Hey everybody, we're back and I am here with my friend Andy. Hey everybody, we're back and we are here with my friend Andrea and I am so excited she's here because we literally have been trying to do this for years now I think. So I'm so excited you're here. Andrea, if you could take a second and introduce yourself, tell folks who you are, where you're at, that'd be great. Hi, my name is Andrea Caparelli. I am a high school librarian at Summerville High School in Summerville, New Jersey.
This is year four for me and each year just keeps getting better and I couldn't be at a happier stage of my life. And I just love seeing every once in a while there's just this post that's like, Hey, here's this awesome stuff we're doing or like, Hey, Andrew's up to this today. And I'm like, my gosh, always such great stuff coming out of your library. It's so awesome. And you. It's exciting. We have a very receptive, I've gotten a lot of great reception from my students and the administration.
So it's fun to feed off of them and we feed off of each other and do what's best for our school. That's awesome. It's great when you've got the good team in place. So I'm curious, how did you end up in school librarianship? Well, it's a very roundabout way. Basically, I started off as a volunteer in my kids elementary school library called my goodness quite a number of years ago and I ran the volunteer.
I started off as a volunteer and then began running the volunteer program for about five years and it was a volunteers of parents and parents would come in and each day help the elementary school librarian out with checking in books and shelving books. And I just grew to love the environment and the calm and the excitement behind it all, how both at the same time could be. And then also seeing the joy that libraries brought to my kids as well.
And just books in general and story how it brought so much joy to my family. wasn't something I had growing up. So being able to bring that to my kids was awesome. And the librarian at the school, she says to me, that's Mrs. Palmer. she had said, hey, Andrea, you you should look into, you could do it at Rutgers and do it all at home, from home, you know, online. And I said, you know what? That's a great idea. And I looked into it and I braved it during COVID and I did it.
And I'm so thrilled to be here. Nice. I love that you brought up both the calm and the excitement because that is absolutely like there's such opposites but they are so much a part of what a good library has like a little bit of everything going on there. love it love it. So we're going to be talking about your lesson on before we get into the lesson.
Let me just back up before I even get there and say so where did this lesson sort of come from like where did you see the need for this arise or the idea for this program sort of come from. So, you know, ALA celebrates the band books week and I started to do something about it in school and just doing little displays.
In school we like to present it as freedom to read so as to not scare people or give the wrong impression and just letting kids know they have a choice to make and what materials they want to read. And then a teacher approached me and says, you know, I'd love to do something. with Band Books Week and I said, well, what are you doing in class? And we talked about it and she was teaching Speak by Laurie Hulse Anderson with her students.
And I said, well, let's talk about the freedom to read and how and why students get to make those choices. And then we discussed censorship and so that's where it came about and it became a big hit. And she told the other teachers in the English department and then I started to do it within the department and then it got branched over into the history department as well.
awesome man that's it's so great when teachers know they can come to you and and seek out that collaboration like a lot of times I feel like we have to go to them like we have to almost force ourselves on the teacher sometimes but that they are so aware of how how much you're working for the students and for them that they're gonna come to you and say hey what are your thoughts what are your ideas I mean that just speaks volumes about your program it really does
Thank you yeah it's really exciting i you know it's been hard you know starting kind of reading branding the library in my school and being able to tap into teachers and trying to get them like you said trying to really pull strings with certain staff members to get them on board with me but just getting one or two teachers on your side has really made a difference and then starting to spread the word and.
And now at the point where I'm like, all right, hold on, I gotta give you, gotta give me a couple of weeks. I don't know if I have any time. So it's starting to book up my schedule, but it's awesome. I love it. The busier I am, the happier I am. Cause that means more, more ears that get to listen to me and hear what we have to say and what the libraries are all about. Yeah, yeah.
And the fact that not only did the teacher come to you and you worked on this together, but then that teacher went and talked to the other teachers and not just in the department, but it went cross-departmental. mean, wow, what an endorsement of what you're doing here. That's amazing. Yeah, thank you. It's really exciting. It's fun. It's definitely sponsoring the word. how did it sort of unfold as this went along? So you and the teacher chatted and then they were doing speak.
Did that sort of become one of the touchstones for how you talked about this with the students? Yeah definitely because speak is definitely been on one of the top ten bands books for a number of years now and speak is a story that talks about the author's own personal story she created the story and lauriel's answers and had been.
I'm raped as a child as a teenager and so she was something she never spoke about and so she wanted to get that story out there and she did it fiction allies did at the time. And it was in response to her own children growing and being of that age. And she felt that story had to bring out, be brought out. And from that, of course, there were censorship and people not thinking it's appropriate to talk about these things in school.
When in fact, it's something that definitely needs to be spoken about, right? These are topics that we discuss in our curriculum in the health department, whether it be mental health.
You learn about... sex education and sexually transmitted diseases so you have to learn about what else happens and that can be you know consent needs to happen and when the consent doesn't happen that there's a lot of harm that gets done and so that is topic that are now being spoken about more in this day and age which is awesome but also the more you speak about it the more people start to get nervous but it is an important topic that needs to be discussed
And I think you said the word appropriate there and that's a word that I just cringe every time I hear it because we often use that like age appropriate or grade appropriate or school appropriate. And the thing is when we use the word appropriate we're talking about things that that instantly brings to mind the things that you can talk over at dinner with the grandparents.
And there's lots of stuff in the world that you wouldn't necessarily want to sit around the dinner table talking to the grandparents about but that is vital for our students to understand. So when we limit ourselves that way, it's, I mean, I don't know, I feel like that word appropriate has sort of been almost weaponized in a way. has, it's funny and it's very interesting because as the lesson goes on and it starts unraveling with students it's really funny.
So we always start off, I usually start off with Jason Reynolds giving a little thing about banned books and censorship and then Laurie Holt Anderson, I show a little clip there and I always start the lesson off with asking kids first of all about how they, what do they think should be censored, how the thing should be censored. And so I let them start that way. I let them hear from the authors. And then we start to talk more about, and I let them look through other books.
And it's really interesting about the appropriateness and what they think is appropriate first for younger children. And then as the lesson unravels, they start to see what appropriateness really means and what censorship really is. It's really interesting.
The book that always triggers them when I have a list, I have a page curated with top tens of the past decade and are not up tens top hundred banned books within the past decade and once they start to scroll I know exactly when they got into the point where they see Diary of a Wimpy Kid or no excuse me Captain Underpants. That triggers them every time and that's when they start to really their eyes like a light bulb clicks, you know, they all of a sudden caught on to what I'm starting to say.
And I'm like, look, it's not, you know, they get really nervous and like, yeah, you can't talk about sex with little children. Like we're not talking about sex with little children. We're talking about age appropriate stuff, you know, and, you know, and then we go into things and the discussions go on. But when they realize, and it's always funny because they always think it's the man in the underwear is the reason why it's being centered. I'm like, no, that's not why at all.
And when they realize that it's because of being controlled and questioning authority, that's when it really gets them and that's what triggers them. So it's really funny. Yeah. The appropriateness is definitely that word. You're absolutely right. It does get weaponized and used in the wrong way. But once you're able to have those conversations with teenagers, it's really awesome because then they start to see things differently. And then once you've attacked something that they've read, Mhm.
they think they start to have an attachment to, then it really gets them and it bothers them. And then they start to understand more of what we're trying to get across to them. Yeah, it's really awesome. I love watching the epiphany happen. It's really fun and it happens in every single class with the same exact book, you know. It's really funny to watch it. It's awesome. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. I've done just a quick scroll through list before and that's always the one.
Like that's the one that catches all the kids attention, but. always, always, you know, it's really, really funny. And then we talk about and Mango makes, and Tango makes three and that's another one. They're like, wait, what? And I'm like, yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting.
So. What I always find funny is when you talk to, especially like high school students, but middle school students too, teenagers, what they think is quote unquote appropriate for their age level is usually very different than what the adults around them think is appropriate for their age level. it's like, and I know that we all want to take care of kids, we want to protect kids, we want them to be safe, we want them to be comfortable.
And yet I think we tend to sometimes go too far in that direction. And like the kids are a lot more resilient. They're a lot more aware than we give them credit for sometimes I think. And it's interesting when you have those, I'll say, grown up conversations. I mean that's not quite it, but like talking about these things that maybe we think they're not ready for.
And then when they start talking about their thoughts and their views, sometimes they are so... involves, their ideas are so evolved that they are, you know, thinking about these things in ways we may not give them credit for. So... really, it's just not giving kids credit. You know, I grew up in a first generation home and I was always like, you know, they would always talk in Greek as if I didn't understand them. And it's always like the little one, she doesn't understand.
And that made you want to understand more. And the more you hide things from kids, the more you censor things from them, the more they want to learn. And they're going to go to... alternate means to find the answers to things. And that's the last thing that we want to do. And I have that conversation with the students all the time. Like, do you think it's more appropriate to find this information in a book?
Or do you think it's more appropriate where you can like be, have your own creativity or to go watch it on TV, you know? And that's another thing that you don't get. Like, I'm like, you know, like Hunger Games, you know that you can watch, but you can't read it. They're like, wait, what? You know, and Mm-hmm. understand that part. And that's like the kind of the hypocrisy behind the whole censorship thing. It's like, you can't read it in a book, but you can watch it on TV.
So someone else can visualize it for me, but I can't have my own creativity. It's just, it's very interesting. And the kids start to get very offended at that point when they realize what people are trying to do and they don't understand it. And sometimes they're like, wait, they're very defensive of it too. They're like, but, you know, and then they start to talk more and more.
I love because at that point the kids start talking amongst themselves and they start having that conversation, debating it amongst themselves. And they really, and again, the light bulbs continue to click and they starting to really understand what's happening and they don't like it. And yeah, it's pretty interesting. I love the conversations that happen. It's really neat. Yeah. 100%. ins and outs of this, but I'm gonna circle this back around a little bit.
So you kind of started to talk us through like what the students are seeing as they're coming through this lesson. So you're introducing them to the topics, you're having them think about what censorship might mean to them, you're showing them lists of titles, then they get sort of like, wait a minute, that's one of the titles that we're not allowed to read? And so how does the lesson sort of roll or evolve from there? We talk more about age appropriateness, and yes, there is.
I talked to them about curriculum, and if the materials in the curriculum, then it is appropriate. Is there a chance to go and read about a story where they can use their own imagination on the topic that they've learned about in school, whether it health and sex-related material. And then I always explain to them, it's not like, and these books are age appropriate. They are young adult books. They're titles that are meant and geared for them.
And, you know, and a lot of times they were looking for adult books and like, see, but that's not appropriate. So would you rather be learning about material, you know, dealing with health matters about a 50 year old or one about a teenager, right? You know, and so we talk about that they understand that and they get that. And so we just really have a lot more discussion and openness about what they think is appropriate at each level. And, and they start to understand more. And we talk about.
voices and we talk about over history historically what the topics were that have been censored and we talk about it from the days of you know from Hemingway up until the present day and we talk about the transformation and the evolution of censorship and where it's come to and the topics as to why and when they see the numbers that it being 47 percent in the past year alone of it having affected the titles being censored being
of LGBTQ and people of color, it really starts to get them upset because they realize, I'm in a very diverse district. So I said, okay, so look around the room. And sometimes I'll have like a group, like, okay, why don't we just ignore this table over here? So now are we not allowed to speak about these friends, these classmates here? we're not, know, and so it really affects them because being in a classroom full of color, they really get affected by that. They get bothered by that.
And we have a large... LGBTQ population in school and the kids get offended by it, you know, and they get hurt that they're trying, censorship is happening amongst their peers about stories about their peers. And it's really, it hurts them and they get bothered by that. They don't like it. Yeah, that we are trying to not have certain people represented. Like that's not just smacking people in the face. Like, what are you doing?
You're saying that these people aren't worth having conversations about or learning about, or they're not worth being able to see themselves in the things that we read? Only some people get to see that? Why would that be the case? So. right yeah it really does affect them another one is diary van frank you know they see that one to the like what why are we learned about that i said yeah you know i'm going to go on to the discussion about how it's not happening.
You know if there's a pretty safe in new jersey how we just passed the freedom to read bill i do also give them options of how to we were doing a lot of letter writing and writing. You to different authors of band books to. senators and legislators and so they were, you know, I gave them all the resources due to that and I know different groups within our school also, like our youth and government groups were writing letters. So it was nice.
It became a really kind of a, got spread throughout the school because one student would be in a class and then he went and told his group and so the word got spread around, which was really exciting. But the kids see that they can take action and that they do have a voice and I told them, you know, I talked to them about how that their voice matters and that.
how the students in the district in Martha Hickson's district in North Hunterdon, New Jersey, and how that the student voice there really made a difference and that the people hearing from the students, how that impact, what the impact that had on the decisions being made in the district. So we talk a lot about, know, legislation and how it affects and how we're trying in New Jersey to make those changes.
and have laws to protect them and how it's happening across the nation and different things like that. So it's pretty interesting. They don't realize that it's happening in New Jersey.
They think it's just happening in Texas and Florida and just having those discussions about what's happening there and thinking about what those students must be like, you know, it's really interesting and they get, they really start when they, once they realize how badly it's, how large of an impact that it's had on the nation, they really start to get bothered by it.
It's really, I love how you have made this not just about like, here's a thing that's going on, but very specifically, not just tied the books to their own experiences, but the voice aspect of it and saying, you should have a voice in the books, but also you have a voice that you can use to discuss this and to help other people be aware of this and to combat this, which. Anytime we can help our students find that voice and take a lesson from school and make it so concrete and authentic for them.
I think that is just the epitome of what schools should be doing all the time. know, finding those ways for the kids to be active and engaged with what we're talking about.
So. % you know and the kids students at my school know and I. Drill this into them all the time that the library is there is it is there this is their school their home for four years and that it's all about them and you know everything that decisions that I make and do in the library and around the library have to do with them it's their voice they have a suggestion jar I purchase books based on what they want and their needs.
And so we have to make sure that everybody has representation, not just one group of kids. And they're all about that too. We have a wonderful community. The kids are pretty tight knit and it's really nice that they fight for each other and defend each other. So it's been a great, it's been great to see the feedback that I've been getting from it. The students really enjoy it and the staff too, which is nice.
yeah, and that sort of leads me to where I was going next is what has been the feedback? Like what have you seen from, let's start with the students specifically, like how are you seeing them sort of maybe carrying this forward or building on this? So I have, like I mentioned about the youth in government, they've been coming to me looking for support in like how we can move forward and talking about legislation that's been happening with the New Jersey Association of School Librarians.
So I talked to them about that and they get excited and engaged in realizing how much more, what impact it can happen, you know, with one little issue and how, you know, we've had great support from people like Senator Andrews. Zwicker and such. So it's been wonderful and they like that. And so once they hear that, they're always like, you want to come help us with their voter drive? So now we've had a huge voter drive. have 57 kids sign up for it to vote. Yeah, it's been awesome.
It's been really great. So I had students interview me about censorship and banned books. And so kids have been really enjoying it. But then, you know, moving into like the history department, there's a teacher who is doing does a history through film. class and that was new last year just started. We're in year two of it now and she came to me and asked me about if we can do a lesson on censorship through film and relate it to books and stories and so that's what we were doing together.
and we talked about the difference between censoring a scene that might be inappropriate for school with your teacher versus censorship in a whole. So what you want to watch with the teacher, what you're comfortable watching with your teacher, and what you can watch on your own. it's funny. You know, again, we're dealing with teenagers and high schoolers here. and they're like, I don't want to watch it with my teacher. Like, yeah, exactly.
So. again, clearly this is like, it's not just resonating with the students. You've got teachers from other departments coming and saying, hey, how do we incorporate this? How do we work with this? Like, boy. because, you know, and they hear about what's going on and they didn't realize how much impact it's been having in New Jersey. And now they hear it and they get more excited and engaged about it. Yeah, so it's been fun. That is so awesome. Man, I love that.
So as you're going through this, it sounds like this is something that a lot of the students, if not all the students in the school, end up interacting with in one way or another. that? So when you're doing that, do you find that you have to adjust anything for like either different ability levels or different? like language issues that might come up or are you able to kind of keep things pretty similar across all of the different groups that you see? Yeah, we're pretty much able to.
You know, one of the things that we do have a lot of resources and once I arrived at the school, I have been working to make sure that students have access in all different abilities and whatnot. So, and they have resources. So we have resources. We have a lot of eBooks and audio books, and I also have a growing collection of books in Spanish for our multilingual learners. So that has been helpful. And those books do replicate what we have in the English.
sections so they can read the same titles. Everything that I've created is translatable so they can read them, they can find the books in Spanish, or they can read the material that I've created in Spanish. So there's lots of different resources. I don't find that it's made a difference really on any level because there's always something's adaptable to the various student population.
Yeah. mean, with the range of stuff that has been banned, not just over the years, but in the past couple of years, you can always find something for every ability level, because there's only something. censorship has not been yeah no they have not limited to anybody they've they've gone for everybody so yeah there's no lack of material to be found at all so yeah Man, so how long have you been doing this as a lesson with classes? It just started, last year.
Wait, was it last year two years ago now? No, it was, no, no, two years ago, yeah. This is, this'll be year three. So two years ago it started. Mm-hmm. Yep. have there been any things that as you've gone along, you've sort of learned from either mistakes or successes like, yeah, you know, this is a thing that we definitely want to spend some more time on, or this is an area that seems to really grab them more.
maybe more of the grabbing more and getting really the voices that makes it more like, you know, we started off with doing the classics and they don't really get it at that point. You know, in certain books, they don't understand, you know, like why there has to be certain words being used when you're talking about social justice matters, but that they do understand it, you know, on a whole. But once we get to the more current material, that's really what becomes more impactful.
I've learned to wait for... Captain Underpants to show up and then we can have a bigger discussion because they don't get it at first. really, it's so funny. It's amazing the power of Captain Underpants. it's, it's, it's really, it's hysterical. You know, even if kids haven't read the books, they, they still know the character Captain Underpants. So we, I do find that we can have a much more impactful conversation after that.
Cause we started off, I started, you know, starting with the young adult material, they don't get it at that point. It's when we get later on that they really start to get it once you get. to stuff that affected them from their childhood. know, they're still teenagers, but when they were younger, that really hits them. When you hit their elementary or middle school years, then you've hit them, you know, and then they don't like it. And it's interesting, that kind of...
I'm going to go off on a tangent for a second, but it's interesting because I feel like a lot of our students are sort of losing the, maybe the shared cultural experience that I think a lot of older folks have grown up with. Like if I say Looney Tunes, anybody my age or older is going to know exactly what I'm talking about, you know, and I can start talking about Bugs Bunny wearing a dress and everybody's going to know exactly which episodes I'm talking about.
You know, like we've got those shared moments and I feel like that was because we were in a much more limited media space when we were growing Mm-hmm. now there's so many different channels and options and delivery methods that like, I don't know that all the kids necessarily have that same formative sort of social platform to build off of. But I feel like when you're talking about Captain Underpants, like that's something that is so dispersed.
Yeah. really funny, that's like the only character they all know. Yeah, which is great. Like it's awesome that there's that touch point. I'm so glad that they have that, you know? Man, huh. It is funny. Yeah. But it's so funny. Like I just, still, I still see their faces and I still like, you know, I'm talking about young adult material and I'm like, are you getting it yet? Like, are you getting it?
And I don't see that bulb until captain, they, let them scroll on their own and he starts scrolling through the pages and they're like, get to, and I can see when they've all hit captain underpants goals. I'm like, you start to hear the gasps in the, in the room. It's really hysterical and I laugh every time and I'm like, go ahead, say it out loud. And then I'm like, Captain Underpants. I'm like, yes, thank you. I've been waiting for that.
It's really, it's, the moment is really, I really should start recording it because it's really funny. But yeah, it is. Yeah. But on overhaul, like I don't think there's much to change in the lesson because it is very real. Mm-hmm. current and it happened very quickly and they see that and you show them the graphs of how we went from going to like 100 to 200, know, book bands. Now we're in over 4,000. They're like, wait, what?
You know, and I don't, they, the numbers don't mean much to them, but when you start to show them titles that they've read as a kid or they see books for preschoolers and elementary kids, that's really.
bothers them at first they think they're protecting the little ones and then when they see the books that are being censored they don't get it they don't understand it so it's it's really it's it's fun to watch them and it's great to watch their their minds grow and how excited they get on the topic because they really get very they take it very personal they don't like it yeah yeah
and you've put together this really awesome website that you shared the link to it's gonna be in the show notes It's such great resources already on it. So wonderful. Thank you for sharing that Thank you. Yeah, it's just simple stuff.
A lot of stuff is out there and it's just You know, I try to keep it simple for them and just to be able to scroll through and they they really enjoy it and they have fun with it If someone was going to start trying this for like the first time, they haven't done this kind of a thing before, do you have any suggestions for like, okay, as you're getting ready, here's a couple of things to bear in mind.
Definitely related to the class that they're talking about, they're reading at the time, and have that discussion. Like, what do you find, you know, they always liked, I like to always start off with like what they're reading in class and what do they find inappropriate in the book or uncomfortable. There's always something that's uncomfortable in the book because if they're doing a sense, you know, a band, a notoriously banned book, obviously not banned in their school, thankfully.
that they're reading it, but I it's always a good place to relate it to their class and relate to the teacher and the conversations they had and how they feel about that and how it makes them feel. I have them relate to the characters in the book and then from there we start having that conversation and letting them see what's out there and defining censorship and what does it mean to them. And then as it goes on, the conversation goes on, it really starts to become full circle.
and allows to have that bigger conversation, which is nice. to see their changing conversation from the beginning of the lesson to the end, really just watch that evolution is really awesome. Yeah, man, that's something I would love to have sort of a way to time capsule their first reactions and then conversations and then reflect on where do we start? And I bet you that they would see like, wow, like I've really changed how I'm thinking about this. absolutely, every time.
There's very few that don't. And of course, you're not going to have every kid on board. And I still have those certain kids who are not going to agree fully, and they still don't see it. And that's OK. But sometimes, maybe they're just fighting their beliefs or trying to understand why maybe somebody at home is feeling a certain way. overall, most of the kids are really on board and really understanding and really affected by it.
And they don't realize it's happening here and in their backyard or in town over, which is literally for us was like, you So it's quite, it's an awesome lesson. love doing it with them. then keeping it positive.
think that's another thing to really keep, keeping it positive and talking how it's, you know, talking about the positives of how we are working as a, you know, in New Jersey or working as a nation to fight back and to ensure that students have the right to read because they should be able to make those choices. and give them the respect that they deserve, right? These kids are no matter what age they are, they deserve respect. And that respect allows them to make their choices for themselves.
Yeah, well, and that's, think there's two important things there. One is the freedom to read includes the freedom to not read. Like you don't have to read something that you don't like. And the other one that they may not. I lost it. I had and I lost it. It's Swiss cheese brain, but that's okay. But I think that's such an incredibly, keeping it like positive, saying, you know, you may not agree and that's okay.
I've got students regularly who will take a book out and then the next day they'll come back and be like, this wasn't for me. know, either there was something in it I didn't really like or just it wasn't. And I say, you know what? Perfectly fine. There's so many good books out there. Don't get hung up on, I don't like this one. Let's focus on, let's find you the one you do like, you know? absolutely. how we feed them.
That's how we get their literacy, get them engaged with literacy as a lifelong reader and not just someone who uses reading to get a grade or uses reading as a way to divide people, which just boggles my mind, but that's a whole other issue. Yeah, no, absolutely. But honestly, giving them that respect and letting them make those decisions is really a huge thing.
And that's why I like to keep the lesson positive and not focus on who's doing the censorship or why it's happening, but really to show ownership of map. They get to make those decisions that they get to vote, that they get to write those letters and they get to make that stand to really have a say in what's going on.
And so I do have different groups that would come to me and looking for assistance in a whole variety of ways because of it, because they know that I am there to support the students because again, it is their school, it is their library, it's not mine. I'm just there to run it for them and make those informed decisions for them. But in the end, they make their own decisions. so it's really giving them that ownership. And don't we all just want respect, right?
Like don't we all want to be given that option to be able to choose for ourselves and do, you know, so it's really what it's about. We often, I find, I often talk about the students at my school or at the high school or any of the schools. I talk about them as kids. And I think that sort of undercuts the idea that they're teenagers, they're humans, they are people, they have their own thought process and they have their own rights. They have their own way of seeing the world.
And so we need to recognize that and support them in whichever direction they're going to go by helping them understand like it's okay to not like something, it's okay to like absolutely. Even at the elementary level too, you like you have to give them those options to pick. Like what if we just gave them, you know, five books and I get sometimes there's too many books to choose from, but you know what? Darn it. That's good.
We want to get as many books and as many viewpoints and as many pictures in their head for them to make the decisions about what kind of a life they want to live. You know, like they are going to be kind and who they're going to be kind to and teach empathy and learning about each other and themselves and It's just so beautiful, the stories that are out there today at every level.
And it's important that kids are given that respect to be able to make those decisions on their own and not, you know, just giving them that ownership. just helps them grow and learn who they are on their own without being dictated to. It really helps build that confidence to inside of them. So at any age and yeah, they are kids and that's okay, but they still deserve respect. don't care what age they are. So yeah, yeah.
that is a perfect spot to put this lesson down for the moment, because there's so much great stuff in there. I'm hoping people are going to check out this website that you put together and use it because it's an awesome resource. But we are now going to take our 90 degree turn into the book break. I love the book break. So any book you want, any, sometimes it's more than one book, whatever, anything you want people to know, hey, put this on your reading radar because it's pretty good.
I know, right? So I have to say, when I do my book talks at the beginning of the school year with all of the students, I do always like to go back to Eleanor and Park. It's just a story that I just touches on so many different things. I love Eleanor and Park because it has that, it talks about the topics. that are so sensitive, also need to be spoken about.
And again, having that consent and abuse and things that do happen, but having that ownership of your own life and that you get to make those decisions and you can change, it's up to you to make those changes. And sometimes we need to help and a friend to do that. But I just, I love that story. It's such a powerful story. And it's funny, I have all these kids that want to read, these teenagers that want to read Colleen Hoover these days. And I'm like, We've got something so much better.
And I have to tell you, they love it. They do. They really just enjoy it. They own it. I haven't had a student who hasn't enjoyed it yet who, know, sometimes they wait and sometimes they finally go and they grab that book and they really enjoy it and they see what I'm saying. And it's more age appropriate for them. It is about teenagers, not about grown adults. And it allows that. imagination for them to come up with the ideas, you know, within there, as opposed to being more, I don't know.
Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Being, you know, sometimes, you know, these adult books are a little, don't leave much to the imagination. Whereas, you know, a young adult allows that imagination for them to create on their own and imagine things, but then also to see what what a healthy relationship can be like, you know, and once you've seen the bad, can see that healthy. And that's what's really important about the young adult material of today.
I love it so much of it, how it shows that healthy relationships and how that can be and what that should look like. And I think that's what I just love about those young adult books of today. Yeah. and Park is an interesting one because when I first started reading it, it took me a couple of chapters before I realized it was set not in the present, but in the eighties. I mean, for me, I grew up in the eighties. So like that was just right in my wheelhouse. But I'm, yeah. and yeah.
I'm always surprised that our students today love that book so much because to my mind, for them, that's like historical fiction. Like that would be when we were in our teens reading about the 1940s, you know? right. You know, it's funny, I never really asked them if they understand a lot of the references or the music or, or whatnot, but I don't really find, you I don't, don't know if they probably take it differently than we do, right?
They look, they, you know, like, I just remember like the corded phone and the Walkman. So I imagine they, they imagine it differently, the scene differently in the school bus with the music and sharing of the music. Yeah, yeah. But I think it speaks to, yes, right?
But it speaks to what a timeless sort of story it is at its heart that kids from 10 years ago now, like 10 years from now are able to sort of see themselves or understand the dynamics of what's going on for these characters in this story. So. right, absolutely. Love is love. No matter of age, friendship is friendship. That comfort and that need for safety is, and that's a timeless thing. It's never gonna go away. That's just human nature. So yeah, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Awesome.
Well, and thank you also for taking the time to come and share. truly, truly appreciate it. We've been trying to get this set up for a while and I'm so glad we finally did. Yes. Yes, me too. Hopefully we'll have you back soon because I know that there's just so much you are such a font of awesomeness. So. you, yeah. Thanks again and yeah, can't wait to get into this with my kids too. Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah, I look forward to it. Good luck.