Jason Reynolds’ Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks is, in its simplest form, a story about a walk home from school. But it is also a story about grief, growing up, facing your fears, chronic illness, divorce, bullying, and a school bus falling from the sky. The walk home is ten blocks, and each block is told from the perspective of a different kid on their walk home. Students at Latimer have a lot on their plate, with pressure at school and at home to be a certain way. The only time they can truly be themselves is on their walk home, and part of this is trying to figure out their relationship to their community. Although the premise sounds like it might set you up for quite a boring book, Look Both Ways is incredible. Every single child featured is completely different, yet they all are connected in one way or another. Each story revolves around connection and how it affects the children. Sometimes it is the connection between a child and their parents, sometimes it is a connection between peers who have endured similar hardships, sometimes it is good, and sometimes it is painful, but it is an integral part of each story, because the life of a middle schooler is all about connection. Middle school is a time of change, a machine whose input is drastically different from its output. It is one of the places that is guaranteed to produce a person that is wiser than they were when they first walked through those double doors. And this is because middle school students thrive on attachments. It is what influences their every action. All the things they do, all the things they say, it is all because of connection. Reynolds explores this point of view of adolescence by making readers of Look Both Ways realize why certain kids need to be funny, or be a bully, or steal, and why teens are the way that they are. Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jason Reynolds. Atheneum Books, 2020. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
Jason Reynolds
Book Club Report: Look Both Ways, Jason Reynolds
An update from our twenty-seventh Book Club meeting! On May 29, the Stone Soup Book Club discussed Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, by Jason Reynolds. Look Both Ways contains several short stories about what happens to kids on their walk home from school, and offers a variety of perspectives on life. As usual, we started off our meeting by breaking into ARTT rooms. Each room had three or four people in it, and they could talk about whatever they liked. We asked, “what is your favorite thing to do in the summer?” as the prompt. The breakout rooms talked about this as well as the book! When we came back together, we began talking about Look Both Ways. Normally we go into breakout rooms to have more specific discussions, since there are a lot of us, but on Saturday we decided to all stay in the main room. It was nice to have everyone in the conversation together, and we got to talk about many topics, including our favorite characters and stories from the book, as well as what theme Jason Reynolds was trying to convey. Many people agreed that they had found the book slightly confusing, but thought its format (being composed of several short stories) was interesting. Next, we started a fun writing activity! Since, as previously mentioned, Look Both Ways is a collection of short stories, we thought it would be fun to write our own stories about walking home from school, whether fictional or real. In breakout rooms, we talked about our ideas, and then we all came back together to write! After twenty or so minutes, people began to share out. It was really fun to hear everyone’s stories! You can read our anthology here. Remember: if you attended book club and liked what you wrote for this activity, submit it through the Writing Workshop Submission Form and we will post it along with other stories on the Stone Soup website! Finally, we chose our next book! Our next meeting, at the end of June, is the last one of this session. Our Next Book (to be discussed on June 26): The Jumbies, by Tracey Baptiste
Book Club Report: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Grace Lin
An update from our twenty-sixth Book Club meeting! On April 24, in the first meeting of our new session, the Stone Soup Book Club discussed Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin. In the book, a girl named Minli embarks on an adventure filled with mythical creatures and interwoven stories to find the Old Man in the Moon and change her family’s fortune. After coming up with a few “ground rules” for our new session to make sure we all have the best time possible, we split up into breakout rooms of three and four to get to know each other. The prompt for these rooms was to talk about your favorite book, and it seems like there were a lot of similarities between people! Then, back in the main group, we quickly discussed our general impressions of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, before heading into two breakout rooms (led by myself and one of our Book Club facilitators, Lucy) to talk more in-depth. We had fascinating conversations about the characters, setting, plot, and theme of the book! One of the most distinct things about Where the Mountain Meets the Moon are the illustrations featured throughout it. We agreed that the drawings helped us picture the scenes and the characters, and that their style fit in with the writing in the book. This prompted a conversation about art in books, and how art is utilized in stories. We looked at the art in books such as The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick as examples. Our last activity was regarding the presence of Chinese mythology in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. We talked about how the mythology fit into the story, whether we like having mythology in stories, and what the best way to include mythology is: literally or interpretively. Finally, we chose our next book for Book Club, which is listed below! Our Next Book (to be discussed on May 29): Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, by Jason Reynolds
