ALAN Picks (May 2024)

ALAN Picks: Navigating Racism, Society and Mental Health

This month’s ALAN Picks features books that honor Asian American and Pacific Islander Month and Mental Health Awareness Month. For fantasy fans, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axi Oh is based on a Korean folktale where the main character embarks on an underwater adventure. Diversity plays a big role in Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim by Patricia Park as the main character navigates community, microaggressions and grief. Set in a Midwestern small town, two Chinese-American sisters must deal with racism in This Place Is Still Beautiful  by Xixi Tian. With a new diagnosis for having Bipolar Disorder, a teen figures out what her new identity will be through art in The Art of Insanity by Christine Webb. Set up as an enemies to lovers trope, humor abounds in Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert, where the main characters have anxiety and OCD, respectively, but are in a competition where they have to work together.

Looking For Teen Reviewers: If you know students who are interested in writing book reviews of recently published young adult and middle grade books, let them know they can write for ALAN Picks too! 

ALAN Picks Book Selections: ALAN Picks accepts reviews of books published from spring 2020 to present-day, including soon-to-be-released books. This gives ALAN members who are interested in reviewing books more great titles to choose from, as well as accommodate some great books released during the beginning of the pandemic that still deserve highlighting. If you have some books in mind that you would like to review, please reach out to me!

Let Us Know How You Use ALAN Picks! If you read an ALAN Picks review and end up using the book with your students, let us know! We want to hear all of your great stories and engaging ways you are using young adult and middle grades literature in your classrooms. Remember, ALAN Picks are book reviews by educators for educators! Click on the archives to see previous editions. 

Submit a Review: Would you like to submit a review? Check out ALAN Picks for submission guidelines and email ALAN Picks Editor, Richetta Tooley at richetta.tooley@gmail.com with the book title you are interested in reviewing. Rolling deadline.

–  Richetta Tooley, ALAN Picks Editor

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Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Synopsis: In this book, Axie Oh retells a Korean folktale through an underwater journey of self-discovery in the spirit realm. Mina, the main character, has always had a close relationship with her grandmother who tells her stories of the sea god. For the past 100 years, their village has been plagued with unrelenting storms, offering a tribute every year to appease the sea god. This year’s tribute is her brother’s first love. To preserve her brother’s relationship, Mina takes the place of the tribute to the sea god, to protect their homelands from storms. What she finds under the surface is a land with spirits, curses, and rivalries over a century old. Worst of all, she finds herself attached to the sea god with a soulmate ribbon and has one month to break the curse he’s under or stay stuck in the spirit world for the rest of her days.

Review:

Oh uses her childhood fairytales as inspiration for this mystical world. If you like Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away you’ll love this book. In this tale, we observe the separation between the physical human world, and the underwater spirit world, and the consequences of disturbing the balance that exists between them. This book brings awareness to Korean folktales, as it is a retelling of “The Tale of Shim Cheong,” bringing new cultural experiences and fantasy to those who might not have heard about it otherwise. The language is friendly and the story is exciting, the reading level of this book would be good for children grade four and above.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Analysis: The themes in this book could be used more to get students interested in reading for fun, while also introducing them to a potentially unfamiliar culture or cultural story, to make a connection to their own life. Teachers could do this as a group read just to get students to talk about it, or have them read and discuss in small groups.

• Cultural Awareness
• Self-identity
• Budding romance
• Staying true to yourself

Assessment Possibilities:

Formative: Students can create an art project depicting how the spirit realm appears to them based on the details of the story. This could be done in any media they chose. Just a way to visualize the spirit realm and compare how they’ve pictured it.

Summative: Students can compare and contrast this story with a tale that they learned or heard about in their childhood. Ideally, they are focusing on either the plot or character development, but the teacher could come up with their research question for the students to build off of. This could be done through a presentation, essay, or any other format they chose. We would do one to two checkpoints before the final project was due, maybe an idea and a rough draft submission. Then they could summarize their project for the class.

Reviewed by: Vairo Venkatesh, Neurobiology Student at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

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Synopsis: Alejandra Kim is ready for a change. Born in Queens, her Korean background and Spanish name oust her from Latinx communities. The wealthy, woke high school she attends in Manhattan considers her an outsider to the mostly white community. Alejandra and her mother navigate grief together at home after her father is found dead on subway tracks. This would be enough for the high school senior to navigate, but a microaggression sends Alejandra on a winding path where she navigates friendship, identity, and healing. 

Review

Imposter Syndrome illustrates the reality of grief, racial trauma, and adolescence through Alejandra’s story. While the book does not shy away from tackling more difficult topics, such as death and microaggressions, the story was written with lighthearted humor that allows readers from all backgrounds to connect with the novel in some way. Park sheds light on harsher truths by incorporating characters from many backgrounds, including mostly POC and women throughout the novel. By addressing sexism, racism, and grief through the difficulties and challenges of a teenage girl, Imposter Syndrome becomes an educational tool for navigating reality. This novel reveals the value of friendship, community, and healing within identity.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Connections:
This book revolves around racial identity, feminism, and social justice. Some prevalent themes include:

• Microaggressions
• Race/racism/racial identity
• Immigration
• Family life
• Friendship
• Feminism
• Performative activism
• Class consciousness

Essential Questions:

• How might our history impact our present?
• How do others’ perception of us alter our reality?
• How might our language and actions impact others?
• How does our identity change when we move environments?
• How does our community support or limit our identity?

Teaching Strategies and Activities: 

• Writing activities to allow students to explore their own racial and gender identities. 
• Research historical and current immigration practices and movements. 
• Class discussions based on racial stereotypes and microaggressions, and how to identify microaggressions. 
• An exploration of how students’ identities change from home life versus school life through writing activities, letters to oneself, etc.

Assessment Possibilities: 

Formative Assessments:

• Students will keep a journal while reading the novel in order to identify aspects of race, gender, sexuality, class, and/or family dynamics 
• Within the journal, students will note topics they are unfamiliar with (such as historical context with immigration) and research said topics accordingly 
• Students will be expected to write about how their racial and gender identity shaped their reading of the novel 

Summative Assessment: 

• For their summative assessment, each student will be expected to research how immigration has impacted their upbringing and cultural awareness. This can be done through historical journals, news articles, trips to local libraries, etc. Each student will be expected to research a particular aspect of culture, such as music, literature, art, or education. Students will then form small groups and perform an activism project, such as creating a program that the school can use in order to combat microaggressions within the classroom. The goal is to shed awareness and light on the multidimensionality of immigration and how pervasive racist tendencies have attempted to cover this history.

Reviewed by: Kaitlin Marshall, a senior at Colorado State University majoring in philosophy with a minor in creative writing in Fort Collins, Colorado.

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Synopsis: Two sisters from a small town in Illinois have very different views about navigating the world. Annalie is very go with the flow and keeps to herself, while Margaret has big ambitions and does anything necessary to reach them. The two sisters have butted heads their whole lives, however when a shocking event befalls their family Annalie and Margaret have to figure out a way to work together and continue on with life. Their differing personalities create conflict between each other that ensues throughout the book. While tackling the event both girls take on issues in their own lives and learn just how much their small town is connected.

Review

This Place is Still Beautiful is a layered text that integrates race and relationships in a complex and creative way. It’s a powerful text that brings up an often overshadowed reality of hate wielded against Asian-Americans. The novel shares a very realistic relationship between two sisters and the trials that get brought up when the sisters differ. Tian shares the emotional experiences when racism attacks a person or a group and provides different reactions. The relationships, both romantic and platonic, within the book provides a juxtaposition to how outsiders react to hurtful words and actions done towards marginalized people.  While the racial slur used against the main characters is a focal point of the book, Tian does a beautiful job of uplifting the characters through their relationships. Both sisters have strong aspirations for their life and progress towards them through the book. Their relationship with each other as well as people within their inner circle ebb and flow throughout the book. While being entertaining there’s a reality in them that makes

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Connections:

• Racial connotations behind words or actions that may have gotten lost in history. 
• A look at pressures brought on by expectations. 
• Share the difference in relationships from person to person.

Essential Questions:

• How does the book address and contribute to the conversation around racism? What are the different reactions towards racism within the book? 
• How does the book challenge or affirm the expectations within your life? (Either brought on by yourself or other people in your life.)
• Does the social environment shape the way you see yourself or the people around you? 
• How does this book challenge you to think about microaggressions? 

Culturally Responsive and sustaining teaching strategies and activities:   

• Find supplemental reading that talks about the history of the word “chinks,” as well as go into the history of Chinese immigration to teach about the background of racism towards Chinese Americans. 
• Have students examine the similarities and differences between their lives and the lives of Margaret or Annalie. Carry out with an artifact.  Examples: Venn Diagram, picture collages, write an interaction with either character; include how you think the character would interact with you. 
• Analyze how the book portrays relationships. Between Margaret and Mama, Annalie and Mama, Margaret and Annalie, Annalie and Todd, Annalie and Daniel, Margaret and Rajiv, Annalie and her classmates, Margaret and her classmates, Daniel and his grandpa. 

Assessment Possibilities: 

Formative Assessments:

• Teachers might use a jamboard type activity where students share one thing they’re enjoying or grappling with in the book as attendance. 
• Teachers might create weekly journal assignments based on a question. Teachers could make the reading a three week long section of the course and have each journal assessment be based on an essential question. 

Summative Assessments:

The character development is a huge part of the book. Students could look at the trajectory of a character’s development throughout the book and provide a presentable artifact. It could be a slide show, timeline, poster, a letter to the character, something creative. With this activity it tests how much students have read: has a requirement of at least 4 quotes from different parts of the books. Students can demonstrate their understanding of the book’s themes but conceptualize how the character changed throughout the book. 

Some ways to encourage students to interact with the book through this assessment is to incorporate the usage of similarities and differences. Along with examples from the book (quotes or just descriptions with the page number attached) students should provide their own commentary, add a personal connection or even just a mention of what they thought of the moment in the book.

Reviewed by: Emma Woody, English Education and Creative Writing, Colorado State University

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Mental Health Awareness Month

Synopsis: Natalie Cordova faces her high school senior year with new perspectives in a heartfelt coming-of-age story. When Natalie gets into a car “accident,” she discovers the pressure and stigma of mental health within her social circles. After struggling with whom to confide in after her bipolar disorder diagnosis, Natalie meets Ella, an eccentric student who convinces Natalie to care for her estranged dog. As Natalie relies on art to cope with her emotions and new medication, she meets a boy who complicates her life further. As Natalie balances friendships, family, and herself, she navigates her own mental health and learns whom to trust.

Review

This book brings cultural awareness to mental health and specifically what happens when this is neglected. This journey dives deeply into the mental health of adolescents from a first-person perspective and handles the psychological effects of mental health as Natalie tries to find herself and who her true friends are. The Art of Insanity tries to highlight the stigma behind mental health and how this may influence adolescents both psychologically and socially, in interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships. This book felt like watching a high school student handle their problems by themselves, as any high school student would. I watched a teenage girl formulate her own opinions outside of her family’s perception, truly a feat. It was an experience of finding one’s self through the turmoil and misconceptions of the world around them through the eyes of an adolescent girl.  This book does challenge any premature conceptions or unfounded conjectures that adolescents do not face serious mental health issues as the story follows how real and merciless mental health struggles are.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Connections and Analysis:

Students may interact with the book by researching the development of mental health treatment to gain a better understanding of the stigmatization of mental health. Students may also examine the similarities and differences between Natalie and her family members, which could be done in the form of a graphic organizer. The book allows for discussion on mental health, but it is important to note that Natalie identifies as a cisgender, heterosexual teenage girl and that mental health issues will affect other identities differently. The book does not discuss Natalie’s identity or race beyond the mental health aspect. Establishing mental health and identity as intersectionality may be beneficial and promote healthy classroom discussion.  

Thematic Analysis: 

• Family structures 
• Substance use 
• Friendship and social pressures 
• Mental health 
• Individuality and growth 

Essential Questions:

• Why is mental health stigmatized?  
• How do families impact an individual’s identity? 
• Does society exclude those facing mental health struggles? 
• How do friends and family influence one’s outlook on both mental health and identity? 
• How can schools create a safe environment for students struggling with their mental health? 

Assessment Possibilities: 

Formative: 

• Students may track the characters and how their own personal perceptions of mental health influence either the main character or the storyline.  
• Students could also assign themselves a character and see how their beliefs in mental health treatment either change or stay the same.   
• Students may also create a one-pager to capture their thoughts and feelings in the book, or even abstract art to connect to Natalie and draw inspiration.  
• Students may journal their response to Natalie’s journey from a third-party perspective but also may write a journal entry as Natalie or just as a reflection from their own perspective. 

Summative: 

• Students could combine all their one-pagers and take elements from each to create a final poster of their understandings, thoughts, and beliefs on the book and the topics within it.
• Students could write an extended final chapter on how they think the story would play out. 

Reviewed by: Mary Kusbel is an English Education Major at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.

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Synopsis: Celine Bangura is a high school senior wanting to go into law with a big TikTok following. Her archenemy, Bradley Graeme, is pretty much perfect. A star football player with (pretty well-managed) OCD. Celine and Bradley used to be best friends but ever since one day in freshman year, they hated each other. Celine is informed of a chance to win a full scholarship through a survival course created by her role model, Katherine Breakspeare. When Bradley learns about the full scholarship, he also decides to join the course. Forced to work together trying to win the grand prize, Celine and Bradley finally talk about why they stopped being friends. Eventually, they attempt to rebuild their friendship but they both feel that maybe… they want to be more than just friends.

Review

This book is a classic enemies-to-lovers trope that tells a cute and quirky love story and discusses mental health struggles, mainly anxiety, and OCD. I really loved this book because it accurately depicts anxiety triggers and how those with mental illness deal with them daily. Celine’s father abandoned her family, and her anxiety boils over whenever she interacts with or witnesses him. Bradley lives with OCD and having him go camping in this book was a wildly truthful scene. This book also made me laugh quite a bit as the characters are written so well and are realistic. With the mix of character personalities, a heart-racing romance, and a survival course in the woods, this book is a perfect recommendation for high schoolers and up.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Analysis: The themes in this book connect to teenagers of all genders as well as anyone looking for a diverse love story. Some themes represented are: 

• Enemies-to-lovers 
• Parental abandonment 
• Mental Health  
• Social Pressures 
• Young Adult Fiction 

Essential Questions: 

• How does mental illness affect people daily and how do they overcome it? 
• Why are texts with BIPOC main characters important to include in the classroom? 
• How does this story represent the importance of communication with friends and family? 
• How does Celine’s mental health diagnosis and race intersect with her identity?  

Teaching Strategies and Activities to Use: 

• Writing activity with prompts surrounding friendship where students reflect on their past/current relationships with friends and possibly family. 
• Have students create an informational pamphlet (loosely based on the pamphlet from the book) that represents their identity. 

Assessment Possibilities: 

Formative: Students share their experiences while reading the book each week through mini-writing activities. With an optional prompt for inspiration, ask the students to write about anything they connected to or found relatable in the book. If students are having trouble, a group/small group discussion may be useful to go over the recent reading as well as have students share what in the book they related to. This could be related to a character’s identity, feelings, experiences, events in the book, etc.  

Summative: Students write a personal narrative surrounding a time when they had an issue with a friend, family member, or significant other. Group discussions and workshops can help students identify what they want to write about as well as how to tie it back to the text. In a reflection, they will then share how their story/experience relates to the text. 

Reviewed by: Ellie Miller, a sophomore at Colorado State University, English Creative Writing major, Fort Collins, Colorado.