Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Sparrow
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1982
WEBSITE:
CITY: Brooklyn
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LOC Authorities:
| LC control no.: | n 2011070094 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/n2011070094 |
| HEADING: | Moon, Sarah, 1982- |
| 000 | 00390cz a2200133n 450 |
| 001 | 8787151 |
| 005 | 20111005134400.0 |
| 008 | 111005n| acannaabn |n aaa |
| 010 | __ |a n 2011070094 |
| 040 | __ |a DLC |b eng |c DLC |
| 100 | 1_ |a Moon, Sarah, |d 1982- |
| 670 | __ |a The letter Q, 2012: |b ECIP t.p. (Sarah Moon) |
| 670 | __ |a Email from pub., Oct. 5, 2011: |b (b. 04/16/1982; Sarah Elizabeth Moon) |
| 953 | __ |a xj15 |
PERSONAL
Born April 16, 1982; daughter of Amy Bloom; married; wife’s name Jasmine.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Spanish teacher at a progressive school in Brooklyn, NY. Also taught young people at the Rikers Island prison complex and at private schools in New England.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Sarah Moon is a Spanish teacher and college counselor at a private school for gifted and talented children in Brooklyn, New York. She has taught at other private schools in New England and at the Rikers Island prison complex in New York City. Moon has observed the struggles of many middle grade and high school students who don’t seem to fit into their social setting. She writes for them from the perspective of personal experience.
The Letter Q
In an interview by Ileana Jiménez at the Feminist Teacher website, Moon relates her own experiences of teenage bullying and harassment. It began, she says, when her mother established a domestic partnership with another woman, and some of her friends were no longer allowed to visit her after school. The situation worsened in middle school when certain peers decided that she must also be gay, and again in high school when she openly acknowledged her gender orientation. Moon remembers it as a frightening time, one that could have ended very badly. “The things that saved me were the queer adults who loved me,” she told Jiménez. Years later, when Moon observed her own students trying to deal with similar challenges, she decided to give them the book she wished she could have read when she was young. She reached out to dozens of authors and artists, and their responses became The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves.
Jiménez was pleased to discover “the plurality of race, class, and gender” represented in the collection, along with the range of topics, which include gender fluidity, teen sexuality and desire, transgender perspectives, multiple identities, and complications from racial and ethnic attitudes toward gender. Moon emphasized to Jiménez that “figuring out how all of the pieces fit together” may seem to be an insurmountable challenge for young people, but quite often “there’s room for all of it.”
Moon hopes that her book will not only empower teens, but also inspire teachers and administrators as well. She acknowledges that some schools limit or forbid the amount of support that faculty and staff can offer students, and some teachers will not be comfortable enough to take action, but at least they might “get a sense of what queer kids are facing.” They could “learn something about the lives of their students that they might not otherwise know.”
Heather Seggel observed in the Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide that the contributions varied greatly, and “the messages aren’t all happy.” She noticed, nevertheless, that “part of the pleasure here is in knowing that these budding writers all grew up to fulfill at least some of their youthful aspirations.” Betty S. Evans summarized the messages in School Library Journal: “It gets better; you will find love; don’t give up.”
Sparrow
Moon’s first young adult novel offers a similar message to young people suffering from the anguish of severe social anxiety. Readers meet fourteen-year-old Sparrow just after her release from an inpatient psychiatric hospital. When people saw her perched on the roof of her school they thought she was about to commit suicide. Sparrow was actually seeking a nonlethal form of escape from the anguish that consumes her whenever she must interface with other people. Her anxiety disorder is so severe that she cannot even explain herself to the people who want to help her.
Sparrow’s safe haven is the home that she shares with her loving mother. School is an emotional battlefield, and making friends is an impossible challenge. Sparrow spends her lunchtime in a bathroom stall until she is befriended by the school librarian. Mrs. Wexler allows Sparrow to eat lunch in the library with a handful of other young outcasts and introduces her to the world of books. The shock of Mrs. Wexler’s accidental death destroys the fragile bridge that Sparrow is just beginning to build to the world outside her imagination. She flees inward and upward, finding peace on the rooftops where she can imagine what it would be like to fly with the birds.
Sparrow’s story emerges after her release from the hospital, after her mother convinces her to try therapy. An extremely patient therapist coaxes Sparrow ever so slowly out of her silent world. Only when she is finally able to share her fears can Dr. Katz help her cope with them. Music offers a valuable connection to the world around her, and finally Sparrow begins to learn the art of social communication.
Critics offered favorable assessments of Moon’s debut. Multiple reviewers mentioned what Booklist contributor Caitlin Kling described as “lyrical, minimalist prose that resounds with authenticity.” A commentator in Kirkus Reviews mentioned “an extremely diverse cast of characters,” but pointed to Sparrow as “a character to learn from.” Kling called Sparrow “an elegantly told and important novel about learning to cope, live, and be happy” despite “depression and anxiety.” Charla Hollingsworth wrote in Voice of Youth Advocates: “Moon’s debut will hit the right notes with anyone who has felt as if they do not belong.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2017, Caitlin Kling, review of Sparrow, p. 49.
Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Heather Seggel, 2012, review of The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves, p. 62.
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2017, review of Sparrow.
School Library Journal, May, 2012, Betty S. Evans, review of The Letter Q, p. 131.
Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 2017, Charla Hollingsworth, review of Sparrow, p. 62.
ONLINE
Feminist Teacher, https://feministteacher.com/ (August 27, 2012), Ileana Jiménez, author interview.
Sarah Moon is a teacher, writer, and translator. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is the co-editor of The Letter Q, a young adult anthology. Sparrow is her first young adult novel.
Exclusive Interview with Sarah Moon, Editor of The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves
27August
2012
1 Comment
The Letter Q is edited by Sarah Moon (image credit: Arthur A. Levine Books)
One of my favorite lines in Sarah Moon’s The Letter Q, which features letters written by queer writers to their younger selves, is one by Eileen Myles: “‘Cause right now you are in the dancing years of your life and if you like dancing at all—and I know you do—you should be doing it for yourself, feverishly and exhaustively.”
Moon’s collection, published this past spring by Arthur A. Levine, an imprint of Scholastic, aims to ensure that our queer students’ dancing years are just that, ones used for laughing, living, and loving instead of being bullied and harassed. Bringing together an impressive cadre of writers, from contemporary graphic to classic novelists, from writers of color to transgender authors, Moon sidesteps away from creating a literary pastiche of the It Gets Better Project and instead curates a collection that affirms the complexity and beauty of queer youth life and love.
As an educator who values bringing texts to the classroom that show our students <
Authors such as LaShonda Katrice Barnett, Jewelle Gomez, Jasika Nicole, Rakesh Satyal, Tony Valenzuela, Linda Villarosa, Jacqueline Woodson, and others share their stories of growing up queer and brown. Other writers acknowledge the fluidity of gender in childhood and the impact it made on their adult identities.Still others confess the emerging sexual desires of their teen years. These particular letters are sweet valentines to the precious adolescent fantasies that later scaffolded flourishing relationships.
A Spanish teacher at the progressive St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, Moon has seen the insides of prison classrooms at Riker’s as well as those in private schools in Connecticut. A survivor of bullying in middle and high school, Moon has published a book that we can add not just to our school libraries and curricula but also to our growing list of favorite texts that remind us of both the fragility and sadness, humor and creativity of our own younger, queer selves. Sometimes a book like Moon’s is exactly what we need to make sure we take care of our young people to make it better now.
The following interview via email gives us a glimpse of Moon as editor, teacher, and preserver of not a few dancing years.
In addition to the host of authors you invited to write letters, you also wrote a letter to your younger self. You mention the bullies that haunted your life in middle and high school. What were some of the experiences you went through as a student and how did it inform the creation of this book?
I was a weird kid from the beginning, so I went through a lot of teasing. It always bothered me and it was always hard, but it took on a different kind of malice in junior high school. After my parents divorced, my mom started a relationship with a woman, my stepmother, and there was a lot of bullying that came with that – and some lost friendships because certain friends weren’t allowed to come over anymore.
Some of the bullying came just because something about me seemed different, seemed queer. One kid would wait for me every morning and try to push me into the boys’ bathroom because he thought that was where I belonged. One kid spit on me. I got called a kike.
This continued pretty regularly through high school. I came out on my first day. The rest of high school was more or less like middle school, more taunts and threats and name-calling, and bucking up against a system much larger than myself as I tried to do things like start a Gay Straight Alliance.
There was backlash, and it was a scary time in my life.<
The desire to create the book came from, certainly, these high school and middle school experiences, but also from my experiences as a teacher. I have seen students struggling with these issues – often not with the same kind of bullying that was around me, but struggling internally, grappling with big questions or getting lost in their own sadness.
In those moments, I always wish that they could just get a letter like the ones I got from the queer adults in my life as a kid. I wanted to give them something that would make them feel seen, as I had felt on those occasions.
Some of the letters that resonated with me the most were the ones that revealed how the authors’ childhoods and teen years were as much about navigating race and ethnicity as queer identity. I actually cried at the end of the graphic letter by Jasika Nicole when her younger self looks in the mirror and explores the implications of her hair as a both a woman of color and as a closeted youth.
I love that letter, too. Jasika was one of the first writers to say ‘yes’ to this project, and I think the work she did is stunning and so helpful, for lack of a better word, because it articulates so clearly the difficulties of navigating multiple identities.
I think that queerness, race, ethnicity, and in some cases, religion, are all things by which we identify, things that help us to say who were are, where we come from, where we belong – which is so much of what being a teenager is about, figuring out who we are, and figuring out how to say it,<< figuring out how all of the pieces fit together>>. I think it can be particularly confusing or scary if you feel like some of your pieces simply can’t fit together, that if you have one piece then you can’t have the other, like Jasika writes – I can’t be biracial and queer and live here. But, in fact, those are all pieces of her identity, and as she comes to discover, they can all live in the same body at the same time and not explode, despite the strong feeling to the contrary.
Linda Villarosa’s letter, I think, also eloquently explains the complicated feelings that come from navigating multiple identities, that if she’s gay that might be fine for her, but she’ll be letting down the entire African-American community. What I particularly love in her piece is how her younger self realizes that, of course, the community she’s really worried about disappointing is that of her family, who do see her as part of them, even though she’s gay.
A good number of the letters outwardly address desire and sexuality in thoughtful and honest ways. Too often, sexual desire in teens is seen as taboo regardless of sexual identity, so it was refreshing to see how these writers treated it as empowering rather than as dangerous. In what ways do you hope the book provides a springboard for queer teens to embrace their desires while also taking care of themselves?
I think that, just as you say, these things are too often shied away from or dismissed. Desire is normal, and as I recall, an enormous piece of the teenage landscape. The silence that surrounds [it] is nothing less than dangerous. I think the first step to kids being able to take care of themselves, their bodies, their wants, is to acknowledge that they have bodies, that they have desires, and that’s normal, and, in fact, nice.
Once we have language for these things, then the relationship to them becomes less mysterious and shrouded in shame and then we can actually take care of ourselves. I hope that kids reading these letters will see that all of these people have desires, no one is saying that they are shameful or to be ignored. Part of being in this tribe is learning how to accept those desires and to take responsibility for them. I like Amy Bloom’s support of one-night stands, but also her insistence that she has to take responsibility for them and learn how to be careful (even if it’s kind of gross to read about because she’s my mother).
There are a number of letters that share the ways in which the authors’ younger selves were gender non-conforming, either by not expressing traditional gender roles or by recognizing the fluidity of gender. Why might it be important for today’s teens to see an older generation express how they navigated issues of gender?
I would hope that it would help them to see that they aren’t the first girls to loathe puberty or the first boys to play with girls. I would hope that they see that, now, these are qualities that the authors hold as part of their specialness, part of what makes them who they are. That<< there’s room for all of it>>, I think is a great gift in this world. That there is room for the gay boy jocks, and the sensitive tomboys, and the boys in dresses, all of it. And that, in fact, these are the parts of ourselves that we have grown to celebrate. I think it is especially powerful in that it highlights how kids innately know what we all have to spend years trying to articulate, study, and undo: that gender is fluid and varied and never the same from one person to the next. And that is a tremendous blessing.
Are there any letters by transgender authors?
Yes, there are two transgender writers in the book.
Teachers play a critical role in providing safe and inclusive schools that all young people deserve. The letters about teachers who created safe spaces in their classrooms were especially moving, especially for those of us who work tirelessly to make those spaces a reality. How do you envision this book playing a role in the lives of not only queer youth but also teachers and administrators?
Honestly, I think it depends on the teachers and administrators we’re talking about. There will be some who will do nothing with it, either because they’re scared or because their schools won’t let them, or because it’s not their particular cup of tea. But I do think that if they read it, they will <
I think it’s easy to paint queer kids with one big rainbow brush, “Oh, they’re bullied,” but David Levithan’s letter tells us that it’s not quite that simple, or “Oh, they’re strong, they can handle it,” but Diane DiMassa’s letter makes it clear that sometimes “handling” something is relative, or, “Oh, they’ll be fine,” which, I think in most cases, they will be.
But they’ll be a lot of other things, too. I think it might be useful to <
I can say that for me as a teacher, sharing this book with my students has been one of the most rewarding and moving experiences I’ve ever had.
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Print Marked Items
Moon, Sarah. Sparrow
Charla Hollingsworth
Voice of Youth Advocates.
40.4 (Oct. 2017): p62.
COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
4Q * 4P * S
Moon, Sarah. Sparrow. Arthur A. Levine/ Scholastic, October 2017. 272p. $18.99. 9781-338-03258-1.
Sparrow does not like dealing with people; she would much rather be flying with her friends, the birds. Ever
since she was little, Sparrow has mentally escaped whenever people were being less than friendly or
tiresome. This escaping behavior works well for Sparrow until people start thinking that her visits to the
rooftops mean that she is a suicide risk. After a visit to an inpatient facility, Sparrow starts seeing a
therapist. At first, Sparrow is highly resistant to talking about anything, especially her feelings. Over time,
though, she beings to open up--about her first friend, chocolate, her group of friends in the library, and her
heartbreak over the unexpected death of her one champion, the school librarian. Through it all, Sparrow's
mother is right by her side. Even when they do not know how to communicate, Sparrow and her mom have
a deep bond, and as Sparrow finds her voice, she learns that her mom was also socially awkward growing
up. By the end of the novel, Sparrow has given up her imaginary flights of fancy with birds and learned to
speak and communicate socially with a small but close group of friends.
Throughout the story, Moon weaves expressive spoken and musical poetry, as these become keys to helping
Sparrow find her voice. With a delightfully diverse cast,<< Moon's debut will hit the right notes with anyone
who has felt as if they do not belong>>. This is a delightful novel that will also resonate with readers of
Jacqueline Woodson and Angela Johnson.--Charla Hollingsworth.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Hollingsworth, Charla. "Moon, Sarah. Sparrow." Voice of Youth Advocates, Oct. 2017, p. 62. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A511785036/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7214aa25. Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A511785036
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Sparrow
Caitlin Kling
Booklist.
114.4 (Oct. 15, 2017): p49.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Sparrow. By Sarah Moon. Oct. 2017. 272p. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine, $18.99 (9781338032581); e-book,
$18.99 (9781338032598). Gr. 7-10.
When eighth-grader Sparrow wakes up in the hospital, she can't convince the doctors or her mother that she
wasn't attempting suicide on the roof of her school. Once she starts seeing her therapist, she reveals that
when she experiences anxiety, she becomes a real sparrow and flies with other birds. Moon's debut novel
deftly normalizes therapy and prioritizing one's mental health. In'<< lyrical, minimalist prose that resounds
with authenticity>>, Moon tracks Sparrow's relatable experience with trauma and anxiety. The recurring
therapy sessions never come across as manufactured or heavy-handed, nor do they present a singular,
correct way to cope with anxiety. After opening up to her therapist, Sparrow takes a brave step and enrolls
in a month-long music camp. There she finds unexpected validation and a community of women who build
her up.<
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Kling, Caitlin. "Sparrow." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2017, p. 49. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512776201/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6d8ef112.
Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512776201
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Moon, Sarah: SPARROW
Kirkus Reviews.
(Aug. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Moon, Sarah SPARROW Levine/Scholastic (Children's Fiction) $18.99 10, 10 ISBN: 978-1-338-03258-1
In a world where everyone else seems to know how to get along, Sparrow Cooke, an eighth-grade black girl
in Brooklyn, finds solace in flying like a bird whenever she's uncomfortable, until the day comes when
that's no longer an option.When Sparrow is found on a rooftop, everyone assumes it's a suicide attempt, and
she's suddenly thrust into the experience of hospitals, therapy, and a mom who doesn't understand. But
Sparrow wasn't trying to kill herself. She was escaping her feelings of awkwardness by imagining she was
high in the sky, soaring with a flock of birds. This is her main coping mechanism for dealing with her
friendlessness and the death of one of her trusted adults, the librarian Mrs. Wexler. Can she learn how to
stay on Earth and deal with the things that scare her?<< An extremely diverse cast of characters,>> including
people of different races, gender, and sexual orientation, drives the strong, delicate narrative of Moon's
debut novel. Sparrow deals with different emotional issues against a backdrop of lyrical language and
touching images, with a healthy dose of musical connections that beg to be added to a playlist and a
bibliography of favorite books that is as consciously diverse as the cast. <
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Moon, Sarah: SPARROW." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A499572563/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2b7abfb2.
Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A499572563
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The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to
Their Younger Selves
Heather Seggel
The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide.
19.6 (November-December 2012): p62+.
COPYRIGHT 2012 The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide
http://glreview.com
Full Text:
Edited by Sarah Moon
Arthur A. Levine Books. 272 pages, $17.99
What if you had known "then" what you know now? How would your life had been different? Such was the
premise of Sarah Moon's challenge to a few dozen GLBT writers: to consider what they'd say to their
younger selves if they could go back in time. The result is this quirky anthology, which brings together their
accumulated wisdom when reflecting on their earlier lives. Many structured their replies as letters to
themselves as adolescents and young adults. A few passed on investment advice, such as Jewelle Gomez,
who urges the young Jewelle to capitalize on Twilight: "Maybe you should think about writing vampire
stories, they might come back into fashion someday." <
David Levithan calls himself out for bullying a teacher he didn't like and for being cruel as a means of selfprotection.
Diane Di-Massa's letter is as wonderfully shouty and frantic as her Hothead Poison comics, but
not without encouraging words: "Look how much you have already survived. You are coping!" Gregory
Maguire's letter manages to be sweetly direct, warning himself "not to succumb to the narcissism of
loneliness too much," then screaming about Harriet the Spy and how the things we held dearest as kids still
endure. The Letter Q gives GLBT writers a chance to use the raw material of their lives to ponder how
things might have turned out otherwise, whether for better or worse.<< Part of the pleasure here is in knowing
that these budding writers all grew up to fulfill at least some of their youthful aspirations>>; these are life
stories in which things have mostly worked out for the best.
Seggel, Heather
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Seggel, Heather. "The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to Their Younger Selves." The Gay & Lesbian Review
Worldwide, vol. 19, no. 6, 2012, p. 62+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A307920804/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f7e88e02.
Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A307920804
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Moon, Sarah & James Lecesne, eds. The
Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to Their
Younger Selves
Betty S. Evans
School Library Journal.
58.5 (May 2012): p131.
COPYRIGHT 2012 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
MOON, Sarah & James Lecesne, eds. The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to Their Younger Selves. 230p.
Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Bks. May 2012. Tr $17.99. ISBN 978-0-545-39932-6.
Gr 9 Up--This anthology features 64 LGBTQ authors and illustrators, both well-known and not, who send
letters to their younger selves. Whether it's Paige Braddock's graphic-style note or Brent Hartinger's letter to
his teenage self, the message is clear:<
basis, these missives can range from boastful to witty to extremely touching. Unfortunately, when read as a
whole, they become somewhat monotonous; thus, the letters seem most suitable for classroom use on
LGBTQ issues or bullying when paired separately with a story from a good collection such as Michael
Cart's How Beautiful the Ordinary (2009) or Marion Dane Bauer's Am I Blue? (both, HarperCollins).--
Betty S. Evans, Missouri State Univ., Springfield, MO
Evans, Betty S.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Evans, Betty S. "Moon, Sarah & James Lecesne, eds. The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to Their Younger
Selves." School Library Journal, May 2012, p. 131. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A288290947/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ee104f21.
Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A288290947