Book Club - personal thoughts
In January, I accepted a new position Things have been going well.
I am trying to rebuild the relationships that were lost when the previous librarian left. I have taken over their programs, and I am slowly trying to make them my own.
One of the issues that I am having - well, it is not really an issue, but the last few books that were selected (last year) for the book club have had a strong focus on racism. I am working in a much more diverse community, which I love. I love learning and I love being exposed to new things. This is not the first time that I have worked in a diverse community and I hope it is not the last.
The last book we read was Tell Us We're Home by Marina Budhos. It is 100% Middle School Chick-Lit. It is a sweet novel and by sweet, I mean clean and by clean I mean the girls are so innocent that they are not really interested in boys despite being in the 8th grade.
Budhos's novel is about three girls who are all immigrants - Trinidad, Mexico and Russia. The three girls are best friends and their mothers are all cleaning ladies and/or baby sitters for the more wealthier families in their community.
Last night, I discussed this book. I am not an immigrant. I am not really diverse unless you count being left handed. So, I had some important topics that I wanted to bring up. I felt they were important topics, but I did not want to push the topics.
The first topic that we discussed are lower class vs upper class. I shared with the teens that my mother is a single parent and I do feel that I was lucky to grow up in a non-urban town. I asked them how they felt regarding that - again, where I am working now is sandwiched between some urban areas. Immediately the teens agreed with me. Immediately they shared why they feel their lives would be different. One of the topics that a teen brought up, was that he felt in urban downs there is more segregation. Another teen told me that her cousins who live in more urban towns only hang around with her race, and that she would feel sad if she didn't have the diverse friends she had today.
The second topic that we discussed was respect. Despite the three girls being from different parts of the world and their frustrations - embarrassments that they feel about the occupations that their mothers have - they respect their parents (despite these struggles). I asked what their feelings were about respect. A lot of them jumped to the "spoiled" nature that kids have. They talked about how it is frustrating to see kids in their grade get a new cell phone every couple of months and they talked about how if they "lost" their cell phone then they wouldn't be getting another one unless they paid for it themselves. I shared with them on how I can relate to their frustrations, as I had to pay for college and work full time, but I told them to focus on who they are as an individual. I told them that despite their struggles being different from someone who may have more money, that it is important to know that they are part of your past, present and future.
The third topic that we talked about was race. I am always a little uncomfortable talking about race. I know that teens do need to talk about it, but sometimes my experiences about race are often picked on by my own diverse friends and my experiences with weight - which is a lot different and another topic completely - so, while I know what it feels like to be treated differently due to my weight, I do not know what it feels like to be treated differently about the color of my skin. I shes shared with the teens - using facebook pictures - of some of my diverse friends and their histories (sorry friends!). I told them that it makes me angry when I am out with some of my friends and a server will ignore them or give me their change. I told them that I know that I know probably angers them too and I understand if they are unconformable talking about it. I talked to about Trinidad - a close college friend of mine has family from there - and I talked about my sister-in-law who is Spanish but does not speak a word of Spanish. They talked about their families and the languages they speak or their family members speak. One of the teens was actually born in Trinidad. We both talked about our amazement on how they have British accents! We also talked about the speediness - the way languages are talked. We also talked about Lola in the book and all off them felt Lola got the short end of the stink as the author makes her aggressive. They felt it wasn't to use that stereotype of Russian people being aggressive and materialistic - and they felt that Maria and Jaya were too soft and not aggressive enough and that they would have a difficult time being friends with someone like Lola.
We talked about a lot of other things: foods, friendships, enemies, dating, maturity, how things change every year, and we talked a lot about houses. We talked so much that we went over almost 15 minutes, so I applaud Budhos and writing a book that the teens could relate to.
Right before the library closed, one of the mom's called me and told me that her daughter has been talking about the book non-stop (her daughter did not read the book), so now they're going to read it together.
Note: Due to my broken keyboard, this post has not been edited for grammar mistakes and typos. I apologize in advance.
