Summer Rerun-- The Tale of Two Tables
Reading Kate Messner's passionate post In Defense of Summer Reading Freedom reminds me of my similar post last summer, The Tale of Two Tables. What are your thoughts on required summer reading?
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Reading Kate Messner's passionate post In Defense of Summer Reading Freedom reminds me of my similar post last summer, The Tale of Two Tables. What are your thoughts on required summer reading?
After reading, last summer, Pamela Ehrenberg’s first novel, Ethan Suspended, which explores themes of prejudice, loyalty and tolerance through the eyes of Ethan, a young man who moves in with his grandparents in their declining neighborhood, I eagerly dove into Ehrenberg’s latest book, Tillmon County Fire.
Set in a remote part of Appalachia, the book unfolds through the alternating perspectives of several teenagers who live in this rural community: Rob, the openly-gay newcomer; Lacey, the invisible girl who works in her family’s hardware store; Jeremy and his mentally-challenged twin, Albert; and Aiden, who believes he is an instrument of God. As readers follow the overlapping narratives, the story builds to a shocking incident, the arson of part-time resident's vacation home. How each person is involved in the days leading up to the fire and affected by its aftermath, creates a powerful story, which has the potential to spark discussion about the nature of our own prejudices and how our interconnectedness impacts us.
Well-crafted and provocative, Tillmon County Fire solidifies Pamela Ehrenberg’s reputation as a talented new author of young adult novels. Touring the blogosphere, promoting her book and discussing her life as a writer and mother of young children, Ehrenberg stops by The Book Whisperer and reveals how her life experiences influence her work.
How did you become a writer?
For a long time, I thought I became a writer because of something that happened in kindergarten, where someone misinterpreted a story I shared with the class and I realized how much of the really interesting work of writing doesn't happen until a reader comes along. But your question makes me realize it goes back earlier than that, to the stories my dad told me with unadorned sock puppets (most people would just call them socks!) on his hands. The narrator was always the most interesting character, getting all frustrated when Goldilocks failed to show up or mixing up the wolf from "Red Riding Hood" with the one from the "Three Little Pigs". I think that was my earliest clue that stories were created by real people.
How has your AmeriCorps (a national service organization) experience influenced you?
Well, in a direct way the setting for Tillmon County Fire was inspired by the Appalachian community where I was an AmeriCorps member. But in a broader sense, being in AmeriCorps opened my eyes to the different forms of diversity around me, even in places where at first glance everyone looks the same. And I learned what it feels like when people look at the badge you're wearing or the work you're doing, and assume certain things about you, like how much money or how many opportunities you have. And then talk to you differently once they've concluded that you're "poor"--that was an eye-opener. Also, of course, I met my late husband because of an AmeriCorps connection: he had worked for the Corporation for National Service here in D.C., and he spotted the AmeriCorps patch on my bag as I was coming up the Metro escalator.
Why do social issues appeal to you as writing topics?
Actually, I think it's stories that appeal to me--anything with "topics" makes me think I should be writing a five-paragraph essay. So far, I guess it's turned out that telling a story sometimes bumps up against some of the "social issues" that characters are struggling with. But I think for the person in the midst of the struggle, it's not a social issue to them, it's their life.
Why have you chosen to write young adult books?
One of the most liberating experiences I've had as a writer was when a professor returned one of my short stories with the comment, "This sounds like the first chapter of a young people's novel." That was the first time I realized that publication in the New Yorker wasn't the only conceivable goal for a fiction writer, that writing in a young person's voice that feels natural and comfortable to me can actually count as a legitimate art form.
What childhood literacy experiences influenced your interest in writing? Are there books you remember? Did you write when you were young?
I remember coming home from the library with towering piles of books, and sometimes checking out the same books over and over, wanting to lose myself in the familiar world of the characters. I was probably about eight when I used birthday money to buy the complete boxed set of the Little House on the Prairie books, all of which I had already read multiple times. (My logic: why buy a book unless you're already certain you'll like it?) The purchase was monumental enough that my mom mentioned to the salesperson that I was buying the set with birthday money, and when the salesperson asked when my birthday was, she was visibly surprised to learn that it was several months earlier. I had needed that much debate, contemplation, and analysis before even coming to the store. I still have the books, and the box.
Are you working on any ideas for another book?
My new manuscript is set in 1950s Baltimore, and it's about a girl whose mother has mental illness. I'm actually thinking ahead to what's next, because I'll need something to distract me from the plight of that manuscript as it begins its submission journey.
What questions do you wish people asked you?
I'd love to be in a position where people might logically ask, "So, what was it like winning the Newbery?" In the meantime, any question that doesn't involve potty accidents, squished Cheerios, etc., is a welcome change of pace from daily life!
Thanks, Pamela for appearing here as part of your blog book tour. Congratulations on the success of your latest book.
I read Tillmon County Fire as part of my annual book-a-day summer reading challenge. With books like this one, I am off to a promising start. Look for progress updates and book lists in future posts. Like my students, I am already looking for creatively compliant ways to finish so many books!
School ended yesterday, and today, I moved the contents of my classroom into the new room my students and I will inhabit next year. Six girls, former students from various years, donated their first day of summer vacation to help me move. The most demanding task, of course, is dusting 10 bookshelves and hauling over 80 tubs of books down the hall. After two hours of dusting and shelving, I noticed that a large percentage of my books were stacked on the floor, never making it to the shelves.
Dismayed about how little progress we were making, I cried out, “Girls, why are these books piled everywhere? Do you need help sorting them all?”
The girls clamored, “These are the books we are checking out over the summer. You don’t mind do you? We need books to read!”
Laughing, I agreed, “Well, the books will just sit here lonely over the break. They might as well go home with you. Make sure you leave a list and bring them back before school starts.”
Later, we sat on the floor, eating pizza and chatting about our summer plans—plans that included lots of reading. Each girl dug into her take-home book pile, sharing the treasures discovered during the move. It amazed me that these girls, several who met each other today, came together as a reading community sitting on my floor, swapping book recommendations as freely as they shared tips about middle school. They reminisce about the books already read, and anticipate the next title. School is over, but their reading lives continue—using their experiences and preferences to inform future choices.
Teachers do this, too, reflecting and thinking ahead. One school year ends, and the new school year begins the next day, it seems. We hang up our teaching hats for a few months, but we never turn off our teaching brains. Taking a break to refresh ourselves and recharge, we consider how to move forward in our own teaching and learning. What did our students teach us this year? How can we improve the reading instruction in our classrooms? What can we read and study now that we have time? And most importantly, how can we support each other as learners like my students support each other as readers?
Considering the triumphs and trials of the last year and my own unanswered questions, a few topics repeatedly surface. Perhaps you have answers or a new perspective.
How can I build a community of readers and writers earlier in the school year? Every mix of students differs and some years it takes until after Winter Break for my students to gel as a community. Following the success of several teachers at my campus who implemented Responsive Classroom techniques this year, I plan to investigate this model for instilling academic and social competency in my own students next year. Building a supportive, caring community is always my goal, and any tools that help me accomplish this only benefit my students and me.
How can I integrate nonfiction reading and writing into my language arts classroom? For years, I have taught both language arts and social studies, integrating social studies content and language arts skills. This upcoming year, I will teach just language arts. Revisiting many of my old standbys, like Janet Allen’s Yellow Brick Roads, and new works like Nonfiction Mentor Texts by Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappeli, I need to rethink methods for teaching nonfiction without a content area to frame it. Conversations with my content-area colleagues about how to integrate this instruction across the school day must take place this summer, too.
What role can new reading and writing modalities play in my instruction next year? Text messaging, blogging, social networking, graphic novels, and podcasts add layers of literacy to my students’ lives that we hardly touch on at school. How can I incorporate these materials and tools into my daily instruction and use them to support my students in their literacy development? I have a stack of graphic novels to read and a list of Websites to visit this summer. Hopefully, this digital immigrant will be better prepared for the digital natives arriving in my classroom this fall!
How can I redesign my classroom library so that it is more accessible and interesting to students? Reading the end-of-year surveys from my class and talking with my helpers today, many of them mentioned that our class library is difficult to use. Dividing our books by genre worked when we had fewer books, but these days my students find it hard to locate the books they want without help from me. Additionally, students stopped using our checkout system of index cards in a file box about half-way through the year, and I lost more books this year than I have in years past. I need to investigate other methods for keeping track of our books and making the class library more user-friendly for students.
As you lie by the pool, wait in airports, or work in your garden, what questions and ideas percolate in your teaching brains? How do you seek answers? What would you like to do differently next year? Which practices will you keep and which ones need an overhaul? Come sit on my floor and let’s talk about our plans and dreams. Today is the first day of school.
