IRL: Resources for Teaching YA Nonfiction

  The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival  by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess with Laura L. Sullivan https://www.sabicelrayess.org/book   Biography https://www.sabicelrayess.org/exclusive-listings      Writers have the creative ability to write about fantasy, politics, society, and a plethora of other topics but what distinguishes an average writer from a good writer is their ability to combine these topics effectively. Dr. Amra Sabic-El-Rayess and Laura L. Sullivan’s    The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival emulates each of the author’s strengths to create an engrossing book about the reality of warfare and living in a low education country.      Some writers adore the limelight while others enjoy the shadows. Sullivan is an American writer who dwells in numerous genres ranging from children’s fantasy to historical fiction. Based on her blog, one can conclude that Sullivan avoids large crowds ...

  Ordinary Hazards  by Nikki Grimes Photo Credit: Penguin Random House Reviewed by Justin Arellano, Taylor Arrey, Jose Arroyo, Jessica Benda, and Ryan Birchfield Review: Trigger Warning: This book contains mental illness, alcoholism, sexual assault and abuse. Nikki Grimes’ memoir Ordinary Hazards is a deeply personal collection of poems that explore the best and worst that her childhood had to offer. Starting at the age of six, Grimes uses her poems as tools to question time and memory. The narrative follows Grimes as she grows up, fighting her way through the foster care system, abuse she’s experienced and the toll of taking care of her mother who is schizophrenic. But through every life phase, Grimes uses her narrator voice – her adult self – to break the book into fractions and remind readers that although this is a story, it is not perfect and cohesive. This novel is a personal reflection, but even though Grimes is talking about herself, any young reader who is strugg...

Biography Editor and author Kelly Jensen has had experience working with literature for young adults as she herself once worked as a teen librarian prior to writing and editing. She is part of Book Riot, an independent book website, where she mainly researches and examines young adult literature, both fiction and non-fiction. Kelly is an esteemed writer and editor who has had her works published in multiple different magazines and anthologies. Her other works include Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy and Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World. Kelly also provides commentary in The V-Word: True Stories About First-Time Sex. In It Happens: A Guide to Contemporary Realistic Fiction for the YA Reader, Jensen discusses and examines the many different facets within contemporary young adult fiction. For (Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start The Conversation About Mental Health , Kelly received a Schneider Family Book Award Honor, along with being named the best book of 2018...