Books that impacted me as a kid, as a teen . . . and look me up if you ever head out to Omaha

I’m writing this after finishing up an online final and my brain is . . . tired.  So, of course, I jump online and blog.  I know this is more classwork, but it’s also enjoyment for me.

To finish up the semester, I want to do a kind of personal laundry list of what books were important to me as a kid and as a teen.  If I think about it very long, I know the list will just keep growing.  With that in mind, I’m trying to not second-guess and not do too much editing.  The course has underscored that books can and should make a difference in the lives of kids.  So onto my three lists.

Kid lit (titles and authors)

Frog and Toad — To this day, Frog and Toad are hardwired in my head.  I like cookies, I make lists, I try and stay brave.

Frog and Toad

Richard Scary — My dad hated Richard Scary books.  As a kid I demanded that he read every word on a page.  And Richard Scary labelled everything.

Good Luck Arizona Man —

Good Luck Arizona Man

This is a little obscure.  It’s a western.  It was funny and suspenseful and smart . . . and published way back in 1972.  I trace a direct line to the literature I like today to this book.  (And I’m not sure if it’s in print.)

The Wind and the Willows — My copy had great illustrations and it was oversized.  It looked and felt like literature.

Middle school

The Hobbit — Never could plow through the Lord of the Rings, but I read The Hobbit.  And I spent a good chunk of junior high playing Dungeons and Dragons.  Trivia — I quit playing D&D largely because it just seemed too nerdy going into high school.  What girl would ever go out with a D&D kid who owns and rolls polyhedral dice?

The Great Brain series — This would be a late elementary school book series (there were seven books.)  The setting was 1890s rural Utah, and the original book was turned into a bad movie starring the youngest Osmond brother.  Very much the case of the book being better than the movie . . . by a lot.

Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl books — I loved all of Roald Dahl, but especially Danny, Champion of the World and a short story collection, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and six More.  Danny and Henry are just good storytelling.

YA Books/Things I read as a teen

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — I saw the BBC TV show on public TV as a kid, then I read the book, then my local NPR affiliate ran the radio series.  They all were funny and clever.  And Douglas Adams should have lived longer.  Must use a quote from the book now — “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” Douglas Adams

Kurt

Slaughterhouse-Five — Kurt Vonnegut’s best-known book, and I’ve written about it on this blog.  He’s a literary hero of mine, and I hear him speak once at UNL.

Autobiography of Malcolm X (I think) — The reason I wrote “I think” is because I’ve read X multiple times and I have a couple of books of the speeches.  I’m almost dead-sure I read the autobiography the first time in early high school, and it’s a stunning work.  Why have I re-read it over the years?  Some people read Horatio Alger for inspiration or those Chicken Soup or Seven Habits stuff.  Me?  I read Malcolm when I’m aggravated and job searching.

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Thanks for reading.  And if you’re ever in Omaha, classmates, I’d buy you a cup of coffee and we can talk books.

Thought on Ch. 7 of Book Love, but on a Saturday . . . or re-reading is good for you

Chapter 7 of Book Love surprised me. What Kittle is describing in the section “Analyzing the Craft of Writing” is something I think of as “close reading.” And close reading a writer’s work is something I only truly learned in graduate school.

When I was writing a long paper in high school or as an undergrad, I’d come up with an idea and try and pull evidence together as best I could. Since I’ve always been a good reader, I could usually remember and find significant plot points and descriptions and cobble something together. Throw in that I could string sentences together fairly well, and I’d end up with acceptable (if unremarkable) papers.

I agree with Kittle that if you want to truly understand a written work, and get at the how and why of it’s creation, then spending the time to re-read a text is important. While I never have storyboarded a novel, I have gone through a book with a highlighter and sticky note method looking to collect recurring themes, ideas, word choices, contradiction, etc. Yes, the book tells an obvious story, but an author creates a text by making choices that (should) all aim for a goal or idea.

I also like that Kittle likes and encourages students to imitate the style of writers. Doing this as an exercise is a cool idea. Every writer, whether they know it or not, uses bits and pieces of the works of others the like. Trying out a style is kind of like putting on someone else’s clothes and walking around a bit. Things fit and don’t fit, and there’s learning in that.

I posted this video in an earlier blog, but I think it fits better here.  This American Life’s Ira Glass says in this video that creative people (writers, artists, etc.) need to create and create and create.  Getting that experience, learning your craft, pays off with expertise and originality.   I’d add on to this for purposes of our class — people (young adults included)  need to read and write in tandem.  Each informs the other.

 

 

Re-reading a classic and thinking about teaching

The other class I’m taking this semester is a a teacher education course.  For a lesson planning assignment, I found myself needing to re-read Cather’s My Antonia so I could put together something that I could be proud of (or at least comfortable with.)

In going through my books, I couldn’t find a copy of My Antonia, which was a little upsetting  With a couple of clicks I downloaded a free copy to my iPad and was on my way.

Photo of the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie near Red Cloud, Ne.

My history with the book goes back to my junior year of high school when it was an assigned text.  I re-read it in college (the first time round) and re-read it again for comps while I was getting my MA.  The virtual page experience wasn’t too different than my previous re-reads.

I did get my lesson plan done, but going through My Antonia got me thinking about this class and assigned texts vs. free reading.  Earlier in the course, I’ve written a bit about how books can have a greater impact on a person depending on where a person is in life. My Antonia, for me, is an example of that kind of text.

When I was in high school, the book and Willa Cather didn’t mean anything to me.  I read the book, answered quiz questions about it, probably wrote a short essay or two, and I was done.  Despite being told by my English teacher that the book was important and Cather was a huge literary figure, it didn’t make an impact.  I was reading Kurt Vonnegut novels back to back (my serious reading) and some occasional science fiction junk.

The book, and Willa Cather’s style, did stay with me, though.  I loved My Antonia when I re-read it, and the quality of it still holds up.  Cather captures not only the landscape of the state but how people behave, and that still rings true to me.  So why did I end up liking a book so much in my 20s and later that I was indifferent to as a teen?  The answer is perspective.  My Antonia is a book about longing, about looking back.  As a teen I didn’t appreciate or understand that.  I also didn’t appreciate how funny, interesting, tragic Midwestern social mores could be, either.  Simply put, at 16 I was too young to appreciate the book.  But reading it in high school set the stage for me to revisit it and then dive into O Pioneers, The Professor’s House, Death Comes for the Archbishop, A Lost Lady, and more just a few years later. 

Here’s a question I don’t have an answer to — Would I have read any of Willa Cather if I had not slogged my way through My Antonia as a junior in high school?  Reading the book at 16 proved I could get through the text.  I wasn’t intimidated by the reading even if it didn’t do much for me.  At 24 or 28 or 35, would a person pick up Cather or Twain or Fitzgerald or Shakespeare if they didn’t have some experience with those authors earlier in life?

I think there are good and important ideas on both sides of the free reading vs. assigned texts discussions that we have had in this class.  I certainly see value in simply getting kids to read, even if the books they start with aren’t traditional or have great literary merit.  But I’m also a believer that what you read makes a difference.  If your physical health is linked to what you consume (you are what you eat) I also believe that you brain and soul need health food — quality books, art, movies, etc. — to keep going.

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And here are a few Cather links take a peek at if you’re interested:

• The Willa Cather Foundation is a great resource for teachers.
• The Willa Cather Archive is housed at UNL.
• Willa Cather papers at Nebraska State Historical Society.
• Works by Willa Cather at Project Gutenberg (plain text, HTML and audio.)
• The Willa Cather Collection at Drew University.
• Willa Cather at C-SPAN’s American Writers: A Journey Through History.
• Radio piece on Cather’s letters on NPR.

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Final bit of trivia — this is my 50th blog post.

Book Love thoughts on a Sunday

While I have enjoyed Penny Kittle’s Book Love, there have been times when I’ve thought things like “Well, that’s nice, but I can’t see how that would work in a real world classroom . . .” or “How much time does Kittle have in a day to work with students?” or “So what about grades?” or “How did she get buy in from her administration to do all this?”

Don’t get me wrong, I find myself agreeing with much what she has focused on.  The core of that message, as I understand it, is get kids to read and enjoy books and good things will follow.  Chapter Six of Book Love, for me, was a section of text that I found myself nodding along with entirely.

The title of Chapter Six is “Conferences,” which doesn’t sound exciting.  Conference is a term that may be a little formal.  Maybe a better term for what Kittle is writing about would be “paying attention.”

Kittle describes how she meets and talks with her students about what they are reading and what they are planning to read.  Thanks to being a well-read person with vast teaching experience, Kittle can talk about a huge range of books, draw out the opinions of her students, and make author and reading recommendations.  While she does carry a great deal of information in her head, Kittle also describes how paper and clipboards and recordings all help her track what she has done.  That description of how she gets the work done was interesting and important to me.  And how she “conferences” with her students rang true from my high school experience.

I was a high school newspaper kid.  I signed up for an intro to Journalism class my junior year (I was told it was an easy A) and by the second issue I had a staff position.  I majored in communications and it’s been my career up to this point.  My teacher at Bellevue East saw what I had an ability to do and let me loose to interview and write. While I always brought back useable copy, I made my share of mistakes.  My “conferences” with my teacher were usually short, but they were always supportive and positive, and I always left with an idea to try something new.

What I experienced, and what Kittle describes, are seemingly simple things that don’t involve technology, due dates, or heavy-handed direction.  What does take place when an adult in with recognized knowledge speaks directly to a student about what they are doing and thinking is terrific teaching.

So I want to be a terrific teacher of literature and writing.  And I find Chapter Six helpful because it reminds me of Shirley Minton.

Community and reading and writing and teaching

Chapter Five of Book Love got me thinking about reading, writing, and the idea of “community.”  I responded to a blog post of Dr. Ellington’s a couple of weeks back about how, for me, reading is primarily an activity done alone.  I still think that is true, but time and again I’ve found myself angling towards places where books are discussed (English majors go to class, after all.)  Hand-in-hand with that is the idea that writing is singular and, necessarily, lonely.  I think that is largely true, too, but—again—my life has revolved around typing away for projects at work and (many years back) doing quite a bit of writing for a community theatre in Omaha, too.  Hanging out with actors is community in spades.

I do find myself attracted to the idea of being a Kittle-style teacher who can get high school students excited about what words can do.  I don’t think she would argue that her kind of promotion of books is a combination of sales, scholarship, and motivational speaking rolled into one package.  So what’s the difference between being a coach of high school team and being the teacher/promoter of a community of readers?  For me, I think the answer is that I never liked team sports, never liked group projects, and have always preferred working (and here’s that word again) alone.  I’ll take the credit or I’ll take the blame.  Death or glory.

And yet, talking with people about reading and writing is important and enjoyable.  I honestly see teaching as a reflection of this.  A teacher works in his or her own classroom and is individually responsible for their work and students, but he or she exist in a larger educational setting.  I don’t want to be on anyone’s team, but belonging to something bigger–being in community–is interesting.

I like the idea of being able to lead a class discussion on literature, to act as an expert guide with book recommendations, and to serve as a writing (there should be a better word) “coach” who can push, con, and cajole students when they need it.  I can point to my reading and writing mentors.  They were never coaches or team members.  Some were my teachers and others were friends, and a few were both.  I want to be like that.

Some thoughts about Book Love and a bit of backstory

In an earlier blog, I gave a little bit of my background with books.  Here are a few additional facts.  Both of my parents taught secondary English, and my dad served as a high school department chair for more than 20 years.  I married a teacher.  Christine’s classes are divided between journalism and AP English.

I’ve talked with my wife about Penny Kittle’s Book Love.  She echoes what Kittle writes about in the first two chapters – she knows a significant percentage of her students aren’t doing the reading.  It’s a problem that she and her colleagues find both appalling and embarrassing.  The solution she and the other teachers have come up with isn’t ideal.  My wife assigns the reading and teaches the facts and particulars about the books.  Her students are quizzed and tested over that material.  The teachers don’t ask the students (at least not much) about whether they have read or not or how they prepared for the exams; the students, generally, understand that achieving a decent grade involves some level of preparation, and they prep in whatever way gets them to the goal of getting an acceptable grade.  My guess is Penny Kittle wouldn’t be surprised by any of this.

The school district my wife teaches in isn’t oblivious to this problem, though, and staff are trying.  A few years ago, the entire approach to ninth grade English was redone to try and create more interest in reading.  The goal was to get kids reading (like Kittle writes about, increasing both depth and stamina) to prepare them for the rest of high school.  They did away with the traditional lit. anthology in favor of a slew of contemporary, teen-oriented books.  The teachers refer to them as the S books – Speak (the book our class has on its reading list), Stargirl, Shift, and Shattering Glass.  Heart of a Champion is another book in the curriculum.  The change in books, at least anecdotally, hasn’t made much of a difference.  Students who read will read the assigned text.  Those who tend to be non-readers have remained so.

The thing to point out, of course, is that the ninth grade students are assigned these new books traditionally – as a group, with lectures and exams to follow.  It’s also worth pointing out that the teachers who are teaching ninth grade perceive the texts as relatively easy to read.  The perception is that the new books aren’t creating new readers and they aren’t improving reading skills.  The books may be new, the approach to teaching them . . . not so much.

I know Kittle starts to get into the nuts and bolts of how to track the reading progress of a classroom of students as they all pick and choose books they want to read in Chapter Three.  I’m looking forward to learning more about that.  I agree that generating an interest in reading in someone who doesn’t read is a matter of finding the kind of book that would spark something, make that person curious and intrigued.  Kittle writes about the tricky business of knocking down the barriers to reading and building up a love of ideas and subjects which, happily, are found in books.

I also hope Kittle goes into what I think could be especially difficult beyond the classroom.  I want to know how a teacher or an English Department can get buy-in for new or different reading curriculum approaches.  In this time of high-stakes test, accountability, Common Core, etc., I’m left wondering how teachers can successfully navigate creating change in their classrooms when administrators and the public are looking for bottom line results.  I’m reading Chapter Three and more this afternoon.

I’m watching this video today, too.  Penny Kittle answers questions from NYU students.  In watching the first few minutes, this is nuts and bolts stuff . . . and it’s interesting.

Another post about YA concerns; another post about my daughters

In thinking about a longer blog this week, I wanted to add to the discussion about letting people, even young people read, what they want to read.  Blog posting like Grit Lit: Why it is Important and DON’T FORGET THE MID-GRADE!  make points that I like and agree with.

The perspective I’m coming from is at least a little unique for this class.  I’m a guy, a parent (two daughters, a 4^th grader and a kindergartener), and a nontraditional student (read that as “old.”)  I’m also a reader who in junior high decided that if a book was on a banned book list, well, let’s find a copy of that . . . quickly. I’ve written about this in my blog, as well. (Here’s the headline and link to that — I grew up across the street from a library . . .)

What still amazes me is that people, who also sound like parents, think that they need to keep their kids safe from books.  It’s as if they forgot what it was like to be a teen.  And they aren’t embarrassed when they ask “book safety” questions when they talk with an author like Carrie Mesrobian over the radio.  I agree with all of the other bloggers who have echoed Mesrobian’s major point – YA lit is a safe way to address issues difficult teen issues like sex and violence and drinking and drugs and identity.

My first undergrad degree was in journalism, so I’m a big believer in the fundamental American idea that censorship is bad.  Right now, it’s easy for me to state that I will always let my kids read and read and read what they want . . . but I can play a Devil’s Advocate here, too.  What if my 10-year-old brings home Speak because our slightly older neighbor girl said the book is great?  What if it’s not Speak but Will Grayson, Will Grayson, where the authors use believable (and wildly creative) teen profanity?  In my mind, I’d like my kids to be aspiring readers. Right now, I think my 10-year-old would like to read about the 12-year-old female lead character in Rules. Again, from my persepctive, I see that as a way for her to look into the future . . .at least a little bit.

But if Viv brings home a book next week, next month, next summer that makes me and her mother nervous, I think I need to lean on another idea I picked up in journalism classes.  In a marketplace of ideas, those ideas and views that are compelling will find and gain an audience.  Those ideas that fail to measure up will fall away in favor of something else and something better.

My girls are smart.  Books, even those loaded with “bad words,” don’t hurt people.  And the only way for them to learn which ideas are good and worthwhile to hang onto is simply to take in more and more ideas and make informed decisions.  Bring on the stacks of books.

Molly is the kindergartener. Viv is in fourth grade. Picture taken at the zoo here in Omaha.

My goals for YA class have expanded

Entering this class, my only goal was to square away a missing requirement that I need as I work toward my teaching certificate.  I also thought being in an English class again would be fun.

Now, in week two of the course, my goals have expanded.  I will be honest, though.  What I initially listed remains still true.  This course helps fill out my plan of study as I aim for a secondary English teaching degree and, yes, reading YA books is a hoot.  What follows are some additional goals that I think are falling into place:

• By the end of this course I’ll have gone through a social media boot camp.  Last semester, I took a teaching and technology tools course that was good.  (I even made a video with my kids.  Check it out by clicking on this — Cather and Kolaches.)   While my classmates and I covered a great deal of territory–online quizzes, free database resources, etc.–there wasn’t time to dive deeply into any one area.  This course is different.  I’ve tweeted more in the past couple weeks than I have in a couple of years.  My ongoing experiences with Twitter and blogging will be beneficial to my future teaching.
• Reading YA lit will let me talk with my own kids about books in more informed way. I blogged about this a bit ago.  When I read Rules, the most important reaction I had was that this is the kind of novel my 10-year-old would enjoy.  There’s a continuum of books I can see in her future (and her younger sister’s future) that I’ve read.  The Hunger Games, Speak, and The Fault in Our Stars may be a few years down the road, but they aren’t that far off.  Both of my parents were English teachers, but I never discussed the “kid” or “teen” or “young adult” books I read.  A little sad to admit, but it never crossed my mind that talking with my mom and dad about books might have been fun.
• Quality authors in the YA area to keep track of today . . . and in the future.  I read the Sunday book section of the New York Times each week to scan for authors I like and respect.  I now have several new names to look for in the Young Adult area.  And, again, I think this is a positive thing for my future career.  Being able to point out a new book by the author of Bomb, maybe a book of poetry by Nikki Grimes will help freshen up lesson plans.

On a broader level, this deep dive into YA has made me, well, a broader reader, which is always a good thing.  Going forward, I’m not sure exactly what my reading plan (for class or pleasure) will look like.  What I’ve always done, however, is look for quality.  There’s a lot of quality in YA that deserves more reading time.

And below is a short video that features NPR’s Ira Glass.  The topic is taste and creativity and pursing what you enjoy by doing more of it.  The phrase “eating like a wolf” doesn’t come up, but maybe it should have.

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

I grew up across the street from a library . . .

I can’t remember a time in my life before being able to read.  I’m not trying to be brag, but I really can’t.  Both of my parents were English teachers.  As a small boy, I was read to on an almost daily basis, and, during my early elementary school years, my hometown built a new public library across the street from our house.  I plugged in the library’s location and my  childhood address into Mapquest — .1 mile distance, 15 seconds by car, two minutes walking.  I walked those two minutes back and forth a lot.

The biggest TV show influence on me back in the 1970s was Sesame Street, which made sounding out words a game.  My brother and I had subscriptions, in sequence, to Sesame Street, Electric Company, and 3-2-1 Contact magazines for years.  Of course, we also had stacks of picture books and books for young readers.  I still think the Frog and Toad books are brilliant.  Some video evidence —

As far as young adult literature, I remember plowing through several book series titles like Encyclopedia Brown, The Great Brain, and The Three Investigators.  There was a healthy mix of individual novels along the way, too, and I can remember a few – Good Luck Arizona Man, Daisy Summerfield’s Style, The Samurai and the Long Nosed Devils.  There were a couple of Judy Blume books along the way. Still, the biggest early literary influence for me was encountering something I was told I couldn’t read in junior high.

At some point in seventh or eighth grade, I came across a list of most-banned books.  It may have been something put out by the American Library Association, but I can’t be sure.  What I do remember is figuring that those books must be good stuff and looking up Slaughterhouse Five in the school library’s card catalog.  My school owned a copy, but the card listed it as “permission only.”  I went to the librarian and asked what “permission only” meant and was told my parents needed to sign a form if I wanted to read it.  The idea that a book was being kept from me—was fenced off from me–made me more than angry.

My dad’s basement bookshelves may not have been perfectly alphabetized, but I found his paperback copy of Kurt Vonnegut’s first major novel and read it in less than a week.   It was great—funny and sad, crude and smart, and perfectly understandable.  After that book, I read Vonnegut’s novels one after the next.  I also found out the public library would let me check anything out that I wanted to.

Vonnegut, for me, was the first “real” or “adult” author I read in my early teens.  Looking back, I think I was lucky because a “serious” author I stumbled across clicked for me and I felt empowered.  Other authors I would love later – Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and especially Willa Cather didn’t work for me when I was in my teens.  I was either bored or couldn’t appreciate them.  I still believe there can be a right time and age for authors and books.  At 16, I didn’t understand The Great Gatsby.  At 22, I considered it a perfect novel.  I still do.

Until signing up for this course, I hadn’t thought about the importance of young adult fiction and nonfiction in an organized way.  What I’ve discovered so far is that quality young adult novels can certainly be impactful.  I also believe that providing quality literature to kids will pay huge educational dividends.

I was lucky.  I practically tripped over books growing up.  Now, my daughters have ever-growing book collections too.  I think all kids should have that kind of experience, and I have a hard time imagining a home where books aren’t present and aren’t celebrated.

Updated book-read count

Spending a morning waiting for a car to get fixed is good reading time.  Here’s my updated read/not read list.

Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This? Scholastic, 2008. ISBN 043992233X

Nikki Grimes, Bronx Masquerade Speak, 2003 ISBN 0142501891

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games Pub: Scholastic  ISBN 0439023521

Sherman Alexie, Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Pub: Little, Brown ISBN 0316013692

Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak Pub: Speak ISBN 0142414735

Marilyn Nelson. A Wreath for Emmett Till  Pub: Graphia ISBN 0547076363

Angela Johnson. The First Part Last. Pub: Simon & Shuster. ISBN 1442403438

John Green, The Fault In Our Stars Pub: Dutton ISBN 9780525478812

Penny Kittle. Book Love. Pub: Heinemann ISBN 0325042950

Deborah Ellis, Kids of Kabul: Living Bravely through a Never-Ending War. Groundwood, 2012. ISBN 1554981816

Steve Sheinkin, Bomb Pub: Flashpoint ISBN 1596434872

Malinda Lo, Ash Little Brown, 2010 ISBN 9780316040105

John Green and David Levithan, Will Grayson Will Grayson Speak, 2010 ISBN 0142418471

Cynthia Lord, Rules. Scholastic ISBN 0439443830

Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust 2009 ISBN 0590371258

Shaun Tan, The Arrival Arthur Levine, 2007 ISBN 0439895294

Meg Medina, Yaqui DelGado Wants to Kick Your Ass Candlewick, 2013 ISBN 0763658596

Gary Schmidt, The Wednesday Wars HMH Books, 2009 ISBN 054723760X

Not bad.