students ask to read Lord of the Flies, Maus, To Kill a Mockingbird, and El Deafo, for their choice reading in my YA course. I have wondered if this is because a) they assume any book that has a kid in it is YA lit? b) their middle/high school ELA teachers have been saying these are YA texts? or c) maybe they believe that if a teen wants to read the book then it is YA by default? I am not sure. My students don’t seem to know either. All of these are excellent texts, but not, in my estimation, young adult. But, it made me think. Maybe my definition of YA Lit is too restrictive. Maybe distinctions between adolescent, childrens, middle grades, and new adult contemporary fiction, and canonical texts with teen characters don’t matter so much anymore. 

Because I do think definitions matter, I decided to see what other scholars, teachers, and librarians from English and English Education fields who research and teach young adult literature had to say about this topic through a short Google Form questionnaire I posted in various YA lit Facebook groups. Here’s what they had to say: 

Q: How do you define YA literature?

A:  The most common answer I received noted that YA literature is literature that is written and marketed expressly for adolescent readers, defined as ages 12-18, although some went as high as 22 and as low as 11 years of age.  This response indicates that intentionality of audience is important to scholars and teachers of YA literature. However, at least one person noted that sometimes YA literature is in part defined by readers, and can defy authorial or publisher intent. The Book Thief is an often cited example for this case, as Markus Zusak and his publisher first marketed the book for adults, but it was so widely received by adolescent audiences, that they remarketed it to teens. 

Another key feature is that the protagonist of the story must be an adolescent, again of the same age range as stated before (approx. 12-18), and told through their perspective (i.e. first person narration). Others noted that additionally, the adolescents demonstrate growth and movement toward independence and adulthood through the novels, they learn to negotiate the power structures present in society, they focus on identity development and rites of passage (whether informal or formal). In addition, the issues and topics in the book are relevant to adolescent lives.
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Q: What is a text that is quintessentially YA literature, in your estimation? 

A:  Several books by Laurie Halse Anderson were mentioned, including Speak and Wintergirls. One respondent wrote, of why they chose Speak: “This book focuses on a teen character who has experienced trauma. The primary setting is a high school. Melinda is a freshman in high school dealing with the trauma of a rape. Young people her age are the explicit audience for the book to show survivors they are not alone and to provide a window for others to think about the messages other people's behaviors send.” Another noted that Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is quintessentially YA lit because “the main character (Lia, a high school senior who lives with anorexia nervosa) grapples with issues such as identity and self-understanding, friendships and romantic relationships, and her future as a young woman.” 

In addition to books by Laurie Halse Anderson, the following additional texts were shared as being quintessentially YA:

Internment by Samira Ahmed: In this novel the main character is a teenage girl navigating relevant and relatable adolescent issues of identity, relationships, family, racism, trust, and power (among others); the writing is accessible, characters are diverse, and narrative is heavy on dialogue (versus exposition); the author relates these issues to adolescents readers through familiar experiences (e.g., disagreements with parents), common concerns (e.g., developing friendships) and current issues (e.g., societal racism) while engaging readers through a fast-paced plot and 1st person POV.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart. The novel features a sophomore in high school aspiring for the first time to chart her own identity in ways that violate the expectations of her family and friends while falling in love with a boy who expects her to be conventional. She is also not always entirely likable. And it is a smart book that reveals how language and tradition suppress creativity and equality (the boarding school she attends is named Alabaster for a reason!)

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It is fast-paced, features a 17-year-old protagonist, is written in the 1st person, involves a journey of identity formation, has a happy ending, is generally optimistic, contains no explicit sexual content, and has a strong appeal to teenagers because they can relate to the main character’s responses to the central conflicts. The main character is still in school and must respect parental figures — she is not independent yet.

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner. The book features three teenage protagonists in rural Tennessee all on the cusp of graduating high school. The story deals with issues important to them, the angst of growing up and next phases of life, and choosing a path forward for themselves. Does not shy away from teens dealing with real or “adult” issues. 

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Like most modern YA, it has a protagonist who is a high school student and the story is rendered through her perspective and at her emotional level. The writing style is also extremely accessible, not dense or elevated. However, as a romance with themes such as alienation and disapproval of parents, it is less likely to be of interest to young children.
Additional books people suggested included:

The Hunger Games  by Suzanne Collins
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
The Poet X by  Elizabeth Acevedo
Feed by M.T. Anderson
Q: What is a text that some people may believe is YA literature, but is not in fact YA literature, in your opinion?

A:  The first set of books mentioned were texts such as: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn by Mark Twain, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (specifically), Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. In each of these cases, the respondents noted that the texts actually have children as main characters (under the age of 12) and were either intended for adult or children readers (and not adolescent readers). 

The other set of books people noted were canonical texts that are often taught in schools, such as 
Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, 1984 by George Orwell, Romeo & Juliet  by William Shakespeare, or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Several stated something similar to this respondent who argued that the confusion might come from “the mistaken belief that books commonly taught in high school English classes are necessarily YA….” 

Two interesting, and perhaps debatable, texts people proposed as not being YA are Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. One person noted that Salinger did not write Catcher for an adolescent audience, and as such it does not meet the definition. Another noted that Sarah Maas’ book certainly has appeal to older young adults but the content is “designed to titillate the reader” through explicit “sexual content,” and the character is 19 and living independently away from her family, and therefore not a “young” adult text. 
Q: Do distinctions between different categories of kidlit matter (e.g. childrens lit, middle grades, new adult fiction)?

A:  It appears that the majority of scholars, teachers, and librarians agree that the distinctions matter. One respondent noted, “I do think the distinctions matter because the intended readership is different. There are different writing craft moves and vocabulary used, different references and allusions, different levels of age appropriateness, etc.” Another person who works in the childrens’ publishing world noted “The distinctions absolutely matter, because why else am I publishing these books except because their audience needs them in some way? Children are at different development points at different ages, and general age groups allow us to target books to their developmental needs as well as their interests.” Another scholar noted how for a long time adolescent literature was not deemed as worthy of academic study, and as such having these distinctions is very important to legitimize adolescents in and of themselves. One person wrote, “I think more and more we are carving out a space for YAL as its own category separate from but related to children’s literature. It has become too distinctive and deals with many more real world issues and with adolescents being capable and independent human beings. I think this is starting to happen in middle grades literature too where we will have four distinct categories of literature for young people after adding “new adult”. The major distinction from canonical lit is that YAL is written in modern language that adolescents relate to and can consume more easily, and in many cases YAL offers the same rigor as the canon. “

However, one person did note that these distinctions can also be problematic and limiting. They wrote: “I find these descriptors to be restrictive structures imposed by publishing and k-12 education that do not accurately represent the range of material embraced by teenage readers. They represent adult desire to confine young readers for the market or to suit what adults think young people need.”
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Q: Just for fun, I posed the following:  Aliens have attacked and we have an hour to save the literature of the world. The thing is,  only YA Lit is worth saving!  If you could only bring 3 YA books to help repopulate all of literature,  what would you put in the bunker?  

A: Here’s what they had to say: 

The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak
Feed by MT Anderson
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume; 
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. 
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo 
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
The Unstoppable Wasp illustrated by Jeremy Whitley
Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens by Marieke Nijkamp
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
I Kissed Sarah Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Redwood and Ponytail by KA Holt
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
So, what do you think? Do you agree with these answers? Are there other considerations that weren’t brought up that need to be unpacked? Are there other books that were overlooked? I think as YA literature continues to be in the spotlight for a variety of reasons, it is important (I think) to be on the same page about what it is and what it can do for adolescents.

Author's note: Thank you to my YA colleagues across the world who were willing to share your answers so that I could compile and create this post, including but not limited to Heather Matthews, Miranda Green-Barteet, Alyssa Lowery, Melanie Shoffner, Tara Gold, Shelly Shaffer, Katie Sluiter, Alisha White, Hunter Strickland, Christiana Salah, and Stacy Whitman.

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Modern Portrayals of Antisemitism; or How I Stopped Just Kvetching and Embraced the Struggle by Dr. Heather J. Matthews

10/5/2022

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​Heather J. Matthews, PhD, is an assistant professor at Salisbury University. Her specialization is in children’s and young adult literature. She is specifically interested in diverse representation within children’s literature.

Today's focus, on antisemitism as shown in current events as well as our everyday life, shows the power of YA literature as an antidote to hate.  Thank you, Heather, for this post!

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Modern Portrayals of Antisemitism; or How I Stopped Just Kvetching and Embraced the Struggle by Dr. Heather J. Matthews
As I write this blog, I have been following two recent news stories surrounding Judaism in America. 
The first story involves the Keller Independent School District, located in Keller, Texas. Keller ISD found itself the center of the conversation regarding book banning in recent days when the news broke that the district temporarily removed 41 books from its libraries while employees review the challenged books to determine appropriateness (Lopez, 2022). The list of books which were removed includes such titles as the graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl (1967), amongst others (Keller ISD, 2022). You may remember reading versions of this headline touting that Keller ISD had removed the Bible from its libraries’ shelves, but the list of 41 books under consideration include other titles like Mike Curato’s masterful Flamer (2020), George M. Johnson’s beautiful All Boys Aren’t Blue (2020), and Toni Morrison’s heartbreaking The Bluest Eye (1994). Upon examination, the challenged books had many commonalities: overwhelmingly, the list represents findings from PEN America’s 2022 report on banned books in America, which found that “a profound increase in both the number of books banned and the intense focus on books that relate to communities of color and LGBTQ+ subjects…” (2022). For me, the removal of the Anne Frank’s diary is startling and concerning for many reasons, but it isn’t surprising – the text is challenged often, and like recent removal of Maus (Spiegelman, 1990) from a Tennessee school curriculum, accusations often boil down to antisemitic accusations. ​
The second story comes out of Knoxville, Tennessee, which served as my home for the last three years. In this story, a Jewish couple was denied help from a state-sponsored adoption agency because of their Jewish identity. You read that right – a Jewish couple was rejected from a state-funded agency because of their religion (Whetstone, 2022). The Tennessee Department of Child Services was subsequently sued, in the first of what will surely be many strikes against the Tennessee’s adoption bill of 2020, which allows state funded agencies to discriminate against specific couples in matters of child adoption if placing the child will “violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies” (Ebert, 2020). On July 5th of this year, a panel of judges dismissed the lawsuit brought by the Jewish couple, and by the time you are reading this sentence, the case could be going to appeals (Associated Press, 2022). Chances are, you haven’t heard this story, but it has garnered attention within the Jewish community of Knoxville and in other similar communities in other similar locations, who wait to see what precedent this court case will set. 
Perhaps you might remember watching a video this last winter of a snowplow directly seeking out two Jewish men on the side of the road, covering the men with snow and ice while the driver laughed (Reilly, 2022). Or, perhaps you saw recent Anti-Defamation League (or ADL) statistics which shows that antisemitic hate crimes rose in 2021 to an average of more than seven incidents per day across the United States (ADL, 2022). Or, perhaps like me, you saw more localized examples of antisemitism – threats causing synagogues to close, or antisemitic graffiti and vandalization in your community schools, centers of worship, libraries, universities, and sidewalks. 
All that to say, antisemitism has been on my mind as of late. It has been on my mind for the last 30 years of my life, and stays on my mind on a daily basis. Don’t get me wrong, this is not an airing of grievances. This kvetching (Yiddish for “complaining”) is purposeful – frankly, much of antisemitism is difficult to identify, and difficult to remedy. It is my belief, however, that to battle antisemitism, we need to scrutinize the media we take in. If you’re reading this blog post, then I would wholeheartedly suggest your YA reading habits as a place to begin. So, begin we shall! 
Before going any further, I would like to define a term, as many good scholars do. Throughout this post, you’ll see the word “antisemitism” styled as such. This is based on the recommendations of the ADL, who recommend the spelling “antisemitism” instead of “anti-Semitism.” This change highlights two distinct differences: a removal of a hyphen, and a lack of capitalization (ADL, n.d.). This change is also reflected in the Associated Press, which announced in 2021 that they too would embrace a lack of hyphenation or capitalization (Bandler, 2021). These changes are to reflect that using a hyphenated term (anti-semitism) implies that the term “semite” or “semitic” is in reference to a group of people, when in fact, “There is no such thing as a Semitic peoplehood” (ADL, n.d.). 
The very first step any reader can take in pushing back against antisemitism is to diversify your reading habits to include more Jewish representation. Like any other demographic group, specifically seeking out Jewish characters in YA lit is not necessarily a difficult task to undertake. There are entire blogs and Facebook groups dedicated to discussing, reviewing, and upholding Jewish representation in youth literature. Goodreads has several lists of Jewish YA books, as does the Association of Jewish Libraries and the Jewish Book Council. PJ Our Way publishes and disseminates Jewish YA lit each month to eager readers, and the American Library of Association awards the Sydney Taylor book award and manuscript award each year to exemplary Jewish literature. All of these places and more showcase and uphold Jewish representation in YA literature, and are fine places to start one’s journey if you wish to assess the quantitative elements of your reading habits or book collections. 
However, I would urge you to look beyond simply counting the Jews on the pages, and look at the quality of the Jewish representation. Specifically, I urge you to look for antisemitic representation within the YA you consume. When considering antisemitic representations of Jews in literature, there are a few main stereotypes and tropes, as identified by the Jewish Book Council (Baum, 2017), but this list certainly is not an exhaustive one. For example, the goblins within the world of Harry Potter (Rowling, 1998) are a fairly obvious example of antisemitic Jewish representation – long nosed, greedy creatures, solely interested in matters of money and banking  seems a little on the nose (if you’ll pardon the pun). 
How can we combat this? One solution is to seek out books which name and fight against antisemitism. I find myself craving texts like The Assignment (Wiemer, 2020), which shows young people that they can directly fight against antisemitism, even if they aren’t Jews, and even if it is scary or unpopular to do so. Texts like Some Kind of Hate (Littman, 2022) (which I read recently for the Sydney Taylor Shmooze, a predictive blog which examines children’s and young adult novels with Jewish elements to speculate on the year’s Sydney Taylor book award winners), which explores internet radicalization and antisemitic domestic terrorism.
At the same time, I find myself desperate for books like They’ll Never Catch Us (Goodman, 2021)– books which feature Jewish characters who are unlikeable, but not for antisemitic reasons. Novels like Color Me In (Díaz, 2019), which highlights intersectional Judaism, or Cry of the Giraffe (Oron, 2010), which highlights Jewish struggles across the world. Of course, there are too many books to name which portray positive Jewish experiences, and for those I am thankful as a scholar and as a reader, but books which highlight the multiplicitous iterations and facets of Judaism in all of their difficulties – these are the books which I believe are most valuable in the fight against antisemitism. ​
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To loosely paraphrase from Birnbaum’s Ethics of the Fathers, it is no one person’s job to finish the fight against evil, nor are we allowed to neglect it (1949). The fight against antisemitism is literally centuries old, and yet is a constant threat against Jewish people every day. To engage in the fight against antisemitism is not the sole duty of one person, and it is not reasonable to expect that one person alone can win – however, it is each person’s job to engage in the struggle against antisemitism. Our bookshelves and our reading habits are just one small way to take on antisemitism. 

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Works Cited
The Associated Press. (2022). Judges panel dismissed lawsuit filed by Jewish couple alleging adoption bias. Knox News. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2022/07/05/tennessee-judges-dismiss-adoption-lawsuit-filed-jewish-couple/7813787001/
Anti-Defamation League [ADL]. (n.d.). Spelling. https://www.adl.org/spelling
Anti-Defamation League [ADL]. (2022). ADL audit finds antisemitic incidents in United States reached all-time high in 2021. https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-audit-finds-antisemitic-incidents-united-states-reached-all-time-high
Bandler, A. (2021). AP changes spelling of “anti-Semitism” to “antisemitism.” Jewish Journal, https://jewishjournal.com/news/336003/ap-changes-spelling-of-anti-semitism-to-antisemitism/
Baum, D. (2017). The 12 most stereotypical jews in literature. Jewish Book Council. https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/the-12-most-stereotypical-jews-in-literature
Birnbaum, P. (1949). Ethics of the fathers. Hebrew Publishing Co. 
Curato, M. (2020). Flamer. Henry Holt and Co. 
Ebert, J. (2020). Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signs controversial adoption bill, which takes effect immediately. Knox News. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/24/tennessee-adoption-bill-gov-bill-lee-signs-controversial-law/4567731002/
Díaz, N. (2019). Color me in. Delacorte Press. 
Frank, A. (1967). The diary of a young girl. Doubleday. 
Goodman, J. (2021). They’ll never catch us. Razorbill. 
Johnson, G. M. (2020). All boys aren’t blue: A memoir-manifesto. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 
Keller Independent School District [Keller ISD] (2022). Current book challenges. https://www.kellerisd.net/Page/7364
Littman, S. D. (2022). Some kind of hate. Scholastic. 
Lopez, B. (2022). Keller school officials order 41 books – including the Bible and an Anne Frank adaptation – off of library shelves. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/16/keller-isd-removes-books/
Morrison, T. (1994). The bluest eye. Plume. 
Oron, J. (2010). Cry of the giraffe. Annick Press. 
PEN America. (2022). Banned in the USA: Rising school book bans threaten free expression and students’ first amendment rights. https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/
Reilly, P. (2022). NJ man fired after video shows two men plowing snow onto Orthodox Jewish men. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2022/02/06/new-jersey-man-donny-klarmann-fired-after-video-shows-two-men-plowing-snow-onto-orthodox-jewish-men/
Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone. Scholastic. 
Santana, S. (2022). San Antonio’s Temple Beth-El cancels services as FBI investigates potential threat. My San Antonio. https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-synagogue-temple-bethel-17294598.php
Spiegelman, A. (1990). Maus: A survivor’s tale. Pantheon Books. 
Whetstone, T. (2022). Tennessee-based adoption agency refuses to help couple because they’re Jewish. Knox News. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/20/holston-united-methodist-home-for-children-adoption-tennessee-refused-family-jewish/6582864001/
Wiemer, L. (2020). The assignment. Ember. 

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    Dr. Gretchen Rumohr
    Chief Curator
    Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods.   She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

    Dr. Steve Bickmore
    ​Creator and Curator

    Dr. Bickmore is a Professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and a past president of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

    Co-Edited Books

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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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