Sherman Alexie

I watched this video on the Goddess of YA Literature's blog, and I thought I'd embed it here. It's very funny and will make you want to read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.

Censorship and the ALA

I finally read the article that Lippy Libby posted in her recent post "Flaunting It." I normally don't think of the ALA as an "extreme advocate" of banned books. I think Kinzie school acted abominably, but is the ALA to blame? Doesn't the ALA argue for a review board so that librarians and teachers can deal with parental complaints fairly? Maybe having a "banned books" week is enough to make Byrne call the ALA "extreme," but I thought he could have done a better job educating the reader about the proper procedures schools should take when a book is challenged.

I'll be sharing Byrne with a sophomore English teacher who does an annual banned books project. Each student reads a banned book and then uses the ALA's Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom to research each challenge. This year, these students will not be writing a paper. Instead, they'll be debating this question: "should this book be taught in middle school?" This article is perfect for them!

Stephen King

In her last post, SuperStarLibby talked about the publishing industry being all about profit. I've been thinking the same thing, but I've been contemplating one author--Stephen King. His name really sells books...and short stories....

In our recent "Halloween Reading" promotion, Stephen King was the most popular author....with faculty. I knew students really liked him, but I was a bit surprised that several adults picked him. Could it be that they are thinking back to their experience reading him and find it really memorable? Or did they read him recently? I guess it doesn't really matter. He is definitely a bestselling writer. It will be interesting to see circulation statistics after this display comes down.
I haven't read King's horror novels in over 20 years, but I do read his columns. I try to catch his Entertainment Weekly column, and I really enjoyed this essay in the New York Times Book Review: "What Ails the Short Story" (Sept. 30). He jokes about his experience editing the Best American Short Stories anthology and says that he found himself crawling on the floor in bookstores' periodical sections for the latest literary magazines. He explains that short stories do not get the prime shelf space, and reflects upon why. (The next time you are in a bookstore, check it out---do you have to crawl on the floor to browse lit magazines while the knitting 'zines, Cosmo, and Time are all at eye level?) Maybe with King's influence, the short story's status will change. There are already signs that it has. A couple of weeks after his essay was published, the Best American Short Stories made the NYTimes paperback bestseller list! Last week, it was #20; this past week, it was at #15, right in between two Jodi Picoult books. The NYTimes has more categories than ever for these lists, and they now list the top 20 instead of 10, so maybe the anthology's appearance isn't because of Stephen King, but he probably helped. After all, in his essay, he says "There isn’t a single one in this book that didn’t delight me, that didn’t make me want to crow, 'Oh, man, you gotta read this!'” He was probably picked to BE the editor because he would be an effective bridge between the hoity-toity short story reader and the popular culture reader. It worked for me. I'll be reading this collection.

YA and Adult Books: A Perspective

Today I had the opportunity to attend a conference presented by Michael Cart, who is a well known expert on YA books. He was fantastic! The presentation was on adult books that appeal to YAs, and I must say, by the end of the day, I wanted to go out and read nearly every book he mentioned! His descriptions were marvelous. I will definitely be scouring Baker & Taylor with my bibliography in hand. I was pleased that I had heard of at least a few of the books mentioned, and that they were in the GBN library. The ones I was most familiar with were:
The Book Thief
I am the Messenger
The Lovely Bones
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Tamar
Goat
Diamond Dogs
Water for Elephants.

So I'd say we are on track! :-)

Here are some books that I am dying to read. I highlighted quite a few, but these stuck out:
Mistik Lake by Martha Brooks
Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
This is all: the Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn by Aidan Chambers (this was a Booklist starred review)
As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway
Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat
The Dead Father's Club by Matt Haig
The Beautiful Miscellaneous by Dominic Smith
When We Get There by Shauna Seily

Two other points about the conference:
1. The definition of YA books is flexible and is really more of a marketing term for publishers than anything else. Michael Cart emphasized that teens and young adults will read what interests them, regardless of its labeling. If a book has a strong narrative thread, features a young adult character, addresses the developmental needs of young adults, features a story about a media personality, or is a nonfiction account of a great adventure, then it will probably appeal to a young adult. So that's something to keep in mind.

Also, in regards to the YA labeling of 12-18....well, Michael Cart pointed out that in some cases, YA can mean up to 25...or even 30. This amused me because I fit in that age group. After some thought, I decided that it is essentially true. I am a young adult! I am in my first job, living on my own, and learning how to live in the real world. I say this because I spent the last 6 years out of high school living on a college campus and acquiring degrees. It is quite different from the realities of a full time job! So I am definitely facing a lot of similar issues to many YA characters...searching for identity, establishing relationships, establishing one's place in the world, etc. I don't want to get all philosophical-metaphysical, but I think there is some merit to the idea of childhood/YA-hood being extended well into the 20s. Perhaps I can do a sociological study someday....

And now, on to point #2:
The publishing industry is all about marketing and profit. Perhaps that sounds obvious, since publishing is a business, and all businesses seem to be about marketing and profit. It was fascinating to hear Michael Cart's insider view on the publishing industry. Publishing books is a risky business, and editors essentially have to predict what books will sell. It's a lot like movies, I suppose, but with far smaller profit margins. I also never realized that certain publishers get paid by advertisers for product placement in their books. This makes sense, especially in the Gossip Girl context. Every Gossip Girl book is full of designer labels and names. I never thought publishers could be so devious! I guess I am just too trusting. My ideal view of publishers publishing the best books, solely based on their literary merit has been shattered! However, I am now developing an interest in the publishing industry. I hope to write a book someday, so I think it's a good idea to gather as much information about publishing as possible.

I was very happy to be able to go to this conference! I enjoyed meeting librarians from around the area, and I am looking forward to reading the pile of books that will soon be appearing on my desk!

Flaunting it?

This article from yesterday's Chicago Tribune raises the perennial parental challenge of required reading titles. Though the particular title and the grounds for objection are not new, this is the first time I've read anyone who has voiced anger at educators (including librarians) who seem to flaunt banned books. On reflection, it seems an accurate assessment. Are we doing this to appeal to the rebel in our students? To agitate? Probably so...after all, we want to capture kids' attention and passion. Nothing better than a "forbidden" book!

We librarians are fortunate because, unlike classroom teachers, we do not generally require students to read a particular title, excusing us in a way from most challenges. High school librarians are even more fortunate because some of our students are 18 years old--legal adults. The value in this article is the admonition that we need to be sure to take our displays/flaunting beyond attention-grabbing and agitation. We have the obligation to help kids understand that meaning is conveyed in many ways and that they should learn to be discriminating. If not, I would say parents are entitled to be angry.

Primary Sources

My class load has been light recently, but I have been helping a lot of students with their research on U.S. Supreme Court Cases. One student came in the other day looking for primary sources relating to the case Osborn v. Bank of the United States, from 1824.

ProQuest Historical only goes back to 1851 for the New York Times. The other library databases, which are so useful for obtaining scholarly sources, did not have much to offer in the way of primary sources.

So, I decided to peruse the Internet. A great site for primary source documents on a variety of topics is the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History: http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/modules.html This site is nice because it is well organized by era and it allows the user to search the primary source documents in an easy to use interface. A search of this website yielded a letter written by John Marshall to Henry Clay discussing the case Marbury v. Madison. This letter is a fantastic resource, and I know I showed it to the student who was working on that particular case. However, no such luck for the Osborn student.

Now, before I go too far, I just want to mention that I am aware of the fact that primary sources (or any source, for that matter) do not have to directly mention the topic at hand. For example, the student could potentially use the Marshall letter in his discussion of the Osborn case as a an example of Marshall's active involvement in shaping the Supreme Court into the powerful institution that it is today.

That is beside the point. What I want to emphasize instead is the issue of finding primary sources that predate the Civil War Era. Gilder Lehrman is an excellent resource, and there are many others, including the University of Idaho's repository of primary sources related to the history of the Western U.S. and Canada-http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/west.html
(makes me want to do a project on history of the American West!!) and
the Alex Catalogue of Electronic texts featuring about 14,000 "classic" public domain documents from American and English literature and Western philosophy-http://www.infomotions.com/alex/

However, these websites are rather confusing to search unless you know exactly what you are looking for, and while they are reliable sites, you never know when it might just disappear....

In lieu of referring students to a list of primary source websites, I would like to have a database that includes primary sources, perhaps in addition to scholarly sources. When I suggested this idea to TeachingLibby, she recommended that I take a look at Thomson Gale's History Resource Center. Our library already has Biography Resource Center, Literature Resource Center, both of which I have used extensively in my work with undergraduate students. (We also have Science Resource Center, but I have not used that database as much as the others)

History Resource Center seems like it has everything that I would like in a history based database. It has reference encyclopedias, scholarly articles, links to digitized special collections, numerous search options, and of course, extensive primary source documents. This database is focused on U.S. History, which is fine with me, because most of the upper level research is done by U.S. History classes. I am currently looking into possibilities with this database. I realize that no database is perfect, and one resource will not have everything, but I think that this might be very useful for students struggling to find primary source documents.

Oh, and the fate of the student who needed primary sources relating to Osborn? A search of "Early American Newspapers Series I (1690-1876)" was very helpful. Another database that might be worth purchasing...

On another note, I was considering purchasing a volume of the Papers of John Marshall, but I realized that it is a 12 volume set, and at $80 a volume, it is probably best suited for an academic library with cash to spare! I wish there was an abridged version of what seems to be an excellent resource. I suppose that's what interlibrary loan is for, but that is a whole other discussion all together!

Adult Books for Young Adults

Most of our prior posts on this blog seemed to emphasize young adult books, but the recent post on boys and philosophy books made me think about adult books for young adults. As I mentioned in a previous post, booktalks should always provide variety, but I still wonder if any generalizations can be made about what types of adult books most appeal to young adults. The Alex Awards are always useful to consult, and I'll be interested in what GBN Librarian hears from Michael Cart when she hears him speak at NSLS.

I recently read a harsh, but entertaining, article, "Wonder Bread" on books written by Jonathon Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Alice Sebold and others, that critiques them for providing overly optimistic endings to traumatic plotlines. It struck me that many of the books mentioned are adult books that appeal to young adults. Interesting.

Philosophy books

High school boys and philosophy...in my early years, it never occurred to me that these two would intersect. My first moment of vague enlightenment occurred when a senior boy came in the library raving about Ishmael and asking for another book like it. Not having read the book (and I am embarrassed to say I still haven't read it--though it's a constant resident on my to read pile), I asked him what he liked about it. "It's all about the meaning of life and the way we live it as human beings," he simplified. This caught me off guard, but no more. That year 2 or 3 more boys made similar requests.

Since then, I've listened more closely to these kids, made some suggestions, and asked them to stop by and keep me posted on their opinions on books I've recommended as well as books they've heard about from others. Some of the titles that might appeal are Way of the Peaceful Warrior and its sequel Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior, Siddhartha, Life of Pi, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and The Prophet. Mitch Albom's books might also be likely candidates. Sherri's post regarding genres applies to this list as well. Some of these books are classified non-fiction, though to me they read like fanatasy...e.g., Peaceful Warrior, a book I did not enjoy, but at least three boys have told me it's their all-time favorite! Others are fiction, and one (The Prophet) is poetry.

Clearly, the meaning of life/human values are among the weightiest of topics, so my guess is that the number of students who seek this type of book is limited. This brings up two questions:
1. My experience is that upperclass boys are the most likely to seek this type of material...I understand the "upperclass"--but why boys more so than girls?
2. Since this may be a niche market, how do I include this into a booktalk...what are the hooks that will reach these kids? Our booktalks are generally geared to free reading...are there some words/terms connected to these books that might sound too "intellectual" and could turn students away?

More on Genres and Boys as Readers: Strategies for Booktalking

I spent a lot of the morning talking to a teacher about how her students should be blogging more... like 3 times per week. As I was talking, I thought to myself that I was a bit hypocritical as I have neglected this one. So, here I am.

I agree with everything GBN librarian said on the last post, but here are some more random thoughts on the subject.

First, genres. I agree that when booktalking it is good to be aware of the genre labels because it really is hard to get teenagers to branch out and try something different, and by mentioning that label, you could turn them off right away to a book they might otherwise really like. I was the same way in high school. My brother constantly read science fiction, but I refused to try it until I was required by a teacher to read 1984, and Brave New World. After that, I thought it was pretty cool, and realized that there were other things to read besides V.C. Andrews, Danielle Steel. Two other favorites of mine were The Thorn Birds, and Evergreen by Belva Plain.

I also think that at some stage in high school, many students are starting to think more about philosophical and psychological issues, and they start to read for more than just pure entertainment (although entertainment is always important! Maybe satisfaction is a word to add here though). At this stage it could be really satisfying for them to read outside their genre (My experience with science fiction fits this idea, and both of the books you mentioned--Ender's Game and The Golden Compass could too as they can be read on multiple levels. Hmmm....maybe the fascination with the afterlife fits here too--as with Elsewhere and Five People You Meet and Lovely Bones). So, I think many might be ready to branch out to another genre even though they aren't sure how to do so. Related to that, in this library there seems to be a phenomenon with older students (boys in particular) where they start to ASK for books that are philosophical (like Way of the Peaceful Warrior).

Some teachers actually require that students try different genres over the course of the year, so it is good to think about this when booktalking. I liked the phrases GBN Librarian listed, and I also try (with mixed results) to think of new and different ways of grouping books. Examples might be: "these two books are two that would cause you to redefine the concept of courage," or "both of these books are romantic" or "both of these books are about loyalty to friends" ....and then in those groups include two that are very different. (We could start a list--do any come to mind?). I guess the key is to hook them some how and sustain their interest in that title. That might involve not even mentioning any hint about the genre until the end. (We did this a lot with Twilight as you mentioned, and Blood and Chocolate.)

O.K., back to the topic of boys. In a previous post, I mentioned looking at some Cormier books. I have second thoughts about that posting and feel that I oversimplified boys' tastes....I don't want to stereotype. Here's a little story that caused me to stop and think about that posting. The other day, a boy in a football uniform came in and told us that he needed another book. He had already read Forever by Judy Blume, and Diamond Dogs by Alan Watt, and he was looking for something else. While I was talking to him in the stacks, a girl came along and said "Oh, Sebastian likes girly books." He was a little embarrassed, but it didn't stop him from being honest about what he liked. I think we gave him Tuesdays with Morrie, Fallen Angels, and Breathing Underwater, books that aren't normally thought of as "girly." I briefly thought about giving him Year of Secret Assignments because it is about boy/girl relationships, and would be more like Forever than the other three we gave him, but he seemed interested in the 3 in front of him and we felt like we should give him space. The point of this is that I need to remember that variety is important, stereotyping is all too easy, and kids might not be able to be open about what they really like or want. Christine Jenkins, in the YA lit class in my LEEP program, emphasized variety over and over again. Teenagers like all kinds of things. Include everything so that they are aware of choices.

As I write this I also have in front of me the School Library Journal from Sept. 2007 with a cover story called The Boy Problem. I think I'll read that next.

This is way too long. Future posts will probably be shorter, but hopefully I'll be posting more frequently, just like those reading students.

More reflections on booktalks...and reading genres

The last few weeks have been very busy with booktalks! It is definitely a challenge to do 3-4 booktalks in a day. Prior to GBN, the most experience I had with booktalks was during my student teaching experience. I had prepared the booktalk beforehand, and I had read all of the books I talked about. I did the same books for 5 different classes. It was succesful, but I realize now that booktalking the exact same books 5 classes in a row is rather tedious!

All of the booktalks we have done have given me some ideas for keeping up my enthusiasm. I believe that my attitude is picked up by the students, so if I seem bored, then I'm sure they will be too.

My main method of avoiding this "booktalk burnout" is to just keep reading more books! I feel I have greatly improved my abilities to sell a book without having read it. Example: during a booktalk, I held up Nicholas Sparks' The Wedding and said something like "This book is sort of a sequel to The Notebook. The main character finds that the love has gone from his marriage, unlike the marriage of his in-laws, who are Allie and Noah from The Notebook." I hadn't read either of these books, but after the booktalk, a girl ran up and snatched it, saying she hadn't known there was a sequel.

However, I still feel most comfortable when I have read a book. I don't like to be caught off guard, and I just feel more confident if I actually know the whole story. So, my solution to this is to read as many books as I can, of all genres.

Which leads to my next point: genres. I can recall a time, back in high school, when I read only one type of genre: mysteries. They had to be mysteries by a particular author as well: Agatha Christie. If you tried to suggest other books to me, I would have politely nodded, and then, when you were safely out of sight, headed over to the Agatha Christie section. Luckily, Agatha Christie was a prolific author, and my high school years were happily filled with reading nearly all of her novels (when I wasn't reading for school, of course). I was an avid Christie fan, to the extent that I wrote a 12 page research paper about her in Honors Advanced English my junior year, I read her whole biography, and I researched and later purchased, all of the novels she wrote under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.

Today Agatha Christie remains one of my favorite authors. However, I have discovered a whole world of books out there. During the course of library school, I discovered books that I never would have dreamed of reading in high school, such as Ender's Game , The House of Stairs, or even The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials Trilogy). These three books are among my favorites. If I wasn't a librarian, I probably would have never read these books. It has taken me a while to get to this point, so I hope you will bear with me.

How do we get students to read out of their genres? How do we show them that the books they would have walked by without a second glance may turn out to be one of their favorites? Booktalking is a great way to do this. Some phrases that I find helpful are:
"if you liked this...
this isn't your typical vampire story....
if you think sci fi is all about robots, think again...
fantasy isn't just dragons and fairies..."

I especially think that explaining the variety within a genre can be very useful. For example, there are all types of science fiction, from dystopian/utopian societies, cyberpunk, hard science fiction, etc. I believe that it is our job to point out that labels are broad, and one should not avoid a book simply because it has the sticker that says "Fantasy" on it.

Another point about labeling genres: some books simply can't be put into one genre. Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials is a good example. Many people would label it as a fantasy. However, it has elements of science fiction, romance, adventure religion, philosophy, and coming of age stories. This book is not just a book about talking animal companions. It is a complex, delicately woven tale that defies typical genre definitions.

Many other books have multiple elements: The Twilight series, by Stephenie Meyer, is, at first glance, about vampires. But it's also about relationships, romance, suspense, and adventure. Of course, this series has been very popular in our library. I believe that one of the reasons it is so popular is the fact that we have booktalked it as a romance between a girl and a boy...and the boy happens to be a vampire. It's a way of getting out of the whole "vampire/horror" theme.

I believe I have made this entirely too long, so I will stop now. I am curious though: what were your reading preferences in high school? Did you stick to one genre? How have your reading habits changed since then? Have they broadened?

Boy Books

I agree that its hard to find young adult boy books that the boys actually like. It seems that they don't go for the problem novels like the girls do. Books like Breathing Underwater (about abuse), seem to be preferred by girls even though they have a boy protagonist.

My favorite books to booktalk for young adult boys are Acceleration by Graham McNamee, Black and White by Paul Volponi (we also have his newer one, Rooftop, which I haven't read), and Son of the Mob by Gorman Korman. Its good to keep in mind, however, that Son of the Mob has a lot of cultural references and irony that is hard for ELL students. I tried it with an ELL book group and had to give it up and switch to another title.

I've been interested in checking out some of the new Robert Cormier books, like Tenderness, The Rag and Bone Shop and Heroes, but I haven't gotten around to it. I think all three of those sound pretty disturbing, but they are very short. I think we're looking for those two things for our audience of reading students. We don't want to talk down to them and give them young protagonists and young themes, but we don't want to give them a 400 novel either. Did you notice when our colleague booktalked Paranoid Park? That sounded really compelling, and its another one I want to read because it seems to "fit" our/their needs.

I'd like to find more sports books for lower level readers. I liked Travel Team and the Feinstein Final Four mystery is supposed to be good, but the protagonists are so young. In my past life, kids have really liked the Lipsyte books (The Contender, for example), but I've never read them. The covers of the copies we have look pretty dated. Others we should check out are How I Fell in Love and Learned to Shoot Free Throws, and Keeper.

Nonfiction is another thing we should focus on more. Boys seem to like it. More on that some other time.

Reflections on a Booktalk from a New Librarian

I recently completed my first "professional" booktalk. I must say, it was quite exciting to finally use all of the knowledge I had been storing in grad school in a real school setting.

The positives:
1. Doing the booktalk in teams of 2 made me more comfortable. I had someone else to back me up, and I felt less "on the spot".
2. Encouraging class participation makes the booktalk more interesting. This may seem obvious, but it really helps to welcome questions from students and encourage them to offer their own opinions of the books you talk about.

The main problem I encountered was that I had a lack of books that would appeal to boys. There are numerous amounts of YA books that feature female lead characters. Where are all the boys?