Chars

Far be it from me to steal thunder from Don Belt and Jonas Bendiksen's article in National Geographic, but that's what I'm about to do. While searching in vain for some writing-prompt-fodder, I happened upon their story and my jaw dropped.

It's about...

Bangladesh.

I sent the article to the literacy specialist to have her figure out the FK/Lexile/whatever-we're-calling-it-these-days, but the end of the population unit passed before I received any feedback. Therefore, instead of having my students read and mark it for themselves, I verbally paraphrased/summarized it for them, and they were...quiet. I might even say rapt. A teacher's genuine amazement can sometimes do that to children.

Here's a summary of the summary I told the kids, generously peppered with large quoted chunks from the story.

The population of Bangladesh continues to grow, but "climate change (if you believe that sort of thing)" is causing the level of the ocean to eat the coastline. In the meantime, the country's three main rivers are constantly flooding, so, in an

ADAPT OR DIE

mentality, "hundreds of thousands" of people have become char dwellers. A char is a temporary island in the middle of a river. The river floods, and an island (char) appears. When the river floods again, the island disappears and another one pops up downstream. So...all of the people who live on char 1 pack up and haul  themselves to char 2. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Here's a quote:
"Ibrahim Khalilullah has lost track of how many times he's moved. 'Thirty? Forty?' he asks. 'Does it matter?' Actually those figures might be a bit low, as he estimates he's moved about once a year his whole life, and he's now over 60. Somehow, between all that moving, he and his wife raised seven children who 'never missed a meal,' he says proudly."
Abe's house is made of sections that can be disassembled and rebuilt in mere hours, and he always keeps the suitcases and legal documents within arms' reach.

He says: "We're all under pressure, but there's really no point to worry. This is our only option, to move from place to place to place. We farm this land for as long as we can, and then the river washes it away. No matter how much we worry, the ending is always the same."

Other news from Bangladesh: they have implemented a fairly successful grassroots family-planning program, and they have an intentional brain-drain because their main goal is to combat overpopulation by getting people out. The story ends when Bangladesh is compared to a little boy who fell asleep on a median in crazy urban traffic there.

Adapt or die.

This painfully heartwarming and inspirational tale of...well, real-life perennial disaster, can be found here.

In the meantime, since it may be my last chance ever to help my electors choose a president, I figured I would go and vote tonight. Here's proof:

Dear society, 

Take that. 
Love, 

One of the kids who falls asleep on medians. 

Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children?

This title, made famous by several characters on the Simpsons through the years, indicates that this post is dedicated to those readers of mine who are parents.

I'm not a parent myself, but as a teacher I have long been a reader and fan of juvenile fiction, as you know because I frequently link to HydroJen's Book Envy blog. The books that Jen reviews are for teenagers, as is the one that I'll talk about later. But first, in honor of my friend Beth's facebook posting asking for reading ideas that are appropriate for a younger audience...I would like to introduce you to Lauren Tarshis. This author writes a book series called, "I Survived..." [insert famous historical event like the Shark Attacks of 1916, the Sinking of the Titanic 1912, and the San Francisco Earthquake 1906, where I inserted the elipses.]

Conveniently, I have bracketed the three books that I personally read. My grown-up self is able to get through an entire Lauren Tarshis historical adventure novel in about half an hour. So far, in these three books, the hero characters have all been boys. (Hmm. That may decrease the interest factor for my friend Beth.) In fact, it rather struck me that in the Earthquake book, there were no women at all in the story.

In each of the books, the hero finds himself in the middle of a major historical event that ended some lives, but the hero comes out okay. What I enjoy about the books is the detail they include, and the fact that the hero holds on when he is close to losing hope, thanks to memories of loved ones and the encouragement offered by family.

The lexile score for the Lauren Tarshis books is about 610, marketed to ages 7-11. The lexile score for Empty by Suzanne Weyn is 790. The website suggests it for readers ages 12 to 100!

The concept behind Empty, which I mentioned in my The Walls Came Tumbling Down post, is that the world oil supply has been depleted. Teenage protagonists, both male and female, deal with a world at the outset of disaster. I would summarize the main point of this book as, "We've known forever that we would run out of this non-renewable resource. So why didn't anybody do anything about it?" I think that's a valid question posed at an appropriate time (the book was published just this month). I also LOVE the ending, but I refuse to be a plot-ruiner. Please consider my hyperlink to the book's amazon.com page a strong endorsement of the idea that this book should find its way to your shelf.

For the record, I and Mrs. Lovejoy are not the only ones asking our famous question. The social media informs me that National Geographic Education has been pondering it, as well. So, put the "When was the last time you got lost?" article in your #1 Essential: Navigation file.