Deep Thinking

I asked for help finding possible novels that deal with rites of passage or coming of age that would be appropriate for advanced 7th graders. I have had a librarian friend at the middle school age ask for these titles. She has looked in the public library listings and Ingram. She is most interested in learning which search terms you suggest and your favorite sources for searching these topics.

See the blog from Ann Marie Grumm. This is a “booktalk” she does with her kids http://walkaboutthebook.blogspot.com/

* Search for the terms “coming of age” , “rites of passage”, and . Then limit with the search terms, “novel” or “children’s literature.”
* Coming of age–Fiction
* When I tried “coming of age” as a keyword search (interest level grades 5-8 and fiction as a parameters), Follett’s titlewave returned four pages of “hits.”
* The search term is “bildungsromans” which is used both in Sears and in LC as a subject heading for coming-of-age novels. The other limiter you would have to use is the age or grade range.
* Bildungsromans — novels about someone’s formative years
* The term I learned in Cataloging class was “bildungsromans” Never heard of it, but there it is in a lot of MARC records that we get! A variation is bildungsromane.

Here are some we have with that subject heading (many also have headings such as Teenagers, Teenage boys (or girls)
Annie John / Jamaica Kinkaid
Boy meets boy / David Levithan
An Egg on three sticks / Jackie Fischer
Friction / E. R. Frank
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Mark Twain
??etting it / Alex Sanchez
House on Mango Street / Sandra Cisneros
The Gospel according to Larry / Janet Tashjian
Kite Runner / Khaled Hosseini

Wikipedia has a selection of such novels post-1930 at the following location http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildungsroman_examples_%28post-1930%29
.

Several of the titles on this list, e.g. To Kill a Mockingbird, A Separate Peace, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, might be appropriate for an advanced seventh-grader. Many young adult books are by their very nature such books. In my high school library I have 169 titles with that subject heading some of which include The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, The Bee Season, Bless Me, Ultima, The House on Mango Street, The Chosen, Tangerine. Jane Eyre, Meely LaBauve, Postcards from No Man’s Land, The Red Pony, Seventeen, The Summer of My German Soldier, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

This year’s Newbery Honor book Hattie Big Sky would be perfect for this theme.
A Girl Named Disaster (Farmer)
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card - the reading level is mid grade 7
Princess Academy
Enna Burning
Dreamhunter
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Mark Twain
Am I right or am I right? / Barry Jonsberg Originally published under the title, It’s not all about you,
Amazing grace / Megan Shull Abstract: Tennis has a new “it” girl and her name is Grace Kincaid. The only problem is — Grace has suddenly realized that being a teen sensation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. With fame and fortune just a backswing away, all she really wants is to be Normal!
As simple as snow / Gregory Galloway
Better than yesterday / Robyn Schneider
Corbenic / Catherine Fisher
Crane / Jeff Stone.
Dear Zoe / Philip Beard
Deerskin / Robin McKinley.
Destination unexpected : short stories / edited by Donald R. Gallo
Eva underground / Dandi Daley Mackall
Everything is illuminated : a novel / Jonathan Safran Foer
Firegirl / Tony Abbott
Flight of the goose : a story of the far north /Lesley Thomas.
The foretelling / by Alice Hoffman
Getting it / Alex Sanchez
Highest tide : a novel / Jim Lynch
How it happened in Peach Hill / Marthe Jocelyn
The hummingbird’s daughter : a novel / Luis Alberto Urrea
I am a taxi / Deborah Ellis
Keeper / Mal Peet
Knights of the hill country / Tim Tharp
Kringle / by Tony Abbott ; illustrated by Greg Call
Last child / Michael Spooner
The life all around me by Ellen Foster / Kaye Gibbons
The long hunter / Don McNair
Looking for Lucy Buick / Rita Murphy
M.C. Higgins, the great / Virginia Hamilton
Make me over : 11 stories of transformation / edited by Marilyn Singer
The melting season / Celeste Conway
Mercy on these teenage chimps / Gary Soto
My lost and found life / Melodie Bowsher
Princetta / Anne-Laure Bondoux ; [translated from the French by Anthea Bell].
Probably the world’s best story about a dog and the girl who loved me / D. James Smith
The problem with paradise / Lesley Dahl
Rex Zero and the end of the world / Tim Wynne-Jones
SilverFin : a James Bond adventure / Charlie Higson
Singer in the snow / Louise Marley
Singer of souls / Adam Stemple
Snow apples / Mary Razzell
Stephen Crane’s the red badge of courage : the graphic novel / adapted by Wayne Vansant
The telling pool / David Clement-Davies
Theories of relativity / Barbara Haworth-Attard
Throwing stones / Kristi Collier
To light a candle / Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
Twins / Marcy Dermansky
Upstate / Kalisha Buckhanon
Voices / Ursula K. Le Guin
The Wish House / Celia Rees
Suggest books by Joan Bauer.

A good one is Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. Our whole middle school read it to prepare for the author visit, and they all seemd to like it. Also, Among the Hidden by Haddix and The Giver by Lowry are both good.

You might want to invest in a professional book like The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists by Nancy J. Keane or Teen Genre Collections by Lucy Schall. Both are great and have booklists divided into sections like “Fairy Tale Variations”, “Interpersonal Challenges”, and “Making Choices”.

Other outstanding young adult books with rites of passage as their theme include:
Budge Wilson’s short story collection, The Leaving and Other Stories (Scholastic, 1990 ISBN 0-590-46933-9 Paperback)
Betsy Byars’ anthology
Growing Up Stories (Kingfisher, 1995 ISBN 1-85697-543-6 Paperback).

Novels about rites of passage include:
John Knowles’ A Separate Peace (Bantam, 1985 ISBN 0-553-28041-4 Paperback),
Robert Newton Peck’s A Day No Pigs Would Die (Random, 1994 ISBN 0-679-85306-5 Paperback),
Suzanne Staples’ Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind (Knopf, 1989 ISBN 0-394-94815-7
Library Binding)
Michael Dorris’s Guests (Hyperion, 1994 ISBN 0-7868-0047-X Hardcover)

These websites should give you a lot to go on, but you’ll have to weed through a lot that is inappropriate for your age group.

http://www.kfpl.ca/children/booklist/coming_of_age.htm

http://classiclit.about.com/od/novelbookreviews/tp/aatp_comingofag.htm

http://www.jocolibrary.org/index.asp?DisplayPageID=1319

http://kimbofo.typepad.com/readingmatters/2005/11/top_10s_my_favo.html

http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-coming-of-age-novels/lm/1TRZE1I6C4S53

http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-Coming-of-Age-Novels/lm/7382JAL63QVG

http://slayground.livejournal.com/178045.html

http://www.chasingray.com/archives/2007/01/you_should_read_this_awards_20.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4063/is_200507/ai_n14716647/pg_1

http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/goingthroughthegate.html

“coming of age” is a keyword string we use in entering our reviews of books for schools here in NC. You can access our searchable database of reviews from the Southern Regional Education Board’s Evalutech web site at: http ://www.evalutech.sreb.org

Click the link in the left navigation bar for “Search Evalutech Reviews.”
On the search screen, enter the keyword string (coming of age)
Format field - select print
Grade level - select 6-12
I came up with 105 hits - each one links to the full review.
_________________________________________________
Edward Nizalowski’s collections:
Rite of Passage

Rite of Passage designates the successful completion of some task, set of tasks or experience that places the individual or group into a new category of accomplishment of achievement. For many native peoples in often involved a period of fasting, denial and physical pain. For civilized peoples these “rites” are usually of a much less strenuous and demanding nature. Many stories have been written of young people who needed to take on adult responsibilities or who experienced traumatic situations that should normally be left to adulthood. Psychologists and others have often lamented that not having some “defining experience” as an adolescent, as is the case in many native cultures, has left many young people in a state of limbo regarding the question “when do I become an adult?”?

Bennett, James. Dakota Dream.
Bickham, Jack. Baker’s Hawk (1974)
Burks, Brian. Runs With Horses

Calvert, Patricia. Hour of the Wolf
Carter, Alden. Up Country
Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War.

Dean, Carolee. Comfort
Dougherty, Brittany. God is Laughing
Durbin, William. The Broken Blade.

Fleishman, Paul. Whirligig

George, Jean Craighead. My Side of the Mountain
Gipson, Fred. Old Yeller

Hunter, Mollie. A Sound of Chariots

Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last

Klein, Norma. No More Saturday Nights

Markle, Sandra. The Fledglings
Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching the Spirit Bear

Paulsen, Gary. The Beet Fields
Paulsen, Gary. Dog Song
Paulsen, Gary. The Haymeadow
Paulsen, Gary. Tiltawhirl John
Paulsen, Gary. Tracker
Paulsen, Gary. Voyage of the Frog
Peck, Robert Newton. Cowboy Ghost.
Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. The Yearling

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony
Spinelli, Jerry. Wringer
Steinbeck, John. The Red Pony

Taylor, Theodore. Sniper
Twain, Mark. Huckleberry Finn

Wright, Richard. Rite of Passage
___________________________________________________
Ed’s Coming of Age

Coming of age can be a bit difficult to define. It is the normal process that most people experience when passing through childhood into adulthood. Changes in the body take place, toys start to be set aside, interest in the opposite sex begins to awaken and individual decisions of how to chart one’s life into adulthood start being made.

Blume, Judy. Deenie
Blume, Judy. Then Again, Maybe I Won’t
Bridgers, Sue Ellen. Home Before Dark (1976)
Christiansen, C. B. I See the Moon
Hall, Lynn. Flying Changes
Holt, Kimberly Willis. My Louisiana Sky
Hunt, Irene. Up the Road Slowly
Hunter, Mollie. A Sound of Chariots
Kidd, Susan Monk. The Secret Life of Bees
Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things
Mazer, Norma Fox. Baby Face
Myers, W. D. Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff
Paulsen, Gary. How Angel Peterson Got His Name
Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging
Rinaldi, Ann. The Second Bend in the River
Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn’t Know
Voight, Cynthia. A Solitary Blue
Woods, George. Vibrations (1970)

The Volunteer State Book Award Website lists winners and runners up.
Winners:

K-3 Big Enough Anna / Flowers & Dixon
4-6 The Old Willis Place / Hahn
YA One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies / Sones

My school is excited about Big Enough Anna! It was definitely in our top three. Here are links to additional information:
Pam Flowers website with extra information on sled dogs, the Iditarod and much more
Ann Dixon’s website for Big Enough Anna
Illustrator Bill Farnsworth’s website with his galley for this title

What differentiates blogging for library media specialists from writing for the generalist biblioblogs?

Our profession demands so many areas of expertise rather than focusing upon one specific area of librarianship, so I try to provide a glimpse of the activities occurring in a school library and the deep thought that occurs in our planning and implementing. For too many people their last experience in a school library was when they were young and not cognizant of the professionalism behind the scenes. They don’t have a realistic concept of the modern school library.

While a generalist blogger may focus on one philosophical issue, I intend to show that we must spend time thinking about the bigger picture while conquering practical concerns. I have to move between teaching and supporting all subjects for six grade levels and providing library service. School libraries have changed greatly and hopefully through blogging, the general public can see how exciting they are.

What are your professional objectives for blogging?
Professionally I want to share, inspire, and connect with my audience. I hope that sharing my thoughts will help connect the philosophical nature of our field with the practical needs of my students. I want someone to experience our dynamic environment through the eyes of a child.

How much time do you devote to blogging?

I blog 4 times a week at least. Three for School Library Journal and at least once for my personal blog. Some posts are written in quick fifteen minute spurts, but many of them result from a week or two of thinking about an idea, gathering information, writing, rewriting, and critiquing. I like the deep hours of the night to contemplate and wonder if anyone else is thinking about the same topics I am. I find that I view events happening around me with an eye to sharing them on my blog to the invisible audience.

How does having a professional blog impact your work with students?

My students know that I am a writer and an author of a blog. Several parents have seen my blog with their children and found it helpful to glimpse behind the scenes. Those students feel that blogging is a natural step in reflecting on a job. We seem to be experiencing spring author fever because a large number of students are bringing in their personal writing from home to share with me, to add to the collection, or to simply show me that they are authors, too. They understand that writers need readers and sometimes feedback.

What are the pitfalls for a school librarian to be writing a blog?

Blogging can be addictive and reading blogs can take all your time if you don’t set limits. There are so many topics to write about. It would be easy to complain about the problems we face daily. I want to convey a sense of optimism because these students deserve the best.

How does blogging affect your interaction with nonlibrarian colleagues?

My words carry more authority (rightly or wrongly) because I blog and my colleagues know I have a world-wide audience. Several teachers have asked how they can benefit from blogging and how to begin. Teachers willingly participate in providing ideas for my blog topics. My exposure has grown and doors have opened for other activities.

What has been the response of your faculty and/or administration to your blog?

To quote my principal Bob Wolfgang, “I think that it is great. The issue is and always will be the appropriate use of the tool.” He went on to say that he has complete faith in my judgment in those matters. In fact, he has posted on my blog. My district level administration has been supportive.

If your administration was wary of you blogging, how did you allay those fears?

No one has expressed fears about my blogging. Our local educator’s union included a warning in their newsletter about revealing too much in personal blogs that could be used against us. I chatted with our public information and communication office about the district implementing a blog for the community to participate and their concerns revolved around the amount of staff time needed to monitor a blog and to maintain safety and civility.

What is the greatest benefit to blogging about school libraries?

The Wow! affect. So many people outside the school library field tell me they have learned more than they ever dreamed about our profession. Blogging about how to humorously handle intellectual freedom concerns shows that we deal with the deep issues of our profession in a real, practical manner. We are both educators and librarians. Both fields need to hear us.

I can remember being interviewed for a position once and was asked how I intended to stay current in my profession. Blogging has passed participating in specific email lists because I am no longer limited to reading the posts of and writing to only school librarians, but I am part of the larger communities in education and librarianship.

How do you see the evolution of blogging (i.e., the growth of online video) as intersecting with the job of school media professionals?

Tools like technorati, google reader, and bloglines search for blogs using tags, but the human factor is still the essential piece of the puzzle. We work in a people industry. A personal recommendation of blog favorites is worth more to busy educators who want to expand their horizons in a practical fashion than long lists of general blogs. Interactivity will continue to grow as we learn how to rank our tagging (perhaps by people trust factors) and adjust our focus. I’m excited to watch more professionals participate and try new techniques as they find practical reasons overcoming perceived risks.

Beyond the training in how to blog, school library media specialists will be needed to teach the higher order thinking skills behind communicating and creating new ideas. It’s our job to make people feel comfortable with the present technologies and to inspire them to develop new Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) skills in order to keep abreast with society. It’s an exciting time to be a library media specialist and our voices need to be heard whether in print (traditional or electronic) or video.

Here is my letter posted to LM_NET today:

Dear Peter and all LM_NET friends,

I appreciate our having this conversation in the open and discussing our feelings. I, too, protested ALA’s neglecting school librarians from the blogging article and wrote a letter to the editor which I also placed on my blog. They responded and asked me questions with Beverly listening to my suggestions for how we can open the conversation using newer means (Second Life, online communities, online conferences). I do believe they are sorry and are working quickly to atone for this particular error.

ALA does have much more to offer us beyond our divisional organization (AASL). The joint youth group meetings for general members and for special committees (like the legislation committee) help all of the members of AASL, ALSC, and YALSA. The Legislative Assembly comprises members from committees and the divisions (including AASL) They listen actively to our particular needs and ask us how AASL feels about all general library issues, so the entire organization of ALA can represent the full gamut of our library needs.

The Washington Office is part of ALA and works daily on behalf of school librarians. Their only problem is that school librarians DON’T contact legislators as often as they need to. I appreciate how hard Emily, Melanie, and Erin in particular have worked on our behalf. They continue to make changes to the ALAWO website to include the new technologies that WE tell them about (podcasting, second life, blogs, flickr). Communication is a two-way street and we are working on a simplified guide to enabling everyone to easily advocate and stay in touch with federal issues. AASL alone could not do this.

Sara Kelly Johns mentioned Intellectual Freedom. If we were to divide up our dues into the different pieces that ALA fulfills, our members are not paying anywhere near the “real” percentage of services we receive. The rest of ALA helps make up the cost of that issue.

Conferences and Meetings. Yes, AASL offers a fantastic conference every two years with a smaller Fall Forum on the alternate years. We are able to attend a focused conference on our issues with our own vendors and people that understand us. In many ways this is like being in a bubble. The ALA Annual Conference doesn’t have as many programs, but they are well attended by school librarians AND other types of librarians who seek to understand our issues and programs. The AASL president’s program is well-attended by many other types of librarians; many of whom return to their real worlds and blog about us. The yearly Midwinter meetings are the workhorses of the organization where you can see how ALA functions. If you volunteer for a committee, you can get involved quickly and other types of librarians are very welcoming to us when we give them a chance.

I appreciate the non-scheduled, casual times of conferences when you can chat with other people from a wide variety of backgrounds. If I hadn’t participated, I would not have realized how important the EPA closings of their libraries could become to all types of government libraries as it signals a disregard for the librarians and their expertise and potential conflicts of interest in availabilities of services to those who need them while digitalization is occurring. (Talk about a thoughtful!)

There are so many other ways that we benefit - ALA publications, roundtables, SHOOT! I don’t even know how we benefit entirely, but I do recognize that so much of our professional integration relies upon us and OUR involvement. If we sit on the sidelines, don’t volunteer for committees, and don’t continue to complain when the larger organization forgets us, then we won’t be able to change things for the better. We have a large division in ALA, but on non-AASL conference years, the numbers diminish and that HURTS our cause. Also, we don’t have a large enough percentage of members who VOTE. If we were to compare divisions, I believe you would see that AASL has a lower percentage of members voting that other divisions like ACRL and PLA.

If you want to fix something, sometimes you have to be willing to step up to the plate. This past January while I was waiting for a take-out order in a hotel, I was approached by someone in ALA’s involved leadership asking for their help in getting more school librarians on the ballot for ALA council so our voices would be heard. He told me that the nominating group had approached many school librarians who said “NO” because they were too busy and it was too expensive. I understand that. Still, during the AASL Affiliate Assembly meeting Linda Williams and I decided to send around a petition ballot to gather signatures and we are running for council. There are many good youth candidates on the list and they need members of ALA and AASL to vote for them. If you want to effect change, you have to change what you have been doing.

Thanks for tolerating my long-winded commentary. I really believe we will be a better-represented organization within ALA, but only if we continue to reach out, reach up, reach around, and sometimes JUMP UP AND DOWN so they pay better attention to us.