Imaginary Friends

Confessions of an Imaginary Friend as told to Michelle Cuevas

Let me start by saying that I'm enjoying books and short stories about imaginary friends. They remind me of my childhood and my imaginary friend Libby, the 17-yr-old boy who lived in our oven. I have no idea why he lived in the oven, but Mom cooked him one evening when she made nachos. Were my parents tired of my demands for a place setting for Libby at the table (well, bar; we ate at the kitchen bar)? Were they tired of me sitting on one half of my seat saving the other half for Libby? Or were they just oblivious? No matter what, Libby disappeared, and I moved on.

But Jacques is an imaginary friend who isn't quite sure he's imaginary. When he discovers he's not real, he finds a support group for imaginary friends and quickly learns how to cope with his imaginary life. His journey (because this is a hero's journey) takes the reader into the world of the imaginary friends, and it makes us second-guess our own realities at some points. The lesson we learn in this book is that everyone has something special in them. We just need to tap into that magic. We also learn that computer algorithms for applications are pretty inane.

For a fun romp through the imaginary world and for a feel-good story, pick this book up at your local library.

 

One Crazy Summer
by Rita Williams-Garcia

How to describe this one? Three sisters leave their home in New York to visit their mother Cecile (aka Nzilla) in California. Cecile works with the Black Panther political party, and she seems more interested in her poetry than in her daughters. Told from the oldest sister Delphine's point of view, the One Crazy Summer takes us to a historical time that saw a lot of change in our country. The girls found their true voices that summer and also learned to rely on them to build relationships with their mother and the people they met in California.

The Alchemist

The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho
 
I really enjoyed this book. It felt like a fable to me, and I was able to put myself into the plot as an observer quite easily. Beautifully written book.

Quick Hits

It's been a while, but I have been reading. Working 2 jobs 7 days a week makes for little time to blog. So I'm taking a few minutes to get some books down that I read this past month.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

I read this book at a weird time. I'm dealing with the anniversary of a loss, and reading about Kalanithi's journey with cancer helped heal a little. We're also going through a small scare with my mom, a 16-yr brain cancer survivor who had something new show up on her annual MRI last week. So Kalanithi's descriptions of neurosurgery and its effects were timely. Scary, but timely.

I can't say enough about how raw this book feels. I know he didn't have time to finish, but I think he really did finish it. He put down his pen prematurely for what he probably wanted, but it was right for this memoir. I appreciate Kalanithi sharing his hopes and dreams and fears with us, and I am grateful to his wife for her part of the book at the end.

The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure

The narrator and main character of this novel, Lucien Bernard, is difficult to love. He has flaws, he's a bit selfish and egotistical, but he's talented and has potential for emotional growth. I've never really understood architecture, but while reading this book, I decided to look up a few things online and learned quite a bit. It was cool to imagine what Lucien designed and how it might function today.

If you want to learn a little about the French Jews during World War 2, this is a great fictional look at their story. I put it alongside City of Women and Sarah's Key if you want other fictional accounts from that period.

Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story by Nora Raleigh Baskin

9/11 is a day we'll always remember. However, how many of us remember 9/10/01? I do because something significant happened in my life that day, but I don't know if anyone else does. 9/11/01 is the last day of normalcy for most of us. So many things changed for us, and it's almost impossible to list them because the changes happened gradually. But I do remember how that day was surreal. Baskin's book retells the events of that day and the previous day through the eyes of our children. Each child in a different part of the USA with different backgrounds had his or her own experience that week. The stories they tell are fictional, but they could be stories any of us might tell. May we never forget the lives lost that day and the freedoms we lost too.

The Wall

A Night Divided
by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Nielsen has given us an account of a family divided by the Berlin Wall in the 1960s. Gerta's family was split overnight by the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. While her father and older brother were in West Berlin, the wall was built dividing Gerta's family. Gerta, her brother Fritz, and her mother have been alone in East Berlin for 4 years at the time of the book's setting. They can't communicate with Father or Dominic without bringing suspicion onto themselves thanks to the constant eavesdropping and monitoring of the East German government.

East Berlin has been touted as being the most surveilled population at one point in history. Gerta and her family managed to find ways around the surveillance and were able to come up with a plan to escape East Berlin.

However, under the watchful eyes of nosy neighbors, the police and military, and practically the whole town, will they succeed in escaping to the western side? What will life be like if they do? How much will change for them?

A Night Divided shares the harrowing escape attempts of some East Berliners and brings to life the fear and anxiety induced by living with a wall meant to keep you locked in a city. Gerta at one point reminds herself that she's not an animal but a person, and that she must do whatever she can for freedom.

My own experience with the wall is vicarious. I remember when it fell, and my college German professor cried as she told us about her mother and her aunt who had been separated ever since the wall was erected. I remember watching news reports and seeing the tears on the faces of the people crossing over and hearing the cheering as the wall fell. I also remember how different my penpal from Leipzig seemed when he visited America. He'd grown up in East Germany, and they were still quite different from the west.

A Night Divided is an excellent historical novel that will not only educate young readers about the Berlin Wall but will also meet their needs for excitement and adventure as they read Gerta's story.

Highly recommended!

Solo Launch

I had the privilege last week to travel to New York City for the official release of Kwame Alexander's newest offering to the reading world: Solo. The book has a video and a playlist, and we heard original music by Randy Preston. It was an exciting night celebrating literature with librarians, educators, writers, and poets; and I feel so lucky to have been able to participate. I truly felt out of my league though. I'm just a teacher and librarian, and I was in the same room with some people who are changing the world.

So the book launch was amazing, and I have new books to bring back to my students. The party was held in Langston Hughes's brownstone in Harlem. The house is small, and they had a few mementos of his life, and that made my evening even better.

New York City was great, and I was fortunate to make new friends and to meet with old friends as well.

The Joy of Teaching

Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms
by Timothy D. Walker
Copyright 2017
Published by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Oh, the joys of being an educator! Life as a teacher is full of sunshine and laughter, right? Well, during the summer maybe, but American teachers have lost their joy. I taught for 16 years before becoming a librarian and lost my zest for the education profession around 2006. High-stakes testing, budget issues, paperwork (oh, my gosh, the paperwork!), inconsistent and unfair practices, and more cause a lot of educators to leave the profession. I still managed to teach, and my students still managed to learn; but I was exhausted from the stress and worry. I truly worried about my students, and I'd even wake up at night thinking about how to help improve their lives. When I left the field in 2009, I was so stressed out, that I was 30 pounds underweight and seriously losing my hair. So I quit, went to graduate school, and am now a school librarian. I still teach several classes a day, and I still worry about my kiddos and work long hours; but the feeling is so different now. I LOVE MY JOB!

So how can teachers still in the classroom find their joy again? By doing some very simple things that are done in Finland. Mr. Walker moved to Finland after teaching in America and was stunned by how different everything was. Kids went home on their own at the end of the day (no car line, parent pick-up, stress about which bus the kids got on, etc.). Some rode public transportation, and others walked; but the teachers didn't really worry about it. I was pretty shocked too when I read this, as end-of-the-day student pick-up is one of the most stressful things in the elementary school. At least in my opinion.

He also noted that Finnish teachers would actually take real breaks during the day. Many teachers in America work, plan, grade papers during their lunches. Some of us even take meetings instead of having lunch. Finnish teachers might sit back and read a magazine (not a journal) or just talk about their weekend plans with each other. Not only does this reduce some stress, it also helps build relationships among the staff. I recently worked at a school for 3 years and didn't really get to know any of the other teachers. Whose fault is that? Mine of course. But maybe it's also because I've noticed throughout the years that teachers are getting more and more added to their plates, so they use whatever spare time they have to work. Can you imagine if teachers in America actually used their lunch time for lunch?

Another strategy mentioned was to actually take a break from education during vacation. That's just unheard of if you ask me. How many American teachers are pinning away on Pinterest ideas for their classrooms? How many are updating their lesson blogs (me) and their calendars during the summer? How many teachers go to their classrooms on Saturday and Sunday or work 12-14 hours a day during the week because they've been trained to NEVER take a break? Too many. Nearly every teacher I know. even a short break can make a difference and bring more joy to your classroom again. A refreshed and relaxed teacher is better able to teach students and not stress them out too.

What if educators followed Walker's suggestion for planning WITH the students? Students would then feel like they've participated in the process and will most likely be more excited about learning. Leaving kids out of the planning gives them no reason to care. If they can't find relevance (and they'll discuss it during planning), then they struggle to succeed.

I won't go through every strategy, but I will say that the teachers from my childhood must have been trained in Finland. Every tip, I recalled a former teacher and thought, "Yes, Mrs. Patton used to do that when I was in 2nd grade," or, "Oh, yeah! I remember when Mr. Geghan did that in 6th grade!" I'm going to read the book again in August closer to the school year because I want it to be fresh in my mind when I see my students again. Maybe some of my teacher friends will read it too and help me stay accountable this year.

If you're an educator or an administrator or anyone involved in the field, I highly recommend this title to bring some joy back into your classroom and your life.