Using Your (Millennial) Powers for Good

This year at my school, there was a big debate (I'm sure) among the IT facilitators and Administration over educational use of cell phones in school.  Once again, the answer was no.  Facebook and Twitter are still blocked.  Even though our network still goes down, and the unspoken code is that cell phones and hotspots are used on a daily basis as back ups for downed networks and taking photos of lesson plans and teacher notes and homework written on the whiteboards.

I was, and always will be, a proponent of teaching students to learn how to use technology freely and responsibly at appropriate developmental levels.  So, I was glad when I ran across this infographic by Christian Brink (sorry, Christian, I can't follow you @christian_brink) who is working with the Family Online Safety Institute.  (Sorry, FOSI, your site is also blocked by our IT).

See, Millennials can use their powers for good, not evil.

Please include attribution to www.aplatformforgood.org with this graphic.

In addition, check out these goodies:  Digital Citizenship Flashcards!  Everyone should own a set!

I've Got (Civil) Rights, You Know!: a review of 'Birmingham 1963, How a Photograph Rallied Civil Rights Support' by Shelley Tougas and 'Marching for Freedom, Walk Together, Children, and Don't You Grow Weary' by Elizabeth Partridge

Partridge, Elizabeth. 2009. Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children, and Don’t You Grow Weary. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0670011896.

Tougas, Shelley. 2011. Birmingham 1963: How a Photograph Rallied Civil Rights Support. Mankato, MN: Compass Point Books. ISBN 978-0756543983.

Everyone these days has a general knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement.  Martin Luther King, Jr., has a public holiday.  Barrak Obama was elected as the first African-American President of the United States.  Black artists and entertainers are among the top-grossing and most beloved performers in the music, fashion, and television and film industries.  It is difficult for young people today to imagine a segregated world, the scary kind, where simply talking to someone with a different skin color could get you shunned, bullied, or beaten.  Because it is so hard to imagine, young people today are in danger of taking the fight for Civil Rights for granted, of forgetting the sacrifices of the generation who earned their freedom.  In Birmingham 1963 and Marching for Freedom, authors Tougas and Partridge narrow in on two harrowing years in Alabama.

With insightful, historical media analysis, Tougas tells the story behind one of LIFE Magazine’s “Great Pictures of the Century.”  Charles Moore grew up in Alabama during a time when segregation was an accepted way of life.  Although his father, a minister, did not allow him to use racial slurs or mistreat African-Americans, Moore paid little attention to their troubles, instead focusing on his interest in photography.  After serving in the Marines, Moore returned to Alabama to work at the Montgomery Advertiser.  Moore’s timing coincided with the arrival of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Montgomery, and he soon began to cover various speeches, rallies and protests organized by civil rights leaders.  This is how he happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture a photograph of 14-year-old Carolyn Maull and two teen boys being slammed against a building by a blast of water from fireman’s hoses in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 3, 1963.  This is how he captured a photograph that rallied Civil Rights Support from all over the world. 

Partridge picks up the narrative where Tougas ends by detailing the impact that the Birmingham Children’s Crusade had on African-Americans in nearby Selma, Alabama, in 1964.  While their counterparts in Birmingham marched for desegregation in downtown businesses, the African-Americans in Selma were gathering peacefully to protest unjust laws which kept them from voting.  The narrative is set forth chronologically, following the events leading up to the organization of the famous Freedom March from Selma to Montgomery, including Bloody Sunday, a day-by-day account of the march, and the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

Both of these books are welcome additions to any Middle School or High School collection because they focus on the power of young people in the Civil Rights Movement.  Until reading these two books, I had never had a chance to study these movements in detail and was not aware of the great extent to which the movement was one of youth empowerment.  I didn’t know that children were jailed, some as young as 8-years-old, for peaceful protesting.  Both books do a fantastic job of setting the children’s movement within the larger context of Civil Rights and civil rights leaders like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and James Bevel.  Yet they go beyond, to capture eye-witness accounts from the children who marched at the time, the children in the photographs included in the book.  Both books talk about the power of images and the skillful ways in which MLK and the SNCC and SCLC manipulated the media to sway sentiment toward the plight of the African-American community, yet they do not dodge the difficult ethical question of putting children in harm’s way.  Was it right of Civil Rights leaders to ask innocent children to willingly march into situations where they were likely to be beaten with billy clubs, bitten by police dogs, jailed, or even worse, killed? 

These two books are full of primary source photography and interviews.  Their oversized formats make the pictures easy to read.  The texts are clear with adequate kerning and line spacing.  Tougas’ book is written at a slightly lower reading level, with more sidebars inserted for additional information.  Partridge’s book is appropriate for a slightly more informed audience, but is very clearly sequenced.  Both books contain excellent back matter, bibliographies and additional resources.  They would be excellent studies for individual or group presentations in a US history or social studies class, shedding light on some lesser known events in the timeline of the Civil Rights Movement.

Rewards and Reviews for Elizabeth Partridge, Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Grow Weary

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction, 2010

Jane Addams Children’s Book Award

Los Angeles Times Book Prize

IRA Notable Book, 2010

YALSA Best Book for Young Adults

ALA Notable Book

Effective and meaningful archival photographs, quotes, poems, and songs are woven throughout the narrative, giving readers a real sense of the children’s mindset and experiences. The bibliography, source notes, photo credits, and resources for further discussion and research are exemplary. An excellent addition to any library. School Library Journal, starred review

Partridge proves once again that nonfiction can be every bit as dramatic as the best fiction. … With a perfect balance of energetic prose and well-selected, breathtaking photographs, the volume portrays the fight for the heart of America. Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Partridge provides just enough context of the Jim Crow South to orient readers before plunging readers into the dramatic and harrowing events of the march. Partridge once again demonstrates why she is almost peerless in her photo selection. Horn Book, starred review

Reviews for Birmingham 1963: How a Photograph Rallied Civil Rights Support

…a motivating introduction to the period it describes, and the photographic analysis makes [it] a valuable source for team teachers of social studies and language arts. Lucy Schall, Voice of Youth Advocates, August 2011

Pair with...

Birmingham, 1963, a narrative poem by Carole Boston Weatherford, which combines primary source photography and commemorates the bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church and the death of four girls on Sunday, September 15, 1963.  This event takes place between the events of both books reviewed above.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham, a young adult novel by Christopher Paul Curtis, in which a young boy deals with the aftermath of the 16^th Street Baptist Church Bombing.

Related Websites

Elizabeth Partridge: Marching for Freedom

Shelley Tougas’ Blog

A Tragedy in the Making, a review of "Columbine" by Dave Cullen

Students and teachers thought it was a prank.  It was the week after prom, Seniors were getting ready to graduate, and the idea that this was real was unthinkable.  But the unthinkable happened on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School, as it had before at other schools, and would after.  Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, would become infamous, remembered as deranged teenagers who attempted to blow up their school, and when that failed, kill 13 people and then themselves.

Cullen, Dave.  2009. Columbine.  New York: Hachette.

Until Sandy Hook, Columbine was the worst school shooting on record.  Harris and Klebold have been villainized, psychoanalyzed, preached about and lamented, and yet, we know very little about the actual lives of the boys behind the media-created myth.  Journalist Dave Cullen, one of the first on the scene the day of the shootings, would remain with the story for 10 years, pouring over countless police records, interviews, and journals, in order to bring the definitive book.  “The result is an astounding account of two good students with lots of friends, who were secretly stockpiling a basement cache of weapons, recording their raging hatred, and manipulating every adult who got in their way” [book flap].  Cullen debunks many of the myths that were concretized during the media’s coverage of the shooting in the week that followed.  For instance, the shooters were never part of the Trench Coat Mafia, they weren’t bullied, they didn’t target jocks and Christians.  Harris was found to be a psychopath,  while Klebold was depressive, suicidal.  Both were bent on annihilation.    Together, they became a murderous dyad-the perfect storm of teenage boredom , angst, and testosterone. 

I picked this book off the shelves the day after the Connecticut shootings, to see if it would shed any light on the tragic events that happened there.  What I found was a book in the same vein as Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.  Cullen carefully recreates the events of the shooting, piecing together interviews and police reports to flesh out a step by step plan.  He explains the science behind understanding the events, and he does a particularly good job of explaining how the media and new mobile technology played a role in forming the American opinion of Columbine.  He explains how good people made mistakes, how connections just weren’t made, and how much of that was kept on the down low.  For example, a police investigator had opened a file on Harris a year before the shootings.  Both Klebold and Harris were in a juvenile rehabilitation program to avoid jail time for breaking and entering a year before.  Cullen makes a firm case for the evidence being there prior to the shooting and our failure, as a society, to notice.  Particularly interesting are his interviews with local pastors about how the shooting galvanized the local Christian community and differences of opinion among the clergy about whether the shooting should be used to bring more people to God.  Most compelling was his explanation of the psyches of Harris and Klebold, mostly through the work of FBI criminal psychologist Dwayne Fuselier.  Cullen honors the victims and families of all the victims through his careful work. 

Rewards and Reviews

Edgar Award

"Top Education Book"--American School Board Journal

Alex Award Finalist--American Library Association

“Cullen, acclaimed expert on Columbine, offers a penetrating look at the motivation and intent of the shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Drawing on interviews, police records, media coverage, and diaries and videotapes left behind by the shooters, Cullen examines the killers’ beliefs and psychological states of mind. Chilling journal entries show a progression from adolescent angst to psychopathic rage as they planned a multistage killing spree that included bombs that ultimately didn’t detonate. Cullen goes beyond detailing the planning and execution of the shootings, delving into the early lives of the killers as well. Graphic and emotionally vivid; spectacularly researched and analyzed.” -- Vanessa Bush, Booklist (April 2009)

 “Any book about this tragedy can be hard to read, and Cullen's detailed account of the gruesome killings and suicides is no exception. Cullen's style can also make the book hard going, as he skips back and forth through time and among different people involved in the event and occasionally repeats himself. In the end, however, Cullen clarifies a lot of misconceptions that evolved soon after the tragedy and provides new insights into why it occurred, which makes the book definitely worth reading despite the disjointed narrative.”—Terry Christner, Library Journal (March 15, 2009)

“Cullen expertly balances the psychological analysis—enhanced by several of the nation's leading experts on psychopathology—with an examination of the shooting's effects on survivors, victims' families and the Columbine community. Readers will come away from Cullen's unflinching account with a deeper understanding of what drove these boys to kill, even if the answers aren't easy to stomach.”  -- Publisher’s Weekly (April 2009)

Ideas for Teaching

Using this with students might be difficult, but there are possibilities for teaching psychological profiling that would work with an AP class.  It would fit with discussions of teen depression and suicide; however, I would be cautious in using the protagonists as examples since their story ends in a worst-case scenario.  It could also be useful for media studies, religious studies or contemporary history.  Journalism and/or rhetoric teachers may find it useful for teaching students how journalists construct a story.  It would be a good read for any school administrator concerned with school safety. 

The author ‘s website includes a very comprehensive instructor’s guide which contains useful connections and study guides.  http://www.columbine-instructor-guide.com/

2012: a Year in (Book) Review

I didn’t read as many books this year as I did in 2011, but my toddlers are getting older and crazier and some nights, it’s hard to find the time.  This year’s reads were inspiring in some ways and rather disappointing in others.  Let’s just get down to it, shall we?  The books were, in no particular order.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire—perhaps the biggest disappointment, given the wildly popular musical and the fact that my friend met the author and said he is one of the humblest people she’s ever met.  I just couldn’t get into the weirdness of it all.  Of course, I never really liked the Oz books as a kid, either, and the monkeys in the movie…well, let’s just say, perhaps it wasn’t meant for me to like this book.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver—liking it better than La Lacuna, but not as much as Prodigal Summer.  I don’t know if she’ll ever top The Poisonwood Bible.  Or Pigs in Heaven. 

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris—fables in which the animals mimic human foibles.  Mildly entertaining, but this is not the Sedaris we all fell in love with.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.  YA novel which came highly recommended.  It was weird and the plot was a little bit difficult to understand.  Like 12 Monkeys, only not as good, and for kids, and without Bruce Willis and what will perhaps be Brad Pitt’s greatest roll, ever.  The book did allude to A Wrinkle in Time, which is another book I could never get into, which is why I might not have been that thrilled with it.  L’Engle fans may understand it more. 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis—because I hadn’t read it for a while and this summer I found myself thinking about the part where Aslan breaks the stone table with the magic that existed before all magic.   I was not disappointed.  At all.

Ron Rash

The World Made Straight

The Cove

Saints at the River

I guess this was my author study for the year.  I love this man’s writing.  Rash is an Appalachian writer who has inspired Silas House and is lauded by Lee Smith.  Saints at the River was my least favorite because the voice seemed the least authentic, but Rash still creates characters I think I know.  The World Made Straight was my favorite because it’s contemporary, and the characters are people I definitely know.  For example, a high school boy thinks he is going to be smart and steal a drug dealers marijuana plants.  Nothing good can come of that, can it?  The Cove is his newest work.  It told a great, little-known historical story and connected families and place from The World Made Straight, much in the manner of Wendell Berry.  I still need to read another book by Rash, Serena, which was his best-seller.

The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco—hated the main character the entire 100 first pages.  Put it down.  Would much rather spend time on Foucault’s Pendulum again (so I can mock Dan Brown’s feeble, yet financially successful, attempt to be the next Eco).

50 Shades of Gray by E.L. James—50 shades of self-loathing for having wasted the money and the time.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green—beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.  I think I blogged about this one.  If I didn’t, it’s because I was too moved by the book to be able to write about it.  What happens when critically ill teenagers fall in love?  It sounds maudlin, but that’s part of the beauty of the book—it’s not.

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris—very eloquent storytelling of the highest caliber.  The kind of book that separates the real novels from pulp fiction.  This was recommended by a friend, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book and then being amazed by the tragic story of Dorris, Louise Erdrich and their children. 

Wonder by P.J. Palacio—another beautiful YA story.  It was nice to take a break from all the Hunger Games, Divergent, post-apocalyptic teen stuff and read a nice story about a nice boy who wanted to be normal.

Other Stuff a Bit Less Memorable:

One for the Murphys

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger, short stories by Lee Smith

Hitler Youth

A biography of Eminem

A biography of Adele

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

Matched by Ally Condie

Divergent by Veronica Roth

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Healing Waters by Joyce Hostetter

White Sands, Red Menace

Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill

More than 20 books, not that great, for a librarian.  But, I guess it’s quality, not quantity, that counts, and I’m happy with the books I really liked. 

What’s up for 2013?  First I have to finish this Kingsolver book, and then I believe there’s some new Lee Smith.  I also need to re-visit Margaret Atwood.  I can’t believe the year went by without reading something she wrote. 

Suggestions, anyone?

Oh, and Happy New Year!

Where Is the Love?--a review of MATCHED by Ally Condie

Life is perfect for Cassia.  Her government gives her everything she needs to be happy and healthy: meals, a job, recreational activities, and school.  Now, she’s 17 and ready to be matched.  Who will her future husband be?

Matched by Ally Condie

Cassia floats in light green silk, and her mood is as light. She has just been publicly matched to her best friend, Xander. But then, a blip, another boy’s face appears on her screen at home. She knows Ky, too, but has she ever really seen him? After the death of her grandfather, and a sudden realization that not everything is what it seems, Cassia begins to question what she has always believed was true.

There comes a time, toward the end of adolescence, when most young adults begin to realize that not everything is perfect. Condie does a great job of picking up on this angst through the protagonist Cassia. The minute she asks one question, hundreds more appear, and can’t be easily answered. A definite nod to Ray Bradbury appears when we discover that poetry and books are no longer allowed, besides the 100 that were deemed worthy. Cassia and Ky share a love of forbidden pleasures, writing and poems. But, Cassia has been matched. Ky is an aberration. They can never be together. Or can they fight the odds?

Reviews
“The stunning clarity and attention to detail in Condie’s Big Brother-like world is a feat. The author just as easily tears this world apart while deftly exploring the individual cost of societal perfection and the sacrifices inherent in freedom of choice.”
–Booklist

“In a story that is at once evocative of Lois Lowry’s The Giver, George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Condie introduces readers to the ‘perfect’ Society. Her awakening and developments are realistically portrayed, and supporting characters like Cassia’s parents and her grandfather add depth to the story. Fans of The Giver will devour this book and impatiently demand the next installment.”
–School Library Journal

Official Website

Choose Kind--a review of WONDER by R.J. Palacio

Auggie is hideously ugly.

I’d tell you how, but it would ruin the book for you.  Let’s just say people sometimes audibly gasp when they look at him.  He’s used to it.  But, it’s still hard on him when he goes to school for the first time ever, and middle school at that.  As his sister’s boyfriend says, “Middle School is just about as tough as it gets.”  Will he ever make any friends who see him for the really, rather normal boy that he actually is, despite his appearance?  This is a coming of age story, not only for Auggie, but for the other characters in the book as well, which really gives the reader a memorable wallop.  Auggie might be ugly, but Wonder is a beautiful book.

Palacio uses many voices to tell Auggie’s story, and it works because she does it well.  In a soft, subtle, but definite shift, she creates a montage-effect with each voice leaving the story a little bit further ahead than where the last person left off.  More than her story-telling skill, I appreciated the “message” of the book.  Choose kind.  See humanity in the world around you.  Choose to be more than kind sometimes, go out of your way to do it.  I just watched the viral video of some middle school kids bullying a bus monitor yesterday, so this message renewed some of my hope.  At least in books, people really can be kind.  The deal is, though, that sometimes this type of message gets schmaltzy and downright preachy, so it’s easy for young readers to tune it out.  I think that’s where this book will differ.  Just when it’s getting too preachy, the voices change and the narrative barrels forward.  I would love to try this as a read-aloud with a fifth or sixth grade class to see their reaction.  It would make a good companion to Mockingbird, So B. It, Freak the Mighty, or any other novel that teaches us how to get along.  It's definite summer reading.  You won't be able to put it down.

Rating: 5 tissues.

Selected Awards and Reviews

No awards yet because the book is so new, but it will get some.  Mark my words. 

"Palacio's novel feels not only effortless but downright graceful, and by the stand-up-and-cheer conclusion, readers will be doing just that, and feeling as if they are part of this troubled but ultimately warm-hearted community"—Daniel Kraus, Booklist, 02/12

"Few first novels pack more of a punch: it's a rare story with the power to open eyes-and hearts-to what it's like to be singled out for a difference you can't control, when all you want is to be just another face in the crowd."—PW Annex Reviews, 02/12 


Check it out on Amazon--incredible buzz and a nice book trailer, too!
Author's Website

One Choice Can Transform You--a review of DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth

Would you be able to leave your home and all you knew behind to start a new life with strangers?  That’s what 16 year old Beatrice does.  After taking her aptitude test “Tris” leaves Abnegation for the Dauntless faction in future dystopian Chicago, to prove to herself that she is fearless.  During her brutal initiation, she discovers that the Dauntless, as well as her former faction, Abnegation, have enemies among the 5 factions, primarily Erudite.  Will Tris be able to survive her Dauntless initiation?  Can a 16 year old girl save the world as she knows it?

For all my young ladies who liked Twilight, this book is for you (Roth’s writing is a bit better than Meyer’s—less schmaltzy). For all my guys who liked the Hunger Games, this book is for you (Collins is a bit of a better writer, but Roth’s story is still interesting). I’m not going to give you any spoilers, but I will tell you that this book has just the right blend of action and romance to keep you reading. I got lost in the vaguely familiar world of the book , and I only put it down when I was so sleepy my eyes wouldn’t stay open. A few warnings, though. There is some pretty graphic violence involved, as the Dauntless must face fears of all kind—physical and psychological—so don’t read this if you’re squeamish or emotionally troubled.

The series itself is part of a genius marketing scheme. I scanned the QR code on the back of the book, and found book trailers and an interview with the author (who is, by the way, a new author). The Bonus Materials in the back of the book include a Divergent play list (nice!) and a Cosmo-like quiz on “What Faction Are You?” which was lots of fun.

This is another one I won’t be able to put in the library because it’s too hot to handle here in Kuwait (and that’s saying a lot because it’s very hot here), but I’m sure going to read the rest of them. Divergent was a great choice for my first summer read. The sequel, Insurgent, is definitely going on my summer list.

Awards and Reviews

Best Book of the Year—School Library Journal

Best Fiction for Young Adults—YALSA

Best Children’s Books—Publisher’s Weekly

Black Eyed Susan Book Award

“There is no doubt readers will respond to the gutsy action and romance of this umpteenth spin on Brave New World”—Daniel Kraus, Booklist, March 2011

“For those who loved The Hunger Games and are willing to brave the sometimes sadistic tests of strength and courage Tris must endure, the reward is a memorable, unpredictable journey from which it is nearly impossible to turn away.”—Publisher’s Weekly, February 2011

Vital Stats 

Roth, Veronica (2011). Divergent. New York: Katherine Tegen Books. ISBN 0062024027.