NEA Big Read Lakeshore

Our third middle-grade book for this year’s NEA Big Read Lakeshore 2022 isZita the Spacegirlby Ben Hatke.Zita the Spacegirlis a graphic novel series and can be considered our more traditional middle-grade heroes’ journey story.

故事讲述了一个名叫齐塔·丹尼尔森的女孩。在地球上，齐塔是一个普通的12岁女中学生。她喜欢运动，爱玩，喜欢和她的朋友约瑟夫一起玩。但就在这时，一个按钮落在了地球上，就像所有好奇的人一样，齐塔和约瑟夫决定按下它，尽管这个按钮打开了另一个维度的入口，把约瑟夫带走了。

Now, this is not where our story ends, it is actually where it begins. Having her friend taken into an unknown universe forces Zita to do everything in her power to get him back. That includes taking on any space creatures in her path and becoming Zita the Spacegirl.

Not only does the story of Zita help to keep readers intrigued in this space hero journey, but the story of author Ben Hatke and the art style also helps. In aninterviewwith MacMillan Publishers, Ben Hatke explained that being a writer and an artist are not things that can be separated:

“我在故事结构上做了很多工作，从中我获得了很多乐趣，但我的艺术不只是为故事服务，它是讲故事的一部分。我发现角色的肢体语言是一个很好的讲故事的工具。”

Ultimately, the goal of choosing a graphic novel likeZita the Spacegirl是为了表明英雄可以以任何形式出现，英雄的旅程书有许多不同的风格。Though in addition to this the team at the Big Read Lakeshore hopes that you will giveZita the Spacegirlby Ben Hatke a try and even complete the series.

In the last blog post, we discussedMiles Morales: Spider-Manby Jason Reynolds and gave a brief synopsis of the book. But what are some of the book’s main themes that you should know about, and what will be different if you decide to read the novel version and your friend chooses to read the graphic novel?

Themes

There are three main themes inMiles Morales: Spider-Manand they are the school-to-prison pipeline, racism, and coming of age. Theschool-to-prison pipelineis a term that refers to a larger set of rules and policies which place students of color into the criminal justice system. This theme can be seen in many different ways throughout the book. Still, it is most prevalent when Miles and his father visit his cousin Austin in jail and when Miles notices that many of his classmates who are people of color either go missing from school or are suspended in large numbers.

The next theme, racism, is also very prevalent in the book. Mr. Chamberlin, Miles’ history teacher, seems to embody racism. In his history classes, Mr. Chamberlin frequently lectures about the Civil War, where most of them are pro-slavery.

最后一个主题是成人。在整本书中，迈尔斯不仅要扮演蜘蛛侠，粉碎邪恶的阴谋，而且还要应对高中时期的挣扎。即使迈尔斯遇到了质疑，比如他对室友甘可说:“如果我连自己都救不了，当英雄有什么用?”(第236页)，他最终更加了解自己，成为英雄，能够拯救自己和他人。

Novel vs. Graphic Novel

While the themes may not change that much depending on whether or not you read the novel or the graphic novel version ofMiles Morales: Spider-Man,you should know some key differences.

1. 这部小说几乎没有提到蜘蛛侠(彼得·帕克饰)。
2. The graphic novel takes place in a world where Spider-Man (Peter Parker) has failed.
3. 漫画小说有一个更传统的“坏人”。
4. 小说中有一个“坏人”，但他代表了一个更大的主题:种族主义和从学校到监狱的通道。
5. The novel does not focus much on the action or physical things that Miles Morales as Spider-Man can do.
6. 这部漫画小说主要讲述了蜘蛛侠迈尔斯·莫拉莱斯的身体和蜘蛛侠技能。
7. 小说和图画小说中的人物似乎是一样的。

Hopefully, whether you read the graphic novel or the novel, you can spot the significant themes, find other themes, and have meaningful discussions about their differences.

If you are a fan of Marvel, then you should definitely pick up a copy of the second middle-grade read that the NEA Big Read Lakeshore has chosen, which isMiles Morales: Spider-Man杰森·雷诺兹。在这一点上，杰森雷诺兹应该是一个家喻户晓的名字，任何人参加NEA大读湖畔活动。Not only has Jason Reynolds been to Holland, Michigan before, but he is also the author of our other middle-grade read,A Long Way Down, which you can read more about in thisblog post.

Though what isMiles Morales: Spider-Manabout? Well, the book version, there is also a graphic novel version, follows the story of Miles Morales, a half African-American and half Puerto Rican boy from Brooklyn who goes to the Brooklyn Vision School on a scholarship. His father, Jefferson Davis, is a police officer who got into trouble during his teenage years, and his uncle, Aaron, never moved past his troubling teenage years. However, Miles is trying to stay on the straight and narrow and be Spider-Man simultaneously. Even with Miles keeping his head down and focusing on school, something is still off. His spidey senses seem not to be working as well; he is suspended from school and is butting heads with his history teacher. Yet, with the help of his roommate slash best friend, Miles will find that there is a deeper reason for everything feeling off.

最终，这本书对每个人来说都有一点。这和蜘蛛侠有联系。还有杰森·雷诺兹的精彩作品。有一些相关的潜在主题，我们将在下一篇博客文章中讨论，以及更多内容。So, even if you are older than the typical middle-grade reader or are wondering if a Spider-Man book is for you, I highly suggest you pick upMiles Morales: Spider-Manby Jason Reynolds and give it a try.

In the last blog post, we discussed why you should readLong Way Downby Jason Reynolds and even gave you some background information about the author and the book to entice you to pick it up and begin reading. This blog post will discuss the major themes that makeLong Way Downa book you need to read.

Grief:

Grief is a theme that is strung throughoutLong Way Down. It is very clear from the beginning of the book, when the first murder happens, and the family is made aware, that grief will play a significant role in the book. ThoughLong Way Downdoes not just deal with having grief, it also deals with coming to terms with your grief and doing that in a healthy way which is what Will, the main character, does throughout the book,

A Cycle of Violence:

The cycle of violence is also an essential theme in the book and helps to push the plot along. The most memorable quote from the book, “There’s a code of conduct, and what those rules are is number one, no crying, number two, no snitching, and number three, always seek revenge.” help to show that with each act of violence more violence will follow.

Toxic Masculinity:

According toThe Good Men Project,toxic masculinity is a “narrow and repressive description of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex, status, and aggression. It’s the cultural ideal of manliness, where strength is everything while emotions are a weakness;”. The idea that emotions are a weakness can be seen throughout the book, like in rule number one, which states no crying.

Family:

Though not all the themes inLong Way Downare sad, some can be heartwarming, like family. Family is an essential theme in the book; it is intertwined with other themes, like grief, and it also kicks off the action when Shawn is murdered while coming home from getting an eczema cream for his mother.

Ultimately, there are many ways these four themes can be seen throughoutLong Way Down还有更多的主题有待发现。Grab a copy ofLong Way Down并告诉我们你能找到什么主题。

In keeping with our 2022 NEA Big Read Lakeshore and Little Read theme that anyone can be a hero, our team decided to show that with our middle-grade books. These are books that are targeted at late elementary, middle school, and early high school students, but are perfect for any reader.

The first middle-grade book we have chosen isLong Way Down杰森·雷诺兹。Jason Reynolds is an award-winning author, andLong Way Downhas even won the John Newberry Award. This award is given to the author of books considered a distinguished contribution to American children’s literature. Also, if you were in Holland, Michigan, in March of 2018, you may already be familiar with Jason Reynolds because he had an author visit at the Herrick District Library.

Long Way Downis an interesting book. Will, the main character, is a fifteen-year-old boy who witnesses his brother, Shawn, die because of gun violence. Will then takes it into his own hands to kill his brother’s murderer because of the neighborhood’s rules: don’t cry, don’t snitch, and take revenge. However, a ride in his apartment building’s elevator, which is the main setting for the book, and some frank talks with people from his past make Will rethink if following the neighborhood rules is something he should do.

Another thing that makesLong Way Downinteresting是用诗歌写的。Now, if you participated in the 2021 NEA Big Read Lakeshore and read along as we worked our way throughAn American Sunrise由乔伊·哈乔所著，你会成为阅读诗歌的老手。Though even if you did not join us forAn American Sunrise,Reynolds writes in such a way that there are still poetic qualities along with a clear storyline and many themes, which we will discuss in the next blog.

This summer two Hope College students, Tatiana Beranand Luke Van Hout, have been working on an app for the Big Read and Little Read programs. The creators of the app were kind enough to answer a few questions about the process and what they learned along the way.

这个应用程序的目的是连接读者，并允许他们讨论各种书籍和话题。我们希望这款应用能进一步实现我们的目标，把湖岸的读者联系起来，让他们有机会因为对文学的热爱而联系在一起。在我们启动2022年11月的节目时，我们将分享更多关于Synlesa应用程序的信息!

Student Bios

Tatiana: I am from Stevensville, Mi about an hour south of Holland. I chose Hope because of the community aspect and I could see myself in their Computer Science department. I am planning to major in Computer Science and Mathematics. At Hope, I love Chapel services, hanging out with friends, and going to sporting events, especially basketball games. Some of my favorite Hope memories are late-night study sessions, hammocking in the pine grove, and worship nights at the beach. Looking to my future, I hope to continue my education and eventually work as a software developer.

卢克:我来自伊利诺伊州的伦巴第，那是芝加哥的郊区。我主修计算机科学，辅修商科和数学。我喜欢和朋友出去玩，去海滩，参加希望学院的传统活动。世界杯荷兰vs厄瓜多尔走地

当你第一次开始做这个项目的时候，是什么让你感到兴奋?

塔蒂亚娜:我还没有真正做过前端开发编码，所以我很高兴能了解更多，并创造出人们实际使用的东西。我对挑战感到很兴奋。

Luke: I was excited to take an already existing project and completely overhaul it. I liked being able to have some creative freedom with the layout and design of the site.

Can you outline for us the process of creating the app?

Both: There were a lot of different steps to creating this app. We were given a rough draft of the chatroom that we manipulated and changed to fit what we wanted with Synlesa. In the beginning, there was a huge learning curve as we had to learn multiple new programs and languages for this project. Then we made some elementary fixes to be able to upload different types of data in the chatroom. After we met with Dr. VanDuinen though, it was clear we needed to do some major refactoring to add the Bookrooms. After creating this, we added different features to the user interface and separate features to the admin interface. Finally, there was just a lot of debugging and fixing different features to work as smoothly as possible. We both underestimated how big of a difference-making all these small modifications would make on the website as a whole. It was all very worth it though, and we’re both very proud of this project.

这个过程中最困难的部分是什么?

塔蒂亚娜:对我来说最困难的部分，至少是项目开始时的学习曲线。要弄清楚所有不同的程序和语言是如何相互作用的，这是非常困难的。

Luke: The hardest part of the project for me was learning to implement our database into the website. We used a free service from Google, called Firebase, to store all of the data entered into the site. Getting the data to display correctly across the site was a big challenge in the beginning, as it wasn’t like anything I had done before.

What was the most enjoyable part of the process?

塔蒂亚娜:当然只是看到项目的进展。随着每个功能的添加，看到我们所有的努力工作都以切实的方式展现出来，这真的很令人兴奋和值得。向我的家人展示它很有趣，就像“这是我做的!””

Luke:对我来说，这个项目最有趣的部分就是当我在一个bug上工作了几个小时，然后突然有了灵感。通常情况下，解决一个bug会修复许多其他的bug，而我所学到的解决它的技术通常在项目的其他部分很有用。

Why the name Synlesa?

Both: Dr. Jipping’s technique for naming apps is to google translate the English name into different languages and see what sounds cool. This seemed like a fun technique so we translated read into different languages and finally chose Icelandic because lesa sounded pretty. We also loved the idea of students coming together to read and grow through the discussions so we added the prefix syn to the front of lesa. Synlesa symbolizes reading together or coming together to read.

How do you think the Big Read app can contribute to the program goals of fostering a culture where reading matters and readers, of all ages, learn from each other?

Both: We think Synlesa will allow readers, of all ages, to engage in discussion over books and topics that interest them. Books enable readers to make connections across different topics including current events, historic events, art, and especially other books. By sharing these connections with others, it will encourage readers to venture deeper into the book’s content and gain more from the book as well as make connections with other readers. This will not only further their enjoyment of the book itself, but also further their enjoyment of reading in general.

What books do you enjoy reading?

塔蒂亚娜:我会读很多书，不过我主要读现实主义小说和言情小说。

卢克:我喜欢看奇幻、科幻和恐怖小说。

你对这个应用程序的用户有什么建议?

Both: Our advice would be to be open-minded and ready to learn from other users. Everyone comes from a different background and will have their own inferences and thoughts based on that, so be ready to learn from others who differ from you. Be kind.

任何其他想法?

Tatiana: I chose to do this project because of my love for reading and books. I have always loved reading. My favorite classes in high school were when we had Socratic Seminars and discussed the books we were reading because I enjoyed hearing how others read the same book I did. Everyone has a different background and brings something different to the discussion.

Luke:我认为这个网站有潜力成为各种不同的人之间讨论的好地方，我很兴奋能在11月再次访问它。

This year our Big Read Lakeshore selection isCirce玛德琳·米勒。我们有许多包含英雄之旅主题的中读和少读书籍。我们相信，为了了解和借鉴他人的经验，阅读文学作品是很重要的——我们选择的2022年书籍提供了充分的机会来讨论这一点!

About the Author:

Madeline Miller was born in New York City and then moved to Philadelphia. Throughout her childhood, she recalls loving museums in the city and was drawn to exhibits about the Egyptians, Romans, and Ancient Greeks.

后来，她就读于布朗大学，并在那里获得了古典文学学士和硕士学位。她已经教了超过15年的高中学生拉丁语，希腊语和莎士比亚。此外，米勒还曾在芝加哥大学社会思想委员会和耶鲁大学戏剧学院戏剧学系学习。

Her first novel,The Song of Achilles, was awarded the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a New York Times Bestseller. Her second novel,Circe这本书立刻成为《纽约时报》畅销书的第一名，并获得了多个奖项，包括独立选择年度最佳成人小说奖。

Background on Circe:

Madeline Miller’s Website gives some background information on Circe in the introduction to a Photo Essay that explains:

“Circe, the witch who turns Odysseus’ men to pigs, has proved one of Homer’s most memorable creations. We first meet the goddess in book 10 of the Odyssey, living on her lush, deserted island of Aiaia, surrounded by tame wolves and lions. When Odysseus’ ship lands on her shore, she gives the crew wine mixed with spell-drugs, then transforms them to pigs. When Odysseus comes to rescue them, she attempts to give him the same potion, but he is protected by magical herbs, courtesy of Hermes. Circe and Odysseus become lovers, and Odysseus and his men (returned to their regular shape) dally in luxury on her island for a year.”

“It is no surprise, given such a vivid story, that Circe has proved irresistible to generations of artists. Below is a sample of the many faces our favorite witch has worn over the millennia.”

Madeline Miller’s Photo Essay at www.madelinemiller.com/circe/circe-photo-essay/

Circe is an infamous Greek figure and this book includes many other Greek figures like Odysseus, Greek gods and goddesses, Prometheus, and Scylla and Charybdis.

This map shows where Circe’s Island likely would have been in context to the ancient Greek world.

Where to Find More Information About Circe:

Are you interested in learning more aboutCirce? Thisvideofeatures Madeline Miller as she answers questions about her book. You could also check out herwebsite为更多的信息。