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Happy Father’s Day to one of my favorite literary fathers, Atticus Finch.Another Instagrammer posted the question who is your favorite literary father, and as someone who has taught 9th grade English and To Kill a Mockingbird more times than I can count, I thought of Atticus (we won’t talk about…
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Is it okay for a teacher to post this? Happy June!
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It was 1991, and we were the 5th-grade girls in Mrs. Shaw’s 5th/6th-grade classroom. We were in a gifted and talented program, the kind of classrooms popular in the 1980s and 90s where the supposed best and brightest were corralled into a classroom and pushed in all things creative and…
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The current process…There’s so much that I want to write, but when you’re missing someone you lost, the winter months are the longest. A very good friend once sent me the song “Long December”on a particularly rough day, and I always listen to it knowing that yes, the next few…
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“There are a lot of mediocre men out there.” This is what I said to a former student who is now a co-worker when discussing some of the interesting men we have encountered in the education world, particularly some of those in leadership. I quickly countered my statement with of…
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This summer, determined to read the book before the series, I read We’ll Always Have Summer, the third and final book in the Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy and the basis for season three. I am also caught up with the series so far, and my thoughts about the two…
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I was eight years old, surrounded by Barbies and a plate of chocolate chip cookies. I sat on the floor of my grandparents’ living room on a warm summer night as a familiar sound played through the television speakers. “From coast to coast, and around the world, it’s time to…
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Happy birthday to the fabulous Tim Gunn!My older daughter loves Project Runway, and I told her, you know, Christian Siriano was once a Project Runway contestant and he won. She immediately wanted to watch his season and we finished season 4 last night. And a young Tim Gunn fan was…
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Once upon a time, this boy I knew took the lyrics from Billy Joel song “Only the Good Die Young” and changed the words about Virginia the Catholic Girl to better fit Katherine the Assembly of God girl, and he and his friends would sing it on school bus trips…
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A cruise ship. The Bahamas. Disney. Extremely detailed descriptions of Claudia Kishi’s elaborate outfits. Ann M. Martin. The woman knew how to sell books to 1980s tweens. I cannot forget how excited my friends and I were when this book came out. Before websites and YouTube channels dedicated to following…
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Super excited to announce the publication of my young adult novel, Don’t Stop Believing, available for Kindle download on Amazon. Available in paperback soon. Don’t Stop Believing is the story of Mara Gordon, the daughter of a small town Pentecostal minister, trying to graduate high school in 1997. Mara’s world…
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Celebrating one of my favorite poets. This is from her poem, “ego tripping (there may be a reason why)”
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Dear Judy, As I’ve told you before, Just as Long as We’re Together is one of my all-time favorite books. So much so that my copy from 4th grade was on my shelf throughout high school, and made the trip with me to a college dorm and a first apartment…
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Dear Judy Blume, When I was in 3rd grade, I was Peter’s mother. My teacher really liked theater. She staged her own adaptations of Fiddler on the Roof, Annie Get Your Gun and Bye, Bye Birdie. Only in high school when learning more about theater and copyrights did I discover…
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Portions from a previously published blog piece Dear Judy Blume, This is the one. This book, the yellow framed paperback, is one that always had a place in my bedroom. It went with me to a college dorm room and my first apartment. This is the copy I still have…
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Dear Judy Blume, I just finished Forever… I never read this book and keep trying to think if it was in our school library. And then I keep thinking of Mrs. Kirk, our (maybe?) long suffering school librarian. Mrs. Kirk was a woman of few words, except apparently when she…
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Dear Judy Blume, When I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, my family was watching an episode of Roseanne where Darlene got her period. I asked my mom what that meant. She said we weren’t talking about it, and changed the channel. A year or so later, my friend…
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The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han Little late to the game with this one, but all summer, in the background noise of my social media, I kept hearing the buzzing of the sounds of the premiere of season two of the series based on The Summer I Turned…
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This was first drafted on July 23, 2023 after viewing the documentary Judy Blume Forever on Amazon Prime. Dear Judy Blume, The other night I sat down to watch Judy Blume Forever, the documentary about your life. At 43 years old, I sat in my chair, wiping tears from my…
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Little late to the game in reading this one, but I’m a big fan of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and I wanted to read the book before checking out the series. Love this quote from the book.
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● About Me
I’m a writer, reader, teacher and mother.
Katherine Hamadeh 