Books from 2017

Hello!!

“You know that reading is important, and you obviously want to make sure that your teenager grows into adulthood with all the skills he or she needs to succeed. The following is a list of ways that to encourage your teens to read.

1. Set an example. Let your kids see you reading for pleasure.

2. Furnish your home with a variety of reading materials. Leave books, magazines, and newspapers around. Check to see what disappears for a clue to what interests your teenager.

3. Give teens an opportunity to choose their own books. When you and your teen are out together, browse in a bookstore or library. Go your separate ways and make your own selections. A bookstore gift certificate is a nice way of saying, "You choose".

4. Build on your teens interests. Look for books and articles that feature their favorite sports teams, rock stars, hobbies, or TV shows. Give a gift subscription to a special interest magazine.

5. View pleasure reading as a value in itself. Almost anything your youngsters read--including the Sunday comics--helps build reading skills.

6. Read some books written for teens. Young adult novels can give you valuable insights into the concerns and pressures felt by teenagers. You may find that these books provide a neutral ground on which to talk about sensitive subjects.

7. Make reading aloud a natural part of family life. Share an article you clipped from the paper, a poem, a letter, or a random page from an encyclopedia--without turning it into a lesson.

8. Acknowledge your teens mature interests. Look for ways to acknowledge the emerging adult in your teens by suggesting some adult reading you think they can handle.

9. Keep the big picture in mind. For all sorts of reasons, some teenagers go through periods without showing much interest in reading. Don't panic! Time, and a few tips from this brochure, may help rekindle their interest.”

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Middle Grades:

ALL’S FAIRE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL. Written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson. “I dub thee brilliant,” our reviewer, Marjorie Ingall, said of this graphic novel about a girl just starting middle school, whose family works at a Renaissance faire.

BRONZE AND SUNFLOWER. By Cao Wenxuan. Translated by Helen Wang. The great Chinese author’s moving novel—his first to be translated into English—features an unlikely pair of friends, one mute, one orphaned, who help each other through tough times in rural China.

FISH GIRL. By Donna Jo Napoli. Illustrated by David Wiesner. In this beguiling graphic novel, a girl befriends and rescues a mermaid who has been held captive and forced to perform in an aquatic show by a sinister impresario.

PATINA. By Jason Reynolds. The second book in Reynolds’ engrossing and big-hearted series about the members of a track team focuses on a speed-demon girl who outruns challenges on the track and at home.

REFUGEE. By Alan Gratz. Gratz weaves together three separate stories of refugees on the run, finding the ingredients of a taut thriller in all of them while reminding us of the universality of refugees’ plight.
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For Teens:
Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth  
Divergent author Veronica Roth is back with a new series, this time set in another galaxy, instead of a dystopic Chicago. Roth’s talent for world-building is on display as ever; in Carve the Mark, every being develops a “currentgift,” a unique power to help them shape the future. But some gifts, like those belonging to Akos and Cyra, make their owners vulnerable to others’ control. With her talent for action-packed plots and powerful characters, Roth’s latest is sure to be much talked-about all of 2017.

City of Saints & Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson 
Gone Girl meets The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? Say no more and let’s just predict this will be the YA release that crosses over to adult fans. This murder mystery set in Kenya follows Tina, a girl who fled the Congo only to now suspect the wealthy and powerful Kenyan family that employed her mother as a maid may have also been responsible for her death. Living on the streets with revenge on her mind, Tina makes her way back into the world of the esteemed and criminal Greyhills that, needless to say, is both dangerous and gripping.

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

LaCour’s novels The Disenchantments and Hold Stillshould be obligatory reads for anyone struggling with the teen years. She hits all the right notes again in We Are Okay, about Marin, who fled her old life in California for college in New York without a single word to anyone who knew her… including her best friend Mabel. This quiet novel about grief and loss and escaping sadness is perfect for readers who prefer big feels to big action.

Camp So-and-So by Mary McCoy
McCoy, whose debut Dead to Me took on hard-boiled Los Angeles noir from a teen perspective, is back with another genre-busting work that ranks her high on the list of authors able to deliver on unexpected territory. In Camp So-and-So, 25 girls receive letters inviting them to a lakeside retreat in the Starveling Mountains that promises volleyball, rock-climbing, and Shakespeare beneath the stars. And, yet, at the time of the letters’ mailing, the camp does not exist. So, where are our heroines going? To a very dangerous place.

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner
Author of the acclaimed 2016 heartbreaker The Serpent King, Zentner’s sophomore novel looks to keep him on teens’ to-read lists. In Goodbye Days, has-it-all high-schooler Carver Briggs’s world is upended when one text while driving results in a car crash that kills his three best friends. Guilt-racked and fearing prison, Carver seems like he has no one on his side. When his friends’ families start asking for Goodbye Days — a time to share memories and say proper goodbyes — he feels even more worried and alone. Zentner’s characters are impossible not to empathize with.

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
“He wrote one of my fave contemporaries of all time” is a sentiment expressed on Goodreads about Sáenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe — and more than once (in different words). In this follow-up, the author returns with a story about love, identity, and family. Sal grew up with an adoptive gay father as part of a huge Mexican-American family and with a solid best friend in Samantha. So why is he suddenly questioning his place in the world during his senior year? With warmth and humor, Sáenz asks and works to answer the kinds of questions teens and adults alike find themselves asking.

You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner
Gardner makes her YA debut with a main character who’s not like any other out there: Julia, a deaf artist who attends a school for the hearing impaired but gets kicked out when she covers up a nasty slur about her best friend on its back wall with a beautiful (but illegal) graffiti mural. Her best friend tattles, and Julia’s punished by having to attend a suburban school, where Julia continues to tag in her quest to be the next Banksy, and becomes embroiled in a graffiti battle. Aside from its unique protagonist, You’re Welcome, Universe is loaded with beautiful interior illustrations, demonstrating Gardner’s versatile talents.

Gem & Dixie by Sara Zarr
The forthcoming release from National Book Award finalist Zarr should count as more than one book for teens who’ve not yet read her, because after finishing this one, they’ll surely dig into her back catalog (including the stellar Story of a Girl). In Gem & Dixie, Zarr takes on the world of sisters, and in this case, sisters from a home life that never quite feels like a comfortable place, due to a mom who’s fighting battles of her own and a father who’s gone more often than he’s there. While Gem has always done what she can to take care of her sister, on an unexpected trip, she realizes she might not be able to be Dixie’s constant forever.

Literally by Lucy Keating
In her debut Dreamology, Keating explored what happens when we fall in love with our dreams, and then they become reality. She remains as inventive as ever — maybe more so! — with this wonderfully meta follow-up in which the perfect-lifed Annabelle discovers she’s the new protagonist in the next novel from author Lucy Keating (yes, you read that right!). In Keating’s fun and whimsical voice, the book questions how much of our life we really want plotted out, and how much we’d like our story to be purely ours.
(On Sale: 4/11/17)

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
Author Becky Albertalli made fans nervous with her follow-up effort to the insta-YA-favorite Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. But, they had nothing to worry about, as the early word on this one is that it has just as much to love, in a different way. In an early review on Goodreads, author Adam Silvera says of overweight, lovelorn protagonist Molly (one half of a set of twins), “Molly has such a winning voice and winning heart and I can’t wait for you all to meet her.”

The Whole Thing Together by Ann Brashares
Summertime. A beach house. A guy and a girl whose lives touch one another’s in countless ways even though they’ve never met. Sasha and Ray (her dad was once married to Ray’s mom, and they had three daughters together) are both part of blended families, neither of which wants to give up a memory-filled beach house on Long Island. Brashares, with her trademark heart, tells the tale of lives intersecting, and the ripple effect that follows. Beach reads might not get better than this.

Kill All Happies by Rachel Cohn
One half of the writing duo (with David Levithan) behind Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, Cohn is back with another out-all-night party on the page — literally. Vic Navarro is graduating, and she plans to throw the most epic bash her town has ever seen (while winning the heart of her longtime crush Jake Zavala-Kim). The setting is Happies, a restaurant in town that happens to need a nice farewell before it closes its doors for good. Everything is going amazingly, until fans of Happies start appearing out of nowhere to say good-bye and whoop it up on the deserted theme park just behind the restaurant. The wild-and-crazy bash is sure to inspire envy from would-be teen party throwers and maybe some nostalgia from adult readers too.

The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich
Set within a secret organization that cultivates teen spies — each called a “Love Interest” because forging intimate bonds is the way to get the information a spy needs — Dietrich’s book is smooth and stylish on its face, but begs deeper questions. The story focuses on Caden and Dylan, two boys living outside their spy school for the first time ever, and both with sights set on the same girl, someone crucial to the mission. Whoever doesn’t get the girl will perish but the more interesting question comes when both young men experience feelings they weren’t trained to have. Dietrich’s debut is a powerful entry into the LGBTQ YA canon.

Once and For All by Sarah Dessen
YA superstar supreme Dessen’s 13th novel looks to be a lucky one. The frothy, funny tale (still brimming with Dessen’s tendency to evoke “all the feels”) centers on Louna, daughter of famous wedding planner Natalie Barrett. Louna lives in ballrooms, on beaches, and in fancy mansions, witnessing every vow and toast under the sun. But she’s also distrustful of the whole “happily-ever-after” ending, and has her own sad love story in her past. So when she meets Ambrose, a serial dater, of course she keeps a safe distance, and of course he decides that he must have her. This is definitely one romance lovers will say “I do” to.

Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts
Besides the catchy title, Royal Bastards looks like it will indeed catch on. Author Shvarts may be making his YA book debut but he also works and writes as a video game designer. In Bastards, we follow Tilla, an intrepid but surly cast-off of Lord Kent of the Western Province, who raised her as a baby but more or less shrugged her off once he discovered his trueborn children. But when a visiting princess chooses to sit with Tilla and other kingdom bastards at a royal dinner, everything starts to change. Especially when Tilla finds herself helping to safeguard the princess’s life as rebellion brews.

What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum
Buxbaum, whose Tell Me Three Things earned her comparisons to Rainbow Rowell, shows she’s her own brand of heartfelt reading with her second YA novel. The story centers on an unlikely friendship, one borne of as simple a thing as popular Kit Lowell deciding, after her father’s death, to sit somewhere new at lunch: with socially isolated David Drucker. David’s blunt, Kit asks a lot of questions, and together the two of them take on finding out the mysteries of her father’s car accident.

The Gatlon School for Vigilantes by Marissa Meyer
This new trilogy from Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles) promises to be the best of all possible doozies. It centers on a town with two schools: The slightly uppity Morris Academy, where superheroes are bred, and the less impressive Gatlon School for the Gifted, which seems to turn out minions and sidekicks. The early excitement for this one on Goodreads includes lots of all caps: “SUPERHEROES. VIGILANTES. VILLAINS. CRIME!” (The accompanying GIF reactions are harder to explain, but many include ecstatic screaming.)

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                                             Happy reading!!

Multi-tasking? Or Not.

"Get off your phone (or iPad)!"
"How long have you been on there?"
"I can't talk to you when you are looking at your phone"
"You can't do two things at once and do them well!"

Are you in my house? Those are things that I say on a daily basis to my children and honestly, my husband too. Do you say those things to your mentee? Do they get in the car and immediately pull out their phone to check their texts or social media? Or even worse- start snapping pictures on Snapchat? Those goofy pictures that make no sense to me? All while trying to carry on a conversation with you?

What do we do? What is good for them? Can we effectively do two things at once? One that is physical and one that’s cognitive? Or do two cognitive things at once?

There is some research out there that may be helpful. I always hear people say they are good at multi-tasking. Is this true? “Multi-tasking is the concurrent operation by one central processing unit of two or more processes.” (https://incident-prevention.com/ip-articles/multitasking-vs-switch-tasking-what-s-the-difference). If you are doing a physical task that you have done very, very often and you are very good at, then you can do that physical task while you are doing a mental task. So if you have learned to walk then you can walk and talk at the same time. However, [cognitive] multi-tasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your conscious brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully. (http://mass-plc.com/blog/419/multitasking-vs-task-switching)

Most of the time what we call multi-tasking is really task switching, not multi-tasking -- The term multi-tasking is actually a misnomer. People can't actually do more than one task at a time. Instead we switch tasks. By definition, “Task switching is an executive function that involves the ability to unconsciously shift attention between one task and another” (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/the-true-cost-multi-tasking)

Task switching is "expensive" -- There has been a lot of research on task switching. Here's what we know from the research:
*It takes more time to get tasks completed if you switch between them than if you do them one at a time.
*You make more errors when you switch than if you do one task at a time. If the tasks are complex then these time and error penalties increase.
(https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/the-true-cost-multi-tasking)
 
“Ultimately, it’s that frantic switching of gears (and not truly doing two things at once) that raises so many warning bells for psychologists and productivity experts. Every time you switch, it uses up time and glucose in the brain,” explains Weinschenk. Glucose is the brain’s main source of energy—it’s what keeps us alert and focused.(https://blog.trello.com )

So what can we do when our mentee picks up their phone while we are talking to them?

Some ideas I have found helpful are:
1. TALK to your mentee. Talk about how they are not giving you their real attention when they are looking at their phone while trying to talk.

2. Stop talking and just wait when they start using their phone. Tell them you will wait until they are done.

3. Make a cell phone free zone or time. At our house we have a basket- your phone goes in it at dinner or for a family meeting

4. Set a time for checking texts or social media; for example if you chat for a while and catch up and then give your mentee 10 minutes for phone time, then put it away.

What do you do? Share here any ideas you have!!!
Happy weekend!!

Teens, Sleep and School Success

Late bedtimes and difficulty waking are linked to changes in brain chemistry during adolescence. Understanding teen sleep requirements can help improve school performance. (see here)

Hi everyone

School has started and in my house we are dealing with the dreaded "Do I really have to go to bed?  I'm not tired".  It's hard to switch from the lazy summer schedule to getting up for school.  But kids need SLEEP.  Talk to your mentee- you can support them by understanding their sleep needs, letting them know why they need sleep and encouraging them to have good sleep habits now. 

 "As middle and high school students adjust to school schedules, many find it challenging to keep up with studies and activities and still get the sleep they need. Michigan State University Extension helps teens, parents and others who care about teens better understand adolescent brain development and how it influences sleep cycles.

Two changes affect sleep patterns at puberty. The brain changes the way sleep is regulated, with increased hormones that shift sleep timing to later at night and also sleeping later in the morning. Another change is the need for more sleep – teens need 8.5–9.5 hours of sleep each night.
Scientific studies by over sixty experts in the field of sleep health have researched this topic for almost 20 years and confirmed these findings. A prominent expert on adolescent sleep, Dr. Mary Carskadon, director of the Chronobiology/Sleep Research Laboratory at Bradley Hospital in East Providence, R.I. and professor at the Brown University School of Medicine, notes that teens who get the sleep they need have less likelihood of depressed moods, reduced tardiness, reduced absenteeism and better grades in school. She maintains that children and adolescents experience better learning and academic success and greater physical and mental health when their sleep is protected and supported to levels recommended by a consensus of experts. Sleep is a very productive time for the developing brain. During sleep the brain is organizing and consolidating the day’s learning.
Carskadon defends the scientific evidence in Sleep Guidance for Kids and Teens Is Based on Sound Science, and also acknowledges that there is some individual variability in sleep needs – therefore these recommendations are offered as guidelines. She encourages parents to watch for potential signs of insufficient sleep in children and teens, such as difficulty waking in the morning, daytime sleepiness and sleeping longer on weekends and school vacations.
Sleep experts say dimming the lights at night and getting lots of daylight in the morning can help. Avoiding caffeine, especially in the evening, having a routine bedtime of 10 p.m., sleeping in a cool environment and turning off music and other electronic devices will also help to reset the body clock. Allow time to catch up on sleep during the weekend, but avoid “binge-sleeping.” If a student is used to getting up at 6:30 a.m., they shouldn’t sleep until noon on the weekend, which confuses their bodies."

Article courtesy of http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/teen_sleep_cycles_affect_school_success_habits_that_help

 

 

 

 

 

Making Friends

I think we all instinctively know we feel better after spending time with a friend. We feel energized and happier. If we share a problem with a friend, we feel less hurt. When we share our feeling and someone can empathize and say "ME TOO!!" and it often reduces feelings of isolation and the idea that we are the only one that feels this way or had this happen.  But there's also this whole new body of research showing how profoundly friendships impact our emotional and physical health. Friendships protect us from depression and anxiety. They boost our immune system.  Our memory is enhanced and we sleep more deeply. The list goes on about how spending time with friends and having close confidantes supports our health.  But it is a skill- making and keeping friends, and some kids have a harder time than others.

Here are some great ideas to share with your mentee from Pro Kinship

Keys to Making and Keeping Friends

1. Take a genuine interest in others.  Listen and talk to people you are around.

2. Be a giver, not a taker.  A good friend is better at giving and helping you than in taking from you.

3. Be loyal.  Be true to the other person and stick with them in the good, the bad, and the ugly.

4. Be a positive person.  People will want to hang around more if you laugh and have fun together.

5. Appreciate the differences in others.  We are all unique so take the time to learn from each other and what is different.

6. Build on common interests.  What brought you together in the first place is what you should focus on to keep you together.

7. Be open, honest, and real.  Be ready to hear what the other has to say and be honest with your feelings.

8. Repair mistakes.  You are familiar with your friends strengths and weaknesses, so you know how to tear them down better than any others.  No one is perfect.

9. Make time and show appreciation.  Familiarity and comfort with someone can leave us forgetting to show gratitude.  Don’t  let the  relationship become one-sided and only focused on yourself.

10. Don’t make assumptions.  Don’t assume what your friends are thinking, check it out instead.

 

  www.prokinship.org

Kids and Cooking

Cooking.  Most of us do it on a regular basis, but have you done it with your mentee? Cooking together provides many valuable lessons and keeps their brains and hands busy!!

Teaching Your Child to Cook: 7 Surprising Benefits of Cooking with Kids

Most children have phases during childhood when baking or cooking is a keen interest. This natural curiosity provides adults with the perfect opportunity to capitalize on a great learning experience--the art and science of cooking.

 

 

Sadly, many American adults do not cook, citing lack of knowledge, not enough time to cook or shop, or having someone else in charge of cooking. In a world where home cooked meals equal healthier fare, teaching kids to cook is a critical element….

 

Not only are kids of all ages interested in what goes on in the kitchen, there are many benefits from getting involved. Here's just a short list of the wisdom that gets passed on when kids cook:

1. Math Skills: Doubling a recipe requires addition (or multiplication) skills, halving it requires division, and recipe fractions like 1/2 cup and 3/4 teaspoon bring math applications into the kitchen. Often, kids don't recognize they are practicing math!

2. Comprehension: Reading and understanding step-by-step directions, adding ingredients in sequence, and techniques such as folding and blending, are all important components to yielding the finished food product. Helping your child fine tune his reading comprehension skills at the same time doesn't hurt!

3. Real Life Science: Cooking is a science experiment. Too much salt, baking powder, not enough flour, or the wrong timing and you're likely to have a flop on your hands. Cooking provides an opportunity for kids to get hands-on experience with basic science.

4. Self-Esteem: Cooking allows kids to get instant feedback, which helps them learn and grow in self-knowledge. Learning a new skill, such as baking or cooking, is known to help grade school children with healthy self-esteem development.

5. Communication: A relaxed atmosphere in the kitchen offers an opportunity to talk, about anything! Adults can take advantage of this, especially with teens, as communication is a key element in a well-adjusted, healthy child.

6. Life Skills: Cooking is a life skill, much like driving a car, learning to read, or swimming. As children grow and get closer to adulthood, the job of feeding becomes theirs. Start the cooking lessons at a young age so the transition to adult cook is easy later on.

7. Fun! Last but not least, cooking is fun! Having fun with a child in the kitchen builds positive memories, good vibes, and good food. With all the benefits of teaching kids to cook, and no limits with starting, what are you waiting for?

(https://www.zak.com/articles-7-surprising-benefits-of-cooking-with-kidsThis post was contributed by our partner: Just the Right Byte

In addition,

Exposure to scratch cooking helps kids develop a mature palate and a taste for fresh, wholesome ingredients. The earlier kids become accustomed to nutritious foods, the less likely they will acquire a taste for processed foods.

Kids are much more likely to eat what they make. Is there anything more fun than eating your art project? Cooking creates a sense of ownership. When kids help in the kitchen there are fewer meal-time battles and more willingness to try new foods.

Meals prepared from scratch usually contain more nutrients and fewer calories, chemicals and sweeteners than pre-packaged foods and restaurant meals.

Cooking together provides a natural way to discuss nutrition and the impact that food choices have on the environment. The more educated children are about food, the more likely they will appreciate your suggestions to eat something healthy.

Spending time in the kitchen gives them confidence. Kids thrive on feeling accomplished. Cooking is an ideal way to boost self-worth and teach responsibility. There is nothing cuter than watching children proudly serving their food to others.

Preparing meals together means quality time. Cooking with children when they are young offers an opportunity to communicate with them on a regular basis. Your time chatting and cooking in the kitchen together becomes even more important as they reach the adolescent and teenage years.

What else do they learn? Science, language, counting, fractions, budgeting, weighing, sequencing, measuring, problem-solving, sharing, fine motor skills, reader, and learning about other cultures- to name just a few important things!

Excerpt from Easy Meals to Cook with Kids by Julie Negrin © 2010

 Are you curious now?  Here are some web sites with some great ideas!!

http://www.kidspot.com.au/kitchen/occasions/cooking-with-kids

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/packages/recipes-for-kids/cooking-with-kids/

https://artfulparent.com/cooking-kids-35-fun-ideas-recipes 

If you try some ideas here, be sure to send me a picture!!  

Pay it forward!!

 

As mentors you are paying forward every day. It's a BIG thing. You know that and so do I!
My own kids want to do the BIG things however; sometimes our kids always don't realize the impact of the small things. It’s often the little things that can make a difference in a life.



Coming up:
"Pay It Forward Day is a global initiative that exists to make a difference by creating a huge ripple of kindness felt across the world. We believe that small acts, when multiplied by millions of people can literally change the world for the better — and on April 28th we’ll set out to prove it! For this year’s international Pay it Forward Day (PIFD) we are aiming to inspire over 10 million acts of kindness around the world. Imagine the difference that would make! Join us in paying it forward, and help spread the word about this important day!"
Pay it forward

So what can we teach our kids to do?  What can they see US do to encourage and empower them to go forward and BE the change?  My kids and I sat down and made this list:
Buy someone a cup of coffee
Hold the door for someone
Smile and say hello to someone you do not know 
Sit by someone who is alone
Leave a kind note for a friend
Pay for the person behind you in the drive through
Donate to a cause you love


Add to this list!  Share with us what you did, it is amazing what the power of a small act of kindness is on your own soul.