Book #13 Laurie Halse Anderson’s The Impossible Knife of Memory

It’s been a while since I’ve dipped into my ALAN box, and I’ve read several books since the last one I read as part of my “project.” I finished this book a couple of weeks ago, and to be honest, I sort of feel inadequate to review it.

Anderson is amazing. Not just an amazing author but an amazing person. I can honestly say this after reading many of her books, seeing her speak at many functions, and meeting her in person several times. Beginning with Speak, Anderson’s influence on the field of young adult literature, in my opinion, is tremendous. As is her dedication to her readers and their teachers (check out her blog where she offers advice for writing—I would love to use this with students.

But onto her latest book (released in January).

Hayley lives with her father, who suffers from PTSD. After spending five years with him on the road as he drove a truck, they finally settle down so she can finish high school. She meets a boy, drama ensues, with many arguments and adults who can’t handle their own lives, thereby requiring their teenage children to take care of them, sort of sounds like half a dozen other books I’ve just read. So, what makes this one any different?

First, if the boyfriend had “saved” Hayley, like in the other books (I won’t mention names) I was going to be furious. Thankfully, he doesn’t, exactly. Second, Anderson doesn’t write down to her readers; her language is sparse, full of imagery, and her dialogue is believable. Her protagonists suck you into their worlds. Oh, and she deals with issues that could easily be poorly represented in books—rape, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder—topics that she treats thoroughly and thoughtfully. In fact, this is the only book I can think of that discusses PTSD. And, I’m just waiting for someone to submit a scholarly essay on “impossible knife of memory” for Hayley and her father.

Her stories touch readers.

I can say that after reading her novels with students and I have had some of the hardest classroom discussions I have ever had.

But that won’t make me stop reading and recommending her books. 

Doing School

As a teacher mom, I often find myself telling Emery how to do school (I say telling because he never asks). For example, his ELA teacher has an assignment where students are to read for 20 minutes four to five times a week and log their reading time, # of pages read, and some sort of response (find and define a word you didn’t know, summarize what you read, etc.) Okay, so it’s not as bad as Accelerated Reader, but this approach, to me, doesn’t promote a love of reading either—it’s just more school work. I’d rather students journal once a week on what they read outside of school or even just talk about it. They read enough for learning in school, already, in my opinion. I see this assignment as a way of monitoring reading—don’t get me wrong, the best way to improve comprehension and vocabulary is through reading . . . but the point of this post is to share with you how I modified this assignment for my own purposes and to teach Emery how to do school.

Therefore, he reads throughout the week, but he writes all of his logs on Sunday. I know, this approach could be seen as procrastination, but if he’s doing his twenty minutes of reading in the car, it’s a little inconvenient to pull out his reading log and record the metaphors in the twenty pages he read. I guess it’s more about me and my desire that he not feel the urge to enter a reading log entry every time he reads. I know what I like as a teacher, and I just assume all teachers appreciate the same efforts (I know this is not true and narrow-minded of me).

But there are other examples as well. I encourage him to bring copies of his KidsDiscovery on topics that they are studying in Social Studies. I tell him to occasionally record extra entries or put forth a little thought into his presentations—but I must add, I have never done his work for him except once when he had to embroider a Christmas tree parabola for math.

There clearly is a set of rules that accompany being successful in school. For the most part, one must be quiet, follow directions, sit still for long periods of time, and be well-organized. Creativity, independent thought, and messiness are discouraged. A few years ago, I read Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students by Denise Clark Pope. In this study (which is quite readable), Pope follows five high school students attempting to achieve academic and extracurricular success. She reveals the short cuts, tricks, and often disturbing attempts these students undertake to meet their academic goals.

I just finished (this morning, which is why my post is late, I read most of yesterday) Walter Kirn’s Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever. Talk about someone who “did” school. In fact, when he lost sight of “doing school” which I’m beginning to realize means cheating, taking short cuts, buttering up one’s teachers, and in many cases, taking drugs and using alcohol (which Kirn takes to extremes). There’s an interesting lesson that “doing school” leads to breakdowns, despair, and really not much fun at all.

Is there any hope at all? I can see now why some parents turn to unlearning—which reminds me, I need to review Anderson’s latest book. 

Rules for Recommending Books

Emery is now one of the six out of ten 8-12 year olds with a cell phone. 

As I’ve stated before, I sometimes think those of us who work with children or students and who specialize in an area of interest to parents, often get called upon for advice.

For me, that can mean how to get children motivated to read and write. Now, I can make suggestions for how to get children to read or write, or what might make a good book to use with 8^th graders, but my advice doesn’t always satisfy parents’ or teachers’ expectations for their students. (For example, I may not recommend a book that fits your child’s Accelerated Reading Level).

In addition to teaching, I’ve also worked in a library, and I love making recommendations—even sometimes when I’m not asked to. But, I’ve learned the hard way that there are a few important rules to follow when recommending books:

1.     Never, ever, ever, ever, recommend (or not recommend) a book you haven’t read. EVER. I don’t care how many awards it has won or how much hype it’s received or how much your child might have enjoyed it. That doesn’t mean someone shouldn’t read a book if they don’t get a recommendation; I’m just suggesting for your own peace of mind—follow this first piece of advice.

2.     You can’t always rely on the recommended ages for a book.

3.     A slim book, large text, and lots of margin space do not always mean easy or appropriate for younger children. Neither do pictures. Trust me.

4.     I like that books win awards, but I do not find that these books always make the most interesting books for children to read. I like the awards that children vote for—such as Louisiana’s Young Readers’ Choice Book Award. Oklahoma has a similar award, and I imagine most states do.

5.      You have to know a little bit about the reader (I usually ask what they currently like to read) and what their interests are. Have a few standard questions to ask.

6.     Finally, if you suspect someone might not be a strong reader, by all means, do not insult him or her by recommending a book that is clearly written for a younger audience. This takes a little knowledge about reading levels, but you can find a book that written in contemporary language, with a slightly lower level of vocabulary and sentence structure, and still match their interests.

7.     If you give a book to someone that you haven’t read—let them know.

This post serves as a reminder to me too as I found myself today trying to make suggestions for an advanced reader who is a seven year old girl. We know this age tends to devour books in a series, but The Diary of a Wimpy Kid (which I’ve read) might not be the best choice.

So, am I forgetting any rules? (which is a coincidence because Emery is currently reading Rules by Cynthia Lord, which is a good book if your child enjoyed Wonder). 

Another Conference, Accelerated Reading, and Tech-Free Tuesday

I seem to be always attending conferences. This weekend was our graduate student conference—in other words, a conference where just graduate students present. It was really interesting, and I learned a lot. Surprisingly, the session that seemed to garner the most controversy was the one in which the students found in their student that their students were motivated to read more and improved their reading skills because of Accelerated Reader. Personally, I think that program is rubbish—but my complaints with it are anecdotal. Emery’s school, for example, doesn’t have the program, but promotes a love of reading through independent reading from kindergarten. And, I’ve had students who report on how their students become more interested in earning points in inventive ways. I remember my sister fretting because her daughter wanted to read books that fell outside of her reading level. Finally, AR does do a better job of keeping up with current titles, but it’s expensive, its tests test children at the most basic level (recall and comprehension), and in the long term, I can’t imagine what it means for our children when we assume they won’t read, or can’t read, unless they can take a test so their “flower” can bloom.

But, onto lighter issues. We managed to have Tech-free Tuesday again, and this time we had a Percy Jackson-themed meal. For an appetizer, we had Leo tacos (actually cheese quesadillas), for the main course, we had Calypso stew, and for desert, we had ambrosia (blue-colored MM milkshakes).

For next week, Emery and I decided we wanted a Disney-movie themed dinner. We settled on The Incredibles, and we plan to eat a raw food dinner—like the one found in the volcano dinner scene. It seems to me like these conversations about books is more fun than an AR test, even if I get to take it on the computer.

What books have inspired some of your meals? 

Biggest Loser and A Book Review of Ken Baker’s How I got Skinny, Famous, and Fell Madly in Love

I think I’ve mentioned before that not only am I a reality television fan, but it also makes up one of my research strands. I’ve published several articles on using reality television in the classroom (one of the challenges I hold in my class is to take my preservice teachers to Office Depot, give them $50 pretend dollars, and have them “buy” the supplies they think they need for their first classrooms. It was an activity I used to do in the classroom—it became much better when they could actually go to a store).

Rather than watch the “lifestyle” shows, I tend to watch the competition shows, like Project Runway, Top Chef, America’s Next Top Model, American Idol, and occasionally the Biggest Loser. I stopped watching it when they didn’t have Jillian and early on when contestants had to vote each other off (I hate that). And, I was extremely nervous last season when they included 3 children on the show (they were not contestants and they did not weigh them).

Which is why the premise of Ken Baker’s new book How I Got Skinny, Famous and Fell Madly in Love (scheduled to come out in May) worried me. Here’s a book about a teenage girl, Emery, who agrees to go on a reality television show. The premise of the show, Fifty Pounds to Freedom, is that Emery agrees to work with a team of experts in order to lose fifty pounds in fifty days. For reasons that I won’t spoil, she agrees to appear on the show for a number of reasons.

Another set of absent/ bad parents appears in this book (I alluded to the momager in my last post) and a misguided, narcissistic, spoiled sibling. But, Emery is the star of the book and rightly so. She’s smart and funny and, for the most part, well aware of the intentions of those around her. It’s a book for high schoolers and right after I finished reading it, I gave it to my favorite librarian and asked her to read it. I just wanted to talk to somebody about it.

What I like about this book is it’s so very timely. Baker focuses on the popularity of reality television and Youtube and their power to make people overnight sensations and that some teenagers aspire to earn that kind of fame. What I wonder about is the lack of consequences Emery faces. Her life hasn’t been easy, but she takes some actions in the last third of the book that are potentially dangerous, risky, and questionable. I wish someone had given Baker 30-50 more pages and asked him to inject a little Laurie Halse Anderson into his novel.

Speaking of Laurie Halse Anderson, I’m reading her latest book next while I wait for The Biggest Loser finale.