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ENG 347 Blog post #5 Dillon Rowe

Part one: Summary. Give a brief summary/overview of what you have read so far here.

***Spoiler Warning*** The Hate U Give tells the story of sixteen-year-old Starr Carter, an African American girl from the fictionalized neighborhood Garden Heights in Jackson, Mississippi. The story begins with Starr attending a party where she runs into her childhood friend Khalil Harris. The two quickly hit things off again, but not long before gunshots ring out through the party. The two friends flee and hop into Khalil’s Chevy Impala. Driving away, they are pulled over by a lone police officer, One-Fifteen. The officer pulls Khalil out of the car and tells Khalil and Starr not to move. Outside of the car, Khalil approaches the window to check on Starr, and One-Fifteen fatally shoots Khalil.

               After being picked up by her parents, Starr tries to fall asleep, but nightmares of Khalil’s death, as well as her friend Natasha’s, haunt her. Starr explains that she was only ten when she witnessed Natasha get fatally shot in a drive by shooting. At Khalil’s funeral, April Ofrah, an activist with the Just Us for Justice organization, announces that the police department has no intentions of arresting the officer who murdered Khalil.

Starr refuses to be silent, and represented by April Ofrah, she agrees to testify. DeVante, who seeks Starr’s father’s help to leave the ‘King Lords’ gang, tells Starr that Khalil wasn’t apart of the gang, but sold drugs on behalf of the King Lords in order to protect his mother, who had stolen money from the gang leader, King. Despite April’s request to not share this information, Starr does anyway. Enraged that Starr “dry-snitched”, King enlists his goons to do a drive by of the Carter’s house. Luckily, no one is shot, but Starr nearly backs down from testifying.

Part two: Response Question of Choice (Choose ONE of the following questions to focus on for your blogpost response)

I think that The Hate U Give is a prime book that could help adolescents build critical literacy skills. For one, in reading The Hate U Give, you are forced to experience and cope with the traumas that Starr experiences with the losses of Natasha and Khalil. I also think that the book does an impeccable job of making non-POC reflect on their privilege in moments like when Starr’s dad Maverick feels the need to tell his kids how to act around police.

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ENG 347 Blog Post #4 Dillon Rowe

 1.      What choices is Judge making as an author and artist that impact how you read and make meaning from this particular page?

This isn’t specific to any one page, but the voice and language Lita writes with feels like antiquated, European dialect to me. One page where this particularly evident is on page 27 in "GREEN-EYED DEVIL". In this poem Judge writes, "She said Fanny and I would do without singing lessons, / but demanded that Father pay for Claire's / because her daughter was as gifted as a Lark." I had no idea what a lark was, but through a Google search found that it is an Old-World ground dwelling songbird. In terms of how this impacts my reading, I think it has helped immerse me in the time period this story is meant to take place in, the early 1800s. I also think that Lita’s choice to make the book’s illustration black and white fits the ambience of the book and the time period. Although the illustrations were done in watercolor, to me they look like charcoal paintings which suits the industrial nature of the 18th/19th century.

  2. How does the interplay between text and image serve to make this particular page powerful/emotional/meaningful?  Why did you choose this particular page?

I think that the pairing of Old-World language like “lark” with black and white illustrations perfectly suits the story and time period in which Mary’s Monster takes place. I also think that, with this page in particularly, the way that the illustration is kept to the latter half of the page was a good creative choice as this feels like a stage in the book that is crucial to understanding where Mary Shelley has found herself—exiled by her wicked stepmother. This part of the story seems especially important, and by having the poem at the foreground of the page in positive space, the illustration serves a secondary purpose in the background and negative space of the page. And I chose this page for many of the same reasons—it is a key moment in explaining why and how Mary Shelley has found herself where she is.

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ENG 347 Blog Post #3 Dillon Rowe

1. Give a short summary/overview of your chosen novel.  Because your pod members might have chosen a different book from you, it is important to give them contextual information for your novel.  

Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s novel Aristotle and  Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe tells the story of two fifteen-year-old Mexican American boys, Aristotle and Dante (go figure), growing up in El Paso, Texas in 1987. The story is told from the perspective of Aristotle, otherwise known as Ari. Aristotle carries himself with an angsty attitude and has a hard time connecting with the people around him. One summer afternoon Ari goes to the local pool where he meets another boy his age, Dante. Ari laughs when Dante tells him his name, not to poke-fun at him, but because his name Aristotle. When Ari shares this with Dante, Dante’s eyes light up and their friendship immediately begins to blossom. Not long after kindling their friendship however, Dante’s dad takes a job in Chicago forcing the family to relocate. While apart, Dante and Ari write to each other, and Dante shares with Aristotle that he is gay. When Dante visits El Paso the next summer, him and Aristotle share a kiss and Dante realizes that he is in love with Ari. Ari doesn’t share these feelings. After a whirlwind of events that I am refraining from sharing because spoilers, Ari admits and/or realizes that he does actually have feelings for Dante.

  2. Explore your author’s online presence across social media and various literary communities (websites, social media accounts, interviews, etc.). Briefly discuss something you find about their work that allows you to approach your reading of your chosen novel (or gender and sexuality in YAL at large) in a new or deeper way.

I don’t have much social media presence personally, so I decided to focus on Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s online interviews. In a Q&A posted by “bookpeopleblog”, Sáenz states that “the one positive side about me growing up with literature that didn’t represent me is that it taught me to be a generous reader” (eugevela). He follows up this statement by saying “I think when people are angry about books that don’t represent them—I get that, and I understand they felt left out. And they were left out, frankly. On the other hand, we have to learn to take any book and open ourselves up to it. So it didn’t need to be about me” (eugevela). This really stood out to me considering that I am white and cishet. I can relate to the feeling of wanting to read a novel with characters I can identify with, and I did not and do not identify with Ari and Dante, but I recognize, and I hope that younger adolescent readers can recognize, that we all need to  “learn to take any book and open ourselves up to it.”

 3. Discuss the ways in which you believe this novel could help adolescent readers develop more complex and nuanced understandings of gender, sexuality, and intersectionality in relation to identity.

I think that Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe does an impeccable job of doing what Sáenz alluded to in the quote I included in the previous question. I went into reading this book expecting not to be able to open myself up to the book and its characters. I was caught completely off guard. I think that all adolescents would benefit massively from reading AADDTSOTU for this reason. People who don’t identify with the characters like me will love the story simply for its charm, but they will also develop their ability to pick up a book and open themselves up to it. And in doing so, those readers will develop a newfound sense of love, admiration, and respect for those of different identities. And on the contrary, for those who do identify with the characters, or who are struggling to discover themselves, I think they  will (I hope) discover apart of themselves in this story.

 4. Because so many of you have been doing this anyways…end with a brief nod to your own experience reading your chosen book this week. This is open-ended. You can share something you loved, a quote, whether you would recommend it, a moment that floored you, something that got under your skin, did you tear up, etc. Key word: brief. Be nice to your pod member’s and their time.

I hinted to this, but I didn’t know what to expect going into AADDTSOTU. Looking at the cover and seeing all of its awards and accolades was promising. But wow did I like it so much more than I had anticipated. While I didn’t identify with Dante character, I did relate to Aristotle’s initial feelings of alienation and loneliness. I’m trying to keep this week’s post brief, so I’ll end it here, but PLEASE read this book if you haven’t. I can’t recommend it enough.

  Works Cited:

eugevela. “Q&A with Benjamin Alire Sáenz.” Bookpeopleblog, BookPeopleBlog, 12 Apr. 2017, bookpeopleblog.com/2017/04/12/qa-with-benjamin-alire-saenz.

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ENG 347 Blog Post #2 Dillon Rowe

1. Explore Elizabeth Acevedo’s online presence across social media and various literary communities. Briefly discuss something you find about her or her work that allows you to approach and/or frame your reading of The Poet X in a new or deeper way. Some places to start: Her official website, twitter account, Instagram account, interviews with NPR, other lit journals/websites, etc.

     I chose to search/examine Elizabeth Acevedo’s online presence on YouTube, and in my search discovered that The Poet X was heavily influenced by Acevedo’s own personal life and poetry. In her video with the YouTube channel ‘Epic Reads’, Acevedo mentions that she pulled poems from some of her own journals, particularly one from her junior year of high school. She described this process as being a “collaboration with my younger self” which I find so interesting and cool (Epic Reads).

     In another interview with PBS NewsHour, Elizabeth also described herself as being a “spare writer” (which is a term I had never heard before), and that the first draft of The Poet X was only 20,000 words before adding another 15,000 in revision. She also states that the process of writing The Poet X early on was to tell herself the story and sort the holes out from there. The last thing I want to highlight that I found (also from the PBS NewsHour interview) is that in her words, “The emotional truths of the story are my own”. With this bit of information in mind, I feel like I am going to pick The Poet X back up with a newfound level of love and respect for Xiomara as I know now that, as Elizabeth states, “The heart of [the story]” is autobiographical, although many of the plot points are not (Acevedo clarified that she didn’t get in trouble, and she wasn’t shy, unlike Xiomara) (PBS NewsHour).

2. The Poet X tackles Xiomara’s questions regarding religion, her struggle to be at home in a body that is often perceived in ways she can’t control, and her intense relationship with her mother.  Discuss a particular quote/page/poem that particularly that you believe has the potential to resonate with adolescent readers who are going through similar struggles to Xiomara. (Keep in mind our guiding question: What could this text do for adolescent readers?)

    The poem I selected from The Poet X that resonated with me (and that I think will resonate with adolescent readers) is “Ms. Galiano” from page 39 (this page may be different for you—I’m reading from a digital copy). The reason I chose this poem is because I think that all adolescents can or will relate to the feeling of being told “Oh you got THAT teacher?! They’re so strict or so uptight or assign so much work.”—especially in middle school and high school, which is around the grade level I imagine many The Poet X readers are. For me that teacher was my seventh-grade social studies teacher who, my sister described as being “wicked”. And not in the good connotation. But from day one, that teacher ended up being the exact opposite. In fact, that teacher my sister described as “wicked” ended up being one of my absolute all time favorite teachers. Was she strict? I guess, but she was doing her job and was trying to teach us—a bunch of punk ass tweens—a thing or two. Did she assign a lot of homework? Again, I guess, but I learned a LOT in that class that I can still recall today. And above else, did she care about her students? Absolutely. I used to test in alternate locations to minimize distractions, and I hadn’t studied for this particular geography test. She came to check on me and saw that I was distraught and was so keen on making sure that I was OK that she let me retest at a later date. And I know she would’ve done the same for any of her students!

    What this long winded anecdote is meant to suggest though is that I think we all had that one teacher. That teacher everyone says to be afraid of, but who turns out to be a genuinely amazing teacher, facilitator, and above all else, person. I think that adolescents reading The Poet X will find that, when they get to the poem “Ms. Galiano”, that a teacher of theirs comes to mind. I also think that adolescents who lack an authoritative, adult figure who loves and cares about them unconditionally, will resonate with the fact that, as Xiomara states, “… although it’s the first week of school, / and teachers always fake the funk the first week, / I have a feeling Ms. Galiano / actually wants to know my answer.” What this short excerpt exemplifies is that, in spite of what others have to say about this teacher, she genuinely cares about her students and what they have to say. I also think that adolescent may resonate with the point that Xiomara makes about Ms. Galiano being “… little… / but carries herself big… Like she’s used to shouldering her way through any assumptions made about her”. I think this is an extremely admirable trait that many adolescents will find security in—the feeling of being small, but learning to carry yourself as though you are much bigger.

3. Xiomara writes, “Late into the night I write and the pages of my notebook swell from all the words I’ve pressed onto them. It almost feels like the more I bruise the page the quicker something inside me heals.” Poetry and writing allow Xiomara to heal.  When you were an adolescent, what creative outlet or passion allowed you to heal?  Has this outlet changed now that you are older?  

    When I was an adolescent, I only had a few honest-to-goodness creative outlets. If I were upset or struggling to cope with something, I used to like listening to music while going for a walk or on a bike ride. I also played a lot of video games. As much I still like these activities, as I got older, and life threw more curve balls, my desire to find creative outlets that lend themself to more creative self-expression became much greater.

     Initially it was digital art (i.e. collages in Photoshop, video editing, etc.). I had also always wanted to learn an instrument (my sister played guitar, but I’m left-handed and am no Jimi Hendrix), so I opted to learn how to make music on the computer. Initially the music I created was a complete joke. And I mean that literally—my friends and I would make instrumentals and would freestyle rap/sing about whatever came to mind. One of my friends, Connor, went as far as to do a whole album of covers. Some covers included “Locked Out of Heaven by Bruno Mars, “Let Me Love You” by Mario, and my personal favorite “Leavin’” by Jesse McCartney.

     But as I got older, I realized how much I had learned about the software I was using and how I could produce more serious and meaningful instrumentals as a way of expressing myself. After my first break-up, I really began to take it seriously. Eventually I realized though that, as much as an instrumental can convey emotions, without words it’s meaning was somewhat superficial. That realization led me to where I am now, writing. Not song lyrics, but prose. Whether it’s for school or for myself, the amount of relief I find in writing is unprecedented.

Works Cited:

Epic Reads. “Epic Author Facts: Elizabeth Acevedo | The Poet X.” YouTube, uploaded by Epic Reads, 27 Mar. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdd9b3pfA-o.

PBS NewsHour. “‘The Poet X’ Author Elizabeth Acevedo Answers Your Questions.” YouTube, uploaded by PBS NewsHour, 30 Nov. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRrL5gSkfzY.

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ENG 347 Blog post #1 Dillon Rowe

1.  What text are you most excited to read this quarter and why?

The texts I’m most excited to read this quarter are Poet X and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.

In regard to Poet X, what makes me so eager to sit down with this book was the premise of the story, and the similarities I drew between it and the Netflix series Never Have I Ever. The two may end up being entirely different (and I expect they will be, which is good!), but what I noticed about Poet X is that the main character, Xiomara, or X, is neglected by her mom who seemingly cares about her son, X’s brother, more than her. This is similar to the premise of the Netflix show Never Have I Ever (which I can’t recommend enough) where the main character, Devi, feuds with her mother because she cares more about her cousin, Kamala, and her affairs. I’m also eager to read Poet X because I can relate to the feeling of having strict, overbearing parents who want their kids to focus on school, not personal interests, or relationships.

As for Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, I’m most excited to read this book in part of the time in which it takes place, 1987. I don’t know how big of a role the time period will play into the story (I’m hopeful that it will a fair bit), but I just love media that was made, or takes place in, the 80s and 90s (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Napoleon Dynamite, Perks of Being a Wallflower to name a few). More into the actual content of the book though. From what I’ve read online, the book is about two Latinx boys, Aristotle and Dante, two lonesome teens growing up in El Paso, Texas. The two meet at a pool and, despite not thinking much of each other initially, their friendship soon blossoms. Just from this brief synopsis, I am very excited to see what events unfold and I have a lot of questions. If they didn’t like each other when they first met, what changes? Beyond kindling a good friendship, what are they going to get up to? I can’t wait to find out and have these questions answered!

2. What biases do you have (positive or negative) towards YAL?

           One bias I have towards YAL is that, quite frankly, I do sort of see where parent-naysayers are coming from in saying that YAL doesn’t offer much educationally. But go figure; I don’t think anyone is reading young adult literature to learn something perse, they’re reading it to be immersed in a story about adolescence and to (maybe) learn something about themselves, or about someone of another identities experience. Moreover, why must adolescence literature have to be educational? I think that, if we want to get kids to read—especially kids with attention deficits (I’m talking about myself)—any reading is good reading. Well, unless it’s Mein Kampf or something of the sort.

3. Part of the work I am asking you to do this week is to research a controversy or tension within the field of YAL and to find two articles that discuss that controversy or tension in some way. Share what you found out about your chosen controversy or tension.  (Please provide links to the articles you found within your blog post).

One of the two controversies I discovered in my research about YAL is the controversy surrounding Laurie Forest’s novel The Black Witch. The novel came under fire after blogger Shauna Sinyard posted a 9,000 word review stating that the novel was “an end-to-end mess of unadulterated bigotry” (Rosenfield). Sinyard took to twitter to share her review, and as it circulated around, the book began to get lambasted. In her review, Sinyard states that The Black Witch is “ableist, homophobic, and written with no marginalized people in mind,” (Rosenfield). One follower of Sinyard’s, “Mimi”, had been looking forward to reading the novel, but when she read the excerpts that Sinyard had included in her review, her excitement dwindled. The controversy surrounding The Black Witch calls into question an important, need to be had discussion— “Some feel that condemning a book as ‘dangerous’ is no different from any other review, while others consider it closer to a call for censorship than a literary critique” (Rosenfield). Link to the article here.

           The second controversy I came across in my research of YAL controversies unfolded in a similar way. In February of 2019, author Kosoko Jackson withdrew the publication of his YA novel A Place for Wolves. Initially, the book was well-received. It follows two American boys as they fall in love amidst the Kosovo War. But on the website “Goodreads”, reviewers took issue with Jackson’s portrayal of the Kosovo War and of Muslim people. And like Laurie Forest’s novel The Black Witch, the Twitter community’s response to the book followed suit of Goodread reviewers. In response to the backlash, Jackson tweeted an apology stating, “I failed to fully understand the people and the conflict that I set around my characters. I have done a disservice to the history and to the people who suffered.” What is ironic about this incident (although I’m sure Jackson’s intentions were never malicious), is that Jackson was a loud voice in the critique of Amélie When Zhao’s novel Blood Heir, which also came under fire for neglecting to acknowledge African American experience in a novel that focuses heavily on a slavery narrative. Link to the article here.

Works Cited

Rosenfield, Kat. “The Toxic Drama on YA Twitter.” Vulture, Vulture, 7 Aug. 2017, www.vulture.com/2017/08/the-toxic-drama-of-ya-twitter.html.

Waldman, Katy. “In Y.A., Where Is the Line Between Criticism and Cancel Culture?” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 21 Mar. 2019, www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/in-ya-where-is-the-line-between-criticism-and-cancel-culture.