The Ghosts of Heaven

Sedgwick, Marcus. The Ghosts of Heaven. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2014.

A mind bender is just what the reader gets from Marcus Sedgwick.  I feel like I need to read his stuff multiple times in order to begin to understand it.  I surely don’t feel like a veteran AP literature teacher.  Here’s the thing though.  I had to wait until summer to even get to read The Ghosts of Heaven for the first time.  I start teaching at upward bound soon, so - no rereading just now.

To summarize this book is difficult.  The content is organized into four quarters.  I read them in the order that they are published, but theoretically they work in any order.  One is set in prehistory and focuses on a young girl, who struggles to decipher original writing on the walls of a cave, to make magic for her people’s hunt, to survive the invasion of another group of people.  I am transformed back in time.  Another is set during the height of witch hunts and executions.  A young girl who is a healer like her newly passed mother, is learning to use herbs to help the neighbors who come for aid at all hours.  She only wishes she could heal her brother who suffers randomly from debilitating seizures.  Then new priest arrives.  His mission? To remove her village from the clutches of evil and witchcraft.  Another, and likely my favorite, is set in an insane asylum sometime in the 20s.  The new assistant superintendent is learning the secrets of the supposedly progressive assignment while keeping some pretty profound secrets of his own. The story revolves around him, his daughter Verity, and the alarmingly lucid, but “insane” patient who guides them both. And the last quarter I read set sometime in the distant future - beautiful science fiction, and I don’t always love science fiction - in a spaceship hurtling toward a “new earth.” The sentinel who wakes every 10 years to check the ship’s progress notices some startling developments. People are dying; systems seem to be failing; he might not really know the truth of his journey.  What do all of these stories have in common?  The spiral - at some level the character’s are drawn to, mystified by, afraid of the spiral - seen in nature, in stairways, in paths through space.  

I love that Sedgwick’s work transcends labels.  The book is marketed as young adult, but is populated equally by characters of all ages. I will definitely have to market this to my older and more sophisticated readers, but am pleased to have it to offer to them.  Honestly, I can’t wait to have a few of them read it, so that we can talk the ideas through together. I love his talent at creating works in different eras and styles that stand independently and yet work seamlessly together - historical fiction, science fiction, prehistoric fiction. One of the reasons that I have to work so hard to understand the meaning is that I am drawn into the narrative and just need to know what happens, so I rush.  A second reading becomes almost necessary...but the time. I love that this book forces the reader to be an active reader, to seek connections, to look beyond the words on the page. This book is intriguing; thought provoking; a mind bender - exactly what I’ve come to expect from Marcus Sedgwick.  

Keep Poetry Instruction Alive

I am passionate about poetry. I love reading it. I love teaching it. I love reading and talking books in verse for my library and reading a talking books that highlight poetry for my library. I have become increasingly concerned about the nudges that we are getting through the core that can effectively reduce the amount of time that we feel "justified" in teaching poetry. So...I appreciated Amanda Ronan's "7 Reasons to Keep Poetry Instruction Alive." She notes that "in today's classrooms it seems like poetry has been pushed to the side." She notes a study by the Pioneer Institute that analyzes the teaching of poetry in core classrooms. As educators we must consider her 7 reasons as we craft the curriculum that guides our English instruction. These are (1) Length, Kids sometimes respond more readily to shorter works.  (2) Inference, Inferring is a skill that is easily taught in poetry and applicable in many academic areas.  (3) Emotions, Forget the common core; literature is about touching emotions, and kids need to think about their emotions and the emotions of others. (4) Figures of Speech, Can there be too much practice with these? (5) Historical, I love teaching history and literature to getter.In AP, we often discuss what aspects of our culture and history will be reflected in poetry. (6) Performance, I have had some great experiences with having kids perform poetry.  (7) Critical Thinking, An excellent way to encourage critical thinking skills. . If we consider the points made in her article it becomes clear that poetry instruction does indeed support the skills required by the common core. Further, poetry instruction creates smarter students and better people. These things still matter.

Keep Poetry Instruction Alive

I am passionate about poetry. I love reading it. I love teaching it. I love reading and talking books in verse for my library and reading a talking books that highlight poetry for my library. I have become increasingly concerned about the nudges that we are getting through the core that can effectively reduce the amount of time that we feel "justified" in teaching poetry. So...I appreciated Amanda Ronan's "7 Reasons to Keep Poetry Instruction Alive." She notes that "in today's classrooms it seems like poetry has been pushed to the side." She notes a study by the Pioneer Institute that analyzes the teaching of poetry in core classrooms. As educators we must consider her 7 reasons as we craft the curriculum that guides our English instruction. These are (1) Length, Kids sometimes respond more readily to shorter works.  (2) Inference, Inferring is a skill that is easily taught in poetry and applicable in many academic areas.  (3) Emotions, Forget the common core; literature is about touching emotions, and kids need to think about their emotions and the emotions of others. (4) Figures of Speech, Can there be too much practice with these? (5) Historical, I love teaching history and literature to getter.In AP, we often discuss what aspects of our culture and history will be reflected in poetry. (6) Performance, I have had some great experiences with having kids perform poetry.  (7) Critical Thinking, An excellent way to encourage critical thinking skills. . If we consider the points made in her article it becomes clear that poetry instruction does indeed support the skills required by the common core. Further, poetry instruction creates smarter students and better people. These things still matter.

Every Last Word - Tamara Ireland Stone

Tamara Ireland Stone. Every Last Word. New York: Hyperion, 2015.

I believe in the power of poetry to heal.

I am so pleased to read another honest and hopeful book in YA that explores mental illness in a positive way.

I love this girl Sam, and her journey is an inspiring one that I can't wait for my girls to read.

Real life inspiration leads to this powerful coming of age story.

True love has the power to help heal.

We are all broken, says shrink Sue.

I can't decide what I want my hook to be, so I am taking the lazy way out and just leaving them all. I have read and enjoyed Stone's time travel work, but she has gone to an altogether different place with this new title.

Sam has OCD, a kind that primarily manifests itself in compulsive thinking, sometimes she just can't shut her brain off. She has to chemically shut it down to get a good night's sleep. Sam dreads the start of the school year. She likes Summer Sam so much better than Samantha of the school year who has to deal with all of the pressures of trying to fit in. Her friend group, the crazy 8s can be brutal. She has to say the right things and look the right way, all the while hiding her OCD. Her psychiatrist, with whom she meets once a week, encourages her to let go of the toxic people, but Sam fears being alone. Enter Caroline, she can confide everything to her. And Caroline introduces her to a secret group that meets to share poetry and music with each other. Here she finds support and the courage to find her words and her poetry.  She finds AJ, who makes her feel normal in a way no one ever has before. This book is her journey.

I respect so many things about this book. I am truly excited by the number of YA books that  deal with mental illness in positive ways. So many kids are dealing with so many mental health issues in their lives. This books offers them hope in the form of support, treatment and the genuine understanding of others . Kids who are not directly dealing with these issues need to see positive representations of these issues in order to grow more compassion and empathy. It is a gift to be able  to offer books to my readers. I respect that one of the vehicles for healing is writing and sharing poetry. I am passionate about poetry, reading it and teaching it. I remember crying in front of a classroom full students the first time I read "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" because my grandfather was losing a battle with cancer. I remember being tickled the first time I read "I'm Nobody Who Are You" and realized Dickinson sometimes felt like me. I love the poetry room created in this book, where students grow through the writing, sharing, and performing of poetry. I kind of want to find a deserted room in my school and create such a space. At the very least find a wall in my library! I respect Stone's careful attention to character development. She created folks that my readers can absolutely recognize as their own. She wrote a love story that will resonate with my readers. While this old lady didn't love all of the decisions made by the couple , it was written beautifully and in a way that all of my readers can appreciate. Real situations were handled tenderly and respectfully. I respect the amazingly artful twist at the end, that I don't want to spoil at all except to say that I was resistant to the idea at first, but Stone worked it in perfectly. So good. I respect the epilogue where the author shares her relationship with a girl just like Sam that inspired this work. My writers get a brief glimpse into the detailed process that can go into creating as well.

I can't wait to purchase this title. I will have it ready for my students in the fall. I can talk it from so many perspectives, but I may just go all over the map like I did with my opening sentence.

NetGalley provided me with an ARC of Every Last Word in exchange for an honest review.