Linda Vigen Phillips's Blog, page 2

Fun at Durham’s Inaugural READ LOCAL Book Festival

Book festivals are a fascinating part of the writing life and each one I’ve participated in so far has had its own flavor and personality.  This past weekend I took part in Durham, NC’s inaugural READ LOCAL festival, and here following are a few pictures, observations and reflections:

Good friends and fellow authors Gretchen Griffith and Sandra Warren shared a table just down the row from me.  This is the second time our paths have crossed on the festival circuit, and it’s great to have familiar faces in a crowd of 60 exhibitors and 50 local authors.

Sandra delighted children with her Arlie the Alligator hats craft table.

Book industry professionals like my own publicist, Priscilla Goudreau-Santos, came out to strut their stuff.  She and Carin Siegfried, Nicole Ayers, Betsy Thorpe and Karen Alley are excited about a new collaborative called All About the Authors.  They have a new website in the making at www.allabouttheauthors.com or you can email questions to allabouttheauthors@gmail.com.

The place was buzzing with area SCBWI friends, including John Claude Bemis, Clay Carmichael, and Louise Hawes on this “Writing for Young Readers” panel.

Festivals provide great ways to make new friends by sharing a table.  My table mates, Donovan Parker II and Monique Smith, were two of the four college students who have collaborated on a book of devotions called Being Perfected:  A Compilation of Daily Devotionals to Help You Stay Kingdom Minded.  It was inspiring to meet such industrious young writers.

A unique twist for festivals and a new experience for me was hearing an excerpt of my work read by a “celebrity” author, Mary Lambeth Moore, whose own debut book is Sleeping With Patty Hearst. We ended up swapping books and I can’t wait to dip into hers which she said bears some similarities to Crazy!

Fellow authors, I have to tell you that sales aren’t always the best take-away at festivals, but the time is SO well spent in networking, seeing old friends, and making lots of new connections.  I commend the organizers of this inaugural event, and I predict it will only get bigger and better as it rolls along.

MAY IS MENTAL HEALTH MONTH

May is Mental Health Month. Maybe you are one who feels uncomfortable around anyone who appears to have a mental problem.  Maybe you are even afraid that they might try to harm you or themselves if you try to interact. Maybe you are the one with a diagnosed mental illness, and you keep to yourself because of feelings of embarrassment or shame.

How might you react if your child chooses a friend at school who is being treated for severe depression or has attempted suicide?  What will your response be to the new person in your book club who says she is bipolar?  What about the neighbor who told you he was in the hospital for shock treatment?

We all have our comfort zones and coping mechanisms when it comes to physical or mental illness in ourselves or others.  Some of us choose to ignore the problem and hope it goes away, and some of us face the beast head-on. Too often, even in the twenty-first century, dealing with mental issues in ourselves or others leaves us clueless, and without a clear or appropriate path of action.

So what does it mean to deal appropriately with mental illness? I heard about one way on March 5, 2015, when Michelle Obama announced the “Change Direction” campaign, a new mental health initiative designed to raise mental health awareness. This national spotlight on mental illness aims to clearly communicate to students about the benefits of mental health. It includes three powerful messages every school needs to share to create an open environment for students to deal with mental illness:

It’s OK to talk about mental illness
There is no shame in seeking help
There is hope after diagnosis

I’m proud to say that since October, 2014, when my book, Crazy, was released, I have been doing my small part to raise mental health awareness in schools and the community. I maintain that it’s not just OK to talk about mental illness. It is imperative! My book is set in the sixties when talk therapy didn’t exist, the first psychotropic drugs were just being introduced, and mental hospitals were crowded with patients who would be easily treated as outpatients today.   But sadly, many of those patients who do seek treatment in the twenty-first century still do so shamefully and/or secretly.

Laura, the protagonist in Crazy, spins her wheels for a while, desperately trying to hide the fact that her mother is experiencing mental breakdowns. Laura’s own mental health is threatened until she begins to deal with the situation by talking it out with both another student and a trusted adult, then finding her own creative outlet, and finally confronting the beast by calling it what it is: mental illness.

It is my goal to use Crazy, as well as a selection of similar books dealing with tough mental health issues, to start the dialogue on mental illness in the safe environment of the classroom. In the next year, I hope to reach as many teachers, librarians, and students as possible with my message which is the same as Michelle Obama’s: Let’s talk about it, eradicate the shame of seeking help, and look forward to the hope that can follow a correct diagnosis.

If you are a teacher or librarian, or know of one who might be open to a classroom dialogue about mental illness, please check my contact page where you can find further information or contact me directly

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Congratulations to Cindy Clemens who won the drawing for the ARC of Miriam Franklin’s Extraordinary.  

Extraordinary, Miriam Franklin’s debut and an ARC giveaway!

Today I am thrilled to feature a fellow writer and long-time friend, Miriam Franklin, whose debut book (Extraordinary/Sky Pony Press) will enter the world on May 5th!  Leave a comment to enter the drawing to win the last ARC of this truly extraordinary book, and if you become a follower of my blog I’ll enter you twice!  Winner announced Saturday, May 9th!

Last spring, Pansy chickened out on going to spring break camp, even though she’d promised her best friend, Anna, she’d go. It was just like when they went to get their hair cut for Locks of Love; only one of them walked out with a new hairstyle, and it wasn’t Pansy. But Pansy never got the chance to make it up to Anna. While at camp, Anna contracted meningitis and a dangerously high fever, and she hasn’t been the same since. Now all Pansy wants is her best friend back—not the silent girl in the wheelchair who has to go to a special school and who can’t do all the things Pansy used to chicken out of doing. So when Pansy discovers that Anna is getting a surgery that might cure her, Pansy realizes this is her chance—she’ll become the friend she always should have been. She’ll become the best friend Anna’s ever had—even if it means taking risks, trying new things (like those scary roller skates), and running herself ragged in the process.

Pansy’s chasing extraordinary, hoping she reaches it in time for her friend’s triumphant return. But what lies at the end of Pansy’s journey might not be exactly what she had expected—or wanted.

Linda: I’m delighted to have you here today, Miriam, and I know you are excited to see your dream becoming a reality very soon. Tell us a little about the process and what inspired you to write this book.

Miriam: As a teacher, I’ve worked with children who persevere despite challenges, treat others with kindness, and are full of spirit and heart. Although they may not be the top students or the most talented in the typical ways that get noticed, they have extraordinary gifts that others may not recognize. I began writing about Pansy Smith, a girl who considered herself “hopelessly average” but woke up one day and decided it was time to become an extraordinary person. Although I was told the story was humorous and fun to read, I realized that Pansy didn’t have a strong enough motivation for change. Anna was a minor character, and after putting the book aside for a while, the solution came to me while I was working on another manuscript: Pansy’s and Anna’s stories needed to be linked. Although I had avoided focusing on Anna’s story because I didn’t want the story to be sad and depressing, I knew the answer came through the connection of the two characters.

Anna’s story came to me because a niece suffered a brain injury when she was two. A sudden high fever led to a stroke and a brain injury, which changed her life and her family’s life forever. I’ve always been amazed and inspired by the way her family accepted the challenges and focused on the joy that Anna brought to everyone. Even though their hopes and dreams for her had changed, they adjusted and learned that living with a child with severe special needs can be a gift that makes you view the world in a different way.

Linda: Did you set out to be a writer at a young age, or did it develop along the way?  How did you juggle teaching and writing?

Miriam: I wrote my first book at age 5, a book about sisters who decide they’re ducks when they go out in the rain. The book ends with a triumphant “Quack, quack!” My dad, a chemical engineer who wrote plays in his spare time, called me an author and made copies of “my masterpiece” to show everyone. I continued to write through elementary school where I was encouraged by amazing teachers. I didn’t write again until I took a creative writing class my senior year of college, which led to my first unpublished young adult novel, and the university’s Creative Writing Award. I wrote a few more unsuccessful YAs before turning to middle grade, and probably completed 6 or 7 novels before signing a contract for Extraordinary.

I taught full time for 11 years which was all-consuming for me, and the only writing I accomplished was during summer vacations. After my first daughter was born, I went back to work part-time, which led to more writing time.

Linda: You’ve been a member of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) for many years, and they are an esteemed organization.   Are there conferences, critique groups, or connections that you’ve made that have been particularly memorable and/or helpful?

Miriam: During my first SCBWI conference, I was lucky enough to be matched with Stephanie Greene for a critique. She was very encouraging, and offered to critique the rest of my manuscript. It meant a lot to me that she’d take the time to help a new writer, and I’ll always be grateful to her for that.

Because I’m an introvert, it’s easier for me to connect through e-mails than in person. I was in a supportive online critique group for a number of years, and though we no longer meet on a weekly basis, I still have a circle of critique partners that I count on for support and feedback.

Because writing is a such a solitary activity, it’s important to connect with others online and in person. Other writers are the only ones who truly know what it’s like to work so hard on a manuscript and receive a form rejection. They’re also the people who will truly understand what it means when an agent offer or publishing contract comes through, and they will want to celebrate with you. I don’t know what I’d do without my writer friends, including you, Linda!

Linda: You have an agent. Getting one is not an easy task. Did you find that to be the case and if so, can you elaborate on the process?

Miriam: Once I sent my revised manuscript out, I was able to find an agent pretty quickly. This was the only “quick” part about the entire process! I’d been sending out queries for various manuscripts and stockpiling rejections since the SASE days, but this time I received a request for the manuscript before I e-mailed a single agent. I had posted my query letter on the Verla Kay “blue boards” (now the SCBWI boards), and a newer agent contacted me saying she was interested. A week later she asked for an exclusive revision, which resulted in changing about one-third of the book. But I knew her idea would transform the story, and a day after I sent in my revision, we set up time for The Call!

Linda: And of course, the usual follow-up question is how long did it take your agent to find your publisher? Did you occupy yourself working on something else during the wait?

Miriam: Like I said, nothing else about the process was quick. The manuscript went through many more revisions, including editor R&Rs, and went to acquisitions with three different houses before I signed with Skypony Press. I know everyone advises working on a new manuscript while on submission, but there were days and weeks where I couldn’t write a single word! Being on submission can be a really stressful time.

Linda: What are you working on now?

Miriam: I have a couple of middle grade projects in various stages of revision. Hopefully I’ll have something ready to submit soon.

Linda: What nugget of wisdom would you like to pass along to beginning writers?

Miriam: Keep reading and writing and learning. Listen to good professional feedback that truly helps you improve your craft. If I’d quit after the first rejections (or the first hundred) I wouldn’t have a shiny new book on the shelf, ready to share with the world.

Linda:  Thanks for sharing your thoughts today, Miriam, and I wish you and Extraordinary every success!

 

 

What Makes It All Worthwhile

I recently got one of those letters that makes this journey one of the most rewarding of my life. It was from a high school English teacher in a small, rural town. She told me how she recently assigned an independent reading project shortly after the school librarian had ordered in a new selection of books, among which was Crazy.

She said one of her students has a pretty challenging home life and is somewhat socially isolated from his peers. He doesn’t talk much in class, struggles to turn in work, has a good heart, and is just trying to make it through. He excels in art, but for his class journals, he almost exclusively writes poems.

When the teacher interviewed the student to see how he was progressing, he said he had finished the book in four days, way ahead of schedule. The teacher said, “It was clear from the many details and from the passion in his voice, that the situation, the narrative, and voice of this book really connected with him. It made me so happy to see him feel as if maybe someone else understood his world. I cannot thank you enough for sharing this story; your authenticity reverberates with those who feel a bit out of place.”

And I cannot thank this kind and dedicated teacher enough, for the obvious care and concern she has for this student, and for graciously sharing this with me. As a follow-up she exclaimed a few days later about “the further proof of the power of a good book” when the student actually initiated a five-minute conversation with her.

Recently in making presentations I have shared a link to a School Library Journal article about the value of bibliotherapy. It is simply an expressive way to use an individual’s relationship to the content of books and poetry and other written words as therapy. Bibliotherapy is often combined with writing therapy. It has been shown to be effective in the treatment of depression.

I don’t know the details about this young man’s situation, but I am blessed to know that for whatever reason, something about my book touched his heart.  I’m sure every author would concur that no amount of fame or fortune can bring as much joy as touching lives through the words we are inspired to write.

 

Poetry, it’s in the air, and a family affair!

April is poetry month, and poets thither and yon are reading, writing, speaking, thinking, and honoring poets and poetry.  Last week I sat in on a gathering of like-minded souls to hear unknown and/or well-known poems read by the authors or poetry lovers. My future daughter-in-law, Erin Coffin, put the event together at The Bag Lady, owned by her mother, Karen Coffin.  Erin is headed for NC State in the fall to pursue a masters in creative writing.

Erin Coffin (left) Karen Coffin(right)

Jon Phillips (aka Jon Lindsay) below

 

 

Son Jon, a singer/song-writer, who holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, also joined in.

Since I’ve been on the presenting side a bunch lately, it felt good to be a sponge for the evening. BUT, if I had spoken up, it would have been to chime in with three small ditties by three of my favorite poets.

THE MAN WHO HAS MANY ANSWERS

The man who has many answers

is often found

in the theaters of information

where he offers, graciously,

his deep findings.

 

While the man who has only questions,

to comfort himself, makes music.

by Mary Oliver

 

FAME

My book fell in a river and rolled

over and over turning its pages

for the sun.  From a bridge I saw this.

An eagle dived and snatched the slippery volume.

 

Now somewhere in the forest that book, educating

eagles, turns its leaves in the wind,

and all those poems whisper for autumn

to come, and the long nights, and the snow.

by William Stafford

 

METAPHORS

I’m a riddle in nine syllables,

An elephant, a ponderous house,

A melon strolling on two tendrils.

O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!

This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.

Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.

I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.

I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,

Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

by Sylvia Plath

Readers, I would love to hear about your favorite poet or poem.  Hurry, before April slips away into May!!

School visits and youth conferences: Yes!

The more I get into this book-promoting world, the more I appreciate it for what it’s worth.  And it’s worth this:  meeting adults and youth who connect with Crazy in some way, and making a pitch for more open, honest communication about mental health issues in the classroom and in the greater population.

In the past several weeks, I have had the privilege of seeing how Crazy has touched hearts in both segments of the population.

March 24, Queens Grant Community School, 7th & 8th grade assembly followed by a workshop (Writing From the Heart in Verse) with a class of 24.  I was so impressed with the questions and comments from this very attentive group of students,

and then, the level of creativity during the writing workshop.

April 11, Colorado Youth Literature Conference, breakout session, “Saving Lives Through YA Literature.”  A group of dedicated librarians from the Denver area put together this stellar conference that sells out within a few days to 400 participants, half of which are youth, ages 12 and up.  

Linda and hostess committee member, Arra Katona

The room was packed, the response was totally open and receptive, and the thing I heard most was “thanks for sharing your story.”

Linda with committee members Marge Freeburn and Susan Person

I don’t enjoy “promoting” myself, but I am very blessed that the Lord is using this book to touch hearts and minds of many who have experienced mental health issues in some profound way.

 

 

Meet Jenna Israel, Another Teen-acious Teen

I am pleased to welcome Jenna Israel, who comes highly recommended by her friend and former guest, Eliana Franklin.  Jenna loves to read, and as you’ll see, she definitely has a scientific side.

LP:  Welcome to the conversation today, Jenna.  Tell us a little about you and  your family.

JI:  I live with my mom and dad, my sister Sophia (8th grade), and my hamsters, Lewis & Clark because they love to explore! We are thinking about getting a rabbit soon. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia and lived there until I was 6. My family loves to travel together; one of our favorite trips was a road trip through Massachusetts. We visited Plymouth Rock, went on a whale watch, and were fortunate enough to see the Boston Pops 4th of July concert.

LP:  Tell us about  your school life.

JI:  I am in the tenth grade at South Mecklenburg High School. I love science because it has context in everything I do. This year I took chemistry and it was one of the most fascinating classes I have taken so far.   I love math as well, for it is crucial to science, and together they explain much of what goes on in the world.

LP:  You have been involved in Odyssey of the Mind. Tell us a little about what this is, how you came to be involved, and what you have gained from it.

JI:  Odyssey of the mind is a competition in which teams of seven or fewer people design and perform creative performances to solve a series of complex problems and requirements. I was on my first team in the third grade, and have been on a team four years since then. Even though I have never placed higher than third place and have never made it past the regional competition, I still love OM! It is such an amazing experience to come up with solutions to problems that are not graded on accuracy, but on creativity. Through OM I have gained valuable skills such as public speaking, using a saw, script writing, and interpersonal skills, just to name a few. Though Odyssey of the mind is a huge time commitment, the feeling of being a part of a team is worth every minute.

Jenna (Bert the Chimney Sweep) in Mary Poppins

LP:  And I understand you are also involved in building a greenhouse at school. Tell us about this experience.

JI:  In the 9th grade I became part of a program at South Meck called the IDEA Academy, which stands for innovation, design, engineering and art.  Our yearlong project was to use these core disciplines to rehabilitate the school’s old greenhouse. I was a part of the after-school project management team that helped build and paint the frame, dig a ditch, and install plastic covering. Soon we will plant the vegetables that the school will use to promote healthy eating. While the project is part of my studies, only a small part of the student body is able to be involved and I feel very privileged to be a part of this amazing project! I was featured in the South Charlotte portion of the newspaper last year for my participation in this project.

Jenna in the middle, holding money from JE Dunn Construction for the greenhouse project

LP:  I know you are also a member of the Spanish Honor Society where you tutor ESL students.  Do you have time in between for reading, and if so, what do you like to read?

JI: I read a wide variety and I try to pick books that are different, that are not trying to copy the Hunger Games format to get teenagers interested.  I am a Harry Potter fan but I read other fantasies as well.  I have enjoyed the Virals series by Kathy Reichs.  This year I read Catcher in the Rye for my English class and I still find myself puzzling over it. I recently read a Walter Dean Myers book called Darius and Twig and enjoyed how it painted a picture of life very different yet very similar to my own. There is so much more to gain from life when you are not always contemplating a dystopian future, though I do indulge in the ridiculous situations and delusional romance from time to time. It helps me keep in touch with high school.

LP:  What is the most important lesson you have learned in life so far?

JI:  It is important to trust the process. Though many things seem trivial and unnecessary along the way, it is important that you do them. It is the journey and not the destination that make you who you are

 LP:  It looks like you are well on your way to an abundant life in whatever path you choose, Jenna.  Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today, and I wish you every success!

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Congratulations to Sheri Levy, who won a copy of Prissy on the Moon from last week’s blog!  

 

 

 

Dolores Andral talks about and gives away Prissy on the Moon

I had the privilege of meeting Dolores Andral at the WNBA Author’s Showcase in Charlotte, NC on March 7. Her first book, a picture book called Prissy on the Moon, came out in August, 2014. Here is the synopsis from Dolores’ website:

Prissy on the Moon is the first in a new series of children’s books centered around a young girl named Prissy.  In this title, Prissy is bored and unhappy, so she wants to leave home and live on the moon! As she lets her imagination run wild, she jumps on the furniture, she uses her outside voice indoors, and ultimately crashes into her momma. When she learns about a party her family is throwing, will the excitement of party favorites and friends be enough to keep her grounded on earth?

LP: Welcome, Dolores, and congratulations on the publication of your first book. Tell us a little about your background, your family, schooling, etc.

DA: I grew up in Brooklyn, NY, where I lived with my parents and five siblings (including a twin brother) in our family home. I went to public school in New York, then a state school, which is still one of the premier public schools in the nation. I eventually received an MFA in writing from Queens University in Charlotte where I currently live with my husband and four kids.

LP: Have you always wanted to be a writer?  And if so, have you found encouragement along the way from family and friends?

DA: I have always had a passion for writing, though I never thought of writing as a career. It wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I started writing seriously. It actually began because I attempted to create a magazine/newsletter for “twenty-somethings.” Though it never made it off the ground, it started me on my journey to writing.

LP: Where did you get your idea for the Prissy on the Moon series?

DA: Prissy came about organically, as I’m sure many children’s books do, from the antics of my own children. When my oldest daughter was a toddler, she practically screamed when she talked. We’d constantly tell her she wasn’t on the moon. The running joke was that if she were on the moon, she could do whatever she liked: run, jump, and shout, which is precisely what Prissy does in the story.

LP: Tell us about Laurel View Press which you founded.  Are you aiming to publish other authors as well as your own work?

DA: My husband and I created LVP for the sole purpose of bringing our books to life. Instead of bemoaning the often talked-about but unchanging lack of diverse characters in books, we wanted to create the type of diversity we were seeking.

Also, I was aware that unless you were the author and illustrator, the publishing industry didn’t want you to bring your own artist. I also knew that the publishers ultimately had the final say in what the characters looked like, and I wanted to control that aspect of it.

We are not currently seeking to publish other artists at this time because I believe in order to be of service to them we would need to be experts in this field, and we’re still learning.

LP: From your blog and also in conversation, I’ve learned that diversity is on your mind.  Tell us how you see your book fitting into the popular http://weneeddiversebooks.org movement.

DA: Diversity is all about inclusion and not exclusion. Despite what some conspiracy theorists may champion, the recognition of others is not the death or genocide of any group.

Prissy is diverse not only in her look, but also in her story. If you look on any average bookstore shelf, you don’t see many characters who look like her.

Sadly, the majority of books published by and about blacks are in reference to slavery and the civil rights movement. If we were to look at this in terms of gender rather than race, perhaps we would begin to paint a better picture. Imagine if 90% of the books on the shelves were for and about men. Imagine now if only about 3% were about women. And now imagine if most of the books about women were about how to keep a home, how to have babies, how to make your husband happy. What if the only selections in the libraries were about the life and times when women didn’t have any rights, following women on their journey to be educated, reading the first time women could vote.

And while those books exist and are important, those are not the only books about women available—thankfully so. And why? Because we know women are not only smart and educated, they are teachers, and CEO’s, and athletes, and inventors, and writers, and astronauts, etc. Their stories are not pigeonholed into what once was, but are reflective of what is, what’s coming, and what we dream of.

And that’s how we have to see others. Not only in the context of narrowly limited roles.

So my goal with Prissy and the Prissy series is to introduce a girl who happens to be of color and who has a normal, fun, and sometimes magical existence in this world.

LP: Your husband is the artist, but I understand that was somewhat of a surprise.  Tell us about that.

DA: Every time I think about how he came to illustrate my book I see it more as a love story. I was the damsel in distress who couldn’t draw to save her life. He was the heroic knight who came to my aid with pencil in hand. I had attempted to be the author/illustrator and in an effort save me from myself (and to show me just how bad my drawing was), he took the exact picture I drew and did his own rendition. Of course his was vastly superior and that’s how he became the artist.

He has no formal training, although he did take a painting class in college, but he really didn’t know his own artistic strength.

LP: How many books do you envision in your series?  Do you have other projects lined up as well?

DA: There are about 9 stories currently written with Prissy as the protagonist. We are working on illustrating the second story now. I have a couple of other children’s stories and two adult novels that I am currently seeking agent representation for.

LP: What is the best nugget of wisdom you have gleaned from the writing life so far?

DA: Writing is subjective and hard. I think many people dream of being among the people who write books in a few months, get a 6- and 7-figure writing contract, then get a movie deal. The other 99% of writers might find the road from written work to published book to be a long road. It’s important not to give up.

LP: Thanks so much for joining us today and offering a signed copy of your book!   I wish you and your husband every success in your publishing pursuits.  Readers, leave a comment if you want to be entered in the drawing which will be announced next Monday.  You can “like” Dolores on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PrissyWorld or check out her website at www.prissyworld.com.

NC Reading Association Conference Takeaway

Linda, Madeleine Kuderick, Lester Laminack, Carole Boston Weatherford

Last Sunday afternoon (Quail Ridge Books and Music) and Monday morning (NCRA) Madeleine Kuderick and I generated some dialogue about mental illness. Raising awareness and getting the conversation going among teens as well as adults is what we are both committed to doing, and we weren’t disappointed. Well, I mean, that is after a comedy of errors at registration, the embarrassing realization we had not followed up enough to assure our bios and pictures made the booklet (they didn’t), and a last minute panic to get the projector operational!

But seriously speaking, we appreciated the opportunity to encourage classroom teachers and librarians to introduce students to a variety of literature with protagonists facing some form of mental illness. Of course we hope they buy our two books (Kiss of Broken Glass and Crazy) but we also supplied them with a list of other YA books dealing with mental illness.  Suggested YA Books Dealing with Mental Illness.  And then we challenged them to follow up with meaningful conversations that would perhaps replace, or at least over-ride less desirable forums for discourse on social media.

We pointed them to two articles found online, one from The Guardian where teens speak out about mental health, and the other on the topic of Bibliotherapy from School Library Journal.

Unfortunately technology got the best of us at the end, when we had intended to share a short video of Laurie Halse Anderson reading her poem, “Listen,” which is a response to her wonderful book, Speak. Her poem nails the point we are trying to make, and that is, books can change lives. Click here for a powerful few minutes of poetry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NCRA and Books That Save Lives

If you are reading this on Monday, I will be in Raleigh at the North Carolina Reading Association Conference, co-presenting a breakout session with Madeleine Kuderick (Kiss of Broken Glass) on the topic “Young Adult Literature Saves Lives.”

I’ll talk more about this next week, but for today, a couple of “teaser” slides from our presentation.

THE PROMISE OF BIBLIOTHERAPY

When a teen asks a librarian for “books about anxiety” he means “stories” he can relate to, not clinical studies, according to a recent School Library Journal article.

  http://tinyurl.com/kmwpxj4

Teens see themselves in these fictional characters and know that they are not alone.

“I want to see myself in the books I read, and I want others to see themselves represented, too.”

They can speak about tough topics through the safety of these fictional characters.

“Through literature, I am free to say what I want and be who I want to be.”

Quotes taken from recent article “Mental Health and Books: Teenagers Speak Out         www.theguardian.com.

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THE TAKE-AWAY:  INSIGHT AND PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS

In Crazy, Laura learns to value:

Talking rather than keeping secrets
Finding a creative outlet
Being proactive towards getting better
Naming the beast




In Kiss of Broken Glass, Kenna learns:

That she is not alone
Self-harm can be an addiction
That there are coping strategies –

“937 things to do instead of cutting”
And hope is a powerful thing

Teachers and counselors, we hope you will agree that books like ours can be life-saving conversations starters in the classroom.  I hope to share some of your input from today’s presentation on next week’s blog!

Congratulations to Debi Johnson who won Tamar Jackson's book, 265 Point, and Judy Pierce, who won Carin Siegfried's The Insider's Guide to a Career in Book Publishing.  Thanks to all who participated.