WOW Reads: S3, E5 - MSRAP Reads A Strange Thing Happened at Cherry Hall by Jasmine Warga

Join the Worlds of Words Center Middle School Reading Ambassadors (MSRAP) as we recap our experience around A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall by Jasmine Warga.

In this episode, we discuss... 

• How are we seen in real life and in books? How do we see ourselves?
• In what ways do we help or hinder our relationships with friends and family?
• The tight nature of writing in the mystery genre. 
• And Emaline takes a clear stance on graphic organizers.

Bonus Book Mentions:
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Thanks to the Tucson Festival of Books for coordinating Jasmine Warga's visit. In our session, we learned Jasmine previously taught 6th grade. We determined she was likely an excellent teacher. She also mentioned Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine and Holes by Louis Sachar (a book that also came into play with the Teen Reading Ambassador conversation around Nic Stone).

This podcast was recorded in the Digital Innovation and Learning Lab (DIALL) in the U of A College of Education with assistance from the U of A COE Tech Team.

Producer/Host: Rebecca Ballenger, Worlds of Words Center Associate Director
Lit Discussant: Kait Waterhouse, U of A COE Graduate Assistant
Learning & Engagement Intern: Bonnie Rock, U of A W.E. Franke Honors College Student
Audio Engineer: Alexis Mendoza, Worlds of Words Student Employee and U of A First-year Student
Audio Engineer Supervisor: Liam Arias, Worlds of Words Student Employee and U of A Radio, TV, Film Major
Coordinator: Vianey Torres, Worlds of Words Student Employee and U of A Nursing Major

For more information on the Worlds of Words Middle School Reading Ambassadors (MSRAP), visit wowlit.org.

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We Can Promote Global Literature Together!

The Worlds of Words Reading Ambassador program is completely free for participants who receive a book for themselves and a book to share with their school librarian, ELA/English teacher, or other school entity. If you would like to support this program, please make a gift on-line through the University of Arizona Foundation.

Thank you for listening and keep reading!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to WOW Reads, a podcast of the Worlds of Words Center that centers voices of middle and high school students on literature written for them. Worlds of Words Center of Global Literacy and Literatures is committed to creating an international network of people who share the vision of reading books and children together, thereby opening windows on the world.

Worlds of Words Reading Ambassadors engage in a university experience of children's literature within the University of Arizona College of Education. Reading ambassadors learn about literature for young people under the direction of faculty and staff with expertise in children's literature, education, library science and marketing. 

We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of indigenous people. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O’odham and Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the university strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign native nations and indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service. 

Today, the Middle School Reading Ambassadors met with Jasmine Warga. Jasmine Warga is a bestselling author known for her heartfelt and imaginative stories. Born in Cincinnati and now based in Chicago, her books have been published in over 25 countries.

Her book, A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall, is a captivating middle grade mystery about a boy named Rami who stumbles upon a floating girl in a museum. The girl looks exactly like the girl depicted in a recent missing painting. With the help of his friend Veda and a turtle named Agatha, he embarks on an adventure to uncover the truth behind the ghostly figure and the stolen artwork.

My name is Rebecca and one place I love to visit over and over is my home state of Oklahoma. 

I'm Gabriel, and one place I’d like to visit is Nablus, They got culture. 

I'm Carlos and one place I'd like to visit is Japan. 

I'm Lucia, and one place I'd like to visit is Hawaii. 

I'm Elliot, and one place I’d like to visit is New York City, and one place I do want to go is the Holocaust Museum.

I want to go to LA and- Oh, my name is Jacob. 

My name is Graham, and one place I would love to visit and have visited is Paris. 

My name is Christian, and I would like to visit Italy. 

My name is Janesha, and I'd like to visit somewhere in Europe.

My name is Emaline and I'm Alice, and we want to go to Greece together. And Stock- (laughter) and Stockholm and Copenhagen. What’s Stockholm? It's the capital of Sweden. That's tough! 

Today we, got a chance to meet Jasmine Warga at the Tucson Festival of Books. It was a great experience, we prepared questions for her, we got to be in front of a whole crowd of people and ask those questions. What was that like for you?

I thought it was really cool to meet Jasmine, and she was really nice. I thought every time we answered a question, no- we asked a question she would answer with a smile, and she would give us a good thought-out answer, and I thought that was just really nice and cool of her. 

Meeting Jasmine was, like, really cool, I guess. She was very personable, and it was obvious she put thought and depth into the answers to her questions, and she really went into what she was saying instead of just giving a simple answer. 

Jasmine was very friendly and approachable. I felt a bit scared since, you know, she's pretty famous.

I felt that it was a pretty fun experience because Jasmine Warga was very positive and sensible in a way that we were once like her. She loved that we were there to listen and talk about her story with her. 

So, we read A Strange Thing Happened In Cherry Hall and Alice gave us a great little summary of it. In what ways did you connect with this book? 

I connected this is a very, small connection, and I don't know if it- It relates to the book. So, she was talking about how when she was choosing the names, she liked names that would translate easily. And I relate to that because my name, Alice, since I'm Ita- can I say that? Sorry. Since I’m Italian, we wanted a name, my parents wanted a name that could translate easily. And so, Rami, she also said that translates easily. Then she said that her name is Jasmine, but she translates it to Yasmine? That's how she said that, so yeah.

I had a connection with and really liked the character Agatha, because I feel like I notice things and some people don't notice it, and I try to point it out to them, but I feel like it doesn't work. Also, how Rami said how he was trying to be seen but not seen. I kind of feel a connection to that, especially at school. Like, I want to be somebody that people know and don't have a negative idea of and also sort of invisible. So, I'm not like part of the more popular people because I feel like that would be too complicated and I just like to be somewhere in the middle where I can do that, but I'm still trying to figure out if I can like, do that easily, I guess.

I relate to Veda's character where she's very loud and spoken, I guess, because I feel often, I always have something to say and I kind of connect to Veda in that where she just talks a lot, but like, I just have that kind of talkative, loud energy.

This doesn't relate to me personally, but I know some people might feel connected to this. Rami, he feels like he doesn't have a voice in anything, he's left out of his friend group, and he feels like he doesn't have any friends. I feel like that might relate to someone and I wanted to point that out.

I relate to what Emaline said because at school I ask a lot of questions and people tell me I'm loud, but in a happy way, not in a bad way, but I really relate to being loud and energetic and, yeah. 

I connect to Veda because I'm looking for an adventure and I'm willing to break a few rules. 

Was there anything in this process that you found surprising?

I found Jasmine said for writing the book the process was kind of interesting for her because it was a short book. There wasn't a lot she had to cut, but more so add on because of the shortness of the story. So I thought that was kind of interesting because a lot of times authors, we've learned through Worlds of Words, that authors a lot of time write too much or their book just becomes almost too wordy, has too much detail that wouldn't really impact the overall story. So I thought it was interesting that she was having to add. 

She talked about her process because it's a mystery. Everything was so tightly written, in this case, that she didn't do as much cutting as expansion because it was so tightly, but she did have to cut some particular scenes. Do you remember what she said? 

Yeah. She's talking about how the turtle, Agatha, she really enjoyed writing perspectives from Agatha, because it's kind of an odd place to write from. But that her editor was like “You have to cut a little bit of this out because it's becoming too much.”

What I found surprising was how she imagined what her characters would be named by their parents. I also found surprising was that she doesn't necessarily plan everything out, and I definitely know that I feel like that sometimes. I will just kind of go with things. I was like, oh that's interesting because everybody has their own way of doing things, and that's like kind of the way I do things too.

I just wanted to say that I feel like Agatha knew the whole thing about the book. What was interesting about the book to me was how it was a mystery and stuff, but it also involves social skills about kids like me. How kids are kind of like to this day about what they feel like. But it was also kind of a mystery at the same time. The funny part is that the turtle kind of knew all along, but it can’t talk. 

What I found surprising is that she didn't connect to a book until she wrote her own. It's kind of sad, too, that she had to make her own book that she could connect to.

So, she had connections to books that were outside of her culture. She liked Anne of Green Gables, she could find ways to connect, but to connect. 

With our ethnic background? 

With an Arab family or a family from the Middle East? Yes. 

It's notable to mention that she said up until recently there wasn't a whole lot of accurate representation for Arabic people in media.

So going back to what Elliot was talking about like she kind of didn't know, she was just going along with the writing like it was taking her. A lot of times I had a connection to that because my teachers will say make a graphic organizer or whatever. And I'm like, I don't want to make a graphic organizer. I know about as much as you do. I just want to write and see where the story takes off from there. 

I was surprised by the fact that the hardest part for her to write was the ending. Well, because I guess there wasn't maybe something very emotional, but usually there's a part in the book that authors maybe skip over, or for the ones we've already seen, that they skip over or have trouble writing. For her, it was kind of a mysterious part and a fun part. I was also surprised that she says she's written six books and picture books but next year she's coming out with two. Which are a lot because usually it takes so much time to just make one, and now two of them are coming out next year.

I was surprised by the specificity she went with when coming up with characters. She would ask questions about them to herself, by getting into the small details. Like if Rami went grocery shopping, he would get the Reese's Cups.

I thought that was a lot of fun, too. So, this might get a little spoilery. In fact, it is going to be spoilery, so spoiler alert. Maybe you want to turn down your audio for a second. Blue? I can say it without saying the other character. Right. So Blue and Rami have a connection also Veda a little bit, and also the turtle in how they are seen. Will somebody please talk about the importance of being seen? 

I mean, it's important because, you know, you got to have somebody to relate to about your problems. If you don't, you'll just rot away in a husk. And I think the reason that they could see blue, well, obviously Theodore was, you know, that he had memories with her. But the others, I think it's because they had something to do with like being forgotten. Agatha and Rami were forgotten for the most part. But Veda could see forgotten people, which I think hence her connection with it. 

I just want to say that something about being seen is that I feel like they usually have like one person they can go along with. But if you're just trying to be seen by everybody, it's not really going to work out for you. Like you're just going to end up being made fun of that you’re not cool. 

In my opinion, I feel like everyone deserves to be seen and they all have something that they need. Like everyone has something they like, need to say. I liked how this book kind of reflected that. You deserve to have a voice or have someone relate to you so that you're not like, you don't feel alone. Because if people feel alone, they don't feel like they belong and they're not happy. I feel like being seen and being heard is all connected to your overall well-being. Like everyone deserves to have that person that they can identify with. 

I feel like everybody, like what Emaline said, I feel like everybody should be equal and not labeled as different things. Like how in most parts some people are labeled as cool or some people are labeled as weird, but I feel like nobody should be labeled as anything because everybody's the same. Well, not the same, but everybody's different in their own way and should be seen in their own way. 

So, Jasmine says Rami turtles himself, Alice shared that she is a little bit more outgoing. Do you see yourself more as extroverted and outgoing? Maybe a Veda type or more a turtle type? Oh, let's go, let's go. Let's just go around the table, starting with you. 

Turtle type for sure. 

Yeah, I'm an introvert. 

Turtle type. 

It's a mix of the two. I'm definitely more of a Veda person if I'm around friends and I'm more introverted when I'm around family and in a bigger social situation. But it depends on the people I'm with and what's going on.

I think for me, it's also it depends on who I'm with. 

Yeah, I'm a mix of both when it comes to who, like who I'm hanging out with. 

Same, it depends like if I'm with my friends and I'll be more extroverted, but if I'm with a whole bunch of strangers, then I'd be more introverted. But I did take a personality test and it says that I'm an ENT (Extrovert).

I think, I'm like an extroverted introvert. But, like I said earlier, I'm very loud. I feel like I have a big personality, so, definitely a little more extroverted. 

Like I said before, well, I said that I'm very extroverted, but at the same time, it all depends on who I'm with, because if I don't feel comfortable or safe with that person, I'm obviously going to act different than if I'm big.

I'm more of an extroverted person because I like to talk to a lot of people. I really care if I see a random person. I like to randomly go to them, start talking to them. 

Let's talk really quickly about Rami's relationship with his mom. Oh, well, I feel like we're ready to go with that answer.

Honestly, in most books it's supposed to get better. But I got a feeling with this book, it was good-ish at the start, but I got a feeling that by the end, they're entering new territory. I got a feeling it's going to be shaking for a time to come. 

Okay. Gabriel, can you talk a little bit about what the relationship looks like in the story?

I mean, after, you know, the whole incident at Cherry Hall, I got a feeling like this is pulling Rami and made him more curious about things that he was content to decide to look over before. 

I mean, I do think that their relationship got better because Rami feels, he can actually start talking to people. Like in the beginning of the story, Rami couldn't really talk to his mom, and he just felt that he had to keep things to himself. But, after everything that's happened in the story, Rami feels he can better understand his mom and relate to his mom to the point where he can ask and tell her things that he never thought of telling her.

Yeah, I think that Rami thinks that his mom's a little bit secretive, not telling him about a lot of things about his dad, about the photograph. 

I think, through the story, like, Veda's personality and curiosity kind of rubbed off on him because through the end he started kind of asking more questions, like, who's this guy in this photo? Like, I know he's my dad, but like, why is my mom so happy? He was more comfortable asking questions and I felt like that was kind of interesting. 

Like, yeah, to go off what Emaline said. I think being exposed to someone very extroverted exposed him to those new ideas of asking questions and learning more about people and just being more curious in general. So, I think that's kind of the core. 

I think it's hard because Rami feels like he can't ask some questions at the beginning. I do think that he's like getting more confident. So, he'll be asking more questions, but he's definitely more turtle at the beginning. So that is definitely a part of the relationship with him and his mom. It doesn't help is that his mom's always working and doesn't have time to answer those questions for him. So, that makes it hard. 

Jasmine told us that there's a little part of him that is worried that his mom might be not just a suspect, but maybe guilty, and what that would mean for him. It complicates that relationship.

Like it would be his worst nightmare for his own mom to be the one who stole the painting. But he can't take her out of being a suspect because she was one of the people that was there when the painting was stolen. 

For Rami, his mom getting imprisoned would be worst case scenario since he has no one else to rely on.

Alright, any last impressions or things that we want to share? 

I feel like Rami kind of has a fear of disappointing his mom because he didn't want to tell her that his friend's kind of ditched him. Like, he didn't want to tell her what was troubling her, and I feel like that kind of shows he didn't want to disappoint her. He didn't want to bring up something bad with the man with the mustache in the photo and stuff like that. Like, he didn't want to disappoint or make her feel that. 

Yeah, I agree with Emaline because he was worried about his mom's reaction when he sees the picture, when he is thinking about all of the different questions he has and how he's worried that his mom's going to get angry. So, I think it might be like something like a fear of his mom's reaction or thoughts on his question. 

I second the opinion by Elliot and Emaline. On a lighter note, though, we did find out that Jasmine Warga is Bengals fan. 

That's tough. 

Why Jacob? More than “that’s tough.” 

Oh yeah, I think it's cool that she's a Bengals fan. I mean that I think Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase are a good duo, but Tee Higgins, I mean he's good but he needs to be trained. 

Also Eagles rule. 

What we will say is that was breaking news, Jasmine Warga got a text from her brother in the middle of our session with that breaking news. So she got to connect with Jacob over that, so that was a fun, real time thing that happened.

One thing I liked though is that I felt like I could relate to her more than other authors. Because it's the fact that I can like, I guess I will try to write stories and sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it does. But I can definitely relate to her in ways that are like, oh, I would- It definitely helps me if I write it down by hand. But since I write amazing at spelling, or like the there, where kind of things, I tend to write it on my computer and type it out because it's harder, but I do think I would do more thinking about it. 

Well, big thanks to Jasmine Warga for agreeing to meet with us. Thank you to the Tucson Festival of Books for allowing us to moderate this session, it's been a fantastic day here. I'd like to thank Kate Waterhouse for helping us with our lit discussion, Bonnie Rock for being our intern, Vianey Torres for keeping us together administratively, and Alexis Mendoza, flying solo as our sound engineer. We are recording in the Digital Innovation and Learning Lab in the University of Arizona College of Education.