Reviews and Comments

Meh. There were some sweet bits and some giggly bits, but overall I had trouble getting through it.

One of those books that slows your breath as you settle into the language. I gasped when I turned the page and there were no more words, and I'm still not totally sure how I feel about the resolution. The stories were tied up and together in a way--not clearly or easily, but as I read the last few pages I felt more and more satisfied and comfortable saying that they were tied together well.

This was a really beautiful book. I read it quickly, despite feeling like there were some lulls (perhaps only in comparison to the highs, though). And I ended up feeling like the Deane party feels at the end of Lydia's play:
"some kind of completion -- and in the rush of applause they feel, too, the explorer's serendipity: the accidental, cathartic discovery of oneself. In the midst of this release, Michael leans over to Claire and whispers again, 'Did you see that?'"

This book has several fantastic essays on code switching, code meshing, power, and identity. It has helped me start to solidifying my thinking on teaching the intersection of language and identity to my high schoolers. I find strict code-switching somewhat problematic, both politically and practically. This has helped me to take the problems I saw and use them to begin to nuance my thinking.

As a (primarily) English teacher, "Code-Meshing and Creative Assignments: How students can stop worrying and learn to write like da bomb," by Theresa Malphrus Welford, particularly appealed to me. I hope to integrate several of her lessons, encourage genre- and code- mixing, into my classroom.