Can't Take That Away aka Another Book that Made me Cry

In my real life I rarely cry. I don't cry over movies and I often find myself struggling to have to the right reponse when someone else is crying. Basically, you crying is not going to make me sad or make me cry. I don't even cry at funerals or in other places where crying is commonly seen. In short- I'm not a person who cries. This week I discovered that I do cry at the Panera while reading. Can't Take that Away made me cry sad tears and happy tears, made me cry for the kid I used to be, and made me cry for all the kids who are still in the thick of it, but mostly it made me cry tears of hope (that's totally a thing, right?). 

Now that we've gotten my crying issues out of the way, let's get to it. 

Can't Take That Away by Steven Salvatore
Release Date: March 9, 2021
Goodreads Link
​Author Website

Why I love this book: We already talked about the crying situation. I promise it's a plus. You will feel better for having read this book and let out all the tears. Having a good cry doesn't even begin to touch all the great things about this book though. It's like the icing on a perfect cake. 

And if the good cry is the icing, then the sheer volume of Mariah Carey content is like the sprinkles (I love sprinkles). As a 90's kid who grew up on Mariah Carey, who still can't help but think about 8th grade summer camp when Always Be My Baby comes on, I couldn't help but love Carey's love for all things Mariah.

What I appreciate the most about this book is that it shows EVERYTHING, the good and the bad, unflinching it how it holds up a mirror to what high school can be like. It's a hard time for a lot of people, and when you are different that can make you a target. What's beautiful here is that for every ounce of hate that Carey takes in, there are equal measures of love and support. That doesn't make it easy for them, but to be able to see a character that is in the thick of it, who is dealing with trauma and loss, who is also trying to figure out how to navigate love and friendship, AND who we see being confident and talented and fabulous, well, that is something that we don't get enough of. As a teacher I also fully appreciated that we got to see the good and bad there too- how some teachers can make everyone feel less then, feel like they don't belong, feel unsafe... but that there are other teachers who open their doors (literally) and create safe spaces for kids, who speak up for them when their voices aren't being heard, and who stand behind them when they need support. I try every day to be that second kind of teacher, because it's the kind of teacher I wish there were more of when I was a kid.

​For me, when I think of this book and specifically about Carey, I think about one line from Walt Whitman's Poem Song of Myself. In that poem Whitman says "I am large. I contain multitudes". This book contains multitudes. Carey contains multitudes. 

To sum up- go buy the book. If you are like me and have the ability to provide important books to kids, add this to your collection. Kids need to see that they contain multitudes too, and that sometimes you just have to slip on your ruby slippers and shine. 

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For reasons you will understand after you read the book- enjoy this picture of my Grandma Sophie, she was a roller skate dancer, raised kids and horses and dogs, started food fights at the dinner table, and taught us to not take shit from anyone (even family). She also haunted her house for years after she died much to our enjoyment. The sass survived even death. I hope I'm even half as cool as she is. 

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