I made this in SWell and I love it. It's an intentions board. Beginning with winter break I've been working on anxiety reduction and it will be a big help. 

Two April Henry Chillers

     Two words I would describe April Henry as a writer are prolific and consistent. Prolific as in she puts out the books. Consistent as in if you're looking for a roller coaster ride of a chiller she won't let you down. Luckily last week when I picked up my inter library loans at Orono Public I found two of her masterpieces were in the pile waiting for me.

     In a scene tailor made for a Hallmark movie a little girl goes into the woods with her parents looking for the perfect Christmas 🎄. Here all resemblance to Hallmark ends. The mom is found dead, stabbed nineteen times. Little Ariel has been dropped off at a nearby Walmart. And her dad is nowhere to be found. The concensus is that he's the killer, especially since police have been call to the family home to intervene in domestic fights. 

     Fourteen years later Ariel, now Olivia, protagonist of The Girl I Used To Be, opens her door to two police officers. A woman walking her dog discovered a human bone a mile from where her mother was killed. It was DNA identified as her father's. The murder investigation is being reopened on the basis of this new evidence. 

     The police aren't the only ones looking for answers. Returning to the small town where she first lived, Olivia rent her grandmother's old house, gets a job, and starts investigating...

     ...which is probably a BIG mistake. Medford is one of those creepily small towns where people are up in each other's business. The people are bound to discover her identity and intentions. If the killer is still around (which is very likely) the person who dropped her three-year-old self off to be found at a Walmart might find an entirely different way of disposing of her inconvenient teen self.

     Maybe in the woods.

     Are you a fan of those popular chillers in which a group of people are in a building which they can't get out of and a killer who could be any of them starts picking them off one by one? Two Truths And A Lie is an irresistible example of this genre.

     Only a little ❄️ has been predicted. Not enough to necessitate cancelations. So Nell and and her acting club peers are enroute to a competition. Only six hours into a trip that should have only taken four they're in the middle of a blizzard. They start looking for shelter. 

     The teens and their chaperone end up in a creepy and largely abandoned motel along with a robotics team from another school, also en route to a competition, and some pretty sketchy adults. They and the robotics team decide to make the best of the situation by entertaining themselves. When a game of two truths and a lie segues into a seance they get pretty creeped out.

     The electricity going out doesn't exactly help matters.

     In the morning 🌄 light things look brighter...

     ...until one of the robotics girls is found dead with a note pinned to her: THIS IS THE FIRST. A killer is among them. And first implies more to come. And they're still unable to make contact with the outside world or leave the motel...

     ...which decades ago was the scene of an unsolved mystery: a gruesome bloody double homicide. 

     A good blizzard read, wouldn't you say?

On a purrrsonal note, years ago at the beginning of a major blizzard that would leave thousands of households, including ours, without power Amber and I decided to reread The Shining. That was quite the experience. 

A great big shout out goes out to my very talented horror book writer daughter, Amber, who has a chiller coming out this summer. 

Jules Hathaway 

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

We Want To Do More Than Survive (adult nonfiction)

     "This book is about mattering, surviving, resisting, thriving, healing, imagining, freedom, love, and joy: all elements of abolitionist work and teaching. Abolitionist teaching is the practice of working in solidarity with communities of color while drawing on the imagination, creativity, refusal, (re)membering, visionary thinking, healing, rebellious spirit, boldness, determination, and subversiveness of abolitionists to eradicate injustice in and outside of schools."

     No doubt about it. Bettina L. Love's We Want To Do More Than Survive is a scathing indictment of the racist way children of color are educated in America. She calls what they must endure being educated to merely survive when they deserve so much more. The fact that education is funded mostly by property taxes gives them so much fewer resources than white peers. The intersectional challenges of their lives are ignored. Discipline wise they're treated much more harshly. You know--that school to prison pipeline. 

     And educational "reforms"--No Child Left Behind, charter schools--often as racist as the institutions they're supposedly reforming, can never be enough. Children of color deserve welcoming, valuing, affirming schools in which they matter immensely. They deserve schools in which they're helped to handle the challenges of life with dignity and compassion. Schools in which their creativity, imagination, determination, and, yes, rebelliousness are nurtured and they're part of a community that doesn't stop at the school gates.

     In a direct and compelling narrative that blends research and history with her candid life experience Love tells us what's gone wrong and what needs to happen to transform education from survival to abolitionist. It's a must read for all who work in schools, plan to work in schools, or care about the damage they're inflicting on children of color. 

On a purrrsonal note, sometime tomorrow I have to cut ✂️ out 180 paper ❤️ s. The UMaine blood drive is Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm of course in charge of canteen. While people wait they'll be able to make Valentines cards. 

A great big shout out goes out to all who will participate. 

Jules Hathaway 

     

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

     

Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution (juvenile fiction)

     Middle grade social warriors and potential warriors are in for real inspiration. Sheri Winston's Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution touches on super relevant issues in the context of an engaging contemporary narrative. 

     Lotus and best friend Rebel, are starting seventh grade. For the first time they're going to separate schools. Lotus, a violin 🎻 prodigy, is going to a new performing arts school. She feels bad that it's diverting funds from the already severely neglected --as in roaches in the classroom--neighborhood middle school. But she believes that Atlantis is the only path to achieving her dream. Rebel, whose name well suits her, is attending and fighting for the  neighborhood school.

     Shall we say this is putting a real strain on their friendship?

     But racist Atlantis is not exactly a bed of roses. Classmates throw paper airplanes into her Afro. The boy she pushed out of first 🎻 in the school orchastra nicknames her Buckwheat and posts some truly nasty memes on social media. But the administration refuses to intervene. In their mind her afro is too distracting. Unless she subdues her crowning glory she's on the path to expulsion. 

     The severe neglect of majority black public schools and racist dress codes are issues that activists of all ages should get plenty agitated about. 

On a purrrsonal note I am not stepping out of my home this weekend. It's ❄️ and cold. Staying in with Tobago and doing homework is a much more appealing prospect. 

A great big shout out goes out to educational social justice warriors.

Jules Hathaway 

     

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone