Review: THE VICTORY SEASON: THE END OF WORLD WAR II AND THE BIRTH OF BASEBALL’S GOLDEN AGE by Robert Weintraub

Robert Weintraub’s The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age focuses on major league baseball’s 1946 season, notable as the first post-World War II campaign and the beginning of what some call baseball’s golden age. Some star players who went to war returned for the ’46 season in excellent form, like Ted Williams and Bob Feller. Other players returned with less skill than before the war. Of course, still others paid the ultimate sacrifice and did not return at all.

Weintraub tells all of their stories against the backdrop of a home front emerging from a war footing to face new realities, and how that environment affected the national pastime. For example, after leaving military service, Jackie Robinson spent the 1946 season playing a championship season for the minor league Montreal Royals, warming up for his momentous breaking of baseball’s racial barrier the following season. Baseball owners also depended on what was known as the reserve clause to control players’ salaries and careers. But in 1946, the reserve clause faced two challenges that would first soften owners’ iron grip and eventually loosen the reserve clause. A wealthy Mexican league owner lured away some top talent fresh from the military with salaries far above what they could earn in America, and union organizers began to make small inroads into clubhouses filled with modestly paid players, most of whom needed to work a second job in the off-season in order to have incomes similar to the fans who paid to watch them play.

The Victory Season is filled with baseball greats, and Weintraub’s story-telling brings them to life in their war-time and post-war incarnations: Williams, Feller, Joe and Dom DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial, Eddie Stanky, Leo Durocher, Johnny Pesky, Red Shoendienst and on and on. My favorite “character” here is Enos Slaughter. Known as Country Slaughter throughout the league, his infectious carefree demeanor and rambunctious playing style exemplified an American attitude set free from the shortages and worries of the war years.

A quick aside: In the early 1990s I met Enos Slaughter at a card show. Then in his mid-seventies, Slaughter was wearing a flannel shirt and looked like any senior citizen you might run into at Home Depot or a local coffee shop. He laughed, smiled, chatted, and shook hands with everyone who stood in line for his autograph. His 1946 persona as presented in The Victory Season meshes perfectly with my own impression from more than four decades later.

The Victory Season will appeal to fans of the Dodgers, especially the Brooklyn version, as well as Cardinals, Red Sox, and Indians fans. But it’s really a baseball book that will satisfy history buffs and a history book for all baseball fans.

Review: LIVING WITH JACKIE CHAN by Jo Knowles

“Then you have to claim it, Josh. You have to take ownership of whatever happened and learn how to live with it. And you can start by saying –“

Living with Jackie Chan is another excellent novel from Jo Knowles that begins by drawing readers in with an engaging premise and complex, likeable characters, and ends by presenting those characters with challenges that lead us to question whether we also have the courage to “take ownership of whatever happened and learn how to live with it.”

Josh, the main character of Living with Jackie Chan, was first introduced as one of four primary characters in the 2009 novel Jumping Off Swings. In that book, Josh fathers a child after one brief, insincere sexual encounter with Ellie. Even though Living with Jackie Chan relates to the situation in Jumping Off Swings, readers do not need to know the earlier book to appreciate this one. In Living with Jackie Chan, the focus is solely on Josh as he moves in with Larry, his karate instructor uncle, in another town distance to himself from what happened with Ellie.

Josh leaves behind his parents, friends, dog, and school. His new life is soon filled with karate, Jackie Chan movies, his uncle, his uncle’s girlfriend, new school acquaintances, and an awkward friendship with Stella, the girl who lives upstairs. And this is what I admire most about Jo Knowles novels: The characters are appealing but quirky and trying really hard to navigate their ways through school, or romance, or addiction, or whatever individual murkiness is giving them trouble. Readers can always find something to admire in these characters, even as we see them make bad choices. As Josh and the other characters struggle with finding the strength to do what needs to be done, anyone who has ever felt even a little bit lost can empathize with them.

Teen pregnancy stories from a male perspective are rare, and welcome. (Angela Johnson’s The First Part Last and Nick Hornby’s Slam also provide teen father protagonists.) Living with Jackie Chan will appeal to both males and females as it blends action and romance, humor and emotion.

In her acknowledgements, Jo Knowles says that Living with Jackie Chan came about from readers wondering what happened to Josh after reading Jumping Off Swings. That’s not a surprise. In each of her books—Lessons from a Dead Girl, Jumping Off Swings, Pearl, See You at Harry’s, and now Living with Jackie Chan–Jo Knowles gives life to characters so compelling that we can’t help caring about them. When her books end, those lives and our care continue. What greater testament to the power of a writer’s imagination, skill, and heart?

Living with Jackie Chan will be published in September, 2013 by Candlewick Press.

Review: BOB DYLAN IN AMERICA by Sean Wilentz

Bob Dylan in America is historian Sean Wilentz’s study of how various currents and touchstones of American culture directly and indirectly affected the music of Bob Dylan. Not at all a biography, Wilentz’s book examines critical points in Dylan’s career and explores the American influences on those moments and phases.

Wilentz provides detailed accounts of these Dylan influences, including Aaron Copland, Blind Willie McTell, The Sacred Harp (an early American hymnal), and variations of the folk song “Delia.” The in-depth treatment of these topics is impressive but also occasionally veers far from their relevance to Bob Dylan.

The most satisfying of these explanations involves the poet Alan Ginsberg. Ginsberg and the Beat writers certainly influenced Dylan, but Dylan also influenced them. When Wilentz delves into the origins of the Beat movement with a specific focus on Ginsberg, it’s only a matter of time before Dylan himself enters the narrative. We see that Dylan and Ginsberg had a complex relationship, performing together at various times, blurring the lines of who was influencing whom.

The Dylan emerging from Bob Dylan in America is a constantly evolving artist. The early Dylan is portrayed as fiery and inspired. The 1970s Dylan is a rock star trying to tell musical stories in new ways on stage and on record. The later Dylan comes across as little more than a collage artist, weaving together songs from all of his influences, including his younger self, as his ragged-voiced minstrel show travels the world.

The book’s “coda” deals with Bob Dylan’s 2009 album Christmas in the Heart. While I found this album mostly unlistenable and uninteresting, Wilentz calls it “a red-ribboned gift to the world.” This claim encapsulates Bob Dylan in America’s appeal and shortcomings: While there is always something to be said about everything Dylan does, it takes a dedicated Dylanologist like Wilentz to consider all of it important.

“Does This Need a Title?”: Helping Students Generate Titles

Most English teachers have heard some variation of “Does this need to have a title?” Although it seems like a yes-or-no question, my stock answer is “A title provides an excellent opportunity to set up your readers with some expectations about your topic and tone. There is no downside to providing a title.” In other words, “Yes, you need a title because it helps your writing, not because it’s a grade-based requirement.”

But students sometimes struggle with titles. I imagine them so exhausted after concentrating on crafting juicy paragraphs and considering the many ways their pieces can be organized that they end up just tacking on a simple label rather than an interesting title. How many pieces have we seen with the words “Romeo and Juliet” at the top, or even “Romeo and Juliet Essay”?

I’ve found that students can actually enjoy the search for just the right title if provided with some guidance and models. Listed below are four simple techniques for generating titles, along with some examples of my own culled from elsewhere on this blog. (I made the titles here clickable just in case you’re compelled to take a look at the respective posts.  It isn’t really necessary though.)

Three Key Words: This technique requires waiting until after the piece is written to generate the title. Then the writer simply chooses a few interesting words from what she has written and starts playing around with them in different orders, adding other words, and just seeing what clicks. (Much of this title-writing business relies on the “I’ll know it when I see it” impulse.)

Examples:
Delight, Wisdom, and Cutie Poems
Lilacs and TwitterArt
Schools, WAR, and Froggy DeMaestri

Make It Look Like a Title: This is the title-colon-subtitle strategy used in a lot of academic titles, many of which are perhaps accurate but also boring. “Boring,” of course, is in the mind of the beholder, but the titles of many academic papers actually seem intentionally boring. Let’s not encourage students to do that.

As we help students craft this kind of title, suggest that they use a single word or a very short phrase (1-3 words) followed by a colon and an emphatic or bold phrase.

Examples:
The Good Start: Twelve Targets for New Teachers
Today’s PLC Meeting: What Have We Learned?
Writers Week: 17 Years of “The Best Week Ever”
Stephen King: An Appreciation

Make It Not Look Like a Title: This is one of my favorites. Include symbols, numbers, punctuation.  I’m not sure of the psychological principles involved, but titles using non-word elements seem to stand out.

Examples:
Un-send! Un-send! (two hyphens and two exclamation marks)
“The New/Newer/Newest Colossus” (quotation marks and two blackslashes)
The Truest “Grit”: 1969 or 2010? (quotation marks, colon, two dates, and a question mark)
#NCTE12 – Glimpsing the Future (hashtag and dash)

Dramatic or Funny Image: Sometimes we use an anecdote in a piece to serve as an example or unit of evidence. If the essence of that anecdote can be distilled into a few words, the result can serve as a title.

Examples:
Extenuating Circumstances
The Brave Faces
Catch More Fish

Bonus Strategy: Each of these techniques can be augmented by noting that some kind of catchy sound device is a bonus: alliteration, assonance, consonance, etc. Students can be reminded that this is a practical application of those literary terms they’ve been learning all these years!

Examples:
Zapping Apathy with Daily Journals
Brit Lit: Reading, Writing, and Relevance
Trust Teachers

Class activities: I’m not sure how much time you want to devote to the art of writing titles, but here are some activities you can try:
– Bring in an op-ed piece and use these strategies to come up with a title. Headlines accompanying a newspaper op-ed piece are usually created based more on available column space than actual craft. What would the title be if space were not an issue?
– Have students bring in an untitled piece of their own and use these techniques to create multiple title possibilities. Then survey classmates about which is most appealing.
– Share a piece of your own writing that is finished or close to finished. Then solicit title suggestions based on these strategies.

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to add your favorite titles or advice about crafting titles.

What Students Read When They Can Read Anything

Our school’s current media center book display of Teacher Favorites.

Back in December, I posted a list of books students in my classes were reading. Now, four months later, my students are still reading, and I’ve added two new classes of readers to the mix. Today I made a list of books they are currently reading.

I think I can unscientifically discern some interesting trends when comparing the December and April lists. First, here is the new list:

Peter Abrahams: Reality Check
Jay Asher: Thirteen Reasons Why (3)
Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler: The Future of Us (3)
Jay Bilus: Toughness: Developing True Strength On and Off the Court
S. A. Bodeen: The Compound
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
Joan Brady: God on a Harley
Sam Brower: Prophet’s Prey
Bill Bryson: A Short History of Nearly Everything
A.J. Butcher: Spy High: Mission One
Meg Cabot: Big Boned
Orson Scott Card: Ender’s Game
Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
Cinda Williams Chima: The Dragon Heir
Cinda Williams Chima: The Exiled Queen
Cassandra Clare: Clockwork Princess
Emma Clayton: The Whisper
Peter Clines: Ex-Heroes
Susane Colasanti: Take Me There
Suzanne Collins: Catching Fire
Suzanne Collins: Mockingjay (3)
Ally Condie: Matched
Damien Cox and Gare Joyce: The Ovechkin Project
Chris Crutcher: Angry Management
Chris Crutcher: Deadline
James Dashner: The Maze Runner
James Dashner: The Scorch Trials
Penelope Delta: In the Heroic Age of Basil II: Emperor of Byzantium
Sarah Dessen: What Happened to Goodbye
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume 2
Debra Driza: Mila 2.0
Susan Ee: Angelfall
Simone Elkeles: How to Ruin Your Boyfriend’s Reputation
Laura Ellen: Blind Spot
Bret Easton Ellis: American Psycho
John Feinstein: Last Shot
Jim Fergus: One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
John Flanagan: Ranger’s Apprentice
Alex Flinn: Beastly
Gregory A. Freeman: The Forgotten 500
Betty Friedan: The Feminine Mystique
Neil Gaiman: Stardust
Jean Craighead George: My Side of the Mountain
David Macinnis Gill: Black Hole Sun (2)
William Golding: Lord of the Flies (2)
Jim Gorant: The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick’s Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption
John Green: An Abundance of Katherines
John Green: The Fault in Our Stars (3)
John Green: Paper Towns
Julie Halpern: Have a Nice Day (2)
Lorraine Hansberry: A Raisin in the Sun
Jack Higgins: Storm Warning
Charlie Higson: Double or Die
Ellen Hopkins: Burned
Ellen Hopkins: Crank
Ellen Hopkins: Impulse
Silas House: Eli the Good
Anthony Horowitz: Stormbreaker
Michael Hingson: Thunder Dog
Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner
Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Stephen King: 11/22/63
Karen Kingsbury: Unlocked
S. J. Kincaid: Insignia (2)
Jo Knowles: See You at Harry’s
Chris Kyle: American Sniper
Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg: Why Do Men Have Nipples?
Lois Lowry: The Giver
Marie Lu: Prodigy (2)
Mike Lupica: Summer Ball
Mike Lupica: Travel Team
Elizabeth Lunday: Secret Lives of Great Composers
Kimberly Marcus: Exposed
J. H. Marks: Conspiracy Theory
George R. R. Martin: A Game of Thrones
Morgan Matson: Second Chance Summer
Cormac McCarthy: The Road
Erin Morgenstern: The Night Circus
Jaclyn Moriarty: A Corner of White
Kate Kae Myers: The Vanishing Game
Joe Navarro: What Every Body is Saying
Patrick Ness: The Ask and The Answer
Tim O’Brien: Going After Cacciato
James Patterson: Angel
James Patterson: London Bridges
Susan Beth Pfeffer: Life As We Knew It
Jodi Picoult: Change of Heart
Alexandra Robbins: The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth
Jeremy Roenick: J. R.
Veronica Roth: Divergent
J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
Nic Sheff: Tweak
Tim Shoemaker: Code of Silence
Robin Sloan: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Jennifer E. Smith: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Lemony Snicket: Who Could That Be at This Hour?
Maggie Stiefvater: Shiver
Bram Stoker: Dracula
Todd Strasser: Boot Camp
Danny Sugarman: Appetite for Destruction: The Days of Guns N’ Roses
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (2)
Richard Ungar: Time Snatchers
Ned Vizzini: It’s Kind of A Funny Story
Alice Walker: The Color Purple
Jessica Warman: Beautiful Lies
Scott Westerfield: Extras
Daisy Whitney: The Rivals
Evan Wright: Generation Kill
Gabrielle Zevin: Elsewhere
Markus Zusak: The Book Thief (2)
Markus Zusak: I Am The Messenger

How does this list compare to the earlier list? I see more nonfiction titles now than earlier in the year. I have no idea why. Is it possible that these bright kids are now thinking a bit more bookishly and seeking out books derived from their interests outside of English class—for example, from science, history, athletics, music, or church?

I also see a higher percentage of non-YA titles now than before. I don’t necessarily see this as progress, but it might indicate that students are now open to more genres. One of the ideas I lifted from Penny Kittle’s Book Love is encouraging students to stretch themselves as readers. In January, I asked students to indicate at least one “stretch” book on their to-be-read list. Maybe some of those seeds are starting to grow.

Many of these students freely admit that they have not read a book in high school until entering my class. When that fact is coupled with a belief that students must pick up where they left off in their reading lives before they can climb any reading ladders, it makes sense that early in the year we would see a higher percentage of YA titles. After reading book after book throughout the school year, some ladders are now being climbed, and we’re seeing more self-selected non-YA books showing up in class.

We have about two months of school left, less for seniors. My biggest concern is what will happen to these students as readers over the summer when they do not have reading time automatically built into their schedules.

Penny Kittle’s Book Love has some wise words about that too:  “Summer is not the time to toss in the books we can’t get to during the school year or the books we think will make our school look more impressive if we require them. It’s not the time to make students who want to take honors English ‘earn’ it. Summer means they’re on their own. Summer reading in most schools is absent instruction or discussion. Many students won’t have parents reading beside them, ready to talk. We need books that can and will be read independently” (151).

I’m proud of the growth I’ve seen in these students over the course of our time together as readers. Although they will no longer be students in my class after the last bell rings in June, and many of them will no longer be high school students, my strongest hope for them is that they will continue to read and continue to grow as readers.

Review: BRAIN ON FIRE: MY MONTH OF MADNESS by Susannah Cahalan

Brain on Fire is New York Post reporter Susannah Cahalan’s gripping memoir about her horrific experience with a rare brain inflammation. The attack first manifested itself behaviorally—hallucinations, impulsive actions, anxiety—so Cahalan’s case was misunderstood and misdiagnosed as mental illness. After descending into a nearly catatonic state, a brilliant doctor correctly diagnosed Cahalan’s affliction as anti-NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis. In simpler terms, Cahalan’s autoimmune system attacked her brain for no known reason.

Although Brain on Fire necessarily has some science in it, the narrative is strong and compelling. Short chapters, intense scenes, and Cahalan’s own stubborn spirit move the story forward with dramatic energy. My own memories of a family member’s recent serious illness are still fresh in my mind, so Cahalan’s description of medical misdiagnoses, hospital staffers, in-home nursing care, and pharmaceutical side effects ring chillingly true.

Through the use of her parents’ journals, hospital videotapes, and medical records, Cahalan takes readers through the process of reconstructing events that she doesn’t remember. Because Cahalan emerged from her illness and wrote the book, it isn’t really a spoiler to say that Brain on Fire has a more or less happy ending. Although patients with susceptible autoimmune systems have no guarantees against relapse, Cahalan is thankfully able to share her story.

Near the end of Brain on Fire, she wonders how many of those suffering from anti-NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis are misdiagnosed and treated as hopelessly mentally ill. Cahalan questions whether some of those diagnosed with autism are actually suffering from some sort of serious but treatable brain inflammation.

The heroes in Brain on Fire are Cahalan’s supportive family, friends, and colleagues, as well as the doctors who keep asking questions and searching for answers when others gave up or gave in to convenient but inaccurate theories about her illness. Although she downplays her own heroism, it’s easy to admire Cahalan for not giving up on herself, and for the unflinching way she shares deeply personal fears and physical frailties.

Adventures with iPads: Three Questions

Graphic from IDSGN: A Design Blog

After using an iPad for the past month, I can say I like it for my personal use. All of the apps that keep me organized, entertained and enlightened are on there: Notes, Kindle, Pulse, Weather Channel, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Instead of lugging a laptop bag to each class, I’m travelling lighter these days with just an iPad and a folder or two. I can see why students prefer iPads over laptops and certainly over those gigantic literary anthologies.

Because this iPad came into my world relatively late in the school year, I’m not really using it directly in class yet. The vast majority of my students do not have iPads, so I’m just kind of getting used to it and thinking about how best to use it next year when many more of our students—but perhaps not all—will come to class equipped with an iPad.

My questions and concerns boil down to three questions:
1. Is an iPad the best device, or is it the most obvious way to settle on a device?
2. Does using an iPad enhance student writing?
3. Does using an iPad enhance learning?

Is iPad the best device, or is it just the most obvious way to settle on a device? The starting point for this question is whether or not a school has an obligation to provide technology for its students. Why not simply require that students bring some kind of “smart” device to school? In a perfect world, that might be the best approach, but our world is far from perfect. Some students simply don’t have the means to possess a personal device like this.

So, if we want students to use personal technology for instructional purposes but can’t presume that all students can provide their own devices, we need to accept the responsibility for providing the technology. But why iPad? Why not some other device?

iPads have a decent price point, and their size is student-friendly. No more spinal curvature problems from hoisting eighty-pound backpacks. But if price was no object, would we still choose iPads? I’m not so sure. Laptops are a little bigger but quite a bit more powerful. Would smaller notebook-style laptops provide more oomph than the app-based iPad?

If we’re choosing iPads because they are the best instructional format, that’s great. If we’re choosing them because they are the most affordable and best fit for student lifestyles, that’s maybe fine too, but we should always keep an eye on the ideal while recognizing when we’re choosing to settle for something less than ideal.

Does using an iPad enhance student writing? I won’t be 100% sold on iPads until I see that they help students become better writers. As I said in a previous post about iPads, I’m not comfortable typing on it, even with an external keyboard. Maybe I’ll get used to it, but my own preferences matter far less than what students experience while writing. If students are uncomfortable, will they write less? Maybe students are less finicky than I am about how the keyboard is supposed to feel. Before the school year ends, I’d like to observe a class of experienced student iPad users as they write.

Will using an iPad make students better writers than they already are? I have my doubts about that, but I definitely don’t want to see students go backwards as writers because of the device they are using. I can see how iPads can help students think in new, interesting ways, and that might have a heuristic effect on how students approach writing. I can also see how iPads can help students produce writing with more digital components. But are the physical acts of manipulating and negotiating the keyboard as much of a hindrance for students as they seem to be for me?

Does using an iPad enhance learning? Aside from writing, I can see many exciting possibilities coming into focus when all students have an iPad.

Our school’s tech director recently shared a graphic showing the SAMR model:

I can easily see how my classes will quickly move to the Modification stage of the Transformation level if everyone has an iPad. To a certain extent that has already happened because I use tech-oriented assignments that I expect students to complete outside of class. My students frequently amaze me with the ways they complete these open-ended assignments. In the future, as they work together with homogenous devices, I can only imagine what that intellectual synergy will produce as they move to the Redefinition stage.

My schedule and teaching assignments for next year are still undetermined. I do not know what classes I will teach in my final year at our school, and I may not know until after school starts next fall what percentage of students in any given class will be issued iPads. (It’s very possible that I’ll be a teacher with an iPad in classes where only a minority of the students has them.) Depending on how that plays out, I may find myself using an iPad to design instruction in new ways but see it presented to students in more traditional ways that are not dependent on personal devices.

On the other hand, if I have a class or classes where 100% of the students have iPads, let the flipping commence! If those classes materialize, we will see learning take off in exciting, dynamic ways.

What am I missing? Am I concerned about the right issues? What can I do to prepare for classes that may (or may not) be iPad-based next year?

Review: TWERP by Mark Goldblatt

How many times have we witnessed kids picking on one another verbally or physically and, when challenged about it, defending themselves by saying, “It’s a joke,” or “We’re just kidding around”? In Twerp, Mark Goldblatt shows how “just kidding around” can become something much uglier.

Julian Twerski, aka Twerp, makes a deal with his English teacher, Mr. Selkirk: If Julian writes stories about himself and his friends, he can avoid writing a report about Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. So Julian writes about whatever comes to his mind, which is usually stories about how his friends manipulate him. They consider it no big deal, and although Julian doesn’t like it, he mostly accepts it. Then Julian uses his writing talents to help one of his friends trick a girl into liking him. Julian doesn’t intend any harm, but when things get messy, he realizes that a lot of kids in his social circle are using whatever power they have to coerce others into serving them in some way.

Throughout his writing, Julian avoids telling the story of what happened with Danley Dimmel, although he self-consciously mentions this avoidance several times. Instead, Julian explains episode after episode of what we might call bullying-lite. The stories seem to be “just kids being kids,” but as they accumulate, we see that sometimes Julian is the victim and sometimes he’s the perpetrator. This is business as usual for the kids in his New York neighborhood. Eventually the story of Danley Dimmel is presented, and we see kids become overtly mean as they mistreat a mentally challenged young man from their block. The Danley Dimmel episode is more intense than the other situations Julian relates, but we see that it arises from those same manipulative, competitive impulses.

Twerp takes place in 1969, and unchecked power was an underlying theme in the news of the day. Julian pays a kind of limited attention to what’s going on in the news, but he starts connecting the dots. He eventually sees that even the events of Julius Caesar relate to pressuring others into doing things they otherwise wouldn’t consider.

Mark Goldblatt’s Twerp is an important new contribution to YA literature focused on bullying. Through the carefully ordered presentation of episodes and skillful integration of cultural references, readers come to understand that full-blown bullying is different from peer pressure and manipulation only by degree.

The characters in Twerp are in fifth through eighth grade, and this story is well-suited for both boys and girls in this age group. It should work well for book circles, individual reading choices, or as a whole-class novel.

Twerp will be published by Random House Books for Young Readers and is scheduled for release on May 28, 2013.

Review: SORTA LIKE A ROCK STAR by Matthew Quick

Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amber Appleton’s life could be considered miserable. She is homeless and living in a bus. Abandoned by her father, Amber loves her mother, but her mother isn’t much of a parent. It’s a good thing she has her dog, Bobby Big Boy aka BBB aka Triple B aka B Thrice. Although she could easily be forgiven for sinking into depression, Amber has a spirit that makes her see the best in people and situations, most of the time. She will not accept charity, and she tries very hard to help any people she connects with in her serendipitous life.

Matthew Quick’s Sorta Like A Rock Star is appealing for many reasons, but what I like best is the way it captures how life feels to Amber Appleton. As Amber goes through her life, helping out wherever she can, her personal circumstances go from bad to worse. Matthew Quick does not allow Amber to be Pollyanna; she has moments when she questions her purpose: “At best, I’m just an interesting blip in people’s lives—an amusing footnote. Which is probably why my dad split and my mom can’t stay sober and all of her boyfriends ditch us after only a few months or so. Sometimes I wonder why I try at all. What’s the point?”

Quick also amusingly shows us how Amber builds something like family and community, even though she is separated and mostly disenfranchised from her own support network. As Amber fosters relationships with various groups and individuals, she names them, and as Sorta Like a Rock Star unfolds, we are right there with Amber, understanding exactly who she means when she refers to The KDFC (Korean Divas for Christ, a group of immigrants who Amber helps learn English through Motown songs), or The Five (a group of students from her school who focus on video games and marketing), or PJ (Private Jackson, a Vietnam vet and haiku poet befriended by Amber), or FC (Father Chee, a priest who tries to answer her religious and spiritual questions), or Prince Tony (the principal who she convinces to act in the best interests of his students), or JC (Jesus Christ, the religious figure she prays to and asks for help).

In the end, Amber Appleton shows us that we get to choose our responses to life’s challenges. When faced with the person who caused the most misery in her life, she gives him a haiku: “You may exist in / This world—but I exist too / And I will not yield.” I hope many young readers will pick up Sorta Like a Rock Star to be inspired by a girl who says, “We’re celebrating our freedom. We’re celebrating our right to be kids when everything is trying to take that away from us. It’s a choice, Ty. We can do whatever we want.”

Young readers looking for a break from sinister books should spend some time with Amber Appleton. The tone of Sorta Like a Rock Star is light and funny most of the time, although it has a couple of dark sections too. For students looking for a follow-up to John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Sorta Like a Rock Star is a solid suggestion.

Now Entering: iPad-Landia

On Friday I received a school-issued iPad, and this opens all kinds of exciting new territory.

Our district is rolling out iPads for student use in a big way. We are the largest high school district in Illinois, so this is a major investment. By next year, roughly 50% of our 2,800-member student body will have school-issued iPads. Some course sections are designated as iPad classes. Every student in those classes will have an iPad, and the iPads will play a central role in how the learning and instruction are designed. I would love to teach one of those classes, but because of my impending retirement from our school (June, 2014), I was gently told that I am not exactly the “preferred demographic” for those classes. That’s fine. I like a challenge.

So, here’s how I’m looking at this. I have two primary iPad goals. First, I want to figure out how I can best use it to help me do my job better. How can the iPad help me organize, discover, communicate, and share in ways that benefit my students and my profession?

The second goal is more contextual and probably a larger challenge. Next year I will teach several classes, none of which is likely to be one of those iPad classes. Because of the way our iPad program works, a certain percentage of my students will have those school-issued iPads, but it’s unlikely that it will be 100% of the students in any class. So how can I maximize the learning potential of these iPads when not everyone has direct access to one of the powerful gizmos?

I’m guessing there are methods and models for using this technology when it’s not comprehensively distributed. There will be a variable number of iPads in my classroom each day. It seems a shame to ignore them just because there is not 1:1 coverage. At lunch on Friday I ran into our Shawn, our resident 1:1 expert, and asked him about this issue. He said, “You need six.” I like the sound of that.

I have two other smaller goals for the iPad. Because I also use a laptop and an iPod Touch, I need to figure out what functions work best for which hardware. What can an iPad do better than the other tools?

The second goal is related to the first when it comes to writing. I write a lot. As a writer, I’m a keyboard-based life form, but I’d love to leave behind my laptop and become proficient at writing on the iPad. Right now it feels foreign. I miss the little indentations on each laptop keyboard key. My fingers seem to just slide around on the iPad’s flat simulated keyboard. I can easily type out a quick tweet or something short on an iPad, but my fingers don’t act the same way on that iPad keyboard as they do on my laptop, and it distracts me from what I’m writing about.

My next few months will include learning apps, thinking about how to optimize this tech integration in a classroom of “haves and have-nots,” as well as discovering new ways to make my job easier and more productive. I’m especially interesting in how iPads affect writing instruction. I know iPads make it easier to incorporate non-text elements, and publishing opportunities abound. I’m excited about exploring those.

I know many teachers are way ahead of me on this journey. Help me learn. Do students have this same reaction to the iPad keyboard? How do they write differently when using an iPad instead of other word-processing platforms? What are your favorite apps? Do you have any experiences with the divided classes I will mostly likely experience? How can iPads enhance writing, revision, and publishing? What support resources should I know about and investigate? I appreciate any suggestions or advice!