WHAT"S IN A NAME?: THE POWER AND PAIN

What is your name?
This is the most common question we ask when we meet new people.
Como se llama?  How are you called?  These were among the first words I learned in Spanish.

Naming is how we define, remember and come to know.
What's in your name?
What power and pain are connected to the words that names you?

My name is Robin.

Although I answer to that name and have never considered changing it, growing up I had mixed feelings about my name.

Rocking Robin,  Robin Hood... and  the one I hated the most--just hear the elementary-kid giggles-- Robin Red-Breast.

I grew up in an era when there was plenty of ammunition to tease a person wearing my name.

In addition to the teasing, I also felt it was a boy's name.
There were twin boys in my kindergarten class- Robin and Reuben. There was Robin Hood, Robin from Winnie-the-Pooh..and Robin  from  Batman comic books.

As a middle-schooler--that time when we set out to be like everyone else, yet distinguish ourselves in unique ways-- I thought it would be the epitome of cool, if only my name were spelled with a y--Robyn.

That small difference, in my preteen estimation, would have elevated my name to stellar status, and although is would still sound the same,  just the sheer visual power of the y would have surmounted all teasing.

My dad's name was Robert.  I  learned later in life that Robin is a diminutive of Robert.
So I am named for him--- a Robert Jr. of sorts.


Wikepedia has an entry that sheds some light on my name:

Robin was originally a diminutive given name of Robert, derived from the prefix Rob- (hrod, Old Germanic, meaning "fame"), and the suffix -in (Old French diminutive). More recently, it is used as an independent name. The name Robin is uncommon (but not unique) in being a masculine given name, feminine given name, and a surname. In Europe, although it is sometimes regarded as a female name, it is generally given to males. In North America, it is more popular as a female name - during the 1990s, for example, it was the 325th most popular girl's name and the 693rd most popular boy's name. There are several common variations, including Robyn, Robbin, Robine, Robyne, Robynne, and Robbyn.^[2] Robine is a female version of the name Robin. In some cultures Robyn is strictly female. It has its origin in France and is also a very common surname in France. Robin is occasionally found as a surname in English language-speaking countries. Common nicknames are Rob, Robbie or Bobby.^[1]

What do you know about your name?

After my sisters were born, my name became part of our R theme--Robin, Rhonda, Renee.  My husband, Ralph adopted the same theme for my stepsons--Regence and Robby.

Roy Feinson has conducted research related to components letter and sounds of names and found that people with similar sounding names often have similar characteristics and  interests. His book, The Secret Universe of Names: The Dynamic Interplay of Names and Destiny, provides fascinating perspectives on the names to which we and our friends and family answer.

Considering  his work, I wonder about the number of folks in my family whose names start with Rob- (Robert, Robby- two of them etc.) 

We hear our names called numerous times a day.  How do we feel about  our names?  How did we get them? What do they reveal about us?

And what happens to us and our identities when our names are changed, either by choice or by force?

In the opening chapters of When My Name Was Keoko, the Korean brother and sister protagonists are discussing how they will be forced to change their names now that the Japanese are in power.  My students were astounded at the idea that someone could take your name from you and make you use some other name.  They were too young to remember the famous scene in Roots when Kunta Kinte is beaten unmercifully until he finally acknowledges the slave name Toby.


Many times my English Language Learners faced name changes-- not violent changes like Kunta Kinte, but forced changes, never the less.   The names are too hard pronounce said some students and even teachers.

I counter that they are no more difficult any other names.

Our names are important.   And it is out of respect that we wrap our tongues and minds around each person's name.


In  both The Name Jar and My Name Is Yoon , little girls who have moved to America from Korea, face the difficult decision of taking a new name...or not.




What is your name?
What is the power and pain of your name?

Every reader of fantasy knows that names in such stories are chosen carefully,  often kept secret, and determine destinies.  I think immediately of A Wizard of Earthsea  where names play such an important role in the narrative.

Often in fantasy stories, characters are renamed as they advance in knowledge or quests or levels of testing.  In many stories, knowing your name gives power over you to the one holding that knowledge.

Many cultures have naming ceremonies with accompanying celebrations; this may be a community affair or a religious rite--based on  the day of birth, family names, desired characteristics or event surrounding the birth.

This is a fascinating area to explore in writing. There are many emotional, social, and historical responses possible as we explore the origins and meanings, the good, bad and ugly of the experience of being called by a particular name.

In researching an item for this post, I learned that Siri  Apple's voice assistant on iPhone and iPad) now has an Android Siri challenger-- Robin.  So I guess many people will soon be calling my name, many times a day.

I now embrace my name:  Robin, like the bird, I say when asked to repeat my name.  I sign most unofficial handwritten correspondence with a bird symbol I have developed over the last 40 years. For those who know me, the scribbled bird has become part of my signature.

What is your name?
How are you called?

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

What is your name?

Research the origin of your name.

Reflect on  how your feel about your name.

If you could change your name, what would your new name be?

Write a poem, essay or narrative about your name, how and why you received  it and how it has served you-- in power or pain.

WRITING WELLS: WRITING IDEAS FOR WHEN THE WELL IS DRY

Today is Monday.
It is time to write.
I don't have any ideas.
Nothing.
Nothing from the news
or the current events of my own life.
Nothing from my present reading,
my imaginings,
or my wonderings.
No thoughts light
a spark just this moment.
No spark to turn words
into liquid magic
which will flow
from my fingertips onto the keys
or from my pen onto the blank page.

So...I do what I sometimes do... and just begin to write....

What can we do when our word well runs dry ?
What can we do to restart the flow of words and images and ideas?

Just Write 
Sometimes just starting to write will spark more words and thoughts and writing. By just rambling on the page for a paragraph or two, you may find your momentum, your focus, and your flow.

It is important to get your fingers and mind moving even if  you write over and over... I don't know what to write... I don't know what to write.  This was a favorite tip offered to my student writers, and it invariably led them to topics at which they may not have arrived in a conventional manner.
They found words they didn't know they owned.

Try it when your well runs dry.

First Lines
Sometimes starting with someone's else's words is just what we need to get our own words flowing.

Write that first line of a favorite poem or short story or novel.  Start there and let your mind turn this phrase over and over, noticing different nuances or illuminating new facets. Meditate and write. Contemplate and compose.

Or write that puzzling sentence-- the one that you read over and over. Write about and through that sentence, teasing out new meanings, deeper significances, or personal prophecies.

In addition to your own selected favorite first lines, for sources of other potential lines for this purpose, see my previous post, First Lines.


Wild and Wonderful Lines
Sometimes we read a line so delicious and savory -- the sound of it,  the feel of it, the afterclap that hangs in the air of it. These are the words after which there is silence.. we don't want to break their spell or end the magic.  These are words that surprise us in the middle of passage and make us gasp aloud.  These are the words that come to us again, that we remember at odd moments-- How we wish we had written these words.  Ralph Fletcher calls these golden sentences. Vicki Spandel calls the active practice of looking for beautiful words sentence stalking.

These magnificent sentences can be used as first lines for our own writing... or food for thought for an exploratory essay, an experimental poem-- or a brand new structure.

Several of my favorite wild and wonderful lines include:

The process of learning is a nonstop orgy of wonderment. (The Magicians: A Novel  by Lev Grossman) 

Wild women don't worry. Wild Women don't get the blues.  (Ida Cox, uncrowned queen of the blues- song lyrics, 1929)

What would happen if one woman  told the truth about her life? The world would split open. (Muriel Rukeyser, poem, Kathe Kollwitz, in The Speed of Darkness,  1968)

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. (The Color Purple by Alice Walker)

Analyze, Borrow, and Imitate

Sometimes it is not merely  words that get us going, but a structure or format of  a piece of writing.  What did the writer do?  What do I notice?  Can I name it ?  Can I do it too?
Mentor texts or texts that teach us how to write what we want to write, or give us a framework for our loose and unruly thoughts, are particularly helpful when we are stuck--when our word wells runs dry.

 I have recently discovered the work and words of Yehuda Amichai, hailed as Israel's finest poet.  I find myself wanting to underline every line, highlight every word in his lyrical, mystical poems.  And I have found several structures I want to try.
Dry days are days I experiment.

For example, in his poem As for the World, he begins each stanza with As for ....

As for the world....

As for my life...

As for the scream...

As for the deeds...

And in the last stanza, he repeats  this structure several times.

As for the palm of your hand,

as for the signals of my heart...

As for the writing on the wall...

This structure and several other structures he has used are on my list to analyze further, to borrow, to imitate.

For more on the value and use of mentor texts see the previous post, Mentor Texts: Learning to Write from What We Read


Nested Meditations

And finally, when I have no words to copy, or  analyze, or borrow.    I begin to meditate with a small phrase or a few words and let them lead me where they will.
.
The nested meditation is a simple, yet complex, cumulative, and layered  poetic structure created by Kevin Anderson.  It is my favorite tool when I am thinking about an idea, but don't know what to write, when I am sensing an idea on the tip of my mind, when I need to write, but my brain is not cooperating or forthcoming.

This is when I turn to the nested meditation.
The results always surprise.

Today's Nested Meditation
I don't know what to write. 

 I don't know what to write
and time is running out.

I don't know what to write
and time is running out
for yesterday's ideas.

I don't know what to write
and time is running out
for yesterday's ideas;
they are rotting as we speak.

I don't know what to write
and time is running out
on yesterday's ideas;
they are rotting as we speak
and tainting today's words.

I don't know what to write
and time is running out
on yesterday's idea;
they are rotting as we speak
and tainting today's words
as I search for a fresher yeast. 

For more on Nested Meditations and other writing ideas  for when you are stuck, see the previous and related post, Writer on the Block.

 See also The Writer's Notebook- Part 2 ( Resources) for additional ideas.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

Select a favorite first line, or puzzling sentence, or wild and wonderful phrase from a text you are reading or have previously read.

Use this line or sentence to begin your own new piece of writing.

Let your writing flow-- following where ever you are led by the words you have chosen.

Borrow a structure from a text you are reading.  Can you compose a new texs using this structure?

Try a nested meditation beginning with one small sentence.

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE

We are born.
We crawl.
We walk and talk.
We go to school and work ... and marry, perhaps.
We raise children who repeat this cycle
whose children again repeat this cycle
as we grow older...
as we grow old.

Or we live some variation of this.
Perhaps you don't marry, and instead, pamper nieces and nephews or neighbors' kids ...
or a dog or cat.
Or perhaps your work is your child...
or your spouse.

The permutations are endless.

We all go through stages of life.

***

All the world's a stage.
As we place our selves in our seats in freshman English, we remember this line from Shakespeare's As You Like It.  Shakespeare identifies seven ages of man. In Act II Scene 7,  Jaques speaks these words:

• All the world's a stage,
  And all the men and women merely players;
  They have their exits and their entrances;
  And one man in his time plays many parts, 
  
  His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
  Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
  Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
  And shining morning face, creeping like snail
  Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, 
  
  Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
  Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
  Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
  Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
  Seeking the bubble reputation 
  
  Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
  In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
  With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
  Full of wise saws and modern instances; 
  And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts 
  
  Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
  With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, 
  His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
  For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
  Turning again toward childish treble, pipes 
  
  And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
  That ends this strange eventful history,
  Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
  Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.

For the entire play click here.

***
All the world's a stage.
And we enter its acts and scenes in stages-- in distinct developmental segments collectively, and in and particular phases of our individual lives
and as Shakespeare and Jaques remind us, we come full circle in the end.

What are the stages in your life?
As you  look back, can you identify distinct stages?

***

 A new collection of poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, All the World's a Stage, uses Jaques's monologue from As You Like It as an organizing framework for poetry that illustrates and illuminates these recognized stages in our lives, beginning with our entrances and ending with last scene or exits.





You can't help reflecting on your own life -- its trajectory, its individual arc-- as you savor this amazing collection of life encompassing poems.

All the world's a stage.

***

We all know about the stage where the action takes place in the theater or stage  as a developmental step in a process.

I came across another meaning which adds a richness to our thinking. Wikipedia provides this additional definition of stage.

In chronostratigraphy, a stage is a succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic timescale, which usually represents millions of years of deposition. A given stage of rock and the corresponding age of time will by convention have the same name, and the same boundaries.
Rock series are divided into stages, just as geological epochs are divided into ages. Stages can be divided into smaller stratigraphic units called chronozones.

This makes me  think of our lives in layers, with new layers added each time we grow and develop and experience more of life.

What are the layers of rock laid down in each age of your life?

***
What are the acts and scenes in your life?

 All the world's a stage.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilites

Reflect on you life. Can you identify specific acts and scenes that are essential in defining you and your life?

Each of our lives is not necessarily comprised of the seven ages identified by Shakespeare.

List seven ages for your own life.

Write a monologue based on your list describing  seven ages of man ( or woman).

Write a poem, narrative, or essay about one of the ages you have listed. 

SOCIAL JUSTICE

What is social justice?
What do we mean by these words?
What does social justice look like?

This is the question raised in a recent meeting of the co-directors of the Columbus Area Writing Project.

This question stuck in my mind after our meeting.
I wrestled and reasoned with it, rambled and wandered with it ...

What is social justice?

888
I raise my voice for you
because you cannot speak for yourself
you have been silenced.


888
We stand up for them
because they have been knocked down
held down
can't get up
alone.

888
We see
humiliations
sufferings
degradations
inequities
inequalities.
We raise our voices.
We inform.
bear witness
advocate
petition
protest
in poetry
essays
speeches
letters

Our voices
seek to
tell your story
to tell my story
to tell our stories--
to reconcile and heal.

Our actions
impact the globe.

Our words 

give birth to new worlds.


What is social justice?
What does it say?
What does it do?

The Oxford Dictionaries define it as follows:

Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.

But then the question remains what is justice itself?

The same Oxford Dictionaries define justice thus:

The quality of being fair and reasonable and also administration of the law or authority in maintaining this quality.

According to the collective everyone of Wikipedia, Social Justice is:

... the ability people have to realize their potential in the society where they live.Classically, "justice" (especially corrective justice or distributive justice) referred to ensuring that individuals both fulfilled their societal roles,^[2] and received what was due from society. "Social justice" is generally used to refer to a set of institutions which will enable people to lead a fulfilling life and be active contributors to their community.^[3] The goal of social justice is generally the same as human development, and the relevant institutions are usually taken to include education, health care, social security, labour rights, as well as a broader system of public services, progressive taxation and regulation of markets, to ensure fair distribution of wealth, equality of opportunity, and no gross inequality of outcome.

The Wikipedia entry goes on to trace the history of the concept of social justice  in philosophy. religion, politics, as well as education and social justice movements


In addition to these general definitions, various professions and interest groups also offer their official understandings.

For example, The National Association of  Social Workers present social justice in the context of their work:

 Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. Social workers aim to open the doors of access and opportunity for everyone, particularly those in greatest need.

The United Nations has sponsored  World Day of  Social Justice annually since 2007.  At this year's event on February 20, 2014. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon began his message with the following words:

The gap between the poorest and the wealthiest around the world is wide and growing. ... We must do more to empower individuals through decent work, support people through social protection, and ensure the voices of the poor and marginalised are heard."

 Click here to read his entire Message  for this year and past years.

 The United Nations World Day of Social  Justice page begins with the following  

Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations. We uphold the principles of social justice when we promote gender equality or the rights of indigenous peoples and migrants. We advance social justice when we remove barriers that people face because of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.

For the United Nations, the pursuit of social justice for all is at the core of our global mission to promote development and human dignity. The adoption by the International Labour Organization of the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization is just one recent example of the UN system’s commitment to social justice. The Declaration focuses on guaranteeing fair outcomes for all through employment, social protection, social dialogue, and fundamental principles and rights at work.

As we engage in dialogue, what do we each  mean by social justice?

What do we do after the conversations and discussions, as we seek to promote and  do social justice?

As writers and teachers, as citizens and human beings, what is our responsibility?

According to Secretary Arne Duncan in remarks made at the University of Virginia on October 9, 2009, education is social justice:

I believe that education is the civil rights issue of our generation. And if you care about promoting opportunity and reducing inequality, the classroom is the place to start. Great teaching is about so much more than education; it is a daily fight for social justice.

For his complete message click here.

I offer the potential of social action writing to explore these questions and our role as educators, and as  a tangible response to our observations, concerns, and  passions in the world.

In the Preface to Fire and Ink: An Anthology of Social Action Writing, the authors answer the question What is social action writing?

Social action writing is a form of critical inquiry and an act of social responsibility.  It speaks out against social injustice and refuses to acquiesce to the tyranny of silence...social action writers continue to bear witness to their lived experiences and those of their communities.  They retrieve and reclaim stories that others have miswritten or are currently  miswriting.  As Gloria Anzualdua reminds us in This Bridge Called My Back, " I write to record what others erase when I speak, to rewrite the stories others have miswritten about me about you." 

When a people loses control of its own narratives--both in the past and today--what continuously get erased and  "miswritten" are not only the stories of injustice--the daily and historically rooted realities of inequality and oppression--but also the equally important stories of resistance.

I am currently reading this book and am impressed with the depth and breath of social action writing selections included in this comprehensive anthology. You can preview Fire and Ice by Frances Payne Adler, Debra Busman, and Diana Garcia here.

I offer  this volume to support you as you explore social action writing in your  personal and professional writing.  Chapter 10 speaks directly to teaching and imagining new possibilities in social action writing and will support you, if and as you work with student writers.

 Two additional resources  may also be helpful, as you continue or initiate engagement in social action writing.


For a Better World: Reading and Writing for Social Action




Writing to Live: How to Teach Writing for Today's World




And finally, you may also find my previous and related posts helpful:

Against Forgetting: Poetry of Witness

The Poetry of Resilience

You Do Not Define Me: Telling our Own Stories

Trials of Our Nation

The Danger of a Single Story

The Rights of Children

Women: Power Unspoken

What is social justice?

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

What is social justice?  

Explore this concept in writing today.

You may reflect  and contemplate in a poem, an essay or a narrative.

WILDERNESSES

We all find ourselves in the wilderness at some point in our lives.
You may be crossing one now.
You may be searching for metaphorical shade and supernatural water in your own personal wasteland.

A wilderness may be blue skies and crooked trees reflecting on still water.
or evaporated pools leaving cracked mosaic mud leading to the dead sea.
or pale watercolors covering unicorns as they migrate.

A wilderness can be the unquenchable thirst following the funeral of one who died too young, a drought not relieved by teardrops
or a visit to the upper room before going there to eternally.
A wilderness may be a lonely room in which you meet yourself.

Wildernesses were all of this or more at the Wildernesses: Physical and Spiritual Show hosted by EASE Gallery.

Artists and writers created pieces over the past two months around the theme of Wildernesses.  The result is a wonderful assortment  poems and essays, paintings and photographs that illuminate the many shapes, shades, and  sizes of  our personal wildernesses.

Both art and writing were shared at the opening reception for this project on Saturday, March 8, 2014.
What a delightful evening of images and words, wine and cheese, audience, artists and writers, family and friends.

In God's Waiting Room II, my poem and offering for the evening, deals with my father's walk in his own wilderness just before his death. This poem is the second in a larger piece composed of six poems.  Click here to read  my poem.

Despite the individuality and personal-ness of each offering, each also paradoxically guides  us through  universal wildernesses recognized and experienced by us all.

The  amazing artwork and writings are collected into one beautiful volume so that the evening can be revisited and remembered, experienced and enjoyed anew.

Click here for more information about this book.

All  wildernesses, however, are not tears and death.

Oxford Dictionaries define wilderness this way:

An uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region.

The origin is explained;

Old English wildēornes 'land inhabited only by wild animals, from wild dēor 'wild deer' + ness.

Literally a place where wild deer live.
A wilder, wilding place.

Synonyms given are wilds, wasteland

So we think uninhabited, inhospitable, or uncultivated region--desert
We think jumble, confusion-- a weary wary place.

All wildernesses are not lonely, but can  also be welcome places of solitude and peace.

Wendell Berry offers us a different view--he offers the potential beauty of  the wilderness in his poem, The Peace of Wild Things.

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief... 
Read Berry's the entire poem here.


What is your wilderness?
Where is your wild place, your wasteland?
How do you journey to and through that place?

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

Reflect on a time when you were in a wilderness.

List adjectives to describe that place, that time, that feeling.

What sent you into the wilderness?  How did you come out on the other side?

Write a poem or essay about this experience.

Create a visual image--either by hand or digitally to illustrate your wilderness experience.

WHAT SHOULD I READ NEXT?

I loved  A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle.

I remember reading it when I was about 9.
The first time I read it, the only thing that stuck in my mind was a scene where all the houses looked exactly alike and  how this was extremely creepy and terrifying.

Later, rereading this childhood treasure, I found that scene, of course. to be only a small part in the story.

Later, the notion of other worlds, other life forms, and tesseracts fascinated me.
Children as agents of change intrigued me
Although I had enjoyed the book before, I most certainly had also missed the more captivating points/

I believe this happens often, and I am so thankful that as an adult and as a teacher,  I have had the opportunity to reread many of my childhood favorites.
I have been able to enjoy them anew with deeper levels of understanding


Despite  my misconceptions about A Wrinkle in Time, I had discovered a reading niche-- an area of interest that I began to pursue in my reading.

What other books did I enjoy as a child, based on this new interest.

 I went on to read similar books-- fantasy, utopian, and distopian.

And... what books will I enjoy as an adult based on my childhood tastes?
Recently I found the answer the latter question.

A friend shared on Facebook a website  that suggested books to read based on your childhood favorites.

I loved this list.  The matches were right on.
Children's books I loved were matched with adult books I love.

On the other hand, childhood books that were not my personal cup of tea were linked to adult books that I disliked or couldn't get through for similar reasons.
The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again  was matched with Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure
 
These are both books I feel like I " am supposed to like", but could not get through either--after multiple tries.

Books that are on my to-be-read list were also linked to children's books that I liked.
The Magicians: A Novel by Lev Grossman, which a friend recommended better than a year ago, is sitting on my iPad waiting its turn.  It was matched with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1), one of my all time favorites.


This list also makes me want to go back and read the children's books that I missed that were matched with favorite adult selections. In this category, I loved  Kindred by Octavia Butler, but although I have read many Jane Yolen books, I have not  read its match, The Devil's Arithmetic.
   

So what book is recommended if you like A Wrinkle in Time? Swamplandia! by Karen Russell..  I have not heard of this one, but you know I am checking it out as soon as I am done writing.


Click here to see what book you should read based on your childhood favorites.


 So what should you read next?

There are several sites that point us,  adults or children, to suggested next books, to reads that might follow what we have read in the past or are currently reading.

Books can be suggested that match your interests, theme, genre and more.

The Book Seer is the simplest to use. You just enter your book and its author and it gives you  a suggestion.

Scholastic Book Wizard offers a feature on its home page called Similar Books which can match a book's theme, genre, interest, and can also match its level.   The cool thing about this site is that it can also find similar books at higher or lower levels if you select the  Reading Level Feature.

And finally, this blog post lists seven book recommendation sites to help you find your next good read.

What should I read next?
A whole world awaits ...

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

What did you read as a child?  Which adult books have you read that are similar in theme, genre, and so forth?

Write an essay about why you like the books you  like, why you would recommend a particular book based on a preference for a specific children's book, or what you  will next based on recommendations from the sites above. 

Play with the sites above, plugging in books you have read.  Analyze the results based on what you know about the books entered and the resulting books suggested. Are the suggestions and matches accurate and helpful or do they seem rather random or less than useful to you?

Write a recommendation for your favorite of the sites or another similar site.