Last night, friend and colleague Edith Campbell's page on Facebook had a visit from writer, Meg Rosoff, who objected in shameful ways to calls for diversity. Rosoff said kids who are looking for representations of themselves should "read a newspaper" and that people calling for diversity should "write a pamphlet" about it. She said that books don't have agendas. She said a lot of things.
Edi wrote it up at her site. Go read it. It sparked a great deal of conversation on Twitter.
Are you wondering what Rosoff's response to all of this is? Here you go:
God, Rosoff, you are something else. Last year, I started to read her
Picture Me Gone. It was on the short list for the National Book Award. I got to this part and quit reading:
"Indian squaw"? At that point in
Picture Me Gone her characters are in a cafe. Items on the wall are what look very old. She didn't need that line about that painting in her book. Removing it wouldn't change the book at all. Having it there, however, is a microaggression. She's using a slur.
I wonder what words she uses to describe that "native American woman" in her next book? I have lots of questions about that plot. Why is the black kid in love with that woman? What is her nation? What is her name?
She hasn't written characters like this before. My guess is she's trying to cash in on the call for diversity. But, as her remarks on Edi's page show, she is no ally to the call for diversity.
I'm hitting the upload button on this post. I may be back with updates...
Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - The World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin, Flash Point, 2012, 272 pp, ISBN: 1596434872
Recap:In December of 1938, a German chemist named Otto Hahn made a discovery that stunned scientists around the world: he discovered that atoms could, in fact, be split in half.
And while that may not have meant much at the time to most of the world's population, Hahn's discovery eventually became the foundation for the deadliest weapon that our world has ever known.
Bomb is the story of three countries in a race against time - a race to solve the mysteries of physics, a race to make history, a race to kill or be killed.
Review:Whew, I feel like I just ran a race myself! Book lovers, I am telling you, that Steve Sheinkin had me on the edge of my seat from page 1! Am I a history buff? No. A science scholar? Oh, no. On any given day I'm more likely to be reading People.com than really anything history related. But I could not put this book down.
Thanks to Sheinkin's narrative style and the heaps of (true!) dialogue, Bomb reads very much like a novel. There are pages and pages of photographs, and my favorites were the scrapbook style photos at the beginning of each new section, highlighting the "major players" that the reader was about to meet. The sheer amount of different names could have proven daunting for a reader, but Bomb is written so skillfully that I never once felt overwhelmed or confused. Rather, I couldn't wait to see what the next chapter would hold.
I think one of the marks of a truly great read is when you frequently find yourself talking about it with others. In the past few days, I've managed to turn a number of conversations around toward Soviet spies, particle physics, secret science labs in the desert, and weapons of mass destruction. Seriously, can you tell I'm hooked on this book?
Recommendation:If you are at all interested in World War II or in Science, Bomb is a must-read. And for the record, I'm not particularly interested in either of those subjects, but I still found Bomb completely fascinating. In the mood to expand your reading horizons? Pick up Bomb today.(PS: Did I mention that Bomb won the Sibert Medal for nonfiction + was selected as a Newbery Honor and National Book Award Finalist??)
BOB Prediction:Honestly book lovers, this one is just too close for me to call. I have a sincere love for Wonder. It's one of the best books I've read this year. BUT... Bomb is one of the best, most engaging pieces of nonfiction that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I do not envy judge Kenneth Oppel in this round!
Quotable Quotes:- "When do we get as scared as we ought to?" - Leona Woods
- (on site at the Trinity test) "We were told to lie down on the sand, turn our faces away from the blast, and bury our heads in our arms. No one complied. We were determined to look the beast in the eye." - Edward Teller
- (in reference to the chill that settled over the jubilant crowd of physicists, following the successful test at Trinity) "It was the chill of knowing they had used something they loved - the study of physics - to build the deadliest weapon in human history." - Steve Sheinkin
A heart congratulations to Debby Dahl Edwardson! Today, her
My Name is Not Easy was named as
a finalist for the National Book Award! Here's a book trailer about the book:
In addition to the page at the NBA site, take a look at
Debby's website. I'll add blog posts and news articles about the book as I find them.
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, Amistad, 2010, 224 pp, ISBN: 0060760885
Recap:
When Delphine and her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, are shipped all the way across the country to spend the summer with the mother who abandoned them, they have absolutely no idea what they're in for.
Some time in the past six years, their mother Cecile has changed her name to Nzila, and she wastes no time in letting the girls know that she doesn't want them anywhere near her home.
Because the only thing Nzila will feed them is air sandwiches - "Go on back to the room. Open your mouths, and catch one." - the girls go down to the People's Center every morning for breakfast, and end up staying for Black Panther summer camp.
Even though, according to Vonetta, "We didn't come for the revolution. We came for breakfast," the girls end up getting a powerful education regarding Huey Newton, Lil' Bobby, and what Power to the People really means.
It might be one crazy summer, but it's a summer these sisters will never forget. Surely is.
Review:You know how some books just get so much hype that there's no way they could ever live up to it? One Crazy Summer is not that book. All of my expectations? Exceeded.
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are each completely their own person with very distinct personalities. At the same time, no three sisters were ever closer. "When my sisters and I speak, one right after the other, it's like a song we sing, a game we play. We never need to pass signals. We just fire off rat-a-tat-tat-tat. Delphine. Vonetta. Fern."
Even Cecile quickly became one of my favorite characters - regardless of the fact that she seemed completely disinterested in her own daughters. With her crazy get-ups, strange penchant for shrimp lo mein, and stubborn refusal to call Fern anything but "little girl," I just couldn't get enough
Nzila Cecile.
Rita Williams-Garcia has taken an incredibly turbulent, pivotal time in our nation's history, a
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen-Yang, First Second, 2006, 233 pp, ISBN: 1596431520Because I just can't figure out how to summarize this wholly unique read, here is a good one from Amazon:
"Indie graphic novelist Gene Yang's intelligent and emotionally challenging American Born Chinese is made up of three individual plotlines: the determined efforts of the Chinese folk hero Monkey King to shed his humble roots and be revered as a god; the struggles faced by Jin Wang, a lonely Asian American middle school student who would do anything to fit in with his white classmates; and the sitcom plight of Danny, an All-American teen so shamed by his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee (a purposefully painful ethnic stereotype) that he is forced to change schools. Each story works well on its own, but Yang engineers a clever convergence of these parallel tales into a powerful climax."
I have never read anything like American Born Chinese. The three different story lines each brought to light a different aspect of Chinese or Chinese-American culture. Each was engaging on its own, but the overall message clicked into place when the three lines were woven together in the end.
This masterful graphic novel imparts universal themes of racism, shame, friendship, and self-acceptance. Jin Wang and Danny will help young readers to question stereotypes that they once understood to be truths. The vivid drawings throughout brought the story to a whole other level. I'm pretty positive that
American Born Chinese is unlike anything my students have ever read and I would be fascinated to listen in on a class discussion of this text.
Have any of you ever read
American Born Chinese in school? What was the experience like? Do you have any suggestions for teaching with it?
Anyone who knows me sort of a little knows that I love MT Anderson's books. And now I love his website! Check it out. Awesome graphics, representing an awesome author. Oh yeah, and there's a dirigible. And who doesn't like dirigibles?
Today's high five comes from celebrated author Kathi Appelt.
Kathi has written so many wonderful books; she is a voice for the ages. This is a little article I wrote about her take on voice back 2001.
Kathi Appelt—On Voice
By Molly Blaisdell
A little advice from Kathi:
Voice is first found by listening to the language. Write a list of a hundred favorite words. Explore what sounds are appealing and try defining what motivates this appeal. Define personal strengths, passions, and beliefs, and try identifying with a group or place when searching for voice.
Voice occurs when a character has something profound to say. Motivation and need are paramount in developing voice. Voice is only evident in a story if the characters are strong. A character whose problem is too small or solution is too easy will have a weak voice. Voice comes through when characters solve their own problems and reach personal goals. Characters must overcome or reconcile themselves to their own shortcomings. They need to reach down deep and in the end they must win, not to the whole world, but to themselves.
The only way to sustain voice is by revision. Get the story down, and then go back over it later. Read out loud, listen for pacing. Find active verbs. Introduce metaphor and simile. Cut things that really aren’t needed such as too much description. Finally, take time to stare out the window and mull over things. Gifts of voice come from the heart.
This year finally a few people have noticed Kathi Appelt. Her National Book Award Finalist novel The Underneath is an incredible book. The language creates a world full of wonderfications and marvelments. It's my number one pick for the Newbery and yay! Here is a quote about Kathi's process of creating this wonderful book. In some ways this story was like taffy. I kept stretching it and pulling it and stretching it and pulling it some more, and at times pushing it further and further out. Kathi Appelt
See if your work will stretch today, Golden Coffee Cuppers. See if you can pull it. If that doesn't work, try pushing it.
One more thing... on the 30th of this month there is going to be a real life party, Golden Coffee Cuppers. Holly Cupala has a plan:
"Another idea that has captured my imagination and fueled the fire of my goal-reaching is an upcoming party to celebrate the Golden Coffee Cup, NANOWRIMO, and any other writing or illustration goals made and/or accomplished during the month of November, kind of like kidlit drink night except more like NANO-Cup-O-Cake-A-Drink-Lit Night on November 30th. "
So if you want to come together with some wonderful creative folks, mark the date. More info is coming soon. Post if you want to come. Thanks.
Post you successes too, folks, so I can SNAP!
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Sounds excellent. I love your point about books that leave you talking.
I am still working on this one! Thanks for the review.
I love, love, love WW2 and that there are pictures and even some scrapbook like pages, how awesome! Another book added to the tbr pile, thank you Katie! :)