February 19, 2015 by Karen Jensen, MLS
It’s interesting how two people can read the same book and have two different experiences with it. When Ally Watkins and I began talking about The Distance Between Lost and Found it became evident that different parts, different themes, stood out to each of us. So whereas Ally talked a lot about the the faith […]
October 21, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS
Karen’s Short Thoughts: An amazing, complicated and at times flawed look at the relationship between two childhood friends.Publisher’s Description: What if you live for the moment when life goes off the rails—and then one day there’s no one left to help you get it back on track? Althea Carter and Oliver McKinley have been best […]
September 23, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS
The #SVYALit Project Index The other night at karate, the sensei was passing out lanyards and the 5-year-old wanted one even though she wasn’t a student there. So she went and asked if she could please have one. His reply was this, “if you give me a hug, I will give you one.” I suddenly […]
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September 23, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS
The other day a blogger asked me what I wanted people to walk away from BLEED LIKE ME thinking about. This is always a tricky question because it implies that authors have this big agenda when it comes to their fictional stories. We do not. We’re telling stories. And yet, at the same time, it […]
June 12, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS
A long time ago, I sat at a lecture where the speaker said, “Don’t be afraid to tell your kids ‘I love you, but no’. This is the very best gift that you can ever give them. It is the gift of security, of them knowing that someone is driving the bus.” I think about […]
May 25, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS
Since beginning the #SVYALit Project, I spend a lot of time thinking about consent and how we teach our kids about it. The truth is, we really must start teaching our kids very early. In many ways when our kids get to the teen years, if we still haven’t talked to them about consent then […]
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May 19, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS
As part of the #SVYALit Project I’m trying to read as many titles as possible in order to work with Christa Desir, Carrie Mesrobian and Trish Doller to put together an annotated bibliography/index of titles that highlight the wide range of issues involved in this discussion. And truth be told, so many people kept telling […]
May 7, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS
Join us in June for the inaugural twitter read-along of the #SVYALIT Project: USES FOR BOYS by Erica Lorraine Scheidt. Discuss this powerful, haunting book and its stunning contrast of both sexual violence and consent all month with the hashtag #SVYALit with moderators @TLT16, @CarrieMesrobian, @TrishDoller, @ChristaDesir, and @ericalorraine. A one hour twitter chat, on […]
April 17, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS
Infographic from http://vitaminw.co/society/what-consent-looks The other day the Tween came out of the house wearing a pair of shorts from last summer, which means they were now both too short and too tight. It was a stark reminder to me that it was, once again, time to go shopping. These kids won’t stop growing. So the […]
April 3, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS
When I was twelve years old, a friend of my mom’s became interested in me. Very young brides were pretty common in his country of origin and while he understood they weren’t common in the US, he started a strange sort of courtship with me. My parents had been divorced for a few years and […]
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