Book Review: Pick-Up Game: A Full Day of Full Court, edited by Marc Aronson and Charles R. Smith, Jr.

Somerville MA: Candlewick Press, 2011.

In his "Afterword," Aronson writes that "Charles and I created this book as a way to get some of the feeling of pick-up [basket ball] on the page," and do they ever!

As an intro to every individual story, Smith throws-in with a poem, setting up the piece to come, defining the path the story will take, much like at throw-in, the play's foretold. In his contribution, "Mira Mira," poet Willie Perdomo tells about Caesar, a PR baller whose Tío Charlie teaches the youngster "one thing: the game is lost before the first whistle gets blown." If this is true, and it is, then the game's also been won; and if there's a winner and a loser even before the first throw-in, the game's already been played, it's part of history, part of the collective memory: within time and without. A very Zen way of looking at the game, and at storytelling. Which is a cool way of thinking about writing, and supposed writer's-blocks: if the story's been told even before pencil's set to paper, then simply wait the block out because sure enough the story'll come, or it won't, because it's not a story told that works as a story. Think of how many manuscripts, complete and incomplete writers have filed away never to see the light of day with them; the writer knowing in his heart of hearts, like Tío Charlie says, that all those words organized into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs into chapters, chapters into novels boil down to nothing but words strung together into nothing. The writer's task then is to not let the next empty page smell the fear of the nothing-but-words-strung-together of the worthless piece of writing that's come before. The writer plugs away.

The writer plugs away like Waco does throughout the stories in this anthology: In YA giant Walter Dean Myers' "Cage Run," Waco, a white but whiter than white cat steps onto the court and essentially beats Boo down first game, leaving Boo to wonder if the game's worth pursuing: he walks out of the Cage, the famed court on West 4th Street in NYC, dejected, "thinking about Waco's remark that for some guys in Harlem, basketball was their whole life. And about him wanting a piece of that action." This moment serves as Boo's dark night of the soul. He has looked utter defeat in the face, has felt its cold breath on the back of his neck: will he ever play again? That's the same question a writer asks himself upon finishing up a book, success or no: do I have it in me to plow through the next one? Is writing for him his "whole life," will he chase after that "piece of the action"?

This book works as a metaphor: this wonderful collection does the trick that Aronson and Smith set out to do, and then some. The stories herein not only give readers the feel of the "pick-up game on the page," but beyond that, the feel that writing is that dare put out by the as-yet put to paper story or poem. It's that same taunt that cousin Billy throws out at Cochise in Joseph Bruchac "Head Game": "Dare ya. Betcha won't." And wouldn't you know it, Cochise does it, takes up the challenge because "You ever do something that someone else wants you to do, even though you know that they're pushing your buttons?" But if the game's already been played, if it's already been won and lost before anyone's stepped foot on the court, it's already been written, then is it really someone else pushing your buttons? No way, that's just part of the way the story of writing the story unfolds. A particular. A detail, seemingly minor, but not. The problem for the character? Maybe. Maybe not. But something big, something major.

Aranson closes with the following advice to writers who pick up this book: "I hope some of you try your own pick-up games--choose a place, a time, set the rules of the game, and start to tell stories--just the way you do on the court."

Other writers in the anthology are

Bruce Brooks, Sharon G. Flake, Robert Burleigh, Rita Williams-Garcia, Adam Rapp, and Robert Lipsyte.

Well worth the read.

Some Deep Reading on Diversity in Literature: Or Lack Thereof

"What an awesome read. To bolster what Monica Olivera in her NBC Latino piece [linked below] that [librarian] Jeanette Larson linked to a couple days ago on the lack of Latino titles in the NYT's children's books of the year list: what's missing in Monica's response (which is a great one, by the way) is the affect the omission of said titles has on would-be writers of color: our kids in the [Rio Grande Valley of South Texas], in particular (b/c the community make up is what it is [90+% Latino]), and in a place like West Texas where the Latino community does make up around 30% of the population (where we are so isolated (literally and figuratively) from everything). It's dire, brother. Dire. We need to do our part to change this, right."
                                                      --my Facebook response to educator and publisher David Bowles).

Monica Olivera's piece on the blatant omission of Latino/a Children's titles on Year-End Best-of Lists

A UK Urban Take on Child Writers of Colour (who leave out colour in their writing, unless...)

And who's doing something about it? Small presses, mostly: Follow them online to build your lit collections that kids, especially, kids of color will benefit big time from:

VAO Publishing
Arte Público Press/Piñata Books (under reconstruction)
Lee & Low Books
Cinco Puntos Press

Publishing Update!

Quick update on the past year:

First, I was fortunate to co-edit a YA anthology with poet Erika Garza-Johnson of South Texas. ¡Juventud!: Growing Up on the Border. Erika collected some of the best poetry I've read in a while, poems that will certainly appeal to the older middle school and high school readers. Poets include Guadalupe Garcia-McCall, José Antonio Rodríguez, Amalia Ortiz, Diane Gonzales Bertrand, Edward Vidaurre, among others. The fiction is pretty good, too, if I say so myself. Fiction writers include Jan Seale, David Rice, Myra Infante, David Bowles, and others. The publisher is VAO out of the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Find out about them here: http://publishing.valartout.org.

I also published a short story in ¡Arriba Baseball! A Collection of Latino/a Baseball Fiction, another of VAO's anthologies edited by Robert Moreira. This one includes work by Daboberto Gilb, Norma E. Cantú, Christine Granados, and a few others. A very strong collection, especially for the baseball enthusiast. My piece is called "One Inning at a Time till Nine."

And, I published the third in my Mickey Rangel mystery series. In The Mystery of the Mischievous Marker, our young detective must prove that his arch-nemesis, Bucho, didn't do it. You read that right: Bucho claims not to have been the one to mark up the school's walls with graffiti. Mickey is torn because what if Bucho is innocent and he had a hand in proving him so? But our hero is a hero indeed. He will do what it takes to prove the truth.

And, would you believe it! I'm soon publishing my first picture book: Dale, dale, dale: una fiesta de numeros/Hit It, Hit It, Hit It: a fiesta of numbers: is due out from Piñata Books in the spring of 2014. The illustrations are done my Carolyn Dee Flores of San Antonio. Mine is her third book. An honor to work with her. More on this book soon.

Been a while...

...since I've blogged anything literary, and so here's something: my bilingual collection of Mexican American folktales has been published recently by Piñata Books; it's called Dancing with the Devil and Other Tales from Beyond, pictured here and to the left:

Included in the book are tales about la llorona (the wailing woman), la mano pachona (the severed hand), and the devil as a handsome teen at a middle school dance.

 

Also, there aren't specifics yet but Piñata Books has also bought a picture book manuscript and it's due out possibly as early as spring of 2013; it's a bilingual counting book that also doubles as a story about Mexican American birthday parties.

A Few Sweden Pics: Gränna

Great Review of The Lemon Tree Caper!

Hey, here's a great review of The Lemon Tree Caper: A Mickey Rangel Mystery, the second in that series. I'm so happy about it: http://www.midwestbookreview.com/cbw/jan_12.htm.

Headed Down to the RGV!

Well, the family and I are headed down to South Texas for Christmas. The boys will be seeing their 'Buelo and 'Buela for a few days, hanging out with the Raymers, the Costales all the way from Hawaii, the Rincones, and a few other folks from back in the day. Also, Friday night from 8PM to around 11PM, I'm joinging Daniel Garcia Ordaz and a few other poets and writers at Carinos in McAllen for a reading. It's like a flash mob, put together by Daniel on the spur of the moment, so thanks to El Mariachi for getting it done.

I'm reading out of Finding Our Way, the now out of print title, and selling copies, talking about my new chapter book, the bilingual The Lemon Tree Caper: A Mickey Rangel Mystery, and possibly reading some other stuff. Maybe a poem or two. Selling and signing copies on the spot, too.