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WORK TITLE: Alone Together
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CITY: Vancouver
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COUNTRY: Canada
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Booklist vol. 120 no. 12 Feb. 15, 2024, Angela Leeper, “Alone Together: A Curious Exploration of Loneliness.”. p. 37.
School Library Journal vol. 70 no. 3 Mar., 2024. Fakih, Kimberly Olson. , “FONG, Petti. Alone Together: A Curious Exploration of Loneliness.”. p. 100.
Petti Fong is a journalist, educator and author. She was a staff reporter at the Vancouver Sun, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and CBC and now writes for The Economist. Petti teaches journalism, ethics and business communications at Kwantlen University, Langara College and the University of British Columbia. During the pandemic she created and hosted a podcast with interviews from experts around the world on the topics of isolation and loneliness. The podcast, Alone Together, has been downloaded by hundreds of thousands of listeners and heard in more than 30 countries. Petti lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Petti (Peg) Fong is the journalist who created, hosts and writes the podcast Alone Together: A Curious Exploration of Loneliness from Apostrophe Podcast Network, executive produced by Terry O’Reilly. Over the last 10 years, she has interviewed hundreds of experts on the topic of loneliness and social isolation. She was a staff reporter at The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail and the western bureau chief for The Toronto Star Newspaper. Currently, she is the Vancouver correspondent for The Economist Magazine. She has an M.S. Journalism from Columbia University and teaches journalism at Langara College and business at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. In 2003, she was a regional finalist in the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, a finalist in the Edna Staebler Personal Essay Competition for 2019, and a longlist finalist for the Desperate Literature Prize for Short Fiction 2020.
Peg is represented by Carolyn Forde.
Alone Together: A Curious Exploration of Loneliness. By Petti Fong. Illus. by Jonathan Dyck. Mar. 2024. 88p. Orca, $26.95 (9781459837232). Gr. 4-7. 155.92.
For readers still recovering from the traumatic isolation of COVID-19 comes this exploration of the now-global phenomenon of loneliness. While the subject may seem depressing, Fong's upbeat approach looks at related topics on fighting loneliness, finding connections, and even embracing being alone at times in thematic chapters. For instance, the author starts with lonely superheroes and how loneliness can inspire change, as with the Greensboro Four, who participated in a sitin to fight the social isolation of segregation. The book integrates historical and personal narratives and scientific studies that relate to human well-being, such as the study of swarm intelligence, in which bees' best defense is sticking together, and why we crave comfort foods and comfy clothes when we're feeling lonely. The final chapter focuses on boredom from being alone and using this time to foster creativity and kindness. No matter the topic, Fong emphasizes that even when we're alone, we're in it together--and we can work through it together. An excellent SEL resource.--Angela Leeper
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 American Library Association
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Leeper, Angela. "Alone Together: A Curious Exploration of Loneliness." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 12, 15 Feb. 2024, p. 37. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A783436422/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=bd8a25ae. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
FONG, Petti. Alone Together: A Curious Exploration of Loneliness. illus. by Jonathan Dyck. 88p. (Orca Think). Orca. Mar. 2024. Tr $26.95. ISBN 9781459837232.
Gr 3-7--With no tropes to lean on, Fong has taken apart the topics of "alone" and "together" that preoccupied everyone during the lockdown phase of the pandemic, and created an accessible guide to individual integrity. By opening with anecdotes and references to COVID-19 and then the orphans found in stories ("A Series of Unfortunate Events," the "Pippi Longstocking" tales), the narrative lays out a spectrum of what alone means, whether by choice on one end, or at the other, the "forced isolation" of segregation that led to the Greensboro Four, the Black college students who took seats at the "whites only" lunch counter in 1960. The information covered, in five chapters such as "Taking a Stand Against Loneliness" and "With Mac and Cheese, You're Never Alone," is peppered with Dyck's inviting full-color, comic-style panels and photographs, suggested reading (such as Megan E. Freeman's Alone), the inclusion of superheroes who battle their own isolation, and other cultural references that will resonate for middle graders. There are many avenues into the material; browsers can scan the table of contents for possible remedies for feelings of being too alone; researchers can access the index; the book also works as a solid read-through, and lends itself to a foundation for classroom studies. Back matter includes a glossary, resources, and an index. VERDICT The challenges of this topic are invisible; Fong is thoughtful in the material included but lighthearted in its rendering, and young readers will find much to consider in this "Think" series entry. --Kimberly Olson Fakih
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Fakih, Kimberly Olson. "FONG, Petti. Alone Together: A Curious Exploration of Loneliness." School Library Journal, vol. 70, no. 3, Mar. 2024, p. 100. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A786340739/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=178491fe. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.