Monster

Monster

By: Walter Dean Myers

Myers, W. D., & Myers, C. (1999). Monster. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

Summary: 

Monster is a dynamic story filled with drama, life questions, and sadness. Myers uses a script format for writing his story about 16 year old Steve Harmon. Steve Harmon is on trial for allegedly killing a store clerk in a robbery gone wrong. Steve begins chronicling his trial, life in prison, and thoughts in a journal to help cope with what is happening to him. Throughout the story we are given a few flashbacks to his life before the crime took place. One interesting aspect of this story is that we do not ever "see" the robbery taking place. We only hear Steve's accounts and the other characters recollections of the crime. This adds suspense to the novel. You will find yourself wondering throughout the whole thing if Steve is guilty of murder or simply making one simple bad choice. The story ends on the edge of a cliff. You are never told or directed to the outcome of Steve's trial. You must make that decision for yourself (Which is terribly difficult! I have gone back and forth a million times already)!  This novel is perfect for use with 8th grade on up. I teach in a district where many of our students have parents in jail or they have personally been arrested or to juvenile detention centers. This novel would give them a character to relate to but also to question the consequences of their actions. 

It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health

It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health

By: Robie H. Harris

Emberley, M., & Harris, R. H. (2009). It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing up, Sex, and Sexual Health. Somerville: Candlewick Press.

Summary and Response:

This is a great book to begin the conversation of growing up and puberty. It's Perfectly Normal tackles all the subjects that can seem overwhelming, daunting, and scary to many parents and kids. The book is broken down into 6 main sections such as "Our Bodies". Each section is then broken down further into subsections detailing all the facts and information about the topic. The book does not stop at just the physical changes but also the emotional concepts that tag along with our bodies changing and growing up. The pages are adorned with hand drawn illustrations that make some of the more difficult concepts easier to understand. You will find information about a wide range of topics from sexual activity, birth control, puberty, masturbation, gender issues, and even AIDS. While this book tackles some serious issues it should be used as a great reference source. Because of the subject nature and the very candid straight forward approach to the writing, it should be used with your beginning tweens and teens. Science and Health classes could use this book to help aid in teaching about reproduction. 

Annie on My Mind

Annie on My Mind

By: Nancy Garden

Garden, N. (1982). Annie on my mind. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.

Summary:

Our narrator Liza lives in an upscale neighborhood and attends a private school. One day she goes to the MET and meets Annie, a child of immigrants who lives in a much poorer area and attends public school. the first half of the book is an enchanting story of Liza and Annie's growing friendship. It is in this part that they and the readers see their friendship blossom into love. Once they have proclaimed and accepted their feelings for each other they realize that they have to hide their relationship. During this time, being a lesbian was not something that people understood or accepted. As the story progresses they are soon "found out" and face some tough decisions. Liza ends up suspended from school. Eventually Liza makes her way back to school, graduates, and heads off to college. We see Liza reflecting on her relationship with Annie and begins to write her letters but cannot send them. She finally calls Annie and we are left with the warmth that they will see each other again.

Response:

This story was published in 1982, a time when being "different" was pretty much frowned upon. Nancy Garden did an excellent job at showing the relationship between Liza and Annie. One of the major strengths in Garden's book is that of the characters. Sometimes in realistic fiction novels the characters can end up doing or saying things that do not quite seem believable in our lives but only in the perfect ideal life. Liza and Annie are true people that exhibit qualities of people I personally know. This made the story relatable. This is a great novel to teach the theme of identity and finding your way. 

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

The Surrender Tree: Poems Struggle for Freedom

By: Margarita Engle

Engle, M. (2008). The surrender tree: Poems of Cuba's struggle for freedom. New York: Henry Holt.

Summary:

Engle has created a beautiful historical fiction story chronicling Cuba's struggle for independence through the use of narrative poetry. The poems center around Rosa, a natural healer but sometimes thought of as a witch. Each poem is told in first person from a different character and demonstrating both sides of the revolution. It flows from character to character seamlessly telling how Rosa learned as a young girl how to use plants for healing and eventually, as she escaped from slave hood, became a nurse during the wars for Cuba's independence from the Spaniards. As Rosa becomes an adult, she marries Jose and they nurse the wounded and ill together. As they struggle through life, hoping for their home's Independence and peace, Rosa is being hunted by a soldier she calls Lieutenant Death. Lieutenant Death wants Rosa dead because she has helped the injured on both sides of the war and she is so good at slipping away from sight at the perfect moments. The book is sectioned into five parts and it makes it easier to see the time lapses between each point. You feel for Rosa and Jose and their true compassion for life. You almost hope that it ends better for them than the way we know it ends in real life.

Response:

Great for grades 6th on up. Although this book is technically a historical fiction story, it is riddled with true facts and information. The characters are fictional but the depictions of war and the struggles and strife that people went through are all real. the poems mention Roosevelt's "Rough Rider" and even Clara Barton. Engle even provides additional information at the end of the story with her own personal connection to Cuba and a timeline of actual events. Engle does not simply tell you about the wars but humanizes every inch of them. Reading and Social Studies teachers should add this too their curriculum as a way to look at not just financial strains and the who won what; but to identify and analyze the impact war has on people. Writing teachers can have students read this and then write about what it truly means to be free. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

By: Sherman Alexis

Alexie, S., & Forney, E. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown.

Summary:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian centers around 14 year old Junior's life. Junior narrates the entire story and details his awkwardness and physical deformities that get him ridiculed and looked down upon on a daily basis. Junior is a Spokane Indian and lives on the reservation with his family. During the first week of school Junior has a "vision" of leaving the reservation and taking his life into his own hands. Junior notices what his life would be if he stays on the reservation and decides he wants something different, better for himself. Junior leaves and transfers into an all white high school. Here he has to figure out how to identify with his new classmates and still maintain some of his heritage and deal with being ostracized for betraying his family and tribe. Juniors life is filled with ups and downs and he even loses 3 people close to him by the end of the novel. 

Response:

This story was hilarious and heart breaking all mixed into one. It would be a wonderful novel to use to discuss stereotypes. Alexie writes about the tribe and their characteristics are often the stereotypes that people focus on to this day. It is also worthwhile to study the drawings that Ellen Forney contributes to the story. The drawings capture the adolescence of a Native American boy to the core. they are often dark but illuminate the hilarity in some of Junior's situations. 

Check out Ellen Forney's drawings here!

Janis Joplin: Rise up Singing

Janis Joplin: Rise up Singing

By: Ann Angel

Angel, A. (2010). Janis Joplin: Rise up singing. New York: Amulet Books.

Summary:

Ann Angel hits the nail on the head with her biography of Janis Joplin. Janis Joplin: Rise up Singing is  a poignant look at one of Rock N Rolls legends and queens. The biography focuses mainly on Janis's high school life through her untimely and early death at the age of 27. Ann does not censor the reader from the highs and lows of Janis's life. She discusses and describes her many enemies in life; such as her experiences with drugs and alcohol and her desperation to be the girl that fits in. There is not a major focus on Janis's life before high school as the biography is more an ode to chronicling the development of her singing career. The book interweaves bold illustrations that resemble the 60's era and uses these graphical elements to move the reader deeper into understanding Janis's life. Each chapter is brilliantly named for the sections of Janis's life with titles like "spreading her Wings" and "Cheap thrills, Drugs, and Self Destruction". Ann uses full page color photos, interviews with close family and friends (primarily Janis' sister Laura), and a helpful timeline to bring vividness to Janis's already turbulent life.

Response:
With such a true depiction of the evils (drugs and alcohol) that ultimately ended Janis's life this biography would best be suited for high school age students. Teachers could draw their students into non-fiction text using this biography; displaying to them that biographies do not have to just be black and white paragraphs of facts. It would be an asset to having students look at the possible consequences of living the life of a rock n roller in the 50's and 60's to that of our current artists in the 21st century. 

Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska

By: John Green

Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska: A novel. New York: Dutton Children's Books.

Summary: 

In a world where we are predispositioned to have at least our storybooks end with happily-ever-afters, John Green writes a perfect coming of age story that does not fit this age old mold. Instead his characters do suffer and each have to come to their own closure. In Looking for Alaska, Miles a.k.a Pudge, decides to attend the Culver Creek Boarding School. Here he becomes friends with an eccentric cast of people; the Colonel, Alaska, Takumi, and Lara. The novel is split into two sections, Before and After and as you turn the pages you see their friendships take twists and turns through school pranks, sexuality, drinking, smoking, basically getting into mischief. Miles falls in love with Alaska even though he knows he cannot have her. As you near the end of the Before section, the chapters have been counting down, and you are finally to the "The Last Day". At this point your brain and heart know that all is not well and you can only hope your inferences are not correct. Then...... you being the "After" section of the novel. Here we see Miles, Takumi, and the Colonel try to make sense of Alaska's tragic death (which some claim to be a suicide and others just an accident, you are left to determine). By the end of the novel, the characters have put you through the ringer and in Miles' style you are left with some famous last words to chew for thought.

Response: 

Looking for Alaska has been reviewed and critiqued more than most young adult novels. It could be because of John Green being the author or maybe it is because the cover and synopsis are that enticing. You will find those that love it and those that absolutely hated it. I believe that this is normal, one specific novel cannot please the masses. I do feel that you cannot argue with John Greens strengths in character development. As you read this novel, or any of his novels, you feel that you know his characters inside and out. You know what makes them tick. It is as if they have come and bared their souls to you. You shed tears when you go along with Miles and Alaska to the Colonel's trailer home for Thanksgiving and see the pride that he has in his mother. You pity Miles when his parents throw a going away party and no body shows up. you are connected to the characters and no matter the story line, if you can see parts of yourself and your friends in the characters you will be hooked and the story will mean something to you.

Check out some more of John Green's novels!

The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War

By: Robert Cormier

Cormier, R. (1974). The chocolate war: A novel. New York: Pantheon Books.

Summary:

      Jerry Renault begins his freshman school year attending the all boy Trinity Catholic School, fresh from facing his mothers death and his fathers depression. Jerry throws himself into his work and making the football team. Things are going pretty well for Jerry until one of the Vigil's (a secret society), Archie, decides that Jerry must refuse to sell the boxes of chocolates for the school fundraiser for 10 days. Jerry complies with the decision and begins refusing. This only upsets Brother Leon, who really has ulterior motives with the fundraiser money, and he begins to bully and make things uncomfortable for Jerry. Other students begin to look up to Jerry for his act of defiance, but after the 10 days are up and Jerry still doesn't sell the chocolates he has more against him than just Brother Leon. Brother Leon, Archie, the rest of The Vigils, and Janza terrorize Jerry and mentally bully him. It finally turns physical when Jerry ends up in a boxing match against Janza. Jerry is seriously injured and hospitalized and nothing happens to Janza or any of the other boys, not even Brother Leon.

Response:

The Chocolate War is considered a classic but is also one of the most widely censored books in school and public libraries. While the violence by today's standards is not one that is outwardly gruesome and bloody but more inner, physcological. The acts of violence throughout the novel are cruel, the sexual indications are there but not descriptive, which leaves me to believe that the censorship comes from the idea of non-conformity. Cormier layers the idea of rising up against the masses, peer pressure and asking ourselves "How much are we willing to do to fight for what we believe in?". Teachers could use this novel to begin discussing the concepts of corruption in schools, resistance, abuse of power, and bullying. While these may be topics that younger students face as well, with Cormier's dark writing and the fact that evil essentially wins, the novel is more suited for your high level high schools students.