This week's show

This week I talk with author John Shors about his latest novel "Dragon House". It's the story of Iris and Noah - two Americans in Vietnam who open a center to house and educate Vietnamese street children. Reviewers have said that the question that echoes throughout this novel is "how can we be better?"

The other book I'll feature this week is also about how to make ourselves better: whether we're a teacher, a a parent or a student. The journal of first year teacher Esme Raji Codell "Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year" has been re-published 10 years later. Described as"a rash, petite, white lady who roller-skates through the halls and insists that her fifth-graders call her "Madame Esmé." But it's not all fun and games: she introduces us to children who fling their desks and apologize in tears, and at one point, after reporting a disruptive student to her mother, who subsequently thrashes the young girl, she dry heaves into her classroom's trash can."

So it's not book-related!

I can't help it, it was pretty exciting - last week in Homer, Alaska and Tom's GIANT fish!

Thanks for listening and responding

I got a great email from a listener today, about the interview I did with Jody Allen Crowe about "The Fatal Link - the Connection Between School Shooters and the Brain Damage from Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol". Thanks Gerry!

If you missed the interview, you can listen here.

Heidi-
Thanks once again for the great job in the interview with Jody Crow.
I'll pass on his book title to many others.
It's that time of year to head back and teach at HCC and this
information will fit right into my drug course.
Thanks once again for providing such a vital link in people's lives.
Gerry

Go to where the silence is and say something

Author Amy Efaw (rhymes with Hee-Haw she told me!) told me that her mission statement as a writer came from a NPR report she heard by Amy Goodman where she said: "Go to where the silence is and say something".

In many ways both the authors on this week's Realgoodwords have done that. They are talking about what we are AFRAID to talk about. For Minnesota educator and author Jody Crowe, that silence is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the link to school shooters. For Amy Efaw, it is young girls getting pregnant, having their babies and leaving them in motels or bathroom stalls or dumpsters.

Here's some startling findings about fetal alcohol syndrome-
A MN study identified women who were at risk for drinking during pregnancy...
the risk factors were:

Single
College educated (most likely to drink)
Working in high level white collar jobs
Younger (college aged) or older (35-45)
Affluent (over $50,000)
Living in the Metro

As Jody said in our conversation, this is clearly NOT just a native American issue.

Amy Efaw's young adult novel "After" is about a teen who has a baby and leaves it in a dumpster. Here's some of the statistics about teenage pregnancy.

Each year almost 750,000 teenage women 15-19 become pregnant.

The U.S. has the highest rates of teen pregnancies and birth among comparable countries.

In a year, over 365 babies are found abandoned.

Both authors on this week's show are saying something. That's for sure.

MN author Julie Kramer's new "Missing Mark"

Kids these days!

On this week's Realgoodwords I'll talk with young adult author Jay Asher. His book, "Thirteen Reasons Why" is a bestseller. The title refers to the 13 reasons why Hannah Baker killed herself. Controversial? Hell yes. Kids though, can't get enough of it. So the question is: books about teen suicide, teen pregnancy, teen drug abuse, eating disorders....teen YOU NAME IT... does it lead to MORE of the "problem"? What appeals to young adults about the darker themes like these? Earlier this year I talked with bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson about her book "Wintergirls" which had to do with eating disorders. I asked her if there was any worry on her part that her theme/subject matter would actually ENTICE an eating disorder. She told me that if you are prone to an eating disorder - EVERYTHING would spur it on - TV, magazines, Internet....all of these things exist and a book that delves into the issue doesn't mean it is glorifying the problem. Or does it?

We are not living in the days of Nancy Drew and her boyfriend Ned Nickerson anymore. These tough issues that face teens aren't going away.... and some people think that kids need to know it's okay to read REAL stories and communicate about them.

What do you think?

This week on Realgoodwords

Tune in for a conversation with 2 MN authors....Susan Marks and Jim Proebstle.

Susan's new book is called Historic Photos of Minnesota. She compiled the photos, did the research and wrote the text in this fascinating new book. There are so many stories behind these fascinating photos - like the one you see on the cover to the left - women's hockey at the U of MN in the 1920s. Susan talks at length about the research process and how she came to write/compile the book.

Jim Proebstle spends his summers on Leech Lake and is the author of the mystery "In the Absence of Honor" . Last time Jim and I talked his first novel had just come out. This time he talks about how he has marketed his book and what his writer journey has been like so far.