As an adult, I’ve read a lot of books and thought “wow, that should have been on the AP list.”
And they were. Just, back when I was reading off the AP list, I didn’t know about them. Or, if I did know about them, I didn’t realize they were for me.
This blog post has been rattling around in my brain for the past few years, whenever I think about how I definitely should have read My Antonia instead of Wuthering Heights, The Awakening instead of Catcher in the Rye, or One Hundred Years of Solitude instead of, well, anything.
Then, of course, came current events. With diversity and hidden biases on the forefront, I’ve started questioning why I grew up thinking many of these books were for someone else. I finally sat down to read Their Eyes Were Watching God, and wondered why no one saw it as the natural conclusion of the American novel unit.
And, looking into it as an adult, I realized the AP literature list isn’t just one list — it’s a creature of itself. Yeah, you’re probably not going to get anywhere citing Twilight, but nothing’s stopping you from writing your open essay about The Days of Abandonment or Salvage the Bones (neither of which I found on any list, but both are worthy).
There’s another purpose to this post, though. When thinking about AP books, I realized that with school out early and the library closed, there are probably students all over Odessa who don’t have something On the Level to read this summer. I know they don’t actually take the AP Lit test at OHS anymore, and I actually don’t know if they still read off “the list” anymore, but I still think it’s a great guide for literature. I never went that long in high school without reading one of these books, and I’d hate to think a student wanting to get ahead in English and not having the chance.
So! I’ve rounded up all the AP books I have, and want to make them available to loan out for OHS students who need them! I’m going to post a full list of what’s available AP lit-wise on this post, but first I’ll make a few specific recommendations to let students know these books are absolutely worth it and absolutely for you.
Credentials for these recommendations:
5 on the AP lit and comp test as an OHS senior
Continues to read approximately 30 books a year
A huge nerd
Turned down by the Trails Regional Library Board for being “fake news.”
So, without further ado, The Better AP List.
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton
Set in New York, it’s a book about class, love, morals and societal expectations. An unfulfilled love story.
Pairs well with: Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, The Awakening
Broadens your shelf: Female American author, female subject
The Awakening
Kate Chopin
Set on the Gulf Coast, it’s an early book about women’s issues (and one of the earliest written by a woman). It’s about becoming yourself, societal expectations and solitude.
Pairs well with: Age of Innocence, Jane Eyre, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Could potentially replace: Catcher in the Rye
Broadens your shelf: Female American author, women’s issues, female subject
Ceremony
Leslie Marmon Silko
Set on a Native American reservation, it’s about Native Americans who have returned from World War II and are trying to find their place in both their native cultures and modern America. It’s modern/post-modern literature, which is a different type of reading than the above novels.
Pairs well with: Probably Hemingway’s war novels (I haven’t read them). It’s a hero journey, so any traditional hero journey stories.
Broadens your shelf: Native American (female) author, Native American subject
Cry the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
Set in South Africa, with Black South African characters, it uses a family’s struggles, and crime issues, to talk about the impact of apartheid. It uses some of the same writing conventions as Steinbeck, but I think it flows easier than Steinbeck.
Author note: Paton was a white anti-apartheid activist in the early days of apartheid
Pairs well with: To Kill a Mockingbird, Things Fall Apart
Broadens your shelf: African novel, Black (African) characters in apartheid
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
Set in Afghanistan, it’s the story about two families over generations, with the Taliban in the background. It’s very much about guilt. Warning: it’s a very dark and sad book! But it’s worth it. Admittedly, I knew about this one in high school, I just didn’t read it until college.
Pairs well with: Another of Hosseini’s books, A Thousand Splendid Suns, which is female-oriented but not included on any AP lists I’ve seen
Broadens your shelf: Afghan-American author and Afghani characters.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This book is joy, joy joy to read, despite dealing with some serious topics. Based on the title, I expected it to be about, well, solitude, but the characters themselves never feel lonely. It’s about a family and the town they create in Colombia. There is a lot of magical realism and several allegories to real Colombian history.
This is one I’d recommend to anyone.
Broadens your shelf: Latin American novel and author.
O Pioneers! and My Antonia
by Willa Cather
I’m putting these both together because they have the same author and similar themes and subjects. They’re both about pioneers to Nebraska.
My personal favorite of the two is My Antonia, which in addition to the solitude and independence themes is about societal expectations for women. Antonia is a great character.
Pairs well with: The entire American novel canon
Could replace: Wuthering Heights
Broadens your shelf: female American author
Song of Solomon
by Toni Morrison
This one has some magical realism, and deals with a boy named Milkman Dead as he navigates his family’s history. It has a lot of call backs to the Bible and feels like folklore.
Other reading: there are several other Toni Morrison novels on the list, but I haven’t read them yet.
Broadens your shelf: Black female author, Black characters
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
Set in 1920s Florida, this book really, truly feels like a culmination of the whole concept of an American novel. It’s about societal expectations, class, race, women’s issues and the relationship between humans and nature. It’s also a love story!
Pairs well with: Every American novel you’re supposed to read, the Awakening, really just read it.
Broadens your shelf: Black female author, Black characters.
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe
Set in Nigeria, it’s about the impact of colonialism on traditions in the country. Deals with race, traditions and imperialism in the context of a man whose village is upended.
Should replace: Heart of Darkness. A critique Achebe wrote of Heart of Darkness is maybe one of the most important things I read in college.
Broadens your shelf: Black African author, Black African characters.
And now, for the books in all their glory…
Here are the other books. There are other kinds of diversity hidden within them, some very obvious but I just haven’t read them yet. An asterisk notes a personal favorite, and the complete works are broken down by common AP listings.
The books:
1984, George Orwell
A Separate Peace, John Knowles
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*
Anna Karenina, Tolstoy
Antigone, Sophocles
Arthur Miller complete works
Death of a Salesman*
All My Sons
The Crucible
A View from the Bridge
Atonement, Ian McEwan
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Candide, Voltaire*
The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Iliad, Homer
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
Middlemarch, George Eliot
The Odyssey, Homer
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
The Plague, Albert Camus
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw
Shakespeare, complete works
King Lear*
Romeo and Juliet
Anthony and Cleopatra
Julius Caesar
Macbeth*
Much Ado About Nothing
Othello*
Richard III
Twelfth Night*
A Winter’s Tale
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee*
It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and without much direction on where to start, I decided an Editor’s Notes post would probably be the best way to jump back in. I can’t believe how far into February we are already, which affects some of the answers you’ll see below.
The Secret Garden. It is, of course, a re-read, but after falling in love with the Yorkshire moors last summer, I couldn’t help but pick up an old favorite. It’s as charming as I remember, but also surprisingly racist (I had forgotten all about Mary’s past in India).
My childhood version had a red-velvet cover and the top of the pages was stained green after my sister and her best friend knocked into me while I was carrying St. Patrick’s Day punch at church. It was the old First Presbyterian Church on Second Street, before the church moved and became New Horizon. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, so I picked up one of the Barnes and Noble classics versions.
I’ve read a lot of nonfiction over the past few years, and I’m trying to fall back in love with fiction. What better way, then, than going back to an old favorite.
Movie soundtracks. They make great writing music, especially the soundtrack to Little Women. Assuming this paragraph is now about Oscar movies, I only saw Little Women and The Two Popes. I kept forgetting I had seen a second Oscar movie, because I’m not sure why The Two Popes was an Oscar movie. Anyway, I really enjoyed Little Women, even though I only read the book once when I was eight and had forgotten most of it.
Everything, it feels like.
This week was our Valentine’s feature, and soon we’ll have a big Business Review. Tomorrow I’m doing the interview for the feature for the upcoming FFA section, and I’m one interview into the Wedding Bells bridal section. Monday I got my first batch of interview request letters out to candidates for local office, and by the end of it will be interviewing up to 34 candidates for that. So, if I don’t post until April or you see me without a voice… this is why.
Interact’s first big service project, scheduled for March 2!
The Interactors will be reading to every class at the elementary school and early childhood center for Read Across America Day, and will be donating a book for every child.
We had a meeting canceled because of the weather today, so cross your fingers that we get everything together in time.
Snow!! Snow and ice have interfered with a lot of things I’ve needed to do this winter, and I’m tired of it. This could really just be a rant about weather in general, because between last winter’s snow, flooding, storms, heat and winter again that we haven’t had two nice days in a row in forever. My poor cat thinks that if it’s too cold to go outside, he can just try again an hour later and something will have changed. An actual springtime this year would be a much needed break.
I’m working away on deadline, but the story I’m writing currently requires enough thinking that it’s helpful to do something mindless, like tweet about weird aspects of it do my weekly-or-so check in.
We Fed an Island by José Andrés and Richard Wolffe
This continues my reading to help Interact with their Puerto Rico project. Am I getting a little antsy that we don’t know what, exactly, that Puerto Rico project is? Yeah, a little bit.
Anyway, like most of my Puerto Rico reading, this book reiterates how infuriating and disappointing the official US response to Hurricane Maria was.
I’m not saying I’m a huge fan of Andrés recounting how he basically swaggered himself into places, but at least it got the job done.
A ton of classical music.
It’s ruined my Spotify algorithms (I had taught them to never play me slow pop songs, now they’re dominatin my playlists). But I can’t work around a lot of noise, and there’s a lot of noise in our office lately, so it’s helping me get my job done. So, that’s a big help.
Our Active Living special section, which is targeted to people over the age of 50. I’m doing micro-interviews with five cool retirees to show how they stay active — if I get everyone to say yes, I’ll have a social butterfly, an alderman, a super-volunteer, a yoga fiend and a veteran’s organization volunteer.
We’re putting a fun spin on it by doing these micro interviews and asking questions about things like what they wish they knew 20 years ago and what’s good about getting older. It’s not easy that their age is the second question, but I tell them straight-up that’s the hardest question they’ll get.
Miss Leah’s costume was too big for my ring light, but the setting sun helped.
Our Halloween costume contest pictures! Not only is every event happier when it involves excited kids, but for the second year I held a mini photo booth near the costume contest.
It helps me photograph the winners for the paper (in the past, when the sun went down, so did the photo quality), but it’s also a chance to get photos of all kids and upload them through our photo website, not just the winners.
It’s the world’s most bare-bones photo booth: literally just whoever wants their picture taken between the ring light and a brick wall. But I think the simplicity really complements my purpose (get a good picture of the kid in the costume so the family can remember). They end up looking really dynamic, too.
Sadly, not a lot of people seem to value even a $5 download’s difference between my SLR and their iPhone — we don’t sell a lot of photos online, and may need to consider not having the website in the future. Hopefully interest will pick up before then. I’m excited to hit “publish” on the photos Thursday.
And if you’re looking for the winners, they’ll be on 1B of this week’s paper.
A strand of polio has been eliminated, which is a win for Rotary and its partners on ending Polio
Disinformation campaigns now include mocked-up local news sites
At Missouri Press Association’s annual convention in September, I ran into a familiar frustration: the idea that engagement, somehow, will save us all. But as the millennial news editor of two newspapers that do no publish online, I see things a little differently. Mostly, I see “engagement” as something both bigger and simpler than analytics.
This summer, I did something we do a lot at The Odessan: I gave a tour. We have standing invitations for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Newspapers in Education students to come and tour our office. Really, we welcome anyone, which is why when the “Lead on 2019” class gave us a call, we said come on over.
Lead On is a summer school class for third-fifth graders who toured local businesses and organizations. Earlier in the week, I had covered the class’s tour of City Hall for a story I was writing on the return of enrichment, or fun, summer school. When the class arrived, I was ready: after telling them a little about what the newspaper does, I picked up a paper from the counter and read the section where I interviewed two of the members of the class.
“Does that sound like what you told me?”
“Yes!”
My mom showing the Lead On students how the story they were included in looks on the computer.
The kids were delighted; it was Thursday morning, the day the paper appears in the mailbox, so no one’s parents had pointed out the story to them yet. As I talked, I realized I knew many of the kids’ names, which surprised the teachers, who were ready to pitch a name in to help me call on them. So I asked the question: How many of you have been in the newspaper before?
A solid two-thirds of the class raised their hands. Most of them were the ones familiar to me, who I’ve seen grow up racing frogs and turtles, riding the Optimist Train, competing in the Halloween costume contest and more. Others told me they had been in the Kitchen Column with their mom, or included in pictures of family reunions or church events.
As long as these kids live in our coverage area, they’ll keep running into us. In fifth grade, they’re part of the Newspapers In Education program, where they receive a newspaper in class. This year, we debuted a three-part series on understanding news, after a test run of one of those parts toward the end of the last school year. Honors English students in sixth grade receive the newspaper as well, as does the high school life skills special education class. I work with students who take Journalism 1, the class that produces The Growler student newspaper. This year I asked the girls in the Growler class (for the second year in a row, it is only girls who are taking the Growler class) if they had toured the newspaper office. A third said yes.
So, what’s engagement to me? It’s partially that these kids are growing up familiar with our newspaper. It’s good for us — we’re a part of their lives from an early age. It’s good for journalism, too — they’ve had positive interactions with journalists, and know how news gets made.
Of course, it’s not just kids. It’s the senior citizens who come by because they know we have maps in the office, to help them find out how far it is to Oklahoma City. It’s the parents who buy copies of sports coverage to scrapbook for their sons, and call my dad or Kory when they have something to say. It’s the Community pages in our newspaper, filled entirely with submitted content — engagements, weddings, anniversaries, reunions, church events. It’s the record page, where we’re one of the few newspapers left that doesn’t charge for a standard obituary. It’s the youth pages and special sections where we celebrate accomplishments and interview teenagers. It’s my personal column, which some say is frivolous (and rightly so on weeks where I’m too braindead to write about anything other than my cat) but means that most people in town know me on sight and have since I was 10 years old. It’s being a part of the community.
At MPA, during the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, our family friend Kathy Conger explained it well when she said that by marrying into the newspaper family, she married into being involved, going to the meetings and doing what was needed in the Rotary Club. Being a small town newspaperwoman has always been about much more than the paper.
That’s not what you hear during a talk about engagement.
Engagement was new in the newsroom when I was in college. We had worked a little with Tweeting and making Facebook posts on behalf of the newspaper in our editing class, but soon it became a class of its own, with a whole team dedicated to social and reading into analytics. They taught us all along the way — I knew to be proud my story about an election issue kept readers for an average of five minutes and was the fourth-most read of the entire election, including results (its lede broke statewide news). I knew how algorithms reward the number of likes and shares your Facebook page receives by putting it in front of more people. I knew what type of posts come off as authentic and can get those likes, I knew how to consider time of day for posting, I basically learned a lot of the backbone of social, which many still, six years after I graduated, don’t realize is mostly driven by cold, calculated readings of pure data.
Which, in my mind, is the opposite of actually engaging with the public, and a reason to be skeptical when someone suggests making news decisions based on analytics. Expressing this has earned me some disdain over the years, as it’s seen as an old school view. I have friends who have made careers — and done important work! Through social media engagement. But as someone who comes from a newspaper with robust readership, high trust and no content online, I don’t see it as a key part of our business.
It’s different for papers that are wholly online and rely on engagement to get their content in front of people, I get that. But I’d argue that newspapers really need to move away from relying on sharing to get the news out.
My view is compounded by the fact that as a journalist, I inherently don’t trust social. As an industry, we have more than enough evidence the social companies aren’t honest with us.
About a year ago, I started The Odessan’s Facebook page. In doing so, I learned a lot about how Facebook monetizes our content in order to promote it, which turned my stomach enough that I will never promote a post over Facebook, even though I have a feeling even the non-promoted content by those who do occasionally pay Facebook for the honor is seen by a lot more people (fewer than 35% of our page followers see most of our content, and yet our analytics show the page has never been unfollowed).
But you’ll notice, despite this distrust, that I keep expanding our social footprint — as of this past week, we’re taking a crack at Twitter.
Why? It’s fun and people like it. Like I said, I’m a millennial, so I like it even if I don’t trust it. It also creates a chance for those who haven’t grown up with us to see our role is in the community (the welcome we received from OHS Stuco made me smile from ear-to-ear).
But it isn’t going to change what we cover, it isn’t going to move us out of our news cycle, it isn’t going to make us try to be something we’re not. We’re going to stay western Lafayette County’s community newspaper. And we’re going to do that by continuing to engage our way.
So… weekly. We’ll consider that aspirational. I’ve been busy with a few projects, and have a few more projects looming over me. But, let’s do what I’ve promised, right?
The World As it Is by Ben Rhodes, a memoir of Barack Obama’s presidency. This might surprise people, but to date, I haven’t read a lot of political books. However, I like Ben Rhodes — he says smart things on Pod Save America. So far, the book is insightful into some of the foreign policy decisions that were made, and increases how much I want to read Samantha Powers’ books, which I had hoped to glimpse while at the library to get this one.
Backstory, one of my favorite podcasts. It’s an American history podcast, specifically focused on topics related to current events, which means it’s always relevant. The podcast does a really good job of coming up with more obscure stories, or twists to show a subject in a different light. It also isn’t stuck in the history, and doesn’t let anyone off easy for being “from another time.” It’s a really useful podcast for understanding our culture. I’ve honestly never been bored by it.
Okay, this isn’t something I’m watching yet, but I’m really excited for the HBO Catherine the Great series to begin. Catherine the Great is one of my favorite historical figures — she was intelligent, ruthless, outlandish and took the male equivalent of mistresses in full public view. She wasn’t even supposed to be ruler of Russia. She was constantly on the fence between being an enlightenment figure and a full-out tyrant. So, she was endlessly interesting. And, well, Helen Mirren is playing her. Count me as pumped.
The Woods Chapel Church fire. It’s really startling to see something I’ve known, and enjoyed driving past, my whole life vanish. Obviously, it’s much harder for the church members, as nothing was able to be saved. In the story we had in last week’s paper, I talked about some of the treasures the church won’t be able to get back. Luckily, no one was hurt.
A business review! This is always good news, because it means several businesses in town are either opening their doors or making exciting changes. It can be a bit of a headache to track everyone down, but is an important part of how we support our community.
A story from Politico on the Missouri River flooding, climate change and the USDA
A New York Times explainer to help understand proposed healthcare policies, including what they cost
A New York Times column about how white supremacists are trying to convert teenage boys online
I can’t get past the paywall for the link, but make sure you read the KC Star story about the Laf. Co. Children’s Services Fund, which we first reported on more than a month ago. Is this story technically competing with me? Yes. I received much of this information at the time we wrote about the auditor’s investigation. I’ve been trying to get records from the Fund that will shed some facts around the claims, but we were quoted a fee close to my paycheck. I’ve now submitted five separate document requests. So, we’re still working on it.
Go follow The Odessan on Twitter. I revamped our old Twitter page this week. What did I delete, you ask? 20 tweets from 2009 trying to tell (ideally through text notifications) our office pickup crowd when the paper arrived. My mom eventually gave up because no one could figure it out. It was ahead of its time.
In an effort to post more regularly here, I’ve decided to do something of a weekly roundup — almost like a news letter, but without sitting in your inbox forever with all the other things you thought you’d read.
Puerto Rico Strong, a comic anthology supporting Puerto Rico Disaster Relief and Recovery
For their first international understanding project, the OHS Interact Club wants to do a project to support agriculture in Puerto Rico. I’m reading a few books to increase my own knowledge, as well as help direct them to books they can write papers on to make up some of their attendance (particularly important for athletes). This anthology is incredibly broad, while still being accessible and enjoyable, so I think a lot of the students will connect well with it.
The 1619 podcast from the New York Times.
Technically, I’m listening to it through my subscription to The Daily. This series has been incredibly well done, always with an interesting build from the (also interesting) 1619 Project pieces published by the New York Times. Today I listened to part one of a story about a modern black farmer who’s faced discrimination in having his sugar cane farm financed — incredibly frustrating, but something we all need to realize still happens.
My Brilliant Friend
I went several long months without HBO access, so I missed out on watching this when it was first released. I loved these books (commonly referred to as the Neapolitan Novels). They’re just as moving on screen. Most of it is in dialect, but there are also flashes of Italian that refresh my memory from college.
Our annual 4-H Week Section
Every year, we put together a special section to recognize Fortyville, Mighty Mo and Napoleon Cloverleaf 4-H members. This year, the feature is on Wade Johnson, an OHS senior and Mighty Mo member who does sport fishing. It’s a fun one, and as usual with these sections, I’ve learned a lot.
The highway dedication ceremony in Mayview today.
Today the Mayview Fire District unveiled signs dedicating a stretch of E Highway to Jeff Sanders, a Mayview Firefighter who was killed while working a call along the highway a few years ago. The dedication was important to the community, but one special aspect is that the fire chief’s 12-year-old daughter, Abby, shown, led her 4-H Club in raising money for the signs, and did a great job of speaking at the ceremony.
Mizzou Homecoming!
My college roommate and long distance bestie, Elise Oggioni, has finally given in to my begging and is coming back for Homecoming next weekend. Please enjoy this photo of us at a football game in 2010. So, Friday I’ll be out of the office.
This 60 minutes piece on modern farming
This debate, about how Simone Biles’ new skills should be valued
A reminder that mosquitos are bad and climate change means more of them
I’ve been neglecting my blog. Can I make up for it with some pictures from a recent trip to the United Kingdom?
In August I went to the United Kingdom for eight days. A friend and I started in London, blew through Edinburgh, made a wonderful stop in York and then ended in London again. It was a great trip, which I’ve talked people’s ears off about. So, instead of a full recap, in the order I encountered them, here were a few of my favorite things:
Oxford was full of interesting buildings which, in turn, made for interesting photos.
We went on a walking tour that took us through Trinity College, around to the University buildings (pictured), through to the Radcliffe Camera (the hardest building to photograph due to its size) and on to get a glimpse of Christ Church.
I’m not sure how anyone studies with so many tourists around.
Hometown hero Clayton Crabtree decided to show me his favorite part of London, Hyde Park. It was a wonderful morning. It was a taste of just how much larger the monuments are in the U.K. We saw the Italian gardens, a giant horse statue, the Albert Memorial and the outside of Kensington Palace.
A view of the park from the Sunken Gardens at Kensington.
I read my first book about Elizabeth I in third grade — and have wanted to go to London and the Tower of London since. I’d say “Mission Accomplished", but the line for the crown jewels was so long that we didn’t have enough time to see the auxiliary buildings. I’ll have to go back!
Absolutely incredible. The castle is very military-oriented, which wasn’t a draw for me, but the view absolutely was.
I got in on last admission, and only one or two people were in each room at the same time I was. It was wonderful. Here’s a view of the ruined abbey from the gardens, which are part of the landscape of Arthur’s Seat.
York is small, and Yorkshire is rural — it all felt like home.
York Minster towers over York.
Helmsley is a town the size of Wellington with a ruined castle. I found this adorable garden near it more interesting.
Our day tour of the North York Moors was a highlight of the trip. Whitby, a sea town where we stopped, as also of particular interest. Its abbey was the inspiration for Dracula.
A marionette performance in Whitby
Whitby Abbey was a photographer’s dream of shape and sky.
I underestimated the size of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is marvelously eclectic. Overwhelmed, I tried to stick to some favorite subjects, but got lost along the way and saw a lot I wouldn’t have otherwise. This swan is entirely made of silver.
A long line led to very little time in the British Museum. As I should have expected, the Egypt area was entirely overwhelmed. Displays for other cultures from the same time period were a revelation — and I could breathe while looking at them.
Absolutely worth it. I saw an “audience choice” production of “Twelfth Night” much like what a performance at the time would have been like (a troupe more than a cast, simple costumes, nothing taken seriously. It was perfect.
The graduation sections are a large undertaking. And the OHS class of 2016’s senior section was recognized as the best special section, on any subject, by a paper in our category in the state.
When accompanying our students of the month for the first time, one of the high school administrators picked up the Four Way Test and commented that you don’t see much of that any more — which is exactly why I think it’s exactly the time to bring Interact to Odessa students.
Post-election I’ve thrown myself into graduation season, but I’ve also been working on building my balance back.
So, here’s a break for some photography I’ve done lately. All the pictures are from a trip to Powell Gardens last week.
Enjoy!
Last Tuesday was the the April election. It’s been a long time coming; I’ve been covering some of the ballot issues since last summer.
This is my sixth election season as news editor. That seems crazy, but it’s meant six years of getting the election coverage right. That doesn’t mean there weren’t a few things we did that were new this year.
In 2014, my first April as news editor, I knew I wanted to move the paper to in-person interviews, not filled-out forms. My predecessor no doubt preferred those due to expediency; after all, our coverage area includes seven cities, three school districts, three fire districts, the Lafayette County commission, a rural water district, at least three road districts, and I’m probably forgetting a taxing entity or five.
The Voting Guide this year included three ballot issues and 12 candidates for five boards.
All of those don’t have elections every year, but the combination usually ends up with an exciting April. This year, the largest buzz was around a pair of levy questions to move EMS service to the Odessa Fire District, a race for first ward alderman in Odessa that ended up being decided by one vote, a no-tax bond issue at Wellington-Napoleon, a four-way race for Oak Grove school board and a slew of races in Bates City that included a three-way race for mayor, a three-way race for one alderman position and a write-in candidate who won another alderman seat.
But of course, that’s never all that’s going on. In the three weeks leading up to the election, there were also three three-hour meetings on the highly controversial reopening of what used to be I-70 Speedway.
So, I’ve been busy.
My first year of doing election coverage was a mess. I was only four months into my surprise appointment when the election rolled around, but of course it takes at least one month of preparation. I think it was the second year when I took over the design as well and we named it the Voting Guide. Over the years it has accrued a signature design that continues to improve, as well as pieces of information we always include, such as poll hours, summaries of the positions and the fact that yes, you can take the Guide to the polls with you.
In addition to candidates, we include a quick, easy-to-read summary of ballot issues. We put the ballot issues on the front page because their length makes them a good fit there, and they catch the attention of those who might not have realized something like a road district levy renewal would be on the ballot. Candidate coverage starts on the second front (our traditional feature location) and extends throughout the section as needed.
I never get every candidate to agree to an interview, though I would like to. My goal is always to get all candidates, including those who are unopposed or even automatically re-upping due to nonelection. I think the process of checking back in helps residents understand the boards and who is on them. That’s good for general knowledge, which I have come to understand isn’t very plentiful. I think a lack of knowledge is the largest contributor to a lack trust in government, which is pervasive all over the country right now.
So, what did we do differently this year?
As soon as something was on the ballot, including all filings, I started using a colorful tagline that said “April 2 election” for any stories about it. I think that helped readers know the election was coming, and what it dealt with earlier. Even though all stories would have identified the election anyway, the tagline made a good visual clue.
Starting in February (so, before the Voting Guide publishes in the three issues before the election), I did a three-piece series on the EMS question called EMS Decisions. Even though the EMS issue has been covered for the past several years, I went back and made sure to hit all the big issues cohesively. I also made a point of looking at the parts of the issue that some involved take for granted, like how the fire district currently works.
We upped our portrait game. Last year I bought a portrait light, which I’ve previously used for a community photo booth for Halloween and to take pictures with Santa. I tried it out with the candidate portraits this year, and really liked the results, which you can see a sample of below.
So, how did this election go? It was busy, but it went well. The EMS issue passed, which has the most chance to influence my own life. It took up most of my election column this time around. It was stressful, too, as tensions got high for those in a race and some of that spilled over to what we deal with in the office. The night of the election, I stayed at work until 5 a.m. so we could make our deadline. So how do I deal with that aspect of it all?
Bath bombs
Yoga
Getting out and walking the walking trail
Reading
Working on Rotary projects like Interact
Working on the Show Me convention (June is horrifyingly soon!)
Taking my camera out for fun now that flowers are here
SLEEPING.
Reciting to myself: This election season, too, shall pass.
This week, our Newspapers in Education feature was written by me.
Students reading The Odessan last year as part of the NIE program. Our program is 17 years old — and media has obviously changed a lot since it began.
The features typically include fiction and nonfiction serial stories, civics information and historical information about Odessa in a set of stories called “Grandma Lucy.” Fifth-graders at Odessa Upper Elementary and Wellington-Napoleon Elementary, as well as a classroom of seventh-graders at Odessa Middle School, are each given a newspaper each week at school so they can read these features as well as learn about other aspects of the newspaper.
The program is as old as my column — 17 years old, 18 in August. For a little perspective, we started pagination — the process of creating pages on a computer, rather than a board with a wax machine — the same year our NIE program began. Facebook didn’t exist yet.
The NIE feature I created on knowing good sources from bad ones.
So obviously, what we need to teach students about news has changed drastically in that time. Honestly, I think a significant number of adults haven’t been able to keep up with how much has changed in that time.
A slide from the presentation I’ll give at the OHS Career Skills Day Thursday.
At the beginning of the year, I asked Odessa’s curriculum director which grades are learning about how to know a good news source from a bad one. She was as shocked as I was to learn that while a few different classes do a little, in a student’s entire time in the district, they might not ever be taught this. The percentage of the class getting this as a real lesson might be lower than half.
This isn’t to knock Odessa — it isn’t a unique problem. It isn’t included, at any age, in the Missouri Learning Standards, which is what schools in the state use to build their curriculum. But all students need to know this as a life skill, not just those who are in a journalism or honors English class.
Going out into the world, as students become young people who vote and make daily decisions, they need to know how to learn about the world around them. They need to know what they can believe online, and to think through what they should in turn be promoting.
By catching students in fifth grade, we’re getting them before they have their own social media profiles. That means they’ll know more by the time they are online at that level. But it also means more information is needed at the high school level.
This week, I’m participating with the Odessa Chamber of Commerce in a student development day for OHS seniors. I’m presenting on social media and networking, in a presentation that also includes soft skills and interviewing. That means I don’t have a lot of time to spend on the topic, but I do think it’s important, so it has a slide in the presentation.
In the coming years, you’ll see more of this as I look for ways to help students understand more about the news (my next target is to help them identify what is news and what is opinion when it isn’t marked as clearly as it is in our paper). It’s just one way we can make sure students are learning to be responsible citizens.
Library of Congress, taken in 2016. Before, she was so dark you couldn’t see her facial features.
Thanks to the office’s tech overhaul, I have a lot of new technology on my hands, both in the office and on my laptop. So far, in addition to speeding up regular processes, I’ve been able to make an infographic and write/design a Newspapers in Education feature. I’m about to go from April election to graduation sections to city guides, but somewhere in there I might even be swayed to work on our website.
View from Lower Sabie Camp, Kruger National Park, 2015.
But as I have better access to Photoshop now, I’ve started working on my small-correction skills. I’m not talking full on edits, and no, I’m still going to look unamused when you ask me if I can photoshop off 50 pounds when I take your picture. But I’m working on fixing the light and shadows and making small color corrections. I decided to go back through some old photos to practice, and as I did I also converted some to black and white. It really lets the composition pop when it otherwise was overwhelmed with color.
So, going forward, it’s just a way to have better control over my photos.
And so, here are some photos that I’ve always been frustrated with, that just didn’t live up to their potential, but do now.
Kruger National Park, South Africa, 2015. This little pride was washed out in the initial picture.
View from Letaba Camp, Kruger National Park, 2015.
Kansas City Zoo, 2015
View from Letaba Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa, 2015
Kruger National Park, South Africa, 2015
Kruger National Park, South Africa, 2015
Yes, it’s that time of year again: I just spent a week slogging through mud and asking a lot of dumb questions for our FFA section.
We had two students this year, Alex Osborn and Hunter Todd. I didn’t take Alex’s photos, though (she had some great senior pictures with her cattle and family FFA jackets), so the pictures with this post are all from Hunter’s story.
The FFA section is actually one of the most difficult projects I do all year, because I’m terrified of screwing up. I didn’t grow up around agriculture, and these high school seniors have usually spent their entire lives learning a career. I have to ask extremely simple, basic questions to accurately portray what these kids do. But I think the end result is something that can connect to anyone, no matter their starting knowledge.
In college, I realized not everyone understands how deep agriculture goes, and what goes into it. I realized it when people thought it was funny that I knew as much as I did, and I seriously knew next to nothing. I think there’s something there about it being one of the large divides in how people in this country understand each other. Our rural communities are built from agriculture, depend on agriculture, and value agriculture. But those who are separated from agriculture don’t understand just how much knowledge goes into the industry alongside the hard work.
If you’re wondering why I keep going on about knowledge, I learned something new this year (I always do). I interviewed Alex and Hunter at the same time, and had them explain livestock judging to me. Then, when I was taking Hunter’s photos, I had him do some judging on the spot. I was kind of floored by how much he was able to know by looking at a cow (it’s a lot more than made it into the story; he went so fast it was hard to keep up). It’s something I think is basic to people who grew up in that world, but unknown to those who grew up outside of it. That’s the divide.
While I interview students for the FFA section, I always hear about how agriculture is perceived, how they’re getting bad press. Alex, like Abby Bertz, who I interviewed two years ago, cares so much about this issue in particular that she’s going into marketing as an attempt to solve it. I told her I was surprised the industry is driving them toward marketing rather than journalism, but she reminded me that agriculture journalism programs are drying up, even Mizzou shuttered its program.
That’s a loss. Because the problem is, as Hunter pointed out, about balance. I’m not talking both sides nonpartisan balance, I’m just talking about an accurate narrative. I’ll start by defending community papers: I think we do a good job of showing our farmers, their work and their input in our communities. But those stories rarely break into regional and national news. Instead, you have the bigger industry issues, like whether certain chemicals cause cancer. And because what we’re talking about here is food, much of the discussion falls into low-information, diet-fetishizing discussions that are often meant to scare people about things like genetically modified grain.
I’m not saying, at all, that the agriculture industry should be exempt from criticism. I’m concerned about the pesticides — I’m worried about whether they’re causing cancer to the farmers and their families. I think we need to take those issues seriously. But we also have to remember to tell full stories about the people who do this work, who live this life this way, who have modern problems like getting decent internet for their kids’ schoolwork and keeping up with technology for their farm (there is a lot of technology used on farms now), as well as the traditional problems, the man vs. nature aspect of farming.
I get a lot of questions lately about where I get my news. More than people would like to probably admit, the question sometimes comes as an accusation: where do I go get news without the slant. It’s part of the exhausting notion people have right now that all news is slanted, all news is biased, they can’t trust any of it.
BTW, you probably don’t want to bring up news bias with me unless you’re ready for the whole “transparency is better” speech.
But what I think one of the biggest problems is to most people, everything is news, when really much of it’s opinion or entertainment (or both). Knowing the distinction is more important than consuming less opinion or trying to avoid “bias.”
So, here’s a list of favorite sources for my media diet, split up by category:
News
The New York Times (national)
The Washington Post (national)
The Kansas City Star (Regional + local, when they’re doing real news and not focused on clickbait)
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Regional)
The Columbia Missourian (State)
KCUR Central Standard (Regional)
And then, on a local level, I’m the one producing the news.
(you’ll notice that other than Central Standard, these are all newspapers. I read them online, but they’re newspapers. I also listen to The Daily by the New York Times, which dials down into a single issue each day, but I still read the news. Central Standard was a suggestion by a friend to help make up the gap left by drawbacks at the Star. It’s a few daily deep dives, which is nice, but couldn’t replace a newspaper. There is no past the fact that the written word is the most effective way to communicate substantial news — details, big picture, all of it — no matter if it’s on a screen or printed out for you.)
Features
National Geographic magazine
60 Minutes
(I split these off into a separate category because I think they’re an important part of a media diet, though they’re not exactly news. They help expand your worldview and understand topics more deeply.)
Opinion
Crooked Media podcasts (I specifically listen to Pod Save America, Lovett or Leave It and Hysteria)
Rebecca Traister columns + books
Nicholas Kristof columns
(This list is pretty light — I don’t have a lot of different sources I go to again and again to hear their opinions. But I’m open to reading many that cross my path. I don’t see the value in pretending I read opinion pieces by people I know I won’t agree with. The important thing about reading opinion, beyond making sure it’s factually sound, is to know that it’s someone’s opinion and to observe where they’re coming from and how it can expand your own understanding of different topics. I am, of course, also an opinion writer, so that’s how I hope people read my own work.)
Entertainment
CNN
MSNBC
(This is the category I've created for what I will turn on to see what drama is unfolding, but I don’t put too much stock in. CNN only gives the same amount of news as news notifications to my phone, and then hands it off to opinion contributors who yell at each other. It doesn’t have much value.)
So, this is just me. And there’s probably some that I’m missing, that I could add later. But I think it’s a useful way to look at your own relationship with news, and where what you use falls into (heck, my own sister swears by what she calls “her Snapchat news.” — which I would file under entertainment).
And, if you’re going to tell you that my list is “biased,” you’re going to get the transparency rant. You’ve been warned!
Every year, during the first weekend of August, Odessa comes together in the heat to celebrate Puddle Jumper Days.
The lipsync is a major event I participated in several times as a child.
If you connect the celebration to its direct predecessor, the Odessa Centennial Celebration, Puddle Jumper Days turned 40 last year.
I started covering Puddle Jumper Days in middle school. Back then, we used a whole team of photographers for the three days: Bud Jones, news editor, whoever the high school intern was that year, Clayton Crabtree if he was back in town, and me. There were charts to show who would cover what event. It took all of us.
Now, it’s me.
Big frog!!!
My friend Austin and his daughter, Natalie, who had a bow on her turtle.
That’s alright, though. This year, I even doubled up on the work. In addition to covering the frog and turtle races Friday morning, at the last minute I convinced the Rotary club to host the frog and turtle races, because we have to have frog and turtle races. As many immediately said, the frog and turtle races are the pictures people most associate with Puddle Jumper Days. I was the only member of Rotary who had ever attended a frog and turtle race, and many were surprised by the hundreds of children who attended. We hit a few snags through the day, but we’re going to put in a lot more planning this year and really do it right.
There are other events through the weekend that I’m a little more active in. I’m a consistent top-three finisher in the adult category of the spelling bee. I’ve never won, but for the second year in a row I went into over time (both of us having missed words) with Theresa McGraw for the title.
Puddle Jumper Days get the biggest annual treatment in the paper — a picture on the front page, the whole second front page, a double truck inside. It’s a big weekend for photography, but I always come out with a package I’m proud of.
Editor’s desk at the end of Puddle Jumper Days. Seen: water bottle used frequently in the heat, spelling bee certificate, notebooks with photo IDs, camera charger, green frog race entry forms, yellow turtle race entry forms, K-9 brochure from demonstrations, Keck’s homemade rootbeer bottle (a PJD classic), a geode I got to crack myself.
