Lambda Literary Awards Revisited

So I missed the class on the Award Jigsaw and didn't realize we blogged our answers. This is my research fashionably late...

The website where I found my information was http://www.lambdaliterary.org/. There were numerous websites with information on the award but this one seemed to be their homepage.

I believe this award was started in the late 1980's. They focus on celebrating LGBT literature. They change their guidelines based on feedback every year with the goal of becoming the most prestigious award possible that can be awarded to LGBT books and authors.

Guidelines:

-Reprints are not eligible as well as new editions of a past book. Also not eligible are books that have been republished by a different publisher than the original.
-Books can be submitted in only one category. An exception to this is bisexual and transgender because these books are underpublished.
-If the transgender category receives 10 or more submissions of fiction and also 10 or more submissions of non-fiction, then the category will be split into fiction and non-fiction.
-The rule above goes for the bisexual category as well.
-The awards are based primarily on LGBT content. Sexual orientation of the auther is second in priority.
-The book being submitted must be published in the U.S. in the year it is submitted.
-You may self-publish a piece of work.
-Books MUST be published in English. They may be translated copy as long as it is published in the year it is submitted.
-Electronic Books are not eligible.

The books are judged on their content of LGBT related subjects. It doesn't seem that the author must be LGBT. There is a board of trustees that revises and produces the guidelines and I believe they also are in charge of selecting the winners.

Becoming Naomi Leon

So I just finished Becoming Naomi Leon and I really just enjoyed it so much. I really got into it and was absolutly shocked at the mother's behavior. The reunion with their father really started to pull at my emotions. Ahh geez I'm such a nerd. REALLY excellent, for those who didn't get it read in time for class I really recommend finishing it and putting it in your classroom.
I had a hard time figuring out what to ask for my question and am still thinking about it. But there were so many things to think about. So much went into this book, from the chapter titles to the whole mess of different cultures introduced.
At first I really didn't like it. I thought maybe it wasn't realistic but just the trials and tribulations the characters went through and the positive attitudes they tried to keep really made it better for me. At first I was like hmmmm...is this realistic? As I read though I realized that perhaps it isn't realistic and this doesn't always happen with a happily ever after but that still makes you think. It opens up so many questions and topics for discussion. Readers can go journey to a discussion about people with disabilities, alcohalism, a look at the Mexican culture, identity searching, ideas and topics on the subject of a broken family, and finding one's confidence. All of these characteristics can be looked at through one book.
REALLY, REALLY GOOD READ:)
Can't wait for class!!!

Combining Class Content

Hey everyone:)

I had this project due in my TE 401 class for the literacy portion of it. The project entailed training myself on a new form of digital literacy and then to use that literacy to teach another kind of literacy...if that makes sense. Anyways, I chose to make a digital scrapbook, or a "Scrapblog," on cultural literacy. Based on a lot of things we've been talking about in this class I thought it would be a good way to relate the two. I chose to focus a lot on the Insider vs. Outsider debate. I explained what it was and offered questions and ideas and put my opinion into it as well. I decided to reference the TE 448 blog and went over a lot of your responses to the Insider/Outsider articles and ended up devoting a whole page to some of your opinions. I referenced 4-5 blogs and gave those I used credit;-)

I'm posting the link to my project below as well as a few other resources I found in my research. I actually found some really great references and opinions of what quality multicultural literature is. It was really kind of interesting to take what I learned in this class and apply to another one.

ScrapBlog:

http://http://www.scrapblog.com/709003D9-4012/1A79E253-44C6

A really great source for multicultural literature:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/multiracial.htm

The site above is basically a site made for teachers with a question and answer section with author's such as Joseph Bruchac, Gary Soto, Patricia Polacco, etc. They all share their advice, ideas, and opinions on how to judge and pick out quality multicultural literature. Each of the site's featured author's provides a list of Top 10 Books for their particular culture group which I thought was really cool considering a lot of us always have the question "What would be good in my classroom?" running through our heads.

Another thing that may be fun is playing around with the Digital Scrapbook idea. It may be a fun alternative to Facebook posting. You can also print the pages you make if you choose to make one.

Just something I though you would all enjoy:-)

Blaska's Collection and Al Capone Does My Shirts

After reading Al Capone Does My Shirts and a couple of the articles from the course-pack I became very interested in the idea of Blaska's Collection. First of all, I liked how she chose to not isolate her collection on its own shelf. She chose her books and then divided them in libraries based on other content that didn't focus on the disability of the book's characters. I think this is an excellent idea. Any child (with or without a disability) could be searching for a book related topic and come across one in Blaska's collection and not only be educated on its topic but also on a small subset of multicultural literature.
I began to wonder if Al Capone Does My Shirts would fit the criteria for the collection. I believe that Al Capone Does My Shirts falls into the category of books with characters whose disabilities may be integral or peripheral to the plot, but which are not stories about the disabilities. In Al Capone Does My Shirts, we are introduced to Natalie as a child who is different, but her actual condition is never actually stated. After reading the author's note I found out that Natalie's condition was a form of Autism but in the time period that the book was set in, Autism was not yet a known diagnosis. The category I believe the book falls in is underrepresented according to Blaska.
After searching the SCSU Juvenile a couple of times, trying a couple of different things, I did not find the book. A couple of questions popped up in my head though. Is the collection that Blaska has compiled strictly children's books? Is Al Capone Does My Shirts too recent to be in the collection yet. I'm not really sure but I would love to find out more about this topic. I agree with the article by Sandra Williams et. al. that children begin to and should learn about their likenesses to others at a young age. A collection like Blaska's could be very useful in any school library and should go far beyond the use of just research for SCSU's education program as I'm sure it does.

Lambda Literary Awards/Empress of the World

I didn't get to join class the other day because I was sick but I wanted to blog a little on my topic for the awards research. I researched the Lambda Literary Award and I'm sure it was stated that this award is presented to books with LGBT content. While reading up on this award I remembered a book I read in my TE 348 class for our groups Choice Book Talk. Empress of the World by Sara Ryan is the story of a girl going through a confusing time in her life. Over a summer she has her first romantic relationship with another girl. It was the first book I had ever read on this topic and I found the book really good if anyone is interested. I searched the booklists of past finalists and winners of the Lambda Literary Award but didn't see it on any of the lists and was kind of disappointed because I found its perspective and the story very good.

The author wrote a sequel to the book call The Rules for Hearts which I'm assuming is probably equally as engaging and entertaining. I haven't been able to find it though and I've looked a couple of times. I've always been interested on how to bring this topic into the classroom and this book I feel was a really good discovery. I bought it for my collection during my semester in TE 348 and plan on buying the other one as well if I can ever find it.