The Apocalyptic Era: Teaching & YA Lit Blog

Unabridged Highlights: Global Read Aloud Books

9/17/2018

Quick Summary: In this episode, we discussed three of the choices for Global Read Aloud this year. If you're unfamiliar with Global Read Aloud, it is a movement focused on connecting classrooms around the world through shared reading experiences. Below are the summaries we wrote for each of the novels we discuss in the podcast.

Samira Ahmed's Love, Hate and Other Filters: Maya Aziz is an aspiring filmmaker, a senior in high school who is balancing determining her own future with pleasing her traditional Indian immigrant parents. This novel addresses her crush on a white classmate, Phil; her potential relationship with Kareem, a boy from her own Muslim culture; and the prejudice that follows an act of terrorism that has a huge impact on Maya’s (and her parents’) consideration of her identity.
Aisha Saeed's Amal Unbound: Amal is a twelve-year-old girl in a small village in Pakistan. As the oldest sibling with a new baby on the way, she has many responsibilities to her family. As those pressures build and her time in school, a place of refuge for her, decreases, she feels increasingly distraught. A momentary loss of composure in the village marketplace causes a major shift in her life circumstances, forcing her into a life of indentured servitude for the local landlord who oversees the village. As her world spirals out of control, she has to struggle to decide who she will be and how she will move forward.
Alan Gratz's Refugee: This story examines the lives of three different refugees coming from different time periods and circumstances-- Josef is a Jewish boy fleeing from Nazi Germany, Isabel is a Cuban girl fleeing the Castro regime in 1994, and Mahmoud is a Syrian boy escaping war-torn Aleppo in 2015. Refugee is the story of the journey each of these young people take with their families in search of refuge from political persecution in their own countries.

My Take: While I enjoyed aspects of all three of these novels, I loved Refugee the most. I found all three of the story lines totally captivating, and I love a book with multiple narrators. What I most appreciated is the way that Gratz uses the different storylines to break down some misconceptions and negative attitudes that people seem to have toward refugees. I also loved Amal Unbound and so appreciated the insight Ahmed gave into life in a Pakistani village. I appreciated the way Ahmed revealed the complex cultural dynamics that lead toward girls being uneducated and the way she highlighted the brave steps girls around Pakistan are taking to change the culture and their larger world.
My conclusions:

Love, Hate and Other Filters - 3 out of 5 stars
Amal Unbound - 5 out of 5 stars
Refugee - 5 out of 5 stars

Teaching Tips: All three of these novels would work well in the classroom. Love, Hate, and Other Filters would be a great lit circle book and could be taught with other books about hate crimes, terrorism, or second generation experiences. Amal Unbound is a quick, powerful read and could definitely be read whole class as it is fascinating and moves quickly. We're planning to teach Refugee whole class with our tenth grade students. However, having done some read aloud with them so far this year, we've realized that Refugee is likely going to be too much to get through with read aloud alone. We're planning to get enough copies for the students so that we can read parts aloud but then let them read by themselves in between the sections we'll read together.
Podcast Highlights: It was so fun to discuss all three of these books with Jen and Sara, and I loved hearing their perspectives.

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Unabridged Podcast Episode 29: Blake Crouch's DARK MATTER

7/3/2018

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Quick Summary: In this episode, we’re discussing Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter. It is a story about Jason Dessen, a physics professor, husband, and father, whose life is turned upside down when he is kidnapped and transported to a different world--one where his wife is not his wife, his son is not there, and he is profoundly successful as a physicist and has accomplished seemingly impossible things. As Jason struggles to figure out what is real, he works to find his way home. The protagonist must face the fragile nature of his reality as he struggles to reunite with his family and his world.

My Take: This was a fast-paced sci-fi book that grabbed me and kept moving. There are parts that were truly mind-blowing. Some of the details of the plot itself left me a bit perplexed, but it was a good read overall.
My verdict: The premise of this captivated me. As things unfolded, I found myself a bit skeptical of some of what came, but it was really enjoyable and fast-moving. 3/5 stars.
Favorite Quotes: There were lots of quotes I enjoyed in this fast-paced novel.

"It occurs to me that if I do survive, I'll carry a new revelation with me for the rest of my days: we leave this life the same way we enter it--totally alone, bereft. I'm afraid, and there is nothing Daniela or Charlie or anyone can do to help me at this moment when I need them more than ever. They don't even know what I'm experiencing." -- This novel really makes you think about what it means to be your true self and what reality really is. There are many moments of isolation and alienation that make the reader ponder existence.
"It's like we get so set in our ways, so entrenched in those grooves, we stop seeing our loved ones for who they are. But tonight, right now, I see you again, like the first time we met, when the sound of your voice and your smell was new country." -- One of the things I loved about this novel is the gratitude that the narrator feels for his life and all of the tiny, simple moments that make reality what it is.

What I added to my TBR list: I'm dying to read Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng that Sara recommended! As I mention on the show, I LOVED Everything I Never Told You so very much, and I look forward to Ng's next novel. That one keeps getting pushed down the pile a little bit because of more pressing reads, but I can't wait to get to it!
Teaching Tips: While I would not teach this whole class, it could work in lit circles. It could also work well in a creative writing class since the narrative structure is fascinating!
Podcast Highlights: I loved/ felt mortified by listening to us try to work through some of the theoretical physics that are completely foreign to us! It's always humbling to discuss something completely outside of one's field of expertise. My cheeks are burning now just thinking about it!

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Making a Podcast Live on iTunes (and elsewhere): Things I Wish I Had Known

6/8/2018

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Getting our Unabridged podcast started has been an amazing adventure, and I've loved being part of the journey as we took something we loved, book discussions, and transformed it into a real recording podcast. We began recording back in June of 2017, but we did not launch our podcast until February of 2018. Here are a few things we learned along the way as we made our podcast live.

iTunes does not determine your release day. We spent a lot of time trying to pace things so that we'd have the best chance of getting a "good" release day for our podcast. While there are no terrible days/ amazing days, it is true that podcasts that release in the middle of the week seem to be statistically better received, whereas podcasts that release on the weekends are not as well received. We wanted a Tuesday/ Wednesday/ Thursday release day. We strategized and plotted and planned to try to achieve this goal, and it turned out (after our podcast was approved with iTunes, which only took a day) that WE push the podcast out whenever we post from our host, Podbean (more about that below)--this happened rather unintentionally the first week (we thought we were supposed to be posting for a Friday release), but we wound up with a Wednesday evening release schedule, which has been great!
You need to choose a host. We work in the tech world, so we were considering hosting it ourselves, but that seemed very complicated and not reliable, so we wound up taking the plunge and paying for a year subscription with Podbean. I did extensive research to try to figure out which platform would be best. I got down to Buzzsprout and Podbean. In the end, a major reason that I chose Podbean, where our Unabridged podcast now lives (see our Podbean link here), is because they offer a crowdfunding service, but we will be using Patreon instead, so that wound up being a moot point. Still, I have been pleased with Podbean. I'm glad we took that route.
Once you have music, a logo, a recording (or two or three), and a host, go ahead and set up your release on iTunes. Once you have the essentials in place and think you can sustain a systematic release (we try to record at least three times each month, and we release every Wednesday), go for it! We released six episodes up front, but I'm not sure it's totally necessary to release extra content. There were a lot of things we couldn't know until our podcast was in action, and we're learning as we go.
Be sure to sign in to iTunes using your podcast login information. You'll upload your podcast on iTunes Connect, but you'll need to use the Apple ID you created for that on your other iTunes app in order to access the full dashboard within iTunes Connect. It's easy to do, but it took me a long time to figure out that was the issue when I was ready to upload our content.

Whether you are considering podcasting as a hobby or as a way to promote ideas from an organization or school, it's definitely doable, and it's a lot of fun. Contact me on the contact page if you have questions, and I'll do my best to help.

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Unabridged Podcast Episode 27: Robin Benway's Far from the Tree

6/6/2018

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Quick Summary: It is a story about 3 siblings, separated at birth by either adoption or being placed in foster care, finding each other in their teens and navigating the complicated relationships in their lives: both adoptive and biological. The book is told through multiple perspectives, alternating through each sibling’s point of view. Grace just gave up her own daughter, after getting pregnant at 16, and discovers that she has two biological siblings she’s never known about. She reaches out to Maya, who is dealing with her own parents’ struggles and always feeling a little bit on the outside. Together, they find Joaquin, who has spent his life bouncing through the foster care system. As the book progresses, these three siblings discover each other while also learning more about themselves, their biological mother and the connections they never expected to experience.

My Take: Benway did an amazing job of exploring so many different angles and perspectives on what it means to be family. She integrated some hard truths about adoption, racial dynamics, and tensions between adopted children and both their birth mother/ parents and their adopted parents, but she houses those truths in tenderness and compassion. It's a powerful story, and I love the narration from three different, distinct siblings.
My conclusion: Overall, I absolutely loved this novel. Benway took on so many issues with her characters, and each narrator's voice was unique and so lovable. I did struggle a with the plausibility of some of the events, but that did not stop the overall impact of the novel. 4/5 stars.
What I added to my TBR list: Jen's pick, Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert, sounds like an awesome book, and it sounds like it hits on issues of family and race dynamics that I find fascinating and important to consider in our society.
Teaching Tips: This would work so well as a lit circle choice. It's a powerful read for students but would be a little long to move through whole class. However, the issues this book raises (such as what constitutes a family, why mothers opt to give up babies, and how to navigate relationships) would work so well with a wide array of other complementary books.
Podcast Highlights: I so loved the points that were made about adoption and the difficulty of giving up a baby because I think that highlights the issues that Benway raises about why mothers have to make those hard choices. I also loved the discussion we had about siblings and the amazing dynamics of sibling relationships.

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Unabridged Episode 21: Laurie Frankel's This is How it Always is

5/23/2018

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Quick Summary: This episode is about This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. Parents Rosie and Penn struggle with balancing the needs of their five children, navigating their inclination both to support and to protect their youngest child who is exploring gender identity. This is the story of a family who is doing their best, despite all of the uncertainty, to help themselves navigate their way in the world.

My Take: I absolutely loved this tender depiction of a family of seven as they worked to navigate their way through the world together. Frankel's depiction of Claude's journey as he transitioned into Poppy was powerful and compassionate, and Frankel never suggested that Rosie and Penn knew the way forward or had all the answers, but she instead revealed the daily pathway they all took toward a better, truer life for themselves and all of their children.
My conclusion: This book was a clear winner for me. While I did not fly through it, the prose was elegant and whimsical, and I was swept away by the characters and their journey. I so appreciated Frankel's portrayal of parenting and how hard it is to know the right thing to do, and I loved her honest, raw depiction of what transitioning can be like for a transgender child who is aware from early childhood that she is a girl. 5/5 stars.
Favorite Quotes:

"You only guess. This is how it always is. You have to make these huge decisions on behalf of your kid, this tiny human whose fate and future is entirely in your hands, who trusts you to know what’s good and right and then to be able to make that happen. You never have enough information. You don’t get to see the future. And if you screw up, if with your incomplete, contradictory information you make the wrong call, well, nothing less than your child’s entire future and happiness is at stake. It’s impossible. It’s heartbreaking. It’s maddening. But there’s no alternative." - This quotation resonated in every part of me. As a mother of young children, I am discovering how fraught daily life is as I constantly make decisions that will alter their lives for better or worse. I love the way Frankel continually shows the perilous situation of parents
[Regarding Claude's transition to Poppy] "The kindergarteners were unfazed. Very little is unalterable as far as five-year-olds are concerned. Very little doesn’t change. One day those squiggly lines in books transmute into words. One day actual pieces of your mouth start falling off. One day your beloved resolves into a kind of ratty stuffed animal, and for the first time in your life, you feel fine about leaving him home. One day, like magic, you can balance on two wheels. That one day you could be a boy and the next become a girl was not out of their dominion." I love the way Frankel highlights the malleability of a child. It truly is remarkable how unsurprising those kinds of things are to children. So often, it's adults who complicate things and make them into issues.

Teaching Tips: This would be a good option for lit circles, but it would be a tough read for a lot of students just because it's long and not fast-paced. However, I just listened to George by Alex Gino, and I LOVED it! It's middle grade and would be a great book for middle school or high school students. It's quick, but it does an amazing job of depicting what transitioning is like and how challenging it can be but also how fulfilling it can be.

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