ALAN Picks: Addressing Relationships Through Fiction

In this month’s ALAN Picks we feature a mix of young adult and middle grade books that deal with mental health issues, the experiences of children with undocumented family and fantasy folklore. Stuck in Her Head by Kylie Wang and Liana Tang is a contemporary YA graphic novel about intense expectations for a child prodigy and the relationships she is trying to navigate. The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt is a novel in verse that examines neurodivergence, generational trauma, and the lingering legacy of institutionalization. Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon is contemporary YA novel about a girl integrating a Boston school while dealing with the loss of her father due to deportation. The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejia by Alexandra Alessandri a middle grade fantasy that is framed in Colombian folklore. 

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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A Prodigy, Intense Expectations and Navigating Relationships

Stuck in Her Head by Kylie Wang and Liana Tang

Publisher: Earnshaw Books

Publish Date: October 24, 2023
Page Count: 218
ISBN: 9888769987
Genre: Realistic Fiction

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Synopsis: Stuck in Her Head follows the story of two friends, Naomi and Emma, who were brought together as children through a common thread – music.  However, that common thread seems to fray every passing day, and music is pushed to the back of their minds. Naomi struggles with feelings of anxiety and hatred towards the career she’s always thought to pursue while attempting to find a label that fits her feelings. Meanwhile, Emma must overcome a dark depressive state that’s been accompanied by the divorce of her parents, her struggle to express her sexual identity, and her fear of having to move away from the city and friends she calls home.  Lying to protect Emma’s feelings, Naomi pushes the friendship to a breaking point, during which Naomi must focus on healing herself and Emma must seek professional help with her mental health.  The story follows the two friends finding their way back to each other in a healthier, more stable friendship than ever before.

Review: While I am glad to have read Stuck in Her Head, I will say that its representation of mental illness and the possible causes of mental illness is very shallow, and will likely come across as slightly unrealistic and shallow to readers with a basic understanding of mental health.  Aside from that, however, I really enjoyed the novel and its interesting storyline of two friends brought together and torn apart by the same common interest.  I also appreciate the hopeful ending that shows that there is light at the end of the road for those who may have faced the struggles that Naomi and Emma did throughout this story.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Elements:  This graphic novel features many thematic elements that students could further analyze and relate to other works and media, as well as their own experiences and lives.

• Parent/Child Relationships
• Sexuality
• Unrequited/Impossible Love
• Anxiety 
• Depression

Essential Questions:

• Should someone stop pursuing a talent that they are very skilled at if it meant they would be happier?
• Why is there so much unease and discomfort surrounding change? 
• Do the decisions we make as teenagers really have that much of an impact on the rest of our lives?
• Is lying ever okay, even if we’re doing so to protect a friend?  Think as though you were the one being lied to, would you want to know the truth?
• Are the depictions of mental health in this novel accurate in your opinion? Why or why not? How could the authors have addressed the issue more appropriately?
• Is distance between friends always a bad thing?
• Did the friendship displayed in this novel make you think of your own friendships? Are there any insights into your friendships that you may have gathered from reading?

Teaching Strategies and Activities:

• As a class, look up real-life statistics revolving around teen mental health.
  • Ask students how this research compares to the representation of mental health in the novel.
  • Ask students why an accurate depiction of mental health may be important.
• Jigsaw Activity
  • As tables of four, students will be counted off into groups that they will separate into.  With their group members, they will read an article/story regarding teen mental health, resources, etc.  Then, students will return to their original tables, where they will go around and share what their article was about with their table mates.
  • Compare and contrast the stories/articles.
• Instruct students to write about a moment in the novel they found relatable (they may write about personal experiences, stories they’ve heard, etc.).  DO NOT label papers with names, but instead with some other non-identifiable mark.
  • The instructor will collect these papers, and then randomly distribute the papers back to the class.
  • Students will write on each other’s papers, reflecting and relating to each other’s experiences.
  • At the end of class, students will find their original paper and review the comments left on it.

Formative/Summative Assessments

Formative Assessments:

• Students will engage in a classroom discussion regarding issues and events that teenagers are likely to face during their time as high schoolers that may negatively impact their mental health.  Students are welcome to share their own experiences during this discussion, but may also participate in other ways like discussing the possible consequences of these issues and how they may be addressed at a teenager’s level.  Students will be graded on participation.

Summative Assessments:

• Students are asked to consider how moments in this novel reminded them of their relationships; this reflection should prompt them to think about what facilitates healthy, stable relationships, but also how problems revolving around their own relationships were solved in the past.  Then, students will write a letter from the perspective of Naomi and Emma apologizing for their actions and explaining what may have prompted them to be upset (letters by “Naomi” should be addressed to Emma, and vice versa).  Students will be graded on their analyses of each character’s emotions and motivations leading up to the friends’ blow-up, as well as incorporating their own problem-solving ideas into the letter as if presenting possible solutions to mend the relationship with the other friend.
• Students are tasked with creating a Public Service Announcement poster regarding mental health, incorporating real-life statistics and resources, but also quotes from the novel that may reflect the feelings surrounding mental illness and seeking help.

Reviewed by Lillian Mantooth, a student at the University of South Florida 

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Learning to Listen to our Ghosts

The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt 

Publication Date: May 20, 2025 

Publisher: Scholastic Press 

Pages: 288

ISBN: 9781546110538

Genre: middle grade/novel-in-verse

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Synopsis: V is used to being different from her friends. She has an entire dresser drawer stuffed full of colorful cartoon socks to prove it. However, following an unfortunate altercation with her middle school art teacher, her mother sends her to spend the summer with her grandmother. Grandma Jojo hates her colorful socks. In fact, Jojo believes that it is high time for her granddaughter to abandon such childish interests. Resigned to the fact that her grandmother will never understand her, V begins to explore the hidden spaces in her grandmother’s home. When she meets a ghost-girl living in the walls, it soon becomes apparent that her grandmother has secrets of her own. In this haunting novel-in-verse, The Girl in the Walls turns the traditional ghost story on its head to examine neurodivergence, generational trauma, and the lingering legacy of institutionalization. 

Review: The Girl in the Wall is a hauntingly beautiful middle-grade novel-in-verse that examines the lasting impact of generational trauma—as well as the painful history of institutionalization—through its unfolding paranormal mystery. When the girl in the walls suggests initiating a series of seemingly harmless pranks, the main character is delighted to have discovered a kindred spirit. However, as these pranks grow more and more sinister in nature, it soon becomes clear to the reader that there is more to the girl in the wall than meets the eye. Indeed, the ghost in this story functions as a means for the protagonist—and the author—to confront past wrongs. In the end, Kuyatt leans into the paranormal genre to ask what it takes to right those wrongs, inviting the reader to imagine a more hopeful future for the neurodivergent community. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use 

Thematic Connections: The Girl in the Wall introduces themes that are certain to make it an important addition to any text-set related to neurodivergent representation: 

• Generational Trauma and Healing 
• Neurodivergence and Autism 
• Masking and Social Camouflaging 
• The History of Institutionalization 

Essential Questions: 

• Why do individuals wear masks, both literal and metaphorical, to conceal their identities? 
• How does the history of institutionalization continue to shape social perceptions of neurodivergence? 
• What steps can individuals take to begin to heal from generational trauma? 

Teaching Strategies and Activities:

• Artful Assemblages: In this multimodal assignment, students will explore the concept of assemblage as an art form. Early in the novel, Cat describes assemblage as an artform where discarded items are transformed into something beautiful. Using recycled household items, students will create an assemblage that represents one of the main characters in the novel: V, Jojo, or Cat. Their assemblage should use found objects to represent various character traits. Alongside their assemblage, students will write a reflective paragraph to explain their choices and how their work connects to key passages from the novel. 
• Poetry for Multiple Voices: This creative writing assignment invites students to explore the use of poetic form, specifically focusing on two-voice poetry. Throughout the novel, Kuyatt uses distinct formatting to create poems with multiple voices. After studying these poems, students will analyze additional works, including selections from Joyful Noise by Paul Fleishman. Students will then interview someone from a different generation—such as a parent, guardian, or community member—to learn about their childhood. Using this information, students will craft their own two-voice poem that enters into dialogue with the person they interviewed. 

• We Wear the Mask: In this assignment, students will explore the concept of masking, or social camouflaging. Begin by reading “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The lesson should foreground the poem’s historical context, before explaining how masking extends to neurodivergence. While everyone masks at times, neurodivergent individuals often mask more frequently in social situations to avoid judgement. Invite students to consider the metaphorical masks that various characters wear throughout The Girl in the Walls. Then invite students to craft poetry about their own metaphorical masks. Teachers might encourage students to experiment with pastiche, an approach that invites students to imitate the style, tone, and techniques found in “We Wear the Mask.” 
• Hidden Histories: In this activity, students will research the history of public psychiatric hospitals using teacher-curated informational texts. Given the sensitivity of the topic, teachers should take great care to ensure that these articles are grounded in research that avoids reproducing ableist assumptions. Instead, the purpose of this assignment is to help students better understand how the history of institutionalization continues to shape social perceptions of neurodivergent individuals. The Girl in the Walls includes an important character who was institutionalized prior to the start of the novel. Through their research into these hidden histories, students will be able to better understand Grandma Jojo and her motivations throughout much of the narrative.

Formative/Summative Assessments

Formative Assessment: The Girl in the Walls withholds a considerable amount of information from the reader at first. Since the mystery in the novel unfolds gradually, teachers might encourage students to track potential clues as they read through double-entry journal entries. The double-entry journal method gives students the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with the text: the left side of the double-entry journal includes quoted passages from the text, while the right side includes student commentary on those passages. This active reading strategy can be used to encourage cognitive reading skills, including asking questions, making predictions, and drawing inferences. These skills are particularly important when reading narratives that require a high tolerance for ambiguity, including many novels-in-verse. 

Summative Assessment: There are multiple directions that a teacher could take in terms of a summative assessment for this novel, including the traditional literary analysis essay. Teachers might leverage traditional approaches to invite students to analyze the intersections between poetic form and character development. For those interested in a more creative approach to assessment, students could also produce their own illustrated poetry chapbooks in response to themes found in the novel. The chapbook approach merges the creative and the critical, giving students the opportunity to engage in multimodal writing practices as they work to produce their own published poetry collections. 

Reviewed by Ashlynn Wittchow, Assistant Professor of English Education, Louisiana State University 

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Navigating a New School and Family Loss

Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon

 

Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books 

Publish Date: August 18, 2020  

Page Count: 336 

ISBN: 978-1534438248 

Genre: YA Contemporary, Realistic Fiction 

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Synopsis: Liliana is a 15-year-old girl who just started a new school, in suburban Boston. Liliana has to travel every day from the city of Boston to the suburb of Westburg, she is part of a school desegregation program called METCO and Liliana only agrees to go because she knows it is what her father would want her to do because she knows the education and opportunities in Westburg could help her get into college. Liliana knows that METCO is a great opportunity but fitting in and being accepted even by her fellow METCO peers is more difficult than she anticipated. While Lilana is learning how to navigate a new school, she learns that the reason why her dad has been gone for so long, he was deported back to Guatemala. Liliana juggles the new school, family responsibilities, new and old friendships while trying to figure out who she is and how she fits in at school along with how well she wants her new friends to really know who she is and where she is from.  

Review: Don’t Ask Me Where does well at showing representation on children of immigrant parents, specifically parents from Central America. The additional difficulties and worries of having undocumented parents while still trying to balance everyday life and appear like a normal American teen is shown through Liliana and her experiences at her new school. The everyday microaggression that people of color often experience are as subtle as they are in real life but through Liliana it can be seen how impactful, hurtful and othering they can feel.  

Essential Questions for Teaching 

• How can I promote a sense of belonging for marginalized individuals? 
• How can we understand perspectives and identities that are different from our own? 

Culturally Responsive Strategies 

Do the activity found in chapter 31 and ask students the following questions: 

• What is it you want us to know about you in terms of race and culture? 
• What is something you never want to hear again? 
• How can we be allies and assist you? 

Formative/Summative Assessments

Summative Assessments 

Write a letter, speech, or article that answers the following question: 

How will I promote a sense of belonging for marginalized individuals within my community?_________________________________________________

In your research and writing, choose some of the following supporting questions to answer.  

• What is my community like now? What are some of the experiences of marginalized people in my community that show your community’s overall sense of belonging (or lack thereof)? 
• What do I hope for my community in the future? What would a community with a stronger sense of belonging look like? How can I contribute and make that possible? 
• What is my call to action to other community members? What do I hope they also do to improve sense of belonging? 
• What organizations can I contribute to in order to improve sense of belonging in my community? What can I do to support these organizations? 

The audience for work should be a specific person or group of people you want to encourage to take action and that will hold you accountable to your planned actions. Choose who this will be and plan to share your polished final product with them at the end of the project.  

 Reviewed by Alicia Lawson

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A Middle Grade Fantastical Journey Through Colombian Folklore

The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejia by Alexandra Alessandri

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Publish Date: Feb. 21, 2023

Page Count: 213

ISBN: 978-1-6659-1705-6

Genre: Fantasy

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Synopsis: Twelve-year-old aspiring artist Valentina Mejia has grown up listening to her father’s stories of Colombian folklore: tales of magic and monsters that once roamed the Colombian lands many years ago. Her father believes such creatures still exist and wishes to find them with Valentina and her kid brother Julian, much to Valentina’s dismay. One day, during an expedition in the mountains, a terrible earthquake strikes, hurting Valentina’s father and trapping both her and Julian in a dark cave. With no other options, the duo travels deeper underground and discovers that the mythical beings of Colombia are, in fact, real. With no other way to return home and aid their father, Valentina and Julian must travel across a forgotten land of magic to seek an audience with the only person who can help: Madremonte’, Mother Mountain, protector of the Earth. The novel within itself is a great starter for students who love reading, who love the idea of understanding that it is ok to write about their life via using the mythology of their countries and integrating it within their made-up characters. Which is a lovely novel as I myself love to read and write but not to use my real name or others in my life as a form to keep a bit more privacy. 

Review: Alessandri uses Colombian mythos in this middle-grade fantasy novel to challenge and critique the causes of violence and environmental destruction in South America. By situating the magical causes and effects of these themes alongside the real-world issues, Alessandri opens the door for middle-grade readers to be able to compare and contrast the fantastical elements with their reality, becoming aware of how they might fit into a world where violence and the environment are increasingly important parts of their lived-in experiences.

Thematic Connections: 

• Guerrilla
• Warfare
• Paramilitaries
• Drug Lords
• Government
• Terrorism
• Deforestation and Climate Change’s Effects on Wildlife
• Plastic Pollution’s Effect on Ocean Wildlife

Essential Questions:

• Why should the United States be more accepting of immigrants at our Southern border?
• What effects can macro-level government policies have on micro-level people like Valentina’s father?
• Why should we care about what happens to the Amazon rainforest?
• Why should we care about plastic pollution?

Culturally responsive and sustaining teaching strategies 

Allow students to critique and analyze societal inequities by drawing a Venn diagram to compare and contrast things in the real world and things that happened in the book. However, students can also be a bit argumentative so they could also do a Socratic seminar. 

• Socratic Seminar Questions:
  • What lessons have you learned from the main character? How and why are they important?
  • What do you think the main character(s) should have done?
  • Can you think of ways the main character(s) should react to certain situations that happen?

Formative/Summative Assessments

Formative: Students can create maps of Tierra de los Olvidados, Land of the Forgotten, in their writer’s notebooks. They can track Valentina’s and Julian’s progress as they read chapters each week, noting where the characters are and what happens in the novel when violence and the environment are mentioned.

• First, students will gather all materials needed (writer’s notebook, pencil/pen, highlighter, and book
• Read the chapter assigned for the week and highlight important key details as you follow along the main charters adventure.
• Draw a map to point out where they end up in and small details to who they meet or what they do.
• Lastly, students can share their completed maps, comparing what they each noted about violence and the environment as they read. As a class, they can compile everything they learned onto an anchor chart, which can remain on the classroom wall as a reference to these themes in this unit and others.

Summative: Depending on the unit or how the book is taught to the student, they could have a quiz/test about the book where it concludes everything they have learned. Optional: write an essay about personal experiences or how they relate to the character in the novel which will be as heavily weighted as the quiz/test.

Reviewed by Ximena Rangel 

ALAN Picks: Feminism, Coming of Age and Stories of Resistance

In this month’s ALAN Picks we feature several books that will appeal to students who may be interested in the coming-of-age, romance, dystopian, historical fiction and fantasy genres. This column also features several books that explore literature from a feminist lens in honor of Women’s History Month. Not Here to be Liked by Michelle Quach is a contemporary romance that deals with issues of identity and gender equality. Wilder Girls by Rory Power is a feminist take on The Lord of the Flies set in an all-girls school during an outbreak of a mysterious illness. Scattergood by H. M. Bouwman is a middle grade coming of age novel that is set in rural America during WWII. Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis is the fantasy retelling of the 16th century German Witch trials. 

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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A Charming Story that Draws Attention to Issues in Feminism

Not Here to be Liked by Michelle Quach

Book Details

Publisher: ‎Katherine Tegen Books 

Publish Date: September 14, 2021

Page Count: 384

ISBN: ‎978-0063038387

Genre: Young Adult, Teen, Romance

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Synopsis: Eliza is an aspiring chief editor at her school’s newspaper club — The Bugle, well she was until a washed-up baseball star who can make acne look good stole her thunder. In an act of anger, Eliza writes her very own “manifesto” privately on a public school computer… Mysteriously and without her consent, her piece of work is published on the school news front page where she repeatedly calls her club misogynistic and blames the face of the patriarchy, a.k.a Len DiMartile. In this acquiatances-to-enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, Eliza struggles with gender inequality and the dismissive comments of her peers and teachers who think she is simply crying misogyny. 

Review: I enjoyed this novel. This love story was a classic slow burn and it captured my heart in a way that I think will be relatable for many who read it. As a young adult myself, I feel enamored with the tension between these two characters and it feels as though I am watching my favorite TV drama. Not Here to be Liked touches on various issues with self-identity and gender equality. Eliza’s issues are ignored by the adults around her due to Eliza’s age and being a woman. I hope everyone finds this story as page turning and illuminating as I found it. 

Suggestions For Classroom/Curriculum: 

Thematic Connections: 

• Gender
• Race
• Variety of Family Dynamics
• Feminism
• Performative Activism

Essential Questions: 

• What is gender equality to you? 
• If you wanted to stand-up for something you believed in, how would you go about it?
• How does intersectionality affect your perspective and your identity? 
• What are the different perspectives of the main female characters in this novel and how does that impact the idea of feminism? 

Teaching Activities:

• Before reading the novel, I plan on having the students bring in their own newspaper example and as a class we will take a vote on the format of the newspaper we will be completing as a class. 
• As we go through the novel we will pick out terms such as “feminist” and “misogyny” and define them. Along with plotting the story on a plot mountain with an exposition, a rising action, a climax, a falling action, and a resolution. 

Formative and Summative Assessments: 

Formative: The students will be participating in a socratic seminar at the half way point through the novel and at the end of the novel. Each student will need to prepare at least three questions for the group on their own sheet of paper but will be graded on both these three questions and at least one participation per socratic seminar. This seminar will be student-led but teacher encouraged. The teacher can direct students into a new conversation if needed but the idea is that with everyone’s three questions there should be a mountain of topics and thoughts that need to be discussed. Student questions can be about: plot, character development, tone, figurative language, the overall message of the story etc… 

Summative: After we have completed both socratic seminars and read through the entire novel, as an entire class we will create our own mini newspaper that covers main points, themes, figurative language etc. throughout the novel. I will divide the class into groups of four and task each group with a different article to write (ex: over-all-plot, character insight, questions for the author, emerging themes) and the titles and photos they chose will be up to the group to decide. After each article is written and photos are chosen, I will print our class newspaper that gives a well-rounded view of the story. 

Reviewed by: Keaira Ermatinger, Undergraduate English Education Student at University of South Florida, Tampa, FL

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A Feminist Take on Lord of the Flies

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Book Details

Publisher: Random House Children’s Books

Publish Date:  06/02/2020

Page Count: 400

ISBN: 9780525645610

Genre: Dystopian Fiction, Horror Fiction, Mystery, YA Lit 

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Synopsis: Wilder Girls by Rory Power is a thought-provoking story that takes a feminist take on the Lord of the Flies. The protagonist is a young person with her two best friends who finds themselves in the middle of a quarantine against a deadly infection at their school. As the threat of the infection becomes real and friends start to disappear, she must test the ropes of her friendship and loyalty with those around her to brave the hidden truths of her life at the Raxter School.

Review: Wilder Girls is a gripping story that plunges the reader into the horrific reality for girls infected with a mysterious illness called “Tox.” Quarantined at an all girls school on an island. Isolated from the outside world save for the occasional rumor that brings more fear than hope. The story focuses on the life of Hetty whose life is intertwined with that of Byatt, a friend until events prove to Hetty that she is much more than that. The crushing weight of isolation has pushed Hetty to the brink of sanity and when Byatt disappears from Hetty’s life she breaks all chains to reunite with her. On her defiant journey to find Byatt she discovers that not everything is as it appears and pushes against all odds to defy a world transformed into horror. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Elements 

• Sexuality
• Intersectionality
• Friendship
• Independence

Essential Questions

• How does taking different perspectives into account when approaching other people help?
• How does the presence of adults affect the decisions we make in our environment?
• After reading the text, what new perspectives did you gain? How will these change how you view events in your life?

Teaching Activities:

• Prior to reading the book, ask students to write a page on what they would do if they were separated from friends and family during a quarantine. 
• Ask students to create a daily schedule they would follow if they were quarantined at the school for an indefinite amount of time.

Formative/Summative Assessments

Formative:

• Students maintain a journal entry for each chapter. Detailing their perspective on the text and how they would approach the challenges and situations faced by the protagonist. 
• Based on previous quarantines in history, discuss how the protagonist handled the situation with your classmates. How did you feel about the choices the characters made? Why?

Summative Activity:

• Analyze and discuss the difference if the characters in the text were adults.
• Students will research real-world quarantine situations and compare decisions made by the characters to choices they found in their research. 

Reviewed by: Cody Dahms, Undergraduate English Education student at University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.

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A Rural Coming of Age Set in WWII-era American Midwest

Scattergood by H. M. Bouwman

Book Details
Publisher: Neal Porter Books

Publish Date: January 2025

Page Count: 308
ISBN: 978-0-8234-5775-5
Genre: Historical Fiction/Middle Grade
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Synopsis:

In June of 1941, the United States has not yet entered WWII, though the War and its effects are evident in twelve-year-old Peggy’s hometown of West Branch, Iowa. Through the newspaper and radio, she learns about events in other parts of the world, but it is not until she meets a Jewish refugee at Scattergood Hostel that the reality of the war comes into focus. All at once her typical farm life is turned upside down by the appearance of this young man as well as the leukemia diagnosis of her cousin. Peggy makes it her job to save her cousin, turning to science and then religion for answers. Ultimately, she realizes that life is not like the mathematical equations which come easily to her, instead it can be messy and void of straightforward answers. 

Review:

Bouwman weaves together a rich story about family, grief, and coming-of-age. The small American town is an unlikely setting for a WWII story, but one that works well to illustrate another side of the effects of war. With a subtle hand, Bouwman introduces readers to farm life in the United States as well as key events and figures in world history. 

While young readers can relate to Peggy’s coming-of-age story, they will also glean what it was like to live without modern medicine or technology and the struggles and triumphs of such a life. Even Peggy’s parents send her mixed signals regarding where she can go and what she can do with her life. Her mother is content in West Branch, but a young female volunteer at Scattergood Hostel opens Peggy’s eyes to opportunities beyond her family’s farm.

Bouwman wastes no time diving into Peggy’s story. The first page establishes the obstacles Peggy is up against, and by the conclusion of the first chapter readers are acquainted with the characters, setting, and the stakes. The first-person narration and the fluid prose enable the story to flow easily while keeping readers engaged. Peggy’s thoughts allow readers to fully submerse themselves in her daily life and the time period.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Topics:

• War
• Grief
• Coming-of-age
• Religion
• Medicine
• Gender Norms

Preliminary Activity: In pairs or individually, students will visit a library and ask for assistance with research on one of the topics below. They will report to the rest of the class not only on their topic, but also on the research process and the tools and techniques they used to gather information. This is also an opportunity to introduce or further develop students’ knowledge of documentation styles, such as MLA.

Topics for Further Exploration:

Society of Friends Rabbi Nachman

Scattergood Hostel Dr. E. C. MacDowell

The Stock Market Crash Robert Losey

Medicine in 1940s United States USS Kearny

John Keats Benjamin Franklin

Siege of Leningrad Farming in 1940s United States

Westerbork

Discussion Questions: 

1. How did your research process, tools, and techniques differ from those Peggy used in the novel? Which would you prefer to use?
2. Provide examples of scenes when Peggy’s gender and/or age prohibit her in some way. Provide examples of situations when her age and/or gender work to her benefit or disappear altogether.
3. Chapter thirty-two is entitled “I lied to Delia.” Discuss the lie and whether you agree or disagree with it. Much of the novel swirls around lies, near lies, or omissions of truth. Do you believe there is a time and place for lies, and do you agree or disagree with the examples in the book?
4. List ways in which your life is similar and different to Peggy’s life. What would you like and dislike about living in Iowa in 1941?

Creative Exercise: Choose a character and write their next chapter(s). While remaining historically accurate, write about the character’s life in the months or years following the last chapter of the novel. 

Reviewed by: Stephanie Terrill, Visiting Assistant Professor, Massachusetts

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A Retelling of 16th Century German Witch Trials

Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis

Book Details
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publish Date: October 3rd, 2023

Page Count: 416
ISBN: 9781728272160 (ISBN10: 1728272165)
Genre: Fantasy
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Synopsis

This book retells the Trier Witch Trials that lasted over a decade in Germany. These executions were some of the biggest within Europe and lit the flame to countless other investigations throughout the world, including the Salem Witch Trials in the United States. Fritzi and her cousin are the last survivors of their coven after an invasion from the hexenjägers, witch hunters. With fury and insanity, Kommandant Dieter Kirch kidnaps her innocent cousin and takes her to Trier to face the cruel fate of a witch during the 1500’s, in a few days, he plans to burn over 100 accused witches at the stake in the name of his holy, Catholic God. Journeying to save her cousin and avenge the coven. Fritzi, a stubborn spitfire, finds companionship in a rebel Hexenjäger named Otto. While their enemies-to-lover troupe is easily anticipated, I found their vulnerability towards each other comforting. It’s a standard story about good versus evil, except the expected good is revealed to have its own corruption as the story unfolds.

Review

*Spoilers*

The Night of the Witch was a great story against the abuse from the Catholic Rule during Witch Trials. Fritzi was written as a powerful woman determined to protect her religion and its followers. There’s commentary on corruption, complacency, religion. This is the main merit of the book as it retells pagan history to honor their heroism. Most people think of the Salem Witch Trials when these topics are brought up, it’s important for the public to understand that this brutal genocide occurred across the world. The world-building was beautiful, I could envision the story as I followed the pages. The fantasy and romance within the book create a cozy atmosphere

where the reader can briefly get lost in the wonder of the life of a Witch, only to get dragged back into their reality when they remember the threats the characters face ahead of them. However, as Fritzi and Otto journey through Trier, the German capital where the Hexenjägers control, there is a lull in the plot. I had to force myself to push through at least 100 pages of them planning their revolt against the Catholic reign.

Thematic Connections and Essential Questions: 

Thematic Connections

• Power Corruption
• Complacency
• Religion
• Cultural resistance

Essential Questions

• How can power lead to corruption?
• What can regular people (Citizens) do to fight against injustice?
• How have you seen religion being abused in places of power against the people the institution promised to protect?
• How can religion unite or alienate groups of people?
• Reflect on stories with rulers or people who hold high power, how have the narratives of those people changed throughout your life? Have those ideas stayed the same and have been reinforced? Or have you seen them change?

Culturally responsive and sustaining teaching strategies: 

Formative: Assign students to groups to discuss the book. Have the students prepare discussions for major topics such as Fritzi’s relationship with Wild Magic, Otto’s intentions with Fritzi, The dynamic between Fritzi and Otto and both of their personal needs for each other. Encourage students to create their own topic questions and develop them as a thesis statement. Have the students come together and annotate sections of the book as a group. This can be done in sections of the book to compare plot development.

Summative: Sample questions from class discussions and lectures and to have students respond to through an essay format. Analyze and discuss the different characters and moments of the book that support the themes.

Reviewed by Brooklyn Bridges, student at The University of South Florida College of Education

The Black Experience in Fiction & Nonfiction Young Adult Literature

Head here to read more about this month’s ALAN Picks!

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Learn more by heading here: https://alan-ya.org/publications/the-alan-review-tar/

In this month’s ALAN Picks we feature several books that will appeal to students who may be interested in the thriller, mystery and/or horror genres. This column also features several Indigenous authors to help you prepare for National Native American Heritage Month. Man Made Monster by Andrea L. Rogers is a YA collection of horror stories that follows a Cherokee family through multiple generations into the future. Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline is a YA coming of age story that features ghosts and friendships. If you are a fan of Knives Out, you may be interested in the YA mystery The Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning. The YA mystery Four Found Dead by Natalie D. Richards tackles the topic of PTSD and trauma. YA thriller We Don’t Swim Here by Vincent Tirado examines the dark side of society through the lens of horror. 

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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Cherokee Stories of Monsters, 

Real and Imagined 

Man Made Monster by  Andrea L. Rogers 

Book Details 

Publisher: Levine Querido 

Publish Date: October 2022 

Page Count: 315 

ISBN: 978-1-64614 

Genre: YA, Horror, Speculative Fiction 

Find on Bookshop 

Synopsis: A collection of horror stories that follows a Cherokee family line across generations. Monsters such as werewolves, vampires, and deer women exist alongside the terror of science experimentation, cultural appropriation, and the danger of going on dates. The collection begins with Ama Wilson on the Trail of Tears, whose forced relocation becomes secondary to her turn to a creature of the night. This sets off the horror collections’ genius interconnection between fictional horror and historical atrocities. Though each story could stand alone, the mastery of the collection is their interconnected nature and connection to the Wilson family tree. 

Review: Andrea L. Rogers is masterful, taking up space in the horror renaissance among Indigenous authors. Throughout the collection, the family tree, provided at the beginning, and each chapter’s vivid Cherokee art from Jeff Edwards draws readers into the stories’ themes. The haunting storytelling includes first, third, and even second person perspective in a chilling narrative style. The stories are engaging and inspire student interest! I would recommend it for grades 10 and above. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use: 

As a senior English teacher, I use Man Made Monsters as a mentor text for students’ own Horror Stories at the conclusion of our Horror Unit. Students study Frankenstein and Dracula in graphic novel format through a Monster Theory lens from Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. While reading Frankenstein, students investigated the history of medical experimentation and sterilization of Native American people. These are the essential questions we pose in our study: 

• Whose voices are included in classroom study? 
• How has science experimentation gone too far? 
• How do Native American storytellers tell stories? 
• What is the literary canon and why do we study it? 
• How might our history impact the present? 
• Who are the monsters within us? 
• What do monsters represent? 

Teaching Strategies and Activities 

Create Horror Stories using literary techniques: The goal of this activity is for students to evaluate storytelling techniques in a selection of short stories from the collection that are directly inspired by Dracula and Frankenstein. This evaluation is meant to help them create their own horror stories using those same narrative techniques. 

Select a few horror stories and offer choice to students. Before giving choice, you can select one of these to teach the whole class first, showing them what markers they should look for while reading. The short stories I selected are: 

● “An Old Fashion Girl” -Begins the collection and links to Dracula 

● “Man Made Monsters”-Titular to collection and links to Frankenstein

● “Lens” -This story approaches medical experimentation head on, connecting to our study of it in class. 

● “Shame on the Moon” -This story has a vampire and werewolf face off, which resonates with students from their experience with Twilight. 

● “American Predators” -This story masterfully is in second person, as the protagonist is not Cherokee. 

As students read the short story, have them annotate for narrative techniques, such as flashback, multiple storylines, and point of view shifts. After reading, students should choose how they will engage with this mentor text as inspiration for their own horror story. Create a choice menu for students to choose from as a formative assessment, making sure to let them know they have to have a narrative technique in their writing. 

Mentor Text Engagements
Personal Connections	Letter to the Author	Interview a Character
Prequel or Sequel	Retell from another point of view	Background of a character

Background Research Groups & Text Pairings 

While teaching The Marrow Thieves, students return to this collection. Students are expected to research a background topic and present it to the class. After presenting, students could tie their topic with a theme from the book, such as Trail of Tears with Ama’s story or Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women with Ama’s Boys. The goal is to demonstrate how authors use historical events to enrich their narratives. 

Reviewed by: Jaid Wehrenberg, 12th Grade English Teacher at Ogden High School and English Education Masters student at Weber State University, Ogden, UT.

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A Haunting Story of Friendship and Coming of Age

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline

Book Details 

Publisher: Tundra Books 

Publication Date: April 4, 2023

Page Count: 272

ISBN: 9780735265639

Genre: YA, Magical Realism

Find on Bookshop

Synopsis: Funeral Songs for Dying Girls follows Winifred, a 16-year-old girl who lives with her father and obese dog in the Winterson Cemetery. She’s an outcast, “weird,” and determined to save the cemetery so she and her father can stay in their apartment on the property. After a few accidental “ghost sightings,” in which Winifred was mistaken for the ghost, a local ghost tour expresses interest in adding Winterson to their route. Winifred believes this may be the key to saving her home, especially after befriending a real ghost, Phil, on the property. Winifred must decide to exploit her new friend to save the cemetery or risk losing everything. 

Review: Funeral Songs for Dying Girls is a beautifully written and haunting story. Winifred’s goals are realistic and understandable. She reads exactly like a teenage girl just trying to figure herself out. Winifred’s recurring grief for her aunt and her mother (among others) and the loss of an important friendship are both portrayed with care and gentleness. The pacing is slow as the story is more focused on character development than on plot. Overall, deeply personal, and poignant, with writing that conveys the trials and beauty of growing up as a girl. This novel would be perfect for book clubs in a classroom. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use   

Thematic Connections: 

The themes in this book can resonate with all teenagers but would be best suited for teenage girls. They touch on grief, loss, and death, while also incorporating the narrative of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls and cultural appropriation within the storyline. 

• Grief and Loss
• Coming of age
• Belonging
• Identity
• Mental Health
• Sexuality, LGBTQ+

Essential Questions

• How does our sense of self develop based on where we live and where we grow up?
• How does a sense of belonging factor into identity?
• How does belonging to a specific culture or community shape our identity?

Teaching Strategies and Activities to Use:

• Research and discussion about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIW)
• Discussion about the use of cultural appropriation in the novel, how it’s used and by whom.
• Pair with texts that address grief, loss, and coming-of-age.
• Discussion and research about OCD and mental illness; encourage students to explore how the character’s condition influences her actions, decisions, and behavior, especially in terms of coping strategies. 
• Create a ghost tour advertisement based on the new addition of the Winterson Cemetery.

Formative/Summative Assessments

Formative: 

• Reading Journals: reflections on passages, scenes, characters, and/or how students feel while reading the novel. Possible prompts could include character analysis, theme exploration, chapter summaries, symbolism analysis, theme exploration, personal connections, author’s craft, and/or predictions for the story’s resolution.

Summative: 

• One-Pager
  • Identify themes, important concepts, and quotes and give a review of the book.
  • Epilogue Expansion: What is Winifred’s new home and life like?
  • Alternate Universe: What would Phil’s life be like if she made it back home? OR What would Winifred’s life be like if her mother didn’t die?

Reviewed by: Mackenzie Pfund, English Education Student at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire, WI

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Knives Out with a Salem Witch Trial-esque Twist

The Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning

Book Details 

Publisher: Tor Publishing

Publication Date: September 2024

Page Count: 386

ISBN: 978-1-250-84106-3 

Genre: YA Fantasy & Mystery

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Synopsis: The Lies We Conjure takes place in Colorado, following Ruby (17) and Wren (16) Jourdain as they delve into a new fantastical world of witches, bloodlines, and family politics. Ruby and Wren are invited to a prestigious dinner at Hegemony Manor by a strange old woman who asks them to pretend to be her two granddaughters who haven’t been seen by the family in 10 years since they moved to London. The two girls agree to Marsyas Blackgate’s terms, being convinced by the $4,000 payment, and enter the world of the Four Lines. Soon after the three arrive at the party, the host, Ursula Hegemony, is murdered, and the manor is magically locked down until the attendees can solve the murder and locate the four relics that provide the power to each family’s line: the Blood relic for the Cerises, the Celestial relic for the Starwoods, the Elemental relic for the Hegemonys, and the Death relic for the Blackgates. However, the families only have 3 days, or they are stuck in the manor forever. Things get more complicated when Marsyas vanishes, and Ruby and Wren are left stranded with 13 witches who have no idea that they are two human girls with no magical ability whatsoever. The novel takes on a fantastical murder-mystery plot, and as the story progresses, family drama becomes unveiled and people continue to be murdered. By the end, the head of each family has been killed by Marsyas and only the teenagers are left. The novel concludes with a dramatic standoff between Ruby, Wren, the Four Lines teenagers, and the real Blackgate sisters. 

Review: Henning’s novel is a Knives Out-esque story with a Salem witch-trials influence. She includes themes like family trauma, abuse, deception, innocence, and coming-of-age. For those who enjoy a good fantasy novel, I think these themes and this plot would be really appealing, especially for a YA audience. Pairing the fantasy genre with serious themes like abuse and familial trauma is impactful to young readers. Henning’s novel is written in two different POVs, Ruby’s and Auden Hegemony’s. The switching of point of view helps propel the narrative, while also providing two very different perspectives for the readers, with Ruby’s human “other” perspective, and Auden’s witch perspective. It helps add to the stress of Ruby and Wren trying to stay hidden in plain sight, while also adding to the drama, as the reader is experiencing the witch politics first-hand with Auden’s POV. I think regarding the character development, the effort is there. We see development through a lot of the more secondary characters, but I struggled to see development in our two protagonists. Overall, this book is fun and enjoyable, and fit for older YA readers. It has some strong language, which leans a little more to the older YA side, but no inappropriate themes or scenes that would make it too adult. There is a lot of ambiguity in the characters, with Henning leaving things like race and ethnicity up for interpretation, allowing space for all readers to find themselves in the pages. There is also LGBTQ+ inclusion in this novel, with a non-binary character and various queer characters. This book is perfect for high schoolers, whether it is read inside or outside of the classroom. 

Thematic Connections & Essential Questions:

• Family and Family Trauma: How do we define family? Does “family” have to be related to you? What are some ways we cope with family trauma? How can we help those struggling with family trauma?
• Abuse: How can we identify abuse? Does abuse have to be physical to be recognized by outsiders? What can we do to help those struggling with abusive relationships?
• Deception: What is the motivation behind deceit? Are the villains the only deceitful characters? In which scenarios is it okay to lie? How should we distinguish between “evil” deceit and “good” deceit? Should we punish deceit? 
• Innocence: Can people be purely innocent or purely guilty? Does lying make you guilty?
• Coming of Age: How do our character’s values change over the novel? What marks the transition from childhood to adulthood? How have we changed in the last month? In the last 6 months? In the last year?

Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Teaching Strategies:

• Conspiracy Theorist Photo Wall: Throughout the novel, we will add to our “conspiracy theorist” photo wall with red string to try and figure out who killed Ursula and why. We will add different important facts, like the locations of the murders, the motives, and the different families and their defining characteristics. 
• New POV Scene: Students will develop scenes from the book from a character’s point of view that the readers don’t get. This activity allows students to generate their own stories, backgrounds, values, and ideas for more minor characters in the novel. Students have to fit the parameters the novel sets, but otherwise, they have free reign over their stories.

Formative and Summative Assessments:

• Formative: At various points throughout the novel, students will draft up “Whodunnit” reports, arguing for a murderer and supporting their argument with evidence from the text. 
• Summative: Students will perform a debate on who is truly guilty at the end of the novel. Half of the class will support the Blackgates and the other half will support the Hegemonys. This debate is meant to develop an understanding of guilt vs innocence, and how the definitions of “good” and “evil” can change depending on perspective. 

Abigail Leary Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, MA, undergraduate preservice teacher 

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A Story of PTSD and Trauma 

Four Found Dead by Natalie D. Richards 

Book Details 

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire 

Publish Date: May 2, 2023 

Page Count: 336 

ISBN: 9781728215815 

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller 

Find on Bookshop

Synopsis: Jo and her six friends and co-workers are teens working at a shopping mall movie theater; their uptight, adult manager is the only one not part of the friend circle. This night will be the last that any of them have to deal with their manager anymore, as the theater is closing for good while the mall is under construction. Jo, eager to leave, is riddled with anxiety as she spots her temperamental manager in possession of a gun. After this, everything goes downhill as the lights go out and the first dead body is discovered. This story follows Jo and her friends as they struggle to escape the mall with all of the exits blocked off due to poor construction safety. As they run around the mall looking for a way out, they also have to stay clear of the murder on the loose. This experience causes Jo to relive and fight through her traumatic past to escape with her friends. 

Review: Natalie Richards created a very engaging and thrilling novel that follows a main character who struggles with PTSD from a traumatic event in her past. The author does a great job of displaying how Jo’s PTSD affects her thoughts and decisions in a life-threatening situation. There were many other issues touched upon that display the issues of today. Inappropriate relationships, health disorders, and mental disorders are all touched upon in this novel in ways that are extremely important to the plot.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use 

Thematic Elements: 

● Gun violence 

● PTSD/Mental Health Issues 

● Murder 

● Cheating 

● Adult/minor relationship (grooming) 

● Physical Health Issues 

Essential Questions: 

● How can someone’s past experience influence how they treat others? 

● How can someone’s past trauma affect how they react during a traumatic event? 

Teaching Strategies and Activities: 

● Student-led discussion of mental health 

● Reading about PTSD from trusted sources 

● Reading short stories or watching short films/movies on PTSD 

Formative Assessments: 

● Write a short mystery/thriller narrative 

● Journal entries on the depictions of mental health issues in the story 

Summative Assessments: 

A final project of the student’s chosen medium where they explore one of the main themes in the story: PTSD/mental health, gun violence, murder, etc. They talk about the instances in the book where this theme is in the spotlight and conduct research on the theme to connect the real world with the novel. 

Reviewed By: Jadzia Colon, an undergraduate English Education major at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL.

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An Exploration of Society Through the Horror Lens

We Don’t Swim Here by Vincent Tirado 

Book Details 

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire 

Publish Date: May 30, 2023

Page Count: 320 

ISBN: 9781728280103

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Horror

Find on Bookshop

Synopsis:  When Bronwyn’s family makes the move to her father’s hometown, she is hopeful that she will adjust well. With help from her cousin Anais, and the occasional swim to help her take the edge off, she is sure she can remain sane for the short year she’d be living in Hillwood.  What she doesn’t know is, her love for swimming has made her a target due to the town’s number one rule, “We don’t swim here.” Bronwyn doesn’t follow the rules, and that may just get her killed.

Review: Vincent Tirado’s We Don’t Swim Here was an intriguing read. At no point in the story did you know what was coming next. Tirado held an important conversation about the dangers of prejudice and ignorance, and the extreme lengths that people will go to uphold their beliefs. I would not suggest the story for lower middle grades, but it would be a great read for upper middle to high schoolers. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use 

Themes:

• Race
• Prejudice
• Sexism
• Revenge

Character Analysis/ Autopsy 

Essential Questions:

• What does water symbolize in the text? 
• Why would Bronwyn’s interrupt the status quo of HIllwood? 
• How may the setting impact the theme of the story? 
• Why was it important for Bronwyn to be chosen by Sweetie? 

Formative:

Although the story is very fast paced, the reader is able to get a decent sense of each of the main character’s personalities and their perspectives. Students will be able to show their understanding of each character’s growth throughout the story through the Venn diagram, in which they will have to compare each character’s development throughout the story. 

Summative:

Because there is a significant amount of horror in the story, students will enjoy an autopsy report of either Bronwyn, Sweetie, or Anais. As they are completing the report, they will complete a brief essay in which they will have to analyze their character and describe whether or not they believe the actions displayed by their character throughout the text are just or unjust based on textual evidence. 

Reviewed by: Faith Young

ALAN Picks: Graphic Novels

In this month’s ALAN Picks we feature graphic novels that are great for both middle and high school readers. Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey by Edel Rodriguez is a graphic memoir about growing up in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. In Huda F Cares? by Huda Fahmy, the hilarious series continues with a family road trip that challenges Huda’s perceptions of herself and others. Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega is a story of one middle schooler’s hair journey and all of the emotions and identity that is connected to that. Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham is a graphic memoir where food takes a prominent role in telling one young man’s immigrant story. Based on Korean folklore, The Fox Maidens by Robin Ha challenges gender roles as the lead character finds her dreams changed to fit society’s expectations. 

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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Synopsis: A worm hides in the darkness of the dirt, digging and clawing its way through its life without knowledge of survival. In the world above, creatures bearing wings and legs search for the little worm. The worm does not know these things, but Edel Rodriguez does. In Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey, Rodriguez tells the tale of his early childhood growing up in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Nicknamed “Worm” for his small stature, Edel is a very observational child full of artistic vision. His love for drawing shows his awareness of the loss of his freedom and expression as he continues to grow up. When the chance for an escape to America presents itself, Edel and his family join many other Cubans in a large, dangerous exodus in a journey of hope, immigration, and identity.

Review:

A worm hides in the darkness of the dirt, digging and clawing its way through its life without knowledge of survival. In the world above, creatures bearing wings and legs search for the little worm. The worm does not know these things, but Edel Rodriguez does. In Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey, Rodriguez tells the tale of his early childhood growing up in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Nicknamed “Worm” for his small stature, Edel is a very observational child full of artistic vision. His love for drawing shows his awareness of the loss of his freedom and expression as he continues to grow up. When the chance for an escape to America presents itself, Edel and his family join many other Cubans in a large, dangerous exodus in a journey of hope, immigration, and identity.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Create a visual memoir 

Students can take a story from their own lives and create a visual memoir in the style of Edel Rodrigues’s art. This would not only help students create a connection to the book but also create a connection to their lives and experiences. I recommend teachers read the book with the whole class, as the chapters go by fast in a graphic novel. Teachers should also introduce this project along with the book so students can read and build their memoirs as they soak in Edel’s story. 

Essential Questions

• How does Edel’s experience as an immigrant shape his sense of identity and belonging?
• In what ways does Edel’s journey challenge or reinforce his understanding of what “home” means?
• How does Worm show the impact of living under an oppressive government on individuals and families?
• What does freedom mean to Edel and his family, and how does their definition of it change over time?

This Builds:

• Student Engagement
• A Connection to the Text
• Showcases Student Identity
• Builds Student Expression 

Formative and Summative Assessments

Formative:

Have students answer questions in correspondence with the reading. As the teacher reads with the class, stop at key moments where the students can reflect and answer questions.

Summative:

After the graphic memoir project, have students write a 1-2 page reflection. This will include how their memoir connects to Edel’s memoir, how their story connects to a certain moment in the story, and explains their overall feelings about the project and the memoir itself.

• Critical Thinking Skills
• Reflection on literature and history
• Historical, political, and societal awareness

Review by: Cameron Taber Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, MA, undergraduate preservice teacher 

Synopsis: Fourteen year old Huda F is excited to look more normal amongst her peers at school after getting contacts for the first time, but she is then forced to go on a road trip with her Muslim family right after finishing her freshman year of high school. Huda and her sisters have not been getting along, so their parents created this trip so they can get closer. The vacation ruins Huda’s perception of others outside of her religion as she deals with racism by standing out at public parks due to her religion. However, she learns the value of sisterhood, knowing that her family will stand by her no matter what. She also learns to embrace her religion even if there are people who oppose it, which is exactly what her parents wanted her to learn.

Review

This graphic novel has great representation for Muslims, and the main characters are of Egyptian descent. The author is showing how it feels to be Arab and Muslim in a predominantly white environment that often has a negative view of them. The author chooses to have a teenage girl and her family as the main characters, which can help students to see that kids their age deal with hardships due to how they are viewed in society. Fahmy proves that they are just another family that are trying to live their lives as normal as possible in the United States. 

The story was easy to follow. The visuals fully describe what is happening at every specific moment of the story, proving just how powerful the dialogue is as well. The characters’ actions are just as impactful. The sisters all learn the same lessons together due to their eventual close bond and courage.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Connections

Essential Questions:

• How can we learn to be proud of our identity?
• Why is it important to treat everyone with respect?
• What can we learn from the presence of other cultures and beliefs?

Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Teaching Strategies:

Activity: Reimagining Scenes

Whenever Huda is thinking about something, a floating figure of herself tells her what she should say. This activity has students rewriting a scene with Huda actually saying something that she wanted to say. It would focus on the reaction of the other characters, which teaches students that they have to be careful about what they say.

Strategies:

• Do not completely focus on the negative experiences the characters face in the novel. Teach students that these things can happen, but they are able to prevent them by being respectful and standing up for others whenever possible.
• Give as much information as possible about Islam and the Middle East without showing any opinions.

Assessments that can be used:

Formative: Learning and applying facts about the characters’ native country and religion while reading the novel

Students could be given the opportunity to learn more about Egyptian-Americans and Islam and apply their knowledge during group and class wide discussions while reading the novel. For example, there is a scene where the family has lunch on a picnic table in public. Students can learn more about or share about traditional Egyptian foods.

Summative: Sister Fact sheet

Students could be assigned one of Huda’s sisters (except for Amani) to talk about. They could be put into groups and work together to make a fact sheet about her age, personality, day she was with Huda, and more. They can also talk about why Huda gets along with this specific sister.

Reviewed by: Martina Ibrahim, English Education student at Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, MA

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Synopsis: Frizzy follows the life of a young girl named Marlene. Readers dive into how her family views her, seeing that her hair is a major point of contention. Throughout the graphic novel, Marlene’s family comments on how messy and unladylike she is when her hair is not straightened. This affects Marlene’s self esteem, showing her that her self worth is based on her looks, and how she is naturally not good enough. Not only does Marlene have to deal with her family’s judgment, she also has to deal with other kids at her school bullying her when her hair is left natural. The novel progresses as Marelene struggles to cope with the loss of her father, her family’s cruel comments, and trying to find a balance between loving herself while also making her mother happy by straightening her hair. With the help of her Tia Ruby, Marlene figures out a hair care routine that not only accentuates her curls, but helps her feel proud of herself. But, Tia Ruby reminds Marlene that it does not matter what she looks like, but who she is inside. This novel speaks to mother- daughter relationships, being comfortable in your own skin, and the strength it takes to talk about uncomfortable topics.

Review

This novel is a fantastic read for readers of all ages. Due to the stylistic choices of the book art itself and the comic-like set up, this novel is both a charming, yet thought provoking read. Ortega allows readers to transport themselves into Marlene’s life, with older readers able to feel those strange and awkward feelings of growing up all over again. For younger readers, this book speaks to all of the unspoken feelings they have bubbling inside of them. The acceptance of natural looks and the strength shown throughout the novel not only allows for students to feel comfortable in their own skin, but also helps build confidence for having tough conversations and expressing their emotions in a healthy and productive way. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Essential Questions: 

• How does one’s confidence in their appearance shape their identity?
• What does it mean to support those around you?

Ideas for Use In The Classroom (Activities and Strategies):

• Creating a classroom Frizzy book: Task students with writing and illustrating their own personal story about a unique aspect of themselves. After students create these stories, compile them into a collective class novel that students can take turns reading. The goal of this activity is for students to not only celebrate their own differences, but also learn how to empower their peers. 
• Hair-story: Assign students different hair textures to research, and the cultural impact of them in different communities. Students can create presentations of their findings, discussing different beauty standards and different cultures’ connections with hair. The goal of this project is to enlighten students about other cultures, and inform them about the importance of building confidence in what features they were born with.
• Students’ Backgrounds: Before reading the novel, ask students to share different beauty standards from their own cultures and have them reflect on them. By implementing this open discussion, students will feel more comfortable discussing the themes of this novel and relating it back to their own cultures.
• Student Voices: Give students the freedom to express their emotions upon reading this novel. Encourage asking for different perspectives, fostering a productive class wide discussion. 

Formative Assessments:

As students read, stop and allow them to discuss themes, important events within the novel, and key characters. Making sure students understand these topics can ensure their understanding of the novel, and allow them to critically think about what they are reading. 

Summative Assessment: 

After finishing the novel, ask students to write a letter to Marlene, acting as one of her peers. What would they say to her in order to show their support? How could they let her know that she is perfect the way that she is? This allows students to express their own feelings about the text, whilst also encouraging them to build their own morals surrounding diversity and self confidence. 

Review by: Emma Gillespie, Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, MA, undergraduate preservice teacher. 

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Synopsis:  In this graphic memoir, Thien Pham recounts his life story through the foods that represented different challenges and/or victories at pivotal moments in his life. Each chapter tells part of Thien Pham’s journey beginning with his family leaving Vietnam as refugees and continuing through his young adulthood as he and his family chase the American Dream. Thien defines each point in his journey by the food that mattered most at that time – some periods are represented by Vietnamese recipes, others by American recipes. Thien wrestles with how to stay true to his roots while also fitting into a totally new culture. 

Review

An excellent graphic memoir that creatively expresses a life’s journey in terms of the foods that mattered most at each point. There is incredible depth in each page of illustrations that serves to bring greater understanding to the complexity of Thien’s story as a refugee and later as an American citizen. A beautiful read that also highlights the often underrepresented Vietnamese-American culture, this graphic memoir would be meaningful to all ages from middle to high school. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Themes 

• The American Dream 
• Immigration 
• Finding balance between different cultures 
• Conforming vs remaining true to yourself 

Essential Questions

• How can a person celebrate their unique identity in a culture that values conformity? 
• Is the American Dream worth the sacrifices made to attain it? 
• What does it mean to be American? 
• How does identity change after immigration, if at all? 

Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies to Encourage Student Engagement

• Graphic novel page analysis 
  • Students work in groups to analyze the text and illustrations of a section of the graphic novel. This should be done at the beginning of reading combined with a mini lesson on how to read graphic novels. 
• Cater Vietnamese food for lunch 
  • The novel is centered around the food that defines Thien’s culture and family life, and many students might not have any experience with Vietnamese culture and cuisine. Students are assigned a dish to research and present to the class. If possible, the school can facilitate bringing in authentic Vietnamese food.  
• Tell the story of your life through the foods that defined it 
  • Create a collage of the foods that were important to you at different periods of your life. Use words in the collage to describe the food and why it matters, or accompany the collage with a one-page explanation of your choices. 
• Ongoing concept map to keep track of Thien’s evolving identity and his connection to the American Dream
  • Students fill in the blanks on a concept map as they read. Questions ask about Thien’s choices in each chapter, the steps taken by his family in each chapter as they chase the American Dream, and how the family balances their culture with the new culture surrounding them. 
• Jigsaw on Vietnamese history and the history of Vietnamese refugees 
  • Each group is assigned a teacher-approved website to check out. Website topics include: information about Vietnamese refugees in 1970s/80s, understanding the conflict causing refugees to flee (for kids), challenges faced by Vietnamese refugees once in America. Students will work with their group to research their assigned website, then will share their information with another group and learn the other group’s information. 

Formative / Summative Assessments 

Formative: 

• Maintain a reading journal. 
  • Students complete prompts about themes and conflicts discussed in each chapter. Journal prompts should encourage deep thinking about the real-world issues presented in each chapter. 
  • Prompt examples with corresponding themes:
    • American Dream: Were the trials and tribulations faced by the Pham family throughout the book worth it at the end? In other words, does the destination justify the hard journey? Explain why or why not. 
    • Immigration and identity: Analyze the book’s title and what Thien Pham means by “memories of an American from Vietnam”. What does it mean to be an American from Vietnam??  Do you think people should choose one country to be part of, or can people consider themselves members of two countries?
• Reading quizzes 
  • Three reading quizzes to assess student understanding of the novel. 
• Character analysis 
  • Create a graphic representation of Thien’s evolving identity and beliefs as he moves through the novel. Create a document with three sections: one for Thien at the beginning of the book, one for Thien at the middle of the book, and one for Thien at the end. In each section, include one or two quotes that best define Thien at that time. Also, include Thein’s interests, worries, and overall attitude towards America at each stage. 

Summative: 

• Reflect on your identity
  • What aspects of your identity do you feel most define you? Create a poem, collage, or work of art that tells your story. Combined with a one-page reflection explaining what you represented, why this is important to you, and how these elements of your identity impact you and your life. 
• Class Potluck 
  • Choose a dish that represents your culture/identity and bring it to class to share with classmates. Need parent approval and participation. Combined with a one-page reflection about the origins of the dish and why the dish matters to your identity. 

Reviewed by Aine Campion

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Synopsis: Kai Song is the black sheep of her upper-class family. She dreams of following in her father’s footsteps and being the master of their martial arts school, but destiny and society have other plans. The Joseon Dynasty of Korea has strict rules and expectations for women, and everyone around Kai expects her to obey. Everything changes when Kai is plagued with the actions of her mother’s past and is forced into a destiny she could never imagine. Now, she must come to terms with her new way of life and learn about the truth of the Gumiho, an ancient fox spirit rumored to murder men and eat their livers. Can Kai learn to accept what she is and find a balance between her new world and the family she holds dear? 

Review

The Fox Maidens is a late middle-grade to early high school graphic novel surrounding the Korean folklore of Gumiho. The graphic novel is a page-turner and a quick read. It is easier to get through in one sitting. Although the story is set in sixteenth-century Korea, Robin Ha still touches on modern issues of gender, sexuality, and belonging. Ha’s story is one of resilience and fighting the family’s past mistakes. The novel is action-packed and suspenseful, definitely a good pick for lovers of the paranormal and dark side of folklore.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Themes:

• Gender & Sexuality
• Social Class
• Family duty
• Guilt 
• Loss & Sacrifice 
• Self-discovery 
• Belonging 
• Generational trauma & issues

Essential questions:

• How do you deal with guilt?
• How are the plot and characters affected by class and gender norms?
• How can you fit into a society where you are viewed as an outsider?
• How do we deal with the consequences of prior generations’ actions?
• Why do we spread rumors and myths in society?

Teaching strategies and activities to use:

• Discussion about class system and gender roles in the Joseon period of Korea.
• Lesson on correctly pronouncing names, titles, and other Korean words in the text.
• Lesson on the basics of Buddhism and the phrases and objects used in the novel surrounding these beliefs.

Reviewed by Krystal Tolle, English Education Student at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. 

ALAN Picks: Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month, Mental Health & Coming of Age

In this month’s ALAN Picks we feature several books both middle grades and young adult by Asian and Asian American authors. There are also recently released books that tell stories of coming of age, social justice and mental health. Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and illustrations by Lisa Sterle is a graphic novel about a girl trying to fit in with the popular girls, who also happen to be werewolves. Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa is a middle grade historical fiction, coming-of-age story set in Japan. Yolk by Mary H.K Choi examines the relationship between two sisters who used to be very close and are now estranged; it also addresses mental health and eating disorders. Song of Silver, Flame like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao is a YA fantasy about colonialism,Chinese history and mythology and also has environmental elements. Scattergood by H. M. Bouwman is a middle grade coming-of-age novel set in rural Iowa during WWII. Shackled by Candy J. Cooper is a book based on a true story about corruption in the juvenile justice system in a Pennsylvania county. 

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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Synopsis: Squad is a YA graphic novel written by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and illustrated by Lisa Sterle.  The main character, Becca, finds herself in a small, upper-class town after living in L.A. all of her life.  She quickly makes a good impression on the three most popular girls in her high school – who just happen to be a pack of werewolves.  Desperate to fit in and revel in the same popularity that they do, Becca joins them in their murderous ways with the condition that they only kill predatory high school boys…but as time passes, their hunger grows, and Becca finds herself in very morally grey territory.  This story reflects the internal battle many teens face when peer-pressured, and how quickly the consequences can spiral out of control.

Review:

I enjoyed diving into this easy-to-read and colorful graphic novel.  It represents a universal feeling of wanting to belong that everyone has felt at some point in their life, especially in their teenage years.  The graphics in this novel are truly stunning and interesting to look at, and bright colors create some really nice irony and juxtaposition to an otherwise, rather dark storyline.  The pacing is well-done and had me on the edge of my seat waiting for the resolution at the end of the book.  The story itself reads like a Mean Girls retelling with supernatural elements, which was very unique and intriguing.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Elements:  This graphic novel features many thematic elements that students could further analyze and relate to other works and media, as well as their own experiences and lives.

• Sexuality
• Feminism
• Rape Culture
• Misogyny 
• Belonging
• Peer Pressure
• Loyalty/Betrayal
• Ethics
• Parent/Child Relationships

Essential Questions

• How do our parents influence our perception of who we are and what our futures will hold?
• Why might some consider peer pressure to be a greater influence than the influence parents hold over us?
• Who gets to decide the consequences of an individual’s actions?  How is society shaped to handle/accept these decisions?  If the consequence is the same, does it matter who carries it out?
• We all know that peer pressure can lead to bad decision-making (particularly bad decision-making in this novel) – do you think real-life situations can ever spiral out of control to this degree? If you take the supernatural elements out of the story, are there still real-life consequences that could have the same effect?

Suggested Teaching Strategies/Activities to Use:

• As table groups, have students pick out a panel from the graphic novel that they found intriguing or eye-catching.
  • Groups will analyze these panels through a literary and media lens: what are the physical attributes of the panel? How do they create literary meaning and symbolism?
  • Groups will take turns informally presenting their findings and inferences about the panel to the rest of the class while it is projected for all students to see on the board.
• Discuss the real-life consequences of peer pressure.
  • Create a list of activities/materials students are likely to indulge in as a result of peer pressure (nicotine products, sex, bullying, new clothing, drugs, alcohol, etc.)
  • Read some articles as a class about real-life examples of peer pressure having drastic consequences.
• Have students create body maps for the four girls in the story: Becca, RiRi, Amanda, and Marley.
  • What are these characters motivated by?
  • What are they still yearning for?
  • How do they identify? How does that influence how they are perceived by the other three girls and the rest of the school?

Formative/Summative Assessments

Formative:

• As an extension of the group activity/presentation, have groups submit an annotated panel of the comic with their findings and inferences.
• Students are tasked with a homework assignment after reading half of the novel in which they will write about their first impressions and predictions as to what may follow in the last half’s chapters.

Summative:

• Using a somewhat similar illustration style to the novel, instruct students to create their own series of panels, enough for a page, that adds something to the original story.  Students can center these panels around an aspect of the story they may still have questions about. Perhaps a deeper exploration of Arianna’s training on how to be an Alpha? Or Becca’s past with her mom? 

Reviewed by Lillian Mantooth, a student at the University of South Florida 

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Synopsis: Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa follows character Tomoko as she moves from living in Japan with her mother to her aunt’s extravagant house and lifestyle. The story is told through the eyes of Tomoko as she watches this family dynamic and how it quickly becomes part of her way of life as she lives with them. Tomoko, a 12-year-old Japanese girl lives with her asthmatic cousin Mina and her family for a few months while her mother is busy with her career and school during 1972. During her stay Tomoko enjoys school, learns to play volleyball, talk about boys, and maturing. 

Review

Through reading the characters’ perspectives, I really enjoyed the story. Author Yoko Ogawa expertly shares their heart warming, brilliant story. I enjoyed reading Tomoko’s experiences and memories.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Themes Connections:

In Mina’s Matchbox the novel explores themes such as: 

• Economic/Societal Classes
• Companionship
• Hardship 
• Tragedy and struggle

Possible Essential Questions:

• Why do you think Tomoko pretended to be reading the books Mina was using from the library to the librarian? 
• Do you think the specificity of the pigmy hippopotamus and its role in the story stood for deeper symbolism? What could the hippo represent? 

Possible Teaching Strategies and Activities:

• Discuss the different characters and how they affected the maturing of Tomoko 
• Discuss the Olympic events when watching the tournament and the tragic events that took place

Formative and Summative Assessment Suggestions:

Formative: Drawing: Students would spend time reading the book and prepare a list of different themes and create an illustration. Students will turn in a detail oriented and professional looking piece of art.

Summative: Literary Map: Students will create a literary map of the major events that took place within the novel Mina’s Matchbox – does not have to be in chronological order but must look well throughout and professional.

Reviewed by: Alexandria McLaughlin, Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts Student at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado

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Synopsis: ayne and June Baek are estranged sisters both living in New York City whose relationship has suffered after moving away from their home state of Texas. Their lives are complicated; Jayne is in fashion school, living in a difficult roommate situation in a rundown apartment, with problems piling up higher and higher. June is a seemingly self-assured professional working in finance struggling to keep it all together while being faced with a monumental diagnosis. Their lives soon become entangled once again, and both sisters must learn to rely on one another. 

Review

Mary H.K. Choi gives Jayne such presence and emotion, the words seem to melt away to reveal the hard truths of Jayne’s inner self. The angst of emerging into adulthood while carrying the baggage of your past is palpable in Choi’s writing, the heartbeat of the characters reflected in the rhythm of the pages. Though Jayne and June’s relationship is fraught with anxiety and confusion, it is easy for readers to feel the protectiveness and the love each sister has for one another. Their relationships with one another reflect the ways that both sisters must learn to look after and take care of themselves. This is a story about family, love, mental health, and the grief and joy that comes from being alive. Through the creation of such a rich internal world, we are able to experience these emotions for ourselves all over again. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Essential Questions:

• What role does culture, community, and family have in the lives of an individual?
• How do societal and cultural expectations impact mental health?
• How does race impact the way an individual moves about the world? 
• How does immigration, culture, race, and community intersect?

Thematic Connections:

• Value of family/community
• Impact of culture
• Race and racism
• Mental and physical health, including eating disorders
• Immigration status, inside and outside of the United States

Activity

Community is a very important aspect of Yolk, about what it means to have it, and what it means to be separated from it. 

Sample questions: What does community look like for you? How is it important? How is this relevant to the text? Do you relate to the characters’ search for community?

Instructions: Students will be put into small groups of no more than four where they will discuss as a group their responses to the questions listed above. This small group activity will allow for shared ideas and also strengthen classroom community. Their goal is to brainstorm about the impact the community has, as well as the ways in which the community fits into their individual lives. This will take about 7 minutes.

The second part will be done individually. Each student will write a letter to someone that is important to them in their community. This can be anyone: a family member, friend, teacher, coach, etc. They will write about the ways in which that individual shows community as well as why they are important in the student’s life. 

Formative and Summative Assessments:

Formative: Students will respond in their readers notebook to daily prompts at the beginning of the class regarding the novel. These responses will be a tool for the teacher to get a gauge of student learning, and also learn more about individual students. The prompts will ask students to write their thoughts and questions on the text, as well as ways in which the text relates (or doesn’t relate) to them in their lives through windows and doors. 

Summative: At the end of the unit, students will utilize what they have learned over the course of the unit to create a personalized project that places the novel within a larger societal context. This summative assessment project is designed to be very individualized and allows for a lot of student choice. Students will draw on their previous knowledge, including but not limited to previous formative assessments and activities, as a jumping pad for further research. The goal of this assessment is to allow students the opportunity to explore aspects of the novel and world they find important, relatable, or interesting.  

Examples: Website demonstrating beauty standards throughout decades in America in contrast with Korea as well and a select other countries. Utilizing evidence from Yolk to discuss how beauty standards impact people today and have for centuries. 

Fictional diary entries that detail the impact of migration on the writer. Use Yolk textual evidence to help the writer relate to the experiences of the characters within. 

Reviewed by: Payton Parker, Secondary English Education major at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. 

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Synopsis: Song of Silver, Flame like Night follows two teenagers as they attempt to stop imperial invaders from finding their four ancient demon gods. Set in the fictional land of Haak’gong, the narrative follows Lan, a song girl with a scar on her wrist in the shape of a scroll she can’t identify, that only she can see. Her world gets turned upside down when she meets Zen. Zen, a powerful practitioner, can perform fabled magic said to have been lost many years ago. When Lan demonstrates great power in a moment of intense emotion Zen recognizes that she is no usual song girl and they start out on a journey that takes them across the nation searching for the answer to Lan’s scar, power, and past. Little do they know that this journey will have them facing questions about what they are willing to lose in order to learn the truth. 

Review

Song of Silver, Flame like Night seamlessly balances fantasy worldbuilding with colonial allusions and commentary in order to create a world which deals with difficult questions of identity under imperial rule. Deeply imaginative, Amelie Wen Zhao creates a magical landscape that is rich and intricate, making readers wish they too could learn the art of practitioning. She weaves Chinese mythology and history within the landscape of the story, creating a world which both reckons with colonialism and recognizes its own beauty and mythology. Never a dull moment, the characters travel through bamboo forests, mountains, and across long terrains throughout their journey. The characters are heartfelt and flawed and the story contains compelling twists which will have you at the edge of your seat and rooting for them till the very last page. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Connections Analysis:

• Colonialism
• Environmentalism
• Power and Responsibility
• Balance and Harmony

Essential Questions:

• How can fantasy elements work to reframe historical narratives? 
• How is environmentalism written into text to make it more interesting to the modern reader? 
• How can we integrate ancient lore into modern stories?
• How can we write about colonialism in a way that is accessible to teenagers?
• What does the diversity of the characters add to the text?

Teaching Strategies and Activities to Use:

In the world of Song like Silver, Flame like Night, everything in existence has qi. Qi is energy which can be either negative or positive, with most things having a balance of both negative and positive energy. People called practitioners have the ability to channel this qi. An assignment for this book could be having students go outside or pick a location and write down if they think the objects around them would have negative or positive energy. This would help students be more aware of their environment and their relationship with nature. It could also serve as a grounding technique for kids who struggle with anxiety. 

Another activity the kids could do would be to pick an element from the book they were interested in that was unfamiliar to them and have them do research about it and present that research to their peers.

Formative and Summative Assessments:

Formative: Have students research Chinese folktale and lore and see if they see any connections between the stories they found and the book. Teachers can then help facilitate a conversation about how folklore informs the story and the characters. 

Summative: Because this book left on a cliffhanger, and there is no sequel (yet), teachers could have kids write an outline for a possible sequel. They could outline what will happen to each character in the sequel and why this would be positive for their character development. Creating a full outline for a sequel would help the kids learn about character development as well as story structure. 

Reviewed by: Gracie Neirynck, senior at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. 

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Synopsis: In June of 1941, the United States had not yet entered WWII, though the War and its effects are evident in twelve-year-old Peggy’s hometown of West Branch, Iowa. Through the newspaper and radio, she learns about events in other parts of the world, but it is not until she meets a Jewish refugee at Scattergood Hostel that the reality of the war comes into focus. All at once her typical farm life is turned upside down by the appearance of this young man as well as the leukemia diagnosis of her cousin. Peggy makes it her job to save her cousin, turning to science and then religion for answers. Ultimately, she realizes that life is not like the mathematical equations which come easily to her, instead it can be messy and void of straightforward answers. 

Review

Bouwman weaves together a rich story about family, grief, and coming-of-age. The small American town is an unlikely setting for a WWII story, but one that works well to illustrate another side of the effects of war. With a subtle hand, Bouwman introduces readers to farm life in the United States as well as key events and figures in world history. 

While young readers can relate to Peggy’s coming-of-age story, they will also glean what it was like to live without modern medicine or technology and the struggles and triumphs of such a life. Even Peggy’s parents send her mixed signals regarding where she can go and what she can do with her life. Her mother is content in West Branch, but a young female volunteer at Scattergood Hostel opens Peggy’s eyes to opportunities beyond her family’s farm.

Bouwman wastes no time diving into Peggy’s story. The first page establishes the obstacles Peggy is up against, and by the conclusion of the first chapter readers are acquainted with the characters, setting, and the stakes. The first-person narration and the fluid prose enable the story to flow easily while keeping readers engaged. Peggy’s thoughts allow readers to fully immerse themselves in her daily life and the time period.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Topics:

War, Grief, Coming-of-age, Religion, Medicine, Gender Norms

Preliminary Activity:

1. In pairs or individually, students will visit a library and ask for assistance with research on one of the topics below. They will report to the rest of the class not only on their topic, but also on the research process and the tools and techniques they used to gather information. This is also an opportunity to introduce or further develop students’ knowledge of documentation styles, such as MLA.

Topics for Further Exploration:

• Society of Friends
• Rabbi Nachman
• Scattergood Hostel
• Dr. E. C. MacDowell
• The Stock Market Crash
• Robert Losey
• Medicine in 1940s
• United States USS Kearny
• John Keats
• Benjamin Franklin
• Siege of Leningrad
• Farming in 1940s United States
• Westerbork

Discussion Questions: 

1. How did your research process, tools, and techniques differ from those Peggy used in the novel? Which would you prefer to use?
2. Provide examples of scenes when Peggy’s gender and/or age prohibit her in some way. Provide examples of situations when her age and/or gender work to her benefit or disappear altogether.
3. Chapter thirty-two is entitled “I lied to Delia.” Discuss the lie and whether you agree or disagree with it. Much of the novel swirls around lies, near lies, or omissions of truth. Do you believe there is a time and place for lies, and do you agree or disagree with the examples in the book?
4. List ways in which your life is similar and different to Peggy’s life. What would you like and dislike about living in Iowa in 1941?

Creative Exercise:

1. Choose a character and write their next chapter(s). While remaining historically accurate, write about the character’s life in the months or years following the last chapter of the novel. 

Reviewed by: Stephanie Terrill, visiting assistant professor, Massachusetts. 

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Synopsis: Reporter Candy J. Cooper sheds light on the irreparable damage two judges wrought on the youth of their Pennsylvania community. Through her extensive research, Cooper walks readers through the history of corruption in Luzerne County, from the mining days of the late 1950s and child labor to when corruption snaked its way into the juvenile courtroom in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Cooper describes how judges Mark Ciavarella and Mike Conahan used their power and privilege to contrive a diabolical plan to fatten their pockets at the expense of impoverished youth and their families in Luzerne County- open juvenile detention centers and make a profit off of every bed they filled with a juvenile offender, no matter how minor the offenses.  

Review:  

Though a very short book, this story is incredibly compelling. Through court statements, interviews, images, and incriminating documents, readers learn exactly how far people are willing to go to use their power and influence to gain more power and money, regardless of who is harmed along the way. Cooper also points out how negative perceptions of teens, such as the “super predator” of the 1990s, cemented the misguided belief that old-school discipline was an effective way to hold kids and teens accountable for bad choices and typical misconduct. This misguided belief is exactly what led judges Mark Ciaverella and Mike Conahan to commit countless crimes against children, by breaking the laws of the judicial system to make a profit off filling detention centers. Readers learn through Cooper’s interviews with the youth, now adults, how their illegal imprisonment and charges often led to years of mental health crises and addiction that was caused by the trauma of being separated from family and sent to juvenile detention centers or therapy adventure camps. What is most alarming is how fear and silence are weaved throughout this story of the Luzerne County victims. So many adults witnessed the crimes these judges were committing- lawyers, detention center placement officers, etc.- but no one spoke up or advocated for the kids. These judges were in powerful roles and would bully anyone who tried standing in their way into silence. And so, their abominable crime schemes continued for years.  

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Themes for Analysis:

• Class difference
• Class systems
• Social injustice
• Complicity
• Juvenile justice systems
• Adolescent trauma
• Family separation

Essential Questions:

• Does justice always prevail?
• Do punishments always fit the crime? 
• How dangerous can silence and complicity be in the face of injustice?
• Do laws always serve to protect?
• Are all laws effective?

Teaching Strategies and Activities: 

 Pre-reading Journal Question: Describe ways young people break rules and what consequences they deem fair for breaking those rules.  

Formative Assessment 

• Listen to the podcast The Kids of Rutherford County. Compare the experience of adolescents in Luzerne County to those in Rutherford County. Discuss similarities in both cases- crimes children committed, ages of defendants, presiding judges, consequences.  
• Create one-pagers about the people in both the book and podcast who uncovered corruption in their local judicial systems and finally stood up to injustice.  

Summative Assessment: Create brief research presentations about programs that serve as better alternatives to juvenile detention centers and include information about how these alternative programs have served juvenile offenders in more positive ways.  

Reviewed by: Leslie Brenner, School Library Media Specialist at St. Joseph High School, Indiana 

ALAN Picks: Celebrate Hope In Nature, Humanity

In this month’s ALAN Picks we feature books that are connected to the exploration of hope, life and nature. Nature’s Best Hope: How You Can Save the World in Your Own Yard (Young Readers’ Edition) by Douglas W. Tallamy; adapted by Sarah L. Thomson is a nonfiction book that helps young readers explore a grassroots activism approach to saving the planet. Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust Written by Neal Shusterman and Illustrated by Andrés Vera Martínez is a graphic novel that tells five stories that center different aspects of the Holocaust. Isabel in Bloom by Mae Respicio is a middle grade novel in verse about a young Filipina girl who moves to the United States and finds hope in a school garden. Our Bodies Electric by Zackary Vernon is a young adult coming of age story full of life, community and the hope inspired by a Walt Whitman poem.

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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Synopsis: In Nature’s Best Hope, Douglas Tallamy asks readers to explore the powerful ways that they can participate in conservation through advocacy for native plants and other practices to support nature in their yards (and/or school’s yards) to help contribute to a Homegrown National Park. This relevant informational text for grades 6-12, adapted by Sarah L. Thomson, translates Tallamy’s bestseller in order to empower young readers to save the planet through a grassroots conservation approach in their own backyards. Tallamy uses real-world examples, simple terms, and photographs to unpack key concepts.

Review:

Nature’s Best Hope empowers readers to take action. Teens (and adults!) anxious about the state of the world find comfort in this book’s applicable ways to make a difference in their worlds through connections to nature and their communities. Tallamy writes from his wealth of experience and long scientific career, yet this adaptation translates his central message about life into digestible form for readers of all ages. Short chapters with lists and resources make the book easy to excerpt and/or extend for a range of readers.

The book provides practical ways to engage challenging climate realities through actionable choices in both our home and school spaces—making this a book suitable for community reads, cross-curricular units, and interdisciplinary approaches. Suggestions seem doable in all types of communities from spreading the word, hands-on-projects, and easy-to-implement changes. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Empowering Questions to Explore with Nature’s Best Hope:

• What can be done in the face of climate change? 
• How can teens use their own yards (or other outdoor spaces) to help combat the negative effects of climate change? What does it mean to support life in your yard?
• What direct actions can teens take as they read to understand science related to conservation?
  • Examples: Plant key species at home, like oaks or asters 
• How can we increase biodiversity in our schoolyard?

Thematic Connections to Explore with Nature’s Best Hope:

• Human relationships with nature and each other; environmental justice
• Role of nature and learning (e.g. benefits of trees outside classroom windows, Vitamin N[ature], etc.)
• Role of grass ecosystem, invaders, and native plants in how life is supported (or not)
• Concepts of life and priorities: “little things that run the world” (Ch. 9); the role of insects, caterpillars, birds, and the right plants

Teaching Strategies and Activities to Use in 6-12 ELA Classrooms:

This book provides a key starting place for ELA instruction that applies Gholdy Muhammad’s principle of criticality as a way for “unearthing joy” through culturally and historically responsive teaching and learning.

Getting Started

• Spark students’ interest by engaging them in techniques for connecting a new book to their identities and lives (“Introducing a New Book” on facinghistory.org) 
• Partner with a master gardener, school garden network, or use an outdoor classroom space to apply Tallamy’s ideas.
• Visit Homegrown National Park with young readers.
  •  Look up your city on the HNP Biodiversity Map. What do you find?
• Look up your zip code with native plants related to birds
• Explore options for biodiversity in a (school)yard or container garden.
• Take a field trip to a local native plant garden or invite a guest speaker.
• “Go On A Poetry Walk” to encourage student writing and thinking. To prepare: read nature poetry from “Nature: Poems for Kids” (poets.org), a poetry collection, or related children’s literature like Honeybee by Candace Fleming.

Exploring Project Ideas and Formative/Summative Assessments

• See Tallamy’s project ideas in “Ten Things You Can Do” (Chapter 14).
• Help students develop inquiry projects based on the “Spread the Word” section:
  • Example: “Can you ask your teacher or principal if you can start a piece of Homegrown National Park next to the playground or on your school’s front lawn?” (226).
• Read Spread the Word examples from your community:
  • Example: Farm Blog by an organic farmer in Peoria: Growing More Than Food – Broad Branch Farm
• Engage with your school’s outdoor space:
  • For schools with gardens, students can ask questions about what they are planting or research additional plants that would help support homegrown life.

Making Interdisciplinary Connections

• Create a proposal with students to increase diversity of plants in some part of the community. Consider partnering with a middle school science unit like Symbiotic Schoolyard middle school science unit:
  • Symbiotic Schoolyard – Homegrown National Park
• Explore the Junior Master Gardener Curriculum (Junior Master Gardener). 

• Explore: How can kids make a local contribution?
• For instance, the Symbiotic Schoolyard has site links that help students research which native plants make sense at their specific location (with easy-to-locate bundles if students are pricing plants for proposals, etc.)
• Partner with History, Social Studies, Civics, and Citizenship: (See facinghistory.org)
  • “Reflecting on Climate Change and Ecological Grief” mini lesson
  • “Young People Respond to Climate Change” mini lesson

Stakeholders To Keep In Mind:

• Master Gardeners
• Parent Councils or Parent-Teacher Groups (for volunteers, donations)
• Local Businesses (for seeds, plants, donations)
• School Maintenance Staff and local Park District 

Related Books for Young Readers:

• The Outdoor Scientist: The Wonder of Observing the Outdoor World by Temple Grandin
• Citizen Scientists: Be Part of Scientific Discovery from Your Own Backyard by Loree Griffin Burns 
• Where Have All the Birds Gone?: Nature in Crisis by Rebecca Hirsch.
• Honeybee by Candace Fleming
• The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe by Loree Griffin Burns

Review by: Dr. Melinda McBee Orzulak, Associate Professor of English, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois 

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Synopsis: The YA graphic novel Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust is divided into five stories with a two-page spread of historical information separating one story from the other. Each story is assigned one of the first five letters in the Hebrew alphabet, with explanations of the letters included at the end of the book. The graphic novel combines historical fiction with surrealism to illustrate the power of hope when faced with the unthinkable. 

• “He Opens a Window” focuses on those who risked everything to help Jews during the Holocaust. A story that echoes that of Anne Frank, is given a fresh take with a fantastical element.
• “The Golem of Auschwitz” takes place in Auschwitz and introduces the folklore surrounding the golem. 
• “Spirits of Resistance” tells of resistance groups who worked against the Nazis. The unique story combines historical fiction with Jewish and European folklore, with focus on Baba Yaga.
• “Exodus” depicts the plight of the Jews of Denmark and the work of the government and people of Sweden to save them. The staff of Moses figures prominently in this story. 
• “The Untold” explores what the world would have been like had the Holocaust never happened.Please note: Graphic scenes of violence are depicted within some of the stories.

Review

I have read my fair share of Holocaust-related texts over the years, and Neal Shusterman’s Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust stands out because of its varied and unique perspectives. Each of the five stories within the novel has the potential to stand alone and promote rich discussion, and together they convey the power of hope even in the darkest of times. Regardless of the devastating events the characters witness – courage and hope remain central to each story. Additionally, Shusterman intertwines fantasy and folklore with historical accuracy. Appealing to young adults and adults alike, the stories within are sure to open readers’ eyes to new ideas and topics related to WWII and the Holocaust. Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust is an excellent addition to high school and college reading lists, and it offers a bridge to other examples of hope, humanity, and resistance while providing connections to current and historical events. Lastly, the graphic novel offers a window into other people’s experiences and urges readers to look inward and ask difficult questions.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Themes Connections and Analysis

Thematic Topics:

• Hope​​​​​/Hate
• Humanity/​​​​Power
• Dehumanization​​​/Resistance
• Complicity/​​​​Heroism

Discussion Questions: 

1. Before the novel begins, Shusterman explains that we all have the potential for good, evil, and inaction. He tasks readers with considering the following question while reading the novel: “‘Who would I be if the impossible suddenly became real?’”
2.  What role does hope play in people’s lives? What happens when one loses hope?
3.  Provide an example of a time when a door closed but a window opened in your life. What is the lesson to be learned from such experiences?
4.  Discuss the metaphor of a drop in the bucket in “The Golem of Auschwitz” (pp. 57-103).
5.  Why does it take courage to dream, and why is such courage essential to survival?

Preliminary Activities:

To introduce the graphic novel and spark discussion, instructors may choose to read Elisa Boxer’s Hidden Hope: How a Toy and a Hero Saved Lives during the Holocaust and The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren to their students, two picture books that detail people who risked their lives to help those who were being persecuted.

Eve Bunting’s Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust illustrates the bystander effect and serves as an approachable introduction to the Holocaust.

Empowerment Activities:

Individually or in small groups, students research one of the groups persecuted by the Nazis during WWII. Shusterman includes some such groups on page 103. Later, the students teach the class what they learned.

Divide the class into five groups, one for each story in the novel. The groups are responsible for reading and reporting on their assigned story as well as ancillary material they collect through research. The research may include but is not limited to Jewish folklore, historical information, and psychological connections.

The graphic novel can be used to initiate discussion of the role and power of art when depicting difficult topics. Students are then tasked with using art to introduce difficult ideas, feelings, or concepts.

Reviewed by: Stephanie Terrill, who is an adjunct instructor in Massachusetts. She is in her final semester of the Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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Synopsis: In this realistic fiction novel-in-verse, twelve-year old Isabel is raised by her maternal grandparents in the Philippines, where they teach her to appreciate the natural world and, especially, the plant Jasmine Sampaguita. When her mother, a nanny who left for the United States to better support her family, sends for Isabel to come live with her in San Francisco, Isabel must endure what it means to be uprooted from all she has known. What Isabel learns, though, is that gardens – and herself – can bloom anywhere and her participation in a garden club at her new school helps her learn that she, too, can survive anywhere – just like the Jasmine Sampaguita of her native Philippines and the California poppy seeds she sends her grandfather back in the Philippines. A story of resiliency and hope and love, Isabel in Bloom is a true bloom-where-you’re-planted story. 

Review

Respicio’s middle grades text Isabel in Bloom is everything one could hope for in a novel in verse. Told in named movements, such as “Seed,” “Root,” “Bud,” and “Bloom,” Isabel in Bloom truly brings the saying “Bloom where you’re planted” to life. Isabel’s first-person narration captures her fear about moving to a new place and her desire to “fit in” to a new place. The plants Isabel plants become metaphors for her own self-realization, which blooms just as the seeds she plants. In addition to Isabel’s story of arriving in San Francisco from the Philippines, this is also a text about intergenerational love and support, the evolving nature of a mother-daughter relationship, and how one can not just exist but thrive in two cultures. The historical facts about Filipinos who came to the United States in different time periods as well as an incident where an elderly Filipino man is robbed add much depth to the text and can promote meaningful discussions about cultural understandings. Absolutely stunning lines of poetry characterize this lengthy, yet inspiring, story that grows the typical new-kid-at-school story into something much, much more. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Connections and Possible Essential Questions

As a teacher educator, I like to share texts with my students that they can use to inform their understanding of genres they can use in their classrooms, cross-curricular texts, and how texts can help them learn about the students who will be in their classrooms. 

Pre-Service Teachers
Possible themes pre-service teachers can explore with this text include the following: 

• Significance of school transitions on middle school students as it relates to the way we teach 
• Power of student agency and how to encourage it in our classrooms and schools 
• Intergenerational understandings and how to build upon this in our classrooms 

Essential questions pre-service teachers can answer with this text include the following: 

• How do humans find commonalities even amongst differences?  
• What does it mean to exist within two cultures? 
• How does the natural world help us understand more about ourselves? 

Middle School Teachers
Just as teacher educators can engage their pre-service teachers in a reading of this text, middle grades teachers can also read this text with their students. Possible themes English Language Arts teachers can explore with their middle grades students include the following: 

• The effects of change 
• What nature teaches humans 
• Building relationships with parents 

Essential questions middle grades students can answer with this text include the following: 

• What beauty can be found in change when we open ourselves up to it? 
• How can middle schoolers influence their communities? 
• Is home always a physical space? 

Teaching Strategies and Activities

There are myriad strategies and activities in which pre-service teachers can engage as they interact with Isabel in Bloom. 

Strategy One: Create Welcome Kits  

Colorin’ Colorado (n.d.) recommends creating a welcome kit for new ELLs so that no matter when these students arrive in our classroom, they will have some key information about the school and community. Inviting pre-service teachers to create a welcome kit for a student similar to Isabel who may arrive in their English Language Arts class would be a way for future teachers to create an artifact that demonstrates their cultural responsiveness. 

Strategy Two: Fill Balikbayan Boxes 

In her author’s note, Respicio (2024) discusses the cultural significance of the balikbayan box, a box that those who had come to the United States would fill and send back to the Philippines (p. 359). Pre-service teachers can create a box that either they would send to their relatives in another place or a box that Isabel may send to her grandparents. In this way, pre-service teachers are connecting personally to the text and developing appreciation for cultures that may be outside their own. 

Strategy Three: Observe Students Taking Action 

As teacher educators, we try to make our placement experiences as practical and helpful for our pre-service students. In the spirit of Isabel in Bloom, create an opportunity for future English Language Arts teachers to observe students in their placement taking action. Ideally, this would be a student-led club trying to improve some facet of their school or community. Ask the pre-service teachers to reflect on what this made them think about in terms of student agency and how they may be able to be supportive of students’ causes once they have a classroom of their own. 

Just as there are multiple strategies and activities in which pre-service teachers can engage in terms of Isabel in Bloom, so, too, can middle grades students engage in meaningful activities around this text. 

Strategy One: Home One-Pager 

Isabel makes some realizations about what home really means as she transitions to her new home in San Francisco. Fletcher (2018) writes about the magic of one-pager. Students can create a one-pager about what home means to both Isabel and them. Students can draw, use magazine clippings, quotes from Isabel in Bloom, and quotes from other texts (e.g., books, poems, song lyrics, movie quotes) in order to share about the power of home. Students’ one-pagers can then be used to facilitate meaningful conversations. 

Strategy Two: Friendship Poem 

Middle grades students are learning so much about friendships. Take advantage of the poem-in-verse to have students write their own poems based on the poem “Friendship is a Million Lille Things I Miss” (Respicio, 2024, p. 126). In this poem, Isabel details what she misses about her friendships. Students can use poetic conventions to create a poem that illuminates what their friendships mean to them. 

Strategy Three: Design Extended Metaphor for Life

Respicio’s (2024) text sets up an extended metaphor of a garden to coincide with Isabel’s transition to a new place and school. Invite students to analyze carefully those moments in the text where this extended metaphor really shines through before selecting an extending metaphor for their lives. Ask students to choose movements like Respicio does with her titled sections and then create either a series of poems or prose within each movement. 

Formative and/or Summative Assessments

Pre-Service Teachers

There are multiple ways we can assess our pre-service teachers’ understanding of Respicio’s (2024) Isabel in Bloom so they can successfully teach this book in their English Language Arts classroom. 

Assessment One: Create a Text Set: Respicio’s (2024) Isabel in Bloom sits on the shoulders of several fantastic middle grades novels-in-verse. Asking students to identify an essential question that will help their students understand better Isabel in Bloom before selecting other contemporary novels-in-verse students could read in book clubs will help them create essential questions and think about how to group texts together. Pre-service teachers can create summaries and reviews of each text before sharing how each text will help students answer the essential question. You may also challenge your pre-service teachers to select non-print texts that would fit into the text set. 

Assessment Two: Engaging Families and Community Members Isabel in Bloom (Respicio, 2024) brings up matters of familial connections and how schools can interact with community members. Many scenes (e.g., the sleepover, Isabel’s conversations with her grandparents, Isabel’s conversations with people at the senior center, etc.) relate to finding out people’s stories. Have pre-service teachers design a unit in which students’ family members and community members may play a role. This may look like doing a service project for the community, interviewing family members or community members, etc. Not only will this have pre-service teachers focusing on these familial / community aspects within the text but they will be planning ahead for when they have classrooms of their own.

Middle School Teachers

Just as this text opens up opportunities for teacher educators to assess our pre-service teachers, it also permits middle grades teachers multiple opportunities to assess their students. 

Assessment One: Grow a Resiliency Garden Isabel learns that both the California poppy and the Jasmine Sampaguita, associated with San Francisco and the Philippines, respectively, can grow just about anywhere. This fact relates to the resiliency that she begins to see in herself. Have your students plant seeds of the California poppy the Jasmine Sampaguita, and a flower or plant native to their community or ancestors’ communities. Throughout the growing process, which may include successes and some challenges, invite students to select passages from Isabel in Bloom (Respicio, 2024) that demonstrate the theme of resilience. Invite students to discuss what they learn about Isabel’s and their resilience as they grow a garden in order to step into Isabel’s world.

Assessment Two: Identity Poem

Using “Words for Invisible” (Respicio, 2024, p. 270) as a mentor text, have students create a set of poems, one in which they select a word that represents Isabel and one in which they select a word that represents themselves. Not only does this creative writing piece help students really engage in character analysis and assess their understanding of the text, as they would be asked to support the words they select with passages from Isabel in Bloom but it also allows students to create connections between Isabel’s identity and their identities. A gallery walk in which students walk around and view and comment on each others’ poems would be a wonderful way to showcase students’ work on this assessment. 

References

• Colorin’ Colorado. (n.d.). ‘Welcome kit for new ELLs.’ Retrieved 3 November 2024 from ‘Welcome Kit’ for New ELLs | Colorín Colorado
• Fletcher, J. Y. (2018). The magic of one-pagers. Retrieved 3 November 2024 from The Magic of One-Pagers – National Council of Teachers of English
• Respicio, M. (2024). Isabel in bloom. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. 

Reviewed by: Kathryn Caprino, Associate Professor of PK-12 New Literacies and Director of the Teaching & Learning Design Studio, Elizabethtown College. 

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Synopsis: Tormented by his religious family and the broader conservative community of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, fourteen-year-old Josh struggles with the pressure to conform to their puritanical standards. As he embarks upon his high school years, Josh meets a supportive cast of eccentric small-town characters, falls in love with his classmate, is obsessed with David Bowie, and fumbles in his attempts to make his own thongs. But it’s when his elderly neighbor gives him a copy of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself that he begins to understand his own sexuality. Our Bodies Electric is a coming-of-age story that celebrates the exuberance of youth, the individual quest for sexual identity, and the joy of finding connections in the most unexpected of places. 

Review

Steeped in the confines of Pawley’s Island, S.C., this novel is at turns hilarious and poignant as it navigates the in-between world of middle school and puberty. Main character Josh is a teenage boy who is both confounded and enthralled by his changing body, yet the repressive nature of his family leaves him with no one to discuss his metamorphosis. He is left to figure things out for himself in the midst of a small troupe of peers, who are so keenly drawn you feel like you’ve met them somewhere. When he is gifted (twice!) a copy of Whitman’s Leave of Grass, he begins to realize that his mind is not “filled with maggots” (as his mother claims) when he relishes his sexuality and physical self. Although Josh’s quest for answers about sex are a key aspect of the novel, the quirky characters are a true highlight. The dialogue and boyhood adventures are reminiscent of Stephen King’s The Body, while depictions of nature draw inspiration from Whitman. There are hamsters that give birth in human hands, seagulls that attack, lizards that hang from earlobes, and turtles that sport shells painted like barn quilts. The novel reads like both a guidebook and celebration of life. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Themes for Analysis:

• Man vs. nature
• Gender and sexuality
• Morality
• The environment
• Religion
• The role of friendships

Essential Questions:

• In what ways do authority figures influence our thinking?
• How does the environment in which we live shape our lives?
• Are animals and humans more similar or different?
• What role do friendships play in the development of our beliefs?

Teaching Strategies and Activities to Use:

• Discussion and research into the work of Walt Whitman, Transcendentalism (although Whitman was not technically a Transcendentalist), and/or the coastal regions of the Southern United States. 
• Reading Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and/or the poem “Song of Myself” and discussing the themes.
• Writing “walking around” poems in the style of Whitman in which students observe the natural world and write about it.
• Writing realistic dialogue between modern teenagers in the style of Vernon’s Our Bodies Electric characters.

Assessment Possibilities

Formative Assessments:

• Students discuss the text in small workshop groups, which are self-selected. A different student in the small group leads the discussion each day. Another student takes “minutes” from the discussion on an index card. The cards are bound together at the end of the novel study to hand in.
• Students post their impressions and thoughts on the reading on Flip.com. Workshop members must respond to one or more Flip responses.
• After watching a video on YouTube about Pawley’s Island (Pawleys Island, South Carolina – Things to Do and See When You Go), students journal about what life on Pawley’s Island would be like.
• Students complete a one-pager on the novel: Divide a piece of plain paper into quarters. In one quarter, draw a picture to represent an object from the book; in another, write down a key quote; in another, draw a picture to represent the main character; in the last quarter, draw the setting.

Summative Assessments

• Students write a series of journal entries from their own point of view examining one of the themes of the novel. The entries can take the form of poetry, prose, pictures, comic strips, or songs. 
• Students compile a list of songs that connect to the novel and write a paragraph for each song describing how it relates to the book—and to themselves. The finished project can be titled “Song of Myself.”
• Students research a nature topic of interest from the novel (example: turtles, lizards, snakes, beach erosion, masters, seagulls, hurricanes). They present their findings to the class through a presentation, an art piece, a poem in the style of Whitman, or a traditional research paper.
• Students research the influence of Emerson on Whitman and the birth of the Transcendentalist literary movement. They present their findings to the class. 

Complementary texts:

• Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
• This Wild and Precious Life: A Journal by Mary Oliver
• The Complete Poems by Walt Whitman
• Walking by Henry David Thoreau

Reviewed By: Dr. Clarice Moran, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English Education, Appalachian State University.