I Alone Can Fix it by Leonnig and Rucker

I ALONE CAN FIX IT by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker is the sequel to their bestseller A Very Stable Genius and in this case documents “Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year.”  It felt at times as though this book should come with trigger warnings, especially as we are currently dealing with the consequences of his (in)actions, hearing about the continued vaccine hesitancy, and watching COVID numbers rise. Leonnig and Rucker are Pulitzer-prize winning reporters for The Washington Post and use their many professional contacts to describe events, meetings, and conversations about the start of the pandemic, the lead-up to the 2020 election, and its aftermath. Much to consider and reconsider here with the role of the Wuhan Lab being just one example. Others are the role of advisors (including the military and General Milley in particular); separation between governing and political optics (e.g., the Lafayette Square photo op), race relations and divisiveness in America. This book (described elsewhere as “essential reading,” “meticulous history,” and “bombshell reporting”) will be invaluable to future students trying to understand our time. I ALONE CAN FIX IT received a starred review from Kirkus.  

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

THE READING LIST by Sara Nisha Adams is a story of resilience and connection, for both a young seventeen-year-old woman, Aleisha Thomas, and a roughly eighty-year-old man, Mukesh Patel. The intergenerational aspect, particularly watching these characters grow in their friendship and affection for each other, was uplifting. It’s exciting, too, to know that this debut novel is inspired in part by the author’s own grandfather, who actually lived in Wembley, England (where the story is set) and shared a love of books and libraries. The characters are wonderful, but the pacing seemed a bit slow. Also, Aleisha and Mukesh (“Mr. P.”) each experienced the death of a loved one so the story dealt with coping with grief, loss, and loneliness and was rather sad at points. However, avid readers will enjoy the frequent references to what are likely many of their own favorite books (To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, etc.). Adams was very clever in incorporating just enough information about those story lines and then tying them to challenges in her main characters’ lives. I found some of my own personal connections, too – as a wise character notes, “Sometimes, books just take us away for a little while, and return us to our place with a new perspective.” THE READING LIST is a LibraryReads selection for August – look for this new book, particularly if you are interested in even more reading recommendations. Eight titles feature in the story itself and Adams suggests another dozen or so of her personal favorites. The colorful cover conveys the celebration of reading within its pages.

Fires in Our Lives

FIRES IN OUR LIVES by Kathleen Cushman with Kristien Zenkov, and Meagan Call-Cummings offers “Advice for Teachers from Today’s High School Students.”  The first half of their book provides background and student quotes on “What Makes Schools Matter.” I especially liked the boxed sections like “Learning from a World of Crises” or “Newsday Tuesday” where students are encouraged to answer What? So What? and Now What? about an issue. Other activities (“I Used to Think … but Now I Think” and “Finding the Right Question”) are clearly valuable for our Civics and Research classes. The second half of FIRES IN OUR LIVES is even more action oriented and presents five “briefings” on issues of particular importance to students: “climate change, community violence, voter engagement, immigration, and gender identities.” Each of these offers some facts or statistics and points to ponder, but the real value is potential for increased engagement through the suggested exercises like reading and discussing a poem or participating in a role play on guns and gun violence from the Classroom Law Project. At the end of the book, notes and resources, including suggested books, links to lesson plans, activist organizations, and professional development, plus an index are provided.  In the past few years, we have generally shifted to having students explore and research an issue of importance to them, so they already use almost all of the resources described. I don’t think there is a great deal of “new” information here, but it is helpful to have it gathered together and other school districts, particularly those less comfortable with inquiry-based learning, would benefit from a review of this text.

Returning to the introduction, I want to highlight a point the authors stress: “Personal contacts and connections make the biggest difference, students told us.” It seems that will be a huge challenge as we prepare to re-enter school this fall. And that idea has been reinforced recently by Jonathan Haidt and Jean M. Twenge in their work in The Journal Of Adolescence, described in articles from The New York Times (“This is our chance to pull teenagers out of the smartphone trap”) and Washington Post (“Teens around the world are lonelier than a decade ago. The reason may be smartphones”). Pew Research data also reflects the “unprecedented level of anxiety” for teenagers (Feb. 2019 report) and for adults - parents and teachers - (March 2021 report, reflecting pandemic impact). If you have resources to share, please reach out.