In November, the content coach for the English department in my district scheduled bibliotherapy for all the teachers in the district. Each of us brought a book that we would love to share with someone else. Bibliotherapy is "the use of books as therapy in the treatment of mental conditions" and while a group of English teachers aren't licensed therapists, we do understand the power of a good book. We were given polka-dot bags and literary notecards with instructions to write a prescription recommending the book for another's ailments.
Not completely understanding the assignment at first, I brought three books that I thought would appeal to teachers:
The Maid by Nita Prose
A whodunit that reveals itself early to the reader, but connects the reader to the maid in question. I recommended this because of my love of mysteries, but also because of the insight into the mind of someone with divergent thinking, like Asperger's or Autism. As educators, we often forget that not everyone thinks or learns in the same way and I found this book both intriguing and educational in understanding others.
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
This classic has long been one of my favorites. I was introduced to the musical in 2010 while cleaning cabins with a friend. Our weeks were filled with counseling 8 to 18-year-olds at Bible camp, but our weekends were for preparing for the next week and building relationships with others. My cleaning partner introduced me to two Broadway musicals now on my wish list, The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Secret Garden. Nearly two years after being introduced to the musical, I read Orczy's novel as I worked an afterschool program. I fell in love with the story of Margarite and Percy and the beautiful imagery throughout the book. I was shocked to find that other English teacher's weren't as obsessed with this short classic as I was. The personification of Lady Guillotine alone is mesmerizing.
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| This is the OwlCrate special edition. |
Admittedly, I am a wimp when it comes to horror. I love mystery and suspense, hate horror. So this recommendation may seem to be a conundrum, but I loved how Leno set up this ghostly tale. Rather than chapters, this book is divided into sections by lines of one of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's well-known children's rhymes:
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
What follows is a story that slowly draws the reader in to the clutches of a menacing ghost. Plus, there's an Agatha Christie reference throughout (and who doesn't love Christie?).
The two modern selections were picked up and I am confident they both were received well. The Maid showed back up in round two of bibliotherapy this past month and the teacher who selected Horrid talked to me about it as we both selected new books in January. So what did I do with The Scarlet Pimpernel? I left it for my mentor who still works at the middle school. Has he admitted he hates it? Yes. Ain't I a stinker?
As for my first dose of bibliotherapy, I selected On Writing by Stephen King which was brought by a senior English teacher from another building. Part of our initial assignment was to read the book over the winter break . . . which I did not do. However, I did start reading it with my Comp & Reading 2 class during free reading time. I can tell that the other teacher, like myself, thought our books should connect to teaching in some way (we were later encouraged that our round two books could simply be books we enjoyed, no educational strings attached). And I'm so glad for his misunderstanding. I had never read King's writing primer before (actually, I've never read any of King's books, but I am familiar with several of them through pop culture and movies), but I have highlighted quotes on over twenty pages and had my Creative Writing students analyze a portion of the text in class.
While On Writing is certainly impacting me as a teacher, it is also impacting me as a writer. When I completed my Masters of English in Creative Writing in 2017, I had the rough idea and thirty pages of a novel that I feared I would never have the guts to write. I'm no Bradbury, Austen, Tolkien, or Lewis. I'm just . . . me. But, according to King, that's exactly who I need to be.
I am not coming here to promise that I'll finish my book in 2023, but I am going to cling to King's admonition to write a little bit each day. Some days, I will take time to write in my book. Others--probably more often--I will stretch my writing muscles through blog entries and book reviews, but I will be writing.
The fear may not fall away, but I will face it head on, one word at a time.
