UNSINKABLE!!

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

It hardly sounds like nonfiction: “From Russian Orphan to Paralympic Swimming World Champion,” but this is Jessica Long’s autobiography written with her sister Hannah. Born in Siberia with fibular hemimelia, Jessica had no ankles, heels or most of the bones in her lower legs. She was adopted by an American family in Baltimore, Maryland, and eventually had both legs amputated below the knee. There were six children in the Long family, including another little boy adopted from Russia. 

            From early childhood, Jessica was “determined to dominate at everything I did,” including climbing on top of the refrigerator! 

            “I made the daily choice to not let anything hold me back, especially my legs.”

            Initially, she excelled at gymnastics: “I walk on my knees. I’m just a little shorter.” By age 10, she discovered water and started beating girls with legs. “It’s all about technique and how you can work the water. Giving up was never an option.”

            Jessica swam her first Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, in 2004. At the games in Beijing in 2008, she felt she had failed because she won “only” four gold medals, along with a silver and a bronze.  But then she added modeling and public speaking to her accomplishments and has now told her own story in a young adult autobiography.

            Jessica’s story is inspirational and often funny. “My high-heel legs, or ‘sexy legs,’ were created using my sister’s feet…they molded her feet at a four-inch arch and used those molds to make my prosthetic feet.” She showed off her new legs on Twitter!

            Jessica challenges herself in and out of the water, but her experiences will tantalize young writers as well.

            She has rituals before every race, including eating a banana, clapping her hands three times and shaking her arms out.

·       What do you do to calm or inspire yourself or give you good luck before a match, game or special event? Why do you think it helps?

Jessica was always willing to try something new.

·       What is something new you tried to do? How did you feel? What did you learn from the experience?

Jessica is rightly proud of her accomplishments.

·       Write about something in your life that gives you great pride – don’t worry about being boastful. This is your time to “show and tell” on a piece of paper!

Jessica likes posing for photo shoots and often did this with her siblings.  “Elle decided to use a picture of me on a couch, posing on my knees without my prosthetics…It was really cool to be part of something that showed how people with disabilities an do the same things as everyone else, including model.”  

·       Have students pair off and take flattering photos of each other. Write an “artist statement” about your photo, explaining why you chose a particular pose or background and what you want people to learn from the photo.

Finally, think about Jessica’s story overall and write your thoughts about what qualities and factors in her life enabled her to overcome great challenges and contribute to her success. Then think about what qualities and factors in your own life could help you be successful – and unsinkable.

https://childrensbookguild.org/index.php/karen-leggett-abouraya

The School’s on Fire!

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

How often do we think of fire drills as a nuisance that interrupts a lesson or a nice break to get everyone outside for a few minutes? Even though the kids at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, Illinois, had dutifully marched out in fire drills, their school lacked the safety measures that might have saved them in a tragic 1958 fire. Ninety-two children and 3 teachers died in the fire. Although it was not the worst school fire ever, it did lead to dramatic improvements in fire prevention measures in schools.

“This can’t be happening,” (remembered thirteen-year-old Michele Barale.) “Schools don’t burn down. Who ever heard of a school burning down?”

Rebecca C. Jones knew about a school that did indeed burn down in Chicago and wanted to learn the real story behind it. She conducted dramatic interviews with 26 survivors who shared their memories and experiences, classroom by classroom.

“The neighbors’ ladders were far too short to reach the second-floor windows, so some kids began jumping to the alley.”

In one classroom, a back door to the school’s only fire escape was always kept locked. 

“Sister Geraldita normally kept the key to the back door on a key ring attached to her belt…She had forgotten to bring (her keys) to school that day….10-year old Matty Plovanich watched his teacher. ‘I will never forget the look on her face,” he says. “It was complete panic and anguish.”

Jones provides a riveting account of children and teachers responding to a very immediate danger. As the subtitle says, there was bravery, tragedy and determination. There are also opportunities for young writers today to reflect on various reactions to a dangerous situation and how they can prepare themselves to think quickly in an emergency. The very real story of this tragic fire could even open the door to difficult conversations about current dangers in schools and communities.

·       What might you have done in Sister Geraldita’s situation when you did not have keys to open the door to the fire escape?

·       Teachers tried different approaches to keeping their students calm.  What do you think you might do to calm younger children in an emergency in the school, on the school bus or on the playground?

·       Tragedy affected every child and family connected to Our Lady of the Angels School. What are some examples of bravery and determination? 

o   What does it mean to be brave?

o   Do you remember a time when you have been brave?

·       After classes were back in session, some teachers did not want anyone to talk about the fire ever again. Do you think that was a good idea?

·       Do you have an escape plan if there is a fire in your home? Describe a conversation at home about what each family member should do during any type of emergency.

·       Survey the fire prevention measures that exist in your school. Are there things that aren’t working, like some doors and rules at Our Ladies of the Angels? What can you do about something you think is not working as it should?

In December, there will be special programs in Chicago to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the fire.  A new school was built on the site in 1960 with state-of-the-art sprinklers, smoke detectors, fire doors and fire-resistant stairwells; the school closed permanently in 1999.  More information about the fire is available at olafire.com 

School Library Journal concluded that “this moving narrative of one of the most devastating school fires in U.S. history is recommended for middle school nonfiction collections.”

#StrongerThan: Writing About Personal Challenges

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

“Let us pick up our books and pens. One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.”

They are words made famous by Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, who spoke at the United Nations on her sixteenth birthday – just nine months after she was shot by the Taliban near her home in Pakistan’s Swat Valley for speaking up for the right of girls to attend school. She has called on young people the world over to stand up for the right of every child in every country to go to school – and to stand up with their words and pens and pencils.  After 200 young girls were kidnapped from a school in Nigeria, Malala spoke out again to show the world “we are #StrongerThan those who deny school girls an education.” (Video)

What are your students “StrongerThan?”  Here is a perfect opportunity to encourage young people in and out of the classroom to learn Malala’s story, feel her courage and resolve and then think about what they are #StrongerThan. What do they have the courage to write about and conquer or achieve?  Children of any age can be asked to write a sentence, a paragraph, an essay or a 140-character Tweet about what they are stronger than -

#StrongerThan bullying?

#StrongerThan my math or reading homework?

#StrongerThan  my ADD or cerebral palsy or other disability?

#StrongerThan unfairness?

Students may choose to focus on personal challenges or issues that trouble them in their community or the world – including the education concerns that so motivate Malala. This initial writing project can grow as much as a child or class wishes by writing group or individual letters to a principal, school superintendent, local newspaper or elected official. My picture book biography of Malala – Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words includes several organizations children can join or replicate: School Girls Unite (started by middle school girls right in Kensington, Maryland), Girl Up, GirlRising and Global Campaign for Education, and of course, the Malala Fund itself.

http://www.handsaroundthelibrary.com/