Craptastic ending!

Lowery, Lois. (1993). The Giver. New York: Bantam Books. 192 pages.

Jonah is growing up in a world where there is no war, no poverty, and everyone lives happy, simple, "beige" lives. Meh. All sexual urges and stirrings are cut off by medication as soon as they start in adolescence and marriages and children are prearranged. All for the greater good. Even your future career is chosen for you and at the age of twelve you begin your apprenticeship. This is where Jonah's neat, tidy package of a life starts to unravel. Skipped over in the ceremony naming the internships, Jonah is brought up on stage and named the new Receiver of Memory. This prudent society, with it's Elders and their rules, has deemed it appropriate to store all the memories of the society BEFORE the order was imposed in the mind of one person. One person knows the ups and downs of emotions, the joy of music and the pain of physical injury. Jonah will stop taking his medication restricting his basic urges and begin the process of taking the memories from The Giver.

I will freely admit to being sucked into the seeming utopia that Lowery creates. Everything is laid out for you in a very orderly, calm fashion, lulling you; like world she is creating. Soon, though it's hard to pinpoint exactly when, the feeling starts to creep to the forefront of your mind that something just not quite right. That feeling continues to grow and grow as you read. Unfortunately it is quickly squashed by a real pisser of an ending. IMO. I think they die. I don't think it sounds like anything else. To think they live doesn't really fit with the tone of the rest of the story. Someone told me that Jonah makes an appearance in the sequel to the book, Gathering Blue. I'm not sure I'm going to read the next two books in the series though.

This would be a great book for junior high. They (probably) have not read 1984 or Brave New World and may not have experienced a dystopian novel yet. The discussions you could have about the society portrayed in the book and it's "right or wrongness" would be a great classroom discussion. I'd book talk it in that way, advertising the "unbelievableness" of the society in the story and as an introduction to dystopia.

Dead Girl Walking

Hurley, Tonya. (2008). ghostgirl. New York: Little, Brown and Company. 328 pages.

Charlotte Usher has a mission. It's the first day of school and she has worked all summer to change her outward appearance to be more like that of the "popular" girls and get the guy. She's registered for all the same classes, signed up for cheerleader tryouts, and as fate would have it ended up being his Physics partner for the year. Until she chokes on a GummyBear and dies that is.

Enter "Dead School" where you learn about being dead. Housed, conveniently, in the old, condemned wing of the same high school. A fact that you don't actually learn until towards the end of the book. You also don't learn exactly what it is that this group of dead high school kids has to do to pass over to the other side until the end. It's alluded to and somewhat explained, but not really. I did a lot of "reading on faith" with this book, in that I just kept reading with all the questions forming hoping that they'd be explained eventually. Could it be that too much had to be chopped on the editor's block? Not convinced.

So this whole book had me wondering, "When am I finally going to start liking this main character?" I have to say I never really did. I was very ambivalent about her. She was very shallow and ignorant of the feelings of anyone else other than her own. Maybe she was supposed to be? I'm not convinced. The secondary character, Scarlett the little, goth girl sister of the head cheerleader, was much more likable.

This book is sure to piss off many a librarian with it's awkward size (9.3" x 5.2" x 1") and thrill most any tween with it's cut-out cover, cool goth end papers, and silver gilt edges (not real of course) . This book is all about image, both literally and figuratively. Which really doesn't surprise me when you take a look at who wrote it. Tonya Hurley is a publicist and a film maker, she also does all sorts of stuff with those Mary-Kate and Ashley people. I think the writing in the book definitely reflects that pop culture influence and focus. I worry that with so many period specific reference made (Brangelina, Arcade Fire, Death Cab for Cutie) that the longevity of the book isn't going to last. Not that I'd be sad to see it go...

I don't know if I'd booktalk this one. I'd definitely recommend it to the right kid who was into this genre, it's definitely a wanna-be spooky (think all the books about vampires, zombies and the like that are hot right now) girlie book. Junior high all the way.

Just You and Me Punk Rock Girl

Cohn, Rachel and Levithan, David. (2008). Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Nick is a straight guy who plays the bass in a queer hardcore punk band. Norah is the daughter of a very rich music agent. Both are "straight edge" (they don't drink or do drugs) and have a passion for music that turns a random five minutes into one of the most interesting nights either has ever had. In a whirlwind of broken relationships and broken hearts, true friendships and the quest for the perfect punk rock experience Nick and Norah discover a lot about themselves and each other. Mosh pits, swearing, cross dressers, and a Yugo; I can't think of a better night to be had. The "realness" of the story is helped by the alternating chapters told from Nick and Norah's point of view, David Levithan writing as Nick and Rachel Cohn writing as Norah. Sometimes books by two authors can feel choppy and disjointed, Cohn and Levithan did a fantastic job at avoiding that. Each author stayed true (and more importantly consistent) to their characters voice.

*sigh* Of the gazillions of teen romance books out there this is my favorite so far. A far superior alternative to the catty Gossip Girl books. "Would you mind being my girlfriend for five minutes?" is one of the best lines I've heard in a while. There really wasn't much I didn't like about the book. From reading some other reviews I found out that apparently there are some Manhattan "inside" jokes that those of us who don't live there won't get. The fact that I didn't notice that or it didn't distract me from the story makes me think it's a non-issue.

Someone on the yalsa-bk listserv is collecting ideas for a "Romance for Guys" book list. I would put this book on there in a heartbeat (along with David Levithan's other book Boy Meets Boy). You could book talk it through this angle or through the music theme or even for the novelty of taking place all in one night (an aspect that I REALLY enjoyed).

(oh, the title is taken from the lyrics of a song that pretty much epitomizes my high school years, guess the artist and you'll have my undying love and respect.)

Out of the frying pan...

Katcher, Brian. (2008). Playing with Matches. New York: Delacorte Books for Young Readers. 304 pages.

Leon has been ruthlessly picked on and ignored since junior high. Now that he's seventeen and a junior in high school he's more or less used to being ignored except for his small group of friends. Always having his nose in a book, Leon plays Dungeon & Dragons, watches Monty Python and is generally considered a "geek" (I can relate to Leon however as I did and still enjoy many of the same things). He's beginning to lose hope that he'll ever get a date, never mind a girlfriend, until he starts talking to Melody. Shunned by all since she started school Melody has severe disfigurement and scarring on her face from an accident when she was a child. Leon begins to see the girl beneath the surface and likes what he sees. Unfortunately he also likes what he sees when he looks at Amy Green, the beautiful cheerleader he's drooled over for years.

This is a great book for guys (good for girls too, don't get me wrong). Leon has a great sense of humor and offers a realistic look into the mind of a teenage boy. True, you want to smack him upside the head when he makes the wrong decision but you know why he makes it and you can understand his reasoning. I can't think of a whole lot that I didn't like about this book. I'd booktalk the book, it has a universal appeal. Tough decisions to be made during a tough time. What happens when you make the wrong decision and then realize your mistake? Things don't always have a happy ending but they aren't all doom and gloom.

Creepy teen book

Peck, Richard. (1977). Are you in the House Alone? New York: Viking Press. 160 pages.

Gail is a junior in high school and has a steady boyfriend who she is sexually active with. She was smart and proactive and went to Planned Parenthood to get birth control. Everything about Gail is pretty much average. Her looks, her grades, her friends; there is really no reason for anyone to pay much attention to her. Then she starts getting creepy phone calls at night while she's babysitting and receives an extremely violent and sexually explicit letter in her locker at school. Shaken, Gail finds herself with no where to turn and her best friend telling her to "forget it". Finally she makes an attempt at help by going to the guidance councilor at school. Just as she feared she isn't taken seriously. What makes this book both interesting and hard to take at the same time is the ending. Gail is attacked and raped while babysitting by her best friends very rich and boyfriend from a very affluent family. Her family are the only ones who believe her as the police take the side of the boy and his family. This is what irks me, NOTHING HAPPENS. It's implyed that the boy goes crazy and is committed but there are no charges pressed and there is no closure for Gail. She was a sexually active girl in her teens, it must have been her fault. She must have brought it upon herself. So infuriating!

Much along the lines of Judy Blume's Forever, Peck's Are you in the House Alone? is ground breaking for when it was written. Tackling the subject of teen sexuality in a frank and matter-of-fact manner, Peck chose to deal with the darker side and address the topic of rape in a time when women were still "asking for it" if they claimed they were raped. It amazes me that Peck chose to do this and risk incurring the wrath of the feminist movement of the time. I can see where they might have been offended at a man taking such liberties as to try and depict something a man could never experience. I'm just hypothesizing here, I could be totally off base. I think he did a fairly good job all in all.

It would be interesting to have students read this book now. The conversations that you could have with girls (and boys too!) on how this has changed, or not changed, since the book was written and how it makes them feel.

Holy Conspiracy Theory Paranoia Batman!

Doctorow, Cory. (2008). Little Brother. New York: Tor. 365 pages.

Disclaimer: I love Cory Doctorow.

I've been an rabid Boing Boing reader for a while now. So while I hadn't gotten around to reading any of Cory's other fiction, when I saw this I knew I had to read it pronto. I also need to preface this with saying that, yes, I am somewhat of a conspiracy theorist and do not trust the government as far as I can throw it.

That said, I loved Doctorow's book Little Brother. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time takes on a whole new meaning for Marcus and his friends when they are scooped up by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after a terrorist attack and brought to a secret prison (read: Guantanamo-like). Had Marcus and his friends not been the hacker/computer types they may never have been given a second look, but because they were aware and knowledgeable of technology and their rights as US citizens they were targeted. After being released Marcus et al. realize their home of San Francisco has been turned into a police state where everyone is a suspected terrorist. Knowing that he will forever be watched and that no one will believe his story, Marcus decides the only thing to do is to take on the DHS himself. Creating a phenominal underground network of teen hackers (remember the movie Hackers with Angelina Jolie?!?) Marcus will teach you more about computer technology and security, as well as it's history, than you ever thought possible. For those who don't like the mini computer science lessons this book may not be for you. Those who are technilogically inclined or are eager to learn more about technology will love this book.

Now for the (few and far between) things that I did not like. I thought that the writing was choppy in places. It just didn't flow as nicely as it could have. Could be it just needed a little more time on the editors table... The only other thing that peeved me was the portrayl of Marcus' Dad. A librarian! It miffed me that he was so closed minded about everything. In real life Doctorow is a champion for libraries and librarians and spoke at the big ALA shin-dig this year. Besides those pretty trivial things I loved the book.

I would definitely booktalk this but only to a selective audience, it's not a book for everyone and I can appreciate that. The conspiracy theory and computer hacking aspects are great pull-ins for kids.

Twilight can just suck it

Westerfeld, Scott. (2005). Peeps: A Novel. New York: Razorbill. 312 pages.

Yeah, you heard me. I'll be the first to admit that I like vampire books that are filled with good, steamy sex. Twilight's okay for that. Peeps isn't exactly what you would call sexy (there's a sexual element to the plot but it isn't "sexy"), and that's probably why I liked it a little bit better than Twilight.

Westerfeld's main character Cal is a young lad from Texas who came to New York City to go to college. We can sort of plug in the typical happenings from there. Cal imbibes too much alcohol and gets seduced into a one night stand that he doesn't really remember the next day. Quite an exciting way to lose your virginity, no? Unfortunately we don't get any of the steamy details. The whole story is told in a very sterile and scientific manner, which really does fit the story nicely. After his little adventure Cal goes on as usual; going to classes, having girlfriends, until he notices things seem to be changing. His sense of smell and night vision are enhanced, his strength increased, and what's with those weird meat cravings all of a sudden? He's been infected with a parasite that causes vampirism. Luckily for Cal he's one of the few that remains a carrier and never reaches full blown vampire status. Now he has to retrace his steps and find every girl that he's ever slept with to try to contain the spread of the parasite. Kind of like an STD. Except this STD causes you to start eating people. Nice. Add in an ancient, secret city agency (think Men in Black but for NYC) and you've got quite a story.

At the same time that I liked this book there were definitely aspects that I had problems with, and these might just be my particular tastes and have no literary merit what-so-ever, but they bugged me nonetheless. It annoyed me that the history of what was going on with the virus was so disjointed and long in coming. And then I almost thought that the whole alternative plan/army building to fight the worms thing was kind of random.

If I were to booktalk this book I would use a sort of "Twilight for Sci-Fi fans" approach.

I've always wanted to move to Alaska...

but Sarah Palin totally ruined that.

Green, John. (2005) Looking for Alaska. New York: Dutton Books. 256 pages.

Fortunately for us Sarah Palin has absolutely nothing to do with this fantastically written book by John Green.

More times than I'd care to admit I'm reasonably unimpressed with the quality of the writing in YA books. The stories are great and the characters reasonably well developed but it just falls short somehow. This is absolutely NOT the case with Green's Waiting for Alaska.

I'll admit that even with all the hubabbaloo on yalsa-bk and on the interwebs about this book I managed to come at it without knowing anything about the plot, not even that Alaska was a person and not a place (well it is a place in real life but, you know what I mean). So I was very pleasantly surprised when I read this.

Green's character Miles Halter (a.k.a. Pudge) is just snarky and thoughtful enough to make him one of the most "real" teen characters in a book I've read in a while. On his quest for "the Great Perhaps", Miles knows that things just aren't going the way they should living in Florida with his parents and his "school friends". The private boarding school in Alabama, where his Dad went to high school, offers the possibility of a new start and a different path. At the start of his junior year Miles meets his roommate Chip (a.k.a. "the Colonel") and the moody but absolutely gorgeous Alaska Young. Along with a few other friends, Chip and Alaska teach Miles what it means to have real friends, along with drinking, smoking, and sex that is. It's not until Alaska's sudden death in a car crash that her moodiness is truly identified as deep depression. Miles and Chip are left to try to pick up the pieces and reconcile with what they know really happened that night.

Am I detecting a pattern in some of the books I've chosen to read lately? Wallflower and now this? I think Mr. Salinger might have stumbled on to something here, no? Now, along with the "Hero" and the "Damsel in Distress", can we say that there is a literary archetype known as the "Holden Caufield"? I kind of like that idea, whether it's an original one or not.

I'd structure my booktalk much the same way as with Wallflower, though leaving out the first year of high school stuff obviously. More than that though I'd highlight the whole "what they know really happened that night" aspect of the plot maybe. That does give away the ending. I would also add it to my list of books for kids to read and then compare with Catcher.

Insert thoughtful title here

Do you ever stop to look over old relations,
Or look to the belly of another one's emotions,
Someone young in the winds of a revolution
Trying to save his face in the evolution.
~ from "Asleep at the Wheel" by the Wallflowers
(lyrics by Jakob Dylan)

Chobsky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: MTV 1999 224 pages.


Stephen Chobsky, how I love thee. Let me count the ways. Okay, so maybe that's a bit much. But I really did love this book. I wasn't as thrilled to find out that MTV was the publisher, that sits a little odd with me, but I think that I can disregard that now that I know that the book kicks ass.

The year is 1991 and Charlie is a freshman in high school. He is quiet and he doesn't have very many friends. In fact, when we meet Charlie he is dealing with the suicide of his best friend and a little quieter and more introspective than usual as he tries to figure out his new place. Luckily for Charlie his quirkiness lands him a friendship with the brother/sister senior duo of Patrick and Samantha, and through them finds himself part of a group of thoughtful friends. Typical high school coming of age ensues; drugs, sex, music that really "means" something and more than one realization that leads to a sort of breakdown/grand epiphany.

The story is told as a series of letters Charlie writes to an unknown "friend". Open and honest, Charlie lays his feelings out for the intended reader (who we never know the identity of), making it hard not to feel some sympathy for the poor kid.

I loved the book. I was in high school at the same time (though I would've been a sophomore when Charlie was a freshman) and could relate to a lot of the pop culture references. More specifically, my friends and I used to have Rocky Horror Picture Show parties and go to the theater at midnight for the (infrequent) showings (I was Magenta).

That said, I don't think that I would use that information in my booktalk. I would maybe tout the book as a more up-to-date Catcher in the Rye in many ways. I'm not sure in what grade they read Catcher but it would be neat to get some kids to read the two and then compare them.

"The past was dead, the future was unimaginable." ~ from Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell

Collins, Suzanne (2008). Hunger Games. NY: Scholastic Press. 384 pages.

I LOVE a good dystopian novel. Big Brother, corrupt governments, citizens rising to overthrow the dictatorship, conspiracy theories. It's all just a little too close to home, minus the nuclear winter, and it feeds into my paranoia nicely. Think "The Lottery" meets "Running Man" for teens and you have Hunger Games.

The story takes place in Panem, what's left of North America. Split up into 12 districts, each with it's own specific gross national product, some are more wealthy than others. However, all twelve are equal in that once a year they must send one boy and one girl to fight in the Hunger Games. A fight to the death that leaves one winner. A televised event that the whole of Panem is forced to watch.

Katniss is my kind of girl. It didn't happen over night but eventually it sank in, they would starve if Katniss didn't step up after her father's death. She gets up each morning to hunt and forage for food to feed her family knowing full well that her mom and little sister would have been dead long ago if it weren't for her. She's managed to avoid being picked for the games so far. Unfortunately her little sister isn't so lucky and is picked in the first year of her name being added to the lottery. Katniss isn't about to let her little sister die and takes her place instead. I'm not going to go into any more detail about the plot because I don't want to spoil anything. The author does a really good job of not giving all the gory details but at the same time it's pretty gruesome. How could a fight to the death among teens not be!?

I'm not really sure how I feel about the romantic aspect that takes place in the story. It's okay in this book but this is the first in what will be a trilogy or series and I just can't figure out where the author is going to go with this. I like it as a stand alone book. I'll definitely read the next one to figure out where the story is going to go but right now I don't have a clue.

I would booktalk this book with something like, "What if you had to support your family? What if you couldn't just go to the grocery store but instead had to hunt and forage to survive? What if you lived in a place where your every move was monitored and you couldn't voice your opinion for fear of being taken away and never seen or heard from again?" A good book for older teens. Maybe 10th - 12th grade.

Official NaBloPoMo FAIL + book journal

Yup. I failed. Again. Oh well. C'est la vive. I should have known better than to try it during school again. Next year I will no longer be a grad student and will give it another shot.

Alexie, Sherman (2007). The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. NY: Little, Brown Young Readers. 240 pages.

Arnold Spirit, otherwise known as Junior, tells us his story of growing up a Spokane Indian in Wellpinit, WA. From his miraculous survival at birth (he was born with water on the brain) to his not so shabby basketball skills, Junior navigates the waters of adolescence on an Indian reservation. There are a lot of family issues, a lot of death, and a lot of stereotypes (those that are more or less true and those that aren't) and only one or two nervous breakdowns.

Junior encounters a teacher his freshman year who pleads with him to want more out of life (after Junior breaks his nose). Realizing that he'll end up just like everyone else on the rez if he stays, Junior makes the decision to go to high school at the public school in the neighboring (white) town. Now the outcast in both his home and his new school, Junior stays the course and faces his battles bravely.

Alexie's sort-of semi-autobiographical first YA novel is a complete hit. Winner of the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature in Fiction (among others), Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is a book I can see having an entire freshman class read the summer before they start high school.

And my recommendation is not made solely on this extremely cool video of Alexie getting more laughs than Colbert:



I would booktalk this book to 7th - 9th graders. Those years are totally sucky and reading about a kid of the same age going through some really rough shit of his own, yet in a lighthearted way, might resonate with some.

Books, books, books!

I've started my last year as a grad student at Simmons GSLIS. Yippee! I've also started what will most likely be my most enjoyable semester at GSLIS as I'm taking 2 literature classes. Yippee again! I miss being an English major and this is probably as close as I'm going to get (unless I convince Scott to let me do the dual major in Children's Literature, but I think it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens).

So, as part of my YA(young adult)literature course I have to do 15 book reviews/journal entries. My professor is cool enough that she's allowing us to blog these if we want. So I want! It's the whole reason I started this damn thing in the first place, even though I've failed miserably at it. I think I got maybe one review in the very beginning. Most likely because I was pissed at Terry Goodkind and his overuse of the word "diaphanous" and the overly long monologues his main character would give. Anyway, you can read it here if you give a damn. I just reread it and it's really kind of funny, at least I think so.

Anyway, I've been really bad about reviewing the books I've read. Now I'm gonna HAVE to do it. And that actually makes me happy.

Sheff, Nic (2007). Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines. NY: Antheneum Books for Young Readers. 322 pages.

Nic is one fucked up kid. Growing up the only child with divorced parents, one in LA the other in San Fran, Nic spends his childhood being treated more like an adult than a child. He starts drinking at age 11 and by the time he's 18 he's been admitted to his first treatment center for meth addiction. What follows is a story of Nic's continuous downward spiral of drugs and really bad sex.

I don't think it was particularly well written. It was very disjointed and jumped around quite a bit. You could say this is to be expected when reading the memoirs of a tweaker, but I don't think that's a valid excuse. I think his editor should have made him pay more attention to the flow and sequence of the book. I do think that the self discovery and realizations that Nic comes to in the book are valuable and thought provoking.

While this book is specifically published with the teen market in mind, I think you could make the argument that this book is geared more toward the 20-something crowd. Yet, with the things that teens are facing today I think many of them could relate to Nic's struggles. I personally want to read his dad's side of the story in his book Beautiful Boy.

This is not a book that I would booktalk. Instead it is one that I would recommend to teens that came to me looking for memoirs, or even fiction, of other teens dealing with tough issues like drug addiction.