POC Fall In Love Too

     I consider myself lucky that my office is in the library at the middle school where I work. When students come in to look for books, I often find myself talking to them about books, suggesting books, or helping them find books. If you know me at all, you know how much fun this is for me!

     This week a student came in looking for a book. I asked her if I could help her find anything specific and she said no, she was just looking at books to see if she found something she liked. 

     "What was the last book you read that you liked?" I asked her. 

     "Everything Everything," she explained. "And then I saw the movie this weekend." She liked the movie and thought they did a good job even though some parts were different from the book. 

     I asked, "What did you like about Everything Everything?"

     She paused. And then she admitted, "The romance."

via GIPHY

     I squeed. That's the only and best word to describe my reaction. 

     It's not often that a student comes in looking for romance and it happens to be my favorite genre. I've read all the books in The Princess Diaries series, all the books in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, tons of Sarah Dessen, Stephanie Perkins, Elizabeth Eulberg, John Green, Jordan Sonnenblick, and David Levithan. 

     Aisle to aisle, I scanned the shelves, thinking of some of my favorites, spotting others that stood out to me, handing them to the student until she had a stack to look through. 

     Not one of them featured a person of color as a protagonist.

     There is a Latinx character in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants...but it hit me right in the gut that I didn't have a book to give her that was about a person of color falling in love. Maybe if I had taken a little more time to search, I would have come up with one but none stood out to me as I went through the stacks.

    In the last year or so I've read Yaqui Delgado Wants To Kick Your Ass, Gabi, A Girl In Pieces, Piecing Me Together, The Hate U Give, and Always and Forever, Lara Jean, the third book in Jenny Han's To All The Boys I've Loved Before series and Always and Forever, Lara Jean is the only one that truly stands out to me as a contemporary young adult romance....though there are elements of romance in others. 

     Obviously, I'm aware of the We Need Diverse Books campaign and the need for people of color to be represented more in children's and young adult literature. I get it. But when I had a student standing in front of me wanting to read one of my favorite genres and I couldn't come up with more than one or two books with a protagonist who was a person of color, I wanted to cry.

     People of color fall in love just like white people fall in love.

     We fall in love too.

     We need more romance books with people of color as the protagonists.

     Now I'm on a mission to find contemporary young adult romance books with protagonists who are people of color for this student and for myself. I'm going to buy books if I have to but I'm determined to give her books that feature protagonists who are people of color.

Rich In Color has a list of YA Reads with POC-Centric Romances and I compiled a list here from my research of recently published or soon to be published. I haven't read any of these yet so if you have any thoughts to share on these or others I should add, please share in the comments. 

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann

A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena

In Search of Us by Ava Dellaira

The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk

The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Meet Cute: Some People Are Destined to Meet with stories by Jennifer L. Armentrout, 

Sona Charaipotra, Dhonielle Clayton, Katie Cotugno, Jocelyn Davies, 

Nina LaCour, Emery Lord, Katharine McGee , Kass Morgan, Meredith Russo, 

Sara Shepard, Nicola Yoon, Ibi Zoboi, Julie Murphy

Love, Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed

King Geordi the Great by Gene Gant

The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera

I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan

American Panda by Gloria Chao

Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi

That Thing We Call A Heart by Sheba Karim

Again, I haven't read any of these books so please let me know if there is one here I should bump to the top of my stack to read or others I should add!

*Update*

Suggested titles from Twitter:

You Bring The Distance Near by Mitali Perkins

I Believe In A Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

Solo by Kwame Alexander

The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
Fire In The Streets by Kekla Magoon

Amina's Voice

Title: Amina's Voice 
Author: Hena Khan 
Publisher: Salaam Reads 
Publication Date: March 14th, 2017 
Genre/Format: Realistic Fiction/Novel 
GoodReads Summary: Amina has never been comfortable in the spotlight. She is happy just hanging out with her best friend, Soojin. Except now that she’s in middle school everything feels different. Soojin is suddenly hanging out with Emily, one of the “cool” girls in the class, and even talking about changing her name to something more “American.” Does Amina need to start changing too? Or hiding who she is to fit in? While Amina grapples with these questions, she is devastated when her local mosque is vandalized.
What I Think: I loved reading about Amina and her story but especially how her community comes together when her mosque is vandalized. I would definitely pair Amina's Voice with Wishtree and challenge students to think about how to learn about cultures that are different from their own and to make space for people of different cultures in their school or community. I've never visited a mosque before and reading Amina's Voice made me think how interesting it would be to be able to visit a mosque. I've never thought about asking a friend if I can go with them to their place of worship to learn more about it. I'm sure there are many other things I can think about that I've never experienced but that I could ask some of my friends to tell me about. The theme of acceptance stood out to me in Amina's Voice and it was really inspiring. 
     As a mentor text, the snatch of text I pulled is a perfect opportunity to look at how a writer can use dialogue to give the reader information about different characters even when writing from first person. The girls are part of this one conversation but they all are thinking different things and the dialogue helps the writer express this. We have to explicitly show students the power of dialogue. Amina's Voice gives an opportunity to zone in on dialogue and invite students to brainstorm two or more people in a scene and how their dialogue might reveal information about their character or their point of view.
Snatch of Text: "But Soojin just says, 'I'm thinking of new names for myself.'
     'New names? That's weird. Why?' Emily starts a stream of questions. And as much as I want Emily to leave, I want to hear the answers.
     'It's not weird at all, actually. My family and I are becoming citizens soon, and I'm going to change my name.'
     'Wait. So that means you're not even American?' Emily sounds offended.
     'What?' I ask. There is no way I heard Soojin right. 'Change your name? What for?'
     Soojin smooths her hair, sips some fizzy juise, and takes a deep breath. 'We moved from Korea when I was four, and we aren't American citizens yet. but we are about to be, and I'm going to change my name. I just haven't picked one yet.'" (p. 7)
Writing Prompt: Write about how each or one of the characters might be feeling in this conversation using evidence from the excerpt to support your reasoning. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 02/05/2018

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA! 

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

Last Week's Book Adventures:

Last week I read for class, the kids and I started Takedown by Laura Shovan and I added a ton of words to the rewrite I'm doing of novel. I hit 18,000 words this weekend and that feels pretty awesome. I'm proud to say that we're also all caught up on laundry in our house...so that feels pretty great.

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

This week, I have more reading to do for my class, the kids and I will continue reading Takedown, and I'm going to do my very best to get to either I Am Alfonso Jones or Bull. 

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to read these reviews/posts. 

So, what are you reading this week? 

Link up below and don't forget to check out other blogs to see what they are reading!

To help build our community and support other bloggers, 

we ask that you comment on at least three other blogs before you. 

Also, if you tweet about your Monday post, don't forget to use #IMWAYR!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 01/29/2018

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA! 

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

Last Week's Book Adventures:

Gah! With my class starting and really zoning in on my rewrite, I didn't get to as much reading as I had hoped. I read for class, read some of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and believe it or not, I did get to some of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

Obviously I have to read for class but I might put Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life aside for a bit because I'd like to read I Am Alfonso Jones and I have Bull by David Elliott too.

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to read these reviews/posts. 

So, what are you reading this week? 

Link up below and don't forget to check out other blogs to see what they are reading!

To help build our community and support other bloggers, 

we ask that you comment on at least three other blogs before you. 

Also, if you tweet about your Monday post, don't forget to use #IMWAYR!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 01/22/2018

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA! 

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

Last Week's Book Adventures:

I made it about 50 pages into Pedagogy of the Oppressed and then my brain needed a break. I also read more of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. I didn't get to my graphic novels this week but I hope I can fit one in this week at least. Last Wednesday was the first day of the last class I need to earn my ESL endorsement. I'm soooooo close. I have two text books for this class and lots of projects but hopefully it'll be good learning.

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

My plan this week will be to get my reading done for class and then to make at least some progress with Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and probably I Am Alfonso Jones. Happy reading to all!

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to read these reviews/posts. 

So, what are you reading this week? 

Link up below and don't forget to check out other blogs to see what they are reading!

To help build our community and support other bloggers, 

we ask that you comment on at least three other blogs before you. 

Also, if you tweet about your Monday post, don't forget to use #IMWAYR!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 01/15/2018

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA! 

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

Last Week's Book Adventures:

This week I read Amina's Voice by Hena Khan, Twelve Days in May: Freedom Ride 1961 by Larry Dane Brimner, and finally finished Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. I read some of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and picked up Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire but haven't started it yet. For picture books, I finally read After The Fall by Dan Santat and Love by Matt De La Peña with illustrations by Loren Long. Both amazing.

Reviewed Last Week:

Click on any picture above to go read my review/post.

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

I'm excited to zone in on Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Pedagogy of the Oppressed this week. I also have I Am Alfonso Jones and Yummy, two graphic novels which I've really been looking forward to and have heard good things about. 

Also, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I found a digital version of Martin Luther King and The Montgomery Story, the comic book Peanut and I heard Representative John Lewis talk about. He said it inspired him in his work as an activist and is in part why he believed in Andrew Aydin's idea for the March graphic novels. We'll be making signs for the Women's March next weekend and I thought reading this together might be interesting along with looking at other images from the Civil Rights Movement and making connections to today. 

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to read these reviews/posts. 

So, what are you reading this week? 

Link up below and don't forget to check out other blogs to see what they are reading!

To help build our community and support other bloggers, 

we ask that you comment on at least three other blogs before you. 

Also, if you tweet about your Monday post, don't forget to use #IMWAYR!

JOIN: Celebrating Being Alive

Every Saturday, join me as I CELEBRATE This Week 

with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.

I'm in love with Instagram more and more everyday. I gravitated towards Instagram initially because every post is an image. When I was in high school, I saved money to buy a super simple SLR camera. I had no idea what I was doing but I dreamed of taking a photography class and developing my own pictures in a dark room. I never did take a class but I still love taking pictures and know some basics of what to pay attention to when taking a picture. 

Lately, I find that I'm most inspired by people on Instagram. Still, I love the images people post, the glimpses into people's lives but I also love the people who are there standing up, sharing their truth, being honest and saying it like it is. They inspire me so much. 

And then today I saw someone post something about being pessimistic...and the caption said something like, "I can't be pessimistic because I woke up today." Isn't that so true? Sure, the world is far from perfect....but here we are. We're here. Alive, experiencing the ups and the downs, the good and the bad. And for that I'm thankful.

If you're on Instagram, you can find me there at @mentortexts. 

As always, thanks for stopping to celebrate with me!

I'm here, you're here and I'm so glad.

All's Faire in Middle School

Title:  All's Faire in Middle School 
Author: Victoria Jamieson 
Illustrator: Victoria Jamieson
Publisher: Dial Books 
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017 
Genre/Format: Realistic/Graphic Novel
GoodReads Summary: Eleven-year-old Imogene (Impy) has grown up with two parents working at the Renaissance Faire, and she's eager to begin her own training as a squire. First, though, she'll need to prove her bravery. Luckily Impy has just the quest in mind--she'll go to public school after a life of being homeschooled! But it's not easy to act like a noble knight-in-training in middle school. Impy falls in with a group of girls who seem really nice (until they don't) and starts to be embarrassed of her thrift shop apparel, her family's unusual lifestyle, and their small, messy apartment. Impy has always thought of herself as a heroic knight, but when she does something really mean in order to fit in, she begins to wonder whether she might be more of a dragon after all. 
What I Think: I love Imogene and her bravery in middle school. I talked to my 5th grader about this book (he read it before me) and we talked about how Imogene takes ownership of her actions. He pointed out that he was kind of bummed that she did something mean in the first place. It reminded us of Jack Will from Wonder. He gets sucked into being unkind to Auggie too. It made me wonder about how common this idea is in books and I think my son is right, we see it more often then not...but I think that's because it's so easy to get sucked in. It's not easy to stand up for what you believe in no matter what. I'm so glad we have Imogene's story to talk about, even if she makes a mean choice at one point, she faces her consequences and that's a great lesson.
     I found myself thinking a lot about how the story unfolds and how Victoria Jamieson made the story arc work. I was so excited after reading it that I went back to look at each chapter and study it as a mentor text. Short stories or even longer stories can be hard to write. It seems like they should be easy because there is so much room to make stuff happen but just because they're longer, it doesn't mean stuff has to happen or that the story doesn't have to move along. You better believe it has to move along. Most writers start by learning that a story has a beginning, middle, and end. And most writers know there has to be a problem a story. But beyond that, it's hard to see how a story moves along from beginning to end. Enter All's Faire in Middle School as an awesome mentor text.
     Here are the 13 chapters with a gist of what happens in each chapter (without giving away spoilers):
1. We get a hint at what our main character's journey might be but he/she/they don't know what they're in for yet!
2. Our main character prepares for an upcoming challenge.
3. Our main character is off to the challenge...and is kind of freaked out.
4. A celebration, things are going well for our main character.
5. Oh no, trouble ahead.
6. When there's trouble, our main character strategizes and comes up with a plan.
7. The plan is working...wait, the plan is not working at all.
8. Disaster strikes. Like really strikes. Everything that can go bad, goes bad.
9. Just when you thought everything that could go bad, went bad, things get even worse for our main character.
10. Our main character starts to face the consequences.
11. The main character tries to make amends.
12. Our main character tries even harder to set things straight.
13. Not every story ends in happy ever after...but the main character makes one more courageous act to at least try and make everything as right as possible.
      This was a great activity for me in reverse engineering an outline. The beats that appeared reminded me a bit of the beats from Blake Snyder's Save the Cat. That's a great resource too! Here's how I did it. I put a sticky note on the first page of every chapter. I reread each chapter and wrote 1-2 sentences about the chapter. Then I laid out the sticky notes in order and looked at characters, setting, and main plot points. I looked at a general gist of what was happening in each chapter and how the story arc unfolds. I also did this with Amina's Voice by Hena Khan. It's helpful to see how others have worked with plot so I can think about it in my own novels. You can easily have students do this and then think about how they might write a story by starting with 1-2 sentences with each beat in the story and then have them elaborate from there. So often student writers start writing their stories without a plan...I do this sometimes too but I've learned that sometimes it really is helpful to have a plan. When I have a plan, it's much easier to talk myself into writing each chapter or scene because I just follow my plan.
     Whether writers want to use this basic outline to loosely plan their stories before writing or not, it's important to discuss the idea of outlining with students. It's all about the mindset of writing and having a toolkit handy when we're writing. In my experience, every story is different and every story gets written differently.
Writing Prompt: Write about the different ways Imogene tries to make things right and share any connections to your own life that you notice.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 01/07/2018

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA! 

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

Last Week's Book Adventures:

I'm finally, finally feeling rested and rejuvenated and ready to head back to school! I'm soooooo excited because I'll be doing a workshop on mentor texts! And you know how I feel about mentor texts!

This week I managed to finish up Braving the Wilderness which reminded me a lot about this post I wrote at Story Exploratory about standing up and speaking out. I followed my brave heart and this post describes a little of what it felt like for me. Brené Brown is amazing, I love everything she writes and Braving the Wilderness did not disappoint.  (On a side note, I'm thinking of transferring my Story Exploratory posts to Teacher Mentor Texts and choosing to be okay with blogging about more than mentor texts here. Writing is still my jam but I thought for some reason I needed a separately blog for not teaching stuff and I'm feeling like I have a split personality. Stay tuned! I'll share more information when I have a more concrete plan. But if you have thoughts, please let me know!)

I also read Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani, and finished All's Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson, and One Last Word by Nikki Grimes. All were awesome in their own way. If you haven't read One Last Word, it's beautiful and actually supports the idea of braving the wilderness. I highly recommend it.

Posts From Last Week:

Click on the picture above to read my review/post.

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

It's back to school this week! As I was reading All's Faire in Middle School, I was thinking about how I can use it as a mentor text so I can't wait to go and mark it up and make notes. Poor Peanut will have to deal with my confiscating his book for a little bit while I reread it.  I'd also like to get back to Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. After that, I also have Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal that I've wanted to read. And speaking of Any Krouse Rosenthal, I was able to go to A Beauty Salon which was an exhibit that was an amazing tribute to her life and it was beautiful. Whether you know Amy's work or not (I know most of you do!), I hope you check out my post because we need more magic in the world. You can always trust magic. 

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to read these reviews/posts. 

So, what are you reading this week? 

Link up below and don't forget to check out other blogs to see what they are reading!

To help build our community and support other bloggers, 

we ask that you comment on at least three other blogs before you. 

Also, if you tweet about your Monday post, don't forget to use #IMWAYR!

JOIN: Celebrating My One Little Word for 2018

Every Saturday, join me as I CELEBRATE This Week 

with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.

As far as I remember, my first one little word was in 2013 and I picked the word simplify. There was a lot going on in my life and I felt scattered, stretched in too many directions. I wanted the year to be about figuring out what I most desperately wanted to be doing and simplifying parts of my life so I could really focus on what mattered most - my family, my health, reading, and writing.

In 2014 I chose patience as my word, realizing there were so many goals I had for myself and so many things I wanted to get done and knowing that I had to chill out and be patient. After I picked the word, I heard from a friend that there's a saying that if you ask to be patient, God will sure give you something to be patient about. 

When 2015 came around, I was working in a pretty stressful job dealing with lots of different people all the time. Let me tell you, when you are in heated discussions, it's not always easy to stay cool but staying cool and being able to talk through things is super important. So grace was a perfect word. Here's a funny story about what I learned about grace. Little did I know, that the idea of giving myself some grace would also play a factor. I have a print-out from Ruth's blog that says in loud, bold letters, "I am enough." Even though I had learned how to better say no to things and simplify my life a little bit, I still found giving myself some grace and adjusting my expectations was important. 

2016 was about stopping to just enjoy it all and my word was revel. Revel was such a fun word. It was about enjoying the now and celebrating as much as I could soaking up everything that was my life.

And last year, after the election and my eyes were opened to how much needs attention in our world, I chose the word zealous. My husband often says I'm over-zealous, sometimes still biting off more than I can chew, but sometimes just having such super big dreams and wanting to make them happen while also thinking it's going to be easy. But last year was about being zealous, being more passionate, being more vocal, speaking up and bringing attention to things. It was a great word and one I relied on as a reminder to keep going when it felt hard. 

Now, in 2018, I picked the word love. It's like taking all my words from 2013 through 2017 and rolling them up into one big giant hug. Simplify was about self-love. Patience was about love of the journey. Grace was about love for others and love for myself. Revel was about love of this glorious life. Zealous was about loving life enough to want to make a difference. And now, I'm celebrating love. 

Speaking of celebrating love, I can't think of anyone who more beautifully loved life than Amy Krouse Rosenthal and here's my post from last year that celebrates her. 

Love, love to you on this beautiful day. 

Thank you for stopping in to celebrate with me!

Did you pick a word for the year yet?