ALAN

ALAN Picks: The Challenges of First Love

This month’s ALAN Picks features reviews of three books that will engage teens in the complicated aspects of romantic teen relationships and self-love. These young adult books include the first book in a contemporary graphic novel series, Heartstopper, Volume 1, by Alice Oseman, and two verse novels Nothing Burns as Bright as You by Ashley Woodfolk and Vinyl Moon by Mahogany L. Browne. These books explore LGBTQIA+ relationships and issues; struggles associated with teens in their first romantic relationship; and the exploration of recovering from trauma. Check out these reviews for ideas on how to engage students with these books and topics in the classroom. 

ALAN Picks Update: ALAN Picks is now accepting reviews of books published as far back as spring 2020. 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 deserve highlighting. If you have some books in mind that you would like to review, please reach out to me!

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.

–  Richetta Tooley, ALAN Picks Editor

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.

---

Synopsis: After being bullied for coming out as gay in the last school year, Charlie Spring begins the new year by making a new friend and developing a crush on Year 11 student, Nick Nelson. As the two become closer friends and Charlie joins Nick’s rugby team, they both learn to navigate and break down homophobic stereotypes surrounding them. The first volume’s narrative peaks as Nick realizes he too has a crush on Charlie and begins questioning his sexuality. The book concludes with Nick and Charlie kissing at a party, and Charlie worrying that he has made the move too soon.

Review:

Oseman uses Nick and Charlie’s budding romance to critique, challenge and break down homophobic stereotypes that can sometimes be found in secondary and tertiary school settings. This graphic novel highlights and explores issues such as cyberbullying, assault, peer pressure, discovering one’s own sexuality and speculating about others’ identities. Being a graphic novel, the amount of text available to read aloud is reduced, but the illustrations effectively illuminate Nick and Charlie’s inner thoughts and emotions. Bringing Oseman’s graphic novel into the classroom would encourage LGBTQIA+ acceptance and equality, through narrating very real experiences of queer adolescents. As the novel does include some strong language, this book may be most suited to students in grade six and upwards.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Analysis
Many of the themes explored throughout this graphic novel are crucial for students to be aware of and understand their implications. Teachers can either discuss the themes sequentially as a class, and/or split students into groups to ‘zoom in’ on one specific issue and analyze how it affects the characters in the novel.

Essential Questions

• Why should we always promote and practice acceptance and equality, both inside and outside of school?
• How important is trust in friendships and relationships?
• How can we overcome stereotypes to be our authentic selves?
• In what ways can we give room for consent?

Formative/Summative Assessments

Formative: Students can create a timeline and track how one of the themes listed above develops throughout the novel, highlighting how both the text and illustrations address the theme/issue. Students could also pinpoint the illustrations that help them see into the characters’ hidden thoughts and emotions that are sparked by each theme.

Summative: Students can compose a letter to their State Department of Education to propose that teaching and promoting LGBTQIA+ acceptance is made a compulsory module in all schools. They can refer to their theme timelines to highlight how students’ wellbeing and emotional development will be positively impacted by this.

Other Creative Components:

The Heartstopper series has now been adapted into a Netflix show. Students may be encouraged to watch it, either during class for extra discussion or in their own time.

Review by: Lauren Woodall, English Education student at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

---

Synopsis: Narrated in first-person, Nothing Burns as Bright as You is the story of two unnamed, Black queer girls crossing the line between best friends and lovers, beginning with the couple’s decision to set fire to a dumpster behind their high school. Loosely tied to the repercussions of this fateful day, the novel jumps in time and space as we journey through their relationship from friends to lovers. The story is about the trials of queer love and how to cope when the person you were drawn to like a moth to a flame, ends up burning your wings. 

Review

I hope this book can hold you as you cry the way writing it held me – Ashley Woodfolk

A story that rips your heartstrings as you fall headfirst into the narrator’s tumultuous relationship, Nothing Burns as Bright as You is a tragedy about destructive love. Woodfolk’s writing is lyrical, her free verse as emotionally charged as the story she details. Her verse novella will enrapture audiences of all ages. Nothing Burns as Bright as You is a unique tale about an abusive queer relationship. Woodfolk writes, “We are told, as young girls, to be wary of boys and to guard our hearts around them. Yet we are not warned about girls, about how their love, too, can destroy us.” Woodfolk breaks the mold of a typical young adult coming of age love story — there is no knight in shining armor, no happily ever after. There are only two girls, intricately intertwined —  too loose to be considered lovers, but tight enough to suffocate each other. 

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Connections:
Educators can introduce the concept of a verse novel and teach students about poetic elements. Educators can also talk about examples of how poetry conveys intricate emotions like love. Some thematic elements in the text are:

Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies: Poem Analysis
The story is full of literary devices and techniques. Students can be asked to pick their favorite poem, identify these devices and explain how they contribute to the writer’s effect, creating a model for literary analysis. An example of this is dental alliteration and the anaphora in the poem “A lie”. The poem reads: “Opposites distract. Opposites destroy. Opposites decimate. Opposites detonate.” This creates a sense of doom, foreshadowing the abusive nature of their relationship. 

Students can also talk about how their chosen poem ties into the overall narrative. Alternatively, they can read other love poems and contrast the romance in those poems with that of the novel. 

Culturally responsive formative and/or summative assessments

• The novel is divided into two parts  —”A Truth” and “A Lie”. Students can form two reading groups and discuss the form, structure, devices, and diction and make a mind map. Groups can then compare their mind maps and talk about the difference between the two parts. How does the writing compare in each section? What is the intention behind the choices Woodfolk makes? How do they reflect the emotions of the protagonist?
• Students can make a visual one-pager, following a rubric set by the teacher, to summarize the novel and identify key ideas and themes.
• To complement their literary analysis, middle grade/ high school students can also attempt to write their own poem in the same style as the novel with two or more of the same underlying themes. This would make them analyze how poetic style complements the themes of the poem. How would the style change if their poem was about a dreamy movie romance? What if it was about a rivalry?

Review by: Manasi Rajan, Student at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

---

Synopsis: After a fight with her boyfriend, Angel is forced to leave her mom and four siblings in California to move in with her uncle in New York City. Besides figuring out her new neighborhood in Brooklyn, Angel is navigating her past experiences, guilt, and insecurities. At her new school, Angel joins an advisory group and English class that connects her with others through reading, poetry, and music. In the process, she explores herself and begins healing. With encouragement from her new community, Angel starts creating playlists as a way to express herself—both who she was before and who she is working to become.

Review

Told through poetry and prose detailing Angel’s present and recent past, Vinyl Moon by Mahogany L. Browne offers much to readers in just 176 pages. Angel’s story of finding hope and self-compassion will resonate with many readers who have experienced challenges related to coming of age, including love, family, and self-acceptance. This novel will also appeal to readers who appreciate music, poetry, and literature. In a sense, the novel functions as a type of recommended reading and listening list of Black writers and artists and thus offers many possibilities for paired texts. 

Finally, Vinyl Moon presents a teacher character, Ms. G, whose praxis can serve as a mentor for culturally sustaining teaching, particularly with Black girls. Vinyl Moon could be read by preservice teachers as a professional mentor text in addition to supplemental resources, such as Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Gholdy Muhammad and/or Literacy Is Liberation: Working Toward Justice Through Culturally Relevant Teaching by Kimberly N. Parker. 

The novel does touch on challenging topics, including abusive relationships and homophobia, and thus should be approached thoughtfully and through intentional, humanizing pedagogies.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Connections and Essential Questions
While many connections can be made to Vinyl Moon depending on a course’s needs and students’ interests, the novel especially supports generative conversations about coming-of-age experiences and speaking truth through self-expression. A focus on coming-of-age stories could include questions such as, What experiences define growing up (or coming-of-age), and how do those experiences influence perspectives, identities, and adulthood? Readers will find possibilities by examining Angel’s story as well as the stories of her mom, Elena, and her Uncle Spence. 

Alternatively, a unit of study exploring self-expression and the power of telling our truths could investigate questions such as, How do the arts (e.g., poetry, music) help us to connect to ourselves and others? In what ways can the arts be used to express ourselves, particularly with regard to various genres, mediums, and technology? These questions would help readers to make connections to Angel’s creative process toward reckoning with and sharing her truth and in turn, discover new pathways for their own unique processes of self-actualization.

Teaching Strategies and Activities
As mentioned previously, Angel’s teacher, Ms. G, utilizes culturally responsive and sustaining practices with her students. Teachers could incorporate Ms. G’s approach through the following ideas that help students make connections between the novel and their own lives: 

• Safe Space: Beginning class with community check-ins and a protected space for students to share their lived experiences is one way to connect to the text. 
• Community: Additionally, asking students to listen to or read excerpts from some of the artists and writers referenced in the novel could provide a deep understanding of Angel’s experiences of finding community through words. 
• Arts Culture: Providing opportunities for students to share the texts that make up the bookshelves and soundtrack of their lives would also facilitate conversations around Angel’s experiences being transplanted to Brooklyn. 
• Geography: Studying excerpts where Angel discusses the new music, literature, and food she finds in Brooklyn could provide opportunities for community-based writing in your contexts.

Assessment Possibilities
Because readers will certainly find inspiration in the artistry shared within Vinyl Moon, offering students options for engaging with the text through the various genres presented—poetry, prose, rap, playlists—would be a powerful way for students to make connections to the characters while finding their own forms of self-expression. Students could reflect on their own growth by speaking their truth in a spoken word piece. Taking Angel’s approach, others might decide to curate a playlist of music that illustrates a pivotal experience in their lives. Like in the novel, classroom or community open mics could serve as possibilities for assessing student work inspired by their reading of Vinyl Moon.

Review by: Shelby Boehm, Doctoral Candidate in English Education and Literacy at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

ALAN Picks: Feminism, Friendship & Beauty

This month’s ALAN Picks features reviews of three books that encounter the themes of feminism, friendship and conflict with society’s standards and rules for girls and women. These books include a contemporary coming of age story Does My Body Offend You? by Mayra Cuevas and Marie Marquard, a magical fantasy How to Succeed in Witchcraft by Aislinn Brophy, and a memoir A Face for Picasso by Ariel Henley. The books explore ideas of how girls and young women are affected by societal standards, how they stand up to those standards and how they support each other in the process. Check out these reviews for ideas on how to use these books with students in the classroom. 

ALAN Picks Update: ALAN Picks is now accepting reviews of books published as far back as spring 2020. 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 deserve highlighting. If you have some books in mind that you would like to review, please reach out to me!

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. 

–  Richetta Tooley, ALAN Picks Editor

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.

---

Synopsis: After hurricane María destroys her home in Puerto Rico, Malena Rosaurio must start a new life at a new school in Florida. When she starts off on the wrong foot with administration for coming to school without a bra, they refuse to understand she has a bad sunburn and shame her for her body. As she fumbles with the panty liners that the Assistant Principal and Nurse insist she use to cover her nipples, Ruby McCallister, the school’s biggest feminist, swoops in to make her aware of her rights. Ruby and Malena learn more about themselves and each other as they work together to fight the dress code and navigate their complicated relationship with the world around them as young women.

Review:

Told in chapters by alternating by character perspective, readers can easily relate to and internalize the tensions between Malena and Ruby throughout the intensity and authenticity of the friendship. The way each character perceives the novel’s interactions and situations offers an important insight on the value of perspective and how aspects of identity contribute to the way one experiences the world. The story reexamines common young adult experiences of relationships (platonic and romantic), parties, and activism through the lenses of gender, race, and class. By giving equal time and space for each character’s thoughts and feelings, the novel beautifully demonstrates to readers the value of knowing when to speak out and when to step back.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Connections:

• Feminism
• Gender and sexuality
• Race and racism
• Family structures

Essential Questions

• How can one make others feel heard?
• What components make up one’s identity?
• What does it mean to recognize your own privilege?

Teaching Strategies and Activities to Use:

• Research into the histories of liberation and empowerment through fashion/clothing
• Examination of different school’s dress codes, using a critical lens to analyze what kinds of power dynamics they enforce
• Close listening, reading, and comparison of the text to poems about intersectionality like “Suggestions from a White Feminist Poets” by Tova Charles and “Dress Code” by Liza Banzaca
• Discussion about author’s intention and how reading is a gendered act based on insights from Chapter 5, The Social Construction of Gender: A Lens of One’s Own, of Deborah Appleman’s Critical Encounters in Secondary English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents.

Formative/Summative Assessments:

• Choose a section of dress code from a school of your choice and revise it the way Malena and Ruby would. Use textual evidence to justify your modifications.
• Complete short or extended research into other aspects of fashion as a component of identity/experience (topics of exploration may include but are not limited to school dress codes, religious dress, defying gender/beauty standards in the fashion industry, victim blaming, etc.).
• Create a protest poster with a slogan and an image that one might see at the protests depicted in the novel. Students can hang the posters up around the room and do a gallery walk where they provide feedback with sticky notes of compliments and/or constructive criticisms.
• Keep chapter journal responses with personal reactions to Malena and Ruby’s respective interpretations of their experiences. Use journals to later create a chart/graphic organizer that shows how different elements of their identities contribute to their experiences of the plot.
• Open class discussion about what kinds of gender stereotypes the novel enforces and/or challenges.

Reviewed by: Arden Woodall, Undergraduate English Education student studying at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

---

Synopsis: Shay Johnson is a junior at T.K. Anderson Magical Magnet School who has been fighting for the scholarship given to one senior that would secure her a spot in her dream university. When she and her greatest rival, Ana Alvarez, both get star leads in the school theater production, led by the head of the scholarship committee, Mr. B, Shay has to balance a hectic junior year: dedicating herself to her academics and the intensely-inclusive play. But as she finds herself trapped between a rivalry romance with Ana through the play, she discovers a much deeper, darker secret—Mr. B isn’t what he seems, and Shay must uncover the truth of how previous scholarship recipients were selected, putting her own dream in jeopardy.

Review

How to Succeed in Witchcraft is a witchy contemporary fantasy based on the concept of if our modern-day society was established through magic. For a story with a light-hearted voice, deeper themes underlie the text’s story revolving around racism, microaggressions, grooming, and homophobia. With an all-BIPOC cast, Brophy addresses racial issues for young women, especially young queer women, through a beautifully-crafted magical history. This book features girls standing up for other girls to protect future women, and tackles real-world issues that young BIPOC and queer women face in an American public high school setting.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Thematic Analysis:

• This story features numerous themes revolving around the concepts of social justice and female empowerment. Some of the themes explored include:
• Microaggressions
• Grooming and predatory behavior in male figures with power
• Racism
• White performatism “inclusivity”
• #MeToo movement
• Girls standing up for girls
• Female empowerment
• Homophobia, specifically lesbophobia

Essential Questions

• How does white performatism affect young women of color?
• How can women work together to take the power away from white men?
• How does identity affect academic opportunity?

Teaching Strategies and Activities to Use:

• Discussion and research of the #MeToo movement, especially how the movement affected women of color
• Discussion on microaggressions  and microaggressions observed in the novel
• Examination of intersectionality between a queer identity and being a woman of color
• A close reading with themes from The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley to develop a greater understanding of the problems women of color face in their adolescence

Formative/Summative Assessments

Formative: Students are each assigned to a single character, and are to keep a journal throughout each chapter of how that character’s identity affects the character, within the greater themes of racism, homophobia, and power. Journal entries begin with a quote featuring the character’s identity, and analysis contains the student’s perspective of how the identity may relate to the student’s own social setting. By quoting and analyzing identity, the teacher can examine the student’s reading comprehension and understanding of the novel.

Summative: Students each individually research an article surrounding a microaggression they observed within the novel, write a summary on how it influenced the plot, then meet in groups to discuss. The goal is for the students to understand both how a microaggression affects plot and theme, and how it relates to the world around them. Examples of reliable sources for research include the University of Minnesota’s table on microaggressions, BMC Psychology’s study on microaggressions, or Columbia University’s study on microaggressions.

Reviewed by: Sarah Prather, sophomore at Colorado State University majoring in restoration ecology and minoring in creative writing, Fort Collins, Colorado

---

Synopsis: A Face for Picasso is a memoir by Ariel Henley that tells her personal stories of growing up with Crouzon Syndrome, a deformity of the skull in which the bones prematurely fuse together leaving no room for the brain to grow within. Because of this syndrome, Ariel’s face is left looking not quite like the people around her. Ariel recounts the different traumatic surgeries and school experiences she went through with her identical twin sister, Zan, who also suffers the bullying of Crouzon Syndrome. The book begins with some of her earliest memories and comes to a conclusion about where she is now in her adult life. Ariel also does a beautiful job of tying in a narrative about Pablo Picasso and how people she and her sister feel as if they were just cubist paintings by the problematic artist. 

Review

A Face for Picasso is an astounding look into the experience of growing up with Crouzon Syndrome in a world where traditional beauty – what mainstream media tells us is correct – is highly valued. Ariel’s story is compelling and necessary to read, giving the reader a way to consider how it feels to be an outcast in society. This topic is necessary for young adults to read because of the constant stigma around beauty standards, especially at a young adult age. The language of the book was easy to follow but did not feel too immature for an adult to read as well. This book most definitely promotes empathy. Ariel gives many instances where the reader would be able to walk in her shoes. Empathy is something young students need to be aware of and this novel could definitely help students to become more empathetic individuals. When I was between 12 and 18 I definitely would have benefited from reading a book of this nature.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use

Essential Questions

An essential question for this memoir could be: “Does society ‘other’ people who do not fit within prescribed beauty standards?” Throughout the work, Ariel goes through and inserts situations where she was judged for her looks. She talks about a situation on the cheerleading team that specifically outlines how she was deprived of opportunities simply because her face does not look like others.

Teaching Strategies and Activities to Use

For a whole class study of this book, I would facilitate a discussion about the book regarding beauty standards. I would start by just asking the students about what kind of beauty standards they feel pressured to live up to. Some specific questions could be: “What beauty standards do you see in society?” and “Do you feel the need to live up to these standards?”. I would then have the students connect it back to the book and the different struggles Ariel’s experiences. Another way these questions could be posed would be in an online discussion board post. This way students could cite specific points in the book and show how the book deals with beauty standards and emotions because of them as they read. 

Summative Assessment

Students can write their own shortened memoirs and use Ariel’s memoir as a mentor text. In the book, Ariel talks about how she was inspired to write this memoir based on a memoir assignment that she did in one of her college classes. Another idea for younger grades would be to take the idea of a memoir and make a storyboard. The students would pick one memory they would like to write about and create a visual poster or project whether it be a comic strip, a PowerPoint, or pictures from their real life. This book is great to use when teaching memoirs to students. Memoirs can be so powerful for students to understand other’s stories, and this book is an example of that.

Reviewed by: Claire Shenker, Student, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN