Good Morning! Here’s the Monday Morning Blog!
How was your week last week? I was busy starting my new “day job”. It was a challenge to change my routine back to going to work every day. But it was nice to be going to my office (dining room table) to work from home. I’m excited to be working again, but with COVID still an issue, it’s nice to not have to go to an office yet. It is a part of the new world we are living in. We then took this weekend for some family time at the cabin.
Did you try and reach out to any teens this week? Take the time to check in and see if they just may need someone to listen? Please let me know in the comments below.
Read any good books lately? I have read quite a few more than normal due to the COVID stay at home movement. I have been trying not only read for enjoyment, but also to learn a little something too. With the recent racial events (which have been going on for a lot longer than the last few months), I’ve been reading books other than fiction to understand how much I really know about race and our history.
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in my What Ya Reading Wednesday? Instagram post that I was reading Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. This book is a remix of the book originally written by Kendi called Stamped from the Beginning written for a young adult audience. And since that’s the audience I’m writing for, I thought I’d read that version instead.
Selma’s Book Review
Book Title Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You
Author Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
Type of Book Teen or Young Adult Non-Fiction
Background This is a remix of a book originally written by Kendi called Stamped from the Beginning. This version was written for a young adult audience.
Summary of the book The first thing the author tells you is that this isn’t a history book. And it isn’t. What it shows you is the other side of what we have been taught about our history in school.
Reaction to the book I enjoyed the read and found the book to be very informative. The remix was written in a very engaging way for teens and young adults. It tells the history of our country from a different angle. It’s like a court case, this book gives a chance to hear all sides of the case before we can confirm what happened. It seems like we have always had our history told from only one side. I would recommend this book for the young adult audience, however, adults, be ready to talk about it. They will have questions about why we let politics and the economy dictate how we treated citizens of our country. When I think about it, people protect what they have and don’t want it to change. They were taught not to trust these citizens, even though, these citizens wanted the same things out of their life in America as they did.
Link to the authors If you want to learn more about the authors, here are the links to their websites – Jason Reynolds Website and Ibram X. Kendi Website
Link to the book If you want to purchase this book, here’s a link to Amazon Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You. Or you could go to Bookshop.org and purchase your book through your favorite independent book seller.
After reading this book, it made me approach the history of our country from a different perspective. It is like when three people see the same event. Each one has their own version of what happened. I’m not trying to discount any one version as being less important, we just need to be open minded to the other versions of the same story to form our opinion on what really happened.
The internet has given us the opportunity to see those additional sides of a story. For example, we’re able to get online and see what happened in France yesterday, basically real time. But you can’t believe everything you read either. Some of these “sides” of the story can be exaggerated just to get your attention. Or are told before the reporting agency has all of the facts, just to be the first one to get the story out there. Writing for the teen/young adult market is kind of a group of readers that is forgotten about. There are many children’s and adult books out there. Teens are a hard group to reach. Many of them will tell you that they don’t even read the books they are assigned for class. But maybe those books aren’t as engaging as they need to be? Or are written in a language that’s relatable to them?
Authors can take the challenge of engaging teens to read through the books they write. I hope my books, The Hard Way and soon to be published, Shawn’s Way, are resources for teens to go to when they need help working through the challenges they are facing. Here is a link for you to pick up a copy of The Hard Way, a teen novel which discusses the challenges of peer pressure and choosing the right friends.
The Hard Way by Selma P. Verde
What books would you suggest as good resources for teens? Please let me know in the comments below.
Have a great week!
#AntiracismandYou #Learning #history #racism #StampedRacism #JasonReynolds #teaching #perspective #TheHardWay #Teenchallenges #IbramXKendi
