– by Glyn Maxwell<\/a>, from The Sugar Mile<\/em>. \u00a9 2006, Houghton Mifflin Company.<\/p>\n Mummy says it’s pointless going. It comes<\/p>\n It comes, she says, they’ll have us where they please,<\/p>\n City, country, Hitler’s got gas bombs<\/p>\n I read about it, think about it: gas.<\/p>\n Our road had a big practice, with a bell<\/p>\n That means the gas is coming, you can’t see it<\/p>\n You can only smell it. If you’ve no sense of smell<\/p>\n Or you’re elderly it’s likely you’re too late,<\/p>\n You’re standing there but dead. Anyway the gas bell<\/p>\n Was just like our school bell, I told them that,<\/p>\n I told them they should change that…<\/p>\n (Read the rest at The Writer’s Almanac<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Memorial Day isn’t exactly politics, but it has political connections. Politics may not seem like something that comes up much in YA lit but it does. Savvy characters who observe their parent’s political beliefs and come up with thoughts of their own can make for some greatly thought-provoking reading. Colleen at Chasing Ray<\/a> is going to be highlighting young adult books that cover political subjects Wednesdays this August, and invites interested bloggers to join her.<\/p>\n I think this is a fascinating project — we all may be surprised just how much political science is interwoven into the fabric of much of fiction, graphic novels and poetry collections. Want to get involved? Topics are these:<\/p>\n August 5th – Race in America Anyone can join in – hope you do. The weather here has taken a turn for the cold and windy, and I hear it’s the same at home in California. Strange days…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,15,10],"class_list":["post-1973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-happenings","tag-random-notes-and-errata","tag-views"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4949,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions\/4949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/writingya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/starlings4peace.png\")
<\/a>mental_floss<\/a> had some facts about Memorial Day, should you be wondering about specifics. It started way back after the Civil War. Obviously, the South wasn’t in favor of remembering those whose lives were lost in the “rebellion,” and didn’t recognize it as a holiday until after the First World War, when the definition was broadened to remember the dead from all wars. <\/p>\n
August 12th – The environment
August 19th – Class divisions in America
August 26th – US foreign policy <\/p>\n
Peaceful Memorial Day to ya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"