Chimamanda Adichie, author of Half of a Yellow Sun and The Thing Around Your Neck, inspired her audience with a presentation about the power single stories had on her global consciousness as a child. She grew up as a Nigerian girl reading British and American literature. Consequently, she believed that all children in literature had to be white and play in the snow. She did not have even one model that portrayed in literature people who talked and lived as she did. Here is the rest in her own words:

Adichie’s main point hits home for me. She recounts her experience traveling to Guadalajara, Mexico from the U.S. While in the U.S., she had been reading the U.S. accounts of Mexico being a state torn apart by immigration laws and drug wars. When she arrived in Mexico, she discovered that many people were living healthy and happy lives. She felt as if she had played into and believed the stereotypes that the American media was feeding its citizens. Choosing to only learn about one story of a culture, event, or political “fact” means that your world view is limited and so often, wrong.

I wish upon wishes that when I teach So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins that I had the time to also teach A Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi. As it stands, I stopped teaching the former because I didn’t have enough time to teach the latter, too. And now that I think about it, I probably wouldn’t be doing the subject (Japanese occupation of Korea at the end of WWII) justice even if I did teach both books because they are single stories of each country’s experiences, failing to offer multiple perspectives of each.

As the librarian at my school, I have the wonderful opportunity to create electives and suggest ideas that might otherwise be impossible if I were a classroom teacher with a more set schedule. Perhaps I’ll think of a way to teach more than the single story to a classroom of kids so that my students (and I, too) develop and nurture a multi-story view of the world in which we all live.

P.S. TED truly rocks:

I was not let down. Was it difficult to read at times? Yes. Was I wondering how my students felt and what they thought as they read it, too? Definitely. Was I kept up way past my bedtime on a school night because I couldn’t put it down? Oh, ya. It is one of those books that I found myself breaking all of the “turn off the lights” bargains I was making for myself at the end of each chapter. I just had to keep turning the pages.

Cassie is dead. They way she dies, which is described later in the book, is horrifying, tragic, and ultimately preventable. 18 year old Lia, still living, is Cassie’s former best friend and easting-disorder companion. Cassie suffered from bulimia and Lia suffers from anorexia. To make matters complicated, as they usually are for a teenager, Lia’s parents are divorced. She currently lives with her father, his wife and her stepsister, Emma. Thank goodness for Emma. I do not think Lia would have survived without the undeniable love she has for her sister.

Sentences are peppered with calorie counts and obsessive thinking, especially when it comes to food. The narration is painful, gripping, hopeful, and incredibly real. Anderson (who I firmly believe is one of the greatest writers to ever create literature for young people) dives head first into the minds of eating disordered and depressed teens. We read Lia’s thoughts and feel her obsessions along with her, especially when the calories, weights, and slashed out words are sprawled across the page.

That said, this book is not for every teenage girl or boy. I would strongly discourage 6th grade students from checking it out of the library. There may be a 7th grade student who I feel is mature enough to enter into this world, but we would have to discuss together the extreme nature of the content and why the student really wants to read it. Even some 8th grade students may feel it’s too much for them to handle. This is one of those books that I discuss with all interested students ahead of time to make sure that they’re ready for its subject matter.

If you work in a middle school, how do you handle purchasing and cataloging books that you know you want 8th grade students to access but also want 6th grade students to avoid?

Next on the reading list? Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I’m also reading The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. About time, right?

When You Reach Me

So yes, this book just won the Newbery Award. I finished it last night and decidedly ended a bit confused. Mind you, I read it in two parts, taking a break somewhere in the middle to tend to other kid/teen books on my shelf. However, I’m usually able to jump back into a read and finish with a flourish.

In a nutshell, the book is very well-written and the main character is more real-to-life than most 6th graders I meet in children’s novels. Stead wrapped up each and every story line and character without sentimentality or neatness. Realistic chance and true-to-life relationships ring just right. Do I think it’s Newbery-worthy? Yes. But there’s one thing I wonder…

Would I understand it better if I re-read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time? There’s a little element of time-travel that Stead weaves expertly into the storyline but it’s intricately entwined using the plot of L’Engle’s novel. And if I’m asking this question, will kids feel the same way?

I must say, its length at just about 200 pages will attract many a reluctant reader and Stead’s use of humor and inclusion of depth in dialogue, setting, circumstance, narration, and plot will most definitely draw readers in to this gem.

Check out Mr. Olivo’s blog.

This week, I’m determined to make it happen. I am constructing, in a middle school library, a section for 8th grade readers only. The wise and capable 7th and even 6th grade student will be allowed to read from the section, but I want 8th grade students to know that there are books here that speak specifically to their needs and wants as very-soon-to-be young adults.

Happily, Nancy Werlin’s Impossible will be one of the brand-new books to grace the shelves of this new section. Her book, which takes place in a contemporary setting, is alive with a fairy tale spin that makes it an amazing adventure full of riddles and complete with an evil elf. But with a rape scene, a teen pregnancy, and a teen marriage, I think it’s best featured in a section set aside for readers who are ready to read some of the themes within its pages.

I picked up Impossible on a whim, thinking that I would only be buying one of Werlin’s other titles, Rules of Survival,which is on our 8th grade summer reading list. Here is where I praise and extend my utmost thanks to independent book stores and their knowledgeable booksellers:

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

As I frantically ran through the aisles of BookEnds of Winchester, MA a few weeks ago, grabbing copies of Flanagan’s The Ranger’s Apprentice series, I asked the bookseller if she had Rules of Survival. She said: “I’m not positive, but I know I have her new book – Impossible.”

And off on another track was I.

She gave it an interesting and positive review and we discussed whether it would be a novel 8th grade students could read. She relayed the rape scene to me but said that it wasn’t graphic. She led me to believe that I should take a risk and see what I thought. Frankly, it just sounded like something that I would enjoy. Since I don’t care for fantasy much, I saw this as a sign that I should give it a try.

Happily, I did and spent last Saturday on the couch in a wonderful fantasy story I won’t easily forget.

Last week, every effort I made to sit and catalog books was thwarted by some outside force or another. This week, I’m making the impossible, possible. Come technology or high water.

No, I’m not sitting around waiting for a normal day to happen upon me. Perhaps that’s because I know and love the fact that there really is not such thing as normal.

I do know that I just finished Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor and have a great desire to shout its praises to the world!

The title didn’t cry out to me at first glance. Many times I get new books shipped in and a pile quickly forms made up of books that scream: Read me! Read me! Waiting for Normal just started at me from a display for a few months, getting checked in and checked out by happy teenagers, but I never felt overly compelled to make it my next read. When it was time to select a new book club book, something took hold of me and I ordered enough copies through ILL for my girls. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s meeting.

Addie is one of those characters you wish existed in real life. She’s the lovable heroine of this book, seeing the best in other people and hopefully willing her reality to be better than what it is. Her mother lives an erratic life, wanting to be a good mother but clearly lacking the ability to step outside of her selfish and self-centered box.

When Addie was younger, her mother (or Mommers) married an exceptionally wonderful man named Dwight. After the birth of two daughters, Dwight and Mommers divorced. Addie, because she’s not Dwight’s biological child, moves to a trailer in Schenectady with Mommers. Addie makes the best of their situation, making friends with some adult neighbors across the street, focusing on practicing her flute, and taking care of her hamster, Piccolo. As Addie goes about her daily routines, her mother’s behavior becomes increasingly sporadic; sometimes she doesn’t come home for days.

Although he’s not Addie’s biological father, Dwight considers himself her dad and values very much Addie’s relationship with her half sisters. Dwight does everything in his power to help protect Addie and make sure she always knows that she has a family. He’s aware that Addie’s mother can be negligent with her children (which is the reason he has custody of their two girls) and keeps in close contact with Addie. He lives far enough away, however, that Addie is able to keep some secrets about her mother for too long.

Leslie Connor’s writing is nothing short of genius in this little gem. Addie is hopeful, but not perfectly-so. We believe and can easily picture the situations that Addie is faced with as her unstable mother spins chaos around her. Dwight is the kind of man we hope that all children have in their lives to protect them from harm. And the friends Addie meets along the way are unforgettable personalities.

Patience, relisience, and faith are major players in this story but this is a tale of hope above all else. Addie proves that nothing in this world is perfect, but it’s quite reasonable and practical to wait for normal.

I recommend this book for students in grades 5, 6, or 7. Addie’s voice speaks directly to the middle-grade age group. I have some 8th grade students in the book club and perhaps I’ll discover tomorrow that I can add a grade to that recommendation.

Until then, happy reading!

I’ve got an excellent weekend reading list smiling at me from my desk!

And…

Between the train ride tonight to NYC, the graduation ceremony at Fordham (congratulations to my sister Meg!), and the car ride home, I think conquering them should be easy. Maybe I should bring this along, just in case:

Good stuff.

When I finished it, I felt that although I really like the story,  something was missing. I realized that I desperately wanted the holes to be filled. Since I hadn’t yet read the adult version I wondered if the original story was not as compelling as everyone said or if I really needed to read the adult version of this clearly amazing adventure.

Enter the New York Times article that has convinced me, in a few words, to put the adult version of Greg’s story on my summer reading list. Apparently, there’s just too much adventure in the adult version to allow for an equally compelling rendition in a younger reader’s version.

I will make my own judgements soon but one thing’s for sure: I’m pretty sure that I’m going to really enjoy my summer reading list which is gradually gathering more adult-like titles as the end of school nears. More titles on the list coming soon.