Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Castle Cranshaw, aka Ghost, has been running for the past three years, ever since the night he and his mother fled their home as Ghost’s father fired a gun at them.  But can a spot on a track team motivate him to run towards the future instead of from the past?  An impulsive and frequent fighter, Ghost must learn to face his problems head on, including himself, in order to envision an alternate future for himself.  With a relatable protagonist, this novel is best for middle-grades students looking for realistic fiction in an urban setting. --Anne Lotito-Schuh

Reynolds, Jason. Ghost. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016. Print.

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Two powerful essays couched in the form of two  letters, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time is likely to be as gripping for incarcerated and detained young men of African descent born in America today as it was when it was originally published in 1963.  Baldwin’s brilliant sentences, precise language, masterful rhetoric, and deeply felt honesty shine like a multi-faceted gem in the 106 pages of this short volume.  For sophisticated readers who have read The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley or Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow who are burning to read more and understand more but are not willing to tackle another long text (i.e. Dyson’s Making Malcolm or Manning’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention), give them this.  This text would make an excellent compare and contrast pairing with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Click here for the DPLA teaching guide to exploring The Fire Next Time in a classroom context.

Baldwin, James.  The Fire Next Time.  New York: Vintage International, 1991.  Print.

Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary by Walter Dean Myers

The story begins with a black man bleeding and being pulled from a police car with his hands cuffed behind his back on 123rd street in Harlem.  The year is 1957 and Myers draws the reader in immediately by describing the local community’s reaction and the emergence of the “formation of black men.  They were all dressed neatly with short haircuts, their arms folded before them.  Some wore dark glasses, many wore suits.  None of them were smiling. (3)”  Myers weaves a compelling narrative starting with Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam’s strategy for confronting police brutality in the late fifties and early sixties and then going back to the childhood and teen years of the child who would go on to courageously lead his followers, influence thinkers and activists around the world, and change the course of history in less than 200 pages.  Photographs of the subject and artifacts are sprinkled throughout.  Backmatter includes an index, photo credits, a bibliography, and a chronology which represents a double timeline; the left column of each page displays big events in American history beginning with the stock market crash in 1929, and the right column shows events in Malcolm’s life, beginning with his birth in 1925 and ending with three assassins’ sentencing in 1966.  A rich and timely work of narrative non-fiction. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Myers, Walter Dean.  Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary.  New York: Scholastic, 1993. Print.

Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly by Walter Dean Myers and Illustrated by Leonard Jenkins

There is much to love in this picture book biography featuring a condensed narrative which could easily interest a twelve or thirteen year old reader who is not yet familiar with the story of Malcolm X.  This text offers gorgeous, mature, full-color illustrations and emphasizes quotations from the subject on almost every page.  Malcolm’s words are woven into the narrative and set off from Myers’ text in bold block quotes.  This volume also features an unusual timeline as its only backmatter; unusual in that it covers the subject’s 39 years in twelve points and each point is accompanied by one or more quotes from Malcolm X. For example, the 1946 the text reads, “Malcolm is arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison.”  The accompanying quote reads, “ ‘I had gotten to the point where I was walking on my own coffin.  It’s a law of the rackets that every criminal expects to get caught.’” A helpful resource for scaffolding more sophisticated biographies of Malcolm X for tweens. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Myers, Walter Dean.  Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly.  New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Print.

Authors and Artists Series: Patricia McCormick visits Bronx Hope

Patricia McCormick visits Bronx Hope's school library.  Photo credit:  Allison Trevaskis

On Monday, February 13th, two-time National Book Award finalist, author, Patricia McCormick met with multiple groups of students at the Bronx Hope library.  The students impressed Ms. McCormick with their thoughtful questions about her books Never Fall Down, Sold, and I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World.

We are appreciative of Ms. McCormick for her unwavering support of all readers and writers across Passages Academy and her generosity of spending so much of her day with our readers. Thank you to Literacy for Incarcerated Teens for making the day possible through their donation of books and the movie, Sold. --Allison Trevaskis

Programming Spotlight: Muhammad Ali at the New York Historical Society

George Kalinsky
Muhammad Ali training at Madison Square Garden, 1967
Chromogenic print from original scanned film
Courtesy George Kalinsky

Ali, who had a soft spot for children, took a break from a workout to banter with a young fan. Kalinsky recalled this young admirer announcing, “I am the greatest for a moment.”

Students residing in the three group homes visited the New York Historical Society this afternoon for a private tour of the two Muhammad Ali-themed exhibits currently on display.  Students learned about the timeline  of Ali's fights, watched historical footage of the athlete, activist and humanitarian, and examined photographs like the one above in a beautifully arranged gallery at the Manhattan institution.  Many thanks to Literacy for Incarcerated Teens for providing the funding that made this trip possible, along with purchasing gift copies of The Greatest: Muhammad Ali by Walter Dean Myers for all participating students.  The image above, by George Kalinsky, can be viewed at the museum as well as by clicking on the museum's website gallery here. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Authors and Artists Series: Patricia McCormick visits Belmont

On Tuesday, December 20th, award-winning author Patricia McCormick visited with two groups of readers inside Belmont’s school library.  The first group, comprised of young men and women residing at Boys Town sites, prepared with their ELA teacher, Ms. Ernyey, by reading I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World.  The second group, comprised of young men residing at two different SCO sites as well as a Martin DePorres site, prepared with their ELA teachers, Ms. Nadel and Mr. Villaronga, by reading Never Fall Down.  Both groups read and discussed the respective texts, both heavily researched by Patricia McCormick, and drafted their own questions to ask the research-oriented author.  

All of us are grateful to Ms. McCormick for her generosity with her time and talent, as well as the beloved titles and enduring understandings she has made possible through her writing, and to Literacy for Incarcerated Teens for generously purchasing copies of both books for all of the participating students, faculty, and staff. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick

Many students here at Passages have heard of Malala Yousafzai, but for those who have not, a quick mention of the fact that she was shot at close range and that a bullet entered her head and travelled down under her skin to her shoulder quickly grabs their attention.  Patricia McCormick, with whom readers may be familiar from her works of fiction based on in-depth research and lengthy interviews on the Cambodian genocide, sex slavery, self-harm, and war, has collaborated with the Nobel Peace Prize winning teenager to provide younger readers with access to Malala’s story and the context in which it unfolded: life in Pakistan’s Swat valley before the 2007 earthquake that set the stage for the Taliban to come to power and eventually issue an edict in 2009 that no girls were permitted to go to school.  

Readers may be inspired by Malala’s courageous activism while beginning to develop schema for understanding Sunni Islam and its conflict with Islamic jihadists, life in rural and urban Pakistan, and Pashtun culture.  This edition contains two sections of reproductions of color photographs which help readers visualize the Swat valley, public floggings, Malala’s everyday life, and her travels as an activist and humanitarian. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Yousafzai, Malala with Patricia McCormick.  I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World.  New York: Hachette, 2016.  Print.

Never Fall Down: A Novel by Patricia McCormick

Arn knows his aunt cannot afford to send him and his five siblings to school as well as feed and clothe them, so he has dropped out of his elementary school to sell ice cream on the street when one day the teenage soldiers of the Khmer Rouge roll into town and order everyone to follow them into the countryside.  What follows is a tautly paced first-person narration of the Cambodian genocide from the perspective of an eleven-year-old character whose story, while presented as a novel, is based on the true tale of Arn Chorn-Pond.  A powerful tale on its own, in McCormick’s expert hands, Chorn-Pond’s story has been transformed into brilliant YA literature.  Students living in detained settings may not find this book immediately relatable because the narrator’s voice belies his relationship to English as a secondary language. Intrepid readers (or those with the support of a teacher) will be rewarded by McCormick’s exploration of how adults in powerful positions manipulate young people to achieve their goals.  While Post-traumatic stress disorder is not named, the text’s empathetic portrayal of a teenager surviving years of trauma and opening a new chapter in his life are realistic and ultimately heartening.  Recommended for more experienced high-school-aged readers who have enjoyed The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Sold.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

McCormick, Patricia.  Never Fall Down.  New York: Balzer + Bray, 2012.

The publisher has made a brief teaching guide available here.  A wonderful interview with the author is available on her website here.

Parent-teacher Conferences + Public Library Partners

Last night Passages Academy finished hosting our first round of this year’s parent-teacher conferences.  We were joined by our public librarian colleagues at several of our sites who came out to provide families and staff with a connection to New York City’s public libraries... and swag.  Thank you for joining us Erleen Harris (Brooklyn Public Library, pictured above) at Belmont and Katie Fernandez (New York Public Library) at Bronx Hope!  We gave away dozens of picture books to families as part of our family literacy initiative, funded by Literacy for Incarcerated Teens. 

Child Soldier: When Boys and Girls are Used in War by Jessica Dee Humphreys & Michel Chikwanine Illustrated by Claudia Davila

Michel was a fierce-spirited five-year-old when he disobeyed his parents to play soccer with his best friend one day after school in his neighborhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Snatched by rebels, tortured and forced to kill his best friend, Michel recounts his harrowing experiences in a way that younger readers can understand, leaving out the graphic details while showing the story via sequential art.  This moving, true story is followed with excellent backmatter, all of which address the older elementary reader as a future changemaker.  Notably, the authors connect Michel’s unique story to the estimated 250,000 child soldiers serving in armed forces and rebel groups around the world without omitting the fact that sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds may join the armed forces in some countries (with parental permission) and the fact that “children in these countries are sometimes recruited into armed gangs and other violent criminal groups.” (43)  Recommended for mature younger readers and those who do not shy away from serious topics.  I would recommend this to a student demanding a read like Yummy, though the first few pages, which outline the cultural and geographical context for the reader, may require a bit of scaffolding for less-experienced readers.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Humphreys, Jessica Dee and Michel Chikwanine.  Child Soldiers:  When Boys and Girls are Used in War.  Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2015.  Print.

Click here for the teacher’s guide or discussion guide on the publisher’s website.

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Gabe is so close to high school graduation and the rest of his life as a trans teen.  While he is trying to navigate bathroom decisions, the pitfalls of dating girls, and the adoption of his new name, Gabe, from his birth name, Elizabeth, he encounters a vicious pair of bullies who literally threaten his life.  Feeling unsupported by the police, Gabe has to choose which risks to take and when to stand up for himself--choices many teen readers will be able to relate to.  While this story is set in Minnesota and depicts the lives of middle-class caucasian teens, urban high school readers who can get past those differences will be richly rewarded for taking a walk in Gabe’s shoes as he makes his transition.  Cronn-Mills closes the book with a six-page narrative primer on the transgender umbrella and web resources for LGBTQ teens and their teachers, parents and supporters.  Recommended for more experienced teen readers. --Jesssica Fenster-Sparber

Cronn-Mills, Kirstin.  Beautiful Music for Ugly Children.  Woodbury: Flux, 2012.  Print.

Click here for a Beautiful Music for Ugly Children web-based instructional unit complete with common core standards, discussion questions, and links.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Sam Ita

While this gorgeous pop-up makes a valiant attempt to condense the glory of Verne’s sci-fi classic in sixteen pages, you can probably guess from the premise that this beautiful volume from Sterling does not make for an adequate story.  What it does accomplish, often stunningly, is to bring some of the story’s most famous moments to life.  Several spreads succeed spectacularly and the entire book is marked by Ita’s genius at paper engineering and his creative efforts with the sequential art format offer humor and a visual perspective which serve as a unique supplement to other print versions of this same story. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

 

Ita, Sam.  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  New York: Sterling, 2008.  Print.

Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward

Twins Joshua and Christophe have been raised by their grandmother after their father abandons them for his drug addiction and their mother leaves them for life in Atlanta.  Having just graduated from high school, Joshua lands a job as a dock worker, but Christophe has no luck finding employment.  Set in rural Mississippi in the hot weeks after graduation, tensions rise between the two as Christopher turns to selling drugs and Joshua spends more time with his girlfriend.  The novel simmers with slow tension, leading to a dramatic climax that strikes quickly, much like a sweltering summer day that breaks open into relief with a sudden lightning storm.  Recommended for sophisticated readers attuned to metaphor.--Anne Lotito-Schuh

Ward, Jesmyn. Where the Line Bleeds. Chicago: Agate, 2008.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea original by Jules Verne, retold by Pauline Francis

In 48 pages, Francis summarizes Verne’s famous 19th century science fiction novel, which begins in Brooklyn in 1867.  There have been reports of a sea monster in the Pacific Ocean and the United States government is assembling a team to investigate.  Monsieur Arronax, a french scientist and the narrator of the story, receives a letter inviting him to join the team and accepts the invitation, thus beginning the adventure ahead.  This British edition condenses the original novel into ten spare chapters and includes an introduction, a five page glossary, and two exercises titled “Test Yourself” but read like pop quizzes intended for a teacher to assign.  This slim volume has a decent enough cover, but the digital color illustrations sprinkled through the text leave much to be desired.  Still, teachers wanting a basic introduction to the text for developing adolescent readers may well find this edition among the most useful for building schema and providing scaffolding  for the classic. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Francis, Pauline.  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  London: Evans Brothers Limited, 2010.

Football: The Math of the Game by Shane Frederick

It's back to school and back to football! Why not get the best of both worlds as the season kicks off? Football: The Math of the Game shows students the basic rules of the game while demonstrating that this great American pastime is all about the math. How big is the football field? How many degrees does the running back turn on a slant route? Aside from learning about mathematical concepts and how they connect to the game of football, the book also mentions statistics of standout players and explains, through the use of mathematics, how such statistics contribute to their teams’ successes and failures. Football: The Math of the Game is a great way to get students thinking beyond the classroom and how a subject area such as math can be applied to more than just number problems. The book is accessible to students reading at a 5th grade level and above. It contains a small glossary with both math and football vocabulary.--Claudio Leon

Frederick, Shane. Football: The Math of the Game. Mankato: Capstone Press, 2012. Print.

brown girl dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

This Newberry Honor and Coretta Scott King Award winning memoir is the story of author Jacqueline Woodson’s own childhood, growing up in South Carolina and Brooklyn in the 1960s and 70s.  Told in free verse, close attention is paid to both the minute details and character-shaping events that make up a childhood.  The Civil Rights Movement lays the backdrop for Woodson’s tale of how family, religion, and school shaped her idea of home and sense of personal identity.  Highly recommended for middle grade fans of free verse and realistic fiction.  --Anne Lotito-Schuh

100 Suns by Michael Light

How many times did the United States test atomic bombs?  Where did they test them?  What did the explosions look like?  As Passages’ Living Environment curriculum gets underway and students consider the atom, librarians may supplement instruction with this stunning and disturbing pictorial documenting the testing of nuclear bombs first on the mainland and subsequently on unlucky islands.  Author Michael Light keeps the text to a bare minimum for much of the book, allowing the reader’s curiosity to be piqued and then extended as the images of explosions pile up.  The backmatter reveals Light’s well-researched captions as well as a powerfully succinct timeline of the progression of the development of atomic bombs and key events of World War II.  Notes on stockpiling highlight the escalation of the arms race between the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R.  Struggling readers will appreciate the chance to access the text via the reading of images, and more sophisticated readers may enjoy the initial mystery of the buried captions and will find much to chew on once the backmatter is uncovered. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Light, Michael.  100 Suns.  New York: Knopf, 2003.  Print.

Click here for an interview with Michael Light on 100 Suns which was published in afterimage's July/August 2005 issue.

Members Only: Secret Societies, Sects, and Cults -- Exposed! By Julie Tibbot

What are they hiding?  So begins this tantalizing non-fiction title, preparing the reader to delve into the secret (and sometimes not-so-secret) histories of twenty-two groups following alphabetic order and concluding with the Thugees, which, I was fascinated to learn, is with whom the word “thug” originates.  Each chapter follows a template which provides the date or period in which the group originated, their current status, and summarizes in one sentence the group’s exclusivity, secrecy, threat, and quirkiness.  

After this half-page profile in a text box, Tibbott goes on to introduce the reader to the history and background of the group, followed by a section on how to get in and what reportedly goes on within the group.  Interspersed throughout the text are photographs, symbol illustrations, and relevant features on topics.  Examples include Zora Neale Hurston’s account of meeting Felicia Felix-Mentor (an allegedly zombified woman) following the chapter on the Bizango (founded in Haiti in the 18th century), and a list of big name Masons ( including contemporary public figures Jesse Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal along with historical personages like Oscar Wilde and George Washington).  Perfect for older adolescent readers requesting information on the Illuminati (see page 89), the biggest problem with this book is that unsurprisingly, the author chose not to cite her sources. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Tibbott, Julie.  Members Only: Secret Societies, Sects and Cults--Exposed!  San Francisco: Zest Books, 2014.  Print.

When Friendship Followed Me Home by Paul Griffin

Thirteen-year-old Ben is convinced nothing in life is forever.  It’s hard to blame him after having spent so much time in foster care and with a revolving door of good and bad people coming in and out of his life.  A fateful encounter with a little dog named Flip brings new friends into his world, and the courageous Rainbow Girl battling cancer, her librarian mom, and magician dad offer him a glimpse of forever.  But can he hold on to it?  A simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking story of friendship, family, and lasting moments.  This middle grade novel set in Brooklyn will appeal to fans of realistic fiction, especially if sci-fi also holds a special place in their hearts.  Another fantastic offering from frequent Passages Academy Libraries Visiting Author Paul Griffin.   --Anne Lotito-Schuh

Griffin, Paul. When Friendship Followed Me Home. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2016. Print.