The first two books I read through the school lens were Dear Ijawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi. Both texts and authors would provide thoughtful supplements to Things Fall Apart, an AP Prep English 10 anchor text. Dear Ijawele was written after a friend asked Achichie how to raise her newborn daughter to be a feminist. The book is brief and would be easy to excerpt, though the content isn't especially connected to the content of Things Fall Apart. Adichie's more famous book, Americanah, probably would be a better choice; re-reading that book is also on my list this summer. Freshwater also stars a Nigerian protagonist. In Freshwater, the main character, called the Ada by the spirits (the ogbanje) that inhabit her, is born in modern Nigeria but goes to university in Georgia. In Nigeria, she is haunted by the harmful ogbanje; in America, those spirits and the ways they make Ada behave, are recognized as mental illness. The story is beautifully written and shows the challenges of moving between different cultures as well as what it means to struggle with mental health issues. Adichie and Emezi are authors that would absolutely wonderful complements to Achebe.
In English 9, To Kill a Mockingbird remains an anchor text. However, Mockingbird is often difficult for students to read and sometimes, when read with a more modern eye and modern sensitivities, it is imperfect. Two books, Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, can introduce some of the same themes in a much more approachable way. In Ghost Boys, a young black boy is shot and killed by police; the boy's ghost watches the fallout from the shooting and meets another ghost, the spirit of Emmett Till. The book weaves modern day race issues with important historical context, making it an excellent supplement to Mockingbird. Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir told in verse, a memoir of Woodson's own childhood growing up during the Civil Rights era. The poems touch on what it was like growing up during times of such racial tension. Because the text is written in verse, it will again be easy to excerpt and hopefully find passages that students haven't read in an earlier grade. Both books will add a fresh perspective to the important themes of Mockingbird.
I have spent A LOT of time in the last two weeks hanging out with books, so I've also read the following:
Skip these and do something else with your time:
The Outsiders by Stephen King: Read It instead; it's the same story.
Girl Last Seen by Nina Laurin: Pop fiction garbage.
People Like Us by Dana Mele: Young Adult fiction in the genre of prep school murder mystery.
Entertaining but not super insightful:
The Everafter by Amy Huntley: A different perspective on what happens after we die.
Finding Me; A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed by Michelle Knight: The awful, but poorly written, true story of what happened to Michelle Knight during her 11-year kidnapping.
The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard: Fictionalized telling of the real Tennessee site where ingredients for the atomic bomb were created; I would suggest reading a real account instead.
Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Morris: A must-read only for true grammar nerds -- I'm talking to you Gretchen Egner! Check out the whole chapter on apostrophes.
Listen to these:
Calypso by David Sedaris: Witty essays that sound even better when narrated by Sedaris himself.
God by Reza Aslan: A brilliant exploration of how we came to the understanding we have today of god; Aslan narrates and makes the incomprehensible a little more understandable.
Adding to my classroom library for sure:
Beast by Brie Sprangler: One of the best books I've read with a transgender main character. The focus was on a good story and not on educating the reader on what it means to be transgender, and that made all the difference.
Great memoirs:
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover: Tells the story of Westover's childhood in the mountains of Idaho raised by survivalist parents and how she found her way to college
Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir by Amy Tan: Another brilliant Amy Tan book that explores how her life has been part of her writing muse.
The rest of summer is wide open, so you will find me camped out in the usual locations reading one of these:
Legendary (Caraval #2) by Stephanie Garver
Lisey's Story by Stephen King
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Ayiti by Roxane Gay
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
There There by Tommy Orange
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
The Memory Watcher by Minka Kent
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester
I love summer vacation!
