Craft Studio: 12 Novels to Remind You What’s at Stake Tomorrow
What I Was Reading
I subscribe to the Literary Hub Newsletter. It is a never-ending source of excellent information and inspiration. On November 5, the day before the US Midterm Elections, they posted 12 Novels to Remind You What’s at Stake Tomorrow: “To remind you of just what’s at stake in tomorrow’s elections, we thought we’d do something a little different and turn to those contemporary fiction writers who have brought some of the most pressing issues currently facing this country to the forefront of their recent work.”
What Moves I Notice the Writer Making
Each of the twelve selections in this collection is accompanied by a very short summary followed by a brief review that combines summary, reflection, and analysis.
- Overall, this grouping contains a very diverse selection of texts, yet they have been curated into a unified collection based on a single quality—they each invite a conversation about contemporary social issues.
Possibilities for Writers
- The individual texts accompanying this collection can be used a models for responding to texts, in particular how to respond and not just summarize. Students can read the entire collection and then generate a list of the various moves they noticed the reviewers making. This can become the beginning of a reader response “tool kit” that readers add to as they experience more options.
- Students can use this round-up as a model for finding connections among texts they have read. For example, 5 Books That Taught Me Something New About Myself, 3 Books That Helped Me See the World in a New Way, 6 Books I Would Recommend to Someone I Love, 10 Books That Challenged Me As a Reader But Were Totally Worth It, 4 Books I Know I Will Read Again…the possibilities are endless!