ALAN Breakfast speaker, Sharon Creech and her CODA character

The last few weeks have been increasingly hectic with the end of the semester approaching. I arrived home late Sunday night and didn't have time to post anything about the wonderful time I had at the ALAN Breakfast at the NCTE Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
Laurie Halse Anderson, (pictured left) author of Speak, was presented with the 2008 ALAN Award. She was absolutely hysterical making fun of some of the required reading that was forced to read in school. She mentioned The Scarlet Letter and made a horrible face. Following her award, the ALAN breakfast speaker, Sharon Creech (pictured right) delivered her inspiring message about reaching students like a young Laurie Halse Anderson. Creech is the best-selling author of the Newbery Medal winner Walk Two Moons, and the Newbery Honor Book The Wanderer. She is also the first American in history to be awarded the CILIP Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler. During the breakfast, she spoke about her book, Love That Dog. The first time I read Love That Dog I cried... the story is that good. Creech's recent book, Hate That Cat: A Novel, picks up another year of Jack's life with teacher Miss Stretchberry. The exciting thing is... and it was a shocker for me during her presentation... Creech gives us more information about main character Jack's life. Readers even discover that Jack is a CODA- his mother is Deaf and uses sign language to communicate! Can you imagine how excited I was sitting at the ALAN Breakfast and finding out about a Deaf Character being added to her recent novel?!? I love how life is full of surprises. Jack's mother is a minor character but still....

Hate That Cat: A Novel by Sharon Creech
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Joanna Cotler (September 23, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0061430927

Need another reason to join ALAN? Try FREE books!!!

Joan Kaywell just sent a reminder that the ALAN WORKSHOP in SAN ANTONIO is right around the corner. Read an excerpt from her email below. Even if you can't make it to this year's meeting, you may want to consider joining. The application is attached below in SlideShare.

You won’t want to miss the annual ALAN Workshop, occurring on November 24-25 in San Antonio, TX. There is still room available but now you’ll have to register on site. The cost of the two-day workshop is practically nothing when one considers that you receive a year’s membership and a free box of books! Seeing and hearing the authors’ presentations is worth it even if there were no freebies. But for those registered, here’s a little information about the packet of books that you will be receiving as a registrant for the ALAN workshop:

This package will be a box (16” x 16” x 12”) that will weigh approximately 30-35 lbs.

Alan Membership Form

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YouTube Video- Rally Caps

RALLY CAPS - A fun baseball story

Adolescent Literature & the Presidential Elections

The closer we come to Election Day, the more talk there is in the media about the Presidential Elections. Everywhere I go people are discussing the candidates and talking about change. I believe that voting is not only our right as citizens but our responsibility. This week I encourage you to try to include adolescents in your discussions. They don't necessarily need to know every detail about the economy, health care, and the war but they do need to be involved in the importance of elections.

Why not introduce your favorite adolescents to Megan McDonald's Changes for Julie (American Girls Collection) (2007).

The main character Julie is sent to detention for passing a note to Deaf Character Joy, a new student who has trouble understanding what their teacher is saying. When Julie is sent to detention for passing the note, she is determined to change the rules for detention and the system itself. Julie runs for Student Body President while Joy runs for Student Body Vice President.

This book offers an uncanny parallel to our U.S. elections. The characters discuss their principles and concerns for electing someone who is a little "different" (the student body has never had a Deaf girl who "talks a little funny" and uses Sign Language as their VP before).

Want to know more about the author? Visit one of my earlier posts with an interview with Megan McDonald.

CODA Character in At Face Value

At Face Value (October 2008) by Emily Franklin
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Flux

Linus', a staff writer at the Word, has a father who is deaf. Linus teaches main character Cyrie sign language and the two use it throughout the book.

Product Description

You've never seen a nose as big as mine. In this modern love story, Cyrano de Bergerac is reinvented as a brilliant and funny seventeen-year-old ...girl. A tennis champion, straight-A student, and editor of the school paper, Cyrie Bergerac has learned to live with her (ahem) peculiar proboscis. And she's got an armoury of witty retorts for every schnozz joke that comes her way. But despite her talents and charm, Cyrie is convinced that no guy-hot or otherwise-would deem her crush-worthy.Certainly not Eddie 'Rox' Roxanninoff, who's gorgeous, smart, and genuinely nice to boot! There's someone else smitten with Rox, too. It's Leyla, Cyrie's pretty yet tongue-tied best friend. Helping Leyla seduce Rox through email provides a wonderful way for Cyrie to express her true feelings. But watching her crush hook up with Leyla may be more than she can take. Will Cyrie find the strength to risk it all-nose be damned-and confess her love? In this funny and poignant spin on a classic, popular YA author Emily Franklin explores the age-old theme of 'true beauty' with humour and piercing perception.

Interview with Emily Arnold McCully regarding her new book, My Heart Glow: Alice Cogswell, Thomas Gallaudet, and the Birth of American Sign Language

My Heart Glow: Alice Cogswell, Thomas Gallaudet, and the Birth of American Sign Language (2008) by Emily Arnold McCully
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children

Many of you may already know the story of how Alice Cogswell caught the attention of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Children’s author, illustrator and Caldecott Medal winner Emily Arnold McCully invites us to take another look at this touching story of how “one little girl inspired a whole new language- as well as the school where it could be taught”. This picture book shares their story and recounts how Gallaudet's interest in teaching Alice carries him on a long journey that eventually leads to the nation's first school for the deaf. In addition, a beautifully written author’s note offers more details about American Sign Language and Alice’s life after attending school.

I personally enjoyed reading the excerpts of Alice’s letters to Gallaudet while he was in Europe. This is a nice way to teach even the youngest children about the history of American Sign Language.

*******Read my interview with Emily Arnold McCully below*******
SPW: What prompted you to write the story?

EAM: For many years, I have invented or looked in history for brave and inquisitive
young girls. Then I make them heroines of picture books. (Mirette on the High Wire, Marvelous Mattie). One of my sons, Nathaniel McCully, is fluent in ASL and a student of Deaf History. I think that his interest was sparked by a friend whose niece was deaf. In any case, he knew the story of Thomas Gallaudet, Alice Cogswell and Laurent Clerc. He told it to me in outline and I realized that Alice was another heroine whose story could spread the word about ASL to hearing children and affirm part of their heritage for Deaf children.

SPW: What type of research did you do for your book? (for example, the excerpts from Alice's letters to Gallaudet while he was in Europe; your author's note with the list of sources-- I'm mostly asking about the process to point out the value of researching)

EAM: Since I knew nothing about the subject, I first went to the New York University Library, where I am lucky enough to have access to the stacks. This means that I can go to the section where books about Deaf culture and education are shelved and simply browse my way around. I looked at many books that weren’t immediately relevant--but that is the beauty of a library. You can read all around a subject as well as all about it. When one is telling a story, it is essential to know much more than will actually be incorporated into the story. I read Hartford histories and Cogswell family histories. I also consulted a great many excellent websites about Deaf history, particularly Galludet University’s. Next, I went directly to the American School for the Deaf, in Hartford, where Alice was in the first class. Gary E. Wait is the archivist there and he welcomed me warmly, showed me the books in his library and the objects on exhibit. He told me stories about Alice Cogswell and Thomas Gallaudet and examples of other peoples’ writing about them. I read excerpts from Alice’s and Thomas’ letters. Later, Mr. Wait read drafts of the story and made suggestions.

I had already read Harlan Lane’s When the Mind Hears and found it illuminating and inspiring. Gary Wait encouraged me to write to Professor Lane and that’s how I was able to use his imagining of Alice’s greeting to Laurent Clerc as the book’s title. Gary Wait advised me to leave out the story of sign language’s suppression, as it would only detract from what is a powerfully positive story of overcoming ignorance and hopelessness. After I finished the book I went to Paris and visited the school where Abbe Sicard and Clerc taught. The classrooms were not open to visitors but I was taken to the charming old library and shown a video of the school’s history (which included powerful scenes of the suppression of sign language).

SPW: What do you hope that readers will learn or take away from the book?

EAM: I hope that everyone who reads my book will come away with an understanding of Gallaudet’s courage and persistence, of Alice’s intelligence and spirit. I also think Laurent Clerc was a terrifically cool man but a picture book has only 32 pages and I had to keep his role small.

SPW: What advice would you give to young people (or the young at heart) who are reading your books for the first time?

EAM: To children reading my books for the first time, I say, read more books-let history tell you its story. I think that is the only way to become steady and wise in the world. We can learn from what happened - in fact, we must! Books make us strong.
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For more information about the author, visit the Balkin Buddies Page for her biography and list of published works.

The Silent Time slated for a Heritage and History Book Award

The Historic Sites Association partners with the Writer's Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador to present a Heritage and History Book Award for a work of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or young adult/children's literature that exemplifies excellence in the interpretation of the history and heritage of Newfoundland and Labrador. A shortlist is selected and the winner is announced in December of that year. Let's cross our fingers because The Silent Time by Paul Rowe has made the short list!!! I read it last December and it became one of my favorite reads of the year.... and is still one of my favorites. The deaf character, Dulcie attends the Halifax School for the Deaf in the early 1900s, similar to the author's late mother, Elizabeth Rowe. The plot is amazing!

Happy Belated Birthday!

I remember when my doctoral advisor told me to pick a topic that I would love researching because the topic would stay with me for a long time. Two years and two days ago, my dissertation was born (or rather defended). I still do love my research.

Interview with Linda Kurtz Kingsley about her Children's Book SIGNS OF JAYS

((CORRECTION: the birds in the story are Scrub-Jays, not Blue Jays... the East Coast girl in me just came out))
Signs of Jays (October 2008) by Linda Kurtz Kingsley
Publisher: Jason & Nordic Publishers
Reading Age: 4 to 9

When narrator Pete and his mother rescue two abandoned Scrub-Jays, his friend Mike, who is deaf, and other deaf and hard of hearing students help take on the responsibility of caring for the baby birds. His mother explains that just like the students in her class who are preparing to mainstream, the jays are being prepared to mainstream back into the wild. This story is very much about bridging the communication between deaf and hearing children and how two boys overcome their barriers of communication to become friends.
The title holds a double meaning. While this is a beginning “sign” language book, Pete and Mike are waiting for a “sign” from the birds that they have raised and freed into the wild. The book includes twenty-four signs and beautiful watercolor illustrations of children using American Sign Language and wearing hearing aids.

****Read my interview with author Linda Kurtz Kingsley below*****

SPW: How did you decide to become an art teacher at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf?

LKK: Actually, I started out with the intention of becoming an illustrator. I come from a family of artists and my grandfather did covers for the Saturday Evening Post. I grew up a few blocks away from the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf when it was in Mt. Airy. They advertised for an illustrator to draw educational material. I applied for the job and they talked me into taking a job at the school as their middle school art teacher. I was immediately hooked. I spent the next 3 years teaching art, being trained as an academic teacher of the deaf at the same time. The next 3 years I was an interpreter for college bound deaf students. I'm not deaf, but I am hard of hearing. I have about a 40 db bilateral censorial hearing loss that I've had since I was 30.

SPW: What prompted you to write Signs of Jays?

LKK: My first year teaching at PSD my roofer brother brought me a nest of starlings. He had to take the nest down to fix a roof and when he put it back, the mother did not return to the nest. I took the birds with me to PSD. The kids fed the birds during the day. At night, the birds came home with me. Eventually, they had to learn to be "mainstreamed" back into the wild. It was a great experience for my students and it gave me the idea for Signs of Jays which I wrote more than 30 years later.

SPW: Who is your target audience?

LKK: My target audience is deaf/hearing impaired students from preschool through about grade 4. I hope it will be enjoyed by older kids too. It is also designed to teach non-hearing impaired students about hearing impaired students they might encounter in school or the community.

SPW: What type of research did you do for your book? Will you explain your actual experiences taking care of orphaned birds?

LKK: I got a lot of help from our local wildlife center. Later, when I actually wrote and illustrated the book in California, I used California scrub jays instead of starlings, so I set up a bird feeder on my deck and took lots of photos. I already knew about the deaf and mainstreaming because by this time I was also a resource specialist working with mainstreamed students who were deaf, or had other impairments. My publisher circulated the book among many experts in the deaf community and they made suggestions.
Taking care of the birds was a little crazy. At first, they had to be fed every two hours. Later, when they started to fly, they got into all kinds of trouble like eating kids' food at lunch and pooping on peoples' heads. I remember once they landed on a hot wok when my husband was trying to stir fry a Chinese dinner.

(illustration from page 17 of Signs of Jays)

SPW: What do you hope readers will learn from this book?

LKK: I hope they learn that all people, disabled and not have the same wants and needs. We can all get along together.

SPW: What advice do you give to young, or young of heart who are reading the book for the first time?

LKK: Get out in the community and school and participate. Try new things. Don't be afraid if your voice sounds funny, or your body isn't perfect. No one will know how smart you are until you show them.

SPW: Do you want to add anything?

LKK: Never give up your goals. I had the idea for Signs of Jays more than 30 years ago. Today, at age 62, with rheumatoid arthritis, I finally achieved the goal I had as a five year old. It's never too late.

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For more information about the author, visit Linda Kurtz Kingsley's webpage. To purchase the book, visit Harris Communications.

Presentation: Deaf Comic Book Characters

This presentation is for the students in Gallaudet's Art Department in preparation for my presentation at the International Reading Association Convention in February.

Presentation Deaf Comic Book Characters

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