A Fabulous New Book From This Year's Printz Recipient - Due To Arrive at Libraries and Bookstores Near You in April

I am a huge Marcus Sedgwick fan.  I first encountered his work prior to him receiving a Printz Honor award in 2011 when his book Revolver was being talked about as a contender.  After meeting him at ALA Annual that year, he kindly granted me an interview for my blog and I read several more of his books, including this year's Printz winner, Midwinterblood.  I have yet to read anything by this creative author that I have not enjoyed.  His writing is consistently not contrived or formulaic.  He is a master storyteller who weaves together rich characters, settings, and dialogue.  He writes stories that are are lasting, the sort of stories that I anticipate becoming inducted into the canon of quality literature we use for instruction.  I expect we will continue to see a plethora of wonderful things from this talented author.

His latest novel, She Is Not Invisible, has reinforced all of my previous positive sentiments about Marcus Sedgwick.  It is yet another fascinating literary work that is like nothing else I have ever read. He delves into a thoughtful contemplation about the existence of coincidences through the intrepid adventure of teenage Laureth and her 7-year-old brother Benjamin.  Weaving historical facts about famous explorers of coincidence into a fictional mystery, this read is simultaneously thought-provoking and seat-of-your-pants entertaining.  Adding an additional layer to the story, it is told through the voice of Laureth, who has been blind since birth.  I found myself pausing multiple times as I read through passages that stuck out as quotable reflections on the world.  Perhaps my favorite is the following:

"You're black?" I said, stupidly.

"Yes," he said.  "Does that matter to you?"

"I couldn't care less if you were green with pink spots.  Why would it matter to me?  I don't even know what color is."

He thought about that.

"Listen, this gentleman surely won't wait forever," he said.  "But I wonder... Did you assume I

was white?"

"Michael, I didn't assume you were anything.  Try to understand, I don't see the world. I don't

see colors, so I don't think about it that way at all."

Laureth will be held dear in many a readers heart, but this beautiful passage in particular will seal her into mine forever.   Thank you Marcus for giving me get another favorite for my shelf.  I can't wait to have a hard copy with your autograph!

Wither Thou Advocateth

I am fascinated by the number of conversations I have with parents, teachers, and administrators who respond to the continual slashing of public education with an apathetic, "What can I do about it?  They don't have any money."  Replies like this are disempowering and allow the speaker to fall into a role of either victim or non-participant in the problem.  It places the burden of blame on someone else.  I've even encountered this attitude among teachers whose jobs could easily fall victim to the next round of cuts.  Quite honestly, all teacher jobs are at risk, but teachers who are outside of the regular classroom, which includes school librarians, PE, tech ed, family and consumer science, art, music, and foreign languages, are at the top of the list.

There never has been the elusive mythical "fat" in education.  We have cut things in many districts beyond the point of our ability to teach kids the skills they need to be successful in life.  We've moved from teaching kids to think and learn to teaching them to take and pass multiple choice exams.  It isn't unusual for me to be in a classroom and find kids unable to answer questions without a choice of "A through E".  Likewise, it isn't uncommon for students to turn to calculators for the answers to simple calculations and they don't often question the answer the calculator spews out.  There is a huge disconnect in understanding that technology is just a tool and it doesn't think for you.

If we continually buy into the attitude that there is nothing we can do and that we are mere victims in the situation, we are agreeing to be quiet advocates of continued destruction of public education.  There is a phenomenal amount of money in this country.  The key is finding a way to connect more of that money to areas that desperately need it.  We cannot afford to continue approaching funding for public education the same way we do today.  It isn't a viable model for rising costs. We also can't afford to continue addressing those rising costs with further cuts to staff and resources.  We need to begin the conversation about public education with the statement "this is what is required to educate a child."  And then we need to find a way to fund it.  If you are not a part of the conversation, part of the solution, you are part of the problem.