Reading, Writing

Secret indulgences

sashikaufman

Ok, I know it’s not as exciting as the blog post title makes it out to be.  But I have a secret passion for Oprah Magazine.  Not every issue, some of them are too weight loss and beauty tip focused for me.  But this month’s issue has some fun and accessible articles about poetry and journal-writing.  It’s easy reading, and substantive as well.

One article asks famous people about their favorite poems or words of inspiration.   As someone who keeps a bulletin board next to my desk with different quotes and poems I find inspiring, it’s always interesting to me to see where other people find inspiration.  It’s also a different way to be introduced to new poets -although the assortment of people quoted runs the gamut from Demi Moore to Diane Sawyer to Mike Tyson.  Yikes!

And there’s a whole article on one of my favorite poets Mary Oliver.  So that’s my reading tip for the day.

Enjoy!

Sneaky Motherhood, Writing

It’s here! I’m in print!

sashikaufman

Hot off the presses; the spring issue of Brain, Child magazine can be found where ever better independent magazines on mothering are sold!!!

Turn to the last page, to the section called Motherwit to find my piece titled; The Interrogation.  Hooray!

An excited, but slightly sleep deprived, me with the Spring issue!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the page:

 

 

 

 

And, of course, my tiny muse.  Without whom none of this would be possible.

Busy with projects of her own!
Reading

The answer

sashikaufman

So I brought 3 books.  8th Grade Superzero -which I was almost done with anyway.  Let the Great World Spin, which I’ve been fighting to get into ever since I finished This Side of Brightness also by Colum McCann.  And then just in case I needed more YA, I also threw in If I Stay.  Luckily the bnb had so many great magazines, I never even came close to running out of reading material.

On our way out of town, we stopped at the great local bookstore Rock City.  There I picked up a copy of The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To.  Got to support local independent bookstores after all.

Also at the bookstore I stumbled upon some postcard sized prints by a really neat artist.  Jane Mount does portraits of people’s favorite books.  She calls it Ideal Bookshelves.   You can even order a custom print of a special someone’s favorite books!  I think I’ll be dropping hints quite frequently between now and July 7th!

Reading, Sneaky Motherhood

How many is too many?

sashikaufman

Ok, how many books is too many to bring on an overnight trip?  Driving, not flying, so weight is not really an issue.

Keep in mind, it’s my first over night trip away from my daughter since she was born.  Not sure why that affects the number of books I’m bringing, but since books are sometimes like security blankets to me, I think it does.

Also, heading to a bed and breakfast in wintery Maine so not much else to do besides scrabble and napping.   (Uh, going with a friend, not husband, just in case you think the fire’s burned out on my marriage already…)

School

Euphemistically speaking

sashikaufman

I’m teaching my 8th graders what a euphemism is, and it must be the Friday before vacation because my personal censoring device has been temporarily disabled.

Me: So a euphemism is an expression people use when they want to talk about something that makes them uncomfortable or embarrassed.  Do you know what the three most common topics that generate euphemisms are?

(silence)

Death, sex, and going to the bathroom.

(more silence)

What does it mean if you say “number two”?

(nervous giggling, mostly from the boys)

How about “making out”?  Or “getting it on”?  Ooh, or remember that old show the Newlywed Game? (ok, here I’ve gone off the deep end.  That show is before my time.  There’s no way a 13 year old is going to know what I’m talking about)  They used to call it “making whoopie”!

(Do you know what is sounds like when 20 adolescents simultaneously slink down in their seats and wish they were dead?  I do.)

Do you have a favorite euphemism?

 

Reading, School

I am “big girl” hear me roar

sashikaufman

I’m reading The Giver by Lois Lowry with my 8th graders.

Student: Ms. Kaufman, is Lois Lowry a boy or a girl?

Me: She’s a woman.

Student: Oh, so she’s a big girl.

Other Student: No, she’s an old girl.

Me: (hand to forehead) big sigh.

Thank goodness feminism isn’t dead.

Reading, Writing

Cardboard characters; worse in YA?

sashikaufman

I’m pretty picky when it comes to reading fiction.  I don’t read trashy books for fun the way I watch trashy movies.  However when I read YA, I’m more open-minded.  Maybe because I write YA I want to get a broader sense of what’s out there.

I think it’s fair to say that in YA there’s more attention paid to plot than language.  YA readers are generally more interested in what’s happening than the way it’s happening.  But why all the 2 dimensional characters?  This is something that I do think kids are aware of.  When they’re presented with really well drawn complex characters they like them.  They say things like; “the book was very real” or “the characters were like real people” or “the characters were interesting”.  Young adults are highly attuned to authenticity.   Regardless of genre, regardless of how many trolls or elves or dueling balrogs you have in your story, you have to have Frodo or Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Bella Swan, or Katniss Everdeen.  It’s not just the story, it’s their story, and you have to want to tag along with them for 200-600 pages.

For every great YA character there seem to be hundreds of “popular girl cliques” or “sad fat girls” or”football player heroes”.   Are stereotypical characters more prevalent in YA than adult fiction?  I’m not sure.

Favorite YA or other fictional character?

Sneaky Motherhood, Writing

Exciting news!

sashikaufman

An essay I wrote was accepted for publication by Brain Child magazine! The piece is actually a short script; a parody of a desperate mother holding four renowned sleep doctors hostage until they tell her how to get her baby to sleep.  I suppose it would fall into the sub-genre of autobiographical fantasy.  For more detail, you’ll have to wait until the Spring 2011 issue of Brain Child!

Sneaky Motherhood

Rabbit rabbit?

sashikaufman

Back in the day someone told me that if your first words on the morning of the new year were “rabbit rabbit” it would bring you good luck.  I’ve heard variations like “white rabbit” work too.  As a kid I always tried to start my new year this way.

For a while “rabbit rabbit” was eclipsed by “Ugh my head hurts”.

This year’s first words for a prosperous new year were “Rock, paper, scissors for who gets up with the baby?”

Happy New Year friends!

Reading, School

Goodreads for all

sashikaufman

I recently started sharing book recommendations and reviews with my students on Goodreads. They are required to keep a reading list through out the year and I thought this would be a fun way to take it on-line and give them access to each other’s lists.  If you don’t have experience with goodreads, it’s basically social networking for book nerds.  You can add and review as many books as you want and when you “friend” people you can see what they’re reading and check out their reviews.

I thought about creating a separate account when I started sharing with my students but due to time constraints and laziness, I just use my personal account.  It’s not like I’ve reviewed Anais Nin on there or anything.  Besides, most of them are too busy messaging each other to care what I’m reading.  I had no idea there was even a messaging feature until my students found it within 4 minutes of being introduced to the site.

This is a long introduction to the idea of older versus younger YA.  Often on book review sites  books for young adults will be described as 15 and up.  I teach 12-14 year-olds with varying levels of life and literary experience.  Sometimes I will get really excited about a book and describe it to my students only to realize that it’s probably not a book they should read without parental approval.  Oops.

My most recent YA read The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl is one of those books. I read it and would recommend it highly…but only if you’re 15 and up.