September 22nd | Week in Review

¡Hola a todos! Here are more recent resources from around the web. Enjoy and happy Hispanic Heritage Month!

— Latinos in Kid Lit posted a book review for Shadowhouse Fall by Daniel José Older, a follow-up to his book, Shadowshaper, which we featured here on the blog.  This is the second book in his “Shadowshaper Cypher” series and is recommended for advanced readers. As did Shadowshaper, this book grapples with difficult topics for young adults of color, including racialized violence, white supremacy, and youth activism.

– Colorín Colorado discussed Serving English Learners with Disabilities: How ESL/Bilingual Specialists Can Collaborate for Student Success. “Appropriately serving English Learners (ELs) with disabilities requires a team effort involving professionals from multiple disciplines to ensure that instruction is provided to support both the language-learning and disability-related needs of the students.”

— Also, Latinos in Kid Lit shared a Letter from Young Adult Readers to Latinx Writers about Race, Gender and Other issues. “As a class, we considered how these texts represent the Latinx community, and the history of Latin America and the Caribbean, to young readers, and in some cases, because of the lack of Latinx representation and authors in youth literature, these books may be the only portrayals a young reader may encounter in a book about Latinx people.”

–For those of you teaching middle or high school history, especially about the border, Santos released a new album named “Agonía.’ This album describes the many experiences of living at the border in Tijuana.

Abrazos,
Alin Badillo

¡Mira Look!: Author’s Corner: Daniel José Older

Saludos, todos! This week we will be showcasing the life and work of Daniel José Older, author of this month’s Featured Book, Shadowshaper. Shadowshaper has been hailed as one of the best new urban fantasies, and lauded for its diverse protagonists. However, Older is a man of many trades and, aside from his career as a young adult novelist, he is also a musician and composer. Older also spent nearly a decade working as a New York City paramedic, and he has turned some of the dispatches and memories from those years into creative non-fiction pieces, or “Ambulance stories.” Older’s time spent as a paramedic exposed him to a variety of social conditions and narratives, which, presumably, have influenced the political and sociological aspects of his creative work. His imaginative fantasy is grounded by real-world social critiques and commentaries. Older lives in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, which is also where his most recent novel, Shadowshaper, takes place.

According to a review of Shadowshaper by The New York Times, “In the best urban fantasy, the city is not just a backdrop, but functions as a character in its own right, offering up parallels between personal histories and histories of place. That is certainly true in Daniel José Older’s magnificent ‘Shadowshaper,’ which gives us a Brooklyn that is vital, authentic and under attack.” Indeed, Older’s own Brooklyn hometown emerges as a dynamic character full of artistic wonders and sociopolitical complexities, such as gentrification and racism.

Our Next Good Read: Shadowshaper

Join us January 11th at Bookworks from 5:00-7:00 pm to discuss our next book.  We are reading Shadowshaper (Ages 12 and up) by Daniel José Older.

Here’s a sneak peek into the book from Goodreads:

Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra’s near-comatose abuelo begins to say “No importa” over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep…. Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on.

Book Giveaway: Shadowshaper

We’re giving away a copy of Shadowshaper written by Daniel José Older–our featured novel for January book group meeting!! Check out the following from Goodreads:

Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra’s near-comatose abuelo begins to say “No importa” over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep…. Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on.

Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via paintings, music, and stories. Her grandfather once shared the order’s secrets with an anthropologist, Dr. Jonathan Wick, who turned the Caribbean magic to his own foul ends. Now Wick wants to become the ultimate Shadowshaper by killing all the others, one by one. With the help of her friends and the hot graffiti artist Robbie, Sierra must dodge Wick’s supernatural creations, harness her own Shadowshaping abilities, and save her family’s past, present, and future.