A Review of 'Turtles All The Way Down' by John Green

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there's a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate.  So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett's son, David.

Aza is trying.  She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza's story of shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship."

As soon as this book was announced, I pre-ordered it and waited impatiently until its October release.

This book has a very different feel from John Green's previous books.  While there was a boy involved, it wasn't a romance like almost all of his previous books have elements of.  It's not about Aza trying to get together with Davis.  She's got other things to worry about, even if Davis is involved.  I really appreciated that there was a focus on Aza and her friendship with Daisy.  There are too many reads out there where as soon as a boy gets involved, other friends just seem to fall off the face of the earth, including some of John Green's reads.  He's one of my favorite people in the world, but he's definitely not immune to this trope.

I also appreciated that a good chunk of this book was devoted to Aza's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but not in a way that was preachy.  It was done in a way where you could get inside her head to know what was happening to her and then by extension, know and understand how that affected her outside of her brain.  It scared me how things got even worse for her.  You definitely care about Aza the more you get to know her so when she starts going into a dip, when she gives into her compulsions more and more, despite fighting back as hard as she possibly can, your heart rises into your mouth and your stomach drops with worry for her.  At least that's what happened for me.

One complaint I have about this book is why Green decided to start the book off as a mystery that Aza was attempting to solve.  I don't personally feel that this was such a big part of the book.  It certainly starts off that way where Aza and Daisy are trying to get to the bottom of this mystery, but that quickly dies off... so I'm confused why this book was marketed as a mystery, in part.  I think it would have been just fine if it was marketed as a fiction book on the subject of OCD.  I still would have read it.  After this first read however, it felt like a distraction to me and that put a damper on my first read-through.

I will likely be reading this book again.  Maybe then I'll get to the bottom of my own personal mystery as to why John Green might have chosen to include this and why his publisher decided to market this book partially as a mystery novel.

If you are interested in mental health and want to understand how to navigate illness and personhood in a sensitive way, this is a good book to start with.

I give 'Turtles All The Way Down':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Anya's Ghost' by Vera Brosgol

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"Anya could really use a friend.  But her new BFF isn't kidding about the 'forever' part.

Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them.  Especially not a new friend who's been dead for a century.

Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya's normal life might actually be worse.  She's embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she's pretty much given up on fitting in at school.  A new friend-- even a ghost-- is just what she needs.

Or so she thinks.  Spooky, sardonic, and secretly sincere, Anya's Ghost is a wonderfully entertaining debut from author/artist Vera Brosgol."

I think last year was the year where I really dove into the world of graphic novels and found things that I absolutely love to read.  This was a book that was sitting in my student teaching classroom that caught my eye all those months but I didn't get around to reading until later.  I didn't expect to fall head over heels for it, but I did.  I picked up the book and suddenly I couldn't put it down!  It was such a good read!

I'm a sucker for supernatural stories.  So to read a story about a ghost looking for a friend (turning into an angry ghost later), it didn't take long to draw me in.  I think what I like about ghost stories is the thought that they return because they have some kind of unfinished business and they're looking to either settle things themselves (exciting!) or looking for someone to help them settle things.

The pacing of the story was good.  It wasn't so slow that I lost interest and when the author knew that she would have the reader's attention, she sped up and you were with her every step of the way.  I loved the ending because I was sitting in my chair reading this book and my heart was practically pounding out of my chest because I was so invested in the end and she had cranked up the adrenaline.  And I cared so much about Anya and yet I still had mixed feelings about the ghost... Wow.  I can't say anything else other than "Please read this."

I give 'Anya's Ghost':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'The Underground Railroad' by Colson Whitehead

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia.  Life is hellish for all the slaves but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood-- where even greater pain awaits.  When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape.  Matters do not go as planned and, though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor-- engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil.  Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven-- but the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens.  Even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels.  Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share."

This book was recommended to me by my mom after she read it with her book club.  It was such an interesting concept to me that I couldn't say no.  Then on top of that, my own book club wanted to read it before we temporarily dissolved.  So I was happy to have multiple reasons to pick it up.

One thing that I was especially interested to see work was the actual Underground Railroad.  I wanted to know how an actual, physical railroad would work in a story like this.  My first instinct was to think that this would have been a really effective method of escape, if it was only a reality at the time.  But it's quite dangerous and frankly, not possible.  So once I was able to set aside thoughts of How does it work?? I thought about why Colson Whitehead would bother to change this about the history of slavery for the sake of this book.  What was the point?  I'm still struggling to find the reasons for that.  So if you're coming to this book for the actual railroad part, you'll be disappointed.  Instead, come to this book to understand what life was like, even through the eyes of a fictional character, through the eyes of the slave.

Digging back into my memory to middle school history when I first remember talking about slavery in depth, a lot of what we learned was from the perspective of white people (in other words, the enslavers).  What a slave could cost, how they were brought to the U.S., what kind of work they were doing, how they could be freed... maybe it was because we were in middle school, but I don't remember getting a clear picture of the actual brutality that slaves went through.  Not to the fullest extent.  Reading this book was the first time where I feel like someone shook me and forced me to look and listen and understand.

My worry though is that too many will take this as a way to feel that shock (or read it because of the shock), feel sorry for a while and then promptly forget about what they read about.  I don't want people to read this book and think, "Well, at least things aren't like that now."  Yes, we don't have slaves the way there used to be slaves, but because slavery comes in more covert ways now, I think it's a little bit harder to draw parallels between the past and the present unless you have been seeking out to learn this information on your own.  There is still the prison system where prisoners of color are over-represented compared to the proportion of crimes actually committed.  And the brutality hasn't stopped either.  This story takes place pre-Civil War (as the description above says, anyway) and you can see the treatment African Americans received.  But then you fast forward to the 60s when there were Civil Rights marches and how people would brutalize those who participated in sit-ins and who were blasted with fire hoses in the street, attacked by dogs... to today, where you almost can't watch the news without hearing about African American boys, in particular, being killed for a variety of reasons that don't make sense with the fate they got.  Black Lives Matter protests where people are standing up for human rights and being arrested and dragged away... enduring a government that doesn't give a damn about you unless you're an elderly white male, fearing for your safety and in too many cases, your life.

I'm angry about this of course, but what I ultimately want to impress upon anyone who chooses to read this is that when you read this book, don't dismiss this because it's a thing of the past.  It's still happening, it's just changed and looks different in some ways.

This is a challenging read, so please just understand what you're getting into when you set out to read it.  Forget about the presence of the railroad in this book, because it really doesn't matter.  Pay attention to the people.

I give 'The Underground Railroad':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' by J.K. Rowling

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"Harry Potter's life is miserable.  His parents are dead and he's stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs.  But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he's a wizard.  A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid.  But even within the Wizarding community, he is special.  He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry.

Though Harry's first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect.  There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it's his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands.  But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.

Full of sympathetic characters, wildly imaginative situations, and countless exciting details, the first installment in the series assembles an unforgettable magical world and sets the stage for many high-stakes adventures to come."

One of my goals for 2017 was to reread the entire Harry Potter series.  I finished up to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which I'm still rather proud of.  I'll finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this year.

It was just wonderful to return to this series.  I've been in the habit of watching and rewatching the Harry Potter films several times a year, but not rereading the books.  So even though I know the stories inside out and backwards, I still managed to see new things that I hadn't noticed before.  I loved experiencing the charm of a bright and wonderful Hogwarts like I experienced the first time.  Because the thing is, the further you get into the series, the darker the story gets.  Hogwarts starts to become this really charming place where young witches and wizards go to learn magic less and less... so it's quite the feeling to experience this series at its freshest.

Having reread a majority of the series at this point, I can say that I think the pacing is really great in this story, save for the beginning.  It starts out pretty slowly since we're following the really boring and abusive Dursley family, but once we get more involved in the wizarding world, there's always something to be paying attention to and something else that you want to know and keep track of up until the end of the book.

I think I tend to view this series, and especially this book, with rose-colored glasses, but I truly feel that you'd be hard-pressed to find another series with as much of the world thought-out and with characters as developed as these characters have begun.

I give 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Speak' by Laurie Halse Anderson

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"'Speak up for yourself-- we want to know what you have to say.'  From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school.  She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so no nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her.  As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether.  Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her.  Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him.  But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication.

In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school.  She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself."

I read this book once before, but I realized that I had never actually reviewed it.  I didn't feel like I could since I read the book so long ago.

I didn't like Melinda as much this time around.  I understand why she stopped talking (at least some of the reasons), but I couldn't help but feel like some of her troubles were brought on by her.  To be perfectly clear, I am not blaming her for being at that party.  I am not implying or outright saying that she should have done more to defend herself when she was in danger.  Because there's only one person responsible for what happened to Melinda: her attacker.  I'm speaking about some of her isolation.  When she was starting high school, she refused to try new things and refused to try making new friends, only relying on her old friend.  In my experience (both when I was in 9th grade and from what I've noticed about the 9th graders I work with), this is a time of great change.  Re-evaluating friendships, getting involved in different activities, trying things out and taking on new challenges... but Melinda shows no interest in doing anything like that.  So in that respect, she was a frustrating character to me.

One thing I appreciate about this book is that it highlights the damage that can be done when you don't believe someone who says they have survived sexual violence.  That is a part of her isolation that Melinda couldn't control.  Instead of saying she was wrong, she needed someone who could show her love and acceptance and help her not get over, but to move past this point.  Too often, I think the words we say are seen as not impactful.  It's so easy to say things... not so much effort most of the time... we don't think about the weight that our words can have on another person.  But just saying the words, "I believe you," can make all the difference.  You're taking someone seriously and agreeing to actually see that person as they are and acknowledging the pain they might be feeling.  I love this book for bringing attention to this, especially with a younger audience.  One thing we're working on with my 9th graders is the importance of the words you use.  I think this would aid in that discussion.

Overall, this is a great conversation starter and any read from Laurie Halse Anderson is well worth your attention.

I give 'Speak':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Zen and the Art of Public School Teaching' by John Perricone

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"This book is based upon two assumptions.  The first is that 'we teach who we are.'  The second is that one's philosophy of life is intimately tied to one's identity, and that it is one's 'philosophical identity' (conscious or otherwise) that ultimately dictates one's teaching style and also what distinguishes those who find joy and passion in the teaching profession from those who find drudgery and then simply pick up a paycheck every two weeks.  In his book Zen and the Art of Public School Teaching, Mr. Perricone compellingly invites his reader to participate in an introspective journey that is designed to help the reader better know themselves and the professional path upon which they have embarked.  This book is for those who are just beginning their careers in teaching, for veteran teachers who are still very open to personal and professional growth, and to those who are thinking about becoming teachers."

After I was hired to my school, we soon had our first all-school meeting where all of the teachers and paraprofessionals got together to celebrate the start of the school year.  I learned that it's pretty typical that they ask someone to come and speak and so we had the author of this book come to speak.  Even though I was super excited to get started with my teaching life, I was a little bit unsure about this John Perricone fellow.  And then he began to speak, talking about his previous students and about how he felt about teaching and how he managed to keep himself so fresh from year to year, even after he had been teaching for some time.

This is a fairly short book, but it's meant to help you figure out what you bring to your teaching life and how that can shape you as a teacher.  I thought that this was an interesting way to approach teaching.  At least in my experience, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who will tell you to approach teaching as you are and find out what makes you passionate about teaching.  In my teaching program any way, it was just assumed that you were passionate about the job you were setting out to do.  Sure, we'd talk about teaching as a cohort, but it wasn't part of the curriculum to help us figure out how to get started (not really) and more importantly, keep us going.  One statistic that I heard (and maybe it was from John Perricone) was that a large percentage of new teachers (just entering the field) average about 4 years of service before quitting education.  A big part of that is lack of proper preparedness and just plain old burn out (which I believe).  It's time to help new teachers adjust and build their practice so that we can keep them around.  There is definitely merit to having a less experienced teacher, but there is truly no replacement for experience.

If you're looking for a way to remind yourself why you want to teach (or find that reason in the first place), this is a good read to start.  You'll be very inspired and will feel ready to hit the ground running when the students arrive (shout out to teachers returning from winter break... I'm told this is a good time for transition and reteaching of the students.  I'm just experiencing this now).

I give 'Zen and the Art of Public School Teaching':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'The Rose That Grew from Concrete' by Tupac Shakur

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"Tupac Shakur's most intimate and honest thoughts were uncovered only after his death with the instant classic The Rose That Grew from Concrete.

His talent was unbounded-- a raw force that commanded attention and respect.
His death was tragic-- a violent homage to the power of his voice.
His legacy is indomitable-- as vibrant and alive today as it has ever been.

For the first time in paperback, this collection of deeply personal poetry is a mirror into the legendary artist's enigmatic world and its many contradictions.

Written in his own hand from the time he was nineteen, these seventy-two poems embrace his spirit, his energy-- and his ultimate message of hope."

I was doing this for research for my classes when we have our poetry unit.  I was looking for poetry that would be relevant to the lives of my students and a bonus if the poems were produced to become songs.

I didn't expect that I would get sucked into Tupac's rhythmic poetry and by extension, his own story.  I'm not much of a poetry person.  It's just not a medium that I get.  Not like I get longer fiction reads.  But I love that this is a medium for speaking our truths in a way that we can't in a book or in any other way.  Some truths and stories just need to be said out loud.  Said or rapped or sung so that our words have power and meaning in them.  Tupac showed me that poetry is more than just words on a page.  It's a line directly to the heart of a person.  If I read your poems, I can know you.  And that's a pretty great connection to make, if you ask me.

I'll keep this review quick, but do consider picking up this book.  It's made even better because the poems are typeset, but you can also see copies of the originals in Tupac's handwriting with doodles in the margins, occasionally.

I give 'The Rose That Grew from Concrete':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

2017 Goal Review: How Did I Do?

Hello and welcome to 2018!  Before we get too far into things, I want to take a moment and reflect back on the goals I set for myself in 2017 just to see how I did so that I can better help myself going forward.  While I'm posting my goals below and reviewing them individually, you can click HERE to view my goals and the reasoning behind why I wanted to focus on them this year.  Without further ado, here is my year in review!

1. Read Up On White Privilege And Race.  
I did do this, although not necessarily in the way I expected to accomplish this goal.  I expected to read a lot of nonfiction.  I read some nonfiction, but honestly not as much as I wanted to.  I did, however, get the chance to dig into this topic through a variety of fiction in addition to some of the nonfiction I read.  One of my favorites was 'Still I Rise,' which is a graphic history and 'The Hate U Give'.  This year, I am continuing this goal, but I'd like to expand it to many different races and focus on nonfiction.  I'd like to look into race in education as well.

2. Read 40 Books.  
I knocked this goal out of the park!  I read well over 50 books in 2017.  I set my goal lower than I normally have it because I knew that 2017 would be a year of big change for me.  I wanted to focus on getting through those changes, but it turns out I didn't have anything to worry about.  I guess it just goes to show you that if you really want to do something (even just having a little time to read), you'll find a way to make it happen.

3. Half Of The Books I Read Will Already Be On My Shelves.  
This did not go so well for me.  I read a number of books from the library, there were a few Half-Price Books trips throughout the year, I thought I was going to have one teaching job (meaning I bought all of these books I was being asked to teach) only to get another job, and there were several new books that came out this year that I just had to get my hands on.  I think for this year, my goal is more specific, so I have something to shoot for.  I'm more hopeful this year.

4. Blog Regularly.  
Looking back, I realized that I kind of stopped blogging around June after I went to New York.  I posted very occasionally since then.  I'll work on this in the future, but next year it's not a goal for me since I have other things I need to focus on.  This blog is meant to be an outlet for me, not a source of stress.

5. Reread Harry Potter.  
I started this goal and almost finished, but I only made it as far as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which I will finish this year.  I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as a book, but the rest of the books I've been listening to on audiobook and that has been working much better with my need to grade my students' work and clean the house.  It's been magical to return to this series again.  Because it's been so long since I've actually read the books (as opposed to watched the movies, which I love), it's almost like reading them for the first time again.  There are so many small things that I forgot about.  My husband probably thinks I'm nuts because when I listen with headphones, I sometimes burst out laughing or I get really angry and have to take a break before diving in again.  These are such powerful books... I love this series...

Goals For Healthy Living

1. Slowly Cut Out Meat And Some Animal Products.  
This was a rocky goal... I think there were one or two months where I was able to go pescatarian (meaning I still ate fish, but no other meat) and then the further we got into the year, the more I slipped.  Suddenly I was eating so much meat I didn't know what to do with myself.  I am planning to go full vegetarian this year.  Maybe removing the temptation of fish will make things easier.  I'm going to try and be a bit more forgiving of myself too.  Especially as I'm transitioning, it's not the end of the world if I slip up for one day.  The point is that I'm cutting back and I'll get there eventually.

2. Get An Exercise Routine With Varied Exercises.  
I joined the gym with my mom and then got my husband to join.  I have gone several times, but not lately.  So I can't say I've formed a routine.  I didn't try any new exercises that became part of my repertoire either.  I'll try this again next year.

3. Drink More Water.  
This is another one where I had good days and bad.  I think in general, I was more aware of how much water I was drinking each day, so that's a positive step.  In my bullet journal, I believe I specified that I wanted to drive 64 oz of water every day and that DEFINITELY didn't happen.  I'm told that it's kind of like a muscle-- I need to train myself to drink that much, so it's a process to get up to 64 oz every day.

4. Remove Useless Crap And Mess.  
I made some progress, but again, nothing that seemed to stick.  Part of this is from living with someone who is even messier than I am, but it mostly comes down to me.  I got rid of a number of things this year, but you can't really tell just by looking around the house.  I want to try and form more of a ritual for cleaning and picking things up.  I want to continue going through and getting rid of things I don't need.

Goals For Life In General

1. Attempt NaNoWriMo A Couple Times This Year.  
I did this!  And even better, I won NaNoWriMo for the first time!  I did this as a unit with my class and I think that's what finally pushed me over the edge.  I had to be an example to them, but more importantly, this was something we could bond over and cheer each other on for.  There was a community around this project.

2. Volunteer Regularly.  
Yes and no to this one and the reasons why I would say I didn't meet my goal is out of my control.  At the beginning of the year, I volunteered regularly with my 5th graders like I've been doing over the last several years.  Then their school year ended and I got my full-time teaching position and I couldn't go back to them, so I sought out something else.  I became a volunteer bunny socializer and so I got to play with bunnies once a week and that was really fun!  But we're currently in the middle of a "bunny drought," meaning there aren't a lot of unadopted bunnies in our area right now.  So I've had several weeks off because we didn't have a bunny at my PetCo.  So I've always had something lined up, but my volunteer opportunities haven't always panned out.

3. Obtain My First Teaching Job.  
Check :)  I talk about this a lot, so I won't go on about it too much.  I'm really happy with where I am though and I don't think I could have found a more supportive school.  I feel very lucky, truly.

I'm quite happy with where my goals have brought me this year!  I hope that 2018 brings as much fortune for me this year.

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Ms. Marvel: Vol. 1' by G. Willow Wilson

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"Marvel Comics presents the new Ms. Marvel, the groundbreaking heroine that has become an international sensation!

Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City-- until she's suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts.  But who truly is the new Ms. Marvel?  Teenager?  Muslim?  Inhuman?  Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm!  When Kamala discovers the dangers of her newfound powers, she unlocks a secret behind them as well.  Is Kamala ready to wield these immense new gifts?  Or will the weight of the legacy before her be too much to bear?  Kamala has no idea, either.  But she's comin' for you, Jersey!

It's history in the making from acclaimed writer G. Willow Wilson (Air, Cairo) and beloved artist Adrian Alphona (RUNAWAYS)!"

I remember seeing the cover to this a long time ago and wanted to get it for my student teaching classroom, but I don't think it ever arrived.  I don't think I expected this book to be a graphic novel (which in hindsight seems silly...).

I'll be short: I LOVE this book.  I love that we're not continuing with the white male savior complex that just litters the superhero comic book world.  Now we have a young woman of color who is coming to turn this entire world on its head.  Kamala is a young woman with passions of her own (especially comic books!) and family obligations and traditions that she pushes against as she struggles to find her identity (even before she acquired these special gifts).  There are so many elements that she has to think about that other super heroes who came before her just don't seem to need to think about.

This is a story that draws you in right away and keeps you.  I so can't wait to read Volume 2 and see what happens next!

I give 'Ms. Marvel: Vol. 1':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

The Evolution Of My Bullet Journal: After 1 Year

About a year ago, I took up this little thing called Bullet Journaling.  I am a big list-maker in my life.  When I got planners in the past, I made sure that there were big boxes so I would have a lot of space to create to-do lists.  And I would put everything in those lists from things I needed to do to school, for work, for wherever I was living... the number of things that could be on that list was endless.

Then one of my favorite YouTubers created a video where she was setting up her first bullet journal.  It was artistic, it was organized, there was an order and a system... I liked it a lot.  And the best part was that it was a planner system that was completely customizable to the user.  There were a lot of factors that got me interested.  One year later and I'm on my third bullet journal!  With this post, I want to go through how my personal bullet journaling style has changed and also talk about why I love this system for organization.

If I had used the bullet journals like the ones to the right in the picture above, I would have been finishing up my second journal, at the rate I'm going.  The reason why I have three bullet journals right now is because my first one, the teal one on the left, was my experiment.  Really, you can bullet journal with any notebook you have.  The popular choice is the Leuchtterm 1917 (yellow and orange notebooks) with a dot grid inside, but I'll just be upfront... they're not exactly cheap notebooks.  I didn't want to start bullet journaling after buying this rather spendy notebook and then hate it or not have it work for me.  So I just bought a really cheap notebook at Target to start.  When I started out, my journal looked a little something like this:

I borrowed pretty heavily from a blogger called Boho Berry on YouTube.  When I started, she had a monthly plan, a weekly plan, and then dailies.  She only created a day and a week at a time.  She included decoration like the weather and temperature of where she lived (or wherever she was if she was traveling), some kind of a decorative date covering, and then listed her to-dos for the day.  She also had a time tracker, which isn't pictured here but it was something that I tried.

At the time, this was an effective spread for me to use.  The Notebook was big enough, it was easy to write in and easy to carry with me wherever I went, I loved the look of the book inside and out... What didn't work for me about this notebook was that the more I used this notebook, the more it fell apart.  Whereas with my current journals, I can fit 5-6 months worth of to-dos and lists and even some journaling, in this cheap notebook, I was only able to get through two months before too many pages were falling out and had to be taped back into the book.  The binding was terrible.  It couldn't hold up against the way I wanted to use this journal.  So I decided to take the plunge and get a more expensive notebook.  

I chose the Leuchtturm 1917 for a few reasons.  

1. The binding was strong.  No matter how often I transported it and how much I stuffed into that journal, it didn't fall apart.  The book was stretchd and it got wider when I added stickers and pictures and things like that, but no pages fell out unless I tore them out on purpose.  This was major for me.
2. It was slightly bigger than my first notebook.  Hey, more space is always a plus, right?
3. The dot grid.  I didn't realize just how distracted having solid lines running across the page was, so when I had a dot grid, suddenly my bullet journal felt cleaner.  And that was nice.

So I moved onto my second bullet journal.  After two months of experimenting, my style of bullet journaling was already changing.

It was in this bullet journal that I feel like I truly fell in love with bullet journaling.  My style changed even within this notebook.  This was generally the layout that dominated my weekly and daily spreads.  The time log is now pictured above, just without color and there is tracking for taking my medication and for how much water I was drinking.  My bullet journaling became much more personalized.  This particular spread is from the summer when I didn't have too much going on.  It was fine for me to put down one day at a time and then create the next day after the present day was finished.  I liked that I could easily see what my entire week would look like in advance and then I could get more specific in my dailies.  This is something that has remained similar.

In this bullet journal, something that went away that was in my first experimental bullet journaling was the presence of actual journaling.  I didn't stop and use my bullet journal like a diary like I had been doing prior to this notebook.  Instead, I kept notes in here from events I went to and I did more journaling when I went on trips.

In this second notebook, I also experimented a lot creatively.  I added pictures, drew more pictures.  Got creative with my writing.  Suddenly my notebook had personality.  I loved that.  My notebook was changing with me.

The summer went by and my second bullet journal filled up soon after and so suddenly, it was time to start my third bullet journal, which is the orange journal pictured above (and it's also the one I'm using at the time I'm writing this).  And still, my bullet journal changed some more because my needs changed.  In June, I was hired to my first teaching position and in August I started training and my students arrived.  After stumbling through my first few weeks in my job, trying to continue my bullet journal, something needed to change.  My lists were getting ridiculously long because I was putting work, personal, and other responsibilities altogether in one big list... it got confusing.  That resulted in a spread that looked like this (and it's a spread I continue to use to this day):

I separated the things I needed to get done at school and things I needed to finish at home that was more personal or related to my chores.  I kept the weekly spread with the boxes at the beginning of the week (in the picture above, it's on the page before).  As the weeks went on, I realized I needed a little more separation in my weekend.  I would make one big list to be accomplished over the weekend, but that was leaving way too many things left undone (nevermind if they were critical to complete or not).  So I separate my Saturday and Sunday and then created a short list of things that I absolutely needed to do (my Must Dos) and things that I wanted to do (my May Dos) that I thought I could also get done that day, but it wasn't a big deal if they didn't happen or if I did them the next day.  That way I was able to prioritize the things that needed to get done.  I think that I became more productive with this new system.  I like it a lot and right now, I don't see this spread changing for quite a while.

Another change to this notebook was that I was looking for ways to add more color and more artwork.

This mandala started out as a mood tracker, but when I failed to actually keep up on that tracker, it turned into an art piece that added color to my book.  I did this a couple different times and I love the balance between personal pieces, art pieces, and the utilitarian features.  

The other thing that I did with this piece was I used it to plan for a project.  I did National Novel Writing Month this past November and I did all of my planning in my Bullet Journal as well as my tracking.

This was another way to add color (I colored in a square for every milestone I met) and it was a good way to have all of my planning and notes in one place and in a place that I carried with me every day and everywhere I went.  This system worked out better than I could have hoped.  I loved having easy access to research that I had done on topics related to my story and easy access to the character descriptions and family trees I had created for the characters of my novel.

The most important way I've been using my bullet journal is to keep track of my goals for the year.  I don't think I would have done nearly as well at accomplishing my goals with my bullet journal.  A lot of it comes down to being able to turn to my goals whenever I want to, since I carry my bullet journal with me everywhere I go.  This next year, I'm trying something a little different where I have a focus word.  All of the goals I have planned for 2018 are related in some way to finding balance in my life between my personal goals and my professional life.

Spreads like this one are creative, but it's also a good reminder that this is my mantra this year.  I am seeking balance and that is something I have to strive for in every area of my life.  Bullet Journals are good for keeping your goals at the forefront of your mind at all times.  It's also a good way to track things that are important to you (and things that aren't specifically important to your well-being but are nevertheless interesting to know).

Even in just a short year, my bullet journal has changed so much and it's changed because I've been changing.  I've needed different things at different points in the year.  I love that flexibility that a regular planner I can buy at Target just can't afford me.  

There are so many great reasons to keep a bullet journal.  I can see myself using the bullet journal system for many years to come since I can keep it so personal to me.  

If you have any questions about bullet journaling, please don't hesitate to ask!  This is very much an overview.  In the future, I might go into how I use this system for my job and even more specifically about keeping track of my goals.  

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'We Should All Be Feminists' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"What does 'feminism' mean today?  That is the question at the heart of We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay-- adapted from her much-viewed TEDx talk of the same name-- by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun.

With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century-- one rooted in inclusion and awareness.  She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics.  Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences-- in the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad-- offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike.

Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author's exploration of what it means to be a woman today-- and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists."

Please see the video below if you would like to hear this book.  This entire book is based on this TED talk.  This talk is, I think, worth a listen annually, if not more often.

Those are so many important messages to this talk/read.  But here are a couple take-aways I have at this point in my life:

Feminism is not saying that women are better than men or conversely that men are all terrible.  Feminism is saying that women are just as capable as men and they can be just as successful.  Feminism is saying that we expect all genders to show respect for one another and hold them to the same standards.  We can reward women for pursuing their professional goals and not have the expectation that she will marry and have children (because she can do that if she chooses, but it's not necessary for her to have a fulfilling life).

Everyone benefits when we take a feminist attitude.  Yes, it's likely that if everyone agreed with feminism, women would earn the same amount of money as a man for performing the same job.  But it also means that we can show men and boys that they can be sensitive and show emotion.  We can show them that it's not weak to show pieces of themselves that makes them so human... so alive... We can take each other seriously and see each other in a more complicated light.

Being feminist is not a bad or toxic thing as long as we are celebrating everyone and helping to raise everyone up.

There are so many important messages and I swear, each time I read this book or listen to this talk, I take out something new based on where I am in thinking about feminism in my life.

This is a book/talk for everyone.  I think because there are such concrete examples, anti-feminist treatment that this can be easily understood by someone who is new to this information and point of view.  When you get towards the end of the video, I think it's a good way to start thinking about intersectional feminism, because feminism is more than just gender politics.  It's turned into a little bit of everything, supporting everyone despite race, gender, ability, creed, etc.  It's a great conversation starter and I hope that it continues this very important conversation.   I give 'We Should All Be Feminist':

Thanks for Reading! --Jude

A Review of 'Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It' by Kelly Gallagher

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"Read-i-cide (n): The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.

Reading is dying in our schools.  Educators are familiar with many of the factors that have contributed to the decline-- poverty, second-language issues, and the ever-expanding choices of electronic entertainment.  In this provocative new book, Kelly Gallagher suggests, however, that is it time to recognize a new and significant contributor to the death of reading: our schools.

In Readicide, Kelly argues that American schools are actively (though unwittingly) furthering the decline of reading.  Specifically, he contends that the standard instructional practices used in most schools are killing reading by: 

--valuing the development of test-takers over the development of lifelong readers
--mandating breadth over depth in instruction
--requiring students to read difficult texts without proper instructional support
--insisting that students focus solely on academic texts
--drowning great books with sticky notes, double-entry journals, and marginalia
--ignoring the importance of developing recreational reading and...
--losing sight of authentic instruction in the shadow of political pressures.

Kelly doesn't settle for only identifying the problems.  Readicide provides teachers, literacy coaches, and administrators with specific steps to reverse the downward spiral in reading-- steps that will help prevent the loss of another generation of readers."

This was a book that my cooperating teacher (and other English teachers) read while I was student teaching.  Once I found out that I was going to teach a class of my own, I felt this sense of urgency to finish reading this book.  This entire book is all about attempting to keep a love of reading alive in students or rekindle that love where it has died or failed to thrive in other students.

Growing up, my parents read to me a lot and once I was able to read on my own, I devoured book after book.  I wasn't much of a trouble-maker, but one clear memory I have of getting trouble was when the newest Harry Potter came out (I think it was Order of the Phoenix, if I remember correctly) and I got in trouble for staying up way too late reading it.  I loved reading and being a quick reader was something that I took great pride in and to a certain degree, continue to take pride in.  I can't imagine my life without my love of reading.  So that's why I want to help my students find their spark and realize that reading is not just something that their teachers make them do.  I want them to realize that reading is something they can do for themselves.

This book is filled with ideas for how to help students find their love of reading.  In my classroom, we do SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) and reading projects, for example.  We do Article of the Week, which my students hate because of the responses that I have them write, but it gets them reading a variety of different things.  So they're getting fiction and nonfiction.  I would like to speak to my experience implementing some of these practices after I've finished a full year with my 9th graders.  I will say that the practices I am implementing are the practices that I continue to feel really good about having my students do and that I will continue to do in future classrooms.  This is a powerful book that I think every teacher should read.  Not just English teachers like me, but every teacher in every subject.  Literacy is not just something you get in English class, but your math class, social studies, science... everywhere.

I appreciate that this book isn't just griping about how this is a problem, but it offers solutions that Mr. Gallagher has put into practice himself and that has worked for his students.  It's evidence like that that motivates me to want to try different practices like this.

Overall, I recommend this for any teacher who is looking to build literacy skills in their classroom.  I give 'Readicide':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

New Years Resolutions: 2018

Happy New Year!  I hope that you all had good holidays and enjoyed good amounts of family time and personal time.  As I've been on winter break, I've been trying to find that balance and fulfill those needs that, with school, have been really difficult to meet.

But this isn't a post about finding balance, nor is it a post about talking about my progress on the goals I set for myself in 2017.  Those will be separate posts.  Since it is January 1, I want to set my goals for 2018.  I wrote them a couple of weeks ago, so I think these are goals that I can commit to and make steps towards reaching over the next 12 months.  In the past, I have split up my goals by blogging goals and life goals, but because I have a full-time job now and therefore a whole other aspect of my life I have goals for, I've just decided to make one big list that covers each of these areas.  And I have ways of tracking each of these things that I will talk about in my post on bullet journaling, coming up shortly.  So without further ado, here are my goals for 2018:

1. Read More Nonfiction About Race In America.
I realized partway through last year that while I had read some books on race in the U.S. (a mix of nonfiction reads and some fiction), that this would be a lifelong process.  And so even though I had a similar goal last year, that's why I'm essentially giving myself the same goal for this year.  I think one way that would be effective for me is if I find reads related to race and education since, if I am to make a difference, that would likely be the area where I can make the greatest impact.  And because I work mainly with students of color, I think this would be a worthy goal for me to have.

2. Watch 100 Movies.  
I watch so many movies.  I marathon them, I like to put them on when I'm supposed to be doing other work.  But I want to encourage myself to branch out more.  I realized when I made this goal that I tend to re-watch the same several movies, so this would be a good way to watch new and different movies.  I can still re-watch my favorites, but once I exhaust those, I will need to find new ones to watch.  I'd like to focus on award winners and ones with actors of color.  I also want to avoid problematic movies.  So for example, I wanted to see Stonewall, based on the Stonewall riots in New York.  But it was a problematic movie because several of the key people were people of color and yet were played by white actors.  So this will encourage me to not just choose movies and watch them for the sake of reaching 100 movies, but to do my research and seek out that buzz that always follows movies... especially controversial ones.

3. Read 60 Books.
Last year, I set a goal to read 40 books, because I knew that I wanted to find my first full-time teaching position and I didn't want overwhelm myself with such a lofty goal as my usual 50 books when I knew that I would be busy, assuming I was able to meet that goal.  Well, here I stand at the beginning of 2018 and last year I read well over 50 books (and by the way, not all of the reviews are written.  2017 reviews will still be coming out for a lot of this month).  So my thought is, if I can read that many books during a year where there was a lot of change and where I was traveling more than I have in previous years... perhaps 60 books isn't so crazy.  I'm going to give it a try.  There will still be a mix of longer reads, graphic novels, and poetry.  Wish me luck.

4. Read 20 Books Already On My Shelves.
As long as I avoid buying too many books, this will not be a problem.  I already have two giant piles of books that were already sitting on my shelf that I want to read.  Theoretically, I could meet my entire year's goal just reading books that were already on my shelf.  My hidden agenda with this is that I want to pare down the number of things that I have, and that means keeping the reads that I absolutely love and want to keep forever and/or I will read again.  I want to keep my books that have a lasting impact and find a new home for those that I enjoyed but want to pass on and especially those that I didn't like.

5. Participate In And Win NaNoWriMo.
For the first time last year, I won National Novel Writing Month.  I wrote a 50,000+ word novel in the span of 30 days.  Actually a little less than that.  I want to do that again.  I think I might have cracked the code to being successful at completing this outrageous challenge.

6. Write And Edit A Full Story That Could Potentially Be Published.
This is something I want to get serious about.  I know that someday I would like to have my writing published by a legitimate publisher.  I will not be so ambitious as to say that I will have a book deal, however big or small, by the end of 2018.  But by the end of the year, I want to have a product that I feel good about that I would want to share with the world in a formally published way.  This might still be too lofty, but we'll see.

7. Exercise At Least 3 Days A Week.
I had times where I was good about going to the gym and times where I completely fell off the wagon.  I want to make my gym goals more specific.  I want to consistently be going to the gym 3 times a week by the end of the year.  I think that's a good compromise for me.  I hate going to the gym.  I don't like being there and being surrounded by people who are much more fit than me and who also smell funny.  But I know that it's good for me when I do go.  I feel a bit better about myself.  So this is my personal compromise.  We'll see how this goes.

8. Go Full Vegetarian.
This is something that I have attempted before and have been able to do for about a month at a time before falling off and slipping back into my old ways.  I tend to crave meat when I don't have it for a while.  That doesn't make sense to me because I don't tend to like meat very much anyway, but that's how it's happened.  This year is going to be about cutting out meat and finding a way to move past these cravings when I know that I'm craving food that isn't even my favorite.  Wish me luck.

9. Finish Europe Study Abroad Scrapbook.
I studied abroad in 2014 and while I have started this book and gotten a good amount of work done, it's time to be finished with the scrapbook.  I have two more big trips to scrapbook now (California and Arizona), so I should get this part of my life documented and archived before I can move on to those more recent trips.

10. Attend 2 Professional Development Opportunities.
As a young teacher, I want to get better at my job.  With a Bachelor's degree, I am only scratching the surface of education and the art of teaching.  I want to get better and find opportunities that will help me get better.  Especially since I'm not ready to head off to grad school yet, I want to find other ways to keep learning and growing professionally.

11. Cut Down On Sugar Intake.
This has been a real problem lately... and I'm not even talking specifically about the holidays... I'm trying to be honest with myself and recognizing that the sheer amount of sweet things I've been consuming in the last maybe 3 months is no longer acceptable to me.  I want to work on finding alternatives and just generally reworking how I eat.  I want to work on respecting my body and eating in a more healthful way is one way I can do that.

12. Make Self-Care Part Of My Regular Routine.
My theme this year is "balance."  For so long, I have been, frankly, obsessed with work.  Even now, when I have my full-time job, I am still tutoring and babysitting and occasionally pet-sitting.  While I'm not sure how much I am willing to do about all of these extra jobs just yet, there are a number of things I can do to ensure that I'm doing something as part of my self-care every day.  It'll help me bring balance to my work life and to my everyday life.  And right now, that's much-needed.

13. Finish 1 Dutch and 1 French Book.
When I studied abroad, I brought home a set of Harry Potter in Dutch and the remaining copies I still needed in French (and I got a few other Dutch books too).  I got them because I wanted to collect them, but I think it's now time for me to try reading them.  I want to find a way to keep up and recall what I know about both of these languages.  So I will be attempting to read one book in each language.

14. Travel 5 Times This Year.
My husband and I are FINALLY going on our honeymoon this year (when we travel, we'll be married for almost two years... crazy how time flies).  But I also want to make sure I continue to feed my insatiable appetite for exploring.  For the sake of clarity, I will say that travel doesn't mean I have to fly somewhere across the country or to another country, but I suppose "travel" to me means going to a place that is different from home and spending at least one night away from home.  So for example, camping trips would count.  Visiting family several hours away would count.  I just want to make sure I'm not stagnant and that I'm getting away from home every once in a while.

15. Write Something Every Day.
I realized during NaNoWriMo this year that even at the most stressful times when I was struggling to get anything of quality written out on the screen, I was at a really high point, mood-wise.  I want to make sure that I'm writing something every day.  That something could be a diary entry that is personal.  It could be part of a story or a poem.  It could be a blog post like this one.  I will say that that writing CANNOT be something related to school.  That's something I would have to do anyway, so I consider that cheating.

2017 was overall a very good year for me.  I can't wait to see what happens in 2018.  I hope that the goals I have laid out above will help me get a little closer to living a more balanced life.

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude