Teamwork and Individual Stories

Sometimes when I meet a character in a realistic fiction story who accomplishes a major goal or succeeds at a great task that seemed daunting or impossible, I think how lucky I am to have met that person, and been an observer of their life (even though I know the author was the one who did the masterful job of creating the character and challenge and making it all seem real). Then, I often wonder, what about the other characters involved? I don't know if I would have been able to accomplish the same feat as the main character. Just because the protagonist is the star player of the championship team, and the story focused on her, and she has a great story, the other players on the team have a story, too, don't they? I have to tell myself this daily when I doubt my skills and abilities and think that maybe what I have to offer and the stories I write aren't "good enough" when compared to others. We don't know what happens behind someone else's front door.

You know what? My stories matter. And, I want to hear those other stories, too. They do have value. I think this is part of what I love about the character, Nikki, in the debut novel by Barbara Carroll Roberts.

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Nikki on the Line Written by Barbara Carroll Roberts; (c)2019 Little, Brown and Company (Publisher)

In Nikki on the Line, Roberts gives birth to a main character, Nikki, age 13, whose immediate family is comprised of her younger brother, Sam, and their single mom. Nikki lives for playing basketball, even though her mom apparently has no sports genes and seems to zone out when Nikki talks the sport. Readers also learn, when the science teacher assigns a project involving DNA and family, that both Nikki and her brother were conceived via anonymous sperm donors. To Nikki, this is initially the most embarrassing thing her mom could have done to her kids.

The story primarily revolves around Nikki's involvement playing on a club basketball team. After she makes the team, she must convince her mom how much it means to play at the club level. Nikki also must decide what she will sacrifice to make it feasible for her mom to afford the club fees on a single-parent salary. The story continues with Nikki figuring out where she fits on a team of players who each perform at a high level of skill, managing the changes she chose for her life so she can play at the club level, and finding her way with friendships. As the story progresses, Nikki struggles with belief in her own abilities and wondering if her choices are truly worth it.

I loved this book on several levels. First, I'm sure I've mentioned before that I am not a sports person. I watch basketball at times, but I do not know the rules of the game. Until reading Nikki on the Line, I also only saw basketball players from the outside, solely as players, which is also part of the reason watching team sports has not appealed to me. Roberts writes with a clarity that allowed me to see via Nikki's first person point-of-view and be in the game. I was on the floor, in Nikki's mind, seeing through her eyes. This was a perspective I've never had with basketball before. The plays started to make sense. The working together with team-mates and strategy from the coach came into focus. I could see it, and I liked it.

Second, being a mom who also conceived her daughter via a sperm donor, I found Nikki's embarrassment interesting. Each family is different, and I wonder when Nikki first started to have a problem with how she was conceived. I have considered how my daughter will think when she reaches age 13, but we have had conversations about it (at levels that are appropriate for her age). So far so good. My first picture book manuscript draft during grad school was a story I wrote for my daughter about a girl who struggled with making a family tree for school and trying to figure how how to fit in the person who brought her and her mom together. (If you want the actual terminology I used, I am looking for an agent and/or publisher for the now heavily revised manuscript that I included in my graduate creative thesis). In Nikki on the Line I appreciate how, as Nikki starts to learn about the man who she identifies as her "paper dad", she starts to acknowledge and welcome the traits she likely inherited from him.

Third, when looking at the book as a whole, the theme of teamwork comes to mind. Not only do the individual contributions of each player combine to make a dynamic team, everything in Nikki's life relates back to teamwork. Whether it is how she works with a friend and family to improve her basketball skills, how she works with her brother and her mom to make playing basketball a reality, or how all parts of her life come together, like a team, to make her hopes and goals a success.

Finally, I love how this book was not about a girl who single-handedly led a basketball team to a championship or won a super scholarship or was discovered and became a star. It was about a girl who makes up one important part of a greater whole. It was about a girl who understands the value of hard work, practice, family, friendships, and what it takes to be part of a team. I wonder what the story would be if any of the other players on Nikki's basketball team were the protagonists. Any one of them might have a story equally valuable. For now, though, in this story, Nikki is the winning character in my mind.

To discovery of many more perspectives, and individual stories.

Today and tomorrow,

~Tamara

I Forgot How to Read--Or So I Had Thought

In one week I begin fall semester classes toward my media specialist license.
In two weeks I return to a new year of full time teaching.
Today's post is the first of the two week countdown. 
I hope to establish some sort of routine, and a greater focus for this blog.
For the two weeks, I shall see where things go.
To many musings!

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I forgot how to read.
Or, so I had thought until I took an Intro to Children's Literature class in graduate school while I pursued my elementary education teaching degree.

Looking back, I remember the day in kindergarten when Mrs. Brewer entered the class, conversed with my teacher and then announced the names of the children who would join her in her classroom to learn to read.
"Choose me! Choose me!" I pleaded silently again and again until my name, Tammi, at the time, was spoken.
That was when my memory of my love of reading and learning truly began. (Although I have never forgotten when Mr. Dooley, the principal that year, took children to the courtyard during kindergarten open house night, showed us the duck eggs, and nest, and then read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.)

By second grade I was teaching my preschool-aged sister to read. I used the flashcards (which I still have) and the folded storybooks of Tad, Jill, and Lad (which I also still have). I knew I wanted to become a teacher some day. Besides my own reading, my classroom teacher, Miss J., who I felt blessed to have for first, second and third grade, knew how to read to children. (I'll say more about this in a future post.) She introduced me to the books of Bill Peet, the poetry and silliness of Shel Silverstein and Dennis Lee, and the books of Judy Blume--particularly Freckle Juice and the class favorite, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

These led me to read more and more. I discovered Carolyn Haywood's Betsy books (which I recently discovered remain in print), more Judy Blume--my all time favorite book became Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself  and after 21 reads, it became my mission to memorize the book (which I never accomplished, but I made a good start). 
I later discovered the spookiness and magic of Lois Duncan, the sweetness of the Sweet Valley High series, and many more wonderful books.

Somehow, as reading literature became more a part of English classes, this triggered an anxiety for me that carried into college.

• Do I have enough time to get through the reading? 
• What parts should I focus upon?  
• What if I focus on the wrong parts and can't remember the right things for the test? 

I think the last question was my greatest fear. As a result, I seemed to lose the ability to read for enjoyment. I struggled to complete any book without seeking help from "Mr. Cliff". (I was able to read some book, but many I could not.) Today I still say that despite earning a bachelor's degree in creative writing and literature, I graduated literary illiterate. I felt there was no way I could ever consider teaching an English class. I know that I do know more now, and have stronger reading skills, but concentrating to get through an "adult" book, continues to be a challenge.

Forward to grad school and Intro to Children's Literature. Reading assignments included picture books and middle grade books. No tests. Only discussions and written reflections. Suddenly, I had the ability to complete the reading of a book again. Suddenly, my love for reading had returned.

Don't ask me what the last adult book was that I completed in whole.
I do have no problem telling you the last children's book I completed.
As of today:

• Picture book--Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle (Unfortunately the library copy had some missing flaps to show "before" images. Despite this, upon first "read" (as this is a wordless picture book), the pink (and my daughter loves pink) illustrations of a girl and a flamingo developing a connection and dancing together is lovely and sweet. I am working on figuring out how best to "read" wordless books aloud when I share a book with my daughter. I  encourage her to tell me a story to accompany the pictures. No luck yet. If we talk about pictures together and I ask guiding questions, we can tell the stories together. It just feels like something is missing, as compared to when I can read a story aloud. I am open to suggestions for enriching the experience of sharing wordless picture books.)
• Transition book--Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee (I just read this to my daughter tonight.She and I both agree she is like Bink. I loved this first book and was able to easily suspend disbelief in regards to the two children appearing to live on their own without adult supervision. I think the first compromise made by the two girls, related to socks and pancakes, is my favorite part.)
• Middle Grade book--Nest by Esther Ehrlich (I hope to write a longer review later. In a nutshell I can say, despite this book seeming long at times, the visual language, real characters (characters who questioned their own feelings, and struggled both internally and externally), love of family even when challenges seemed unbearable, connection to nature and birds, and the simpler life connected to games such as watching "water worms" race down the window during a rainfall made me nostalgic for the happier and simpler times of my own youth. Chirp, the main character, possessed a kindness and sensitivity toward a friend who desperately needed caring.)
• Young Adult--The Living by Matt de la Peña (I had trouble putting down this plot-driven disturbing and frightening story. The story included the catastrophe of ”the big one” (earthquake) hitting the west coast of the U.S., a pandemic, corporate corruption, a tsunami, a job on a cruise ship, and a protagonist who would be content with life had it remained adventure-free in his southern California town near the Mexican border. I think what disturbed me is that the plot did not seem totally implausible (although I don't know if the natural events, scientifically, could happen as they did). What I appreciated, when comparing this book to other stories I have read is that I didn't find myself saying things such as, “Come on! Give me a break!” as one horrible event happened after another. In some stories such ongoing occurrences of catastrophes seem overdone and unlikely. De la Peña managed to tie everything together in a way that seemed possible. I feel this book could be easily “sold” to teens in high school and possibly upper middle school who enjoy suspenseful realistic fiction involving danger, a mystery, and a relatable teenage main character who values family, likes girls, comes from a low income home and community, and is a survivor. On a side note, I just picked up the sequel, The Hunted at the library yesterday.)

There is no shame in reading a children's book as an adult.
As an adult in public.
Really.
This is just one girl's opinion.
~Tamara