KATE NARITA: CHILDREN'S AUTHOR
  • Home
  • About
  • 100 Bugs
  • PODCAST
  • BLOG
  • Educators
  • AUTHOR VISITS
  • Contact

Chalk + Ink: Episode 42; Solitude, Storytelling, and Surprises with Ruth Behar

9/23/2022

2 Comments

 
Picture
The flexible and fascinating Ruth Behar talks about the importance of solitude, storytelling, and vulnerability in our teaching and writing practices.

In order to be an effective teacher and an effective writer, we need solitude.

For our teaching practice, solitude enables us not only to plan lessons, but it also gives us time to reflect on what went well and what could have gone better. Solitude also rejuvenates us, giving us time to soak up silence.

For our writing practice, solitude provides us with opportunities to create and reflect on what's working well in our manuscripts, and what could work better. Solitude also rejuvenates us, giving us time to immerse ourselves in craft, faraway from fielding rejections and marketing mania.

In order to be an effective teacher and an effective writer, we need to tell stories.

When we share stories with our students, they connect to us as human beings. They use the shaka hand signal or shout, "Me, too," to let us know they have experienced the same emotion or ocurrence.

When we put stories onto the page, we allow readers wherever they are, to connect with us, to feel validated, and to create their own fictive dreams. 

Finally, as teachers and writers, we have to be vulnerable.

Ruth explains that students know the difference between a teacher who deeply cares for them and a teacher who shows up for the paycheck.

Just like students, readers know which authors have put their heart on the page, and which authors are hiding something, not letting readers into their hearts, not quite ready to be completely vulnerable. Readers discard closed hearted books in search of a different activity where they feel seen.

Ruth thinks the following middle grade books should be available for students in classrooms:

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (1945 Newbery Honor Book)
This classic antibullying book is a great way to discuss the implications of complicity. The repercussions of seeing mistreatment of someone and not stopping it. This discussion brought me back to when I taught first grade in Spanish in Chelsea because I read Los cien vestidos aloud to my class every year.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (1990 Newbery Winner) 
Number the Stars tells the story of the Danish Resistance during World War II through the eyes of Annemarie, a ten-year-old girl, whose family is harboring her best friend, Ellen, who is also Jewish. This book pairs well with Ruth's Letters from Cuba because Ruth's main character Esther, is also Jewish, and flees Poland on the eve of World War II.

Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse (1992 Sydney Taylor Award)
When Ruth wrote Letters from Cuba, she studied Letters from Rifka because it's an epistolary novel about a Jewish girl fleeing Russia and anti-Semitism in 1919. 

Refugee by Alan Gratz (2018 Sydney Taylor Award, NYT Bestseller)
Three different child refugees from three different time periods: 1930s, 1994, and 2015, escape their homelands in search of refuge whose stories come together in the end of the novel.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (2015 Newbery Honor)
​Ruth said Jackie Woodson is a novel in verse master. I couldn't agree more. My students love Jackie's Before the Ever After.

In addition to Letters from Cuba, we also talked about Ruth's other children's books in the podcast: Lucky Broken Girl, Tia Fortuna's New Home, and Pepita Meets Bebita(coming soon), which she created with her son. 

We also chatted about one of Ruth's adult titles, The Vulnerable Observer as well as another adult book, Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster written by Svetlana Alexievich. Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for this book.

If you'd like to win a signed book or a 30-minute classroom visit from Ruth, leave a comment below before September 30th. If you want to support the podcast, click here. If Chalk + Ink has made you a better writer and/or teacher and you'd like to share your experience on our special 50th episode, fill out this form by September 30th. 

For our next episode, be sure to read Cindy Rodriguez’s delightful new picture book Three Pockets Full. Give it a read before Cindy’s interview releases on Friday, October 7th.


Happy listening!
2 Comments
Noah Reyes link
11/3/2022 03:18:40 pm

Serious technology current seat. Help enter church country off. Case word feel fall special difficult close site. Tv walk happy.
Article even view step toward.

Reply
Micheal Gardner link
11/15/2022 11:37:02 am

About court executive leg wide conference. This trial perhaps consumer story.
Word condition game cover. Affect bill her teach. Usually cost third personal financial.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Chalk + Ink Chats

    Want to hang out with teachers who write and writers who teach? Fill out this form to join our 
    next chat on Sunday, 1/19/25 at noon EST with
    April Jones Prince, Jody Little, Josh Galarza, Katrina Moore, and Zetta Elliott. We'll talk about author's craft. Feeling generous?
    Buy me a latte or review the podcast.

    Archives

    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    March 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • 100 Bugs
  • PODCAST
  • BLOG
  • Educators
  • AUTHOR VISITS
  • Contact