Dear Rachel Maddow

Title of Source: Dear Rachel Maddow

Author:  Adrienne Kisner

Source Type: Young Adult Novel

Publication:  Feiwel & Friends, 2018

MLA Citation: Kisner, Adrienne. Dear Rachel Maddow. Feiwel & Friends, 2018.

Notes:

Brynn Harper is exceptionally talented, but you would not know it by looking at her grades. She has been relegated to the color coded classrooms in the school basement for the students who the school seems to have given up on. The only thing that she cares about is getting her grades back up so she can rejoin the school newspaper and maybe win back her ex-girlfriend in the process. That is, until she learns that one of the students in the school with the highest grades is running for class president. Brynn knows that he will only look out for the interests of the advanced students, not the students in the basement, and realizes that she is the only one willing to challenge this.

Dear Rachael Maddow is a novel told through emails, primarily emails from Brynn to Rachel Maddow that she never sends. The emails begin as a class assignment but then take on a life of their own as Brynn uses the emails as a journal where she writes about her daily life and tries to work through her issues. The novel is an example of the importance of literacy for queer adolescents as well as the impact that teachers have on queer students’ lives.

Text to Text:

  • Deborah Brandt’s “Sponsors of Literacy” is a great paired text for this novel because Brynn reinforces much of what Brandt discusses. Many of the sociocultural infrastructures that Brandt names literacy sponsors are shown having a direct impact on Brynn. As with most queers, many of the sponsors fail Brynn and she is forced to find her own.
  • This book is similar to Pulp, both in the political nature of the novel (Abby and Janet are both involved in campaigning, and Brynn runs for class president), and the fact that the novels are set in Washington D.C. The real connection between the two novels, however, is that both girls start a school project that takes on a larger meaning for them and helps them deal with the other problems in their lives.
  • This book is also like Autoboyography and How to Be Remy Cameron because both have school assignments that take on larger meanings.