Special Interest

Passing Time

by Isabella Steengracht van Moyland

You may think that passing time is a time to fool around, but it's really not. Passing time is when you have to take responsibility and get to your next class on time. Even with the few minutes you have to spare, you should be in class before the bell rings.

Passing time should be used for 1-3 things. The first thing is going to your locker and putting whatever you need away. The second thing is grabbing whatever else you need and closing your locker. Remember to be careful with your locker so it doesn’t get jammed or damaged! The third and final thing is to get to your class before the bell rings. You don’t want to get tardy!

Trying to be late for a certain class and then coming in with a pass is still not any better. You could have missed a lot that could affect your learning.

So please keep in mind that passing time is supposed to help you have enough time to get to your next class, not to goof around.

The kitsune mask, also known as the fox mask, is a part of Japanese culture. The kitsune (fox) is an animal that is greatly respected and can be found throughout many different stories and legends in Japan. The kitsune mask has many uses throughout Japanese culture, but a big one is that they are used to represent praise to the gods of the Shinto religion. At the festivals in this religion, people are required to wear these masks. One of the main festivals where people of the Shinto religion wear kitsune masks lasts from August to November because this is the time when rice is harvested. Other uses of the kitsune mask are in kabuki (Japanese theater), movies and animations. 

There are 2 major categories of kitsune masks and 13 subcategories of kitsune masks. The kitsune mask is usually painted white, black and red, but can also have the colors gold or blue. A lot of people wear these masks for fun. Anyone can wear a kitsune mask even if they are not Japanese, but it is important to know that there are good foxes and bad foxes in Japanese culture. It is also important to know that these masks are very meaningful  in Japanese culture and should be respected.

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Sources:

https://www.foxtume.com/blogs/japanese-fashion/all-about-kitsune-mask-japanese-fox-mask

https://eiyokimono.com/a/blog/japanese-kitsune-mask#:~:text=Traditionally%2C%20natives%20wear%20the%20kitsune,god%20of%20rice%20and%20prosperity.

Dystopian 

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Two children from each of the twelve districts in Panem must fight to the death in the hunger games. 

2. Divergent by Veronica Roth. The five factions (Amity, Dauntless, Erudite, Abnegation, Candor) help balance society but Beatrice has never fit in with her faction. Beatrice then learns she is Divergent, and must keep it a secret. 

3. They Both Die at the End By Adam Silvera. Rufus and Mateo both get a call from deathcast, a company that alerts you that you are going to die in the next 24 hours. They connect with each other on an app called Last Friend, for people who want someone to spend their last day with. They meet up to try to make their last hours count. 

4. The Giver by Lois Lowry. In a community with no pain or sadness, everyone gets assigned jobs when they turn 12. But Jonas is assigned the rare job of the Receiver, who gets memories of the past from the receiver before them. But the more memories he gets, the more Jonas questions his life and home. 

Graphic Novels

Yes, I know, technically this isn’t a genre, but I added this section for readers who are looking for some good graphic novel options.

Historical:

1. When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. Omar and Hassan have lived in a Kenyan refugee camp for seven years. Then Omar is encouraged to go to school. He struggles leaving Hassan by himself but soon settles into school and learning. This is a true story about Omar and his brother and their experiences in the refugee camp Dadaab.

2. White Bird by RJ Palacio. If you’ve ever read Wonder, then you will love this book. It is the story of Julian’s grandmother in France during WW2. When Nazis come to attack her school, she is helped by an outcast boy with Polio named Julien, who hides her in his family’s hayloft. 

Miscellaneous/ Including LGBTQ+ Characters

3. The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

After making a splash, designing a rebellious dress, Frances is enlisted to design dresses for royalty- that royalty turns out to be Prince Sebastion, who must keep his love of dresses a secret. Frances designs all sorts of dresses for Lady Crystallia (Prince Sebastian in disguise).
4. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo. A modern retelling of Little Women. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy couldn’t be more different. Meg, the oldest, loves fashion, Jo, strong-minded, loves reading, Beth, shy and smart, loves music, and Amy, always with a big personality, loves drawing. But with their mother working long hours and their father in the army they must stay together. 

Historical Fiction

1. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. This book is told in multiple perspectives: Joana, a nurse from Lithuania, Florian, a mysterious boy from East Prussia, Emilia, a polish teenager, and Alfred, a German Nazi, find themselves on the same boat- the Wilhelm Gustloff. But the boat is attacked by Russian torpedoes, and all three characters fight to survive one of the biggest losses of life in a single ship sinking in history. 

2. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. Lina, a 15 year old living in Lithuania in the 1940s, is taken away from her life and deported to Siberia. Lina, her mother, brother struggle to survive in the harshest of conditions. She also befriends Andrius, a boy in the same situation as she is. 

3. The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman

Valentina, a Jewish girl, and Oskana, a girl raised to hate Jews, both lose their fathers in the Chernobyl disaster and are forced to flee together and live with Valentina’s grandmother in Leningrad. Despite their differences, the two girls develop a friendship but then Oskana gets a letter from her mother asking her to come back home.

4. The Night Diary by Vira Hiranandani. Set in 1947, India is being divided and Nisha, her father, and her brother set off on a long and hard journey to their new home. The book is told in diary entries in the form of letters to her mother, who passed away. Nisha’s mom was Muslim but her dad is Hindu and Nisha feels stuck between the two as tensions grow between the three groups (Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus)