Margin Notes

You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P! by Alex Gino may be aimed at middle level students but the complex ideas of family, ability, racism, and police violence are anything but juvenile. Using interwoven story lines, Gino challenges the reader to interrogate their own privilege and explore how they may be contributing to the marginalization of others—even if this was never their intention. This is done in a developmentally appropriate way that becomes the subtext of a heartwarming story.

The main character in the book, Jilly, is a white, middle class girl growing up in Oaktown. She lives with her mother and father, as well as a new baby sister. Her life has been safe and comfortable but as the book progresses, she becomes increasingly aware of how society marginalizes people (including her family and friends) because they are black, deaf, or LGBTQ+. Jilly learns that in order to change things, you have to first understand how you are contributing to the problem.

There are lots of moments that relieve the tension that Gino has created. From peanut butter sandwiches and online fandoms to best friends and silly secret codes, this book strikes the right balance to engage middle level readers (particularly grade 6 and 7) while challenging their thinking. There are many opportunities for mini-lessons, especially on form and text features but also for figurative language and how to use an appendix. It is the perfect book to use for a reading ladder that might also include titles such as Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes and The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas.

There are two sections at the end of the book that are definitely worth exploring with students: The Author’s Note and the Acknowledgements. You might be tempted to overlook them—don’t. Gino uses this as an opportunity to ask forgiveness for sharing the stories of marginalized people through a white protagonist with hearing and explains the reasons behind this choice. They (Gino’s preferred pronoun) also take the opportunity to explain their personal connections to the topics and provide context. I might be tempted to look at these final sections first, as they will help readers build understanding and create anchors prior to engaging in the text. It will provide you with some really interesting mini-lessons as well.

If you are looking for your next quick read-aloud, or simply need a suggestion for students that love realistic fiction, I highly recommend You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P! by Alex Gino.

Elizabeth Andrews is a guest blogger for Margin Notes. She teaches grade 6, 7, and 8 Language Arts, Art, and Music at Chipman Forest Avenue School in Chipman, New Brunswick. She is self-declared nerd and lover of science fiction and fantasy.

“A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone.” ~ Tyrion Lannister (A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin)

In Harbor Me, we meet Haley, a grade 6 girl with a secret she has only told her best friend and a handful of adults. At school, she is grouped with 5 other students to meet at the end of the day in an empty classroom so they can talk and share.  Everyone is reluctant at first but Haley breaks the ice with her hand-held recorder as her new friends realize they want their stories to be heard and remembered.  As the middle schoolers begin to trust one another, their words pour out stories about immigration, racial profiling, bullying, incarceration, and death, and these wounds are filled in return with poetry, music, love, trust, forgiveness, and friendship.

This is a beauty of a book.  The topics are big, and refreshingly, not dumbed down for middle school students.  Instead, they are given the respect they deserve and the author, Jacqueline Woodson, clearly believes that young people can handle these topics; age does not prevent tough situations in life from happening.  This novel is such a great example of literature being both a window and a mirror for our students and having this in your classroom library will be a game changer for some readers.

The beginning of The Marrow Thieves quickly pulls you into the dystopian world of a Canada nearly destroyed by climate change.  On top of the environmental destruction, the colonizers have lost the ability to dream, but discover that Indigenous people still can and the secret is in their bone marrow.  Recruiters are deployed to hunt down all the remaining First Nations people and bring them to residential “schools” and “hospitals” that are set up to harvest the marrow from their bones that is then injected into the colonizers so they can dream again.  This backdrop sets the stage for meeting the main character, Frenchie, a Métis teenager who has lost his family and is fleeing north to escape the Recruiters.  Along the way, he meets up with more of his people and they decide to travel together to find a safe place to live. And maybe even stop the madness. 

What you really need to know is that this book is exceptional-Cherie Dimaline is a writer you will want to know more about and The Marrow Thieves deserves a spot on your bookshelf.  This novel pulls off being both beautifully written and very exciting-something not every book can make a claim to.  The development of the characters is deep-to the point where you will undoubtedly find yourself in tears a number of times because they have completely stolen your heart.  The plot moves quickly, which makes this an enjoyable page turner, but the depth of the story also causes the reader to reflect on their own views and to learn.  At the end of the day, I can’t recommend this book enough.

This book has some very mature content that needs to be considered for younger readers but as always, you know your readers best!