“There’s Nothing to Doooo” - Slate
“There’s Nothing to Doooo” - Slate |
- “There’s Nothing to Doooo” - Slate
- Loyalsock class of 2019 walks into the future | News, Sports, Jobs - Williamsport Sun-Gazette
- The News Media Muting of the FBI’s MLK Jr. Report is Hypocritical and Plays Into Conservative Mistrust - Mediaite
| “There’s Nothing to Doooo” - Slate Posted: 10 Jun 2019 02:48 AM PDT Get your child genuinely excited to read this summer with Slate's kids' summer reading package. Got a reluctant reader on your hands? This librarian can help. Got an awkward middle schooler on your hands? He should read these books. Want to broaden your high schooler's horizons? Read YA author Tochi Onyebuchi on school summer reading lists. In parents' fantasies, summer, with its long days and more languorous pace, is a time for our children to be engrossed in wonderful books. In real life, our kids feel the pull of Fortnite and rebuke our summer reading prompts, subconsciously (or consciously) considering it "homework." Not to mention we parents can be at a loss for quality book recommendations powerful enough to truly lure our kids into another world. So we've gone to the experts to bring you a list of books that will captivate your young reader this summer. We asked 14 authors of important and influential children's books—many of them suggested by the Slate Parenting Facebook group—to tell us about the book that shaped them the most. Consider this list a resource on two fronts: First, the authors we approached—including Lois Lowry, Kwame Alexander, Kate DiCamillo, and many more—write some of the most beloved books for young readers out there. If you're not familiar with their work, get thee to a bookstore. Second, these authors' touching tributes can remind you of forgotten classics and provide some new inspiration. We're also hoping our list will offer parents some much-needed ammunition. Your daughter couldn't put down the Wings of Fire series? You've probably recommended Anne of Green Gables ad nauseam, but maybe she'll finally consider it after reading Wings of Fire author Tui T. Sutherland's endorsement.  Photo illustration by Slate Annie Barrows, author of the bestselling Ivy and Bean seriesI finally learned to read when I was 7, and this, I knew, was the key to happiness. I had spent a lifetime watching the everyone in my family sit transfixed by books. Still, each week when we visited our little public library, I was deposited at the picture book table, as though I were an illiterate, while my older sister made a beeline for Junior Fiction, the paradise where they kept the stories that I knew would change my life if only I were allowed to read them. For months, I sat in my bitty chair and fumed. And then, one day, I rose up and stormed Junior Fiction. I thought someone would stop me, but no one did. I wandered through the shelves, fingering the lovely spines, until I found Ellen and the Gang, a book about teenagers who were involved in wicked camera-stealing activities,. And I was right. It did change my life. Everything that has happened to me since is in some way a result of Ellen and the Gang. Not that I learned how to steal cameras—what I learned was that I could find out about stealing cameras. That was the revelation: I could find out anything I wanted. The grown-ups in my life might not be willing to divulge their secret information, but I didn't need them. I had the library, I had Junior Fiction, and I had power. Buy Ivy and Bean on Amazon: $16.16 (ages 6–9)  Photo illustration by Slate Trenton Lee Stewart, author of the forthcoming The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages, the latest installment in the bestselling series The Mysterious Benedict SocietyI could easily name several wonderful children's books that had an impact on me (and have named them quite often in other conversations), but one major influence that I sometimes neglect to mention is the Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald J. Sobol. When I was a kid, I desperately wanted to be a detective—to solve mysteries, decipher clues, and find missing items—and the Encyclopedia Brown books, more than any others, gave me the best chance to pretend. Each book contains a number of short mysteries in which the ingenious young detective is presented with clues, and the reader can attempt to solve the mystery before turning to the back of the book and discovering (or better yet, confirming) Encyclopedia Brown's solution. As a reading detective I was sometimes successful, sometimes frustrated—but I always wanted more. I read as many of those books as I could lay hands on, and now, decades later, I find myself writing about clever characters who solve riddles and clues that the reader, too, might conceivably solve. What children's books shaped me? No mystery there. Buy Encyclopedia Brown on Amazon: $4.99 (ages 7–9)  Photo illustration by Slate Chris Grabenstein, bestselling author of the Mr. Lemoncello seriesBack in the 1960s, when I was the same age as the majority of my readers (fourth to sixth grade) we didn't read books in school. Nope. We had … [shudders] … something called SRA, which was a big box of color-tabbed essays. When you answered all the questions about the, say, blue essay correctly, you moved on to the next color. When you got to the final color, the teacher might let you read an actual book. So my love of reading and writing didn't come from children's books (I would've loved Edward Eager's 1954 book Half Magic—if only I'd known it existed). No, it came from "the usual gang of idiots" at Mad magazine. I bought my first subscription with five dollars I got for my tenth birthday. And all year I saved my money so I could purchase Mad books—collections of previously published material—when my family went on vacation to Florida. Mad taught me the power of words, humor, and satire. They used to knock the stuffing out of everything—movies, TV shows, politicians, advertisements. Nothing was sacred. Later, in middle school, when I became the target of bullies, I think it was the spirt of Mad that helped me fight back with my wits instead of my fists. And, yes, I still subscribe to Mad to this day! Buy Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library on Amazon: $4.07 (ages 8–12)  Photo illustration by Slate Gennifer Choldenko, Newbery Honor–winning author of the Al Capone series and One-Third NerdI wasn't born in India. My father was not a diamond merchant. At 11, I'd never been to London or set foot in a boarding school. And yet I found a kindred spirit in Sara Crewe of Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess. I knew rationally, of course, that Sara's life was nothing like mine, yet Burnett had created a character I yearned to be, living out a fantasy I didn't know I had. How did Burnett know so much about me? Every day when I sit down to write, I hope I can give an 11-year-old this same deep reading pleasure that books like A Little Princess gave to me. Bonus: My favorite books this year include The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani, Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed, and Front Desk by Kelly Yang. Buy the Al Capone series on Amazon: $29.99 (Ages 10 and up)  Photo illustration by Slate Grace Lin, award-winning author of novels like Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, as well as picture books like A Big Mooncake for Little StarMany books have shaped me, but the first one that comes to mind is Anne of Green Gables. I wanted to be more like Anne. Yes, her friends sometimes scoffed at her, she was an orphan, she wore ugly clothes, and she herself thought she was homely. Yet in spite of all that, she never considered herself less than her friends or peers. I, as a young Asian-American girl lost in a sea of white faces, who often felt lesser or out of place, longed for that same sense of self. No matter what embarrassment Anne caused herself, what catastrophe happened, she kept trying, believing that tomorrow would be a better day. So how did Anne of Green Gables shape me? It gave me a beautiful philosophy of cheerful perseverance that I attempt to incorporate daily in my life. It gave me a heroine who didn't let others or her circumstances decide her worthiness. And, most of all, it gave me a friend whom I can always return to when I'm in need of comfort. Buy Where the Mountain Meets the Moon on Amazon: $7.98 (ages 8–12)  Photo illustration by Slate Cornelia Funke, acclaimed author of Dragon Rider and the Inkheart trilogyMy favorite Astrid Lindgren book wasn't her famous and wonderfully unruly Pippi Longstocking. It was and still is The Brothers Lionheart, the tale about two brothers whom death cannot part. Some critics accused Lindgren of describing what awaits us after death in such appealing ways that children might be tempted to kill themselves—an accusation Lindgren did of course smile about as she understood children far better than those critics. For me The Brothers Lionheart is an unforgettable tale about friendship, love, selflessness, and courage. Lindgren celebrates the circle of life in this book and shows death as just another door. She celebrates kindness and the willingness to fight for what we believe in without ever sounding like a missionary. She is far too good a storyteller to make that mistake! Buy Dragon Rider on Amazon: $9.45 (ages 8–12)  Photo illustration by Slate Jason Reynolds, National Book Award Finalist for Ghost, the first book in his Track seriesThe book that most inspired me to become a writer would definitely have to be The Young Landlords by Walter Dean Myers. Myers is most known for his masterpiece, Monster, but this more obscure novel sent me into creative disarray, simply because I'd never read anything with such a cutting voice. And by cutting, I mean … familiar. The plot is simple—a group of kids inherit a slum building for a dollar, therefore becoming young landlords. But they have no idea what it takes to deal with the complicated tenants and the janky joints of the building. It's a hilarious story of young optimism, even in the midst of kids unfairly taking on the responsibilities of adults, all told in razor-sharp rhetoric, drawing the reader into Paul, the protagonist's, life. I read it and immediately knew I could (and would) be a writer. Buy Ghost on Amazon: $7.99 (ages 10 and up)  Photo illustration by Slate Kate DiCamillo, Newbery Medal–winning author of The Tale of Despereaux and the forthcoming Beverly, Right HereWhen I was in my 30s, I worked for a book wholesaler. My job title was "picker." I went around the warehouse filling orders, picking books off the shelves. One winter day, late in the afternoon, I picked a book called The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963. I read the first chapter of Christopher Paul Curtis' beautiful novel while I was standing on the warehouse floor. My arms were full of books. My feet hurt. Sunlight was streaming in through the windows, and I thought, "This. I want to try and do something like this. I want to write a book that makes someone laugh and cry. I want to write a book that tells the truth." I've been trying ever since. Buy Beverly, Right Here on Amazon: $11.72 (ages 10 and up)  Photo illustration by Slate Tui T. Sutherland, bestselling author of the Wings of Fire seriesFor me, it was Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Every time I reread it, I realize again how much it made me want to be a writer, an optimist, a kindred spirit, and someone who never stops finding things amazing, just like Anne. I've found a few other heroines I love the same way: the girls in Sanity & Tallulah by Molly Brooks, Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, Cilla Lee-Jenkins in the series by Susan Tan, and Nimona in Nimona by Noelle Stevenson, for example. But I think Anne Shirley will always be the character who first showed me the kind of person I wanted to be, how far imagination and determination can take you … and how to think of each tomorrow as "a new day, with no mistakes in it yet." Buy Wings of Fire on Amazon: $6.29 (ages 8–12)  Photo illustration by Slate Kwame Alexander, Newbery Medal–winner for The CrossoverIt started with Fox in Socks. My mom would read it to me as a toddler. Then, I memorized it. And, I fell in love with poetry and stories and books. Until fifth grade. That's when everything changed. That's when my father made me read the encyclopedia. And if I didn't know what a word meant, he sent me to the 10-pound dictionary in our garage-turned-library. In middle school, he gave me his dissertations to read. Three of them. Then he quizzed me. Because of this, I started disliking books. Actually, loathing them. And, then, one day while cleaning out the "library" I discovered a copy of The Greatest: My Own Story by Muhammad Ali. It was a 400-plus page book about Ali's life, and I picked it up and started reading. I'd seen clips of his fights, read about him in a few children's picture books, and generally looked to him as the coolest, baddest, most incredible athlete and man to ever walk the earth. I was 12 years old, and I'd never read a book more than a few hundred pages. I couldn't put it down. The rhythm of his story. His bold voice. The audaciousness. The boxing. The jabs and the knockouts. I was enthralled. Read it in one night. It captivated me. Made me want to read again. And, I did. Reminded me that books could be cool. Made me want to be the greatest. How cool is it that, 30-plus years later, I am now writing a book for young people. About Muhammad Ali. Ain't life grand? Buy The Crossover on Amazon: $9.39 (ages 10–12)  Photo illustration by Slate Lois Lowry, Newbery Medal–winning author of The Giver quartet, Number the Stars, the Anastasia Krupnik series, and many other booksI was, I think, 10 years old when I checked A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith out of the library in the small college town where I lived. Before I got home, the librarian had called my mother to express her concern. Apparently it was an "unsuitable book." It had, after all, been published for adults. My mother chuckled and ignored the librarian's warning. Thank goodness for that, because A Tree Grows in Brooklyn became a life-changing book for me, a glimpse of real life with all its drama and tragedy and humor and grit. I hadn't found any of that in The Bobbsey Twins or Nancy Drew! Buy The Giver on Amazon: $7.79 (ages 12 and up)  Photo illustration by Slate Thanhhà Lai, National Book Award winner for Inside Out and Back Again, and author of the forthcoming young adult novel Butterfly YellowI first read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton five years after becoming a refugee from Vietnam. At the time, I was trying to find my own tribe, and The Outsiders gave me an insider's view of the social quagmire embedded in high school. I didn't see myself in any of the characters, but I clawed onto the ideas of family, honor, upward gaze, and authentic fun. I also found the book magical in how the opening scene circled around to the closing scene. Before reading it, I had not known a writer had the power to not just tell a story but choose which voice, whose point of view, and where to begin and end. Much later, as I attempted a novel, I often thought back to how The Outsiders made me feel—pained, enlightened, angry, warm, hopeful, entertained—and challenged myself to do the same in my writing. Buy Butterfly Yellow on Amazon: $17.99 (ages 12 and up)  Photo illustration by Slate Matt De La Peña, award-winning author of children's and young adult books like Mexican WhiteBoyI wasn't a big reader as a kid. All the books they assigned in school seemed like schoolwork. I painstakingly consumed them with my brain and never my heart. That all changed when a middle school teacher assigned The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. It was the first time I ever lost myself in a text. I felt like she was writing about the border community where I was born. The characters reminded me of my aunts and uncles and cousins. They reminded me of myself. And I'll never forget the moment that changed my perception of reading forever. In one of the vignettes, "Darius and the Clouds," Cisneros gives one of the book's most deeply philosophical and poetic lines to a boy character who is earlier described as "sometimes stupid" and "mostly a fool." Wait a minute, I remember thinking. Regular kids like me and my cousins can be portrayed as deep, too? I went on to read The House on Mango Street over a dozen times, always with my heart. Back when I was a kid, it helped make me a reader. Today, it continues to guide me as a writer. Buy Mexican White Boy on Amazon: $8.87 (ages 15 and up)  Photo illustration by Slate Samira Ahmed, bestselling author of Love, Hate, and Other Filters and InternmentSometimes you read a book and immediately know it will change your life. Other times, you meet a book at different stations on your life's journey and realize that its influence on you has been subtle, but no less powerful for the quiet ways it has shaped you as a reader, writer, and human being. One of those books for me is The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Some might not classify this book as young adult, though most characters are young people on the cusp of adulthood who are pushed into adult situations as they are confronted by the worst horrors of the Vietnam War and its power over them, even once the war is over. This book occupies an interstitial space—neither solely memoir nor fiction, neither novel nor short story collection, both heartbreaking and healing all at once. I first read it when I, too, was on the cusp of adulthood, and then taught it to high school seniors. As a writer, I turn to it to reexamine its structure, theme, and the wrenching lyricism of its deceptively simple prose. The Things They Carried is a book about war and death and also about life and living memory—spaces I explore in my own writing. It's a book about tragedy that is also filled with hope. For me, it is a stunning example about the power of the word and singular brilliance of the human imagination that allows us to keep those we love with us, forever. There is a quote from this book that is taped to my desk, even though it is also etched in my mind: "But this too is true: stories can save us." Buy Love, Hate, and Other Filters on Amazon: $8.00 (ages 12 and up) Slate has relationships with various online retailers. If you buy something through our links, Slate may earn an affiliate commission. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. All prices were up to date at the time of publication.  |
| Loyalsock class of 2019 walks into the future | News, Sports, Jobs - Williamsport Sun-Gazette Posted: 07 Jun 2019 09:27 PM PDT  MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Members of Loyalsock Township High School's Class of 2019 toss their morter boards into the air at the end of their graduation Friday. A brilliant orange and pink sunset blazoned across the sky as members of Loyalsock Township High School's class of 2019 threw their hats in the air signaling not only the end of their commencement services, but also the conclusion of their academic career at the school. In his opening remarks to the crowd, Gerald McLaughlin, district superintendent, called the graduating class of 128 students "committed, dedicated, intelligent, accomplished, driven and successful." "These Loyalsock students have truly set the bar high for all future classes," he continued. "They have worked hard inside and outside of the classroom." Speaking about their career at Loyalsock, the student speakers focused on the theme "Long Story Short." Gabriella Gardner talked of the class' time spent from elementary school up to the present as graduating seniors. Sharing humorous anecdotes about her fellow classmates, she said, "I cannot believe how far we have all come since we first set foot in Schick Elementary 13 years ago." "Everyone of us has a unique story to tell and somehow or other we each fit into at least one chapter of each another's books," she said. After detailing the time spent through the years, Gardner concluded with, "The past may already have happened, but that doesn't mean it's gone and forgotten. The memories we made and the lessons we learned here at Loyalsock are what truly define the present versions of ourselves." She noted that some graduates may never want to leave this town, while others are already headed to somewhere else. "Long story short, our narratives diverged today. Our books will tell different stories beginning with this present chapter, but we will always be able to look back at the pages and memories and ultimately realize that this place, Loyalsock, was where the Class of 2019 first learned to pick up the pen and write the words, 'chapter one'," she said. Class salutatorian Quinn Deitrick focused on the "Long and Short of It" speaking about the graduates' high school career. "To make a long story short, our story has felt plenty long enough and it also feels as if it's been too short," he said. Noting that even though the graduation ceremony would soon end, he said, "When this chapter of high school ends, a new one begins, but this next one, our future, is big and scary, but it is one I believe we are all ready for." Isabell Sagar, valedictorian, spoke of the stories yet to be written by the new graduates in the future. "My classmates are brilliant; they are the bravest, smartest, most talented people I know. My classmates will write stories as fascinating as Tolkien's most splendid novels, they will pen poetry as beautiful as Shakespeare's most dazzling verses, they will author adventures as marvelous as the greatest of Twain's works," Sagar said. Keynote speaker for the evening was local attorney William Carlucci, a 1973 graduate of Loyalsock High School. He offered the grads a to-do list to accomplish within the two days following graduation. He told them to hug each other, thank their teachers who have made a difference in their lives and to write the first draft of their obituary in order to plan the next phase of their lives. Midway through Carlucci's speech, a helicopter landed on the football field behind the speaker's podium to deliver the diplomas for the graduates. Flawlessly recovering from the interruption, Carlucci concluded, "The point of writing this first draft of your obituary is not to list what you have already done. It is to get you thinking about what to being doing right now, so that 99 years from now, your loved ones can write a really fascinating long story short."  |
| Posted: 10 Jun 2019 05:22 AM PDT
While there have obviously been positive aspects of the #MeToo movement, one of the most dangerous has been a stunning lack of consistency in how the new rules have been both defined and implemented. For instance, it sure seems like the less attractive a man is the smaller chance he has of surviving an allegation of sexual abuse or harassment. Now, based on how the news media has handled the most recent possible case where a famous male could easily be facing being erased from history due to allegations in this realm, it sure seems as if there is a strong political bias at work as well. So much so that there is an excellent chance that you haven't even heard about the story to which I am referring. What if I told you that an FBI report on a major religious figure was just revealed by an author, who has won a Pulitzer Prize for a book on this man, which contained evidence that this icon witnessed, laughed at, and facilitated a rape of one of their own parishioners? And, oh by the way, this famous man also participated in orgies and regularly paid money for sex? You would probably expect that such a story would make huge news and that, rightly or wrongly, there would be a debate raging over whether to eliminate this person from all positions of public reverence. Believe it or not, that is exactly what happened last week, only the news media was so actively disinterested in the seemingly explosive story that the author, David Garrow, was forced to publish his work in a conservative British magazine. It is only when you learn the man in question is Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most iconic and revered figures in American history, that this strange scenario starts to make at least a little bit of sense. In short, at least among the "respected" media in this country, King is simply untouchable and they are required, regardless of past precedent, to do all they can to protect his legacy. Pathetically, Garrow's bombshell story was first rejected in United States by The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Even after it was finally published, the reaction to it from the cultural elites has been pretty much like high school teachers after learning someone had peed in the prom punch bowl. Here is how some of the publications who passed on the exclusive went about trying to downplay and attack its significance. NY Times: A Black Feminist's Response to Attacks on Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy NY Times: His Martin Luther King Biography Was a Classic. His Latest King Piece Is Causing a Furor. Washington Post: 'Irresponsible': Historians attack David Garrow's MLK allegations The Guardian: A historian's claims about Martin Luther King are shocking – and irresponsible Making all of this almost comically absurd is that the story came out at almost exactly the same time as another old FBI file, this one with exponentially less importance, dealing with an extremely minor investigation into the possible existence of "Bigfoot." It is fascinating and telling to do a Google news search of the two stories, with the results showing the media treated the irrelevant but click-friendly "Bigfoot" FBI file story with far more respect than the one about their hero King. To be clear, I do not know for sure that these allegations in a very old and incomplete FBI report (it will still be about another decade before the entire file is made public) are true, or not. I don't even know what the best course of action would be if we were sure the information was true, and I am absolutely in favor of having a high threshold of evidence before we decide to alter history forever. I am quite certain that, however, under just slightly different circumstances, the news media would not be calling for caution while using tremendous restraint in publicizing unverified allegations, even about a man who has been long dead and cannot defend themselves. I know this for sure because we have already witnessed very different media treatment of somewhat similar allegations against deceased legends Michael Jackson and Joe Paterno. In both of those situations — cases with which I have been extensively and directly involved — the news media, without a hint of restriction, jumped all over salacious claims against famous dead people which did not have anywhere near the credibility of an FBI report apparently based on an actual surveillance recording. As I have written previously, the Leaving Neverland HBO movie alleging abuse by Jackson, and the politically leaked court documents from dubious lawsuits seeking Penn State money from ancient accusers way outside the statute of limitations, who strategically implicated Joe Paterno in a sex abuse cover up, have catastrophic credibility problems. Unlike King, however, neither Jackson nor Paterno — both of whom received numerous awards for their humanitarian efforts during their lives — got even a shred of benefit of the doubt from the news media, which didn't bother much to investigate the inherently suspicious claims against them. The sensational narrative of each of those two stories was simply too rich for the media to resist, while almost no one in the mainstream media was at all invested in their protection, as they obviously are with King. Because, accurately or not, King is a symbol of all that liberals hold dear in the realm of civil rights (heck, our academic institutions have elevated King so dramatically and universally that he is one of the few historical figures that my young daughter can substantively tell you all about) the news media is carving out new #MeToo rules just for his defense. Not only is this philosophically unjust, it is exactly why conservatives have so little trust in the mainstream media that almost nothing they report about our current conman president has any influence on them whatsoever. The news media should at least know that if they are going to play this game of arbitrary enforcement of nonsensical rules on which no one voted, that they will continue to pay a price when it comes to their credibility, especially in conservative circles. John Ziegler is a senior columnist for Mediaite. He hosts a weekly podcast focusing on news media issues and is documentary filmmaker. You can follow him on Twitter at @ZigManFreud or email him at johnz@mediaite.com [Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images] This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.  |
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