School Library Journal

 23 YA and Middle Grade Books to Honor Hispanic Heritage Group

September kicks of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which is a four week celebration of cultures, histories, and people of Spanish, Mexican, Carribean, and Central and South American descent.  This site list titles that explore the ways that Latinx young people navigate family, friendships, school, and public life in North American.  Some titles include:

North of Happy by Adi Alsaid

18 year old Carlos lives a sheltered life in Mexico City.  One day his older brother, Felix, visits and encourages Carlos to follow his dreams of becoming a chef.  Unexpectedly, Felix is shot by a stray bullet and his ghost continues to keep Carlos company.  Carlos must decide whether to move to the U.S. to follow his dreams.  This book is a story of how tragedy can cause us to question whats most important in life.  

Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar

Ruthie's English skills finally got her into the "smart" 5th grade classroom and she is finally promoted to Hopscotch Queen.  Even though she is still struggling from her recent move from Cuba, she has a loving and supportive family.  Tragically a car accident leaves Ruthie in a body cast and she becomes scared, lonely, and angry.  She must spend the next year in bed which becomes a year of growing up, of hard times and good friends, and the new skills and determination of being herself in a new country.  

All the Wind in the World by Samantha Mabry

This book takes place at a "cursed" ranch called The Real Marvelous in Southwest Texas desert.  Sarah Crow and James Holt end up at the strange farm following a dust storm, and Sarah is involved in the death of a maguey foreman.  Therefore they are considered outlaws that must hide their identities and their relationship.  They use James skills at winning card games to help them climb out of poverty, but will they go too far?

Perspectives on Reading

 Finding a Good Book:  What a Real Readers Advisor Does

Readers advisor is a library term for someone who helps readers locate a book they would like to read based on the reader's preference.  It is important to understand that a readers preference is situational and comes with genre or topic biases.  

What Readers Like

In order to get to the heart of what readers enjoy to read, you must identify what appeals to them.  For example; do they like happy endings, a fast or slow paced book, or past or future settings.  Some readers only enjoy fiction or nonfiction.  Many readers enjoy audio, or e-books, while others prefer print.  To meet these diverse needs, RA's have developed techniques to use when interviewing a reader.

Direct Readers Advising Techniques

These techniques include face to face interactions.  This usually begins with asking the reader about a book they enjoyed or disliked and if they want a book that is similar or  not.  Finding out what a reader wants to read is different then conducting a reference interview.  In this type of interaction, the reader takes the lead.  What is similar, is that the librarian needs to know where to find the desired information once they are aware of what the reader is interested in.  These face to group interactions usually involve a presentation about a book to a group and involve organizing, sponsoring, and referring people to reading groups.  RA groups also include author visits where readers can meet favorite authors and learn what they look like and how they live.  

Indirect Readers Advising Techniques

These include websites, displays, and and lists.  Social tagging are also forms of indirect techniques.  Another form of an indirect technique is an online interaction instead of face to face.  This is various forms of social media such as wikis, blogs, and reader reviews.  

National Council of Teachers of English

 The NCTE is an organization that is dedicated to teaching and learning of English across all levels of education.  It's members apply the power of language and literacy to pursue justice and equity for all students and educators.  Their beliefs are aligned to:

Access: NCTE and its members with strengthen or create inclusiv hubs for state of the art practices, research, and resources, providing access for more diverse voices to create, collaborate, and lead, within and beyond the organization.

Power: NCTE and its members will actively engage families, community members, administrators, colleagues, and other stakeholders and continue to and critique policy at the local, state, and national levels.

Agency:  NCTE and its members will be leaders in nationally recognized instruction, research, and assessment practices that support diverse learners in their journeys to becoming critical thinkers, consumers, and creators who advocate for and actively contribute to a better world.

Affiliation: NCTE's member created communities will streghten cross-community connections, information sharing, and organizing to collaborate more powerfully.

Impact: Ultimately, NCTE and its members' efforts will deepen every student's consciousness of worth and widen possibilities for all students' access, power, agency, affiliation, and impact, across a lifetime.

We Need Diverse Books

 We Need Diverse Books strives to create a world where all children can see themselves in the pages of a book.  To help reach this goal, they have developed programs to celebrate diverse books, mentor diverse writers and illustrators, to support diverse publishers, and to provide books to classrooms nationwide.  

http://bit.ly/32GCoWV

 What children read shape their thoughts of themselves, others, and the world.  Therefore books need to include diversity.  Penn GSE expert on children's literature, Ebony Thomas, believes all kids need all stories about all kinds of people.  She was recently interviewed by Vulture.  She was asked how should the writer draw the line between referencing one's own race and still be relatively raceless. Ebony believes that you can't escape race, but we can do better representing each other humanely in our stories.  When asked how do fingerprints in children's literature influence children's thought process of race, she replied that right now we only have anecdotal evidence.  For example, the doll test.  Many Black children preferred a White doll over a Black doll.  This may be the same for books.  Many protagonists are white.  When asked what teachers can do to help children get away from the fatigue of the history of pain, Ebony responded that kids need a balance of stories.  Mainstream audiences should have alternatives.

Peck's Questions

 According to Richard Peck (1978) there are ten questions to ask when regarding a novel.

l. What would the story be like if the main character were of the opposite sex?

2. Why is the story set where it is? (Not where is the story set?)

3. If you were to film the story, would you use black and white or color and WHY?

4. If you could not use all of the characters, which would you eliminate and WHY?

5. How is the main character different from you?

6. Would this story make a good TV series? Why/not?

7. What one thing in the story has happened to you?

8. Reread the first paragraph of Chapter 1. What is in it to make you read on? If

nothing, why did you continue to read?

9. If you had to design a new cover for the book, what would it look like?

10. What does the title tell you about the book? Does it tell the truth?

Graphic Novels

 Like poetry, graphic novels are a form of literature.  Graphic novels can be fiction or nonfiction.  They are attracted by a wide span of all aged readers, ranging from elementary to adulthood.  Graphic novels can promote literacy because they provide motivation and they are great for teaching mood and theme.  They are also beneficial for students with special needs, such as dyslexic or EL students.  They also contain all elements of literature.