YA Challenge #2

And We Stay

Written by Jenny Hubbard
Published in 2014 by Delacorte Press
Ages 14 - 18


ISBN: 978-0375899430


Award: 2015 Printz Honor Award


Book review: After Emily's boyfriend, Paul, kills himself in the school library, Emily goes away to an all-girl boarding school.  At the boarding school, Emily spends a lot of time thinking and writing poetry.  During her time there, she learns more about her relationship with Paul, friendships past and present, and herself and who she wants to be. 

Poetry is spread throughout this novel, some written by Emily Dickenson and a lot of it is "written" by the main character, Emily Beam.  Poetry lovers will enjoy the lyrical type of writting and learning more about the character through her poems.

Readers have many different ideas to connect with while reading this story; there is the idea of finding oneself through tragedy, suicide, teenage pregnancy, poetry, and more. 


Professional Reviews
Kirkus Review
Publishers Weekly


Teaching Ideas

English: (11.4f) The student will read, comprehend, and analyze relationships among American literature, history, and culture. f) Explain how the sound of a poem (rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and parallelism) supports the subject, mood, and theme.
1. Students will examine the poems throughout the text, both the Dickinson poems and the ones written by Emily in the story, to discuss how the author uses the specific poems throughout the book to reflect the characters feelings, how she is relating her life to the life of Emily Dickinson, and the overall themes of the story.

English: (12.4g) The student will read, comprehend, and analyze the development of British literature and literature of other cultures. g) Compare and contrast traditional and contemporary poems from many cultures.
2. Students will compare and contrast selected pairs of peoms from the book.  They will complete a Venn diagram compairing one of Dickinson's poems to one of Emily Beams poems from the book.

Family Life: (10.16) The student will compile a list of community agencies and resources available to assist individuals and families.
3. Students will put together a list of local agencies and resources, including hours of operation, phone numbers, and the main focus of each resource, that would be able to help Emily and Paul if they lived in our local area.  These agencies and resources could include, but are not limited to, parenting resources, mental health facilities, suicide provention, etc.

Family Life: (10.14) The student will analyze the skills and attitudes needed to become a competent parent.
Writing: (10.6) The student will develop a variety of writing to persuade, interpret, analyze, and evaluate with an emphasis on exposition and analysis.
4. Students will analyze what they know about Paul and Emily to determine if they had developed the skills and attitudes necessary to become competent parents.  Each student will write to compare what they know about competent parents and what they know about Paul and Emily to make an arguement for or against whether they would have made good parents.

World Geography: (WG.1 a,b) The student will use maps, globes, satellite images, photographs, or diagrams to a) obtain geographical information about the world's countries, cities, or environments;
b)apply the concepts of location, scale, map projection, and orientation.
Economics: (EPF.11) The student will demonstrate knowledge of planning for living and leisure expenses by f) evaluating discretionary spending decisions.
5. In the story, Emily's french teacher assigns a project where the girls have to plan a trip to somewhere they haven't been and present it to the class. For this project, students would have a budget of $1,000 and they would have to plan a trip for 2 to somewhere they have never been. Students will plot out the course and create a budget for their trip. They will talk about what types of maps they would use while on the trip and include information about the cities and environments they would be visiting.


 Paired Titles

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson contains the 1,775 poems written by Emily Dickinson.  This book was chosen because it contains the poems referenced in the book as well as other poems written by Emily Dickinson. This book contains the poems as Dickinson wrote them, so it was chosen based on accuracy and relevance to the English curriculum.

Death, Dickinson, and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia is about the life of an Orlando teen who has an obsession with death, when her high school crush commits suicide, she turns to Dickinson's poems to help her through. This book was chosen because it is current and fits with the theme of And We Stay.  It would be of interest to students who like books about high school relationships and poetry.

My Wars are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson by Alfred Habegger.  This book was chosen because of its accuracy, relevance to the English curriculum, and its appropriateness.  A KLIATT review states, "Anyone with a desire to learn about Dickinson needs this definitive study of her life and letters" (CLCD, n.d.).  This was listed as one of the books that the author used while writing the story And We Stay.

faking normal is the story of two teens that learn how to cope with tragic situations.  The main character in this story turns to music to help her heal, which will be relatable to many teens.  This story was chosen because it is current and appropriate for the age range as well.

The Tragedy Paper is the story of two boarding school boys who deal with tragedy and learn to cope with their life afterwards.  This story was chosen because its theme matches that of And We Stay, it is currency, and appropriate for students of the same age range.






Further Explorations

A book trailer for the book And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNBJjDUnhc4

An interview with author, Jenny Hubbard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSSVBbzO5Bg

Check out Jenny Hubbard's twitter feed: https://twitter.com/hubbardwrites

A link to the Emily Dickinson Museum's website:  https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/

For students who are interested in writing poetry, they can type it into ImageChef and turn their poems into a picture.  http://www.imagechef.com/ic/poem/

Information about suicide in America:  http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-faq/index.shtml

Information about teen pregnancy in the United States: http://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/index.htm


References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015, May 19). About teen pregnancy.                      Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/index.htm

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. (n.d.). And we stay. Retrieved from             http://www.clcd.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/#/bookdetail/1/0/KeroIkrnlrknjikm/bdrtop

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. (n.d.). The complete poems of Emily Dickinson. Retrieved from http://www.clcd.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/#/bookdetail/1/0/QkonNmPNLolMMnKn/bdrtop

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. (n.d.). Death, Dickinson, and the demented life of Frenchie Garcia. Retrieved from http://www.clcd.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/#/bookdetail/1/0/QkONhmnoNpKLlmLN/bdrtop

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. (n.d.). Faking normal. Retrieved from             http://www.clcd.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/#/bookdetail/1/0/OjnpjLOPmOKnllnl/bdrtop

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. (n.d.). My wars are laid away in books: The life of Emily Dickinson. Retrieved from     http://www.clcd.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/#/bookdetail/1/0/PJOMNplomOLMJOlJ/bdrtop

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. (n.d.). The tragedy paper. Retrieved from             http://www.clcd.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/#/bookdetail/1/0/OfOmJnPoIQjrjNmo/bdrtop

Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and the Evergreens. (2009). Retrieved on July                13, 2015 from https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/

Goodreads. (n.d.) The complete poems. Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112204.The_Complete_Poems?from_search=true&search_version=service_impr

Hubbard, J. (2014). And we stay. New York : Delacorte Press. 

Imagechef. (2015). Make visual poetry. Retrieved on July 13, 2015 from                                            http://www.imagechef.com/ic/poem/

Kirkus. (2013, October 23). And we stay. Retrieved from                                                                    https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jenny-hubbard/and-we-stay/

Lili Gaspar. (2015, April 16). And we stay trailer [video file]. Retrieved from                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNBJjDUnhc4

National Institute of Mental Health. (2015). Suicide in america: Frequently asked questions (2015). Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-faq/index.shtml

NoveList. (2015). Read-alikes for and we stay. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/novelist/detail?sid=4c7a58c7-cd87-4896-b93a-9e2fd2e693cb%40sessionmgr114&UI=UI+10275873&hid=116&vid=3

Publishers Weekly. (2013, October 21). And we stay. Retrieved from                                                http://publishersweekly.com/978-0-385-74057-9

Rachel Reads. (2014, June 15). Jenny Hubbard interview [video file]. Retrieved from                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSSVBbzO5Bg

Twitter. (n.d.) Jenny Hubbard @HubbardWrites. Retrieved from                                                         https://twitter.com/hubbardwrites

Virginia Department of Education. (2008). History and social science standards of learning for Virginia public schools. Retrieved from http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/history_socialscience/next_version/stds_worldgeo.pdf

Virginia Department of Education. (2009). Economics and personal finance standards of learning. Retrieved from http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/economics_personal_finance/economics_personal_finance_sol.pdf

Virginia Department of Education. (2010). English standards of learning for Virginia public schools: Grade ten. Retrieved from             http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/english/2010/stds_english10.pdf

Virginia Department of Education. (2010). English standards of learning for Virginia public schools: Grade eleven. Retrieved from             http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/english/2010/stds_english11.pdf

Virginia Department of Education. (2010). English standards of learning for Virginia public schools: Grade twelve. Retrieved from             http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/english/2010/stds_english12.pdf

Virginia Department of Education. (2014). Family life education: Board of education guidelines and standards of learning for Virginia public schools. Retrieved from             http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/family_life/familylife_guidelines_standards.pdf