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Author Guest Post: “Tackling My Own Book’s Educators’ Guide” by Anna Olswanger, Author of A Visit to Moscow

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“Tackling My Own Book’s Educators’ Guide”

Near the bottom of this page is a download link to the student guide for A Visit to Moscow. If you open the link, you’ll discover several discussion questions, beginning with this one:

Rather than opening directly with the Rabbi’s arrival in Moscow, the book opens and closes with Zev’s dreamlike, enigmatic vision. Why do you think the author chose to bookend the story with these sequences? From whose perspective or perspectives are we experiencing this story?

When Creators Assemble! (the nonprofit that works to bring graphic novels into educational spaces) was developing the guide, I wondered how I would answer the question myself. Why did I bookend the story of Zev’s vision? Why didn’t I just tell the simple, chronological story of the rabbi visiting Moscow and discovering Zev as a little boy, hidden away by his parents to protect him from the Soviet government’s antisemitism? Why add the dream-like, enigmatic opening and ending?

The simple answer is that, like any author, I wanted to add my own thumbprint to a story I had heard. I wanted to make it my own. But then I thought about where my part of the book had come from.

In listening to the story that would become A Visit to Moscow from Rabbi Rafael Grossman, the inspiration for the rabbi character in the graphic novel, I asked him endless questions about the real Zev and his family. I wanted to understand how the little boy, who had never been outside the room he was born in, would view the world. Would he be angry? Would he be afraid? Would he be bitter?

Zev, the little boy, later told Rabbi Grossman that when his mother was sleeping, he would turn the shade a little to see what was outside. Zev knew that in the winter it snowed. He knew there was rain. He knew when it was warm and when it was cold. As he looked out the window, he wondered about the world. He thought it was made up of mean people because he couldn’t go out and play, but—Rabbi Grossman emphasized—Zev never thought the world was ugly. He wanted to know more about it.

As soon as Rabbi Grossman arranged for the family’s visas to Israel, Zev and his parents were put on a flight to Europe. Zev thought the car that took them to the airport was an incredible thing. The airplane totally fascinated him. He talked about it later at his bar mitzvah in Israel and said he went up to God and then came down.

Rabbi Grossman said that when he visited the family in Israel, Zev ran around showing him things: his school books, his soccer ball, his kippah. Zev was excited and full of life, introducing his pals to the Rabbi, shouting, singing–not at all restricted. He seemed to love everything about his life.

Rabbi Grossman said Zev was extremely happy in Israel. His life was filled with learning the language, making friends, and playing sports. He traveled on buses and went to every part of Israel. Later, he went to a hesder yeshiva (a yeshiva program that combines advanced Talmudic studies with military service in the Israel Defense Forces) and received a degree in mechanical engineering. He married and had children. And through it all Zev had a very strong, loving relationship with his parents. Zev talked about the world as a beautiful place. He talked about Lebanon and how the mountains were extraordinary.

Lebanon, where as a young man he stepped on a land mine while on reserve duty and was killed.

That view of the world as an extraordinary place sustained Zev, whether in the one room in Moscow where he could only peek out the window or in the openness of the land and cities of Israel. I think for him, being alive on this earth was like being in heaven.

And that is what I added to the story to make it my own, Zev’s feeling of being alive on this earth. It’s why I added the opening where the adult Zev has just died and is looking down at the area in Lebanon where he stepped on a land mine and sees the lush landscape—a river, haze, the ruins of a rampart. He thinks he’s looking down from heaven, and then everything starts to disappear. He can’t remember his name or who he was. He hears a voice and follows it. He sees a man (later we realize it is the fictional version of Rabbi Grossman, the rabbi who visited Zev and his family in the Soviet Union) at his Shabbat table with his family. The man is about to tell his family a story, and the story is his meeting Zev and his parents during a visit to Moscow. I then added the ending where Zev remembers all the events in the book, realizes he has died, remembers he has been alive. That was where I added the line, “He remembers being alive was like being in heaven.”

The book couldn’t have been just the simple story of what happened to Rabbi Grossman. It had to include what Zev knew, what Rabbi Grossman knew, and what I came to know through hearing the story, writing it, and reading it—that this world, in all its richness, is heaven.

Will students have any idea about my reason for including the mystical bookends to the story as they try to answer that question in the student guide? No, but they might imagine a reason, and that is the start of making sense of what we experience in life and making our own story part of life’s big story. Hearing a story we don’t quite understand and working to make sense of it by filling in the blanks is, at least for me, what being a human in the chain of history is about.

Published May 24th, 2022 by West Margin Press

About the Book: This haunting graphic novel takes place in 1965 when an American rabbi travels to the Soviet Union to investigate reports of persecution of the Jewish community. Moscow welcomes him as a guest—but provides a strict schedule he and the rest of his group must follow. One afternoon, the rabbi slips away. With an address in hand and almost no knowledge of the Russian language, he embarks on a secret journey that will change his life forever. Inspired by the true experience of Rabbi Rafael Grossman, A Visit to Moscow conveys the spiritual Holocaust and dev­as­tat­ing antisemitism that existed in the Soviet Union, and the com­mit­ment of one Jew to bringing the hor­ri­fy­ing real­i­ty into the light. It offers a window into the bias that still exists against Jews today, both in Russia and in America. This brief, beautiful, digestible visual narrative is a perfect on-ramp for student interest in the history of religious persecution, the oppression in the Soviet Union, and the experience of the Jewish people at large. It’s a wonderful tool for teachers—approachable, brief, illustrated. A volume that can be read and discussed in a 40-minute class or used as the foundation for broader study.

2023 Eisner Award Nominee, Best Adaptation from Another Medium

2022 Brightness Illustration Award Longlist

About the Author: Anna Olswanger first began interviewing Rabbi Rafael Grossman and writing down his stories in the early 1980s. She is the author of the middle grade novel Greenhorn, based on an incident in Rabbi Grossman’s childhood and set in New York in the aftermath of the Holocaust. She is also the author of Shlemiel Crooks, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book and PJ Library Book, which she wrote after discovering a 1919 Yiddish newspaper article about the attempted robbery of her great-grandparents’ kosher liquor store in St. Louis. Anna is a literary agent and represents a number of award-winning authors and illustrators. Visit her at www.olswanger.com.

About the Illustrator: Yevgenia Nayberg is an award-winning illustrator, painter, and set and costume designer. As a designer, she has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts/TCG Fellowship for Theatre Designers, the Independent Theatre Award, and the Arlin Meyer Award. She has received multiple awards for her picture book illustrations, including three Sydney Taylor Medals. Her debut author/illustrator picture book, Anya’s Secret Society, received a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection Award. Her latest picture book is A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me. Originally from Kiev, Ukraine, Yevgenia now lives and draws from her studio in New York City. Visit her at www.nayberg.org.

Thank you, Anna, for this insight into analyzing your graphic novel!

Author Guest Post: “Why Comedy Can Help Open Up Difficult Discussions” by Kate Westom, Author of Murder on Summer Break

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“Why Comedy Can Help Open Up Difficult Discussions”

At a recent event someone laughed off the idea that my YA novel Murder on a School Night could possibly have any kind of serious message behind it. Whilst I admit that I can see how he got that impression – it is after all a comedy murder mystery where two teen detectives investigate a series of murders involving menstrual products – he was wrong. I actually wrote the book with a serious intention. I wanted to get people talking about periods more freely, to try and bust a taboo that I strongly believe shouldn’t exist, and to open up conversations around the things that can go wrong with periods. Especially considering we live in a time when serious and painful conditions such as endometriosis affect 1 in 10 people and yet can still take on average between 8-10 years to diagnose*. I also did it because I strongly believe that sometimes the best way to get into topics people might find hard to talk about, is with humour.

Obviously, humour isn’t always the answer. But it is one I think can often be overlooked or brushed away as frivolous when it has a great societal function. The great thing with jokes is that they unite people. Sharing a laugh with someone is a great ice breaker because it’s essentially a way of saying “Oh look we both found that funny, there’s something we have in common.” (Similarly, if you don’t laugh at a joke because you think it’s awful, you’ll probably also bond over that, albeit in a much less cheerful way.) This bond makes people feel more likely to open up.

My first book, Diary of a Confused Feminist was the comedy diary of Kat Evans, who was struggling with her mental health. To this day I still get messages from readers, parents, teachers, and librarians saying the book helped them/their student/their child, open up about their own mental health struggles, simply because it made the discussion less scary for them. That’s one of the great things that humour does, it can minimise the threat. The laughter acts like a small release valve so that conversations don’t feel so impossible or hard to navigate. And that’s also why I thought it was important to continue talking about mental health in the sequel to Murder on a School Night, Murder on a Summer Break.

In Murder on a Summer Break, the narrator Kerry has previously struggled with anxiety which she is on medication for. She also has a panic attack at one point in the book. I felt it was important to include Kerry’s anxiety and panic attacks to show a character who’s gutsy and out there solving crime, but also struggling with her mental health, because anyone can be struggling at any time.  And that maybe by putting it in the context of a larger comedic novel people will see it in a context that helps them to process it in their own life or that of someone that they know.

Of course, there’s a time and a place for comedy and some people don’t respond to it. But using it to get the conversation started can relax everyone. It can show that you’re approachable, create a bond, and form the foundations of a safe space where you can address things together.

*The aforementioned man that I had the discussion with is now more than equipped to write an essay on menstruation and menstrual disorders. I felt a little sorry for him getting an unexpected presentation on periods at a drinks reception. But in the words of Shirley Jackson “If you don’t like my peaches don’t shake my tree.” And he shook my tree.

Published September 10th, 2024 by HarperCollins

About the Book: Amateur sleuths and wannabe influencers Kerry and Annie are back on the case when a social media festival inspires some killer content—and several on-camera influencer deaths—in this page-turning and sidesplitting sequel to Murder on a School Night from author and comedian Kate Weston.

After catching the menstrual murderer red-handed, Annie and Kerry are now the Tampon Two, Barbourough’s most famous—well, only—detective duo. So Annie (and decidedly not Kerry) is enjoying her five minutes of fame.

Except life in the spotlight seems to be a magnet for death these days. After a famous prankster is found dead with a condom stretched over his entire head, the Tampon Two are on the scene at their small village’s Festival of Fame to catch another killer.

Honestly, Kerry doesn’t know how she ended up here again, but this might be her one chance to prove to the folks at the local paper that she has what it takes to be a reporter—and to prove to herself that she doesn’t need her boyfriend, Scott, to save the day. Or even Annie, who definitely has stars and hearts in her eyes investigating all these influencers.

With Annie distracted, Kerry has to work quickly, before one more live stream can be cut off by yet another grisly death. And this time, the murderer might be following her—and not just on social media—in their quest to create some truly killer content.

About the Author: Kate Weston is an ex-stand-up comedian (never won any awards) and a bookseller (never won any awards at that either). She now writes books for teenagers. Her first book, Diary of a Confused Feminist, was longlisted for the CWIP Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal. This is her third book for teens.

Thank you, Kate, for this reminder to that humor is sometimes exactly what is needed!

Author Guest Post: “Web of the Spider in the Classroom” by Michael P. Spradlin, Author of Rise of the Spider

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“Web of the Spider in the Classroom”

Having written a great deal of historical fiction for young readers, I’ve been considering the inherent value of this genre for middle graders for some time. Is learning about the past through fiction a viable methodology? Or should we only stick to studying…the past? I know that professional educators, librarians and smarter than me writers have long wrestled with this question.

I can only speak from anecdotal experience, but that experience tells me the answer is a resounding yes. My historical novel Into the Killing Seas, based on the true story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during World War II, has probably generated more reader mail to me than any of my books. And a common and consistent thread running through all of those letters was how many of those students were so intrigued by the true story that they had turned it into a research project and had gone on to read one or several of the excellent non-fiction books about the disaster. As the song says, “reader, you make my heart sing.” (I know it doesn’t really say that, but this is my piece, and I can do what I want).

My earlier historical fiction (I call them the World War II Adventures Series) had been centered around a group or person who experienced the war through a great deal of pain and hardship. The challenge with writing THE WEB OF THE SPIDER series is that it revolves around the rise of Nazism in pre-war Germany. Beginning in 1929, when Hitler’s movement is starting to pick up steam. His two fold strategy was working. One, he blamed the Treaty of Versailles for being unnecessarily punitive to Germany. And two, he placed the rest of the blame for Germany’s struggles squarely on the back of its Jewish citizens.

In the first book, The Rise of the Spider, we are introduced to Rolf, a twelve year old boy, living in the quaint village of Heroldsberg. It is a gorgeous place, just a few kilometers from Nuremberg, and while people are struggling, things are not as bad in Heroldsberg as they are in the rest of the country. Rolf and his best friend Ansel, spend their days at school, playing football (European) and wandering the woods and waters nearby. Rolf lives with his older brother Romer and his Papa who owns a toy factory in Nuremberg. His mother passed away from the Spanish Flu when Rolf was born in 1918. His life is quiet and fairly people until one day when two young men arrive in town.

They are representatives of the Hitler Youth, here to establish a chapter in Heroldsberg. To Rolf, there is something off about them. Their actions are a little too deliberate, their hair and clothing are too perfect, and their words too carefully chosen. With warning bells going off, Rolf decides to ignore and stay away from them. But he is alarmed when his brother Romer, becomes enamored by their words.

Things deteriorate rapidly. Romer is further drawn in and when a Jewish business is burned, Rolf suspects Romer had something to do with it. When Romer makes a decision to join the Hitler Youth his family is splintered even further, and more unrest takes place in the village.

When Romer finally runs away, Rolf and his Papa race to the Nuremberg Rally grounds, where Hitler is speaking during the Nuremberg Rally, but they are too late. When a violent riot erupts, they are caught up in it. And in the aftermath of violence, Rolf will need to make a choice between his family and his country.

Dealing with topics like political violence, socio-economic theory, and antisemitism and distilling it down to a middle grade audience, while keeping up the action, suspense and intrigue was probably the most challenging writing I’ve ever done. And my hope is that his book will help readers have a beginning understanding for the problems and social issues that we still face today. It is unfortunate that recent events have resulted in a new wave of violence and antisemitism. What is old is new again.

But maybe, just maybe, my little book can help.

Working with a reading specialist, I have created a curriculum/teaching guide that I hope will prove useful in leading discussions about The Rise of the Spider.

Web of the Spider: Book 1, The Rise of the Spider

Introduction:

Historical fiction has repeatedly shown us, that certain stories and narratives can serve as powerful windows into the past. It can offer educators and students opportunities to delve into pivotal moments in history. The Rise of the Spider is set in 1929 Germany, where a young boy named Rolf and his best friend Ansel find themselves caught in the crosshairs of political upheaval. I hope this story will help educators explore the value of historical fiction in the context of teaching history and fostering critical thinking skills.

Plot Overview:

The story unfolds in the quiet town of Heroldsberg, where Rolf and Ansel witness the ominous arrival of Hans and Nils, members of the Hitler Youth. The plot takes a poignant turn as the friends watch in horror as Rolf’s brother Romer becomes entangled in their web of recruitment. The novel begins to  shed light on the rise of totalitarian ideologies and the impact they had on communities during a crucial period in history.

Themes for Classroom Discussion:

  1. The Power of Propaganda:
    • Use the book as a jumping off point to discuss the role of propaganda in shaping public opinion during the 1920s and 1930s. Compare to how political propaganda is used today.
    • Encourage students to analyze propaganda materials of the time, fostering media literacy skills. Be sure to be careful in using these materials as the can be disturbing.
  2. Youth and Ideological Indoctrination:
    • By 1933, the Hitler Youth had replaced all other youth programs in Germany. Discuss the role of recruiting young people into political causes during other periods of history.
    • Discuss the ethical implications of using young people to facilitate political change.
  3. Family Dynamics During Political Upheaval:
    • A person’s political beliefs can have a positive or negative impact on family dynamics. Discuss the role politics can play in a family life.
    • Encourage students to reflect on how political beliefs can strain familial bonds and create internal conflicts.

Teaching Strategies:

  1. Historical Inquiry Projects:
    • Assign projects that prompt students to investigate the socio-political climate of 1929 Germany.
    • Have them present findings through multimedia formats, fostering research and presentation skills.
  2. Character Analysis:
    • Guide students in conducting in-depth character analyses, exploring the motivations and conflicts faced by Rolf, Ansel, and Romer. How are they alike? How are they different?
    • Connect character development to broader historical themes. How does Rolf’s journey compare to other both fictional characters and real people from history.

Published September 24th, 2024 by Margaret K. McElderry Books

About the Book: Witness the chilling rise of Hitler’s Germany through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy in this first book in the action-packed middle grade series Web of the Spider for fans of I Survived and A Night Divided.

1929, Heroldsberg, Germany. Rolf might only be twelve years old, but he’s old enough to know that things have not been good in his country since the end of the Great War. Half of Germany is out of work, and a new political movement is taking hold that scares him. Every night, Rolf’s father and older brother, Romer, have increasingly heated arguments about politics at the dinner table. And when two members of the new Nazi Party, Hans and Nils, move to town as part of the Hitler Youth, Rolf is uneasy to see how enamored Romer is by their promises of bringing Germany to glory.

Rolf doesn’t trust Hans and Nils for a moment. For all their talk of greatness, they act more like bullies, antagonizing shop owners who are Rolf’s friends and neighbors. Yet Romer becomes increasingly obsessed with their message of division, and Rolf watches in horror as his family fractures even further.

When there is an act of vandalism against a Jewish-owned business in town, Rolf fears Romer might have had something to do with it. Can Rolf find a way to intervene before things get any worse?

About the Author: Michael P. Spradlin is the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author of the Spy Goddess series, The Youngest Templar series, and the Web of the Spider series, as well as several works of historical fiction, including the Western Heritage Award winning Off Like the Wind: The Story of the Pony Express. He currently resides in Lapeer, Michigan, with his wife, daughter, and his schnoodle, Sequoia. Learn more at MichaelSpradlin.com.

Thank you, Michael, for sharing this teaching guide!

Author Guest Post: “Challenging the Myths and Misconceptions of ADHD in Children’s Books” by Ashley Hards, Author of Hannah Edwards: Secrets of Riverway

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“Challenging the Myths and Misconceptions of ADHD in Children’s Books”

As the author of Hannah Edwards Secrets of Riverway—which features a character who, like me, is neurodiverse—I struggle with the misrepresentation of ADHD. When I was a kid, I didn’t know that I had ADHD. So, I felt that I could relate to a lot of different characters. However, when I was diagnosed with ADHD at the beginning of my graduate degree, I did what many authors would do—I looked toward art to better understand myself. I was frustrated by the lack of characters, in both middle grade and adult fiction, who I could relate to.

To make things worse, social media is flooded with misrepresentations of ADHD, like the claim that “ADHDers don’t miss people” (a TikTok that genuinely made my blood boil). Misrepresentation occurs on multiple levels: on the internet, in media (looking at you Bart Simpson), and even in doctors’ offices. These claims can make an ADHD diagnosis embarrassing and even isolating. Like, if I tell my friends I have ADHD, will they think I don’t remember them?

ADHD is especially underrepresented in women, who often don’t fit the stereotypical misbehaving, hyperactive stereotype. Hannah Edwards Secrets of Riverway addresses this problem by showing my authentic ADHD experience. For example, when Hannah is confronted by the guidance counsellor, Mrs. Grant, she is faced with the challenge of trying to politely listen while also wanting—desperately—to turn over one mismatched sequin on Mrs. Grant’s purse.

Kids with ADHD need representations that portray ADHD realistically, ones that acknowledge that distraction is more than just a quirk and can be downright distressing—Hannah’s inability to pay attention in class genuinely frustrates her! Distraction is a huge part of ADHD, and so is the attempt to mask it: Hannah feels the need to hide her distraction by asking teachers to clarify questions (instead of saying that she missed it entirely). Masking can become a burden, which Hannah experiences as her mask slips while she is solving a mystery. My book also shows how procrastination isn’t always a choice—Hannah tries to write a book report, but her brain physically cannot do it.

One of the goals of my book is to help kids with ADHD feel less alone. And my book can also help kids without ADHD. A reader doesn’t have to have to be neurodiverse to connect with Hannah Edwards—she’s smart, fun, and a bit chaotic. Plus, let’s face it, everyone gets distracted from time to time, whether they have ADHD or not! We can acknowledge our shared struggles while also noting that people may experience them on different levels. That’s how proper representation can help to develop empathy. 

By having authentic experiences represented in novels like Hannah Edwards Secrets of Riverway, we can dispel assumptions about ADHD and take steps to make the world a bit less daunting, and a lot friendlier.

Published September 10th, 2024 by Fabled Films Press

About the Book: From debut author Ashley Hards comes a modern, neurodiverse reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet starring a young girl with undiagnosed ADHD (diagnosed in the sequel) that offers readers a fresh take on a familiar classic, with a mystery twist à la favorites such as Nancy Drew and Sammy Keyes: HANNAH EDWARDS SECRETS OF RIVERWAY by Ashley Hards (Fabled Films Press | September 10, 2024 | Ages 9-12).

Hannah has a lot on her mind. Her father—the Canola King—is missing and no one in her rural farming community seems to care, especially her evil Uncle Fergus. So when her best friend Sam Castillo tells Hannah he thinks he saw her father’s ghost down at the old Riverway Mill, she decides to take matters into her own hands. 

On the edge of going from a “good kid” to a “bad kid”, Hannah stops pretending to pay attention to her endlessly boring classes, and with Sam, their sidekick Tim the Hall Monitor, and eventually a whole lot of Riverway frogs, Hannah embarks on a journey to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance. Along the way, she uncovers secrets, confronts challenges in school due to her ADHD, talks to a ghost, and learns the true meaning of determination and friendship.

October is ADHD Awareness Month and over 9.8% of kids in the US have ADHD, with girls both under-diagnosed and under-portrayed in the media. Author Ashley Hards was declared to be “gifted” at age 8 and was diagnosed with ADHD at age 22, and the world she creates in HANNAH EDWARDS is deeply rooted in her own experiences. While Hards masterfully and authentically represents ADHD (and showcases neurodiversity as a positive asset), Hannah’s ADHD is not the focus of the story, but rather another element of her characterization. Reminiscent of Henry Winkler’s Hank Zipzer series, in which Hank’s dyslexia was secondary to his school escapades, neurodiverse and neurotypical kids alike will delight in Hannah’s adventures as she investigates her father’s mysterious disappearance, and relate to her need for agency and her unstoppable drive. 

Told through Hannah’s secret journal, the book features a fun and unconventional mix of listicles, transcripts of recordings, some straight narratives, and even an Epic poem that will get kids excited about reading, and uses a font that increases legibility and readability for readers of all abilities. Blending mystery, adventure, and coming-of-age themes, HANNAH EDWARDS SECRETS OF RIVERWAY is a compelling read for anyone looking for an engaging story with plenty of heart.

Fabled Films Press has numerous classroom resources written and developed under the supervision of educators and professionals to support the book, including a Neurodiversity Discussion Guide by Dr. Dawn Jacobs Martin, PhD; a Common Core Language Arts Guide by Pat Scales; and a print-at-home Tween Activity Kit with word games, crafts, and writing activities. All of these resources and more are available at www.Hannah-Edwards.com.

About the Author: Ashley Hards was declared to be “gifted” at age 8 and was diagnosed with ADHD at age 22. When forced to sit still in class, she found books and writing to be the most engaging subjects, especially Shakespeare. She received both her BA and MA in English Literature from McGill University, where she now teaches writing and continues her research on Shakespeare and ritual.

Always the adrenaline lover, Ashley enjoys skiing, mountain biking, and opera. (Hey, it’s exciting.) She spent many weekends driving across Alberta and hanging out at a ski hill near Pincher Creek, and the vision for Riverway developed over many dark, stormy nights. Like Hannah, she enjoys journaling. Unlike Hannah, she has not solved any mysteries (yet). This is her first book. Find her on Instagram @ashleyrhards. 

Thank you, Ashley, for ensuring that readers see authentic ADHD experiences and characters!

Author Guest Post: “Living the Questions” by Abdi Nazemian, Author of Desert Echoes

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“Living the Questions”

When my children were first learning to talk, their favorite word was “Why?” No matter what answer I gave to their initial question, they would follow it up with a “Why?” and then another “Why?” until I finally explained that I didn’t have all the answers to the mysteries of the world. I’m sure I was the same as a toddler. As I grew into my teenage years, I wanted deeper answers to all the “whys” of the world. Part of this is, I believe, because so much of my history was hidden from me, and also inaccessible to me in those pre-internet times. My parents and their generation of Iranians shielded us from the difficult stories of the Iranian Revolution and its aftermath to spare us the trauma and give us a fresh start. Queer history was also inaccessible to me in a homophobic analog world. As I grew older and discovered the history that preceded me, I did feel more grounded, more prepared to blaze my own path on a foundation that had been laid for me.

And yet, as one question got answered, life always seemed to bring a new question.

When people find out that I don’t plot out my books, they often ask me how I start a novel with no roadmap or outline. The answer is that I always try to begin with a question that I’m grappling with. In Like a Love Story, about three teenagers coming of age during the worst years of the AIDS crisis in New York, I was trying to make sense of how to live and love boldly and freely in a time of fear, shame and repression. In my novel The Chandler Legacies, about a group of writing students who recognize and combat the culture of abuse at their boarding school, I was addressing how to reconcile my gratitude for and anger at the boarding school that both supported and hurt me and my closest friends.

With each novel, I try to answer the question at hand. But the beauty of fiction, and of all the arts, is that there are no answers, only more questions. In many ways, a novel is one long question. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from the writer Rainer Maria Rilke, who in Letters to a Young Poet, said: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

To me, this is a quote to live by, a quote to write on the first page of your journal, a quote to revisit constantly.

My new novel Desert Echoes came to me during my first trip to Joshua Tree, the stunning, eerie, mysterious desert a few hours away from Los Angeles. I visited the desert alone on a scorchingly hot summer day, so hot that practically no one else was there. Our children had just gone away to sleepaway camp for the first time, and I felt lonely. (Side note for tweens and teens who are pulling away from their parents as they should, have empathy for your parents who miss your constant company and your chorus of questions). In the desert, in my loneliness, I began to truly process the grief I felt after the death of my first boyfriend almost a decade earlier. He, like the character of Ash in the book, was a magnetic, mysterious, talented individual who lived life boldly. He inspired me to be an artist through his belief in me and his commitment to his own artistry. He is the reason I came out to my family. He was also an addict who expertly hid his addiction and his demons from me. Meeting him changed my life and losing him did too. The novel Desert Echoes grapples with questions of how to heal from loss.

But I hope it doesn’t answer any of those questions with certainty, because these are questions that must be answered by each person for themselves. My hope is that young readers who read this book come away from it asking more questions, and “loving the questions themselves.” That is what the book is ultimately about for me.

What does it mean to love the questions and to “live the questions now?”

We live in a very different time than the one I grew up in. Many answers are readily available to us. If you want a quick mathematical calculation, you can input the numbers into your device. If you and your friends are arguing about what year a movie came out or who invented something, you can instantly get the answer from a search engine. If you can’t figure out the lyrics to a song, they live online, along with facts, dates, data and so much more.

These are not the questions Rilke was talking about, and not the ones art and humans struggle with. In our accelerating world of answers, I fear we’re losing the art of living the questions. So here are some small suggestions for you to try:

  1. Give others the gift of your curiosity. When discussing thorny, emotional subject matters with friends, classmates, family either in person or online, challenge yourself to ask questions of anyone you disagree with. A question is an act of generosity. It tells others you’re not judging them, and instead offering them your curiosity and attention. Only by asking questions of each other is their hope for common ground and healing.
  2. Give yourself the same gift. Rilke also said: “There is only one single way. Go into yourself.” For me, this means meditation and journaling. It means going into the desert alone and seeing what echoes come back in the stillness. We can’t all go to the desert, but nature is all around us. Try meditating or simply being still in a park or on grass or just staring at the sky and clouds. Remind yourself you’re living under the same sky, same sun, same moon that your ancestors lived under, that people all over the world live under, and that subsequent generations will live under. See what questions echo back to you.
  3. Pinpoint which questions you love to live in. This will be different for everyone, as it should be. I’ve realized that I love the process of writing even more than I love the outcome. Anything you devote your life to should feel like this, from relationships to career. If you love living in scientific questions, pursue that. If you love living in questions of art-making, pursue that. Life is all process, so we must love that process.

Publishing September 10th, 2024

About the Book: Desert Echoes tells the story of high-school junior Kamran, who hasn’t been the same since his boyfriend Ash disappeared in the desert. Kam is supported by his best friend Bodie and by his mother. When a school trip takes Kam and Bodie back to Joshua Tree, Kam seeks answers to the questions that have haunted him since Ash’s disappearance two years earlier.

The book jumps in time from present to past and back again, so readers slowly discover more about Kam and Ash’s relationship, and about the strained marriage of Kam’s parents. In the desert, Kam finally finds the answers he needs about Ash’s disappearance. In doing so, Kam discovers his own capacity for hope, love, and perseverance, and grows massively in his understanding— and forgiving—of nuanced, complicated human relationships. 

About the Author: Abdi Nazemian is the author of Only This Beautiful Moment—winner of the 2024 Stonewall Award and 2024 Lambda Literary Award—and Like a Love Story, a Stonewall Honor Book and one of Time Magazine’s Best YA Books Of All Time. He is also the author of the young adult novels Desert Echoes, The Chandler Legacies, and The Authentics. His novel The Walk-In Closet won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Debut Fiction. His screenwriting credits include the films The Artist’s Wife, The Quiet, and Menendez: Blood Brothers and the television series Ordinary Joe and The Village. He has been an executive producer and associate producer on numerous films, including Call Me by Your Name, Little Woods, and The House of Tomorrow. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband, their two children, and their dog, Disco. Find him online at abdinazemian.com.

Thank you, Abdi, for this emotional post looking at the questions the grief brings!

Author Guest Post: “Why I Write About Messy Teens—And Why We Should Honor the Mess Inside of Us All” by Jen Ferguson, Author of A Constellation of Minor Bears

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“Why I Write About Messy Teens—And Why We Should Honor the Mess Inside of Us All”

One of the lies we tell each other is that the point of living is we’re supposed to get it all together. First off, I don’t know exactly what it is, and I worry it is maybe, act in a manner benefitting the patriarchy or the government, or even like what many older cis, het white people want everyone else to act like: speak English (but the right English), get a job (but the right job), work hard (but the right kind of hard), and don’t question why the work you do never results in exactly what you were told it would—in fact, stop asking questions entirely. I worry together means that an individual does this alone. I worry that all is never achievable, but it’s the thing we’re faced with, the thing we’ll fail at again and again, and worse yet, believe that we’ve failed, believe that we haven’t worked hard enough, haven’t done this simple thing everyone else seems to be doing.

And I worry that when we tell ourselves these lies as teachers, in our home life, our community life, and our school life, that we’re doing the work of socializing teens toward something we all know, in our hearts, doesn’t work well, and isn’t designed to work well for the large majority of us.

I am a teacher too.

I fight against telling my students this get it all together narrative, this hard-work-is-rewarded narrative, this we-live-in-a-meritocracy narrative every day.

After all, we know life is easier for everyone involved if young people would, for example, learn to submit their work on time.

But submitting things on time won’t save them, not really.

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So, with this lie—get it all together—in mind, I write about messy teens. Teens who get to remain messy. Whose identities are hybrid, this-plus-this-plus-this, or whose identities are flexible the way gender identity is for many young people, or, for example, whose identities are radically changing the way a person’s perception of self needs to change after a 30-foot uncontrolled fall to the ground results in a traumatic brain injury. I write about teens who learn to love their mess. Teens who grow with their mess or into their mess, instead of getting it all together in the way that (Western ideas about) character development, as well as other power structures, might tell us we ought do see done in a novel.

My characters don’t always have the words or the skills to handle the world around them. But that is not their fault.

The world, it can be what’s wrong, what needs to change, too.

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Let’s turn to my new book filled with messy teens, A Constellation of Minor Bears, out from HarperCollins’ Heartdrum imprint.

Meet Molly Norris-Norquay, an overachieving fat, maybe queer, Métis and white seventeen-year-old high school graduate, who is walking away from her life as fast as her feet can carry her 60-liter hiking pack and all the things she’ll need to successfully complete the Pacific Crest Trail.

At her high school graduation, the afternoon before her flight to San Diego, California, she says: “The anger inside me pulses like it has its own veins and arteries. The noise, the pressure, is overwhelming. A breeze brushes tulle against my heated skin. I want to crush something or run a 5K race or sit down in the grass and have a big cry, a full-fledged temper tantrum, and I have no idea which.”

I could tell you about Molly’s white brother Hank and his messiness, how he’s recovering from a sports-related traumatic brain injury, or about Hank and Molly’s best friend Tray and how he might look like he’s under control, behaving, following the rules, but he’s awfully messy too. And I could tell you about Brynn, another fat hiker, how she’s on the trail for the right reasons but walking away from her life at the same time.

Instead, I want to stay with Molly’s anger.

In A Constellation of Minor Bears, Molly gets to be angry, gets to be frustrated with her brother, her best friend, her parents, with other hikers, and the world at large, gets to be wrong and double-down, and she also gets to be right and wrong at the very same time. Molly is doing an incredible thing—walking 2,650 miles, from the US/Mexico border to the US/Canada border through mountain ranges in California, Oregon and Washington.

But she’s also barely managing it most days.

And if she’s learning anything, together, means relying on her community, her friends no matter the mess between them.

On the trail, all, means getting up and doing this hard thing over again. But sometimes all means taking a zero day—a day where a hiker walks exactly zero miles. Sometimes all means you leave the trail entirely, without finishing. Sometimes all means you find another trail.

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I want to return to the idea that the characters I write about aren’t always able to handle the world around them, and the idea that supposes this is not their fault. Instead, it’s systems, power structures, the world around them that needs to change.

This is a critical perspective for activists who fight for a world where BIPOC and queer and trans people’s lives are full and rich and unencumbered by systems of power that tell us we are less, that tell us we don’t fit, that legislate against us, that encourage violence in word and action against us.

This perspective is foundational for fat and disability activism too. Bodies change throughout our lives. Bodies are messy in so many delightful ways. If living is anything, it’s the embodied experience of constant change, of becoming, of re-becoming.

I want to allow those of us who live in these messy, imperfect, most excellent bodies to not to have to tame ourselves, or shape ourselves to fit the world, but for the world to open up to all of us, to recognize living is not about containing our messiness, but existing in relationship with our mess and the world and all the other living and not-living things around us.

When messy teens grow up to be adults who get it all together we lose part of what makes us human.

Long live messy teens.

Long live the messy adults we become.

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I’ll leave you with a short writing challenge for your students to play with in order to embrace mess.

  • Create a messy character. What makes them messy? How is their messy different from everyone else’s? Spend a few minutes here. Orchestrate a mess.
  • Now, get your character into trouble. What is the perfect trouble for their mess? Not to “fix” them, but to challenge your character.
  • They don’t need to get rid of their mess by the end of the story. See what parts of their mess they want to keep, what parts help them against their trouble, what parts of their mess should be celebrated.
  • Okay, now for the hard part: take a risk or two! Your risk should be something you consider risky. For example, if you always write in the first person (“I”) maybe you could try writing in the 2nd person (“You”). Your risk can be a content one too: what’s the story you’ve told yourself you aren’t brave enough to tell? What happens if you tell a story with a character you’re familiar with but you set it on a space station orbiting Mars or in a wheat field full of strange bugs or somewhere else that challenges your storytelling brain?
  • But really, your job here, today is to have some fun! Play, embrace the mess inside us and around us.

<3 Jen

Published September 24th, 2024 by Heartdrum

About the Book: Award-winning author Jen Ferguson has written a powerful story about teens grappling with balancing resentment with enduring friendship—and how to move forward with a life that’s not what they’d imagined.          

Before that awful Saturday, Molly used to be inseparable from her brother, Hank, and his best friend, Tray. The indoor climbing accident that left Hank with a traumatic brain injury filled Molly with anger.

While she knows the accident wasn’t Tray’s fault, she will never forgive him for being there and failing to stop the damage. But she can’t forgive herself for not being there either.

Determined to go on the trio’s postgraduation hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, even without Hank, Molly packs her bag. But when her parents put Tray in charge of looking out for her, she is stuck backpacking with the person who incites her easy anger.

Despite all her planning, the trail she’ll walk has a few more twists and turns ahead. . . .

Discover the evocative storytelling and emotion from the author of The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, which was the winner of the Governor General’s Award, a Stonewall Award honor book, and a Morris Award finalist, as well as Those Pink Mountain Nights, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year!

About the Author: Jen Ferguson is Michif/Métis and white, an activist, an intersectional feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD in English and creative writing. Visit her online at jenfergusonwrites.com.

Thank you, Jen, for celebrating the messiness!

Author Guest Post: “Serving Students with Service” by Gayle Forman, Author of Not Nothing

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“Serving Students with Service”

When my oldest daughter was in middle school, she was required to complete a certain number of community-service hours to graduate. She could satisfy these by doing any number of things, volunteering at a pet shelter, tutoring younger children, hosting a bake sale and donating the proceeds to a cause. It’s a lovely idea—service as part of education—but why, I now wonder, was the community and the service considered separate from the classroom, separate from the academic part of her education?

Particularly when so many of the things she was learning in the classroom were, once you unpeeled a layer or two, indelibly linked to the idea of community and service. So many of the great movements of our time have been powered by community groups collectively pushing for change or resisting tyranny, be it abolitionists working to end slavery or resistance groups smuggling Jews out of Nazi-dominated Europe, both of which were things my middle schooler was learning about in her history and ELA classes. And it’s movements such as these that continue to be the engine for change, be it Greta Thunberg inspiring an international coalition of young people to push for climate or the Parkland students to prevent future school shootings.

It’s important that schools encourage service as an element of education but why not incorporate the idea of contributing and improving communities into the curriculum, showing how historical movements are not merely things that happened in the past, ancient ideas encased in marble, but a living breathing continuum that today’s young people will carry forward?

In Not Nothing, 12-year-old Alex initially volunteers at an assisted living community called Shady Glen, because of a court order—service as assignment. But after he meets a 107-year-old resident named Josey and begins to hear Josey’s wartime story of resistance—namely his love story with Olka, a woman who rose to the occasion of her life to become a hero who saved many lives—Alex begins to connect the historical to the personal, the then to the now. In doing so, he becomes inspired by the idea of rising to the occasion of his own life. If Olka could do it, could he? Could anyone? The answer, he learns, is a resounding yes.

Recognizing the power of Josey’s story, Alex and fellow volunteer Maya-Jade begin interviewing other elderly residents at Shady Glen, asking them to recount examples of when they “beat the odds. Accomplished something they didn’t think they could. When they rose to the occasion of their own lives.”

The pair learn about history through those who’ve lived it, and uncover quotidian and extraordinary acts of heroism in the people around them: There’s the understudy opera singer who wows an audience disappointed that star diva is ill, the man who dropped out of college for two years to help run his family’s farm when his father died, the woman who defied her discouraging family and went on to open a chain of successful restaurants, the young Navy seaman who rediscovered his first love his life—a fellow seaman—50 years on, when the world had opened up to allow their kind of love.

The stories are fictional but they mirror the kinds of stories I’ve heard when I’ve asked older people to share remarkable moments of their lives. They are meant to represent the wisdom that is out there, waiting to be shared.  At one point, after Maya-Jade interviews her own grandmother, she asks why her grandmother never told that story before. “I have,” replies her grandmother. “You just never listened.”

What would happen if we listened, if we asked, if we brought community service into the curriculum as the two-way street service nearly always is, benefitting the giver and the recipient. Could this deepen education and release history from its marble bust allowing young people to see today’s challenges as part of a continuum and feel empowered— both individually and collectively—to meet these challenges?

Educators, perhaps more than anyone else, invite young people to rise to the challenge each and every day. As an author, I am honored and humbled to help them in this life-changing work.

Published August 27th, 2024 by Aladdin

About the Book: “The book we all need at the time we all need it.” —Katherine Applegate, Newbery Award–winning author of The One and Only Ivan

In this multigenerational middle grade novel of hope, compassion, and forgiveness from #1 New York Times bestselling author Gayle Forman that is as timely as it is timeless, a boy who has been assigned to spend his summer volunteering at a senior living facility learns unexpected lessons that change the trajectory of his life.

Alex is twelve, and he did something very, very bad. A judge sentences him to spend his summer volunteering at a retirement home where he’s bossed around by an annoying and self-important do-gooder named Maya-Jade. He hasn’t seen his mom in a year, his aunt and uncle don’t want him, and Shady Glen’s geriatric residents seem like zombies to him.

Josey is 107 and ready for his life to be over. He has evaded death many times, having survived ghettos, dragnets, and a concentration camp—all thanks to the heroism of a woman named Olka and his own ability to sew. But now he spends his days in room 206 at Shady Glen, refusing to speak and waiting (and waiting and waiting) to die. Until Alex knocks on Josey’s door…and Josey begins to tell Alex his story.

As Alex comes back again and again to hear more, an unlikely bond grows between them. Soon a new possibility opens up for Alex: Can he rise to the occasion of his life, even if it means confronting the worst thing that he’s ever done?

About the Author: Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman (she/her/hers) has written several bestselling novels, including those in the Just One Day series, Where She Went, and the #1 New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than forty languages and was adapted into a major motion picture. Her first middle grade novel, Frankie & Bug, was a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2021. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.

Thank you, Gayle, for this call to service!