Coping with Grief and Gaining Empathy Through Story and the Lens of History

Almost unfathomably, this September 11th marks a staggering 20 years since many of us watched in horror as the iconic twin towers fell, and our nation was under attack. As many adults still work to process the shock and trauma of that day, students not yet born in 2001, grow ever more removed from the event, lacking understanding, even as they weather devastating shared traumas of their own: Mass shootings and gun drills, political unrest, and, yes, a pandemic, and the impact of the isolation of quarantine. How do we teach children to cope with such overwhelming trauma, gaining empathy and even hope through the lens of history?

One of the answers is, and has always been, story.

It is well documented that story – especially via literary fiction -- builds empathy and understanding far better than text or nonfiction ever could. Stepping into story, and the metaphorical shoes of children their own age, to "witness" that tragic day and the days after, to feel with their own hearts how we rose from grief as a nation -- as well as changed in both good and bad ways -- is one of the most instructive ways for children today to learn to cope with their ongoing grief.

For the past five years since I wrote my fictional account of two young adults, Kyle and the bird girl, persevering through the trauma of 9/11, not to mention their own personal grief and coming of age, I have visited many schools and met countless readers ages 12 – 18 who have shared how this one little story has changed their perception and helped them to understand. Readers have voiced not only a new understanding of the actual timeline of events that day, but of how important research and source and fact checking are, or how sweeping changes in technology, security and privacy took place, or how the scourge of Islamophobia took a real and dangerous foothold in our country in the aftermath.

As one student recently admitted, “I learned how horrible it was. I used to think it wasn’t that big of a deal, but now I understand.”

Comprehending the value, and necessity, of teaching 9/11, departments of education around the country, including New York, New Jersey, and Virginia have developed 9/11 curriculum, often pairing it with Holocaust teachings. Both those traumatic events in our shared history are often associated with the easy catchphrase “Never forget.” And yet, we’ve begun to. And must not. ____ To learn more about my books, and two wonderful middle grade choices, and how to bring any or all of these stories to your classrooms, you may also watch this brief video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P7fOXdwjNM&t=19s or reach out to me at g.polisner@gmail.com. To never forget, #ReadAndRemember

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We All Need to Be Kinder

Since THE MEMORY OF THINGS came out, I've been talking about 9/11 -- an unwitting emotional "expert" of sorts, by way of the research I did, and the story I told.

I believe my novel -- and others' stories -- on this subject are essential, because kids in desks, K-12, weren't even alive when our country was changed forever that impossibly sunny blue-skied day. They have as little feel for 9/11 and its aftereffects as I had for WWII when I was in school. They don't get it, and they don't care.

Science has shown that reading literary fiction builds empathy. Just last night, I had a message from a 15-year-old boy in Indiana -- I'll call him C here -- who read my book for school, and something resonated, something clicked. He is going through a rough time.

"I'm a student of [omitted for privacy reasons]," he tweeted to me, "and I would like to say I loved the book were reading in our class i read ahead and finished it and they recommended talking to u. I loved the book wich [sic] is odd because I never read books but I must say that is one of my favorite books."

We exchanged messages for about an hour. About music, about his recent breakup, about life. I offered to send him a signed copy of my book, and a few of my other titles. I just got back from the post office. "We need more kind people," he wrote to me.

Indeed, we do.

There are hashtags and sayings forever associated with 9/11: We're all in this together. #neverforget.

But are we? Have we?

We have a virus -- a pandemic in this country-- that has already killed nearly 200,000 people. Science and medicine have told us masks help. Masks work. Distancing works. And yet, day after day we are flooded with images of those who refuse to even try to help. Worse, those who harm those who try to help.

I know not everything after 9/11 was peace, love and harmony, that Islamophobia and conspiracy theories arose, that here and there, looters took advantage.

But mostly, there was an overwhelming sense of shared historic grief, a sense of urgent connection. A sense we were responsible not only for ourselves, but one another.

On a small scale, we've sure seen that since March. In our healthcare workers, our essential workers, and our educators, now, who continue to put their lives on the line for us every single day. But as a nation? It's heartbreaking, and I can't help ask myself the rhetorical question: What has changed?

Not everything is political. The fate of our neighbors, our friends, the fate of strangers, all matter.

We are all human. Our kids need us to rally TOGETHER. Not for a political party but for humanity.

Our healthcare and essential workers need us.

Our educators need us.

That boy, C? He reminded me of another male student, this one I'll call M, from Kansas, I "met" via my book a few years back who I stayed in touch with simply because of a story. My story about 9/11, and a time our country was in trouble. And we all came together. A story about one kid who finds his way through grief to cope, and in doing so, learns how to step up and be a better person. That boy, M, just messaged me two nights ago to tell me he graduated high school and is headed off to the marines.

"Wow, congrats! That's hard," I wrote. "You must be proud. And brave." We messaged on for a bit and soon enough I wrote my heart: "Please find a way to be tough. . . and also kind and accepting. A hard juggle."

"I will," M responded with a purple heart. "Thank you."

#NeverForget #WeAreSTILLAllInThisTogether #Nineeleven #Kindness #SharedHistory #literaryfictionbuildsempathy

Book Releases in the Time of Covid (and a Few Clues to Reader Love)

I've spent a lot of time lying on the ground these past months, lying where I'm planted.

Maybe it's metaphorical.

Maybe I'm just exhausted like many of us, from the constant upheaval, both political and pandemical.

If that's not a word, it really should be.

I, myself, live here in NY on LI, a hot spot. In fact the hottest of the hotspots, in a way you never wanted to win that title. And I've spent most of it sick with an undiagnosed respiratory thing that seemed sprung from a 24-hour virus the first week in March...

For sure, it's taken a toll on me. I've aged several years in these past few months. I know many of you will nod along.

 As much as we've all suffered, I can't help feel that, much like after 9/11, those of us in NY and NJ have lived through something slightly (or majorly) different than the rest of you. For months, the world here was out of a sci fi movie (and still is), empty and quiet and terrifying, everything shut down but essential workers.

Doctor friends told horror stories. They slept away from their families. Pop up ICU's filled formerly public spaces. Our daily death numbers were in the thousands. Now as the virus spread has finally slowed and states have begun to open back up, I don't take any of it lightly. My kids are still here. My parents are still here! My friends are still here. And I'm finally starting to feel better myself.

And yet, people close to me were not that lucky. People close to me have lost their people. Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, husbands and friends. My sons have lost icons, people in their prime who shouldn't have been cut down. And don't get me started on the rest of the news. . . 

As the country opens up, so much of it carelessly, I don't know how many of us here in NY feel capable of weathering another round.

And yet.

In the middle of it, some silver linings. Here in the northeast, spring sprung. The environment has rebounded some. People have taken to the streets in record numbers to decry ongoing police brutality and blatant racism. 

My son in the rainbow mask at a local protest. 

The open water swim season has begun, and I feel well enough to finally swim.

In the middle of all of that, I had not one but two book releases. Maybe I don't have to tell you how hard it is to be a midlist author releasing books into a covid/quarantine abyss.

I write literary young adult (and now middle grade!) fiction. School/library is my most supportive audience (and purchaser). Yet these books came out to a nation of closed libraries and booksellers.

It hasn't been pretty. JACK KEROUAC IS DEAD TO ME, a book I worked on for over the course of a decade, came out in early April as EVERYTHING shut down. Few library districts have picked it up. Few non-trade reviewers even covered it. SEVEN CLUES TO HOME came out in the midst of protests and unrest on the day of George Floyd's funeral. Even the best self promoter with the most hardened heart would be hard pressed to shout out their books in the middle of these far greater things that need our attention.

And yet.

And yet.

This is my career. My livelihood.

And barely at that.

Like many of us, I have been struggling to find both balance and salvation. Like many of us, I have been struggling to make sense, struggling to map a future, struggling to do better in a world that often seems to tell me my better will never be enough. When I'm already pretty damned good at telling myself that.

But even in the book biz, there have been silver linings. Our local Barnes and Noble just opened and I decided to stop in, trying to brace myself for the reality that, by now, JACK KEROUAC IS DEAD TO ME might already be gone from its shelves. If it ever even found its way there in the first place.

Instead, I found it here:

It took me five books to find one of my titles displayed with the big names like this.

And SEVEN CLUES TO HOME has gotten some incredible reviews including Booklist who called it a "modern-day Bridge to Terebithia" and Kirkus who called it a "heartfelt tour de force."

You can see (and share!) the official trailer for the book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDtj4EegDZA

If you are a parent, educator or a librarian reading, my co-writer Nora and I have been doing a ton of work to connect young readers not only to the story but to the outside world around them. In an age of physical distancing, we've created a bunch of fun activities, our favorite, a series of book-related mini-scavenger hunts we hope our readers enjoy. 

 I'll share the hunts below. And, remember, the point of these hunts is to have fun! Creativity, fresh air, and flexibility are encouraged, perfection, not so much.

So, for example, if it says to find a dolphin or peacock, they don’t have to be live ones -- though big kudos if they are! Instead, they can be paintings of them, or versions embroidered on a pillow, or even clouds shaped like one!

Hunt #1: A QUICK SLICE 

Find and take a photo of each of the following items (it’s okay to be creative!): 

1. A white envelope with a name on it;
2. A guitar;
3. A pizza parlor;
4. Carved words or numbers in wood;
5. A dolphin
6. A pie (or pi).

Hunt #2: BE THRIFTY 

Find and take a photo of each of the following items (it’s okay to be creative!): 

1. Something bejeweled or bedazzled;
2. A “so tiny dog that looks like a rat;”
3. An old-fashioned toy that winds up, claps, or spins;
4. A hat with a feather;
5. A peacock . . . or peafowl ;)
6. A constellation.

Hunt #3: SOMETHING FISHY

Find and take a photo of each of the following items (it’s okay to be creative!): 

1. A tackle box or fishing rod;
2. Someone telling a short, dumb joke (video);
3. A gazebo;
4. A big juicy worm;
5. A heron or other seabird;
6. A lighthouse.

Hunt #4: CURIOSITY & WONDERS 

Find and take a photo of each of the following items (it’s okay to be creative!): 

1. A painted rock;;
2. A heart-shaped tree;
3. A “whale’s eye” shaped knot in a tree;
4. A bus shelter;
5. Some sort of hole;
6. A rainbow.

Hunt #5: CLUES TO HOME

Find and take a photo of each of the following items 

(it’s okay to be creative!): 

1. A red box or container
2. Heart necklace or other heart-shaped jewelry 
3. M&Ms, Skittles or other candy you could plant as “seeds” 
4. A potted plant - real or artificial
5. A cloud formation that clearly looks like an animal or object
6. A love note, or handwritten note from a friend.

In fact, I'll run my own personal-three book giveaway here. Through the end of August, if your child reads SEVEN CLUES TO HOME and completes all five mini hunts, have them email me a photo of them holding a copy of the book, as well as photos of the objects they found, and I'll enter them to win a package of three signed copies of my books and a skype/zoom or google hangouts conversation with me (if they want it!). They can email me at g.polisner@gmail.com (if you email and don't get a response without 48 hours, it means your email somehow did not get to me!) They can also tag me on instagram @gaepol and share their scavenger hunt photos there with me! Sending love out to the universe and to all of you, Gae

A Little Obsessed with Kerouac . . .

 Me, in front of Gunther's Tap Room in Northport, NY
last summer. Photo credit, Rick Kopstein

In the coming weeks before the release of my fifth novel, JACK KEROUAC IS DEAD TO ME, I'm going to share both tidbits about the story and the writing process, and about the eponymous author, Jack Kerouac, himself.

Though some will clearly go into my novel wishing to find more about Kerouac, the title should be a bit of a tip off. It is NOT a book about Kerouac. Rather, like me, my MC is not a huge fan of Kerouac's -- though for very different reasons. . . Though Kerouac, himself, does appear in a pivotal scene in the book.

I want to love Kerouac's books more than I do. I've delved back into some of his works, post-writing mine, for this book release. At the moment, I'm slogging through the middle of Big Sur. His writing is inarguably extraordinary. Still, I fall in the school of being, first, breathtakingly enamored with his talent, then grow slightly lost or bored in his ramblings, and find myself craving a bit more hardcore editing.

Having said that, I am fascinated by his life, and the fact that he lived for a while in Northport, NY, very close to where I live, makes him feel all the more real and relevant to me. And the closer I get to my release date, the more I find myself reading him, and drifting around the internet and beyond to catch glimpses of his life. I will share some of that with you in coming weeks.

Inside Gunther's Tap Room, in front of the eponymous author.
photo credit, Rick Kopstein

No doubt, Kerouac was both a talent and a tortured human being, never clearer than in this Newsday piece from July 2000 that was covering an exhibition/retrospective being held in that town.

From Newsday staff writer Ariella Budick, printed July 13, 2000:

EVEN AMONG Beat aficionados, it is a little-known fact that Jack Kerouac spent six years, on and off, in Northport, Long Island.

Celebrated during his lifetime as "King of the Beats," Kerouac retreated to a shingled Victorian at 34 Gilbert St. in 1958, the year after the publication of "On the Road."

His rapid rise to fame-he was heralded as the gifted spokesman for a disenchanted generation-yielded to an equally precipitous decline that, by the time he moved to Northport, was in full swing. An exhibit at the Northport Historical Society, devoted to Kerouac's sad years in the sleepy village he briefly called home, details the impact the writer made on Northport and the less significant impact Northport seems to have made on him. It is a tightly focused show, designed for two quite specific, and necessarily limited, sets of viewers: Northport history buffs and steadfast Kerouac disciples.

Kerouac moved to Northport with his mother, whom he called Memere, the constant companion of his adult life. Memere, conservative and Catholic, thoroughly despised Kerouac's New York friends, whom she judged a noxious influence. She particularly loathed Allen Ginsberg for his Jewishness and his homosexuality, even threatening at one point to report him to the FBI for engaging in anti- American activities. She also sent angry missives to William S. Burroughs, who remarked, "My God! She really has him sewed up like an incision." Indeed, one of Kerouac's reasons for moving to Northport was to put some distance between himself and his cosmopolitan friends.

"By all accounts, Kerouac spent his Northport years in an alcoholic haze, 

playing pool at neighborhood bars. A series of depressing photos capture him, 

overweight and falling apart, clowning pathetically for the camera."

By all accounts, Kerouac spent his Northport years in an alcoholic haze, playing pool at neighborhood bars. A series of depressing photos capture him, overweight and falling apart, clowning pathetically for the camera. His inspiration was hopelessly stalled: The many books he brought out during these years were all written earlier, when publishers had been unwilling to consider his work.

Even so, Kerouac's presence seems to have made an impact on some young lives. George Wallace, the exhibit's curator, has enshrined testimonials from a small sampling of Northport's (then) youth, attesting to Kerouac's extraordinary influence: "He made me a thinking person," says Carol Watson, who was 15 when she first met the unstable author. Although the exhibition text informs us that Kerouac did not particularly appreciate attentions from fawning young fans, he enthusiastically joined them in juvenile high jinks. One incident, we are told, involved police chasing the aging Beat and a group of young boys out of an abandoned Gold Coast mansion, after which Kerouac fell asleep, drunk, in the woods.

Kerouac became increasingly conservative- even xenophobic-as he grew older and more isolated. He rabidly supported the Vietnam War, and his growing disenchantment with erstwhile Beat friends and their "anti-American views" sometimes sounded like paranoia.

"Somewhere along the line I knew there'd be girls, visions, everything," Kerouac rhapsodized in "On the Road"; "somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to me." But this sometime son of Northport died in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1969, of severe hemorrhaging brought on by alcoholism. The critic Seymour Krim did not mince words:

"He died lonely and isolated like a hunched old man at only 47 with a comic strip beer belly, and faded, gross, ex-good looks, full of slack-lipped mutterings about the 'New York Jewish Literary Mafia.'"

The Northport tribute makes him hardly more appealing.

Ariella Budick, STAFF WRITER, July 2000

If you'd like to preorder a copy of JACK KEROUAC IS DEAD TO ME, you may do so through links here:  https://read.macmillan.com/lp/jack-kerouac-is-dead-to-me/

More soon!

- gae

Maybe Your Students Need More Stories About Mental HEALTH

(adapted from an article I wrote on Linked In)
As we get ready to send our children, our adolescents, our teens and young adults, back into the classroom, it's time to think about those fall stressors, what each child is dealing with at home, in their personal lives, plus the pressures they face, perhaps, from the kid sitting next to them, or waiting for them down the hall.
Knowing this, knowing how many of our teens, especially, are suffering these days, many educators will encourage them to read books about mental illness. There are long lists of such books, many of them great, compelling stories, many award-winners, but how often I wish these stories reflected less about mental illness and more about mental HEALTH.

In fact, IMHO, some of the most famous of these books seem to glamorize mental illness and/or suicide in problematic ways. In these stories, the adults are rarely helpful and rarely very present at all.

In the face of rising natural, and unnatural, disasters, there's an oft-quoted Mr. Rogers' line, "Look for the helpers," but so often in these stories our kids read, the helpers, quite frankly, just aren't very good. They really don't seem to care much. They don't have much skill.

When I sign copies of STARS, I often include
a replica of Sister Agnes Teresa's ladder up.
Because who doesn't need a ladder up sometimes? 

I wondered why this was. . . and, as I wrote and shaped IN SIGHT OF STARS and realized my protagonist, Klee, was in a bad way and needed help, I wanted to present the other side, the side I have been lucky enough to experience -- from my high school guidance counselor who offered me a safe haven through all of junior and senior year, through some of the extraordinary therapists who have helped me and my family through some of our roughest times, their roughest times, as I raised my kids.

That is Dr. Alvarez, a character modeled largely on a real therapist, a true and extraordinary helper who patiently works with Klee until he is ready to participate in his own healing during his stay at an in-patient rehab facility in a fictional town in upstate NY.
Therapists can be like shoes -- it often takes several tryings on before you find one that fits, find one that is comfortable, the right size and style for you. But they are out there, and I'm hungry for them to be fully reflected in books for teens.

Similarly, I'm anxious for the use of psychotropic medications, where needed, to be positively reflected in young adult stories, which is to say, they don't change who a person is, or undermine their ability to be creative -- If they are, perhaps that person is on the wrong medication for them, or the wrong dosage. My experience with such medications is they simply allow the person to function more typically, as themselves, by quieting or taking the edge off atypical and problematic body chemistry.
In IN SIGHT OF STARS, Klee needs the help of medication for the time being, and may not need those medications in the near future.

Yes, there is language in the story. YES, there are intense situations. Have you seen what our kids are privy to these days? Have you met any of our teens?
Look, all I know is our kids need help and support ,and if you want them to feel safe seeking it out, share stories with them where the help HELPS. Because it can, and does.

I promise, it can and does.

- gae

Friday Feedback with Sarah Aronson: Top 5 things about writing picture books—even if you think you are a novel writer.

Hey, all, Happy Friday! I am so ridiculously happy and honored to have Sarah here. She's an extraordinary writer, teacher and human, and I'm so thrilled she agreed to be here to give feedback to you today!

I was especially excited for the release of Sarah's awesome new picture book, JUST LIKE RUBE GOLDBERG, because, from a young age, my parents taught me about him, and his name became like Kleenex-for-tissue in our house, a two-word description for anything that was deliciously eccentric, complicated, or complex. Here's a brief description for the book!

Discover how Rube Goldberg followed his dreams to become an award-winning cartoonist, inventor, and even an adjective in the dictionary in this inspiring and funny biographical picture book.

See? An adjective!! Yes!! Just like he was in our house!!!

So, please check out this -- and her other books, order a copy for your classroom or kids, and ask your local library to order it in if they haven't already. A worthy title for any and all collections!! And now, without further ado, here's Sarah, who, I think, expands on the concept of finding the joy and play in our work as we go along we started talking about last week, and then shares FIVE awesome tips for picture book writing:

Hey there! My name is Sarah, and I like to write in multiple genres. 

I didn’t think it was going to be this way. 

A couple of years ago, after two YA novels and a MG novel, I took the dramatic (at least to me) step to try and write the genres I didn’t think I was good at. I have talked about this decision a lot over the years. Mostly because it changed my career. And made me a happier writer. But at the time, I didn’t know what was going to happen. All I knew is that my third book sold poorly. My fourth book didn’t sell.

I was having less fun. 

I needed to get out of my own way. To learn to play. To be like David Bowie. To embrace the creative life all over again. To think less, write more. 

And did I say have more fun?

I really wanted to have more fun.

During the next six months, (and ever since) I totally indulged myself. And it worked. I wrote The Wish List Book One: The Worst Fairy Godmother Ever. 

I started an adult novel (that I still have to finish). I wrote a bunch of picture books—some awful. Some didactic. Some pretty good. One of them came like a spark of inspiration. It became Just Like Rube Goldberg—which was published by Beach Lane Books with GORGEOUS illustrations by Robert Neubecker. 

The process of making that book taught me a lot. More than five things. But today, let’s talk about the top five things about writing picture books—even if you think you are a novel writer.

#1 

Let’s start with the thing everyone talks about when they talk about picture books: 

WORD COUNT!

Here is what I learned right off the bat: Short word count is not a demotion. It is a challenge to get to the heart of the story. To embrace THE FORM. 

A short word count helps create better pacing. 

(Don’t you hate it when you are ready to turn the page for a new illustration, but there are still more words to read???) Remember: picture books (like all books) are cinematic. But unlike novels, they are driven by and inhabited through the pictures. Although the words come first in the submission process, the words cannot interfere with the illustrations. 

When I saw Robert’s illustrations taking shape, I deleted words.

Now when I work on my picture books, whether fiction or true stories, I try to make them as short as possible. Because words you don’t need are…well…words you don’t need.

#2

YOU HAVE TO FEEL CONNECTED TO YOUR SUBJECT. 

Or in other words: you have to love what you are writing.

Or in other words: your heart must be in your story.

Just like Rube Goldberg is all about Rube. But it is also all about ME. It’s about my ideas about creativity—that are embraced by Rube’s. Every second of the process was FUN. Even when I was frustrated with my own limitations, I was enjoying playing with the words. 

If you are not having fun…

If writing is not feeling like ice cream…

If you are making decisions because of THE MARKET. Or BECAUSE SOMEONE TOLD YOU SOME RULE. Stop.

Start a new page.

Find your heart in the process.

(You will thank me later.)

#3

Writing a true story? BACK MATTER MATTERS. Back matter isn’t just a chance to show off how much research I did. Back matter marks the spot where curiosity met process. (Not for nothing, editors like to see that you did your work.) TRUE STORY: when I was researching Rube, I actually found ANOTHER STORY. But mostly, thinking about back matter made me think more about my reader. There was a lot more I could have shared. I created back matter and a bibliography knowing that my readers would be curious, too. I want them to keep learning after they are done reading, since the book couldn’t be about everything. 

Note: I will be on a panel talking about this at NCTE. Come say hi!

#4 

TAKE THE TIME TO MAKE THE DUMMY.

See your story on the page.

Draw bad drawings.

Read your book and turn the page. 

My first Rube Dummy showed me where I needed to show more.

The dummy I just made for my new secret project which I cannot announce yet (Shhhhhhhhhhhhh), showed me where I was overindulging and writing too many words that I did not need. When I cut those words, THE BOOK SOLD.

LAST and MOST IMPORTANT: 

#5

TRUST and CONFIDENCE are ESSENTIAL.

Just like any project, you have to trust yourself. 

You have to trust your reader friends.

You have to trust your agent.

You have to trust your editor. 

You have to trust your illustrator. 

It’s a lot of trust.

And I will admit: I am bossy. I had ideas for Rube. BUT NONE were as good as this:

So that’s it.

Five things.

In less than 1000 words.

And, now, I guess it's my turn to put my words where my mouth is and offer up a brief excerpt for your feedback, inviting you to do the same in the comments!

If you've never participated in Friday Feedback, please first read THE RULES!!!

Here is a piece of a picture book WIP I am working on. I'm actually about to submit it. 

It's called As Easy as 1 2 3.

Who is the most exhibited artist in the world? 

Would you believe Picasso?

Or maybe Monet?

Or how about Dan Robbins?

Never heard of him? Pull up a chair.

Dan Robbins worked at Detroit’s Palmer Paint Company in early 1950. His Boss, Max Klein, could see the writing on the wall. For the first time, Americans had the time, inclination, and money to take up new hobbies—including art. 

He asked Dan to create a coloring book—to drum up sales of children’s paints.

But Dan had a better idea. 

He knew that the great master, Leonardo da Vinci, taught his apprentices to create fine art by giving them numbered patterns. 

Each number on the canvas corresponded to a unique pigment.

Like 1 for red.

And 2 for yellow.

Dan figured if it worked for Leonardo, it could work for America, too.

---

So that's it! Looking forward to your comments and your excerpts!!!

Sarah (& Gae)