Full Disclosure: I consider Bill Konigsberg to be an author-friend. . .and I write a review of the new book in that light. And. . .in love.
There's soFull Disclosure: I consider Bill Konigsberg to be an author-friend. . .and I write a review of the new book in that light. And. . .in love.
There's something about love that makes us skeptical of possibility. That love must do something other than simply. . .love. That in the presence of love, someone gets saved. Something gets set right. Somebody or some place is transformed. Because of love. We put limits on the language of love by categorizing its expression into five distinct categories, cutting the language of love to half of that of the law that guides us in the same (all ten of them are expressions of love).
But a love that is. . .how does it manifest itself without announcing that it is here? That it can be a catalyst for change? That it can be freely given and freely received? That there is nothing you could have ever done or had done to you that makes you unworthy of experiencing love?
Bill Konigsberg puts love at the center of a book that is about so many things that we forget that love is working in the micro, meso, and macro settings. It's love that brings Max to the food truck where love has already begun to stretch itself thin in Jordan's attempt to save his mother and his home. It was love that raised both boys in the absence of a male role model, Max's Dad leaving to pursue a comedy career and Jordan's having died. And it's love that will find itself mixed and frozen into the lemonade that gets made from the lemons. . .(and it's love that keeps you from having to read another cliche about life and lemons).
In dual narratives, Konigsberg presents two young men who present in the most classic presentation of symbiotic relationships. Max, a Mexican baseball player who hangs out and games with the Three Amigos who trade arm punches and verbal barbs with one another and the lonely, angst-filled poet, Jordan, who seeks his company in the girls he calls his wives. Life if a series of levels and text messages. The dude bro banter and the impromptu makeovers. And it all comes together in one summer aboard a broken down food truck.
An accidental meeting finds the work-avoiding Max stepping up to assist Jordan and his mother with getting their ramshackle food truck back in order and back in business. While the two boys have seen other at school, neither really knows much about the other. Or how to make and sell food.
There are secrets to be held and secrets to be revealed in the music of what happens. Against the backdrop of the daily making and selling of food, the two boys come to realize that the other needs more than a person two help with the shopping. What begins as a realization of the other's counterpart (a motif within the symbiotic relationship convention) and a trade economy that sees Max working for Jordan soon becomes a friendship, a desire to be together beyond the day's shift. And set against the high, dry heat of Arizona, a relationship begins to warm like the oil of the van's fryer.
That there ARE moments of words that need to spoken and that there ARE moments of rescue with Konigsberg's book are evidence of love's presence, not its work that needs done. There is a music of what happens when human beings work toward the middle to negotiate what makes us come to love, what makes us hurt, what makes us pull away, and what moves us to pull others close.
THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS challenges the idea of masculinity and femininity all at once. The athletic and tough Max softens in the presence of Jordan and the ironically-detached 80s music fan demonstrates great bravery in sharing his gift of poetry which in turn draws from Max a latent gift that he has been hiding. Konigsberg uses his foil characters, two friends on each side to demonstrate the insulation that comes of identifying with the expectations of the culture. How to maintain one's sense of manliness in the company of teammates and how to embrace. . .even if irksome. . .the friends who mirror femininity and work toward pushing upon it.
A secret of one of the boys that is being kept from the other and from the relationship is what makes THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS a flip on readers' expectations and is note and discussion worthy of the book (but no spoilers here).
Just like love, both boys must live even while they are just struggling to survive. The lingering secret not told and the ledger book's bottom line are both looming nemeses of what would otherwise be a two-boys-meet-over-one-magical-summer book. Konigsberg keeps the reader in the two narratives wonder what will come to light in the presence of love and what the end result will be in the revelation of loves power to right. . .and to write. . .what has been wrong.
The parents around the young men are where Konigsberg does some very strong work in THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS. Max's father is unable to come to terms with the completeness of his son's homosexuality. Jordan's mother's habits keep them on the brink of complete economic ruin. A surprise resource in Max's mother is just one of the many reasons to celebrate Konigsberg's book.
THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS is tough. And tender. It is LGBTQ literature poised right where we want this kind of book for our LGBTQ readers. Konigsberg does not pull any punches in how vulnerable love can be in the presence of itself. When it needs words. When it needs rescue. When it needs cover to help it to survive. When it needs a nudge to make itself complete.
I love this picture book that celebrates the importance of the singular (and connecting) story within us and within us all. Everything comes together I love this picture book that celebrates the importance of the singular (and connecting) story within us and within us all. Everything comes together in perfect synthesis in this picture book (visual and verse work together so very nicely). This is the one classroom teachers will be celebrating as beginning-of-the-year read-alouds for years to come (beginning with this one). ...more
Recommended by literacy leader and teacher friend, Carol Jago.
Here, Kevin Coval (of Louder Than A Bomb and many other poetry initiatives and affiliatiRecommended by literacy leader and teacher friend, Carol Jago.
Here, Kevin Coval (of Louder Than A Bomb and many other poetry initiatives and affiliations you need to know about) begins with what seems like an allusion to the Howard Zinn history series. Then, in the opening poems, Coval turns all of this celebration on its head to shake out Chicago from a historical perspective, bringing the reader through and up to the Chicago of today (2017).
In powerful, sometimes outside the lines and form, verse, Coval takes the reader back to 1687 to suggest lasalle "wrote it down wrong." For classroom teachers a discussion of why Coval chooses NOT to capitalize Lasalle but every other word in the title is worthy one given the purposeful titling.
While tourists marvel at the engineering feat of reversing the flow of the Chicago River, Coval presents a flow that suggests something other than the intent for such turning of the water.
Here, Coval presents The Eastland Disaster of 1915 wherein an allusion to Carl Sanburg and the event open gates to further exploration of the poem's subject:
". . .in the middle of the Chicago river, the boat turned, a whale of metal flipping on its belly. . ."
Coval brings us the first American Gay Right Organization (Chicago 1924):
". . .the first organization in the dumb country, in the young city 45 years before stonewall. Black & White Chicago men mustered a congregation. . ."
In "Thomas Dorsey, Gospel's Daddy", Coval brings in the music born in a city, eventually moving a nation:
"grief is an unshakable shelter like Coltrane composing Love Supreme in his child's afterglow
Dorsey took to song to mourn channeled the spirit of rhythm & blues in juke and segregated joints.
he harnessed the secular for the sanctified. Take My Hand, Precious Lord, the genesis, the gospel. . ."
Muddy Waters gets a nod inviting classroom teachers to pull the Evan Turk picture book from the shelve and a CD from the stacks to build the music into the share.
A nod to Gwendolyn Brooks builds in natural gateways to other poets to be brought back and into connections and conversations when reading A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
"The Division Street Riots" invites another opportunity to connect poetry to a historical event:
". . .the fight, the stand the stake in the land
from here, a people will not move."
"The Chicago 21 Plan: September 1973" invites an interesting connection to THE CRUCIBLE in its suggestion of what happens when a loop (or a noose) tightens. In a recent chat with #DisruptTexts, I make suggestion that teachers and students work together to create A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF SALEM to break out of the play the individual players and their distinct voice.
1984 brings us to the origins of slam poetry in "Marc Smith Invents the Poetry Slam." How much of today's popular poetry--the kind that brings all of the folks to Soul Pancake and Button Poetry and YouTube--is owed to this moment in time lost to the release of Van Halen's JUMP and Bruce Springsteen's BORN IN THE USA?:
"the city's a racket so loud you can't hear yourself shit. space for quiet some yuppie luxury."
and
"america loves sport but needs story."
"How to Teach Poetry in Chicago Public Schools" is one that I want to share in entirety here, but I am afraid that it will lead to mass copying and sharing and implementation into poetry workshops without attribution to the poet (Hello, "What Teachers Make" and "Where I'm From). This poem. This one is the one you want for your students and for your poetry practice.
In "I Wasn't in Grant Park When obama Was Elected" is Coval's reflective invitation to poets and classroom teachers to think about where we were when. . .here, Coval relates that he was where the true democracy was. . .and is. . .the open mic.
One of the concluding poems of note here is Coval's commentary on the night the Cubs won the World Series. Here, the poet invites us to think about the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of celebration of winning. . .of conquest. . .of victory.
As a classroom teacher, I am excited to take Coval's collection into the classroom this year. I anticipate that I will lose copies of this book as I create connections to Dunbar and Hughes and Angelou and Tupac and the Break Beat poets like Nate Marshall.
This is Torrey Maldonado from his website in response to his first book, SECRET SATURDAYS (which this reviewer now needs to picSeptember 2018 Release.
This is Torrey Maldonado from his website in response to his first book, SECRET SATURDAYS (which this reviewer now needs to pick up): "As a boy, I wrote to distract my mind from the rough realities of my neighborhood and schools. Writing helped me with my problems but it also brought new problems. There was great pressure for me to follow the crowd and the crowd felt writing equaled school and school equaled corny. Where I’m from, young female writers are called nerdy but boys get called “soft” because people think school’s a girl’s thing. I never stopped writing though and it paid off. People around me mistook me writing as “soft” but writing turned out to be hard enough to smash my chains of poverty. It helped me avoid ending up dead, in jail, on drugs, or living below my full potential. Now, I write a lot to help young people also improve their lives."
There's an old saying in the education business that every reader will struggle with some kind of text at some point in his/her/their reading life. Maldonado's upcoming release for middle grade readers had this reader looking up terms that might be more common for readers in the demographic, but it is a good point to make that a middle grade book can be a primer for the language white educators like me may be missing out on.
So, I don't want to OD here on TIGHT (even this feels like an intrusion on the language used in the book between Bryan and Mike). Going "body" on someone. Stuck on stupid. Salty. Thirsty. But, this isn't the stuff of a "want-to-hip" and "current" vocabulary test for the week. Maldanado's new book employs the language of the "not soft" early middle school boy on the tough streets of New York.
This is the place where you pass the hard who sit on milk crates and give you the stare as you pass. You need someone to have your back. You need to know the non-verbal language. You don't want to be seen as "soft." If you have a Pa who is "tough," all the better. He can manage the street and clear the way for you between home and school.
And, if you have a Ma who can hold down the home and your school life, all the better. But, for how many others is Ma holding back the tough in her job as a community center worker? What does she know of "tough" that Bryan has yet to find out and later to know? And why is she inviting the boy that Bryan has hardly talked to dinner? And why is Pa making him the specialty dish that Bryan had thought was reserved for him?
Through in a sister who knows "tough" only because she is a few years older and you've got a "tight" situation that pins young Bryan into a "coming into masculinity mode" at a deficit of two females to one male in the home who are encouraging a mix of of throwing hands and thinking with one's head. And the man? He's one bad decision away from going back to jail. Throwing hands and thinking with one's head are compromised when one has a hot temper.
Ma's inviting Mike to dinner promises a new friendship to school-focused, family-oriented family-faithful Bryan. A shared interest in comic books melts the ice between two boys caught in a place that will be familiar to middle grade readers: the tension between being tough and reconciling that internal need to have a friend. . .to have and to be a brother and all of the feelings associated with this relationship.
Bryan's notion of brotherhood has the same romantic, over-the-top presentation as the comic books he enjoys. Maldonado's approach here makes TIGHT a natural "ladder" (Teri Lesesne) for unexpected titles readers might encounter later on like S. E. Hinton's THE OUTSIDERS.
Maldonado is able to keep the book "tight" by building a tension between Bryan and Mike that comes of Mike's carefree and accountability-free lifestyle that begins with innocent diversions leading to imminent danger as the book progresses. Bryan checks himself against his own beliefs and experiences even while following Bryan into a place that feels more and more "tight" for the tension of opposites between right and wrong. . .between brother and bother. . .between hero and villain.
Maldonado's supporting characters like Big Will provide opportunities for guidance and right steering, but when Mike's ODing the friendship and loyalty creates more tension for Bryan, decisions must be made for which way he will go. Maldonado's allusions to comics and the connections they can make between friends and between the reality and the fantasy that sustains young readers and enthusiasts is a strong nod to comics and graphica for young readers. Allusions to Miles Morales could lead readers to Jason Reynold's latest novel from the Marvel series about this Spider-Man storyline.
Maldonado's experience as an educator working with students is evident in the work and this puts him into a place with author/teachers like Phil Bildner writing for the younger reader set stories and situations that require thoughtful navigation and healthy conflict resolution. With TIGHT, Maldonado begins to situate himself among those middle grade writers like Sharon Draper, Sharon Flake, Nikki Grimes, and Walter Dean Myers. With the Nancy Paulsen touch on the inside of the book and her stamp on the outside of the book, adult readers who recommend books to younger readers can count on a "soft" touch to "tough" issues that present as "tough" situations and themes that "soften" only in the way that is encouraging to young readers that conflict resolution that does not always come of throwing hands....more
While thinking about what to share out of Ibi Zoboi's second book for young adults, I began to think about what makes a good "remix" since this is whaWhile thinking about what to share out of Ibi Zoboi's second book for young adults, I began to think about what makes a good "remix" since this is what the cover art promises for the book: a remix of the Jane Austen classic, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. A quick Google search turned up a graphic and exploration of five important considerations derived from the SketchNotes of C. Wess Daniels. I liked that he offers five considerations. What follows are Daniels' element of a "good remix" and my parenthetical supports for Zoboi's PRIDE:
1. The original piece of art, sample, text, etc. is recognizable.
(Zoboi is able to retain enough of the plot structure and story arc to bring forth the 19th century classic through the contemporary life of Bushwick and the neighboring communities to which the characters travel and interact. Character names are updated but recognizable with some characters like Collins remaining and the brothers maintaining the last name of Darcy. We don't want to add any spoilers into the review, but fans of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE will not be disappointed in the artistic license Zoboi takes with the classic to remix the work for today's young adult audience).
2. There is genuinely something new about the remix.
(Zoboi not only creates something new, but she creates new awareness of how the problems presented in early classic literature are all at once the same and conflated for the new generation. The gentry that is given a pass in the reading of Austen's classic work is the gentrification that is given due coverage and consideration in the "remix." A divergent character in Zoboi's PRIDE is the matronly and spiritual Madrina who provides not only comic relief but a deeper appreciation for the culture for Zuri and the reader alike).
3. It works. Everything fits together in a new seamless production.
(As an example of current, urban fiction for young adult readers, the "remix" can stand alone. Like much of the popular music that is released today with "samples," "hooks," and "loops," the young adult reader not have read the classic to enjoy the contemporary. The presentation of the moment-in-the-life is presented here in Zuri's summer before senior year which brings the sweeping epic into a summer episode which will work for young adult readers in following the story arc. There is enough of the sample to retain familiarity and there is enough new to be today's reader-friendly).
4. It is participatory: it moves people on the dance floor.
(Classroom teachers are already "buzzing" about this book and recent Twitter interactions with the #ProjectLITBookClub community reveals that Zoboi's book will be one of the selections for the 2018-2019 year).
5. It remains open to more remixes and modifications.
(Zoboi presents a model for how classics might be remixed and "played with" in order to create something new which could be invitation for more middle grade and young adult authors to take up the same approach. I can only sense that this approach, done well as Zoboi's is done, will affirm the readers of the classics, give today's readers something engaging and new, and give librarians and classroom teachers something to suggest by way of reader advisory for those readers who enjoy classics and contemporary together or separately.
In light of Daniels' ideas about what makes a good "remix," Zoboi's PRIDE holds up and will no doubt be the buzz-worthy, back-to-school book for young adult readers. ...more
Cross posted from Social Media Commentary (plus additional material for the review):
I have x, y, and z to read for my grad class this summer, but I alCross posted from Social Media Commentary (plus additional material for the review):
I have x, y, and z to read for my grad class this summer, but I also had THE SUN DOES SHINE on the kitchen table. This is Anthony Ray Hinton's account of his thirty years on death row for a crime he did not commit. A companion text to Bryan Stevenson's JUST MERCY.
I will get to x, y, and z. The last two hours have been some of the best reading. . .the most enlightening and inspiring reading. . .I have done this summer and in some time.
There are texts we must read to get an education. There are texts we can read in order to claim the learning that life might present to us if we are open to the listening and sharing the stories. . .the hopes. . .the dreams. . .the peaks and valleys. . .of other human beings.
The book chronicles the thirty years that Anthony Ray Hinton spends on death row for a crime he did not commit. The book presents his life lived in the balance of his connections back home (Lester is a real-life friend and model text for companionship), his connections made to other prisoners, and his eventual connection to Bryan Stevenson (who recounts his part of the narrative in the book, JUST MERCY).
With excerpts from the cases Hinton appeals and loses and references to the literature and stories he shares with his fellow inmates, Hinton's story is one that will have readers shaking their heads in disbelief that this could happen, and looking up to see if it is still occurring today.
This one. . .not to be missed. Please. . .let this be my reading recommendation to you. Go Target. Stand in the aisle. Read select chapters. Get hooked on the book. Take the last copy. Tell the manager you did this (vs. boasting that you got the last copy). Share the book forward with another human being.
Better still, go to the library and check the book out. Or get yourself on a "wait list." This might best emulate the means by which Anthony and the other death row inmates secure their titles for their "book club."...more
Cross posting this review from a series of tweets I shared at Twitter after finishing the book.
Friend, @CarolJago, had recommended A PEOPLE'S HISTORY Cross posting this review from a series of tweets I shared at Twitter after finishing the book.
Friend, @CarolJago, had recommended A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF CHICAGO (and it's right here beside me. But, I had to read, first, THIS IS MODERN ART by @kevincoval and @idrisgoodwin (with a forward by @Doclisayunlee). Stage play. Three texts in one featuring commentary on graffiti.
The play focuses on events surrounding the 2010 piece found on the Renzo Piano Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. Each of the three pieces (of text) in the book present a thoughtful commentary on the subject of graffiti. I'm recommending this one to teacher friends.
"An Outlaw Afterword: Cinderella Story" at the end of THIS IS MODERN ART features @kevincoval interacting with original artists from the 2010 "bombing" of the Institute. This builds in a nonfiction element to the stage adaptation of the event itself. Built-in, complimentary text.
What I am pointing to here is the ability of something that looks like a stage play that can serve as three pieces of text (satisfying state standards). Forward commentary by @kevincoval, @idrisgoodwin, and @Doclisayunlee, the play, and the interview. Book gift that keeps giving....more
Kelly Yang's book has been on my reader's radar for a while, but in a summer where I have really had to prioritize reading between the master's class Kelly Yang's book has been on my reader's radar for a while, but in a summer where I have really had to prioritize reading between the master's class in argumentation I am enrolled in with the books I get to read and share when the new school year begins, each free, independent read has to be a pull-me-in, keep-me-in, make-me-glad-I-chose-this-one kind of book.
And one thing that helps to solidify these kinds of choices is the recommendation of the readers in my community in whom I place my trust. And they are here. They are recommending Kelly Yang's upper-elementary/middle grade book.
And, now I know why.
Kelly Yang's debut work for younger readers is ready-the-room with a plucky protagonist whose presentation is one of advocacy for others and a willingness to act upon this sense of support and help. Even when she and her family are most in need of the same kind of help she is extending to others.
When Mia Tang's family take on the promise of running a motel with its promise of free rent and good income, they sign on with a landlord who is not all he seems in the initial deal. Mia soon learns the truth about the motel and her parents become even more aware of the limited opportunities available to immigrants from China.
Discovering that the son of the landlord is a classmate further complicates the situation for Mia at school.
But Mia is ready to take on her roll as part of a motel managing family. Operating the front desk, Mia learns about who gets let into the building and who doesn't. A Yankees hat and a tip jar become part of her office supplies and both have special meaning within and at the end of the reading.
Learning takes place in both settings under the give-and-take of a teacher who is initially unaware of Mia's struggle to write in English and her desire to overcome these struggles and to write well. Learning takes place in the hallways and rooms of the tenants Mia comes to know as the "weeklies" (who stay beyond a night or two and take up a sort of residence at the motel). From this extended cast of characters, Mia learns about the limits of economics and justice as she observes local and systemic racism in a character not to be missed, "Hank."
Big dreams of realizing a better opportunity for her and her family, Mia has big dreams of entering an essay contest to win their very own hotel to own and to operate. This presents difficulties between her and a friend when Mia fails to realize that opportunities availed to her and her family are not there for others (another lesson and discussion point from the book).
A takeaway from this book comes from Mia's interactions with her friend, Lupe. These conversations are ready for the opening of conversations about extensive poverty and the "roller coaster" upon which many find themselves taking the extended ride.
Another takeaway from the book is Mia's use of her limited writing coupled with a desire to use the resources about her to advocate for those in need. This gives "Ms. T" an opportunity for Mia to use a thesaurus and younger readers get to see Mia's in-the-moment revisions.
This book would make an excellent independent read for younger readers, but with all of its discussion points, I am recommending this title as a group read with lots of gateway potential into articles and documentaries and shorter video pieces to compliment the reading. "What does this mean" and "What would you do here" stems might invite responsive writing from readers in the room. ...more
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