Tag: Personal

Supporting Tribal Libraries

by Macy, posted in Blog

I compete on the forensics team at my university. For those unfamiliar, forensics is basically competitive public speaking featuring prepared speeches, limited preparation events, and literature interpretation. There are 11 events and over the past three years I’ve competed in 9 of them. This year, I qualified 5 events for the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament, and the Kansas State University team placed 10th in the nation. I love forensics, because I love having a voice about the things that matter to me (the captive audience doesn’t hurt either). This year, many of my events were about things that I am particularly passionate about  My persuasive speech was about tribal libraries, and I did a ton of research to try and condense problems, effects, and solutions into 10 minutes to present. This speech was inspired by the same class that this blog was a project for, because of that, I wanted to share my speech in a post format as well as pass along resources so you can support tribal libraries now and in the future.

Jacqueline Woodson in Conversation and Presentation

by Macy, posted in Blog

My first thought when I saw Jacqueline Woodson in person was that she was tall—to be fair though, I’m five feet tall, so everyone is tall to me. My second thought was brief panic. There I was, about to introduce myself to a literary rockstar. I don’t know why I was worried; she told me she liked my skirt, and we set off. Jacqueline Woodson was the keynote speaker at Kansas State University on April 21, 2018 for the Sixth Biennial Conference of Children's Literature in English, Education, and Library Science hosted by the Children’s and Adolescent Literature Community, of which I am a member. The conference theme, “Boundary Crossings in Children's and Young Adult Literature,” was inspired by Woodson’s work. Before she spoke, I had the opportunity to accompany Dr. Anne Phillips, my adolescent literature professor, to pick Woodson up from her hotel and accompany her to the location of the conference. I was delighted to have this opportunity, and am so grateful that Anne helped arrange it. On our car ride (through the rare Kansas rain) and short walk, I had the opportunity to ask Woodson a few questions.

Let’s Talk Time!

by Macy, posted in Blog

I finally read A Wrinkle in Time after I saw the movie a couple of weeks ago. Confession time: I couldn’t finish it in middle school and was highly disillusioned about it, I don’t think I would have picked this book up again if it weren’t for the masterfully done movie adaptation starring Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindi Kaling. That being said, I know exactly why I didn’t like this book at 12, I lack the patience I do now (not that I’m super patient) and I was being made to read it by a teacher and sometimes I bucked authority. Even now Madeline L’Engle’s writing style doesn’t work the best for me; that being said, I appreciated this book for what it does with a female main character and science fiction, and even more so I appreciate the movie for how it accomplishes the same things as the book with a phenomenal set of diverse characters. After having watched the book and read the movie I want to chat about the adaptation and my thoughts about the changes that were and weren’t made and the effects of the adaptation! THAT BEING SAID: SPOILERS WILL ABOUND IN THIS POST SO PROCEED WITH CAUTION