Tag: book review

Book Review: Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023 by Margaret Atwood

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I’ve been reading Margaret Atwood since I discovered The Handmaid’s Tale on a friend’s mother’s bookshelf when I was in 8th grade. She is one of my favorite authors, and I was excited to read Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023. The collection is organized chronologically, allowing readers to witness the evolution of Atwood’s craft and understand why her influence on the literary world has been so profound. She is adept at taking seemingly mundane objects and moments and turning them into encounters that make readers pause, think, and reread–often multiple times. My students often exclaim, “What just happened?” after they read “This Is a Photograph of Me,” and then analyze and discuss to try to unlock the complexities of the text. I love the discussions of Atwood’s poetry in my classroom and how the poems invite multiple entry points for interpretation. 

The poems in Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023 show Atwood’s affinity for Greek Mythology, women’s issues, and navigating relationships making this collection perfect for readers interested in an introduction to her poetry as well as readers who are familiar with her work. There were many poems that were new to me and some I consider old friends. I highly recommend this text!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.

Book Review: Forest of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha

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I’ve taught high school English for nearly twenty-five years, so I know how well reading fiction builds empathy. I’ve used studies to spark discussion and reflection among my students, and I’ve seen the power of certain texts to move them toward a deeper understanding of what those with whom they don’t have much in common endure. For me, however, poetry has been more powerful than fiction, especially when it comes to understanding what Palestinians have been enduring for decades. Forest of Noise, Mosab Abu Toha’s second collection of poetry, depicts what life is like for the people of Gaza clearly and poetically, drawing readers into the devastation they have been experiencing. While reading these poems, it’s hard not to question many of the narratives readers in the West may have encountered. Moving toward peace requires understanding, empathy, and compassion. These poems powerfully, and at times heartbreakingly, encourage readers to see a more vivid picture of what is happening in the daily lives of those living in Gaza and are a vital contribution to understanding the situation that continues to unfold. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.

Book Review: Your Dazzling Death by Cass Donish

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This was brilliant, beautiful, and extremely hard to read. In these poems, Donish processes the death of their partner by suicide, and I’m at a loss as I try to think of what’s appropriate to write in a review. These poems are art and pain laid bare. They embody the craft of a brilliant poet grappling with unimaginable grief while at the same time holding so much love. They are a testament to how important Kelly Caldwell was to Donish and the world around her, and Your Dazzling Death is a powerful and moving tribute.

Book Review: Letters to Forget by Kelly Caldwell

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As I was reading Letters to Forget, I could feel so much tension running through the poems. The subject matter centers on Caldwell’s experiences as a trans woman and her struggles with bipolar disorder. Many of the poems are addressed to her partner, and others grapple with her relationship to Christianity, often referencing Job. Reading this felt like a glimpse into the workings of a creative, artistic, and intelligent mind that did not fit into society’s mold, a society with stifling expectations that need to be torn down and abandoned. 

From a craft standpoint, what struck me was Caldwell’s use of punctuation, especially periods, since they were often in unconventional or unexpected places, breaking up thoughts and causing the reader to pause and process. Periods forcing end stopped lines, accentuating words, and creating distinctive rhythms. 

This is a collection that asks for multiple readings because there’s so much beneath the surface and so much complexity to explore. Learning about the author’s life and suicide at age 31 adds even more layers. I will be coming back to this book of poems often because of the beauty of the writing and the urgency of the themes within.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf for the ARC.

Book Review: You Just Wait: A Poetry Friday Power Book by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong

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I know better than to assume that because I teach mostly seniors, a book aimed at middle school won’t be helpful to me. While I might not use all of the poems included in this book, I’ll definitely be able to modify and use the activities and writing exercises when I’m teaching poetry. The authors also include resources, including places to find poetry to use in the classroom and places students can publish their work. This book would be perfect if you teach upper elementary or middle school, but high school teachers would find value in it as well.

Book Review: Reimagining Writing Assessment: From Scales to Stories by Maja Wilson

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One of my goals has been to move to a gradeless, process driven approach to assessment. Unfortunately, despite my best intentions and plans, unexpected challenges and barriers have forced me to pull back and return to a more traditional approach, which has been extremely frustrating. Even more disappointing has been that my students were always intrigued by the shift when I explained to them how grades would be determined. There was skepticism, but I framed it as an experiment and a process that we’d be working to refine along the way. I’m hoping that I’m able to make it work this year, since I know what kept me from success last year and those barriers either won’t exist this year or won’t surprise me when they pop up. Looking back, I realize I was doing too much and I should have started small. This year, I’ll be focusing on going gradeless with writing and Reimagining Writing Assessment: From Scales to Stories by Maja Wilson will help me on this journey. 


I’ve always been uncomfortable with rubrics because they are so confining and rarely capture a writer’s strengths and areas for growth accurately. Plus, they limit creativity and get in the way of risk taking. Reimagining Writing Assessment builds on Wilson’s earlier work in Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment (which I own, but have not read) and encourages writing teachers to move away from rubrics and other standardized forms of writing assessment and let the story of a writer’s process unfold. Wilson provides research, tools, and narratives of how this has worked in her own practice and it’s clear that so much of the push to make writing assessment faster and easier for teachers, dehumanizes the process and fails to serve student writers. Feedback is important but when feedback consists of boxes checked on a rubric or canned comments from a curated bank, how is that helpful for students? How often do they use that feedback to grow as a writer? Listening to students, allowing time for reflection, and providing meaningful feedback through conferencing builds stronger relationships and leads to “growth in the right direction.” I loved how Wilson framed reading a student’s work as reading for the experience instead of reading to assess: “[W]hen an expert adopts a beginner’s mind and tells the story of her experience, the result is to open up experience rather than close it down. It also makes the process of evaluation more transparent. . . . If we tell the story of our experience of reading, then students are more likely to form useful understandings about how writing and reading work” (pg. 97). I will be thinking about this and revisiting Reimagining Writing Assessment often as I plan my first writing units and how I will approach teaching writing over the next few weeks.

Book Review: The Norton Guide to AP Literature: Writing & Skills by Susan G. Barber and Melissa Alter Smith

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I don’t teach AP, but I wanted to read this because some of my juniors choose to take AP, and I want to make sure I’m getting them ready. I also know that the authors are pretty amazing, and I figured reading this would be extremely helpful for the classes I’m currently teaching. I was more than correct. This text is primarily for students preparing to take the exam, so the explanations of how to analyze literary texts and the examples provided are extremely clear and will serve as good models for me as I teach literary analysis and writing about texts. Also valuable was the chapter on close reading skills because my students struggle when it comes to reading and analyzing fiction and poetry. My district focuses most of our close reading requirements on nonfiction texts, and fiction and poetry require different close reading skills. I’m looking forward to revamping my literary analysis lessons with this book by my side! This will help me help my students become stronger readers and writers!

Book Review: Becoming an Everyday Changemaker: Healing and Justice at School

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I’m so grateful for the work Alex Shevrin Venet has done and the positive impact it has had on my teaching and my life. I read and loved Equity Centered Trauma Informed Instruction, and was fortunate to be part of her Nurturing the Nurturers online space. I’m extremely aware of how trauma impacts how I move through the world, and I’ve read extensively to both understand trauma and work toward healing. In Becoming an Everyday Changemaker, Venet gives one of the best explanations of trauma I’ve ever read and provides methods for and examples of how to make positive changes in educational systems in trauma informed ways. It has always been obvious to me that my own trauma shows up in how I navigate situations in my classroom and at school in general, and now I have a deeper understanding of how I can approach those situations in ways that are healthier for myself and those around me. There are also valuable ideas I can incorporate into my teaching and classroom management, especially when I address binary thinking and introduce both/and. Most importantly, I value any text that encourages slowing down. This is something I’m working on in every aspect of my life, and I need to practice it more in my classroom. I’ll be sitting with this book as I begin to envision what I want my classroom environment to look like, and remembering what I’ve learned as I navigate a school year that’s sure to be full of changes.

Book Review: Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students

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Discussions of race and racism can be unpredictable and difficult to navigate, but that doesn’t mean that we can shy away from them or shut them down. Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students by Carlin Borsheim-Black and Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides addresses the fears and concerns teachers may have and provides concrete methods for navigating discussion of race in the classroom. One of the strengths of this text is that the authors provide examples of real classroom discussions that they then unpack to see where the teacher could have navigated the situation more effectively or point out where the teacher was successful when students became heated. They also provide a framework utilizing backward design to develop units for students to increase racial literacy, because in some texts, it’s difficult to know where to start. Using commonly taught works, like A Raisin in the Sun, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Crossover, and One Crazy Summer, Borsheim-Black and Sarigianides explain how to use a Critical Race Theory lens for literary analysis, planning for discussions involving race, exposing Whiteness and White supremacy, and designing assignments to build racial literacy. 

I also think it’s important to acknowledge that while this text focuses on instruction for White students, the authors also address the reality that most teachers do not have homogeneous racial groupings in their classes and that they need to think about how their curriculum and instructional choices impact BIPOC students. The authors offer concrete ways to address this, as well. 

With the courses I’m teaching, I can’t shy away from discussions of race, and I wish I had read this book earlier in my career. I’ve had moments in my classroom where I’ve struggled and situations that I didn’t feel equipped to handle. While I know I’ll never be able to predict the way a discussion will go, after reading this, I feel like I have a more concrete way to plan units, analyze the texts I teach, design assignments, and prepare for discussions. 

Book Review: Identity Affirming Classrooms: Spaces that Center Humanity

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My second summer PD book was Identity Affirming Classrooms: Spaces that Center Humanity by Dr. Erica Buchanan-Rivera, which made me think critically about my classroom space. While I generally receive positive feedback from students about my classroom environment and teaching, I know there are areas where I can improve and challenges I need to overcome that may not be obvious to my students. What I learned while reading this book will help me in many ways. Dr. Buchanan-Rivera provides extensive background information on why identity affirming spaces are important and she includes concrete methods for developing them. I was especially grateful for more resources to refine and improve the materials I use when discussing identity with my students and elements to take into account when organizing my classroom’s physical space. 

I wonder if some of the issues I had with classroom discussion and student engagement could stem from the physical arrangement of my room. I need to figure out creative ways to incorporate conferencing with students and carve out time for community building. This book reminded me how important those things are. My biggest barrier is the combination of large classes and forty minute class periods. When I had smaller classes, conferences and community building were much easier, but I can’t allow them to fall by the wayside just because I sometimes have almost thirty students in my room. 

This is another text I would highly recommend to any teacher regardless of the subject or grade level. We all need to design spaces where students feel valued and safe, and Dr. Buchanan-Rivera addresses every element we need to consider including physical space, classroom materials, and ensuring students feel safe, valued, and supported.