An Invitation

[Disclaimer: I'm excited about this simple discovery...  I'd insert one of those Paperless Post animated flyers here if I knew how!]

Last week, I attended a writing class for aspiring children's authors, led by  a set of successful children's authors.  In this class, we learned about craft and participated in critique groups.  In one of the critique sessions, our instructor expertly guided our team in supporting a colleague as she shared a traumatic experience...In a show of empathy, our author coach told us about a book she'd published that was not a great seller, but was a fictionalized autobiography of growing up with a chemically dependent parent.

Later, she and I talked about the cathartic benefit of getting these experiences out on paper.  She shared that she'd changed some details of her own life for the benefit of the YA story, but that yes, it had absolutely helped her process.  I asked her thoughts about how teachers should go about getting these books into kids' hands. After all, as she'd shared, topics of abuse, neglect and family trauma are not feel-good stories, and don't headline publishers' rosters.  They are not emphasized when selling to librarians or teachers, and often these important books--"mirror experiences," in the words of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop--become obscured and invisible.  The author told me, wisely, that  we just have to make sure we give them to kids we know are struggling with certain challenges at home. Then I realized mid-stream in our conversation, that I knew the answer to my own question...it went beyond sharing particular books with particular kids. Here's what I realized...

My first thought was, yes! Let's give the right book to the right kid to make sure they see it.  But then I thought about Mr. Manny Scott, the author and speaker I'd recently seen who shared how carefully he'd hid his family drama from schools due to shame and isolation.  How many of the kids who need these books, I thought, would never let on that they do? So how can we rely upon our knowledge to know who should have access to them? 

My next thought? Book talks. Fountas and Pinnell, renowned literacy experts, tout book talks as powerful ways for teachers to give little "commercials" in their literacy classrooms, to expose kids to new books, new authors, new content.  I realized in my conversation with the author that this is the answer.  We must encourage children to access these books that have the potential to shore them up in their hardest times--this means sharing them with everyone and just making them available...Not necessarily choosing who should read  or know about a particular title--just sharing...and letting the books find the hungry hands that need them.  

And so, I am inviting myself--and I want to invite you--to do just that. Find some of these books.  Read some. Share as book talks and make copies available. Make YOURSELF available. Maybe we can be someone's lifeline...or at least point to one...