Book Column

I had the opportunity this past year to serve as a judge for two categories of the Whitney Awards, given to outstanding fiction written by LDS authors. As a result of my experience, I got to read books by authors who were among my longtime favorites and to meet new authors.

One of the people I met at the LDS Storymakers conference where the Whitney Awards are given was Kathi Oram Peterson, author of "The Forgotten Warrior," a book I recently finished reading.

In this novel, sixteen-year-old Sydney Morgan is forced by a crisis to find her absent father, which in turn begins a chain of events leading her to the last place and time she would have ever expected --the time of Alma where she finds herself among the stripling warriors.

"The Forgotten Warrior" is Peterson's first novel and it is targeted toward young adults. Afew years ago I decided to really apply myself to my writing, Kathi says. Plus, I wanted to write something that would inspire the youth. I had attended a class about books nominated for the Newbery Awards and decided to read as many of them as I could. That was a wonderful experience! I learned a great deal by reading other authors. So, I decided to try writing for YA. I loved it!

Like many authors, Kathi found the road to publication long. I have a very deep file of rejection letters to prove it, she says. But that was before I turned my attention to YA.

I'm so glad I found a home that loved my characters as much as I did. "The Forgotten Warrior"was only submitted twice before it sold. Guess I finally found something that worked. he first publisher that read it didn't like Tarik and had a hard time believing a young woman could take on a Lamanite Warrior. Whatever . . . For years I've gone to karate meets with my son, and Ive met some very talented young women. One, who worked for the sheriff's department, could take down a man twice her size. My fans seem to love Tarik. And they believe that a modern-day young woman could take on Lamanite warriors, just like I do.

Of course, the main character, Syd, has been trained in martial arts, which gives her a definite advantage when it comes to fighting. About this choice, Kathi says, I didn't want to take away from the stripling warriors strong faith and their courage in facing a mighty foe. But I alsowanted young women to realize that with proper training they can do most anything they set their minds to. Giving Syd the ability to fight using karate helped to accomplish that, I hope.

Luckily, Kathi had a karate expert right at home to help her with the logistics and accuracy of her moves. My son's karate knowledge helped a great deal as I wrote the fight scenes, she says. Many times I'd read him a scene, he'd tell me that doesn't work, and make me get out of my chair so we could go through the motions. Nothing like acting it out to put things into perceptive.

Fans may have to wait awhile to find out what happens to Syd, who is stuck in ancient times at the end of "The Forgotten Warrior," however. Kathi says, "Book two is finished and in my publishers hands." There are rumors of the book being released next year, but no firm date as yet.

I have a Christmas book due out in October titled "An Angel on Main Street," she adds. Set in the 1950s, it is the story of a young boy, Micah Connors, whose father died in the Korean War. His little sister, Annie, is very ill and he fears she, too, will die. As Christmas nears, a nativity begins to appear in the town square. No one knows who is building it. Annie believes when the baby Jesus comes he will make her better. Even when Micah explains that the baby Jesus will only be a doll, she still believes, so he decides to find the nativity builder and the baby Jesus. No cliffhanger here, just a nice little Christmas story.

That sounds like a book that I'll be happy to read as well.

Testing Education

This week I’ve been studying to take the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) as a required for admission to the Utah State University graduate school. I’ve read the packet they sent me, I’ve taken four of the eight sample tests from the study guide, and in every one I’ve felt like I’m randomly guessing. So far on the practice tests I have gotten scores everywhere from 70% down to 53%, and let me tell you, it’s frustrating!

Here is a example test question so you can see why I’m so frustrated:

Ginsberg: Kerouac :: Hughes: (a. Hurston b. Walker c. Morrison d. Lee)

Okay, so I know these are all last names of people, now I’m supposed to figure out how the relationships work between them to choose the correct answer from the options. There are no context clues to help me out, not even a first name. I’m thinking Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Ambassador Karen Hughes, so I wonder what any of the rest of these people have to do with the running of our government system. Unfortunately, I’ve never heard of Kerouac, so I’m left with guessing.

The correct answer is A, but I didn’t know that. Apparently Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes both emerged from the Harlem Renaissance just as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac both emerged from the beat movement. Did you know that? Someone must have because I went to the internet and found all of them on Wikipedia, but I’d never even heard of the Harlem Renaissance or the Beat Movement before now.

This experience makes me wonder, what do these tests honestly prove anyhow? In the 400 questions I’ve practiced on so far, I’ve gotten 231 correct answers, a little better than 57% average. As I read the explanations for the correct answers, I’m finding I missed a few because I had narrowed down to two responses and chosen the incorrect one, but too many others I miss because I have absolutely no idea what they are either asking or what the responses mean.

Now, I’m a college graduate with a degree in Secondary Education, a major in English and a minor in psychology and several graduate classes behind me. I’ve taught school for twenty-seven years, and I’m extremely well-read. I watch documentaries and the educational channels sometimes for fun. If I have to random guess on a test like this, I wonder what happens to others who haven’t had the reading and life experiences that I’ve had when they take these tests.

That leads me to the next step question, when did schools begin to reply so heavily on standardized test scores such as this, and better yet, why? There is no way to study for a test such as this. Standardized testing began to take hold of the school system in the mid-1960s and it’s gone rampant ever since, working its way down from college entrance exams to annual testing through all the grades, including kindergarten. But what do test scores really prove? Does a high test score mean a successful life? Does a failing score mean one didn’t study the right courses? Has American Education gone too far? Do we require too many tests?

I’ll go take my test this week, and according to others I know who have taken it, I will probably do well enough to be admitted to graduate school, but my final question still remains: Who benefits from the test the most—the person who takes it, the registrar who considers it, or the company who makes the students pay to take it?

Selection vs Censorship

With the selection of The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron as last year's Newbery Award-winner, librarians across the country found themselves in the middle of a debate: If a book uses a word that might offend some parents, do we buy the book for the children’s section or not?

I’m currently enrolled in a Collection Development class through USU aimed at preparing certified librarians for the schools of Utah, and our instructor has assigned us to read the novel for an upcoming debate. Since I have not yet finished, I’m still willing to withhold judgment until I do so, and until I’ve heard the comments of others within my class.

The upcoming discussion has led class members to research and consider: What is the difference between selection and censorship? One student prepared a list of the differences based on the information she gleaned while reading “Not Censorship But Selection” by L. Asheim in the Wilson Library Bulletin of Sept 1953. These were the basic concepts of that article.

Selection means the librarian or purchasing agent looks for values, strengths, and virtues, considers the whole book, viewing the relevancy of the parts to the whole. They consider the reaction of a rational, intelligent adult to this work and decide if there is anything good, allowing the library to keep the book. Books are purchased on the value of merits, the values it has to contribute, and a liberty of thought. Selection is a positive, democratic process that protects the right to read.

Censorship is a negative process in which the reviewer looks for weaknesses, the objectionable, and includes possible misinterpretations in isolation from the piece. Passages are often taken out of context, the relevancy of the parts to the whole are not considered. Sometimes interpretations are based on an opinion about the author or through the pressure of outside influences rather than based on the merit of the work.

Each of us as readers participate in the selection process, deciding for ourselves which books we will read and which ones we will not. We have our own values and have every right to use them when selecting books for ourselves and for our children. Teachers also have reason to select books that are appropriate to the curriculum, based on the standards and values of a community, but librarians have the challenge to protect intellectual freedom, which might mean including books that are not acceptable to the community as a whole.

Because censorship is closely related to the concepts of freedom of speech and freedom of expression, it is important that we allow selection in our libraries without fear of judgement by members of the community. So, next week my class will consider if we would spend money to buy The Higher Power of Lucky for a school library or not, and I have a feeling what we decide will depend mostly on the needs and policies of each individual school and community.

The Future of Writing

In his keynote address titled “Teaching and Learning at the Edge of Change” at the UCET 2007 conference, teacher and author David Warlick asked participants to consider the workplace of the future. Through technology, we will see many changes, including the making of our offices more mobile without being tied to the wires of phones, fax lines, and computer cords, changes we are already beginning to experience.

In his presentation, educators were asked to look at the typical classroom environment, one that was established by the 1950s to teach students “to sit in straight rows performing repetitive tasks under strict supervision.” These were the skills they needed to work in the manufacturing age. But today we are part of the information age, where, according to Warlick, “for the first time in history, we prepare students for a future that we cannot clearly describe.” Technology has placed us into an ever-changing world. The advances of today become outdated almost by tomorrow. Adults are scrambling fast to keep up, while our children move light-years ahead of us in adapting.

Another change that is inevitable, according to Warlick, is the need for students who can work in collaborative environments rather than the isolation that today’s classroom and testing seem destined to achieve. Already the students seem to be far ahead of the educators in this regard. Interactive video games played via the internet allow kids to communicate and collaborate with other players from around the world in a matter of seconds. Chat rooms, blogs, and video posting sites like You Tube and My Space make the world a lot smaller than before.

“Teachers should credit their students with inventing a new language ideal for communicating in a high-tech world,” Warlick added. Although we as adults might not approve or even be able to translate the literary shorthand teens use—TTFA (ta-ta for now), LOL (laugh out loud), wombat (waste of money, brains, and time)—something can be said about the fact that kids are writing, perhaps in greater amounts than ever before. I personally have many students who run web sites and regular blogs, both of which require composition, editing, and design skills to be successful.

The advancements that are being made in technology will effect the jobs of future generations. Warlick feels that those jobs will lie in the areas of math, science, and the cultural arts, including film and literature. He presented statistics to show that already education cannot keep up with the need for engineers for organizations such as NASA, where “almost half of the 18, 146 employees are over 50 years old, and employees over the age of 60 outnumber those under 30.”

There will be a need for writing in the future of our world, and those who intend to succeed must hone those skills, but perhaps in a way that today’s educators have not yet conceived. If you are interested in knowing more about the ideas presented by Warlick at this or other similar conferences, his presentations can be found at http://landmark-project.com

Story Always Comes First

With award-winning author and illustrator Rosemary Wells, “Story always comes first. Picture books must be strong enough to be read aloud five hundred times without boring the reader.” She suggests that song lyrics are the only other media that requires such repeated exposure to a text.

Perhaps this is why Wells is more than just an illustrator. Her characters have a life. She says, “Everybody’s life is very pedestrian. We all choose what shoes to wear, even celebrities.” She fears that ours is a culture that takes much and does little with it and feels she has become an unofficial advocate for educators who she says are “underpaid, under-recognized, and under-served” despite the fact they “are the most important people because they are in charge of our next generation.”

The career of a children’s writer allows authors like Wells to “open the world to a child at the age of five instead of nineteen. But writers couldn’t do our job without teachers and librarians,” Wells adds. “This career allows me to tell ridiculous stories and live my life as a professionally illogical thinker.”

Despite the lure of television and video games, Wells knows there will always be room for books because of “their energy and stories that feel real to the audience.”

Laughter Is Great Medicine

Newbery Honor Medalist Joan Bauer credits laughter for her success as an author for teens. “Everyday I need to laugh,” she said at the BYU Symposium of Books for Young Readers in 2007.

Being able to laugh not only gave Bauer a great career, it literally saved her life. Before her first novel (Squashed) was even a dream, Bauer was poised to become a screenwriter, and then a car accident occurred and the resulting long-term pain took over her life. Eventually, she learned to laugh, wrote the novel, and a new career was born. According to Bauer, “Laughter changes people. How do they get through hard times? One step at a time.” And her characters do the same, just like she did.

Speaking not only to readers, but also to authors, she asked, “When does a book begin? I don’t know—memories—things get inside you.” An idea kernel appears, and those who listen, can begin to write. Although a book begins with the author, she said it soon becomes everyone else’s, meaning that first the characters take over, then eventually the reading public makes the book their own.

Bauer spoke fondly of “those days when nothing could deter me from writing.” The tragedy of 9/11 struck her deeply. She was moving into a new home that day near the twin towers, a move that kept her husband home from his job at the World Trade Center. For a long time, just looking out her new apartment window and seeing the empty hole kept her in a depression. The original cover of her 2000 release novel Hope Was Here featured these buildings as part of the artwork, and now that hope was gone for Bauer. But the words of one of her own characters helped to bring her out. “It’s gonna be a long night folks. Whatever you’ve learned about getting through hard times, I hope you’ll share it with the people around you.”

And share she did. A believer that pain and laughter go together, Bauer says we must apply the words of Shakespeare who said, “Sweet are the uses of adversity.” Those points of adversity are the starting points of her books, but the connection she makes with readers comes through the laughter she brings along with characters who are survivors, just like the author herself.

Publishing According to Stephenie

Hang around the young adult section of any library or bookstore and it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll soon hear the names Stephenie Meyer, Edward and Bella, Twilight, New Moon, or Eclipse being mentioned. One of young adult literature’s fastest rising stars, Meyer is a BYU graduate and mother of three who says, “I love to write and can’t do without it.” And her fans are ecstatic.

Her rise to fame has come quickly. Meyer only started creative writing a few short years ago, and has already found herself on the New York Times Bestseller lists. Her words: “One day I was not a writer. The next day, I was.” As much as she relishes the joy of being at the top of the heap when it comes to children’s authors, she sort of misses the days where just the writing itself was the joy, that time before deadlines, editors revision letters, and speaking in front of large crowds of people.

Her advice for beginning writers includes, “A ‘no’ from an editor does not mean they are right. The books that break the rules are the ones people love. Learn to find the balance between listening to your editor and listening to yourself, then stand up for your characters.”

“When you have the idea, you must write it down, right then,” Meyer says. She gets most of her writing done at night and claims to be “seriously sleep-deprived.” But that doesn’t seem to hurt the quality or quantity of her writing. She considers the writing of her novels “a reward to myself.” And thanks her readers for reading them.

Meyer believes that part of her purpose is to teach her young fans how the writing, editing, and publishing processes work, and she is not afraid to share her writing at those various stages.

More information on Stephenie Meyer and her books can be found at her website www.stepheniemeyer.com where she often posts updates including exciting information for her fans about future books in the series (Breaking Dawn) and Midnight Sun, Edward’s version of Twilight, and other books that will soon be coming (The Host).