So good. With real language and complicated emotions. The best YA novel I've read since Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Last summer, my friend Andrea was hired as the middle school language arts teacher at the Bayfield Public School, where we had both attended--kindergarten through graduation. She started the year by reading a chapter a day from 'Absolutely True Diary' to each of her classes. The eighth grade group was especially drawn in and when she neared the end of the novel, pleaded that she not stop at the chapter break and instead read to the end. When she told me this, I was excited to find more YA books that they could connect with. After picking 'After Tupac' up at the library yesterday and finishing it in just a morning of reading, Jacqueline Woodson is at the top of my list of recommended YA authors. While reading it I was already devising writing prompts (Is there anyone who was once in your life but isn't anymore? What do you remember about them? Is there a musician/singer/rapper whose lyrics you especially connect to? What lines? Why? Write a scene of dialog that sounds like how you might talk with your friends or family.) I was happy to read on the back flap that this wasn't Jacqueline's only book and excited to read more. But I was also a bit wistful. Despite Andrea's success working in the middle school, higher ups at the school decided to rearrange teaching assignments and the result has her teaching first grade next fall. After seeing how she was able to connect with her students over the past year, I have no doubt that Andrea will find her way back to middle school some day. In the meantime I will continue to read YA, to make lists of authors, and books, and writing prompts. And not all has to wait, as I learned upon visiting Jacqueline's website, that she writes picture books appropriate for first graders as well.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
After Tupac & D Foster
by Jacqueline Woodson
So good. With real language and complicated emotions. The best YA novel I've read since Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Last summer, my friend Andrea was hired as the middle school language arts teacher at the Bayfield Public School, where we had both attended--kindergarten through graduation. She started the year by reading a chapter a day from 'Absolutely True Diary' to each of her classes. The eighth grade group was especially drawn in and when she neared the end of the novel, pleaded that she not stop at the chapter break and instead read to the end. When she told me this, I was excited to find more YA books that they could connect with. After picking 'After Tupac' up at the library yesterday and finishing it in just a morning of reading, Jacqueline Woodson is at the top of my list of recommended YA authors. While reading it I was already devising writing prompts (Is there anyone who was once in your life but isn't anymore? What do you remember about them? Is there a musician/singer/rapper whose lyrics you especially connect to? What lines? Why? Write a scene of dialog that sounds like how you might talk with your friends or family.) I was happy to read on the back flap that this wasn't Jacqueline's only book and excited to read more. But I was also a bit wistful. Despite Andrea's success working in the middle school, higher ups at the school decided to rearrange teaching assignments and the result has her teaching first grade next fall. After seeing how she was able to connect with her students over the past year, I have no doubt that Andrea will find her way back to middle school some day. In the meantime I will continue to read YA, to make lists of authors, and books, and writing prompts. And not all has to wait, as I learned upon visiting Jacqueline's website, that she writes picture books appropriate for first graders as well.
So good. With real language and complicated emotions. The best YA novel I've read since Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Last summer, my friend Andrea was hired as the middle school language arts teacher at the Bayfield Public School, where we had both attended--kindergarten through graduation. She started the year by reading a chapter a day from 'Absolutely True Diary' to each of her classes. The eighth grade group was especially drawn in and when she neared the end of the novel, pleaded that she not stop at the chapter break and instead read to the end. When she told me this, I was excited to find more YA books that they could connect with. After picking 'After Tupac' up at the library yesterday and finishing it in just a morning of reading, Jacqueline Woodson is at the top of my list of recommended YA authors. While reading it I was already devising writing prompts (Is there anyone who was once in your life but isn't anymore? What do you remember about them? Is there a musician/singer/rapper whose lyrics you especially connect to? What lines? Why? Write a scene of dialog that sounds like how you might talk with your friends or family.) I was happy to read on the back flap that this wasn't Jacqueline's only book and excited to read more. But I was also a bit wistful. Despite Andrea's success working in the middle school, higher ups at the school decided to rearrange teaching assignments and the result has her teaching first grade next fall. After seeing how she was able to connect with her students over the past year, I have no doubt that Andrea will find her way back to middle school some day. In the meantime I will continue to read YA, to make lists of authors, and books, and writing prompts. And not all has to wait, as I learned upon visiting Jacqueline's website, that she writes picture books appropriate for first graders as well.
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