Literacy Now

Ness, P. (2011). A monster calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd.  Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Author Siobhan Dowd died from cancer in 2007 before finishing this book, and Patrick Ness completed it at the request of her publisher. The novel is a fantasy built on the unrelenting reality 13-year-old Conor O’Malley faces as his mother is dying, also from cancer. Set in England, the plot finds Conor virtually alone as he faces the looming catastrophe. He hates his grandmother for her bossiness and stubbornness even though she will undoubtedly inherit his care since his father has remarried and has a new wife and child in the United States. He is bullied at school and has shut out his former childhood best friend while the disease continues to ravage and waste the only person he really cares about. Many nights at exactly 12:07 a.m., a monster, apparently the yew tree behind the house, comes to him wherever he is. The creature is horrific and terrifying; he tells Conor a series of seemingly random bizarre tales and demands in return a story that must contain the troubled boy’s truth. Is the monster a frightening nightmare? Then what is the source of the yew berries and leaves left on his bedroom floor after a visit? Who destroys the grandmother’s sitting room in an act of violence? Who lands the school bully in the hospital after a ferocious beating?

A children’s story, but much, much more, Ness uses his skills to produce a staccato-like narrative that draws the reader into the compelling and tragic tale. The book could become maudlin, but humor seeps through the horror of both plotlines. Conor has to know his mother is dying, and all the last-ditch efforts being tried are not going to stop the course of the disease. The suspense is whether he can survive both terrors.

Dr. Judith A. Hayn is an associate professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

This article is part of a series from the Special Interest Group Network on Adolescent Literature (SIGNAL). If you are interested in other books like this and ways to include them in your curriculum, join SIGNAL. 

“To read well is to take great risks, to make vulnerable our identity, our self-possession.” This is a quote by George Steiner. He goes on to say that the task of the literary critic is to help us read as total human beings. I feel the same might hold true for writers. To write well often means to take great risks and make vulnerable our identities. Sometimes we must lose our self-possession in order to write as total human beings. We must, in short, slip out from the comfort of our own skin and inhabit others’.

It is somewhat ironic that in the past few years to write as a total human being I have had to slip out of my own skin and into the feathers or pelts of animals for my fantasy series about owls The Guardians of Ga’Hoole and then The Wolves of The Beyond. Oddly enough, I found this tremendously liberating. To do this, I would first have to learn all about the habits, habitats, and behavior of a particular animal.  You see, even though this is fantasy, if I am to move the reader to a state of willing suspension of disbelief, there must be a compelling veracity about the animal. And yet at the same time I am telling a story in which I want an emotional resonance that is deeply human.

A recent article in the NEW YORK TIMES addressed this question of perspective, pondering how Woody Allen could write such great roles for women. Cate Blanchette, the star of Woody Allen’s recent film BLUE JASMINE, spoke of Allen’s ability to capture the voice of women. “Often you can write more closely about your own perspective and experience of the world through a character of a different gender,” she said.

Well for me it was writing from the perspective of a different species.

THE EXTRA (Candlewick) is a different kind of story entirely. It is not fantasy at all, but historical fiction. THE EXTRA tells a story that fell between the cracks of history during the Nazi Holocaust. It is not about a Jewish girl, but a Roma (Gypsy) one. It is based on a true story about how Hitler’s favorite filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, went to an internment camp where gypsies were held as prisoners and took several of them to use in a movie she was making.

It might seem odd that as a Jew, and one who has lost distant cousins of my generation in the holocaust, I would choose to tell a holocaust story from a non-Jewish perspective. Indeed in a book that has no Jewish characters. Three years ago, in my book ASHES which is set in Berlin in the early 1930s during the rise of Hitler, I made a similar decision. I told the story from a gentile girl’s perspective. I felt that I could write a more powerful story if it came from an unorthodox angle.

I think the best Holocaust novel I ever read was SOPHIE’S CHOICE, which was narrated by a gentile man. So why did I find this gentile voice so moving? It is mysterious like art itself. But I think it is the choice that William Styron made to use the young, naïve Southern male as the narrative channel for this story of ultimate horror that gave it a kind of distance that, in the end, made it so powerful.

I, too, must have subconsciously sought a distance. There are many stories and many voices for telling them, but the voice of Lilo in THE EXTRA and that of Gaby in ASHES were the ones that whispered in my ear with an insistence I could not deny. It was a great risk. I let loose of my own identity, and watched my self-possession dissolve.

Bullying is not a new phenomenon, but today, parents and teachers are talking about bullying behavior and its effects on children much more than in previous generations. This heightened awareness around bullying is a good thing. Unfortunately, however, this awareness has come as a result of the now countless number of cases in which bullying victims have lost their lives, either as a direct result of the actions of their bullies, or indirectly through their taking their own lives in attempts to end their pain and suffering.

p: Jason Walton via photopin cc

Few of us will ever forget the 2009 suicide of 11-year old Carl Walker-Hoover, who hung himself with an electric cord while his mother made him a cheeseburger.  In that same year, 11-year old Jaheem Herrera hung himself in his closet as his mother cooked dinner. The common thread with both children was that they were both victims of bullying at school. In both cases, the boys were bullied because other children believed them to be gay. These boys are just two of many children whose lives have been lost because of bullying. So while the heightened awareness of bullying is undeniably a good thing, how tragic a commentary that it has taken losing so many precious lives for us to begin to treat the issue with the seriousness that it deserves.

Part of adults’—teachers and parents—nonchalance and inaction with bullying has stemmed from the fact that so many of us grew to see it as a normal, even if unpleasant, part of the childhood experience. In many of our school and childhood experiences, children who had characteristics or qualities that put them outside of average were likely candidates for teasing and bullying. If a child was perceived to be too smart, not smart enough, overweight, underweight, poor, wealthy, gay, or sexually promiscuous (for females), he or she could end up the victim of a bully. And both today and in previous generations, the categories of bully and bullied are not necessarily mutually exclusive ones. In other words, bullies have often been victims of bullying, and bullying victims can sometime turn into bullies. In bullying another child, the bully is often mimicking bullying behavior that she or he has seen or been on the receiving end of.

Few of us have managed to completely avoid being involved in relationships where we were either the bully or a victim of bullying; and for those of us that did manage to avoid direct involvement with bullying relationships, nearly all of us have at least seen it in or schools, in our neighborhoods, or in our homes.  I am no exception. So yes, I approach the topic of bullying from the perspectives of a former middle and high school special education teacher, a teacher educator, and an education policy researcher; but also, and just as importantly, I approach the topic of bullying from the perspective of an adult who was once a child involved in unhealthy adolescent bullying relationships.

As adults—teachers—who have been involved in or have witnessed bullying relationships, we must acknowledge how our own experiences, biases, and perceptions around bullying impact the way we understand and respond to bullying in our professional roles. Here are just a few things teachers should keep in mind:

1. We all have biases, prejudices, and past experiences that can impact the way we see the world and the way we go about doing our jobs. Teachers are people just like everyone else, with political preferences, religious beliefs, ideologies, etc. But it is important for teachers to do the work of trying to understand their own beliefs, biases, and experiences and how those might impact their understanding of and intervention in bullying situations.
   
   I have seen more than a few instances where teachers’ religious beliefs about sexual orientation, their personal biases and prejudices about racial/ethnic minorities, and their political beliefs about immigration have resulted in their failure to intervene in bullying situations where they clearly should have intervened. Please do not let that happen to you. Not only is such behavior a violation of professional ethics, but it puts the well-being of children in jeopardy.
2. Bullying today is not the same as bullying in previous generations of children. Social media has changed bullying significantly. Social media platforms have allowed bullies to attack their victims at any time of the day and from any place. It is no longer necessary for the bully and the victim to be in the same place. Also, bullies are now able to launch anonymous attacks against their victims.
   
   At one time, children could escape the school bully by going home, or even escape the neighborhood bully by staying inside. Children today are unable to escape bullying attacks via social media, and the attacks can happen with the whole class, whole school, or whole town as an audience. The day has passed when the bully’s only audience was bystanders. Now, depending on the platform used, the bully’s audience can be enormous.
3. Never assume that a child is tough enough to endure bullying. While some children show their pain outwardly, others hide it very well. In the cases of 11-year old Carl and 11-year old Jaheem, neither of their mothers had any idea that their sons suffered so severely from bullying abuse that they planned to take their own lives.
   
   Yes, these mothers knew that their children had been bullied, and they had even spoken with teachers and administrators about the bullying, but they did not fully understand the amount of pain that their children were experiencing. For teachers, it does not matter if the victim of bullying appears to take the abuse in stride or if it appears to not bother her much, bullying is never acceptable. Teachers must make it their business to intervene whenever bullying is taking place.

Wayne D. Lewis, Jr. is the author of THE POLITICS OF PARENT CHOICE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION. He is an assistant professor and Principal Leadership Program Chair in the Department of Educational Leadership Studies at the University of Kentucky.

In the not-so-distant past—December 18, 2006—the headline on the cover of Time magazine enticed readers to learn, “How to Build a Student for the 21st Century.” Inside, authors Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe noted that the national conversation around education at the time focused on ensuring that no students were “left behind” rather than how American children would be able to compete in a global economy which required the abilities to work in teams, think abstractly and reason through problems, analyze the quality of information and communicate in a language other than English. Wallis and Steptoe (2006) identified the 21st century skills students need to be successful and suggested that teachers need to bring their methods and the curriculum “in line with the way the modern world works” (p.56).

Seven years later, readers of the P21Blog: Connecting the 21st Century Dots: From Policy to Practice are asked again to consider the needs of students who must learn both the 3Rs (content knowledge) and the 4Cs (Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communication and Collaboration) to be successful in the 21st century workplace (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, n.d.). The P21 Blog, an outgrowth of over a decade of work by a coalition of educators, business leaders and policy makers to improve 21st century readiness, addresses issues surrounding the implementation of 21st century skills and deeper learning in American schools. Beginning this academic year, the P21 Blog, housed on the website of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, doubled its posts to provide weekly information that focused on answering a driving question about implementing 21st century skills.  

The thoughtful entries offered by a growing group of education experts, business leaders and more recently classroom educators from the P21 Exemplar Schools, are definitely worth reading. Topics include book reviews, policy discussions and most importantly practical articles addressing implementation of 21st century skills in real classrooms. Educators will find entries like “How Can Technology Empower Deeper Learning in a 21st Century School?” and “How Do Teachers Become Deeper Learners?” valuable as they consider how to incorporate critical thinking and problem-based learning activities in their instructional plans. Although commenting on blog entries is encouraged by Jim Bellanca, blog editor and Executive Director, Illinois Consortium for 21st Century Skills and Senior Fellow at the Partnerships for 21st Century Skills, few readers are taking advantage of this opportunity. One thing is evident in reading through the posted comments—divergent opinions are accepted and open for discussion. In addition to commenting, readers are invited to contribute anonymous posts to the blog as “The Secret Educator” taking any position for or against 21st century learning practices and policies. Contributors are asked to be respectful in their discourse and prepared to accept pushback on their point of view. The P21 Blog clearly has potential to become a significant resource and discussion forum for those seeking information about the needs of 21st century learners.

References

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.) The champion for today’s students and tomorrow’s workforce. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_2013_Brochure.pdf

Wallis, C. & Steptoe, S. (2006, December 18). How to bring our schools out of the 20th century. Time, 168(25), 50-56.

Joan A. Rhodes is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Reading Program at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

Students and young readers often ask me if I was bullied as a child. It’s a fair question, since bullying is a major topic in both of my young adult novels (BUTTER and DEAD ENDS), and it deserves an honest answer.

Yes, I tell them, I was bullied. Sometimes, the youngest—and bravest—students will ask how I was bullied. Then we do a little dance in which I sidestep the details of my own seventh grade nightmare and tell them instead about how that nightmare came back to haunt me years later.

I was on a visit home from college, and I met up with some friends at a coffee shop—my coffee shop, the safe haven where I spent most of my happy high school days trying to forget the way kids had treated me in junior high. It was there, in my safe place, where one of the faces I’d hoped to forget suddenly popped up across the crowded coffee house. She wasn’t the meanest mean girl, but she had definitely been cruel.

I hadn’t seen any of my seventh grade tormentors since my parents had moved me two towns and a whole school district away from them, but suddenly I was thirteen years old again. I would have run for the exit if she hadn’t been staring right at me. And she didn’t just make eye contact. To my horror, she actually started pushing through the crowd to get to me.

I probably held my breath, waiting to hear what she had to say. I didn’t have to wait long. She said her name, asked if I remembered her, then she got right to the point.

“I’m sorry for the way we all treated you back then.”

I think her apology went on a little longer, but my mind got stuck on “I’m sorry.” Her words were meant to heal, but they only opened up old wounds. In an instant, all of my seventh grade shame and anger was fresh again. I believe I responded to her apology with something dead clever, like, “Uh. Okay.” Then I went and hid in the bathroom.

It was a one-in-a-billion moment that I squandered when I failed to forgive her. Years later (because yes, it took years), I realized my mistake and tried to track her down, but despite this age of social media and global connectedness, I’ve never been able to find her to accept her apology. So I forgive her the best way I know how—by writing characters in shades of gray—even the “bad guys,” because those bad guys may just grow up to be good guys.

I tell this story to students because I want them to know when I write about bullying, I don’t just write for the bullied. I write for the bullies, too.

“Bullying” has become such a buzzword in recent years, it’s almost lost its meaning. The media like to make it all very black and white, good kids and bad kids, victims and villains. (I feel safe in my media critique, since, as a TV journalist, I am part of the cycle of oversimplification.) But what I can’t do when writing facts, I try to do when writing fiction—and that is to tell a deeper truth about bullying.

That truth is this:

We are all the victim. We are all the bully. This week’s mean girl is next week’s target, and people who are capable of great cruelty are also capable of great kindness.

I learned that lesson from Judy Blume, actually.

I read BLUBBER at the exact right moment in my life—at a time when it mirrored my own experiences. I didn’t know then that it was a book about “bullying.” I thought it was a book about my life! I recognized all of the mean girls from my own classes, and I identified with how quickly the narrator’s status among her peers changed, as she slid from the top of the social totem pole to the bottom. BLUBBER was relatable, and years later, when I started writing my own books, I knew I wanted to try to do what Judy Blume did—to write what felt real.

If a young reader walks away from one of my books thinking a little harder about how they treat people, or vowing to not just stand by the next time they see someone doing something hurtful, then so much the better, but all I really want is for readers to connect, to see a little piece of their own reality in my stories. For me, bullying is just a part of that reality, and I can’t imagine writing books for teens without it.

And maybe some small part of me hopes if I keep writing about bullying, then someday, somewhere, a girl who used to be cruel but grew up to be compassionate and brave enough to right her wrongs, will pick up one of my books and read between the lines those words I couldn’t say to her all those years ago.

I forgive you.

Erin Jade Lange writes facts by day and fiction by night. As a journalist, she is inspired by current events and real-world issues and uses her writing to explore how those issues impact teenagers. Erin grew up in the cornfields of northern Illinois, along the Mississippi River in one of the few places it flows east to west. She now lives in the sunshine of Arizona and will forever be torn between her love of rivers and her love of the desert.