Teacher Letters Dear Ms. Draper, I am sitting here, stunned, at 11:30 at night because of the tremendous impact of your recent novel, The Battle of Jericho. My colleague read the book, called me and said, "You gotta read this now." I picked it up this afternoon, and now I'm choked with emotion and every other normal human is in bed asleep and I just have to talk about how wonderful I think this novel is -- not for just young adults, but for all people (but especially young adults considering the recent hazing incident that just made the news this past June). Ms. Draper, you are so incredibly profound and inspiring and your words are sensational. I can imagine a young person so wanting to be involved in THE group of the school -- I wanted to be in THE group when I was in school -- and I know my students will instantly clamor to the feelings you describe. I wanted to share my favorite passages with you (I hope you don't mind!). "And he wondered whether it was integrity or responsibility he learned from standing in a Dumpster or drinking till he puked or being led around a room like a dog" (275). So many time I want to say something like this to my students when they are making unwise choices -- you have just said it in a far more eloquent way than I ever could formulate! The other line I LOVED was, "He would have said that there's nothing very distinguished about death" (295). WOW -- what a powerful line! What an incredible, pull-out-all-stops, hard hitting, no bull statement to send to kids! I want to frame that line and put in on the doorway of my room to remind kids each and every day of the impact their decisions can have on their lives. The only problem (for lack of a better word) I had with the book was Arielle!! Arghhh!!! I didn't like her response to Jericho at the end! I thought she had more integrity than that -- she seemed deeper and more caring than the crass way she seemed to come across to Jericho. Ah well, that is the richness of your novels -- no stock characters! Complex reactions because real people are complex! I hope I haven't bored you to tears, but your novels are awe-inspiring and give me so many conversational topics and ideas for things I want to weave into my lessons. Thank you for the blessing of your work. Keep writing -- I'm such a fan! Dear Ms. Draper, I have been teaching your books now for approximately 4 years and the students still devour them. thankfully. When I hear that students don't read, I know from experience, that isn't true. It's just many of the text selections are not high interest. Anyway, I feel that I know you and especially wanted you to know how much I appreciate your novels. Romiette and Julio helped me keep my small class of ninth grade special ed students fully engaged during an early release day (a two hour block period) on a Friday before a long weekend. You also saved my sanity. My school is not very diverse; consequently, the book provides insights and connections between my students and people whom they often see only as very different. The students are connecting to Julio even more than they are connecting with Romi. Students are always full of surprises. Thank you for the wonderful novel. Dear Ms. Draper, My students refused to read anything last year. This year I have purchased Forged By Fire and Tears of a Tiger. I cannot keep these books in my room! They are begging to take them home. Mrs. Draper, I know this message is repetitive, but I'm sending it anyway. I love Tears of a Tiger and have been using it as my end of the year novel with my 8th graders for 4 years now. I have approximately 117 students each year. They are very honest in their responses about books, and I have yet to have one student who didn't fall in love with the book! Dear Ms. Draper, I am just writing to thank you for writing your wonderful books for young people. Many of my students are children from the African Diaspora, from the US and the English and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Access to books that are reflective and respectful of their lives, cultures, and passions, that render them visible in the midst of a media culture where so many of the portrayals are fantastical and negative, is so important. Your books have helped so many of my students re-engage with reading. Everything was boring -- until Forged by Fire, or Romiette and Julio or Tears of A Tiger. On their own, they talked about these books with each other, recommended them to their friends, and were as coolly excited as seventh graders can be about "Sharon Draper's books." Dear Mrs. Draper, I have been teaching "at risk" kids for 10 years. I have NEVER had kids respond to a book the way they responded to "Tears of a Tiger". With an assistant and an aide, I teach all subjects in an old fashioned one room school house. We have English before we go outside for PE and every day the kids wanted to keep reading instead of going outside. My kids come from a wide range of dysfunctional backgrounds and all of them loved it. I just ordered the next 2 in the trilogy. If I didn't, I would be facing a mutiny. Thanks and keep up the good work!! Dear Mrs. Draper, I would really like to thank you for your books. I am a high school English teacher. My 11th graders just read Romiette & Julio. These students are, for the most part, reluctant readers. Without exception they loved this book. They felt a personal connection to the characters and they enjoyed the internet conversations. THANK YOU for writing especially for these students. I admire your dedication, and as a fellow teacher, I thank you for inspiring me to "hang in there". It's a tough world for our teens. Thank you for touching their lives! Dear Ms. Draper, I just finished reading Romiette and Julio, and am leading a discussion of it on Wednesday with my students. I am completely floored! Your book was fantastic! The older I get, the more I think I won't like young adult fiction, and usually I'm pleasantly surprised by what I read with the kids, but your book stunned me - I was immersed in it and thought it was a) modern and entertaining, and b) perfectly appropriate for what kids are dealing with today. I love books that take me on a voyage of emotions, and yours certainly did that. Thanks for a great book, I can't wait to discuss it with my students. Dear Mrs. Draper, You have been an inspiration for me and a blessing to my students. When I heard you speak I knew that you were my role model and that has never changed. This year I had the opportunity to teach Tears of a Tiger to our sophomore students. They are crazy about your book(s) and have begged me to order Forged and Darkness for them. Imagine, an English teaching being begged for books!!! Tomorrow we are doing creative writing projects for Tears and I can hardly wait to get to school. THIS is what teaching should be about, right? Thank you for opening up a whole new world for my students . . . and for me. You are truly a wonderfully gifted woman. Just for the record, because of your inspiration, I never give a writing assignment without taking part in it myself. The kids love it, and so do I. Dear Mrs. Draper, I am mad at you. I usually come home at the end of the school day, take my bra and shoes off and start dinner. You ruined that for me today. For the last two hours I have sat on my sofa with both my bra and my shoes on reading your book, TEACHING FROM THE HEART, from cover to cover. I can no longer breathe through my nose because my head is completely stopped up from crying. My head is pounding because I kept having to read without my glasses on because the tears were streaming down my cheeks. The tissues I used to blow my nose are in a pile on the sofa and I don't care. I am mad. I am mad that I have to wait until tomorrow to show this book to my dear teaching friend who will also be mad because she will cry as hard as I did. I am mad. I am mad because you are the teacher I want to be. I have taught middle school students for 34 years and reading your book has convinced me that I don't have enough time left in my life to be the kind of teacher I want to be. I am mad. I am mad that I have to wait until Tuesday to share this book with the group of teachers I work with every Tuesday afternoon from 3 until 4 on motivation, discipline, and instruction. How can I possibly move them as you have moved me? How can I read them passages from your book without having tears run down my cheeks? How can I convince them to be the best teachers they can be because we already have enough mediocre teachers? How am I ever going to be able to convince my principal that I need 20 copies of your book as required reading for my teachers? And, finally, I am mad that I am not going to get sleep tonight. All I can think of is my butterflies and how many of them may not fly because of what I could have done today and didn't. How can I reach Antwon who is failing and has a mother that won't come in for a conference because she has given up on him? How do I convince Shontae that she would be a great teacher when she's busy being angry over the fact that her mother has left her, her father is a drunk, and she doesn't know from week to week what relative she will be living with? How do I help Jimmy learn to write a cohesive paragraph when all he can worry about is whether his step-father will have too much to drink tonight and beat him? And that's just the front row. Feeling old and tired today, I told my students that I can retire in July. They wanted to know what I would do for fun if I didn't teach. I didn't have an answer. Then they told me to please be quiet so they could finish reading their novels. I want to be a teacher. I want to be the best teacher I can possibly be. There is not enough time left. I have so many people yet to touch. Thank you for making me miserable enough to try again tomorrow. I'll do a better job. I promise. I am not sure if you remember me, but I am the person whose life you have touched in a very special way. Your book "Teaching From the Heart" helped give me the encouragement I needed to survive a not so great mentee experience. Meeting you at the Children's Literature Conference provided me with the additional stamina I needed to complete my intense teaching certification/Master's in Education program. I will be graduating on Monday and wanted to take a moment to again say "thank you." You have inspired me more than you could possibly know. Thanks so much for being the beautiful person that you are and for touching the lives of so many children. You are a gift, and I treasure you. Sincerely, LBF Sharon, I had the opportunity to listen to you speak at our IRA meeting last month. I purchased two of your Ziggy books for my fourth grade. I am just about to finish reading the second one during library today. My students love the books. I have never seen them so excited and anxious to come to class. Thank you for writing these fantastic books. CB, Librarian Dear Sharon, I met you recently at the NCCJ spring conference. I just wanted to thank you for you dynamic personality and your words of encouragement to those of us who have been called to be teachers. Like a religious vocation, I believe with all my heart that if you are not "called" to teach, you had better not try it - it isn't the path fot you. Sometimes, though, I feel discouraged and think that it is just too much - and then I hear words from someone like you - or a former student who comes bounding into my room after school telling me that another class just does not get The Great Gatsby and how they debated the character of Nick Carroway at lunch and "mrs Flanagan, they just don't get it - why can't Mr._____________ teach them to love literature the way you taught us." WOW - as you know, a comment like that can make the year for a teacher, and I left the building walking on a cloud! I just wanted to say thank you again for answering your "call." Sincerely, MKF Dear Ms. Draper, I work with struggeling readers in the seventh and eight grade at a rural school in Highland Home, Alabama. Thank you for your wonderful books. We are reading Forged by Fire and I cannot believe they way all my students come into the room begging to read. The will complete any other work I ask them to do to get to read the novel. The grades are higher this six weeks than they have been all year. These two classes have chosen you as their author for our school's Read Across America Celebration. They are terrific kids they need that extra push. I have your book Teaching From the Heart, and our next class novel will be Tears of a Tiger. Thank you again because you have impacted all our lives in a wonderful way. Sincerely, DA Reading Specialist Sharon, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for speaking so eloquently at the Promising Practices conference in San Diego last week. I was very impressed with you and your books and look forward to buying class sets of your work so that my entire class can have that pleasure also. I teach a three-hour ninth grade English class every day to students whose scores reflect that they read at grade level 5 or below. I have been introducing them to reading and they LOVE it. However, I must keep giving them new books to excite and enhance their reading. I was so excited to hear parts of your books. I think they will be the perfect partner for other things I had planned for this year. Thanks again. JS Dear Sharon, I sat at my desk until 7 pm on Friday night reading Tears of a Tiger. . .and wept as I read the final few pages out loud to myself. Just thought I'd let you know how moved I was. My students loved Forged. . . and will begin Tears. . .next week. Thanks for great work! We are all inspired by you. BT I was absolutely delighted hearing you speak at EKU. I was on the edge of my seat the whole night. Anyhow, I wanted to tell you how your words have really helped out in a difficult student teaching placement. I am in my last student teaching placement and its a departmentalized 4/5 Language Arts class. I have throughout the day, 108 students and a teacher who is a little set in her ways and does not want to give up her limelight. I was having difficulty adjusting and I remembered what you said about being able to teach was first making connections with your students. I figured that despite getting a degree, my first priority was to those students. I made the connections with quite a few of them and I instantly started feeling more at home. I have learned that with out those connections, I would not make it through. Without the students who show me how much they need me and how important it is that I be there, I would simply pack up, go home and give the degree back. I would probably tell this teacher I am working under exactly how I feel. Anyway, thanks for coming to speak at Eastern and I am sincerely looking forward to reading more of your work!!! TW HI Mrs. Draper... I am sure that you get emails like this one all the time, so I hestitate to be repetative. However, I would simply like to tell you that your books have turned some of my kids' attitudes toward reading around. This is the third year in a row that I have taught Forged By Fire, and I look forward to this time of every year. I always teach the novel at the beginning because it enables me to really hook some of my kids into this whole reading thing. Thank you for that. We can't wait for the new one to come out. On that note, sadly, I am having a hard time finding other such books that excite my kids like yours do. Do you have any suggestions for eighth graders? I just finished reading your book about teaching and I truly did feel renewed. I honor your work and hope that one day I will be as accomplished as you are. Thank you again. S Your books have made reading much more interesting to my 12 year old son. I enjoyed Forge by Fire so much that I am ordering Tears of a Tiger, Romeo & Juliet, Darkness before Dawn and Forge by Fire in the hardback version for my son and myself this Christmas. I just wanted to that you and wish you God's speed. j. Sharon, You talked with my district a few months ago. I just finished your book "Teaching from the Heart" - you understand about time - time for "free" reading. I have had "my own kids" for five years but my parents are teachers so you could say I have had a very large extended family for all of my 27 years. After reading your book I justed wanted to say Thank you. I love teaching - I love all my kids but sometimes life can get you down - older teachers, without realizing it, can cause doubt. Your book was a great help. Once again, Thank You. TLS