Margin Notes

What I Was Reading: Identical by Ellen Hopkins

“Kaleighand Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family — on the surface. But beneath the façade, each sister has her own dark secret.” What Moves I Notice the Author Making:

• The use of free verse to segment thoughts on the page, drawing a fine line between the twin protagonists.
• A mirror is used as an opposite, physically identical, but polar opposites in terms of characterization.
• This is an interesting introduction to a character, as Raeanne is introducing not just herself, but her identical twin sister at the same time. The character tells us who she is and isn’t, all while she is referring to her sister.
• The left side of the page reflects the emotional side of the characters, while the right side refers to their concrete appearances.
• The verse allows a high degree of freedom and this is captured through the narration which lets us inside of Raeanne’s innermost thoughts and feelings.
• The page can be read as two different poems:

◦ First, reading every word of the page. This leads to the most natural revelation of character.

◦ Second, reading only the words on the left side. This reading describes a more direct approach to how    Raeanne views her relationship with her sister and her pondering on if they share an identity.

Opportunities for Writers:

• Utilize free verse to incorporate more than one voice or line of thought on the same page. This can allow a more natural flow without confusing the reading.
• Experiment with using line breaks to create a poem inside of a poem.
• Trying doublespeak, obscuring the meaning or adding an element of reversal onto their words.
• Segment the emotional and physical aspects of the poem to different places on the page.
• Having one character speak for another, revealing more about themselves through this description (in a manner reminiscent of dramatic monologue)
• Stream of consciousness narration

About the author: Andrew McLean is a grade 6 teacher at  Millidgeville North School and a recent graduate of the BEd program at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton campus. Andrew loves fantasy, history and poetry, particularly those that are accompanied by artwork. He strongly advocates for introducing readers to a wide variety of texts that can make reading less intimidating. He also hopes that more classrooms will continue to promote comics, graphic novels, and manga as valid additions to their libraries.

What I was reading:

Things to Look Forward To by Sophie Blackwell is a collection of small and large joys. She acknowledges that there are many big long-term achievements to look forward to but we can also look forward to the everyday things. She describes these as “things that will buoy our spirits and make us laugh and help us feel alive and that will bring others comfort and hope.”

Moves I noticed the author make:

The moves can change with every selection! Here is one example:

Moves:

• Uses the “if, and, then” format
• Descriptive wording – “tiny droplets/shimmering rainbow”
• Repetitive sounds – “bend/bounce/back”
• Uses tiny details – “raising our sights 42 degrees”
• Rule of three – “refracted, reflected, and dispersed”

 Possibilities for writers:

• Notice something in the text.
• Name what it is that you noticed.
• Talk about what impact of what you noticed.
• Choose a symbol in your own life and try using this writer’s craft to write about any 
• Using the “if, and, then” format, write your own passage of Things to Look Forward to.
• Zoom in a moment to write in descriptive, tiny details.
• Try out the rule of three in a descriptive writing paragraph.

What I Was Reading:

All My Rage by Sabba Tahir takes us from Lahore, Pakistan (then) to recount the story of Misbah and Toufiq (who are Salahudin’s parents) to (now) in Juniper, California to join the stories of Salahudin and his best-friend, Noor.

It is a fantastic YA novel told in three points of view– tackling issues of Islamophobia, alcoholism, and domestic violence; while also exploring the pressures of high school, the heartbreak of family, the beauty of friendship and the gift of forgiveness and compassion. Heartbreaking and tender, well worth the read.

What Moves I Noticed the Author Making:

Tahir makes some writerly craft choices worth exploring: using repetition, italics, and single word sentences that follow the rule of three.

• The first repetition is the italicized “ Bang. Bang” taken from her reference to a song which is punctuated with the actual sound of gunshots. (Many young readers will likely get this reference.)
• Her next paragraph employs the rule of three: the names of the three Universities that she has been rejected from in single word sentences, one after another– just like the gunshots. And, followed by yet another magic three: the repetition of the word rejection. Each letter, each rejection, are like gunshots to her hopes.

Here is the passage:

The letters come in hard and fast. Like the gunshots in M.I.A’s “Paper Planes.” Bang. Bang. Bang.

Yale. Columbia. Cornell.

Rejected. Rejected. Rejected.

• The book itself is divided into six parts. Each part opens with a stanza from Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “One Art.” Noor selects the poem for her English analysis essay because she liked the first sentence. Or, she amends: “Well. Sort of. Mostly I picked it because it’s short. But it’s also weird. It’s about misplacing stuff, like keys and houses. How the hell do you misplace a house?” But the poem is really about accepting loss as inevitable. And so is this novel.

“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

• Tahir gives us Noor’s inner thoughts as she reveals the veneer of Noor’s college admission essays, juxtaposing the truth next to what she actually submits.

A problem I solved. (Truth: heartbreak. What I wrote: a poor English grade.)

A life-altering experience. (Truth: my entire family dying and the smell of their bodies rotting around me. What I wrote: working at Juniper Hospital.)

My biggest life challenge. (Truth: they don’t want to know. What I wrote: bullying in high school.)

• Throughout the novel Noor is plugged into music or at the very least referring to it. Here is (a mostly complete) Noor’s Playlist. It already has some songs I do love, wonder what else I may discover? Check it out here.

Possibilities for Writers:

• Experiment with the rule of three repetition in your own writing.
• Play with one word sentences and short paragraphs to create effects in your writing.
• Use the stanzas of a poem to create an outline for a piece of writing.
• Play with offering a character’s (or your own) inner thoughts. You can copy Tahir’s set-up of: Truth… and What I Wrote… or Truth… and What I Was Really Thinking…
• Make a playlist inspired by a novel you are reading. What might the characters listen to? What songs would be perfect background for a scene? Or, do you characters actually refer to songs, movies or other texts that may help you compile a playlist?

Michelle Wuest is and English teacher & SPR at Leo Hayes High School with over 20 years helping students find the right book. When not teaching or reading you’ll find her tap dancing, practicing yoga, walking her Doodle, seeing live music with her husband, or listening to her son rattle of random NFL stats for the eleventy-billionth time.