Under the Radar: Bullying, Sizism and Weight Issues

by The UTR Team:
cj bott, James Bucky Carter, Sean Kottke, Jon Ostenson, Daria Plumb, and Jennifer Walsh

The mission of Under the Radar has been to feature publications of interest to adolescent and young adult readers from small publishers that may fly under the radar in the book world. While previous columns have each focused on a single publisher, our next series of columns will embrace books from multiple small publishers that focus on different populations of adolescents most targeted by bullying, as laid out in Generation Bullied 2.0 (Miller, Burns & Johnson, 2013). Our first column in this series takes up the issue of sizism and weight discrimination, and features an extended discussion of two selected titles on this theme, The Fat Boy Chronicles and Picture Me. Following our discussion, we present a bibliography of notable books on bullying and weight discrimination from a variety of small publishers. (See the introductory column on this topic here.)

First, an introduction to our featured books:

The Fat Boy Chronicles by Diane Lang & Michael Buchanan. Sleeping Bear Press, 2010. Co-written by high school English teachers and inspired by their classroom experiences, The Fat Boy Chronicles introduces readers to Jimmy Winterpock, an overweight ninth grader who arrives at a new high school with high hopes for a fresh start on his social life, following a rocky few years of teasing in middle school. Relating the events of his freshman year through his English class journal, Jimmy soon discovers that his new school has new bullies for him to cope with as he contemplates a plan to improve his health, appearance and social standing.

Picture Me by Lori Weber. Orca Book Publishers, 2014. Also written by an English teacher, Picture Me opens with a classroom recitation of Marge Piercy’s classic poem “Barbie Doll,” which leads to a bullying incident that will have a butterfly effect on the lives of three teenage girls: the overweight Krista (who reads the poem), her best friend Tessa (who is coping with the recent loss of her father to an IED in Afghanistan), and “mean girl” Chelsea (who is obsessed with celebrity culture and will stop at nothing for a chance to experience the glamorous life). Each girl narrates her own story as body image consciousness exacts its own unique toll on these three young lives.

Sean: To what extent do the bullying incidents depicted in these two novels illustrate similarities or differences between how boys and girls experience bullying?

cj: The bullying in The Fat Boy Chronicles and in Picture Me is grounded in reality. The places where bullying most often happens are the locker room, cafeteria, hallways, school bus, the walk home, and after-school events. All of these have little to no adult supervision. The locker room often supports the worst bullying in a school; besides having little or no adult supervision, the students are in various stages of undress, which makes targets feel more exposed and vulnerable, and jocks may take advantage of these factors to embarrass and harass those they perceive to be “lesser” than they. On a side note, once while discussing stereotype bullying and stereotype bullies with seventh graders, I talked about labels that were attached or assigned to people by others. While we were discussing the term jock one male student stood to announce he was a jock and proud to be a jock. He didn’t understand why that was a “bad” thing. I asked him which he would rather be called, a jock or an athlete? To his credit, he took a moment to think and then answered, “an athlete.” We agreed that there was something more honorable about being an athlete.

Girl athletes/jocks do not typically have the same presence in school as the boy athletes/jocks. However, mean girls have an even stronger presence and also target randomly. The queen bee may simply point to a classroom or cafeteria door and announce, “The next girl that comes through that door I will have crying in one week.” And she will, which is what happens in Picture Me. Chelsea, who is very focused on her looks, is the boss in her group. She needs a target for her anger and she settles on Krista, who is overweight and self-conscious, and thus an easy target. Chelsea goes after Krista and publicly humiliates her by posting a distorted photo of Krista on her locker, and then she and her girls wait for Krista to show up so they can watch her humiliation while they gloat.

Jon: I agree with cj that girls’ bullying seems to be more subversive, more psychological, although both boys and girls in these books experience plenty of verbal teasing and taunting. I was surprised while reading at how violent Chelsea became in the confrontations with Tessa and with Annie, but shouldn’t have been given the things I saw as a public school teacher.

There are two similarities in these portrayals that really have me thinking, though. One is that the behavior of the bullies in both situations seems, unsurprisingly, to come from deep-seated insecurities they have (this is more clear in Picture Me while we only have Jimmy’s speculation about Robb and Nate in Fat Boy Chronicles). The teenage years can be times of insecurity, and that’s part of why we have to address bullying at this age; we need better strategies for dealing with our insecurities than making others look and feel small.

The second similarity I saw is in how Krista and Jimmy responded to the bullying. Their efforts to ignore it (which echoes advice I’ve heard–and given–myself so many times) don’t really cut it; it’s hard to ignore those jibes, especially when they can be so public. So Jimmy and Krista resolve to change their physical selves; Krista obviously does so in a way that’s much less healthy than Jimmy’s. But I’m torn as to these reactions and the message they might send, especially in the case of Jimmy: As he loses weight, he gains confidence and even a new friend in Robb, the football player who had tormented him in the past; while Nate still persists in the bullying, things are definitely looking up for Jimmy at the end of the novel. I applaud him for his choices (he’s healthier, he’s happier) and I’m delighted about the way things have changed for him, but I worry that Jimmy’s story reinforces a belief (which Krista buys into wholeheartedly) that if we just change our outward appearance, people will accept us more.

Sean: Your mixed feelings about Krista and Jimmy’s reactions to bullying raise a major issue that permeates the books reviewed for this column, Jon. In all but one of the books dealing with weight-/size-based bullying reviewed in the bibliography at the end of this column, weight loss by the bullied (either healthy like Jimmy’s or unhealthy like Krista’s) is dramatized as the pathway out of experiencing bullying, rather than greater acceptance of weight/body diversity by the bullies. The message, whether intended or not, that the bullied must change their outward appearance in order for the bullying to stop is problematic in itself, but is problematized further by the broader social discourse surrounding the obesity “epidemic” and a tension between promoting both healthy lifestyles and acceptance of diverse body types. Balancing these imperatives without engaging in fat-shaming, blaming the victim or, at the other extreme, uncritically embracing behaviors that correlate with devastating long-term health consequences is a tension for educators that the Generation Bullied 2.0 authors addressed in our previous column. In some of these books listed below, weight loss leads to less bullying, but in others, the bullying persists. For an excellent write-up of additional YA books featuring overweight or obese characters, but in which weight loss does not drive the plot, we recommend the 2013 Nerdy Book Club column “Top Ten Fat Books” by ALAN Membership Secretary Karin Perry.

Jen:  I had a visceral reaction to both of these novels, probably because they deal with something that I, as a middle school educator, deal with on a daily basis. Bullying is so subversive that teachers struggle to identify it so it can be addressed. And, there is a code of silence among students that is iron clad. No one will point the finger at any peer for fear of retaliation (another issue in the bullying realm) and parents are the first to defend their children and believe whatever they say. To the adult reader, the cruelty in these novels seems almost surreal (what kids do to Jimmy in the locker room and the picture taped to Krista’s locker, just to name a few), but the bullying so often covers an underlying problem of lack of self-confidence in the bully him/herself. It is an age old problem that kids bully each other; however, I believe that we as educators may be going about this the wrong way. We are told to “ignore it,” as Jon said, or that “kids will be kids.”  But, and forgive me if I am waxing philosophical on this point, instead of trying to become the Sherlock Holmes of bullying in schools and instead of trying to be every place at every time and to listen in on every conversation, we need to approach all of it differently. We need to change the climate of our schools and our culture at large. Clearly, we cannot do this alone. By teaching kindness, mindfulness and empathy (http://empathymuseum.com/video), we can begin to show students the proper way to interact with each other in order to become fully functioning adults.

That being said, I also agree with Jon in the sense that I wish Krista and Jimmy had actually learned to love themselves and find confidence before they lost weight as opposed to doing it as a reaction to the bullying. This emphasized self-confidence as a direct result of the drop in pounds. I definitely applaud all of the authors for tackling this issue and entering the conversation.

Sean: Parents and teachers figure prominently in both books. Comment on their role as enablers or disrupters of cycles of bullying within the two narratives.

cj: In Picture Me, teachers seem uninvolved in these disruptive behaviors, which is difficult to understand after the events that got Tessa suspended for one week and Chelsea for two. As Tessa keeps pointing out, none of the staff responds to Krista’s injuries or absences. Is this typical? Sometimes, sometimes not. Krista’s parents are concerned about her recovery, but they don’t contact the school for her work. But then, the school does not contact them. It is difficult to understand the apathy–or is it unprofessionalism?–on the part of the school. Tessa’s parents are highly worried about their daughter’s hiding in her room, refusal to eat, and emotional mood swings, but do not seek outside help. This does not fit since her mom is a neonatal nurse and highly involved in the welfare of children. However, leaving the parents out is often the case in YA books; the thinking seems to be, get the adults out of the way and concentrate on the teens. Then, the dysfunction can drive the plot.

In The Fat Boy Chronicles, the parents are very supportive of Jimmy, though his sister is not. The teachers are not, even after the problem has been brought to their attention by Jimmy’s parents. This is typical but also illegal in this time of awareness about bullying and harassment. Besides at home, Jimmy also has a safe place at church and with his teen group, though that support does not seem to influence the climate at school.

Jon: One of the most heartbreaking scenes in Picture Me is when Krista’s dad calls her a princess near the end of the book, as we know he often does thanks to Krista’s account. But for so long, Krista has ignored or questioned the authenticity of his feelings when he calls her princess or tells her she’s beautiful. In this final scene, I feel hope for her because I sense that she’s starting to believe that her dad really means it when he talks about her this way. Without the love and support of a parent (as we see with Chelsea in this book), the challenges of life can be almost too tough to face. For Jimmy, it’s clear that having his father help him with an exercise program and his mother help him with the dieting is critical to the progress he makes. This is nothing new, but both stories showcase the importance of parents in helping teens through challenging times.

Which is why I’m disappointed that Krista’s parents let things go on the way they did for so long. I felt most frustrated with the father–how can he so easily abandon the daughter with whom he had shared regular take-out dinner parties? I’m a father of teeenagers and I know that sometimes what they need most is more space and less meddling, but I would also hope that loving fathers and mothers would be more proactive and concerned in a case like Krista’s. I realize that some of my concern is for nothing–it’s important to the story that Tessa be the one who recognizes when Krista really needs help and that she take on the “adult” role of rescuing her. But despite the conventions of fiction, in some ways I have a hard time seeing a difference between Krista’s mother and Chelsea’s mother in this story. I see symbolized in Krista’s use of the word “okay” to deflect her parents’ concerns a problem that’s at the core of both relationships: a lack of honest, open communication. In both Jimmy and Tessa’s stories, I see open communication between parents and teenager as a critical part of the support that they can offer each other. It’s hard to help someone when you don’t know the nature of the pain and hurt they’re feeling, yet I know from my own experience how hard it can be to share that hurt with parents (especially in cases of bullying).

Jen:  I was more than disappointed in Krista’s parents’ reaction (in Picture Me) to how she spent her days and their lack of intervention once she “holed up” in her room. It didn’t seem normal, despite the trend to get the parents out of the way in YA lit. Like Jon’s children, my teenager needs space a good portion of her days, but I am always checking in with her. Likewise, in school I notice when students don’t seem themselves and ask them about it. It is a fine line for a parent and a teacher between staying away and staying involved. I would have liked to have known that after so many weeks of refusing to return to school or eat, that Krista’s parents would have sought some outside help for her rather than let her waste away in her room. Conversely, I saw Jimmy’s parents (in Fat Boy Chronicles) as supportive and a big reason for him to continue on his weight loss journey. I would like to think that most parents would behave in this way rather than the way Krista’s parents handled her situation.

Like cj, I was also incredibly concerned that no adult at school seemed to notice that Krista was gone or reached out to see what they could do. I found the parents much more realistic and believable in Fat Boy Chronicles, but that doesn’t mean that I think there aren’t parents out there who would handle the situation as Krista’s parents did.

Sean: As Jen mentioned earlier, the degree to which bullying can be carried out under the radar of otherwise perceptive adults is frightening. While we’re not privy to their first-person perspectives in Picture Me, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility to believe that teachers were unaware of what was going on between Chelsea and Krista, despite how visible it appears to readers. In my own teaching experience, I was shocked to learn that two students with whom I thought I had a close rapport had experienced stresses similar to Krista’s. They were able to maintain remarkable facades of happiness, stability and high performance, and I thus suspected nothing … until medical intervention was required to save their lives. I suspect most caring educators experience at least one professional slap of the face like this at some point in their careers, and probably at multiple points. This is where I see the value of adults engaging with literature like we’re exploring in this series of columns: to continually calibrate our professional radars to better understand the vast portions of our students’ experiences that are kept hidden from our view, yet shape all of our interactions with them.

Sean: Both of these novels feature multiple characters who experience varying degrees of social isolation, both prior to and during their bullying experiences. Indeed, one of the poems Jimmy writes in his English journal in Fat Boy Chronicles directly addresses this theme:               

“Pot, cocaine, speed

Drunk, Lost, Isolated

iPods, Computers, Cell phones

No one to talk to

Parents working

Teachers stressed

It’s just a matter of time

Guns, knives, bombs

Before we self-destruct” (p. 150)

Discuss how bullying is conceptualized as a by-product of declining social capital in these two novels.

Jon: This is a provocative question. In Fat Boy Chronicles, I definitely see evidence of the declining social capital in Paul, Jimmy’s friend who lives in a very dysfunctional family situation. Paul has no family support, and nobody in the system (i.e., school) is looking out for him, so he falls through the cracks, runs away, and ends up losing his legs in an accident far away. Fortunately, his story has a happy ending in the context of the book, but your question makes me think about the bullies in the story (especially Nate and Spencer and the football players). What are their homes like? How have they been taught by their parents? Setting aside for a moment that each of these characters ultimately chooses to bully (which we must never forget), where have things “broken down” for these boys in such a way that they would think this kind of behavior is acceptable?

Ironically, Paul is not a bully (although he does laugh at a prank pulled on Jimmy at a party, he apologizes the next day and clearly feels bad about his actions), even though he might be seen as having less of a help network than kids like Nate and Spencer. On the other hand, the kids at church (including Sable) don’t engage in bullying behaviors (although they don’t actively seek out Jimmy, either), so perhaps there’s some commentary there on the positive role that social institutions can play in preventing bullying behaviors. I appreciated Jimmy’s own introspection about why people like Nate and Spencer might engage in bullying, and I think he sees their insecurities as driving some of their behavior. This makes me wonder how social capital (or a social, supportive network) might prevent bullying–do Nate and Spencer and Robb feel isolated in ways that lead to their bullying? Then why doesn’t Paul engage in similar behavior? As I write this, I’m realizing that the book’s portrayal of this issue is far more complex than I had initially thought, which certainly reflects the complexity of the issue in real life.

I think the portrayal in Picture Me is less subtle, but that doesn’t make it any less real. Chelsea is truly isolated, even though she has friends. She’s so dissatisfied with her life (thanks to the fact that she buys into the glamorous celebrity lifestyles portrayed in the media), and she’s completely disconnected from her mother. I thought the scene where she snaps at the image of Tessa and Annie as happy siblings was very revealing; it’s not hard to picture what Chelsea really wants in her life, which makes her actions all the more pitiful and sad. In fact, at the end of the book I’m the most unsettled by Chelsea’s position. Lacking the most in terms of social capital, she seems in such danger: the only people really looking out for her are those who want to exploit her.

The teachers in both books are, perhaps, easy to characterize as uninvolved and disinterested (and some clearly are), but as teachers we know better than to pass such simple judgments. Teachers and administrators face such pressure in today’s schools, with large numbers of students and external mandates competing for limited resources. It seems unfair to penalize the teachers in these books for failing to notice or for ignoring the bullying, but it also seems unfair to not scrutinize school communities and their role in these events. I’m glad that both books bring these issues to the fore, and as a teacher educator, I’m considering how I might use books like these with my students. I would hope that after leaving our program, our pre-service teachers see their role as nurturer and caretaker as more important than the role of end-of-level-test-preparer.

Jen:  In Picture Me, I thought the portrayal of bullying as a socioeconomic issue was well played out. The fact that Chelsea has a mom who seems disinterested in her as a person fuels her daughter’s fascination with the media celebrities and the older boy who clearly uses her rather than adores her. As I stated earlier, I think the psychological issues behind bullying are immense. Chelsea seems to harass Krista because it makes her feel bigger and better as a person because she doesn’t get the attention she needs from her own mother. Chelsea wants what she doesn’t have both economically and emotionally, so it makes her feel better to belittle those who have different issues (weight) with which they are struggling. Her power then comes from her false sense of self-importance that she gains with the older boyfriend, especially since he helps her exact “revenge” on Tessa.

In Fat Boy Chronicles, Paul clearly grapples with issues of socioeconomic decline, but it seems to be a result of his father’s drinking and decline of his entire family. Different from Picture Me, Paul doesn’t really participate in the bullying per se, but falls into a subplot of his own where he struggles to cope with family issues. He becomes almost a foil for Jimmy in that he is the kid who “went the other way” in how he handled his problems.

Sean: While selecting books and generating prompting questions for this column, I was reflecting on two books by the social scientist Robert Putnam: his now classic Bowling Alone, which traces the decline of social capital in America in the latter third of the 20th century, and his most recent Our Kids, which details the consequences of that decline on the lives and futures of children in the second decade of the 21st century. Jimmy experiences a best case scenario of what we would hope to see happen in the lives of our students who endure bullying, that is, a supportive social safety net via his family and church that empower him to envision an alternative future and support him in forging a plan of action to achieve it. On the other hand, the character arcs of the three girls of Picture Me and, to varying extents, of Paul and the bullies in Fat Boy Chronicles start off largely depleted of social capital and alienated from the social institutions that could help them build the resilience necessary to engage in positive and prosocial responses to their various challenges. Some characters ultimately gain those connections in time to avert the worst case scenario, while others sadly do not. The point is that in Putnam’s analysis, the distance between the best and worst possible outcomes for America’s children in similar situations has been growing to a point where the promise of social mobility is becoming a nearly unattainable dream for increasing numbers of children, whose worldviews are so divergent from those of the more socially privileged as to be alien. This is part of the enduring value of literature that is perhaps more salient today than ever: to grant readers access to the lived experiences of their neighbors, peers and fellow travelers.

Sean: Generation Bullied 2.0 makes the following observation about bullying’s impact on the community: “While bullying may appear to impact only the targeted individual, that notion is a myth. Bullying can cause long-term, pervasive, and even life-altering trauma to the bullied , and a community of individuals incur the ripple effect of that incident” (p. 26). While the story of Fat Boy Chronicles is related to us entirely through Jimmy’s English journal, Picture Me features first-person perspectives of three participants in a bullying dynamic: bully, target & witness. What effects do these different narrative styles have in illuminating the phenomenon of bullying and its “ripple effect[s]”?

cj: In Picture Me, the three traditionally identified roles of the bully, the target, and the bystander/witness are represented. They each also seem very stereotypical of the research on bullying. Krista, the targeted character, has little self-confidence due to her poor self-image and defines herself only by her weight issues. Little background is given about her past or intellectual ability. Her family is very loving and the harassment does not happen there, but it does at school and more importantly in her mind, which is often not a safe neighborhood to be in alone, particularly for an adolescent. Self-perception is not often grounded in reality, but in the media, the fashion, and the idolization of thinness.

Chelsea, the attacker, seems to fit the stereotypical image of a bully, with an unhappy home life, a belligerent attitude, and a confused self-image; to others she seems to have a strong self-concept, but as the reader knows, that is not grounded in reality. Bullying others and creating fear in them feeds her need for power. Being able to make others fear you can be a powerful experience because it almost always works. Why give up something that always works? Many–parents, queen bees, star athletes, employers, and drug dealers on the street who are looking for pretty young girls to turn into prostitutes–practice using fear to control others.

Tessa, the bystander, witness, and friend, takes a long time to act. Like most teens, she would rather keep a secret than betray her friend, even when that secret is very dangerous – life-threateningly dangerous. But when her friend is critical and there are no adults around, she acts!

In The Fat Boy Chronicles, Jimmy’s journal gives the reader information on many topics including but not limited to Jimmy’s parents and sister, his friends Allen and Sable, his classmate Paul, his church group, his teachers, and many other things that cross his mind, but he does not seem to beat himself up about his weight or run from or confront the bullies. He is not happy about it, but he does not let it define him. Jimmy is a good kid who thinks. He tries to not just react but to understand and be kind. He is overweight, but he doesn’t disappear into his misery.

Nate, his biggest harasser, seems to lose his evil edge when Jimmy starts losing weight and starts making friends with some of the other athletes. The book is like an after-school special, where everything turns out well in the end.

Jon: cj, your comment about the after-school special made me chuckle; thanks for that! As much as I enjoyed the voice in Fat Boy Chronicles, I do wonder if the ending is too neat. But then I also think that things do end up like that sometimes, and it’s important that we have portrayals of real hope in the literature we read.

Related to your question, Sean, I think what both of these books can do for readers is help them see how interconnected are the events around these bullying incidents and how interconnected are the people involved. Chelsea’s bullying is not random; it’s, as cj notes above, a gambit for power and control. And we get some important insights into those motives thanks to the format Lori Weber chooses for Picture Me. Weber’s choice to allow for three first-person narrators gives the reader an important glimpse into all three roles (bully, victim, and bystander) and, I hope, can help readers develop empathy for all three. What’s really important, though, from these portrayals is what happens for Tessa. Through her experience with Krista but also in what she learns about her father from the soldier who visits their family, she learns that just as Chelsea has responsibility for her actions towards Krista, Tessa has a responsibility, too; in this case, had she not acted in saving Krista’s life and revealing her secret, she would have borne some responsibility for what could have happened. This suggests for me that once we see how the effects of inhumane acts like bullying create these ripples, we can no longer be innocent bystanders; if we choose not to act in some way, we bear some responsibility for what happens.

Jen: If we look at both Picture Me and Fat Boy Chronicles as a paired set, I really love the diversity in the voices. Seeing that the intended audiences are both adolescents, I think these novels together create an entry into the empathy I discussed earlier. The three voices in Picture Me help create a fuller picture for the YA reader in the sense that very rarely do readers get to see inside the head of one who bullies (Chelsea). Exploring the different issues all three young women are dealing with gives a very different perspective on bullying as a whole and the psychology behind it. Not only are Krista and Jimmy dealing with weight issues, but characters around them are also dealing with insecurity, dead/absent parents, alcoholism, abuse, etc. The fact that we have a journal (Fat Boy Chronicles) and three, first person narratives (Picture Me) of the same incident gives adolescents a well rounded look into the multi-layered reasons why people bully and the effects it has on those who are bullied. Perhaps this may be an entry into looking at others with more kindness. I think Atticus Finch said it best:

“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (To Kill A Mockingbird, 85-87)

cj: In the media, in books, and in real life the definitions for the bully, the target, and the witness/bystanders have been expanded with the Queen Bee, privileged football players, celebrities, rich people and more. Read Shattering Glass by Gail Giles, in which the bully is the most popular and most powerful guy at school. He decides to choose a newcomer, turn that guy into the most popular guy at school and then bring him down hard! Or in Sharon Draper’s The Battle of Jericho, where Jericho and his cousin are asked to join the Warriors of Distinction, a very old and seemingly prestigious service club. They are highly honored until they are confronted with a hidden initiation that is degrading and dangerous enough for someone to die. Or Josh C. Cohen’s book, Leverage, where the three top senior football players, made elitist by the coaches, the administration, and the entire community, decide to take their steroid-inflamed anger out on the smaller gymnastic team. Or Fight to the End by Australian author David Gregory, which takes place in a “traditional” boys’ school, with the hazing initiation rites that seem to be accepted at such schools. Both Leverage and Fight to the End display institutional bullying in all its ugliness. Or Drowning Anna by Sue Mayfield, set in a British girls school, which opens with Anna’s mother sitting beside her unconscious daughter in her hospital room after Anne attempts and may have succeeded in killing herself, destroyed by her rich, brilliant, beautiful, and jealous best friend. Then there is the movie Mean Girls. The bullies and the targets in all of these examples are far from the earlier “accepted” definitions of these terms. Anyone can become a bully, a target, or the bystander who looks away.

For witnesses or bystanders, check out an amazing small press, Heryin Books, which published Not My Fault, written by Jeff Kristiansson and illustrated by Dick Stenberg. Told in the voices of children witnessing bullying and not knowing what to do, the book ends first with the question “Does it have anything to do with me?” and then black and white photographs from history around the world where the action of bystanders was and is still needed. Or What Happened to Lani Garver, by Carol Plum-Ucci, in which Claire McKenzie tells the story of her friend Lani Garver’s brief stay on Hackett Island, where most of the island is trying to decide if Lani is a he or a she. The book is told in flashbacks after Lani has gone missing.

Sean: Thank you, cj, for the several recommendations that illustrate the diversity of the bully-target-witness dynamic. To conclude our column, we present an annotated list of recent books from small publishers that confront issues of bullying and sizism. Thank you to all of the publishers and authors who shared their works for consideration in this column, and please keep an eye on the ALAN website for the next Under the Radar column in this series.

Selected Bibliography of Books on Bullying and Sizism from Small Publishers
(Key: B = Bullying; W = Weight issues, sizism or eating disorders)

• Big Fat Disaster by Beth Fehlbaum. Merit Press Books, 2014. When her father’s political career comes to a crashing end with revelations of an affair and embezzlement, Colby Denton’s private struggles with her weight and being the black sheep among her photogenic siblings become public, and she experiences bullying from peers and family alike. B W
• Biggie by Derek E. Sullivan. Albert Whitman & Company, 2015 [ebook edition published by Open Road Media]. The heir to baseball royalty in his small Iowa town, Henry “Biggie” Abbott has never cared for following in his father’s and step-father’s footsteps, until one day he discovers a talent for pitching that causes him to reconsider his options. Having gained weight to avoid engaging with the social life of his school, is he prepared to get in shape and step into the limelight? W
• Blob by Frieda Wishinsky. Orca Book Publishers, 2010. In the summer before ninth grade, Eve has gained enough weight to strain the relationship with her best friend and attract the attentions of a bully. While attempting to navigate the new social landscape of high school, Eve struggles to resolve the tension between adopting healthy habits and accepting herself. B W
• Can You See Me Now? by Estela Bernal. Piñata Books, 2014. After her father is killed in an auto accident, thirteen-year-old Amanda seeks the recognition of a distant mother who blames her for his untimely death. A social outcast, Amanda befriends the spiritual Paloma and the overweight Rogelio, fellow targets of a clique of bullies, and comes to learn that “we’re all children carrying around a big load of pain.” B W
• Diary of a Real Bully by Melody Arabo. Aramoun Publishing LLC, 2014. Anna doesn’t consider herself a bully, because she doesn’t act like the bullies she sees on TV. However, as she contemplates how some of her behaviors have adversely affected the feelings of her classmates, she learns that real bullies aren’t like their TV counterparts – and that they can change – in this picture book by Michigan’s 2014-15 Teacher of the Year. B
• Elena Vanishing: A Memoir by Elena Dunkle and Clare D. Dunkle. Chronicle Books, 2015. Elena lives with a voice in her head that constantly criticizes her for not being good enough, smart enough, thin enough, perfect enough–the list goes on as Elena fights her way from nearly dying from anorexia to a recovery which will be a rest-of-her-life process. W
• Fat No More: A Teenager’s Victory over Obesity by Alberto Hidalgo-Robert. Piñata Books, 2012. Alberto, a teenager from El Salvador, turns Obesity from a condition into a character in his memoir, envisioning it as a malevolent spirit that takes control of Alberto’s existence, enabled by family and culture. After experiencing embarrassment and bullying, Alberto commits to a weight loss program, and shares his plan with readers. B W
• Gabe Johnson Takes Over by Geoff Herbach. Sourcebooks, 2014 [previously titled Fat Boy vs. the Cheerleaders]. When soda machine profits get redirected from the marching band to a new dance team, overweight sophomore Gabe Johnson suspects a dirty deal and becomes the unlikely leader of student protests. As the movement gains steam, Gabe experiences harassment from bullies old and new. B W
• Rhyme Schemer by K.A. Holt. Chronicle Books, 2014. Kevin is a seventh grade bully with a secret talent for writing poetry and a penchant for turning ripped pages from library books into broadsides on middle school life. When his inner life is exposed, the tables are turned and the bully becomes the bullied in this novel in verse. B

The Dead I Know by Scot Gardener
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, 201 pp., $17.99
Troubled Teens/Poverty/Death/Single-Parent Families
ISBN: 978-0-544-23274-7

Sixteen-year-old Aaron Rowe is mysterious, even to himself. Haunted by a shadowy past, Aaron begins working at a funeral parlor and finds himself almost comfortable working with the dead. Calmed by and at the same time skeptical of the kindness Aaron’s new boss shows him, he begins to worry that his new job will ultimately unravel secrets–about himself, his home, and his family–that he has worked so hard to hide, or that have worked hard to hide themselves from him.

Gardener successfully weaves a vivid tale that is dark and mysterious yet warm and funny. The novel explores some of the complexities that rest behind the façade of the “bad kid.” Readers will be moved by Aaron as he straddles his two worlds, compelled by each quip and each clue that reveal the secrets of his past and present.

Reviewed by Desi Krell, Gainesville, Florida

When by Victoria Laurie
Hyperion, 2015, 336 pp., $17.99
Paranormal Abilities/Murder/Mystery
ISBN: 978-1-4847-0008-2

Sixteen-year-old Maddie’s life has been defined by her unexplained ability to see the “death date” of anyone whom she faces or whose picture she sees. These numbers float like ghostly echoes on foreheads of the people she observes. Her mother, uncle, and best friend know about her ability, and since her father’s early death, Maddie and her mom have relied on the income generated from people interested in Maddie’s “readings.” When a rich socialite comes for a reading and Maddie tells the woman that her teenage son, not the child the woman is concerned about, will die in the next week, an avalanche of events is set into motion. Maddie and her best friend Stubby are accused of murder. As her world swirls out of control, Maddie tries to hold on to what she knows to be true.

Laurie creates a believable young protagonist who struggles with a powerful and unwanted gift and her desire to use it to set things right. Maddie’s actions propel a fast-paced, unpredictable plot to a stunning conclusion. Fans of murder mystery series and police-procedural television series will enjoy Laurie’s use of these conventions in a young-adult setting.

Reviewed by Kim McCollum-Clark, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Con Academy by Joe Schreiber
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, 234 pp., $17.99
Prep Schools/Swindlers/Humor/Realistic Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-544-32020-8

Will Shea, aka Billy Humbert, has bluffed his way into Connaughton Academy, an exclusive New England prep school where he plans to con his way into the social and financial worlds of wealthy classmates. Will quickly discovers, however, that classmate and fellow scam artist Andrea Dufresne has already claimed Connaughton as her territory. They make a bet over who can first swindle ten thousand dollars from another student. The winner stays at Connaughton. With the help of his shady dad and super con artist and mentor, Uncle Roy, Will is soon embroiled in a scheme to fleece the super rich Brandt Rush before Andrea can get to him first. Will finds an unexpected ally and potential romance with fellow student Gatsby Haverford.

Will’s friendship with Gatsby and his desire to distance himself from his abusive father push him to confront his life of crime. Though he has a gift for lying, Will’s voice is self-deprecatingly honest and funny. Schreiber provides a fast-paced plot with plenty of twists and turns and a satisfying ending.

Reviewed by Anne Miller, Pittsfield, Maine

The Tightrope Walkers by David Almond
Candlewick Press, 2015, 366pp., $17.99
Memoir/Post WWII England/Life Choices/Sexual Questioning/Rape
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7310-9

David Almond’s memories of growing up in Tyneside, England help craft the fictional tale of Dominic Hall. Read like a memoir, the story begins with Dominic’s earliest memories of moving into a new housing development built mainly for workers in the ship building industry. Dominic’s dad fought in the Second World War and for much of the story he struggles to adjust to his life as a caulker in the shipyards. This mirrors Dominic’s struggle to find his place as he grows up. A circus visit early in the book provides the sustained metaphor of the tightrope walker. Will Dominic stay on the wire that leads to his friend Holly and the opportunity to continue with his schooling as a means to move far beyond his village? Or will he leap from the rope to Vincent McAlinden, an angry young man, who violently rages against his lack of opportunities. Dominic is attracted to the danger and Vincent himself. As the story continues, Dominic drifts to Vincent and when circumstances force them apart, Vincent inserts himself one last time in a violent climax to the book.

Almond has written a book that will be mostly inaccessible to younger fans of his work like Skellig. This is a very mature (in language and content) retelling of childhood and young adulthood. As adults, our view on childhood is filtered through the knowledge won in adulthood and the melancholy associated with recalling the choices made. This mature response may be missing for younger readers and this is the strongest part of Almond’s narrative. In addition, much of the vocabulary and dialect is very specific to the region and may require clarification for a North American audience.

Reviewed by Dia MacBeth, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Things I’ll Never Say: Stories About Our Secret Selves Edited by Ann Angel
Candlewick Press, 2015, 300 pp., $16.99
Secrets/Fiction
ISBN:978-0-7636-7307-9

Ann Angel has compiled a sensitive and wide-ranging collection of short stories with the theme of the secrets that each of us carry inside, whether we know it or not. The stories in this compilation range from the problems of hoarders, Hell’s spawn demons, eating disorders, sexual responsibility, and guidance counselors who overstep their professional boundaries. Some of the stories will be straightforward enough for teenagers to enjoy them alone. Others will benefit from guided discussions in order to reach deeper and richer understandings. This is a deeply thought provoking collection of stories.

In the story, “We Were Together”, the topic of the responsibility for sexual activity is explored when a young man seemingly feels no responsibility for cheating on his girlfriend and then giving her herpes. “Cupid’s Beaux” is an entertaining supernatural story in which a guardian angel is assigned to watch over a “wholly souled” vampire. The story also provides strong support and acceptance of diversity. In “Storm clouds Fleeing From the Wind” is a compassionate and touching tale with a surprise ending. “When We Were Wild” is a complex story about self-identity and the choices we make along the way that determine our future choices.

The fifteen stories that comprise this book explore many different aspects of the secrets we hold. Some of the tales are delightful and some are disturbing, but all are well worth reading and discussing with students.

Reviewed by Marian J McKenna, Missoula, Montana

Cut Me Free by J.R. Johansson
Farrar Straus Giroux, 2015, 298 pp., $17.99
Psychopathy/Identity/Psychological Thriller
ISBN: 978-0-374-30023-4

After knowing only death and pain in an attic in a wilderness cabin, being drenched in life feels good to seventeen-year-old Piper, who—like the Pied Piper of Hamelin—dreams of saving children, in part to atone for the brother she could not save from abusive parents. When she finds herself in Philadelphia, she hopes to build a future without fear, so she secures the talents of Marco Cameron Angelo—aka Cam—who creates for her a new identity in Charlotte Thompson.

When the life that Charlotte has built, a life that she has killed and worked so hard for, begins to unravel, she wonders why the people she loves become collateral damage in the carnage of her life. Having lived through a nightmare-filled reality, she’s okay with “walking a bit on the crazy side of the sanity line” (41), but she begins to think she needs to walk alone. Haunted by her past and stalked by a psychopath, Charlotte rides a roller coaster of terror, giving up pieces of herself on the journey—sanity, security, and hope— and she begins to wonder how many pieces must be sacrificed for peace.

With Cut Me Free, Johansson creates a dark and twisted but beautiful story from which readers learn that we all hide scars under the surface that we all share pain and loss, and that love makes the difference in helping us survive the horrors that life brings.

Reviewed by Donna L. Miller Chinook, Montana

Rook by Sharon Cameron
Scholastic Press, 2015, 454 pp., $17.99
Action & Adventure/Fantasy & Magic/Love & Romance
ISBN: 978-0-545-67599-4

Determined to empty the Tombs of its prisoners and destroy the corrupt government of the Sunken City, eighteen-year-old Sophie Bellamy, the daring Red Rook, deftly navigates her future as she uncovers and confirms the true identities and intentions of the family, friends, and foes who surround her. Betrothed to Parisian Rene Hasard as a means to save her family’s estate, Sophie at first views her fiancé as a charming nuisance. But like Sophie, Rene is much more than he appears and is as capable of executing intrigue and meting out justice as the Red Rook herself.

Rook is an inventive take on The Scarlet Pimpernel with a dusting of Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities. Set in the distant future in which technology has been wiped from the face of the Earth, buried treasure consists of bits of plastic recovered from digs, and a death sentence is only a coin flip away. Cameron’s future Paris is harsh; its prisons filthy, its rulers corrupt, and its use of the Razor as deadly as the guillotine of the French Revolution.

Known for her steampunk novels The Dark Unwinding and A Spark Unseen, Cameron’s skillful narration cascades down the page as it moves seamlessly between characters. And with quick tempo, Cameron’s characters act. LeBlanc ruthlessly plots to capture and execute the Red Rook at the same time a gaggle of his own relatives work in concert to keep Sophie beyond his reach. With a delightful mixture of cat and mouse, swordplay, pyro techniques, and the occasional fluttering heart and stolen kiss, Cameron takes readers into a future world whose brutal history is all-too familiar but where love truly does conquer all.

Reviewed by Christine Boardman Moen, Franklin, Tennessee

The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough
Arthur A. Levine Books, 2015, 336 pp., $17.99
Love & Romance/Fantasy & Magic/Social Issues/Dating & Sex
ISBN: 978-0-545-66835-4

The game has been set into motion for Flora Saudade and Henry Bishop, two young teens that play the game pieces in the everlasting battle between Love and Death. Although Henry and Flora live within blocks from one another, their differences are evident. Henry is a boy with life handed to him on a silver platter, encompassed with family wealth, a college scholarship, and a wife-to-be if he so chooses, he cannot help but feel drawn to Flora. Flora is a young African American woman who aspires to become the next Amelia Earhart, but she cannot seem to escape the life of singing Jazz at The Domino. When Flora and Henry reunite after meeting as kids, the chemistry is electric. Taking a front row seat to each of Flora’s Jazz performances, Henry is set upon pursuing the once little girl in the blue dress. But will Henry’s adoptive family and the game set fourth by Love and Death keep them from one another, or does Love really always prevail in the end?

Brockenbrough has written a love story that illustrates just how hard love can be to find and keep. The Game of Love and Death is a story that will undoubtedly have readers questioning just how much control they have over their own love lives. Readers will not be able to do anything but hope that in the midst of a world separated by color and in the depths of The Great Depression, Flora and Henry will end up together and Love will finally win his game.

Reviewed by Orianna Moccio, St. Louis, Missouri

Interested persons should submit a letter of application (due no later than October 1, 2015) as well as the following:

1. A statement of vision for the organization;
2. A vita;
3. A letter of support from the applicant’s employer, indicating the level of support to be made available;
4. A summary of the applicant’s previous involvement with ALAN and evidence of the applicant’s involvement in the field of young adult literature;
5. A statement of availability to assume the position on January 1, 2016.

Applications – in electronic form (Word attachment, please) – should be sent to: gsalvner@ysu.edu.

Interviews will be conducted during the NCTE Convention, which will be held in Minneapolis in November. Candidates should plan accordingly. A final decision is to be made and announced at the ALAN Workshop.

The stipend for this position is fixed at $2,000 per year.  Additionally, the Executive Director receives complimentary registration for the ALAN Workshop and the ALAN Breakfast.

(Click here for more information about the ALAN Award)

]]> http://www.alan-yabeta.org/congratulations-to-lois-lowry-the-2015-alan-award-winner/feed/ 0 http://www.alan-yabeta.org/mediating-media-in-a-digital-age/ http://www.alan-yabeta.org/mediating-media-in-a-digital-age/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2015 02:15:22 +0000 http://www.alan-yabeta.org/?p=364 Mediating Media in a Digital Age  

Volume 43: Issue 3 (Summer 2016)

 Submissions due November 1, 2015

Today’s young adult readers access and generate young adult texts in myriad forms. Through multimedia platforms, television and film adaptations, fan fiction, and social media, they engage with stories in ways that extend beyond the originals. These opportunities for connection are rich in potential and complication. Do media enrich our interactions with others and our world—or is there a falseness in this seeming linkage? Consider the perspective of Rainbow Rowell’s narrator: “There are other people on the Internet. It’s awesome. You get all the benefits of ‘other people’ without the body odor and the eye contact” (Fangirl, p. 147). We wonder if all readers are inspired by techie texts or if some, in fact, imagine life as “an analog girl, living in a digital world” (Neil Gaiman, American Gods, p. 332).

For this issue, we encourage you to ponder and explore the ways in which you use young adult literature to help young people mediate media: How do you foster innovative engagement with media in your professional setting? What are the challenges of teaching and learning in the digital age, and how might they be mediated? How do digital communities invite and/or exclude young people today? What role does/can YA literature play in successfully navigating life in the “digital age”?

As always, we also welcome submissions focused on any aspect of young adult literature not directly connected to this theme. All submissions may be sent to alan-review@uconn.edu prior to November 1, 2015. Please see the ALAN website (http://www.alan-ya.org/page/alan-review-author-guidelines) for submission guidelines.

Adolescence and Adolescents: Defining the Culture of Youth  

Volume 43: Issue 2 (Winter 2016)

 Submissions due July 1, 2015

How we conceive of adolescence influences our perception of adolescents. Through a biological lens, we might envision adolescence as an inevitable stage of life in which raging hormones determine behavior. Through a coming of age lens, adolescence might be defined by individual self-discovery and attainment of adult norms.  Through a sociocultural lens, adolescence might be seen as a socially mediated practice created and shifted by societal expectations and influences. Taken together, these perspectives offer sophisticated and diverse means of defining the culture of youth.

In this issue, we invite you to consider how young adult titles (and those who write, teach, and promote them) might offer, challenge, confirm, or critique conceptions of adolescents or adolescence.  How do authors present the young people they describe? How do readers respond to these representations? How do educators envision the young people in their care—and how does this vision influence how they care for them? How might stories help readers navigate adolescence (as defined through any lens) and work though the complexity expressed by David Levithan and John Green: “My face seems too square and my eyes too big, like I’m perpetually surprised, but there’s nothing wrong with me that I can fix” (Will Grayson, Will Grayson)?

Ask the Dark by Henry Turner
Clarion Books, 2015, 256 pp., $16.99
Single Parent Families/Poverty/Suspense-Thriller/Mystery
ISBN: 978-0-544-30827-5

Fourteen-year-old Billy Zeets lives a life that no one envies. He loses his mother at a young age, his father cannot work due to an accident, and his teenage sister just found out she is pregnant. Labeled as white trash that will never amount to anything, Billy plays into the community’s evaluation of him through vandalism, theft, and truancy. While casing his next theft, Billy comes across a beaten, bloody corpse that he recognizes as a classmate who went missing several months ago. Fearing he will be punished, he flees, but not before taking evidence. As more and more boys go missing, Billy finds himself face-to-face with a cold-blooded killer who plans to make him the next victim.

Turner’s debut novel creates an intricate, fast-paced suspense thriller that sends chills down the reader’s spine. Billy’s unique voice and storytelling draws the reader into his world of suffering and instability, creating compassion for a boy who is good at heart even if his actions fail to reflect it. In contrast, as each detail of the murderer unfolds, the true horror of man’s dark side becomes exposed.

Reviewed by Courtney Krieger, Moore, Oklahoma

Read Between the Lines by Jo Knowles
Candlewick Press, 2015, 336 pp., $16.99
Realistic Fiction/High School Life/Family Life/Empathy
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6387-2

Read Between the Lines tells the story of one eventful day from the varying perspectives of nine teens and one high school teacher. Nate is bullied at home and at school, until he breaks his finger. The resulting splint allows him to flip people off with impunity, and gives him the confidence to stand up for himself at school. Claire briefly crosses paths with Nate in the school nurse’s office after cutting class in an attempt to ditch her friends. She is a cheerleader who is tired of the meaningless pursuits of her clique. As she explores the city, two strangers give her the finger in situations that amplify and clarify her feelings about not belonging.

Nate and Claire’s stories wrap up a bit too neatly and quickly, but as the story threads become more interwoven, the novel gains richness and develops the theme that no one should be taken at face value. Several characters lead double lives. For example, Sammy is completely put-together at school but never invites anyone home due to her mother’s hoarding disorder. Ben is dating Grace but really wants to be with Stephen. Stephen wishes he could see his father as a hero, the way his mother does. Dewey seems to care for nothing but order, bossing around his fast-food restaurant subordinates and his messy neighbors alike, but what he really wants is for his mom to come home. Even the school janitor has a secret, and it’s not of the stereotypical wise-man-in-overalls variety.

Knowles dedicates Read Between the Lines to “the man driving the Volvo station wagon who gave my family the finger in 2003 even though we didn’t deserve it.” While the shock value in encountering or giving the finger varies for the characters in the book and surely for its readers, the motif, and therefore the novel, is effective for its intent, to explore empathy.

Reviewed by Mary Malhotra, La Canada, California

Arcady’s Goal by Eugene Yelchin
Henry Holt and Company, 2014, 227 pp., $15.99
Sports/Family/Historical Fiction/Soviet History
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9844-0

Ever since he can remember, twelve-year old Arcady Olenin has been alone. Shuttled from one “children’s camp” to another after his parents are pronounced enemies of the state, Arcady dreams of escaping his hard life and earning a spot on the Soviet Union’s premier soccer team, The Red Army Soccer Club. When he catches the eye of Ivan Ivanych, a camp inspector who decides to adopt him after witnessing Arcady’s skill, Arcady can’t believe his luck – a home, enough food, and a chance to play on a real soccer team. And yet, he wonders, is Ivan Ivanych using him? Does Ivan Ivanych want to exploit Arcady’s talent for his own glory?

Inspired by a picture of the author’s father who captained the Red Army Soccer team in 1945, this fast-paced, beautifully illustrated novel depicts the hardships of living under Stalinism from a child’s perspective. Young readers will identify with Arcady’s single-minded desire to prove his worth, share his anger at the prejudice he confronts in adults and peers, and appreciate his complicated feelings for Ivan Ivanych who, like Arcady, wants a better life for them both. Arcady’s Goal is a hopeful book about courage, compassion, and risks worth taking.

Reviewed by Emily Meixner, Ewing, New Jersey

You and Me and Him by Kris Dinnison
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2015, 288 pp., $17.99
Friendships/Boy-Girl Relationships/Self-Concepts/Overweight Issues
ISBN: 9780544556867

Maggie and Nash are best friends who share everything, including Maggie’s ongoing battle with her mom over her weight and Nash’s caregiving for his alcoholic mom. They also commiserate over food, Maggie for comfort and Nash because he doesn’t cook and relies on Maggie’s generosity. When Tom arrives at Cedar Ridge High School, Nash is immediately attracted to him and tries to bring him into their group. Maggie and Nash are not members of the “in crowd” at school; nevertheless, Tom pals with them, ignoring the more popular kids at school. Soon, Maggie and Tom become more than friends, and she realizes that she needs to tell Nash that Tom is not interested in a relationship with another boy. Will she tell Nash, or will she let her feelings for Tom destroy her relationship with her best friend?

Dinnison’s story explores many current high school issues- affections, bullying, friendships weight consciousness, and straight and gay relationships. The triangle of “You, Me and Him” pulls the reader in to the story quickly and completely.

Reviewed by Carolyn Lot, Oxford, Mississippi

Eden West by Pete Hautman
Candlewick Press, 2015, 310 pp., $17.99
Religion/Relationships/Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7418-2

Seventeen-year-old Jacob has lived the majority of his life in Nodd, the land of the Grace, a religious group that promises its constituents a utopian existence away from the harsh realities of the Worldly life. He had never questioned his life in the Grace until Tobias, a Worldly teenage boy who scoffs the more primitive ways of the Grace, joins the group. Jacob also meets Lynna, a Worldly girl from a Montana ranch whose land borders Nodd. As Jacob’s feelings for Lynna grow, so do his questions about his religious beliefs and the routines of life in Nodd.

Hautman uses the theme of teenage angst in a fresh new way. Jacob struggles to reconcile the beliefs of peers from a strange world with the teachings of the adults he has always trusted. Throughout the novel, it is clear that the isolation under which Jacob has been raised has not been the utopia that his parents originally sought. Readers will feel both frustration surrounding Jacob’s decisions as well as a deep understanding for why he makes them, and finally, a profound hope that he will find his own happiness.

Reviewed by Rebecca Marsick, Fairfield, Connecticut

Infandous by Elena K. Arnold
Carol Rhoda Lab, 2015, 192 pp., $18.99
Mothers and Daughters/Single-Parent Families/Sculptors/Sex
ISBN: 978-1-4677-3849-1

Seventeen-year-old Sephora is obsessed with myths and legends—not the Disney versions, but gruesome tales involving rape, deceit, and murderous revenge. She lives with her single mother in a run-down section of Venice Beach, California, where she skips school as much as possible to pursue art, surfing, and skateboarding. Although close to her beauty-queen mother, who gave birth to her as a teenager, Seph keeps a secret from her mother involving a brief sexual relationship with a mysterious and creepy older tourist who has come back to town and wants to see her again.

The language is descriptive and sensual, immersing readers in the world of surf bums and other people living on the edge. We experience the sound and feel of a skateboard rolling over broken pavement and the canister of pepper spray that Seph always carries in the pocket of her hoodie. Through a weekend visit to her aunt’s mansion in Atlanta, Arnold contrasts Seph’s hardscrabble life—the consequence of her mother’s choices as a teenager—with the life her mother could have had. In the course of a hot and turmoil-filled summer, Seph learns that she, too, can survive bad choices and through art and stories can begin to recover.

Reviewed by Lyn Miller-Lachmann, New York, New York

Watch the Sky by Kirsten Hubbard
Disney-Hyperion, 2015, 262 pp., $16.99
Survivalists/Friendship/Questioning Authority/Modern
ISBN 978-1-4847-0833-0

“Trust was a fragile thing. So was belief. And both were starting to crumble” (200). Jory’s life is falling apart. Twelve-year-old Jory is taught by his step dad, Caleb, to always be on the lookout for signs- dead animals, strange birds, anything unusual. Jory never quite understood what he was looking for and why. He is told to silently question everything his teachers tell him. Since returning to school after being homeschooled, he can see how different his family is, from the clothes they wear–combat boots and cargo pants–to the food they eat–powdered milk and home canned food. His nine-year-old sister, Kit, was discovered in a melon patch one night three years ago and she has not spoken a word. Jory has no friends, but Alice Brooks-Diaz, the most popular girl in school, is determined to crack Jory’s shell and learn more about this kid who doesn’t talk to anyone. Then comes the night of the meteor shower, and Caleb tells the family that this is the sign they have been looking for. The family begins digging a shelter at the bottom of the canyon, which causes Jory to daydream at school and neglect his homework at night.

Watch the Sky is a middle school view of a survivalist family. While the book reveals some of the preparations, it allows readers to decide when the plans go too far. Jory becomes comfortable with his schoolmates and begins to doubt Caleb, but he also wonders, if the end is coming for his family, what about everyone else?

Reviewed by Teresa LaRocco, St. Cloud, Minnesota

X by Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon
Candlewick Press, 2015, 350 pp., $16.99
Historical Fiction/Fathers/Racial Tension/Transformation
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6967-6

An adolescent Malcolm Little (Malcolm X) recounts his early years in Lansing, Michigan during the Great Depression. His painful childhood includes the death of his father at the hands of white supremacists, the institutionalization of his mother, grinding poverty, and the dispersion of all his siblings to different foster care homes. Though his siblings maintain contact after separating, Malcolm decides to pursue a different path by moving to Boston to live with his half-sister, Ella. Despite her well-intended guidance, Malcolm discovers an underground world of gambling, marijuana and alcohol use, and theft. He pursues an ill-fated romance with a white woman, Sophia, and moves on to Harlem, New York, where he begins to snort cocaine and burglarizes wealthy homes. Caught in a police sting, Sophia testifies against him, and he serves a prison sentence. After years of raging against the system, Malcolm finds the Nation of Islam and dedicates himself to his parents’ original ideals, working for the betterment of the black race and vowing to “never succumb” (350).

Shabazz and Magoon have painted a compelling portrait of the teenaged Malcolm Little before he became Malcolm X. Shabazz’s fictionalized account of her father’s early years rings with honesty throughout as she recreates his struggles, failings, and foibles during his most vulnerable years. Readers will find sympathy for young Malcolm even as they revile his life of crime. This is an important addition to the legacy of a key civil rights leader.

Reviewed by Jennifer McQuillan, Milford, Michigan

This Side of Home by Renée Watson
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, 336 pp., $17.99
Race, Diversity/Urban Renewal/Siblings/High School/Friendship
ISBN:978-1-5999-0668-3

Maya, her identical twin sister Nikki, and best friend Essence have life plans after leaving Richmond High. The story begins the summer before their senior year. For as long as Maya can remember, they have shared the goals of graduating and getting accepted to Spelman College, a historical black college in Atlanta, Georgia. The girls have grown up together in a Portland, Oregon neighborhood that is experiencing an influx of new businesses and families with money. Essence and her alcoholic mother are forced to move across town, Nikki is becoming best friends with a white girl, and Maya isn’t sure how she feels about her “perfect” boyfriend. As student body president, Maya has big plans for Richmond High but on top of everything else, there is a new principal who wants to change some of the best things about the struggling school. Maya feels as though all of the plans she was so sure of are slipping away one by one.

Maya’s first person point of view gives readers perspective on a teenager wrestling with things both in and out of her control. While she has no trouble speaking up in defense of her neighborhood, school, and culture, Maya struggles to be honest with herself about her own feelings. Although the tone of the book is didactic at times, readers will gain insight into the topic of urban renewal. Watson’s use of dialogue provides perspective on past and current events of African-American communities in Portland. Ultimately, this book gives readers much to consider in terms of how we think about our own culture, race, and the places we call home.

Reviewed by Kristin K.A. McIlhagga, East Lansing, Michigan

Chasing Power by Sarah Beth Durst
Bloomsbury, 2014, 366 pp., $17.99
Supernatural Romance/Action
ISBN: 978-0-8027-3755-7

Sixteen-year-old Kayla has promised her mother, Moonbeam, who has plenty mojo of her own, not to use her telekinetic powers. The two of them have been “hiding in plain sight” from Kayla’s abusive father, and don’t want to attract any attention. But Kayla has been secretly using her power to shoplift and squirrel away enough money to flee if her father ever manages to track them down to the small California city where they’ve been living for the past eight years. Kayla does attract someone’s attention – a mysterious (and gorgeous, of course!) boy named Daniel, who literally appears next to her on a city bench one day. He knows about her secret powers, and claims his mother has been kidnapped, and only Kayla can help him save her. She refuses, but when he threatens to expose her telekinesis, she reluctantly agrees.

An Indiana Jones-like adventure ensues, with Daniel teleporting Kayla first to a voodoo queen in New Orleans, and then to the Temple of the Great Jaguar in the ancient town of Tikal, Mexico, in search of three magic, but evil stones. Someone else is trying to get to those stones as well – Kayla’s father, and the sister she and Moonbeam thought he had murdered!

This fast-paced adventure story combines the paranormal, romance, mystery, and action to keep the reader entranced, right along with Kayla!

Reviewed by Martha Marsot, Keokuk, Iowa

cj bott, James Bucky Carter, Sean Kottke, Jon Ostenson and Jennifer Walsh

In this installment of Under the Radar, we are pleased to feature two titles from Lee & Low Books, a family-owned publisher whose mission is “to meet the need for stories that children of color can identify with and that all children can enjoy.” Guided by the motto “About Everyone, For Everyone,” Lee & Low’s catalog has amassed hundreds of prestigious honors since the company’s first book list was published in 1993, reflecting their strong commitment to high quality literature for, by and about a diverse global community of readers and storytellers.

In this column, we focus on two recent publications that reflect this commitment to diversity in multiple unique ways. Andrea Cheng’s Etched in Clay tells the true story of Dave, an enslaved potter from South Carolina whose life encompassed much of the tumultuous history of 19th century America. Taught to read and write by one of his many masters, Dave inscribed many of his creations with poetry, and Cheng relates Dave’s story in free verse, incorporating the voices of dozens of real people from Dave’s life and including some of Dave’s own words. Set more than 350 years earlier during another critical period of American history, Shana Mlawski relates the fantastical tale of Baltasar Infante, a bookmaker’s apprentice with a mysterious background who escapes the forces of the Spanish Inquisition by joining Columbus’ first voyage across the Atlantic, in Hammer of Witches. The novel weaves together historical events with folktales and legendary creatures from multiple storytelling traditions in a tale about the forging of a New World on the diverse foundations of several Old Worlds.

This column is presented in the form of a group interview, highlighting each reviewer’s unique voice and impressions of these featured novels.

Sean: Etched in Clay is a biography in bricolage, related through a cycle of poems in the voices of multiple real-life figures from Dave’s life and a series of woodcuts illustrating critical moments in his life. What effects does this style of presentation have on the reading experience? What advantages does Etched in Clay have over a traditional biography or prose novel on the same subject?

cj: I like this book for two reasons. It is a novel-in-verse which allows the author to present other characters’ viewpoints with minimal explanation, and secondly, Cheng does amazing research.

The topic will involve boy readers perhaps even more than girl readers–a rare find in a novel-in-verse. Dave, his enslaved life, his potter’s skills and the signing of the jugs kept me interested in a way other nonfiction often does not.

Bucky: I love woodcuts and art made to look like woodcuts. Some great early 20th century “proto-” graphic novels placed a series of woodcuts in narrative sequence. However, the woodcuts in Etched in Clay act mostly as illustrations rather than means to extend the story. They’re imagetext in that they help illustrate; they enhance what’s there, but one doesn’t learn much new information from them, per se. Or does one? It’s one thing for Dave to say, “I sign my name;” it’s another for us to see a representation of the actual signature (see pages 86 and 136 to decide if the woodcut accurately mimics Dave’s writing). Generally, the images are illustrative of the text, but considering why Cheng decided to focus on certain images associated with the words could offer a deeper consideration of them. I find their stark, economical style charming and moving, emotionally evocative in their simplicity and sparseness. I don’t know if the images give the book an advantage over other biographical works, but I do like that they create a possible reality and attend to Cheng’s artful balance of fact and fiction (almost/possibly) fact. Both texts reviewed in this column play well in that space. Nonfiction is just an authoritative interpretation of what might have happened and how we might reflect on it anyway, right?

Jennifer:  I feel there are many advantages the art gives to the overall novel. First, not only are the woodcuts of important times of Dave’s life, but it also brings the historical era to life by using a somewhat archaic form of illustration, much like William Blake’s art. The Afterword, Dave’s

Inscriptions and the Author’s Note also give the reader a glimpse into the reality of Dave’s life. (This would be a great pairing with the picture book on the same subject.)  I love that his art and the art of this poetry narrative shed light on the political statement Dave is making. It’s a great juxtaposition and would be a fabulous study for students in American History classes.

Jon: I like the novel in verse format because of its economy and, as cj alluded to, the way that multiple perspectives can be integrated into the flow. At the same time, I think that verse novels are tricky because they read like poetry (which carries a stigma for some young readers) and they require significant inferential skills. In the case of this book, I think the verse format turns the reader into something of a detective, trying to piece together the whole arc of the story and how various characters are involved. It reminds me in this way of Karen Hesse’s Witness. I think the multiple perspectives provided in the text do a couple of interesting things, too. First, they allow the reader to see glimpses into the historical context (the slave trade, the use of slave labor, family relationships among slaves, and so on) as well as to get a sense of the complexity of the issue of slavery in the South. I appreciate how Cheng works in perspectives of people like slave sympathizers like The Nullifer of the Landrums alongside those of the slaves. Such a juxtaposition is made more concrete by the verse format and opens up a lot of potential for exploration of these issues.

Sean: In Hammer of Witches, Baltasar’s uncle Diego retells the biblical story of Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt, and afterward notes, “Maybe it is just a story. \u2026 But it is true nonetheless” (p. 62). As the first fantasy novel reviewed by Under the Radar, what power do you see in its mixing of historical fiction and fantasy conventions for engaging and enlightening young adult readers?

Bucky: I appreciated the blending in both texts. I know that many are telling teachers that they need to get away from narrative and fictional works in favor of informative and nonfiction texts, but the modes and genres of written expression are not as distinct and separate as some might think. These texts offer strong examples of how reality, possible realities, and interpretations of said realities and possible realities can coexist.

Jennifer:  I thought the historical backdrop with the fantastical characters and magical “Baba Yaga” worked quite well together. As Bucky said, there is so much pressure to read informational texts currently that this was a refreshing change to find a novel that blends both history and fantasy. It would be interesting for students to tease out the two different genres as a study.

Sean: I too was quite taken with the blend of historical fiction and fantasy in Hammer of Witches, and its melding of storytelling traditions into a propulsive narrative about the forging of the New World on the foundations of the Old makes it a uniquely American multicultural story. Mlawski weaves together Baltasar’s adventure on Columbus’ first voyage to the New World with the legends and folklore of many ancient narrative traditions, in a manner similar to the weaving of Northern European folklore in the Harry Potter novels and Lord of the Rings, and of Greco-Roman mythology in the Percy Jackson saga. The integration of the folk mythology and spiritual beliefs of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Taino culture throughout the story would make this a far more compelling vehicle for exploring the geography theme of \”Place,\” which encompasses culture, religion and folk ways, than the traditional textbook expository approach to this material. By illuminating connections between different people’s mythologies, students can more easily approach the new from the known and discover common roots of the human experience.

Jon: I agree with Bucky and Jennifer, and found the integration of historical events and figures to be a compelling feature of the book. I think the fantasy elements will likely make the book more appealing to a certain audience of readers, and I applaud Mlawski’s use of story as the main device for magic in the book. Such a choice allows for some interesting explorations of the “real” power of storytelling in our culture, and the quote used in the question prompt here is the beginning of that exploration. What is truth? Does a story have to be factual to have an impact on us? What role does imaginary or fantastical literature play in a society that seems increasingly interested in “facts” or “information”? I think exploration of those questions can enlighten young adult readers. Furthermore, I think the weaving of historical facts–in this case, the portrayal of Europeans’ early encounters with the indigenous people of the Americas–can allow young readers to consider critically these events. I appreciate the end notes that Mlawski included in the book as they shed some light both on what is historically accurate in her portrayal and in how she deliberately chose to cast Baltasar as a typical European in terms of his conflicted perspectives on the Taino people. The final chapters of the book, as well as the author’s notes, could contribute significantly to an effort in the classroom to use this book to satisfy some of the CCSS requirements that draw comparisons between and conclusions from the historical record and literary depictions of those events.

Sean: In the poem “Our Conscience,” Dave’s first owner Harvey Drake says “writing is a weapon” (p. 34). Later, in “Carving Words,” Dave declares, “when I write / I am a man” (p. 81). In Hammer of Witches, storytelling is presented as a magical power, which can be wielded for good or evil. Comment on how these themes of empowerment (or endangerment) through writing and self-expression develop throughout each book. What value might exploration of such themes hold for young readers and writers?

Bucky: The key messages of both texts are that words have power and storytelling is legacy. We can’t naturally, nor should we, break away from narrative. Storytelling/spellcasting is an important means of how we make sense of our worlds, and Cheng and Mlawski make that point compellingly. Often we encounter the stereotype of the disengaged minority child who feels oppressed by a curriculum and/or teaching style that doesn’t seem to match up with his or her lifeworld. As well, culturally-relevant pedagogists and critical literacy- and social justice activists work to change narrow definitions of texts and literacy. But, Etched in Clay reminds me that making sure students have that baseline functional literacy in terms of reading and writing IS activism, IS social justice. I can’t help but think that students, perhaps especially black students, might benefit greatly from seeing this text and texts (fiction and nonfiction and songs and film and etc., etc.) like it that illustrate the political power of literacy and writing and how keeping the ability to read and write from certain people has been an act of oppression. That Dave wants that power and sees the ability to read and write as part of what proves his equality among all men and women, that he uses reading and writing as a means to subvert power structures — well, that is powerful and a strong justification for sharing this text in K-12 classrooms. It has been a long time since I taught a class that was majority African American or had a large percentage of black students, but if I could go back and teach them again, I would use this book. That’s not to say I wouldn’t teach it with more diverse populations, as the message that literacy is political and has been used to reify political structures is important for all of us to recognize. But my hope is that this book could speak deeply to African American students –and any student, really — who might think that academic success via literacy is a means of selling out. Not when used appropriately and critically, it isn’t. I also have a strong inclination to view Hammer of Witches as a critique of the notions of reading and literacy associated with the Common Core State Standards. “CCSS” first stood for “Christopher Columbus’ Smashed Ship,” right? Every time a character brings mythical beings to life via storytelling and interpreting, I smirk. Summoning the Magna Carta just wouldn’t have been enough to defeat the Bahamut. I’m almost surprised the unicorn didn’t spear a character called the Coleman.

cj: Reading this question reminds me that there are still several places in the world where education is denied to some. I recently shared Malala’s story with my seven-year-old niece, who was stunned to hear that there was a place where girls were not allowed to read, to go to school, to be taught. Students need to bridge outside of story or history to the worldly realities so they can see that such restrictions still exist. For Malala, learning is how she has joined the world despite the very strong power working against her. Her joy in learning matches that of Dave’s pride and empowerment. Our society may believe it has advanced since the fantastical world of Hammer of Witches, but it is still well-grounded in story-telling. It is hard to imagine a day when I don’t hear a story—whether through our music, television, books, comedians, politicians—the list is endless. We just need to learn the difference between stories, fact and fiction.

Sean: Excellent connection with Malala’s story, cj. The superb new film 12 Years a Slave, while decidedly not appropriate for a young adult audience, nevertheless provides another striking reminder of the subversive power of literacy in our own nation’s history. A powerful scene in which the enslaved Solomon Northrup carves into the base of a violin the names of the children and wife from whom he’s been brutally separated resonates with parallels to Dave’s story. I’m also taken with your observation about the ubiquity of storytelling. If Jerome Bruner is right in his theory that narrative is the central organizing principle for human cognition – that the truth and tenacity of a proposition is a function of the extent to which our minds can fit it into a satisfyingly narrative construction – then Hammer of Witches and Etched in Clay would serve as ideal texts for helping readers develop an insider’s perspective on the worldviews of people across the globe and history. Hammer of Witches especially allows readers to explore diverse cultures’ responses to the social and natural world through the stories they tell about it.

Jennifer:  The story as power theme in both novels strikes me as the most crucial to teach to young people. By examining Dave’s desire to do what he has been forbidden to do (read/write) in Etched in Clay and his silent and subtle defiance of these laws, I would hope students would find the privilege in education. Too often, adolescents are so caught up in what they are “forced” to do in school that they forget, as CJ said, that school is a powerful tool not offered to everyone in every country. There is simply power in knowledge. Furthermore, in Hammer of Witches, the beauty and magic of storytelling is so strong that I would hope students would find it appealing. The mystic quality associated with story is enticing, as in forbidden fruit. One of my favorite characters in the latter novel was the Tittivillus, who played with words and made anagrams. Often, students don’t find the “fun” in words. This novel reinforces that.

Jon: In reading the historical notes at the end of Hammer of Witches in the context of this question, I’m struck by the note Mlawski makes that she found it hard to know if her depiction of the indigenous Taino people was accurate because the only descriptions she had were written by Europeans. This seems to me a powerful example of why writing matters–since the Taino had no written language, their ways of viewing the world and their side of the colonization story is difficult to know. There are two further things to consider: What happens when history is written by the conquerors or those (in this case) with the technology to make sure that their side of the story endured? And how does a culture or a way of life endure when there’s no written language to ensure that traditions and beliefs are passed on (as the written form seems primarily to do for our culture)? It’s frightening to think of how we might see slaves today if some (like Douglass) had not been able to read or write and tell their story in powerful ways. We each have a voice and ideas that deserve to be heard; mastery of the written word gives us a chance to have that voice be heard.

Sean: What textual connections did you make while reading Etched in Clay and Hammer of Witches? What do you think each would pair well with if taught?

Jon: I mentioned in an earlier response the connections in genre between Etched in Clay and Hesse’s verse novel works (such as Out of the Dust, but perhaps more fittingly, Witness). For some students/readers, comparing and contrasting the way these two authors use free verse poetry to communicate meaning would be a rewarding experience. And anything we would normally use poetry to teach (such as figurative language) could easily be taught with verse novels–and I think free verse might seem a less threatening (or less stigmatized) form of poetry for students. With Etched in Clay and Witness, particularly, there are similar themes of prejudice, fear, and injustice; since both works use the verse novel to present varied perspectives on these issues, there’s ample opportunity to explore how our ideologies might shape the way we perceive the reality around us. I also think that slave narratives could be an excellent match with this book, especially given the running theme of the power of writing in Dave’s life and work.

Sean: I also thought of Hesse’s work immediately while reading Etched in Clay, Jon. Jen Bryant’s Ringside, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial also came to mind, as it takes a similar approach to Etched in Clay in relating a critical historical event (albeit one more widely documented) through the voices of multiple narrators in verse. As suggested earlier, I think Hammer of Witches would serve as a great introduction to the storytelling traditions of multiple cultural roots, and thus a great unifying text for a Humanities-based approach to genre studies. I’m particularly taken with golem stories (in fact, a sizable golem figure stares at me from across my office as I write), and they are abundant, from Gustav Meyrink’s 1915 novel (the basis for the 1920 classic silent film) to David Wisniewski’s Caldecott-winning 1997 picture book, Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay and 2013’s remarkable The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. From there, it’s not a far cry to braid Hammer of Witches with Frankenstein, connecting Mlawski’s Old/New World culture conflict to Shelley’s science/nature and pre-modern/modern world conflicts.

Jon: As for Hammer of Witches, I find it such an interesting exploration of the real power of storytelling that I think it might be coupled with other powerful forms of storytelling, like myths and film. When I taught in the secondary classroom, it never ceased to amaze me how inherently engaging stories from various cultures’ myths were to my students–the same could be said for more folklore-ish stories (such as urban legends). Their reactions, I think, give some credence to Mlawski’s assertion in this novel that stories have power to fascinate us as well as to educate us. I also enjoyed teaching students to be critical viewers of film, given that I think that medium is perhaps the most relevant form of storytelling for many of them. Both forms of storytelling might make good matches to this novel. Of course, the person of Columbus and the events surrounding the Europeans’ arrival in the New World are both the subject of lots of books and movies/documentaries. It might be interesting to have students look at biographies of Columbus across decades (if those texts are available) to see how perceptions of the man have become more complex as time has passed and our sensibilities have shifted. Alternatively, we could ask students to look at biographies written for different ages of readers (from picture books to early reader books to teen nonfiction) to see how portrayals of this complicated man shift with audience.

Sean: Both Etched in Clay and Hammer of Witches deal with the theme of crossing borders: physical, social, psychological, religious and even genre and text form. How do such crossings embody the essence of Lee & Low’s slogan, “About Everyone, For Everyone,” and what kinds of disciplinary border crossings could teachers make through introducing young readers to these books?

Bucky: I mentioned the concept of nepantla in our last column. Nepantla is a term for border spaces, liminal spaces. Often these spaces are thought of as bicultural, especially such that they resist the “dominant discourses,” but I feel that interpretation is a limiting type of expansion. Truly, when we think of new spaces, needed spaces, we need to think of multicultural spaces, where dominant discourses and others mingle and intertwine. We don’t need an Anglo “liminal space” here and a Spanish-Indio nepantla space there, for example. Even as the world’s population continues to brown, part of how it is doing so is through browner people marrying and mating the less brown. Maybe what we need is nepantl(a)iminality, a recognition of the border spaces between and among the border spaces. Nepantl(a)iminality shares a common ingredient from both words, with the (a) acting as a hitch which joins cab and trailer, if you will, two necessary components in transporting the good(s) across boundaries, and suggests a hybridity of hybridities where notions of oppressor and oppressed can be re-examined and redefined. I think there is some nepantl(a)iminality in Hammer of Witches, as it draws from so many cultures and traditions and has such a multicultural cast. While the book offers a strong dynamic of white, European conquerors out to destroy the peaceful worlds of people of color and also shows the soon-to-be-colonized as considering their own acts of violence (see Anacaona), it is through knowing and appreciating the myths of many cultures that Baltasar, “A converted Jew….Half-Christian…half-Moor….Spanish, but…Taino” (330), can hope to save the day.

Sean: Your concept of liminality is a fascinating framework for understanding the value and power of narrative discourses in a 21st century, minority-majority America that is more of a mosaic than a melting pot. How do you see this at work in Etched in Clay?

Bucky: While Etched in Clay’s power dynamics are mostly black and white, though we might note the gender relations in play as well, they’re universal in the sense that authority and oppression often coincide. Some sort of meeting of the minds is what Dave desires. He doesn’t want to reverse the race-based power dynamics, which, I think can be a trace assertion in nepantla; he hopes for them reconfigured altogether for greater equity and equality. Though I prefer Etched in Clay to Mlawski’s novel, Hammer of Witches offers greater gateways to multicultural considerations. Both offer interdisciplinary opportunities. I could see Hammer of Witches being a major text in a unit on “Transnational Views of the Literary and Historic Columbus,” for example, though my hunch is that Mlawski would rather see a unit focusing on “Multiple Accounts” rather than placing that man at the center of a unit. Etched in Clay might pair well with Black Boy or Invisible Man or Frederick Douglass’s autobiography. Another less-obvious but potentially fruitful pairing for Etched in Clay is Craig Thompson’s graphic novel Habibi. Heck, bringing in Habibi could be a great way to join Etched in Clay with Hammer of Witches to form a text ladder exploring power, language, literacy, multiculturalisms, and myth. Habibi is for mature readers, though. It might be equally intriguing to pair Etched in Clay with nonfiction studies which detail trends in literacy rates and socioeconomic and racial disparities among them.

Sean: Thank you all for sharing your perspectives on these two unique publications from Lee & Low, team! We hope you readers have enjoyed sharing in our conversation and that you will keep looking under the radar for books “about everyone, for everyone” to share with your students, colleagues and loved ones. Check back with ALAN in a few months for our next column!

For more on Lee & Low’s catalog and featured publications, please visit their website at http://www.leeandlow.com