Poetry Friday: Not Your All-American Girl
It's Poetry Friday!For the next few weeks, I will be featuring Asian American authors on my blog as part of the annual #AuthorsTakeAction initiative. In each post, I’ll share a recommended middle grade or YA novel by an Asian American author and a read-alongside poem.Before we get to today's featured book, though--a quick announcement.This Sunday, April 25, I am partnering with Nerdy Book Club for a special National Poetry Month livestream (on Facebook). Since Amanda Gorman's amazing performance at the 2021 presidential inauguration, educators have been looking for resources in teaching Spoken Word Poetry. I'm excited to introduce you to two spoken word performer/ educators who use this form of poetry in the classroom.
Illya Sumanto is a poet, children's theater director, and educator from Malaysia, currently based in Guangzhou, China. She is co-author of the book From Me to We : Teaching Children Taboo Topics for Empathy through Spoken Word Poetry in Malaysia.Award-winning poet and performer Ron Kipling Williams is adjunct professor at the Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics, University of Baltimore.Spoken Word is a form of poetry I want to learn more about. I'm excited to moderate the conversation between these two experts!
On to today's book and poem pairing...This week’s featured book is Not Your All-American Girl by Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang.According to Goodreads:Lauren and her best friend, Tara, have always done absolutely everything together. So when they don't have any classes together in sixth grade, it's disastrous. The solution? Trying out for the school play. Lauren, who loves to sing, wonders if maybe, just maybe, she will be the star instead of Tara this time.But when the show is cast, Lauren lands in the ensemble, while Tara scores the lead role. Their teacher explains: Lauren just doesn't look the part of the all-American girl. What audience would believe that she, half-Jewish, half-Chinese Lauren, was the everygirl star from Pleasant Valley, USA?From amidst the ensemble, Lauren tries to support her best friend. But when she can't bring herself to sing anymore, her spot in the play and her friendship are in jeopardy. With the help of a button-making business, the music of Patsy Cline, and her two bickering grandmothers, can Lauren find her voice again?Acclaimed coauthors Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang return to the 1980s world of Sydney Taylor Honor Book This Is Just a Test with this laugh-out-loud coming-of-age story.My take:There is so much to love about this book. It is laugh out loud funny. (The culture clash between Lauren's two grandmothers is sweet and hilarious.) But I also learned a lot about how relentless microaggressions and othering can feel to a middle schooler, especially when a teacher has rigid expectations about what "American" looks like.It's fascinating to me that real life best friends Rosenberg and Wan-Long Shang co-wrote Lauren's first person voice! Most of the co-authored books I've read are written in alternating points of view. Lauren is a seamless blend of Jewish and Chinese cultures. For someone like me, who was a teen in the 80s, the nostalgia of this book added to its appeal. And, as a former theater mom, I found the rehearsal scenes and relationships between the cast and crew members to be not only believable, but entertaining too.If you’d like a poem to read alongside Not Your All-American Girl, I recommend "How to Hula Hoop," by Anya Silver.How to Hula HoopBy Anya SilverLove the ridiculous.Fear not contortions of the bodynor the vibrations of failure.Place the hoop on your waistwhere your husband puts his hands.Then gyrate like crazy.There’s no single method:make of your hips a swivel stooland your pelvis a pendulum.Some will spiral slowly,letting the hoop rock and swinglike a carousel of pastel horses.I, graceless, wildly whirl myselffrom abdomen to knees.Normally, the hoop tumblesdown my legs in a minuteor three—but occasionally,it will stay and settle...Read the rest at Atticus Review.Next week, I’ll be featuring the middle grade novel Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park.