tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71412147802973343292024-02-06T22:13:57.120-08:00For the Love of YA (Reviews & Author Interviews)I am a self-proclaimed critic of Young Adult literature, a National Board Certified English teacher, and an aspiring author. More importantly, I am an unapologetic promoter and reader of YA because I've seen it change lives.
Enjoy my full-length reviews, each paired with author interviews, of books I think teens should read.For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-38004312479949406612013-05-07T21:15:00.002-07:002013-05-07T21:26:39.052-07:00Gatsby Confession<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Way back when I was a moronic teenager, I read this book called <i>The Great Gatsby </i>by someone named F. Scott Fitzgerald. There were more important things going on in my life than the novel—like planning a spring break trip to Florida—so I didn't really give a hoot about Gatsby and his money, Daisy and her drama, or towns named after eggs. A girl wrecked a car. Someone got shot. No one lived happily ever after. And I needed a new bikini.<br />
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Fast forward to yesterday when my TBFF (teacher best friend forever—one of them anyway) texted to see if I was going to see the movie Friday. Ambivalent, I said something akin to "if I have nothing better to do." That was the wrong thing to say. And I quote:<br />
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I laughed because the diatribe was so heartfelt and quick, as is my friend, but then I got serious. As much as I love literature and teaching, perhaps it was a treasonous feeling to dislike Gatsby? Maybe all that was keeping me from being a better person and teacher was this book? So, I decided to reread it before going to see the movie—if not for my own gain then to appease my friend, who, ironically, is not an English teacher, and who, hilariously, has continued sending me power-snippets like this:<br />
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Hopefully by next week I'll have a fresh perspective, and then won't feel like a poser when I go drool over Leonardo DiCaprio—which I promise is not part of my conscious motivation.<br />
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Let me know if you're re-reading it, too. If I still hate it, I'll need the motivation.<br />
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<br />For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-74874184937538148982013-05-02T15:45:00.003-07:002013-05-02T15:49:30.390-07:00Bye Bye Blogger?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you want to know what it looks like when I'm about to burst into frustrated tears, here it is:</div>
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And if you want to know why I'm about to do that, observe: </div>
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I really feel like it's time for me to move from blogger to a self-hosted Wordpress so that I can do more with my blog. I so badly want to expand to include free lesson and unit plans for YA in the Common Core classroom. I want a section that is all about the censorship drama I went through, a section exclusively for current YA censorship struggles, a section for author podcasts, and one to show off YA testimonials. And I need a more user-friendly interface—more control— to do that. </div>
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The crux? All the technical what-ifs could ruin my outreach here. So many things could go wrong from the permalinks to my SEO. The thing is, I have a great Google ranking and keyword search visibility, a nice little following, and three years of success on Blogger. Will changing to Wordpress just be a mess? Will people be able to find me and my reviews, and my future lesson plans? Will I be starting all over? Going back into the wwwomb?</div>
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Have any of you out there done this with a site like mine? What are the pros and cons? For the love of carbohydrates, please give me some advice! </div>
For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-20268337585484428972013-04-25T10:50:00.001-07:002013-04-25T10:50:49.070-07:00Interview with Tom Leveen <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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See my interview from 2011with Tom <a href="http://fortheloveofya.blogspot.com/2011/02/interview-with-tom-leveen.html" target="_blank">here</a>. And check out the article which spawned his title <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/wild-things-16-films-featuring-manic-pixie-dream-g,2407/" target="_blank">manicpixiedreamgirl</a>.<br />
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<br />For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-32578120846075533462013-04-25T09:38:00.001-07:002013-04-25T11:29:23.194-07:00Manicpixiedreamgirl by Tom Leveen<b id="docs-internal-guid-45f04018-420f-9ddf-ed75-cb20ca950b8b" style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-45f04018-420f-9ddf-ed75-cb20ca950b8b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just released April 23rd! </span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-45f04018-420f-9ddf-ed75-cb20ca950b8b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-45f04018-420f-9ddf-ed75-cb20ca950b8b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day one of freshman year, Tyler sees her. She is a nameless siren and the impetus of his every mistake for the next two years. She becomes the moniker “manic pixie dream girl,” also known as wildly unattainable; one existing only in folklore; likened to a cold, Greek statue which elicits slobbering awe from its gawkers. Weeks after Tyler sees this girl—Rebecca Webb, he will soon learn—he accidentally begins dating Sydney. The thing about Sydney is that she really is a dream girl; rather, she would be to anyone else. She’s an easy Sunday; a laugh in the park; a warm, beautiful, and open soul. To Tyler, she’s just okay. And you should hate him for this...except you can’t. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></b></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-45f04018-420f-9ddf-ed75-cb20ca950b8b" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-45f04018-420f-9ddf-ed75-cb20ca950b8b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this story of tangled love and misspent desire, Tyler moves through the motions in his relationship with Sydney. Sometimes he’s happy; most times he’s content; always, he’s waiting for a chance with Becky. Sydney and Becky are both involved in drama, and it is the former who encourages Tyler to get involved with the theater program. For the sake of shameless gawking, he becomes a devoted part of the tech crew. As his involvement increases, Sydney’s wanes, leaving way too much time for Tyler to spend with Becky. The shows. The parties. The hangouts. Soon into his sophomore year, Tyler and Becky are friends; only for Tyler, she isn’t just a friend: she is the manifestation of his desires, and his muse. </span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-45f04018-420f-9ddf-ed75-cb20ca950b8b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tyler uses his impotence in conversation with Becky as the inspiration for his writing. He shapes her as pure—perfect—and refuses to allow her reputation to seep into his writing. He’s seen enough to know that the rumors exist for a legitimate reason, but he continues his allegories with a Becky that doesn’t exist, setting himself up for heartbreak and making it utterly impossible for him to be with Sydney. Finally, they break up, and Tyler gets his chance. He will read Becky his recently published story, and he will let her figure out that she is the main character not only of the fiction but also of his life. It’s the only way he can reveal what she means to him, what she’s meant since freshman year. Soon after the confession, Tyler finds that everyone who ever saw this coming was right: the only thing this manic, pixie, dream girl can do for him is break his heart. Because she is too broken to care.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tom Leveen has done it again. I swear he is the master of voice, and he has created one of the most honest stories I’ve ever read featuring the archetype of the unattainable, broken damsel, a.k.a the "<a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/wild-things-16-films-featuring-manic-pixie-dream-g,2407/" target="_blank">manic pixie dream girl</a>." I’m a high school teacher, so I see students when they go through their ultimate crushes, and every once and again I see one struggling to breathe in a world full of air because of desire—desire for what they don’t even know or understand. And there’s not an adult in this world that can break that spell, or that can inject Truth into the visceral fiction floating overhead that simply does not parallel reality. This book does that: smashes Realism into Romanticism’s face like cake at a marriage where the bride doesn’t show—but it does so gently (and with one of the funniest secondary characters you’ll ever meet). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Through a narrative that pulses like a heartbeat, Tom has created real people that are the embodiment of the teenage learning curve, or in Becky’s case, the pitiable result of selfish parenting. Readers will become attached to them all, but especially Tyler who only tries to create a relationship in which he isn’t the “asshead” but the hero. And maybe in the end, he did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kudos, Tom. You’ve wowed me again.</span></div>
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</b>For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-68863795323219463852013-04-20T14:00:00.003-07:002013-04-20T14:04:37.059-07:00Interview with April Henry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I know my readers are ready to hear from April, so I won't make you wait any longer. :) Please be sure to get a copy of <i>The Night She Disappeared</i> as well as her newest book (in June)<i> The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die. </i>And if you happen to be in San Antonio for this year's International Reading Association conference, you should track April down and get your book signed. She really is the coolest! (I mean, check out her answer to #6.)</div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">1.)Where were you when you go the idea to write The Night She Disappeared? Can you walk us through that “Ah hah!” moment for an author?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 25pt;">Thirty years ago, a teenager went out to deliver pizzas in a town about 45 minutes away from where I live. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Just like in The Night She Disappeared, her car was found with the keys in the ignition, her purse on the seat, and the pizza boxes on the ground. And just like in my book, it came out that the caller had asked if a different girl was working that night on delivery. I always wondered what it felt like that to be that other girl, knowing that the person had called for you. Would you feel marked? Guilty?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 25pt;">When I was in high school, I worked for two years at Pietro's Pizza as a cashier. So I was able to take some of my own memories - playing Frisbee in the back parking lot with the pizza skins, the joy of working a very busy rush - and put those into the book. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">2.) When you first set out to write this book, did you know which characters would emerge? How do you plot a novel with so many voices?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 25pt;">I knew I wanted the two girl's voices - the girl who is really taken and the girl who was supposed to be. And I wanted to bring in a guy's voice. Those are the three main point-of-view characters, but there are others, like the people who find the missing girl's car, or the diver who looks for her body in the river. Whenever I write a scene, I like to tell it from the point of view of the person who knows the least (or is finding out the most) or the person who has the most to lose. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">3.) In a lot of thrillers, there seems to be some redeeming quality—however buried in the antagonist; yet, in this story I didn’t find it. Was it a conscious choice to create “John Robertson” as a flat, though believable and terrifying, villain?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 25pt;">"John Robertson" is a sociopath. As such, he was born without the ability to care about other human beings. To him, a human being has about as much value as the wrapper his hamburger comes in. Not all - or even most - sociopaths are killers. Many are people who have left a trail of broken promises and broken people behind them. I have a relative who is a sociopath, although it took a long time for that to become clear. As I was trying to figure out what that person was, I did a lot of reading about sociopathy. As a person who cares about others, it's hard to believe that some people don't - and probably can't. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">4.) One of the most heartbreaking, interesting and personally important issues in <i>The Night She Disappeared</i> is this issue of drug usage, its long-term effects, and society’s perspective toward those who have become lost in their addictions. We see this in Drew, whose involvement is learned but slight; Drew’s mother, who use has escalated to complete addiction; and again in the sad character of young-adult Cody Renfrew, who wanted to stop but couldn’t and who, because of it, made a perfect suspect for the community. What message did you want to send to your readers about drugs?</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 25pt;">I graduated from high school in 1977. I don't know if it was the era, or growing up in a town that did not have a lot of money, but when I go to high school reunions, I would estimate that at least a third of the guys have been through some kind of rehab, some multiple times, and probably half should have gone. So many p</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 25pt;">eople who had had so much potential, kids who were popular and funny and smart, and their lives got derailed or lost altogether.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">5.) How much research did it take for you to create the epistolary documents that appear between chapters? Did you plan for them initially or did they come about later?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 25pt;"> I always wanted to make the book like a collage. I kept a running list of ideas, some of which I didn't use, like diary entries. I love the way the graphic designer, </span><a href="http://aprilward.wordpress.com/graphic-design/" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 25pt;" target="_blank">April Ward</a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 25pt;">, brought them to life in the book.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">6.) This book is heavy in a content-sense—kidnapping, drugs, suicide—yet it’s such a real, accessible, and respectful read. Have you encountered much opposition to this novel? Any instances of it having been banned?</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 25pt;">Not yet, knock on wood. I do make a conscious choice to keep the language basically clean, and the sexual situations don't progress all the way. (Actually, part of the reason I make that choice is because of you. I'm writing books that are mostly meant to be entertainment, and I would hate to have a teacher or librarian have their job at risk because of something I wrote.) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">7.) How long did it take you, from inception to completion, to write this novel? What was your biggest challenge during that time?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Nine months, I think, like a pregnancy. I worried that no one would like it as much as Girl, Stolen. And I'm sure I was juggling another deadline on an adult book at the same time, because I always am.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">8.) For every YA author I know, the real perks to writing don’t come from the awards and accolades—though those are nice, too—but from the responses they get from their readers. What has been your most rewarding reader response so far? (This is my favorite question to ask!)</span></div>
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I get a lot of notes from kids who don't like to read. They are often like this one: "<span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 22px;">I have read girl stolen and the night she disappeared and I have to say they were so good! I couldent put the book down! I read both these books in three days which is a pretty big achievement for me because it usually takes me a month but ur books are just to thrilling and intresting to put down!!</span><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 22px;"> "</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">9.) Last question: When/What is your next book coming out?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> June 11. The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">Quick round:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 12pt;">Favorite animal:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Cat (spouse is sadly now allergic)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Favorite hobby (other than writing): </span><span style="color: #222222;">Kung fu</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Favorite quote: </span><span style="color: #222222;">Robert Bloch: "Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Favorite painting: </span><span style="color: #222222;">Vermeer's Woman in Blue Reading a Letter</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Favorite band:</span><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">The Heavy</span></span></div>
For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-16586363860886493572013-04-07T18:20:00.001-07:002013-04-07T18:24:43.062-07:00The Night She Disappeared by April Henry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxso5vlRnIEzmKpMRNPN4X8HoVizcPbmCKxQ1ljvMAtVimUFMt6hAl3sEjP6mdcX4YQTiREk5MRqxp1qXdxSyEMqZGeFYOkzbtMyrsNi1DnMx76CNGzuPPhKHp-kwasqXW5gVWv8H_cp0/s1600/night+she.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxso5vlRnIEzmKpMRNPN4X8HoVizcPbmCKxQ1ljvMAtVimUFMt6hAl3sEjP6mdcX4YQTiREk5MRqxp1qXdxSyEMqZGeFYOkzbtMyrsNi1DnMx76CNGzuPPhKHp-kwasqXW5gVWv8H_cp0/s320/night+she.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Have you ever pondered
the power of one moment? Ever looked back on what you perceived as an inconvenience—missing
the subway, taking a wrong turn, losing your seat on a flight—and wondered if
it somehow altered the course of your life? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It was a
Wednesday night, a night when Gabie usually delivered for Pete’s Pizza. On this day, however, she had switched shifts with Kayla. So, it was Kayla who delivered
the three pizzas to a fake address on some dark and isolated highway. But the man who placed the order had asked for
the girl in the Mini Cooper—Gabie's car. If she hadn’t have switched shifts, it would have been her whose DNA was all that was
left behind on that riverbank in Oregon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The knowledge of
this detail haunts Gabie throughout the two weeks after Kayla goes missing. The
man who targeted her could come back for her at any time. Living in constant
fear and guilt, Gabie continues working at Pete’s Pizza just to keep busy, and
she finds an ally and best friend in her coworker Drew, the quiet and misunderstood
boy who occasionally sold a joint out the restaurant before Kayla’s
disappearance. They find that they have more in common than they realized, and
if it wasn’t for the extenuating circumstances which had forced them into
companionship, they might have become friends anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Gabie and Drew
constantly go over the details of that Wednesday night and try to recall
something—anything—they might have missed. Somewhere in that process two things
happen: 1.) Gabie sees Kayla in her dreams and knows she isn’t dead, and 2.)
Gabie falls for Drew, whether out of conditional accident or genuine
attraction, she can’t tell at first. There really is no time to find out who
they are outside of Kayla’s disappearance because the more time they spend
together, the more they think of her. When the rest of the town considers Kayla
to be dead—at the hands of a local meth addict whose truck was seen in the
vicinity of her disappearance—Gabie continues to insist that the police haven’t
caught the real perpetrator yet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally, at
Kayla’s “funeral” an officer confronts Gabi with an ultimatum: either stop
insisting that Kayla is alive, and thus causing unnecessary emotional distress
to Kayla’s family, or watch as Drew’s meth-addict mom goes to jail. Torn
between what she thinks is real about Kayla and what she knows is real about
Drew’s situation, Gabie tries to put aside her whims. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Only she can’t
do it. And with the ending turn of events, it’s a really good thing she can’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">April Henry
weaves as tight a plot, and just as compelling, as any C.S.I.-esque thriller.
Indeed, a reader could probably read this book in about the same amount of time
because the pages start turning themselves. Perspective is what struck me most
in the framework of Henry’s text. Instead of a continuous, omniscient narrative,
<i>The Night She Disappeared</i> offers two
protagonists, several prominent voices (including that of the killer—creepy!), a
wide swath of point-of-views, and chronological epistolary snippets that
heighten the details and connect the images that bring the picture to
completion. And this is so perfect because it reminds all readers—teens and
adults—that there is never just one side to any story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Eerily
reminiscent, at least for me and probably more for adults than for
teens, of the 1980’s <i>Silence of the Lambs</i>
by Thomas Harris, April
Henry’s novel has the same ingredients to build a cult fan base as the movie
did in the early 90’s. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">In short, April
Henry nailed it. Proof? Not only did I devour this novel in one sitting, but I
did it with a toddler biting on my toes and the Wiggles playing on repeat. </span></div>
<br />For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-75690093515904100622013-04-02T13:17:00.001-07:002013-04-02T13:17:28.998-07:00Ban This Blog<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAqFye3CVDCiDkXBrvLg8jTHJ8Kqz4GXlGlLGf7EeEQdYXkAJNEz5iYbjIMSo8LnJl5371b9bEh-Y51HseZxqfXIUMBGrkZGW7V7-VkgEsrkwLjgrulI6wbb-eV5BY2Mu2sV101vvRVSg/s1600/DC092711-DD.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAqFye3CVDCiDkXBrvLg8jTHJ8Kqz4GXlGlLGf7EeEQdYXkAJNEz5iYbjIMSo8LnJl5371b9bEh-Y51HseZxqfXIUMBGrkZGW7V7-VkgEsrkwLjgrulI6wbb-eV5BY2Mu2sV101vvRVSg/s320/DC092711-DD.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Ban This Blog, a guest post</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">by Tom Leveen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">I read the most deplorable collection of stories the other day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">In one, the protagonist, Dave, is a peeping tom who, in a fit of immature jealousy, secretly arranges for a girl’s husband to get killed so he can move in on her. This, after having essentially <i>spied on her in the bathroom</i>. Another story is about one brother who kills another out of nothing more than jealousy because his brother is better at his job.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Since that’s not the kind of thing I’d want my own kid to read, I picked up another YA story instead. Lo and behold, in that one, I swear to you: the group of boys in the story couldn’t stop talking about sex, the parents were riotous, bloodthirsty lawbreakers, and the whole story culminated in the suicide of a fourteen year old girl and her boyfriend/secret husband. (Yeah, a priest actually consented to marry two underage teens! <i>Whiskey Tango Foxtrot</i>?!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Undeterred in my quest to find good, clean, pure YA literature, I finally stumbled onto a priceless little gem of a novel wherein the protagonist, a fifteen-year-old girl, struggles to overcome depression through art. Ah, finally. A story no good parent could possibly have a problem with.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Now, let’s back up:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Parents, I presume you know which two stories I’m referring to at the top. Yes? They are King David (2 Samuel, chapter 11), Cain and Abel (Genesis 4) and <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> by some British dude named Bill Shakespeare. Immoral drivel, all of these stories, correct? I mean, you have to agree with that if you’re going to challenge stories like those found in any given R.L. Stine novel. Or, heaven help us, <i>A Wrinkle in Time</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">(Yeah. <i>A Wrinkle in Time</i>. I know, right?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">“But that’s not the whole story!” I can hear someone shouting, firebrand in hand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">True.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Neither is date rape the whole story of <i>Speak</i>—a story about <i>a girl who uses art to combat depression</i>. Neither is gang violence the whole story of <i>The Outsiders</i>, or boobs the whole story of <i>Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Why…why on earth would <i>Bridge to Terabithia</i> land on the ALA Top 100 Banned/Challenged books (</span><a href="http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/2000_2009" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">http://www.ala.org/advocacy/<wbr></wbr>banned/frequentlychallenged/<wbr></wbr>challengedbydecade/2000_2009</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">) two full decades running? Or one of my other personal favorites, <i>Cut</i>, by Patricia McCormick? Books that openly and honestly discuss extraordinarily difficult situations that real kids have real problems with seem first to get challenged, and for the life of me, I don’t know why.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Or maybe I do:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Challenging a book is easier.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Challenging a book reveals laziness. How? Because it’s easier to shove a book off a shelf than to have not one, not two, <i>but as many conversations as needed with one’s own children</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><i>Isn’t </i>it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Frankly, I sincerely doubt that most people signing on to book challenges have fully read the book in question. In fact, a wonderful (possibly out of print) middle grade novel called<i>Maudie and Me and the Dirty Book</i> by Betty Miles illustrates this truism perfectly. (Well worth picking up. And challenging. It says PENIS!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">I can tell you right now as a parent, I’ve read a couple of YA novels that I’d just as soon my son never read, because <i>yes</i>: they trivialized important topics like sex, drugs, or drinking. But, so help me, if my kid reads a book and decides afterward to do any of those things as a result…who’s “bad” is that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Uh, mine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">For too many adolescents, books are the only friends or confidantes they have. You take a novel like <i>Cut, </i>which as I recall contains no: profanity, drug use, sex, or law breaking of any kind. It’s a revealing look at self-injury, a symptom of much greater issues that many, many adolescents struggle with. I challenge anyone to show me the passages in which McCormick is somehow encouraging self-abuse. It’s not there! It’s a book about a girl who’s hurting and who ultimately seeks help.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">I think a lot of challenged books are challenged because they hold the mirror up to nature. Those who don’t like what they see reach for the school board’s email addresses rather than assessing what the author was actually conveying, and—again—talking about those issues with their kids.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">My god, people…we are giving you a perfect chance to talk with your adolescents! Take it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Listen: I am friends with quite a few young adult authors. Some are “edgy” like myself, whatever that means…although why the story of a boy who learns how to trust in himself and his friends is edgy, I don’t know (<i>Out of the Pocket</i> by Bill Konigsberg). Some of their books more “tame,” with fantastic writing, characters, and plots, but without any sex, drugs, or rock and roll.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><i>Every single one of us</i> takes what we do very seriously.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Every one of us respects and admires teens. Some are parents of teens. Some will be soon, or eventually. But I have not yet met a YA author who fills a book with “gratuitous” <i>anything</i>. It all has meaning, it all has purpose, and none of it is designed or intended to encourage behaviors in teens that could hurt them. None. (Are there gratuitous authors out there? Yes. One scene in one book comes to mind that I feel, as an author and a parent, had no real redeeming value whatsoever. But once again, it’s on me to talk to my kid about it.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Instead of rushing to ban a book, use it to open a door maybe you thought was long closed. It’s not. There are countless resources out there to help you out. Start by asking the English teachers. I promise they’ll bend over backwards to get you the resources you need. How much trouble might we all save if all us parents were to ask our kids, “What do <i>you</i> think about this book?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">I dunno. Let’s find out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Finally, I have one request of those who would challenge and ban books: Don’t stop! As a purveyor of smut myself, I can tell you right now, it would be a total boon to my career if you’d raise a stink over my books. Nothing guarantees books sales like a good banning. Please, go read my novel <i>Party</i>: Teens scream racial epithets and have sex and drink! Read<i>Zero</i>: Teens have sex in cars and reference gay make-outs! Read <i>manicpixiedreamgirl</i>: More sex! Ban, ban, ban! And just wait till <i>Sick</i> comes out in October 2013: Riots, cussing, and death, death, DEATH!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Or, if you really want these books to disappear off shelves, keep mum. Let the market decide. Because the instant a book banner starts making a fuss, you can guarantee those grubby little teen fingers will be all over it.</span></div>
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For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-3409417797917870762013-03-18T17:16:00.002-07:002013-03-18T17:18:51.837-07:00Because I don't like snow anymoreAlthough spring might just be a few days away according to some illusive calendar, here in North Dakota, Winter is alive and well. So, to resist this everfalling white nonsense, I'm lining up some great appearances on my blog—and some must-have titles in my reading list. This, friends, is me finding my happy place.<br />
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First of all, I have to finish my review of April Henry's amazing YA, The Night She Disappeared. April has no doubt wondered if I've disappeared, I'm sure! I mean, she's busy with her new WIP and all, but it's been, I don't know, two months since I was scheduled to review it? I really suck at deadlines. But, to defend myself (against myself) this has been the winter from Hell, bringing RSV and a whole slew of ear infections to my little chicks in the roost. And that, of course, has backed up my already-backed-up grading queue to beyond capacity. Alas, poor teacher! (This is our collective plight: the cursed Teacher Pile.)<br />
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But I'm determined to start this spring with positive energy, even if I am playing catch up. I'm going to get it all done and then some...including adding some new authors to the list. I'm so excited to be reviewing Nathan Bransford's Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Kapow! (Yes, all you writers out there. I'm interviewing THE <a href="http://blog.nathanbransford.com/" target="_blank">Nathan Bransford</a>!)Reviewing middle grade fiction is a new deal for me, but my son is getting to the MG stage, and it's so much freaking fun to read with him. I'm planning to let my offpsring write a blurb when I post my review. It's going to be insane. <br />
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And then, just this week, Tom Leveen sent me his galley for his newest YA manicpixiedreamgirl, and just looking at the first pages makes me want to devour it whole. So there's that. But my spring keeps getting better! Tom has agreed to guest post here at For the Love of YA, and I'm thoroughly pumped to bring him on. He has this way with words. (Check out my review of his YA novel PARTY <a href="http://fortheloveofya.blogspot.com/2011/02/party-by-tom-leveen.html" target="_blank">here</a>)<br />
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And THEN Chris Crutcher's newest YA is coming out this month (Hurry it up already, <a href="http://www.chriscrutcher.com/" target="_blank">Chris</a>!) and I am going crazy trying to get my hands on the first copy that comes to my town. I'm sure I'll post a review/ verbal-book-make-out-session as soon as I read it. I love all things Chris Crutcher.<br />
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So, even if it stays frosty out there for another two months (likely), there is just too much good going on in my literary life to let the ubiquitous white pervade my inner spring.For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-55920113295925174312013-03-15T09:38:00.003-07:002013-03-18T16:24:38.934-07:00There's something rotten<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It was the last half of my planning hour. It was just a few minutes ago. It was this moment where I felt like a student who makes that split-second decision to snap on a teacher. It was like this:<br />
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After coaching essays for an hour, I decided to spend 20 minutes of my planning period walking around, getting some exercise. The hallways were empty, and my school is big. In went my headphones and up went my music, Swedish House Mafia to be exact.<br />
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Mind you, students are allowed to use cell phones and headphones on the upper level of the building. Continue minding that they are also allowed to either leave campus or hang out in the commons area during their student off-hours—there's so much freedom here. Mind for just a second longer while I connect the dots: students are allowed to listen to music in their headphones during their off hours in this building if they want. Or they can go to McDonalds. Picture painted? Here's what happened:<br />
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At the end of my walk, I went to check my mail box. A "teacher" opened the door going into the office (I don't really know who she is--never seen her before). Below my music's volume level, I thanked her. Seeing that she was about to talk to me, I took one headphone out and smiled, waiting.<br />
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"See? You didn't hear a word I said," said this person minding my business for me.<br />
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"Excuse me?" I quaffed. (Is "quaff" a word? I'm using it anyway.)<br />
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"Your music is too loud. I could hear it outside of your headphones."<br />
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Oh I get it, I thought. She thinks I'm a student...and as such, she feels an old-school need to correct something, anything, about me. "I'm on my planning hour and getting some exercise," I said, my smile inviting her to back the frig off and let it go.<br />
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She raised her eyebrows to the ceiling, clearly enjoying the point she was about to make. "Isn't that something we talk to our students about? Listening to music so loudly that they cannot hear anything around them?"<br />
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I just looked at her. And then I looked some more. This was happening, I decided. She knew I was a teacher on my planning hour with the time to do what I wanted, including walk the building with my headphones in. "I don't know," I asked her. "Is that something you talk to your students about? Because I don't."<br />
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Her nod and countenance confirmed her Victorian stance against technology and any form of youthful expression, you know, like headphones. I just said "Okay" and went about my business, but now I'm fuming. Fuming, I tell you! And not because someone had the audacity to reproach me for something completely stupid and harmless. Not just that, anyway.<br />
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It's that this lady and her ideas are the problem with the state of education. Were I the student in that situation, would I respect her for sticking her nose into my business and trying to make me a "better person"? Would she inspire me? Would she make me feel like I'm worth something and make me want to come to school?<br />
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Uhm, that's a big fat no. While she is handing out Angry Lectures to students for arbitrary offenses, I'm making it a point to say hello personally to every student whose name I know. I'm busy making people feel like they made the right decision by getting up out of the bed and coming in for an education. I could care less about what they're wearing, or how loudly they're listening to music, or if they have a mohawk, or if come in three seconds tardy, or if they have messy handwriting.<br />
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I have this awesome idea for those who prescribe to those antiquated notions: get out of education. Please. Quit your jobs and go stock the shelves at a grocery store—or go work in an office where you never have to make contact with anyone, PARTICULARLY with anyone who is figuring out who they are and finding their place in this world. Because THAT is what's wrong with education. If we had more teachers who could make connections rather than destroy them, we wouldn't be jealous of Finland.<br />
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Rant over.<br />
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<br />For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-82291220854605293532013-01-29T20:09:00.003-08:002013-01-29T20:18:25.429-08:00Out, Damned Mod Podge!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is not a book review. It's actually a sticky-fingered entry to relay my guilt for why it's not. Here is it—I just finished another kindergarten project. Key word: I. And with all the stuff I have to do:<br />
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The "family" project, which should be labeled The Mom Project, included covering a large heart with pictures and memorabilia that shows what my kindergartner loves. And the assignment is cute as a button; it really is. It's just, in the age of Pinterest Moms, there's a real conundrum with projects like this. In the ideal world, my son and I would be gluing fanatically, pasting and cutting and sprinkling glitter like drunk fairies. But he has a reputation to keep. As much as I'd like to, I can't just go turning my kid loose with some crafting supplies and a glue stick. As we say in the South, he'd have the "godawfulest mess ever was."<br />
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On one hand, I want him to take part in the process and learn how to be creative and responsible; on the freakishly larger hand, I want him to go to school with his manhood. I just don't have the heart to let the boy bring in true kindergarten art. (No pun—okay, pun intended.)<br />
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So, here I am with Mod Podge film flaking off into the keyboard, guilty of doing too much of my kid's work and not enough of my own—again!—and cursing the Stepford Wives out there who've created this crux for me. I know he'll do some Valentine art at school that will be the beautifully terrible mess that deserves prime space on the fridge. But for now, it kind of stings to know that this project didn't actually include more than his managerial interests. He was way more interested in Netflix on my iPad.<br />
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And I would go into the inherent equity and access issues here, but then I'd have to post the Sweet Brown picture again.<br />
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<br />For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-13315789901867539302013-01-23T08:19:00.002-08:002013-01-23T08:20:15.762-08:00Interview with Sarah Dessen<br />
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It's so awesome to be revamping my blog with none other than Sarah Dessen! Sarah, thank you so much for agreeing to a quick interview about your latest book <i>What Happened to Goodbye</i>. And congratulations on your eleventh book <i>The Moon and More, </i>which is schedule to come out this June! (Readers, save the date.) </div>
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I just have a few questions for you. If you're ready, here they are.</div>
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1.) What's your first step in writing a new book? I would imagine after as many as you've written, that you have some kind of ritual. </div>
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Usually when I finish the draft of a book, I'm sure I'll never write another one. I'm just that tired and sick of myself. But then after I take a month or so off, watch a lot of Bravo and read, another idea starts percolating. It usually begins with the narrator's name, then some idea that intrigues me about her life or situation. I try to ignore it as long as I can, because I know when I start writing, I'll be right back into it, every single day. But eventually, I just have to. It's a compulsion! </div>
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2.) If you could bring any two of your main characters together for a story, which two would it be? Why?</div>
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I'd love to write about Remy from THIS LULLABY again. I just had so much fun with her, because she's so different from me. As far as who I'd put with her, I'd love to see how she'd interact with Auden from ALONG FOR THE RIDE. They're both very smart about a lot of things, but clueless when it comes to others. It would never be dull, that's for sure. </div>
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3.) Since my name is weird—Risha—I'm always interested in other odd names. What made you choose Mclean for GOODBYE? </div>
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Mclean is the last name of some of my family, and I also knew a guy named Mclean when I was in high school. I just have always liked it and thought it was cool sounding, especially for a girl. When I was younger I always wished I had a more exotic name---although I really like Sarah now. Then, though, I wanted to be a Veronica or a Stephania, something fancy. I guess I live vicariously through the girls in my books. </div>
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4.) The whole world loves your writing, but as an author, there have to be a few reader contacts that have stuck in your mind. Can you tell us the best response you've gotten for GOODBYE? What made it stand out to you? </div>
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I can't think of one specifically for WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE, but on the whole the responses that mean the most are when girls tell me, "Your books got me through high school." That is the biggest praise I can imagine, because reading saved me when I was that age. I just felt so alone sometimes, like no one understood, and often it was only in a book that I found comfort. Imagining that my books could serve as solace for someone in the same place just makes me so, so happy. </div>
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5.) I think a possible theme of GOODBYE is that going through adversity will strengthen who you are, if you'll let it. When you you sat down to write this story, did you have themes in mind, or did they just come out organically as your characters took shape? </div>
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I just loved the idea of someone who had become accustomed to shedding their identity like a skin and starting over, never having to deal with any long-term relationships, who suddenly had to do just that. I went to school with the same people from kindergarten to senior year of high school: I always wished I could suddenly change and be someone else. So I liked exploring both sides of that, what might be great about it and what would happen when it wasn't possible anymore and you had to just be yourself, for better or for worse. </div>
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<span style="color: purple;">Quick round of favorites: </span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">Winter sport?</span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span>Ice skating! I stink at it, but love to watch it on TV.</div>
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<span style="color: purple;">Candy bar?</span> I am a sucker for dark chocolate with almonds. </div>
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<span style="color: purple;">Wine? </span>Chardonnay in summer, Cab in winter.<span style="color: #222222;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">Quote?</span> "Everything will look better in the morning." ---My mom</div>
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<span style="color: purple;">Brand of jeans?</span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span>Citizens of Humanity or Sevens. Love them both! </div>
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For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-657409900597874702013-01-23T08:06:00.001-08:002013-01-23T08:07:31.186-08:00What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Protecting her father is also why Mclean won’t make up with her mother. She avoids her phone calls and video chats because a.) she isn’t ready to make nice, and b.) it might hurt her dad too much to see her acting like everything is okay—like it’s normal to have darling twin siblings spawned from an illicit affair; like it’s normal to laugh with the mother who destroyed everything else in your universe. But she can’t forever avoid the family vacation her mom has planned. Mclean finally tells her dad that she needs to go on a trip with her mom and new family. He isn’t hurt, but Mclean still feels guilty—so guilty and confused that the vacation is a chore. </span></b></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The new, rich life her mom has stumbled into is far from the relaxed and low-key vacations her “real” family used to take at that same beach. In the height of her guilt and confusion—almost enjoying the vacation yet refusing to—she overhears something that makes all the difference in her choice to forgive her mom and move on. Mclean rushes away from the beach house without permission and meets Dave who, despite the drama of having found all Mclean’s sharply contrasting personas online, helps her makes sense of it all. When her parents finally find her at the hotel where they used to stay, Mclean tells them everything that she—not Eliza, Lizbet, or Beth—feels, leaving the reader with a satisfying climax. In the sad-but-real resolution and denouement, Maclean realizes there is nothing she can do to change the past, but she can embrace who she is for now and change her approach to the future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What strikes me most about this book is the cadence. Sarah’s words leave a lull in your head that you don’t realize is there until you stop reading. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What Happened to Goodbye </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is no less beautiful and refreshing, suspenseful and foreboding, peaceful and heartbreaking than the ocean. Now that the book is finished, I kind of want to hold a seashell to my ears. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beyond its organic and aesthetic appeal, this book makes me happy because it gives life and a voice to an often-marginalized group of readers: “normal” kids who are suffering from their parents’ decisions. So many teenagers escape into books rooted in fantasy, and that’s okay—I’ve read books just to escape before. But I think that’s because if kids can’t find themselves in books, they at least find who they want to be. It’s a form of escapism. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What Happened to Goodbye</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is so real in an everyday sense that it speak to those kids who can’t find their stories in the paranormal or the romantic; it mirrors the internal conflict of those who are devastated and embarrassed by divorce, affairs, and watching their parents date and remarry again. It kind of makes you wonder if this has anything to do with Sarah D’s ridiculous fan base—you know, that she has this way of speaking to people? :-) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parents and teenagers alike should read this book. It’s a flawlessly real look at the ripples of our actions and how those ripples turn to waves, sometimes drowning who we are. </span></div>
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<br />For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-59464854317450213102013-01-10T18:13:00.002-08:002013-01-11T06:29:07.538-08:00A Giveaway You Won't Want to Miss<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Some of you probably remember the words "Moo Moo Book Club." If you don't, here'a refresher: in 2007, some students begged me to start a book club at Montgomery County High School in Kentucky. In just one year, membership spiked from 13 kids to 130. We were this eclecticly ostentatious gang of book lovers who went all over the place to create literary experiences and learn how to be responsible humans, including going to Washington D.C. to petition our senator for more aid for Darfur's refugees. In a nutshell, we were the biggest, baddest book nerds you would ever have met. </div>
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When the community started to protest our books in 2008, we stayed strong for as long as we could; but in 2010, when I left my job, there was no one left to keep the club alive. Today, it's honored posthumously by its myriad tee-shirts still roaming the planet. (Our first tee is pictured.) </div>
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You all know I'm trying to get my platform built so that I'll be more attractive to agents when I start querying my memoir, What Doesn't Kill Us, in a few months. (The memoir is about the censorship war, and my personal struggle to keep my family and career from going under.) So, what would be a better way to spread the word than to mail out retro club tee-shirts? It's a must-have for all book nerds. (You can visit the old blog here to learn more about the club: http://moomoobookclub.blogspot.com)</div>
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I'll mail out a shirt to either my 400th blog follower or Facebook "liker"—is that even a word? I'll also mail out a shirt to someone who commented on this post or on the Facebook post. The rule is, you have to post a photo of yourself in the shirt. Deal?</div>
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I've wanted to make new club shirts for so long. Please help me get the word out. If this goes as planned, I'll be sending MMBC shirts all over the world. And the postage will be well worth it. </div>
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facebook.com/rishawrites</div>
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@fortheloveofya </div>
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Rock the Moo!</div>
For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-681728598039328862013-01-06T12:48:00.002-08:002013-01-06T12:50:05.844-08:00Author Platform EpiphanyAs I'm finishing the memoir I've obsessed over for two years—WHAT DOESN'T KILL US—I keep taking breaks to study the querying process. Here's what I've found: I was wrong, wrongity wrong, wrong, wrong about platform.<br />
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Although memoir is treated as fiction, one still needs a cracked-out platform to be noticed. And this means, although my story went viral and continues to pick up reads all over the world, I must have a better online presence before any agent will even flirt with my story.<br />
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If you're so inclined, please like my page at facebook.com/rishawrites and follow me on Twitter @fortheloveofya.<br />
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I'll pay you back someday! :)<br />
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<br />For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-77305705121404245872012-12-21T21:10:00.002-08:002012-12-21T22:05:54.889-08:00Armed and Dangerous...in the Classroom?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am a gun owner. I was reared in the south and taught from a very young age how to use a firearm. I knew how to responsibly clean, load, carry, and shoot it. When I got older, I was never allowed to drive up in the mountain to see family unless I kept my pistol in the passenger seat. My dad would go over the normal checklist. Seat belt? Yes. Mirrors? Yes. Pistol? Yes. </span></span></b></div>
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<b style="text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am also a teacher. I have taught in high schools where threats were common and where, once, a student was apprehended on campus with a loaded weapon, a student whose Facebook posts expressed intent to kill his girlfriend. Thankfully I have never been involved in a situation where anyone was harmed, but I write this post with a mind that it could happen. I walk into my school every day knowing that at any given moment I could die protecting my students.</span></span></b></b></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">But know this: I would quit my job today if teachers started packing guns to work. </span></span></b></div>
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<b style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b><br />
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<b style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Before I heard about the statement made by the NRA, I saw all these posts on Facebook saying teachers should be armed, that schools would be safer if their signs said “staff heavily armed and trained” rather than “weapons prohibited.” What’s troubling to me is that these posts and opinions come from reasonable people who are serious. And while the narrative sounds good in theory—a teacher stands up in the midst of chaos and takes out the shooter with a single shot—I feel like people need to be reminded that life isn’t a Western movie. Neither of the above signs is going to stop a killer. If people are willing to make these threats and commit these acts on and against military bases, which they are and they do, then the theory behind this argument is defeated ahead of its rhetoric. Or it should be.</span></span></b></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b></span>
<span style="text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are a lot smarter of people out there making arguments, but I thought I'd share a gun-owning teacher's perspective on this gravely stupid idea.</span></span></b></span></div>
<span style="text-align: start;"></span><br />
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<b style="text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First, let’s consider the logistics. If there are 75 teachers in my school, that means there could be 75 guns around—that many guns in a building fraught with enough angst to provide electricity to a small town. Students say things about violence a lot, but it rarely ever escalates to mass harm. But think of what could happen if we provided them opportunity to mutiny? I may know how to handle a gun, but I can’t fight off a 200-pound boy who wants to take it from me. This kind of irresponsibility could yield the kind of nightmare we just saw in Connecticut. I’m not sticking around this field if teachers are providing the access to the next massacre. This is not the Middle East where the cultural context is militant. This is America, and we don't do that here.</span></span></b></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Second, let’s all abandon the romanticized idea that all teachers are role models and model citizens. Most of the teachers I know are great people and went into education for the right reasons; many of them are the rare, heroic kind who make a long-lasting, positive difference. But get real—this field is full of idiots, narcissists, power-trip junkies, tough guys, bubbas, and show-offs. I'm thinking specifically of the principal in <a href="http://www.ksl.com/?nid=333&sid=5629005" target="_blank">Nicholas County, KY</a> who beat my first cousin to a pulp four years ago for coming on campus while suspended. Do I want that guy armed? Negative.</span></span></b></div>
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<b style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></b><br />
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<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Third, think about the ways this would alter our everyday lives in our buildings. A very real duty we have as teachers is to break up fights. How easy would it be for the safety to get hit and turned off in that situation, for the gun to go off on accident while I’m attempting to subdue a volatile student? How could I ever live with myself again if my weapon injured someone? What would I say to their parents? <i>I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shoot your kid</i>? And who would be liable for that? Because let me be petty and selfish and quasi-</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">facetious</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> for a minute: I don't need another liability. I also don't need my planning time to go toward weapon maintenance. I don't need my summer to be spent in district-wide professional weapons development or Rigor and Relevance gunmanship classes. I mean, aside from the fact that I would probably get myself or others killed by carrying a weapon, statistically speaking, I can’t lose one more day of my planning or my summer, and I definitely don’t need one more liability. </span></span></span></b></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Lastly, and most probable to affect our students, think about what a gun would say in a classroom where we are trying to make kids feel physically and emotionally safe. In most situations, the sight of a gun puts people on edge; it doesn’t make them feel protected. For instance, though I'm comfortable around guns, if I see one at McDonalds, I'm taking my kids to Burger King...and calling the police. That's because we have iconic associations set into our psyches. </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">So, using that same logic, if I'm kneeling at a desk to help a student and he or she knows there's a gun under my jacket, that, friends, is what we call a barrier</span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">—</span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">and it’s my job to remove those, not create them. </span></span></b></div>
</span></span></b></span><br />
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<b style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know that people are just grasping at straws in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy. I don't blame them; I want a solution, too. But we can't start making generalizations from these random events. There isn't a magic button to change what's happening. We've seen that cops on campus don't keep them from happening any more than metal detectors do, any more than the presence of the military does. For people sick enough to murder children, a sign won't make a difference. (To a sick mind, the thought of a showdown with a bunch of teachers might just be enticing.) </span></span></b></div>
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<b style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why can't we just say the word "legislation"? Why can't we cross party lines to start treating the problem and not just the symptom? Even that won't be foolproof, but it's a better start than the alternative. </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b></span>
<span style="text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hate to tell the cold truth here, but arming teachers and thereby giving students access is the essence of the underlying problem: access. </span></span></b></span></div>
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For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-4010357544877447522012-12-12T21:03:00.002-08:002012-12-12T21:47:55.989-08:00Data Tracking Lead to Racial Profiling?You really might not believe this, but at Woodford County High School today a letter was sent home informing parents that all African American students would be called to the cafeteria to receive "additional forms of support" after testing data reported this demographic to be low. Unless you're a principal in 1954 Mississippi, this just doesn't make sense.<br />
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However, I know some people who know this principal. According to them, this lady is awesome. They say she has routinely been an advocate for underprivileged kids and insisted on equal treatment for everyone. Granted, this does not excuse her poor judgement as an administrator and human, but it does make me wonder...<br />
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Most of us teachers have sat in our departmental meetings and gone through our testing data from the previous year. In those meetings, we are forced to look at our student populations in subgroups, which turns to race and money. Often, the lowest achieving groups are African Americans, Hispanics, and Free/Reduced lunch, or those from low socio-economic status (SES). But you know what? That just isn't fair.<br />
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Is it really the best we can do to disseminate our data with tactics that in themselves are racial profiling? I mean, it's a double standard for our testing processes to identify entire races as underachieving and then for society to expect our administrators <i>not</i> to target those subgroups. In the world of NCLB education, school administrators are scrambling like crazy to show that they are progressing toward their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals and closing those gaps; but, in reality, it's ludicrous to throw a blanket over people like that. It's not <i>all </i>African Americans who are behind. It's not <i>all </i>Latinos who are behind. It's not <i>all </i>poverty-stricken kids who are behind. And it's damn sure not <i>all </i>white kids who are ahead. And yet, to stop collecting data in these demographics would mean our society would have less information on groups that, for social/cultural reasons, need to be targeted to win more grants and scholarships that will help them climb out of the cultural traps that years and years of oppression have left behind.<br />
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The overarching problem is one that will take years of evolution and smart legislation to fix; but these Kentucky administrators ought to get to their problem-solving a whole lot quicker, to the tune of immediately, or yesterday.<br />
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<img src="http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/380172_10151318611678447_322311566_n.jpg" />For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-3896431155247371562012-12-12T07:59:00.001-08:002012-12-12T07:59:50.913-08:00Common Core CatastropheA long time ago, when I was held captive by illusive KY standards that meant very little in my classroom, I was intrigued, ecstatic even, about the promise of national standards, standards that would actually be a path to success. I even felt like those new standards—more rigorous in reading expectations—would support the argument for more literature that kids would actually read. I really thought that.<br />
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I remember a conversation I had with Joan Kaywell in 2010, early on in Common Core discussions. A much wiser woman than me, she didn't feel like the new standards would advocate for students <i>really</i> reading. She expressed to me that though the standards didn't exactly dictate which texts to read, many administrators and teachers would see them that way and it would stifle reading choices for kids. I was at a point in my life then where I just wanted to be hopeful. I had just left the Montgomery County fiasco behind, and I
wanted to believe that help was coming on a national level, that
teachers would have <i>more </i>backing for using literature that didn't fall
on the canon of dead white guys. And I don't want to say I didn't believe Joan then but...I didn't. <br />
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Well, here we are in the final planning stages of fully adopting the Common Core. For the most part, I still like the standards. I like the language and the rigor, the idea that kids going to school in a hollow back home will be guaranteed as high of standards as kids anywhere else, that kids will have better direction in their classes because the standards actually say something. But the caveat, for me, is that the new wave of classroom reading will likely encourage teachers to shun Young Adult literature altogether in lieu of books deemed more college preparatory. <br />
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Case and point: I'm in a book club with my English department. It's called the Books-We-Never-Read-But-Should-Have Club. We have a great time with it because we have a great time together, and I look forward to our meetings. But, you know what? I hate the books we've read so far. They're boring and sometimes flat-out terrible. I appreciate them because I love literature and teaching it, but if I wasn't in this club, I'd never—repeat NEVER—pick up another critically-touted trophy text again. And I'm a book lover. Why? Because in a fast-paced world where I have so so much to do, I don't have time to read books that bore me. I just don't. So what happens when these are the only books teachers can justify in their curricula? Because that day is coming. Teachers are already stressed enough, so what happens when there's no time in the semester for them to cover it all so they offer fewer and fewer opportunities to turn their gamers and texters and tv-addicts into independent readers?<br />
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Maybe I'm alone here, but I really don't think so. For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-23926593570364566692012-12-07T18:00:00.000-08:002012-12-07T20:34:56.995-08:0050 Shades of Weird<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibd08b4BM_0C43HbCOYOzWmz0SZOtXPaoR65zJNcgbdBUCg8GLrqQVaZYGvOxmsyjETevpEX43SM7jfTBdfe6aDhwYzG7hpedBJr0kYrrfTN-BWTgUWhNwH6V_ld1dWXGPcb6b7-wdHfM/s1600/50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibd08b4BM_0C43HbCOYOzWmz0SZOtXPaoR65zJNcgbdBUCg8GLrqQVaZYGvOxmsyjETevpEX43SM7jfTBdfe6aDhwYzG7hpedBJr0kYrrfTN-BWTgUWhNwH6V_ld1dWXGPcb6b7-wdHfM/s1600/50.jpg" /></a></div>
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Now that the <i>50 Shades of Grey</i> hype has died down considerably and moms all over North Dakota are finally letting the series out of their sight, the book is popping up unapologetically in my classroom. I see the cover of it every Wednesday as students read for pleasure (ha!). And as much as I stand for freedom of choice in reading, it kind of gives me the creeps.<br />
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Yes, I said it gives me the creeps, but not because I don't want them reading for choice. Good for them. But it's the same kind of uncomfortable as being trapped in an elevator for 15 minutes with two strangers making out. It's not your business really, but it's...weird.<br />
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It also bothers me for this reason: I got nothing. I mean, I'm a good teacher, but I can't transition them from Christian Grey to Mark Twain and make them happy about it. "Ok, kids, put away your books. It's time to talk about the jumping frog of Calaveras County!"<br />
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Yeah right. Even though all my reads were banned once upon a time, not a one of them even comes close to <i>that </i>kind of high interest. That's high interest on Ecstasy. So what comes next for these young whippersnappers? Even the Kama Sutra would seem lame.<br />
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Oh well, at least they're reading? Sigh.<br />
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<br />For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-5124500490227701412011-09-26T17:17:00.000-07:002011-09-26T17:21:01.706-07:00Banned Books Week Bliss<span style="font-size: small;">This week will always bring back a special horror for me, as one who has been harassed by Censorship herself. See, being "banned" from wearing a Banned Books Week t-shirt, being "banned" to talk about BBW, or being forced to"ban" seven books twice, has its way of permanently marking a teacher. But this year, as I've finally found my way into an open-minded district where the freedom of ideas is encouraged, I'm trying to approach BBW with a smile and a fearless attitude. This week, this year and for all my years to come, I will remind myself that Banned Books Week symbolizes freedom for me and my students. That's a good feeling, and to celebrate it, I'm offering my banned books as literature circle options this Thursday. I'm even going to talk to my students about what happened to me not so long ago in a land not so far away. I want them to know why discussing banned books--why promoting this week--is important for us all. And even though my pregnant belly will be burgeoning through the black cotton, I'm going to facilitate this week's literature circles in the To Kill a Mockingbird t-shirt that my fellow teachers and I were "banned" to wear in 2009. I can't wait.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">I find myself thinking of others, too, who have fought to keep books on shelves, and perhaps, like me, who have even lost; and I'm shouting from my keyboard that the fight is worth it, no matter how ugly. When we fight against censorship, we fight for our constitutional rights. And, in my mind, there is nothing more sacred than freedom.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">So, what will you do this week? What will you read or invite your kids to read? </span>For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-86004655926288009222011-08-31T18:42:00.000-07:002011-08-31T18:42:18.060-07:00Interview with Sonya Sones<br />
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I've had this interview for a while, but with the perils of pregnancy, I've just been too sick to post. But I'm back, and I'm thrilled to be getting the ball rolling with one of my favorites: Sonya Sones! Her books <em>What My Mother Doesn't Know </em>and <em>What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know </em>are books that I routinely offer in literature circles, and I know first-hand what they mean to kids. That's why I'm super-thrilled to feature this interview on my blog. So thanks, Sonya, for giving me some of your time (time in which you should have been writing, right?). <br />
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Here we go:<br />
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When and why did you begin writing books for teens? <br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I wrote my first book for teens in 1999. I had tried to write books for younger children (when my children were younger) but didn't get good enough to be published until my children were teens. And that was when I discovered that I was really much more comfortable writing in the voice of a teen.</span><br />
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How often have you faced censorship and how have you dealt with it?<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">I have faced censorship a LOT. In fact, my book WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN'T KNOW was on the American Library Association's list of the Top Ten Most Banned Books in 2004, 2005, and 2010! It was also on the ALA's list of the Top 100 Most Banned Books of the Decade! I love it when my book gets on those lists, because that means that I often get asked to speak about why books shouldn't be banned.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">When I hear that my book is being challenged, I contact the school or library where the challenge is being made, and I offer to defend my book with a written statement. Of course, it never helps, because the people who ban books are not very smart, and it's darned near impossible to change their minds. But at least I get to publicly make a case for why books shouldn't be banned, and hopefully my words reach some children and teenagers, who are still young enough to be open to hearing them.</span><br />
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In six words, would you tell us why you write YA?<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">I have never really grown up.</span><br />
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What’s been your biggest struggle as a writer?<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Getting distracted by the internet! In fact, there is even a poem about that in my brand new novel in verse, THE HUNCHBACK OF NEIMAN MARCUS. It’s my first novel in verse for grownups. But there is a 17-year-old girl in the story, so I’m hoping that teens and their mothers will both like it. You can read about it here: </span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="http://www.sonyasones.com/books/hunchback/a_syn_book.html">http://www.sonyasones.com/books/hunchback/a_syn_book.html</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">And here is that poem I just mentioned about being distracted by the internet. Holly is a writer, way behind on her deadline for a book:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">New Year’s Resolution </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I, Holly Miller, hereby swear</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">that I will never again </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">allow myself to be lured away </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">from my writing </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">by clicking </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">on those hideous headlines </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">that litter my computer screen </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">like landmines waiting to be stepped on.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">So I am not going to click </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">on the article about the nasty insults </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">that Anderson Cooper slung at a celebrity mom </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">that prompted her to lash out. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Though I’m dying to know </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">which celebrity mom it was </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">and exactly what she and Anderson </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">said to each other.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">And I am not </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">going to click on the article </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">about the location </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">of America’s greatest bathroom</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">(which </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">apparently was found </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">when “Pros Flushed Far and Wide </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">to Find the Best Spot to Tinkle”). </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">And even though </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I do remember Ann-Margret </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">and I’m yearning to see </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">how she looks at sixty-seven, </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I am not </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">going to click on the link. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I am not! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I am NOT!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Wow...</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">She looks good… </span><br />
<br />
<br />
This was such a fun, and long-awaited, interview. Thanks so much, Sonya, for agreeing to interview at For the Love of YA, for being a champion of YA literature, and for giving us a piece from your newest book <em>The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus, </em>which I am on my way to pick up this weekend. See you around the writing world!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqHIcDlhYpf_jHAM_OvO0H-TO8KrltSdyLW-Pj2QUJNKumfAUd2cligkfUKRuL2slLDz0C3kAxwOzCW5zbtf0-nYnS6FQyQqdcKcMaEVdsaJFlecyqaiz_2oZUJ7lipY8qmU9w3IpQigM/s1600/HUNCHBACKFINALCOVER%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqHIcDlhYpf_jHAM_OvO0H-TO8KrltSdyLW-Pj2QUJNKumfAUd2cligkfUKRuL2slLDz0C3kAxwOzCW5zbtf0-nYnS6FQyQqdcKcMaEVdsaJFlecyqaiz_2oZUJ7lipY8qmU9w3IpQigM/s320/HUNCHBACKFINALCOVER%255B1%255D.jpg" width="212" xaa="true" /></a></div><br />
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For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-89414169521906721612011-08-31T18:17:00.000-07:002011-08-31T18:17:21.224-07:00What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibLKiOHuuMx6FDP40CvsxfyV4AG5P_eR6liQ4fn850Z_Dlz7g9zGcDjP2_1HGvBV5T1kA41pSfcwK8KeC5NtlrEKm9oK0a3RhGPipWpJZsYjVTtnGjHry8IrYd8u5nymIhJQc2j7TgIEo/s1600/whatmymother.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibLKiOHuuMx6FDP40CvsxfyV4AG5P_eR6liQ4fn850Z_Dlz7g9zGcDjP2_1HGvBV5T1kA41pSfcwK8KeC5NtlrEKm9oK0a3RhGPipWpJZsYjVTtnGjHry8IrYd8u5nymIhJQc2j7TgIEo/s320/whatmymother.jpg" width="227" xaa="true" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Sophie Stein, a.k.a Fifi/Sofa/Couch, is a popular almost-full-blown teenager, and for her, like most girls, this means boys…lots of them. With an exposition that includes her infatuation with hot-boy Dylan, Sophie seems like just another experimental beauty queen; however, when Sophie drops Dylan because of his bad traits—including his fear that his parents will find out she’s Jewish—we see that there’s more to Sophie than meets the eyeliner. In the aftermath of a failed relationship with Dylan, and a completely insane attempt at online dating, Sophie finds herself dangerously attracted to the most unlikely guy ever, the guy whose very name is synonymous with “loser”: the school’s iconic geek, Robin Murphy. At first, she fights the weird desire to know what his lips would feel like on hers, but as she gets to know him, her character begins an arc of change that transforms the formerly flighty female into an independent, almost-full-blown woman.<br />
<br />
<br />
The closer she gets to Robin, the more she realizes he’s a better friend than she’s ever had. Her closest friends—Rachel and Grace—don’t have messed-up home lives, so she can’t talk to them about her mother being more concerned with her soaps than Sophie, or her father practically being a ghost. In “Murph,” she finds someone to talk to who doesn’t judge her, who listens and makes life more bearable, who gets her laughing uncontrollably, and who likes her for who she is, not just for her pretty face. It only takes a little while for Sophie to realize that the boys she had liked before were all “Dylans,” good-looking jerks that only cared about themselves. And in that same short amount of time, she begins to realize that Robin is the total opposite of that, and she falls for him completely…and secretly. <br />
<br />
Life outside school is great. She spends lots of time with Robin and still enough time with her girlfriends to keep them unaware; but, as her life outside of school gets better, her world inside gets complicated. Robin claims to understand her social situation and volunteers to keep doing things like sitting alone at lunch while Sophie hangs with Rachel and Grace. For a while, Sophie lives the façade of single, teenage perfection, but all the while, she is plagued with guilt for being a snob. That guilt manifests itself when her friends go on vacation and she has a wonderful week just to spend with just Robin. It takes some soul-searching, but in a cliffhanger climax, Sophie decides that, despite the danger of losing her popularity, she owes honesty to Robin, her friends, and ultimately, to herself. <br />
<br />
What’s awesome about this novel-in-verse is that Sonya Sones creates a protagonist so vivid and entertaining that readers forget they are actually, wait for it…reading! As Sophie moves from one crush to another, awakening memories of early teenage drama and excitement in readers of all ages, the pages will begin to turn on their own. For struggling or reluctant readers, this kind of book is the penultimate. It’s appropriate, non-intimidating in layout (not many words on each page), and fast.<br />
<br />
While <em>What My Mother Doesn’t Know</em> deals with big issues—peer pressure, antisemitism, online safety, etc—it’s also light-hearted and fun. In a market dominated by dark YA novels (that are awesome, too, so don’t get me wrong), a read that doesn’t have potential to spurn ulcers or wreck your fingernails can be refreshing. And even better? It has a sequel! <em>What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know</em>, which picks up with Robin’s point of view at the cliffhanger, is every bit as creative, witty, and wonderful as the first. I must warn you, though; these books have somehow found their way onto banned lists in Kentucky (and maybe other places, too). So you know what that means? You should read them as soon as possible and then pass them on to a teenager near you. Happy reading!<br />
For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-61187134556694984912011-05-31T18:32:00.000-07:002011-08-31T19:16:10.728-07:00Big news...and a few delays<span style="color: red;">UPDATE: Because of the severe flooding in Minot, ND (the town to which we were moving), I did not take my family up north. Plans changed rather drastically. I'm still working in Kentucky schools, I'm still working on my third novel, and now I'm working on my third baby. Just so you know. :)</span><br />
<br />
I just want to let you fabulous readers know that it will be a month before I post again. I have just resigned from my teaching position in Kentucky and will be moving to North Dakota very soon. I am taking a year off teaching to finish my book (third one's the charm, right?) and to acclimate to a new place (and a scary climate). So, please be patient with me as I finish up my career and home life in Kentucky and prepare to move my family 1,500 miles northwest. <br />
<br />
FYI: June is my one-year anniversary for this blog. And guess what? I'll be reposting <i>a certain blog entry</i> now that I'm not a KY teacher anymore. :) This girl has nothing to lose!<br />
<br />
Thanks for your support! I'll post again soon. :)For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-50666439521978132992011-04-30T19:31:00.000-07:002011-04-30T19:31:40.453-07:00Interview with Eileen Cook<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDKhxULOnTzbxB7XBTPqtbuWJSs8IOFXRtxzJInDr7xfZos0kOhC-4-OzkuCIEyWpseXB3zd1Zm8ZPuH-KLmVYNV3vjqkwzsvbUPTSE4NRx3ZUKbK5v2VjillL7UENRCHJRbqILxVZs8Q/s1600/Eileen+Cook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDKhxULOnTzbxB7XBTPqtbuWJSs8IOFXRtxzJInDr7xfZos0kOhC-4-OzkuCIEyWpseXB3zd1Zm8ZPuH-KLmVYNV3vjqkwzsvbUPTSE4NRx3ZUKbK5v2VjillL7UENRCHJRbqILxVZs8Q/s1600/Eileen+Cook.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">Thanks so much for agreeing to interview, Eileen. I can’t wait to host you at For the Love of YA! <i>Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood </i>is one of the few books I've sat down and devoured within hours. Usually I have to chase kids, teach school, grade papers, etc. But this time, the kids were in bed and I just stayed up all night. I couldn't put it down. And I have to say, I enjoyed every second of the revenge. Maybe I'm a mean girl, who knows?!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Here are my questions. Knock yourself out!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span><span>1.)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>I usually can’t picture every detail of a character’s face, but I <i>saw </i>Lauren Wood. How did you develop such voice for the teenage social cliques? </div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">I suppose one answer is that I never fully grew up. I work hard to respect my readers, I don't talk down to them or assume that they need me to teach them something. YA readers have a very well defined BS detector. If something doesn't ring true to them then they'll stop reading. I think there is an assumption that writing for teens is somehow easier than writing for adults, but I don't believe that is true. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">2.) The character of Brenda evoked so much emotion out of me. I wanted to help her. So when Claire/Helen took her on as a personal project, I was excited…until Claire started to act exactly like Lauren. Was it difficult to write the parts where Claire publicly dissed Brenda?<span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">Out of all the characters in the book I am the most like Brenda, as a result when she suffered I felt for her. One of the harder things to do as a writer is to really torture your characters. Readers want to read about conflict and trouble. If your characters spin from having one okay day to another it isn't very interesting to read. As a result, you have to be willing to make the characters you love miserable.<br />
</span><span> </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">3.) Where did this story actually pop into your head and how did you develop it? <span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">I was an English major in college and I still have bookshelves full of the classics. Now that I don't have to read them for a paper or exam, I enjoy them way more. I had recently re-read The Count of Monte Cristo and I thought how much fun it would be to re-set the story in a modern high school- that was the beginning of Getting Revenge of Lauren Wood. The second inspiration for the book is that almost everyone I know knew a "mean girl" in school and dreamed of getting revenge. This book was my opportunity to imagine what that might have actually been like.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">4.) I can’t wait to read your other YA books—<i>What Would Emma Do? </i>and <i>The Education of Hailey Kendrick</i>—and I’d say that, based on the teen-appeal in <i>Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood,</i> teens all over the world feel the same. Could you tell us how many countries now have translations of your books? And how your readership has responded to your novels?</div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">My first book, Unpredictable (an adult romantic comedy) has been published in German, Taiwan, France and Russian. My YA's so far are in France and Greece. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">I feel quite lucky as so far with each book my readership seems to grow. The feedback I've gotten from readers has been wonderful. There is nothing better as a writer than hearing from someone who enjoyed your book. One of my favorite emails came from a reader who found my books to be a great distraction while her mom has been going through cancer treatment. The idea that I could make someone laugh and forget their problems, even for a few hours, made me feel great.</span><span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">5.) What did you do before you decided you wanted to be a writer? Why YA?<span style="color: #4f81bd;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">I always wanted to be a writer, but I worked as a counsellor for people who've had catastrophic accidents or illnesses. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">I love writing YA! I think some of the most exciting, interesting books coming out are in the YA genre. There is an intensity in YA that makes it really fun to write.</span><span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>6.) Which novels were important to you as a teenager? Why? </div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">This question is so hard because I know I'll forget so many wonderful books. Growing up we went to the library every week. I read everything from mysteries to romance to horror novels. I loved Judy Blume. One of the first times I can remember wanting to be a writer was after reading a Stephen King novel. I was around 9 or 10 years old and I wanted to check out his book, Salem's Lot. My mom warned me that it would be a scary book. I figured how scary could it be? I knew it was fiction, I understood the concept of things being made up versus real. Then I read the book and ended up sleeping with the light on for weeks. Even though I knew it was imaginary, it made me feel real emotions. I love when books have that power- you find yourself cheering for a character or wanting to slap some sense into someone. I wanted to be able to write books that would have that kind of power. </span><span> </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">8.) What has been your greatest success in writing YA?<span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">I've wanted to be a writer since I was a kid. I used to go to the library and run my hand along the shelves and slide my hand between the books where mine would go. When I saw my book in print for the first time it was a huge highlight. However, my greatest success comes when I hear from teen readers who enjoy the books. </span><span> </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">9.) What does a day in your life look like? </div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">My day is spent between walking the dogs, drinking gallons of tea, reading, and writing. (And occasionally spending entirely too much time looking at random things on the internet.) The days vary in terms of how much time is spent on what particular activity.<br />
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</span><span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">10.) Do you have any advice for aspiring writers out there (like me!)?<span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">Read! I'm a firm believer that books are the best teacher. The second piece of advice I would give is to never give up. There will be plenty of people who will tell you that it can't be done, don't bother listening to them. Instead focus on your dream. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -0.5in;">This creative little bonus round is in dedication to the Spring that has been taking its time approaching. So, it’s the first really hot day outside, what/where do you:<span style="color: #4f81bd;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Wear? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">A pair of capri pants and this old beat up grey sweater I found at a vintage shop years ago. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Go? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">Grab the dogs and head to the beach. I love the sound and smell of the ocean. They love rolling around on dead things. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Listen to?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">A new iTunes playlist that my husband makes for me. He makes sure that my musical taste doesn't stay frozen in the 1980's.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Eat?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">There is a cupcake place near my house- my all time favorite is the red velvet with cream cheese icing. Mmmmm</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Say?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">What are you reading? I love knowing what books other people are enjoying so I can add it to my to-be-read list. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #4f81bd;"><span style="color: black;">Thanks so much for being a writer for teens. I can't wait to meet you in the future! </span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-1195231569203599872011-04-30T19:25:00.000-07:002011-05-03T07:24:33.546-07:00Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood by Eileen Cook<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOYzIYb0HoaLDJxJGsoNStrQYFvNENy9ca8U_Zl3ryUzRVXN2ulxn7hMbaaV_5IJoEhKl60bhTm6iD-AuU2TYSvF_PGv0qSfNcBOUnXEqYCiUCejrb0_8l8-CL09w24-6xydMwD8cmOcg/s1600/Getting+Revenge+on+Lauren+Wood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOYzIYb0HoaLDJxJGsoNStrQYFvNENy9ca8U_Zl3ryUzRVXN2ulxn7hMbaaV_5IJoEhKl60bhTm6iD-AuU2TYSvF_PGv0qSfNcBOUnXEqYCiUCejrb0_8l8-CL09w24-6xydMwD8cmOcg/s320/Getting+Revenge+on+Lauren+Wood.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Helen didn’t mean to see the high school boys dumping soap powder into the pool. She just went to the locker room to use the restroom during a rally. Why would she, an eighth grader hoping to be somebody in high school, label herself as a nark? The answer: she wouldn’t. But Lauren, her supposed best friend, would. When Lauren ratted the boys out to the cheerleaders who promised to make her popular, she framed Helen as the snitch, an act that ruined her every chance for popularity, or even likeability, in Terrance. So, when Helen moved away with her parents a year later, she never planned to return. She also never planned for her revenge fantasy to become reality…until senior year.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The summer before senior year, Helen’s science-hippie parents decide to take a year-long study grant away from home, leaving their daughter no choice but to stay with her grandmother in Terrace. At first Helen battles fear and anxiety, but then it hits her: no one, not even Lauren, would recognize her now. Soon after she had moved away, she dropped major weight (due to stress), got a nose job (due to a severe break), and started wearing cute clothes (due to a self-revolution from the weight, nose, and friend loss). Assured that she’s unrecognizable, Helen gradually accepts that this move could be her one shot for revenge. Instead of whining, she strategizes. With the help of public Facebook pages, she figures out what she’ll have to do to hurt Lauren the most: get her kicked off the cheerleading squad, get her boyfriend to break up with her, get her elite friends to hate her, and get her a measly role in the musical. But she can’t just walk back into the high school as a different Helen Worthington. No, to do all this, she couldn’t be Helen at all, not even in name. With a totally chic look, Helen walks into the school as the world-traveling and uberwealthy Claire Dantes (not a technical lie, since it’s her middle name and mother’s maiden name). Just as she planned, she is securely drafted into the pretties on the very first day of school. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Also within that first day as Claire, Helen meets Brenda, a geeky senior whose fashion reeks of stereotypical librarian. Something in Helen tells her to befriend this dorky girl. And eventually, it’s with the help of Brenda’s friendship that Helen realizes how much her plan of revenge is forcing her to <i>become </i>Lauren Wood. As she settles into the realization, she finally learns that she has to be true to herself and forsake her evil plans. But Helen finds out that it’s not that easy to stop a plan that is already in motion, and it will take Brenda’s help to make it right…publicly, as Helen Worthington. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">is such a fresh, light, and witty take on the Mean Girls archetype. Though at first readers may think they’ve read “this” before, it is important for stake-holders to know that this book is different. It’s one of those books that doesn’t sit so heavily on the emotions that is leaves kids distraught; but, at the same time, while it is entertaining and enjoyable, it is a book that won’t just end when the cover is closed. This is a read that will make readers think critically about the deep issues Helen faces (betrayal, revenge, humiliating, high school angst, etc.) and how they might act in similar situations. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This would be a stellar read to include on middle and high school reading lists. As a teacher, I’m thinking of ways to get students to compare the development of themes in literature. So, I can see students comparing and contrasting “mean girl” types of books and movies as a literary analysis/ popular culture project. Along the sames lines, it would be great to let students discuss/analyze the allusions to <i>The Count of Monte Cristo</i>, possibly as its source text, since it was indeed the impetus for this fabulous read. Additionally, I’m thinking kids will have great discussions about voice (Eileen’s technique is so smooth and engaging) and how it effects the tone (Eileen’s is hilarious <i>and </i>pensive); but, even without the classroom connections, <i>Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood </i>will be a hit for any girl (or the boys who likes chick lit—and yes they’re out there!) who does, or even who doesn’t, like to read. I recommend it highly. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div>For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141214780297334329.post-60926369843029513762011-04-11T18:44:00.000-07:002011-04-22T12:17:53.435-07:00YA in AP?This post has been running laps around my brain since the end of March, when I was forwarded an email from an out-of-state friend which said, basically, that the use of <i>any</i> books labeled Young Adult would not be approved in that particular state because "dumbing down" the AP curriculum was not the way to raise test scores. I understand, and agree, that AP should be rigorous and should include diverse reading materials that challenge students, but I also know, from the remnants of my years of fighting to prove the worth of YA, that all over the United States schools have YA titles listed online as part of required or optional AP reading. I actually have copies of more than fifty schools--public and parochial--that have such works on college-bound and AP lists. Just in flipping through those copies, I found these YA titles on AP and pre-AP, lists alone: <br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Blood Brothers by SA Harazin</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Copper Sun by Sharon Draper</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Deadline by Chris Crutcher</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Generation Dead by Daniel Waters</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Looking for Alaska by John Green</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Sweethearts by Sara Zarr</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">The Road by Cormac McCarthy</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Unwind by Neal Schusterman</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Wake by Lisa McMann</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
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This may seem like a lot, but of the lists I have, there are way more canonical or otherwise non-YA reads than strictly YA, and I think that is fine. But does an anti-YA generalization, as above, seem harsh, and <i>just maybe</i> elitist, to anyone but me?For the Love of YAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02146961979996964370noreply@blogger.com4