Strong At The Heart

I just finished reading Sold, a free verse novel by Patricia McCormick, published by Hyperion for young adults.  It’s the first book of fiction–or nonfiction–that I’ve seen for teens that deals with child sex trafficking.

The author has done a fantastic job.  She really gets the accomodation that sexually exploited kids must go through and the role of hope in keeping a sense of self alive, even when that hope is misplaced.

A lot of fiction that treats sexual abuse is from an “outsider” perspective.  Even when it is written in the voice of a young survivor, the characters and action can seem to fulfill outsider needs to feel pity and to rescue.  And I have to say there is a powerful outsider thread in Sold.

Lakshmi is a young Tibetan girl sold into sexual slavery in India by her stepfather to pay his gambling debts.  She struggles against her fate and when she is forced to comply she finds reason for hope in the small kindnesses around her.  If you’ve seen the movie Born in the Brothel, you’ll have a good idea of Lakshmi’s world.

The research behind the story is scrupulous.  Ultimately, Lakshmi’s only hope is an American rescue project.  Her struggle is to take the step that will allow her would-be rescuers to help her.  And this is her struggle, her choice.

Tough but good.  Check it out.

Bloggers who are fans of children’s YA literature have started a new award, the Cybil. Check it out and nominate your favorite book from the past year.

I am honored to serve on the Middle Grade/YA Non-fiction award committee. And, no, Strong at the Heart is not eligible.

Westhaven

Closer to home, I’m speaking at the Westhaven Center for the Arts, in Westhaven, California, this Saturday from 3-4:30 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by the Emma Center, a local nonprofit that supports women who are healing from the mental and physical effects of childhood trauma.

I’ll be showing photos from the book and other behind-the-scene shots. What I’m hoping is that we’ll have a discussion of what we can do in our community to better support survivors and to help prevent abuse.

The event will be at 501 S Westhaven Drive in Westhaven. To find out more, see the article in today’s Times Standard.

If you’re local, do come!

If you work with young kids or are a parent here’s a book you might want to know about. Healing Stories, by Jacqueline Golding, describes and recommends picture books that deal with “the big and small changes in a child’s life.”

Of course, when I saw it, I immediately turned to the section–at the end–on abuse. The author covers picture books on prevention as well as physical and sexual abuse and violence within the home.

Several excellent books are on the list–ones I’ve read and reviewed in the past. There were also titles new to me.

teen moms

I found out about this book and others at the Northern California Independent Book Sellers Association (NCIBA) annual expo in Oakland, CA. I drove down and spent Friday and most of Saturday at workshops and on the expo floor where Strong at the Heart was displayed with other books by members of the SCBWI (Society of Chilren’s Book Writers and Illustrators). Jacqueline Golding was there, too, with her book.

A suprise pleasure of the expo was getting to know Jacqueline and YA author Deborah Davis. Deborah has several fiction titles out including Not Like You (Clarion) and My Brother Has AIDS (Atheneum).

Her newest book is You Look Too Young To Be A Mom (Penguin). It’s a compelling collection of writing by teen moms who examine their experiences with motherhood. I’m just getting started reading it, but wanted to pass the word along now. I think she’s done a stellar job of giving voice to young women who are finding their way in the world.

Where do you get your image of who and what survivors of sexual abuse can be? Do the survivors portrayed in books and movies accurately reflect real people’s experiences–or are they projections of the creators’ own fears and beliefs?

This summer I sat down with recent young adult novels that have major characters who are survivors of incest, sexual abuse, and rape. It was eye opening to look at these books side-by-side and consider just what they tell young readers about surviving abuse.

“Hero, Victim or Monster? an author looks at depictions of sexual abuse survivors in YA fiction” was just published in School Library Journal.

Here are some exerpts, but you can read the whole article on line.

At age 10, Jonathan was sexually abused by the family priest. “When I started middle school and realized what sex is, that’s when I really started having a problem with this,” Jonathan, now a young adult, told me. “What happened with Father Jim made me feel like a lesser person.” Jonathan turned to alcohol, drugs, and aggressive behavior to cope with his shame and prove that he could be “cool, a real man.”…

I spent several days with Jonathan when he was 17, interviewing and photographing him for Strong at the Heart: How It Feels to Heal from Sexual Abuse (Farrar/Melanie Kroupa Books, 2005). My purpose was to show—through their own words—how real teens and adults overcome childhood sexual trauma. I wanted readers to have a clear picture of what sexual abuse is, who survivors really are, and how people make choices that lead to a healthy outcome.

The survivors I interviewed have done a substantial amount of healing and come from a wide range of cultural, economic, and racial backgrounds. Our conversations showed me how much we have to learn, if we will only listen. I saw how teens hunger for stories about others, like themselves, who have coped with traumatic experiences. They also gave me new criteria for evaluating fiction that depicts this all-too-common experience of childhood and adolescence.…

… You might expect that trauma this pervasive would be examined—and its impact explored—in literature for the very people who are living it. Yet few of the teens I talked with had seen their experience reflected in a book.…

titles

Books discussed in depth include two by Chris Lynch, Inexcusable and Sins of the Fathers, Laura Weiss’ forthcoming Such A Pretty Girl, R. A. Nelson’s Teach Me, and Beth Goobie’s The Place Where the Losers Go.

There’s also a list of some excellent older books by Jacqueline Woodson, Chris Crutcher, Cynthia Voight and Cathy Adkins.

To evaluate the books, I used four criteria that came from discussions with young survivors. I’d love to know what you think!

Pause. Okay it’s summer AND I’ve been deep into working on an article for School Library Journal about the representation of sexual abuse survivors in fiction for teens.

It’s something I’ve been watching for decades now, how survivors are depicted in film, on the news, and in literature. In the article, I won’t be getting into the history of it. My editor at SLJ has given me 1,700 words–not a conjunction more–to state my case so I am focusing on how to evaluate new books.

But historically, it is interesting. I’ve seen waves of stereotypes: Pitiful Victims, Damaged Goods, and of course the psychological Monsters of murder mysteries and legal defense strategy (Kate Atkins’ Case Histories is a recent example–a child is murdered by–tada!–the kid who was being sexually abused!)

But I am also seeing something totally cool happening which is that, in young adult fiction at least, competent, active survivors are also being portrayed.

Gigi Boudokian in Chris Lynch’s Inexcusable is one. Even though the story is told through her rapist’s eyes, Gigi is so firm in her truth that when she says, “You raped me,” we believe her not the narrator. In The Place Where the Losers Go by Beth Goobie the two main characters are dealing with dissociation and PTSD, yet they are able to help each other figure out their lives. They are heroes, not victims.

And there’s a new book coming out in January, Such a Pretty Girl, by Laura Wiess, with a very strong survivor at its core.

The article is slated for October publication. As soon as it comes out I’ll post a link here.

comments

I’ve learned to live with blog spam. Comment function is turned on again. As always, there’s a delay before your comment goes up. That’s when I okay your words and delete the ads for Xanax and low rate mortgages.

The other day a woman I know handed me her copy of Strong at the Heart. I thought she was going to ask me to sign it, but instead she said, “I’ve read your book, and I’m glad I have, but I was hoping you’d know how to pass this on so it will reach young people.”

Yes, I know plenty of libraries that are short on funds and looking for quality book donations.

Her copy sits on my desk while I take off for summer camp (see below) but she got me to thinking.

When I was a kid there were no books on abuse in my library—let alone books on healing from it. I wrote Strong at the Heart for teens so that young people could find these true stories in school and public libraries. (I’m also very gratified that adults are reading it, too, and finding it relevant.)

apple seeds

More than 5000 new books for young readers are published each year and far more for adults. How do librarians on limited budgets decide which books to buy? Reviews are important, so is word of mouth. Patron requests and recommendations are also taken very seriously, after all the library is there to serve the reader.

If you are a survivor or have read up on the subject, you probably know several books that are especially good. There may be others you want to read but can’t afford

What would happen if we went to our public and school libraries and asked for the books we want to read by name? Would they be available? Will your the library order the ones you recommend? What if we donated copies to shelters, juvenile facilities, school or public libraries?

Every time a books is added to a library, hundreds of people gain access to it who wouldn’t have otherwise.

With this book donation to make, I’m feeling a little like that guy with the kettle on his head. Who knows what hands will open my friend’s book next? Whose life it might change?

summer camp

As I write this I’m on a plane flying east. I’ll end up in Burlington, Vermont, at the 20th and last Children’s Literature New England conference. It’s put on by my professors from grad school. This year’s topic is The Hero Revisited.

For this conference there’s a reading list of 40 books–all with wonderful heroes.

I’ve especially enjoyed Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer, about an apprentice bard from England at the time of the Norse invasions. And I just read the last pages of Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo, about two brothers during WWI, as heart wrenching a book on a soldier’s experience as you’ll find anywhere.

And for a superb and disturbing survivor story there is, Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now, which takes place the day after tomorrow when war breaks out in England.

Last night I heard from a writer in the UK who just put up a Wikipedia entry referencing Strong at the Heart and linking to this site. Thank you, Tony!

His Wikipidia entry is an excellent descriptive overview of literature–mostly in English–that deals in one way or another with the sexual abuse of boys. Links take you to fuller descriptions and bibliographic information. [Be aware, this article has changed many times and may not represent Tony's work anymore. 6/10/06]

The entry also has an extensive literature list with a broader scope, including the sexual abuse of girls, as well as films and nonfiction. There are excellent books on the list. Many were published for teens; no distinction is made between them and books written for adults. [Pro-pedophilia people have altered this article considerably. If you go to it, you may want to look under "history" and go to Tony Sandel's versions. 6/10/06]

On a personal note, I’ve been holed up some, taking care of family matters (the house desperately needs new gutters and painting). I’ll be speaking at the Authors in the Afternoon series on June 17th at the main library in Eureka, California. There I’ll show some of the photos from the making of Strong at the Heart and talk about the back story of the book. I’m looking forward to this informal book discussion event with Humboldt County readers.

I’ll post a photo from the Black Oak Books event below. But first, here’s something just for fun. Akaya (cover girl) is one of my book buddies. While I was in the Bay Area she turned me on to a YA series that I just love. If you want to read a swashbuckling, escapist story about an irrepressible young woman, check out Bloody Jack by L. A. Meyer.

It’s the early 1800’s and starving street urchin Mary “Jacky” Faber masquerades as a boy to get work as a cabin boy on a British man o’ war. Jacky is a survivor in every sense of the word. She even fends off a pederast onboard ship (remember, he thinks she’s a boy). Actually, she does more than fend him off, she stabs him with her shiv and pushes him overboard. Things get complicated when she enters puberty but Jacky finds a way to deal with every dilemma except the huge crush she develops for one of her shipmates. It is really fun reading about an active, physical girl who just has to be herself. The details about sailing ships and life two hundred years ago are fascinating.

satellite radio

More good news: I just talked with the producer of The Good Life Show with Jesse Dylan. I’ll be interviewed about Strong at the Heart live with call-ins on Tuesday, May 2nd, at 9 a.m. Pacific Time. You can listen live on the web and on Sirius Channel 114.

black oak

Here we are after the book presentation. That’s Arturo (chapter 6) on the left, me, Akaya, and then Maria and Staci who are mentioned in Akaya’s story as important to her healing. In the background you can see Nancy Rubin who wrote Ask Me If I Care: Voices of an American High School.

The photo is by Pia Torelli who is an amazing photographer. For a visual treat, check out her website with journalistic as well as events photos.

I just got home from Reading the World VIII, the multicultural children’s literature conference held each spring at the University of San Francisco. It was an excellent conference, well organized, with an impressive range of first rate speakers including Katherine Patterson, Ed Young, Linda Sue Park, Alma Flor Ada, Nikki Grimes and Kate DiCamillo.

It’s a small enough conference that you have the opportunity to have good discussions with the speakers, but big and enduring enough to draw attendees from all over the country. Presenters came from as far away as England (Tony Watkins) and Austria (Michael Schmid) and examined literature and cultural from a wide range of perspectives.

“EVERYDAY HEROES: Sexual Abuse in Young Adult Literature–What are we telling the kids?” was the lengthy title of my workshop. The folks who came were grad students, educators, and authors–including poet Nikki Grimes and Dr. Ada, both of whose work I have taught in my children’s literature classes for years.

We had a good discussion of the realities of abuse and healing and the persistent stereotypes in popular culture today. Then I showed books published for young adults in the last 18 months and looked at the ways abuse survivors are being portrayed.

It’s a mixed bag.

One of the forthcoming books we discussed was The Place Where Losers Go by Canadian poet and author Beth Goobie. It’s a fantasy novel about two survivors of gang rape. I know that sounds weird, but the fantasy works very well as a metaphor for dissociation. Beth Goobie has an insider’s knowledge of trauma and healing (she has written about being a survivor herself) and it really shows in her main character, Skey, who is struggling in high school after a traumatic event that she can’t quite piece together. Beth also has a keen sense of the power of emerging sexuality in the lives of teens.

Another session was given by Chun Yu, author of Little Green: Growing Up During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a verse memoir. She talked about how her family had to find the will to go on, that internal strength, in the face of the many traumas that they and their country went through during those years.

From my son Ben who lives in China I’ve heard many other stories of real people’s struggle to endure and build good lives after the relocations, humiliations, imprisonments, and killings. But listening to Chun Yu speak I was struck by the similarity between how she framed her experiences and how the people in Strong at the Heart talk about the ways they’ve found purpose and inner strength in healing from sexual abuse.

Chun Yu commented on the lack of purpose and drive she sees in many people who have not faced such difficulties. That gave me pause.

I just got some fine news. The New York Public Library has listed Strong at the Heart in its annual publication Books for the Teen Age. The 2006 book isn’t available yet (it will be downloadable), but there is an announcement of the exhibit and related book event at the NYPL’s TeenLink page.

Chris Crutcher, who was so supportive in the writing and pre-publication of Strong at the Heart, will give the “celebratory remarks.”

In other news, I’m prepping for this Saturday’s Reading the World conference in San Francisco. My talk will be on the representation of child sexual abuse survivors in young adult literature.

This means I’ve been reading, and re-reading, a stack of YA books and bound galleys of forthcoming books. It is interesting to see how persistent some of the stereotypes are. But there are wonderful books, too.

The standout is Chris Lynch’s Inexcusable. It’s potentially a tough read for a survivor because it is told from inside the head of Keir, a high school football player who rapes a girl on the night of the Senior Prom. BUT–and here’s the thing that is so skillfully done–as the story progresses you lose faith in this self-proclaimed “nice guy” and you begin to see how he is able to delude himself into thinking that what he did was okay. There is also chilling insight into how our culture encourages the potential for violence in young men.

Fortunately, the girl has a voice, too. “You raped me!” she tells Keir. She is clear and strong from the very first page, and she refuses to take on the blame or accept his excuses. If you are up for a tough but excellent read, check it out. Inexcusable recently received the National Book Award for young people’s literature.