We are officially in the dog days of summer, and we hope you are able to find a slower pace of life as these hot days pass us by. And if you are looking for a reading recommendation this weekend, we have you covered!
 Audra Slocum | Dr. Audra Slocum is an Associate Professor of Secondary English Education and the Director of Teacher Education at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Prior to joining OU, she was an associate professor at West Virginia University and co-director of the National Writing Project at WVU for 10 years. She has presented at NCTE, AERA, and WVCTE and published in English Education, Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, and English Teaching: Practice and Critique. Her scholarship primarily focuses on how teenagers from linguistically marginalized communities navigate oppressive norms in secondary English classrooms. As a teacher educator, she prepares secondary English students to be actively anti-oppressive as they employ core teaching practices. |
An Expanse of Blue by Kauakanilehua Mahoe Adams
| An Expanse of Blue, by Kauakanilehua Mahoe Adams, a novel-in-verse, is set in contemporary Pacific Northwest, from the point of view of seventeen year old Aouli. Aouli is Native Hawaiian, living with her mother and father, and her older sister. Aouli is nurturing a rebellious spirit in the face of several types of dominating forces: her patriarchal father who controls everyone in the their family, her distant and silenced mother, her white Catholic church leaders hypervigilant focus on purity, and her peer group’s constant shifting on who is desirable. The place that she feels the most love is with her Aunty Ehu, from whom she learns about her Hawaiian ancestors and guidance. Outside of her Aunty’s home, Aouli battles shame and desire, as she is expected to resist her own desires and her Hawaiian identity and fit herself into the box others have made for her. Aouli experiences this social, religious, and familial pressure and social competition as deeply isolating and suffocating. Alone in her room, she writes lyrics, sorting through her feelings. She has a lot to sort through: betrayal, sneaking out, figuring out what she is comfortable with – or not when it comes to being with a boy she thinks she likes. |  |
 Kauakanilehua Mahoe Adams | When a new boy, Nalu, who is also Native Hawaiian, moves into town, the power dynamics shift. As the new cute new boy in the Catholic youth group, he is invited to the parties. But he also rejects the status quo - Nalu holds his Hawaiian identity and cultural ways as his center. With this commitment, he offers himself as an ally to Aouli in resisting the pull to “go along with” all the pressure. Will she accept? Aouli has lessons to learn about trusting herself, rejecting shame and competition for friendship, and understanding who she is as a young Hawaiian. The book is reflective, beautifully written, and deeply personal. |
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