My Ode to the Debut Novelist

I love that I have the luxury on this Sunday morning to sit with my coffee, enjoy some chocolate chip banana bread that my daughter baked yesterday and actually read the fine script of the Sunday New York Times.  This is one of my vices, when I have the time.  We actually get it delivered on Sunday...Ahhh...it brings me back to my Queens childhood.

In the back of the Book Review, the first section I pull out so I can see what beloved books and authors have made it to the bestseller list albeit a few weeks old, is a column I like to read called, "Bookends."  There's always a question with two authors offering differing opinions.  Today's topic completely struck me--

Why do debut novels command so much attention?

I am a huge fan of the middle grade debut novelist.  In fact, I get a little jolt when I read the biography that says, "This is _____ first book."  Yes!  I don't know if it is because I feel that I, and I alone, can help this author's career.  Hardly, but I love a good book for kids and boy do I love promoting that book, sharing reader enthusiasm with the debut author and just waiting to see how the future unfolds.

Did you know that there are Twitter accounts and hashtags for the middle grade debut writer community?  This year it is 

The Sweet Sixteens

@TheSweet16s

I'm embarrassed that I've only read five of these so far MG novels but I've heard great things about more of them! I loved all of the ones I read--I actually think I blogged about all of them--Paper Wishes, Fenway and Hattie, Counting Thyme, The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes, Hour of the Bees and The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary School. In fact, my students read The Adventurer's Guide and loved it so much they read way ahead for book group. We had a blast in early August with our summer book group chatting with Last Fifth Grade's Laura Shovan.  I don't think a non-debut novelist would do this, but she offered to Skype with us only a day or two before and we were able to make it happen!  It's a win-win situation for both of us--my students are thrilled with the opportunity to meet an author and the new author gets to experience enthusiastic readers first hand.

 

 

Here's the link for the debut novelists from last year:

Fearless Fifteeners

We loved a bunch of those, too!  Circus Mirandus was one of our top Newbery 2016 books, winning an honor from our Newbery Consensus club and we loved Skyping with Cassie!  We also loved Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman and Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones.  Both of those were book groups for Newbery and we had the wonderful opportunity to Skype with those fabulous debut women, too. On a side note, I hear there is a Book Scavenger hiding in NYC right now--I keep saying I'm going to hide one in Albany. I have to make that happen.

And I can't let this go without talking about Kwame Alexander.  Even though The Crossover wasn't his debut novel and he had been writing poetry (and prose) for 20 years before, The Crossover is what introduced this incredible poet novelist to the world. I got on board with the book from the beginning, got my students to love it and him and the rest, as they say, is history.

All in all, I love how Leslie Jamison put it in the "Bookends" column.  

"Part of the thrill of watching the [NBA] draft is the possibility of watching the future before it happens, which is also the thrill of of the debut novelist:  the chance to read an author before she has become a legacy, before she has become part of the canon.  It's a chance to imagine yourself, as a reader, inside the greater wingspan of literary history:  Witnessing the ascendance of a debut novelist means witnessing a career when it's just beginning, being part of a moment that will ultimately matter."

-Leslie Jamison

I couldn't have said it any better.  I thrive on being part of history and being "one of the firsts."  Now off to read to be part of history...

ps-Looking ahead, here is the link for next year's debut MG and YA novelists:

The Swanky Seventeens

The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary School

Today was book group number three of my summer five.  I don't know how the next two can top this one.  Pinch me!  We met at the Castleton Public Library and skyped with Laura Shovan, the author! How lucky were we that she was actually available at the exact moment we were meeting and not only that, had a significant amount of time to spend with us.  Thank you! What a treat for my small but powerful group of fourth, fifth and sixth graders (plus a mom and a seventh grade sister!).

Writing our Skype questions

As soon as I started reading this book I was reminded of another fifth grade year long memoir, Rob Buyea's Because of Mr. Terupt.  Like Mr. Terupt, this book's narrators are all of the students in the class.  But unlike Terupt, all their voices are in verse.  More and more books are being written in verse these days and you know what? That's awesome!  Just in the past week I've read two--this one and Free Verse by Sarah Dooley--and I love it.  Let's get everyone hooked on poetry!  Isn't that so, Kwame?

 

With a backdrop of folk songs, the 18 diverse kids in Ms. Hill's fifth grade class wonder if there are "some things worth holding onto."  Unfortunately, their school isn't one of them.  Come June these kids will say goodbye to the walls that held their memories where they were taught how to read, write and do arithmetic to say hello to a shopping mall.  Yes, that hurts.  But it will not come without a fight with a side order of every form of poetry you can imagine.

It's summer and we were at the public library so we talked to Laura via the iPad mini.
It was mini, alright! Can you spy Laura?

Today when we got together to talk about the book, we started out by sharing what we were looking forward to in the coming school year.  The fourth graders are excited about having "three teachers" and "doing science with Mr. C" and one of the fifth graders said that he is looking forward to "a big field trip" at the end of the year.

Thank you, Laura!

We also discussed our favorite characters.  "I like Rennie because she is saving the school for her sister" said a fourth grader with a younger sister.  Another girl likes Sydney "because she likes sports and I like sports." Other favorite characters were Mark, Edgar and Katie.  I don't know who my favorite is--so many of them have qualities and characteristics that I admire and love.  Is it Rachel because she has Jewpanese roots like my own children?  Or Tyler because he is from Texas and you know how much I love Texas.  Or Newt because he grows from writing haikus to way more.  Or Jason because I grew from thinking he was kind of "meh" to really liking him in the end and I loved his concrete self portrait poem. Or? Or? Or? I could go on and on about all 18 of them.

We also got out sticky notes and followed Jason's instructions on how to make a Mr. Stick Guy flip book (p. 76).  That was fun!

I asked the kids to give me a one sentence review and here is what they came up with:

"I liked the poems" [YES!]

"I like the book because it had a realistic ending."

"I liked the poem, 'Time Capsule Rap'."

"I liked the book because the class was very different." That says a lot because our classes are NOT very different in Castleton.  I'm glad I can expose my students to different cultures and people through literature.

Along the same lines, "I like it because it had Spanish."

And of course, the simple, "It was funny." "It was interesting."  Well, it is summer, after all, and I'm just happy they read and chose to spend an hour with me on a beautiful August afternoon to talk about a book! Lucky me!

Check out Laura in Zack's hands!