Running Loose

Bibliographic Info

Title: Running Loose

Author: Chris Crutcher

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Publication Date: 2003

ISBN: 978-0060094911

Plot Summary

Louie Banks starts out his senior year with everything looking good.  His summer workouts have paid off and now he’s a starting football player in a town that shuts down early for high school football games.  For reasons he can’t fathom, a beautiful girl with a solid head on her shoulders has decided to be in a relationship with him.

Things are going so well until the day that the football coach makes a target out of a black football player from an opposing team.  When the kid gets hurt in an intentional onslaught by one of Louie’s teammates, Louie quits the team. The coach sees no repercussions, but a far greater injustice is just around the corner for Louie.

Critical Evaluation

This is an exceptional book showing the workings of small-town football, the pains of growing up, and the difference that caring individuals can have on the lives they touch.  As usual, Crutcher’s voice is genuine, allowing a reader in.  The story and characters are relatable, even for readers who haven’t grown up a football starter in small-town Idaho.

Reader’s Annotation

Louie Banks’ senior year started out so right, he was pretty sure he’d be able to coast right through to graduation.  He was wrong.

Author Info

Chris Crutcher was born on July 17, 1946 in Dayton, Ohio.  He grew up in Cascade, Idaho, a small logging town.  He studied psychology and sociology at Eastern Washington State College, which is now Eastern Washington University.  He later earned a teaching certificate and taught in Washington and California.

Crutcher served as the director of an alternative K-12 school in Oakland, California.  The school was racially diverse a place of last resort for many students.  Crutcher claims that the students he worked with there provided a lot of inspiration for the characters in his stories.

Crutcher moved to the Northwest after around ten years at the Oakland school.  He worked as a child advocate and began writing.  He continues to act as a therapy consultant.    He has written more than a dozen books and several more short stories.

Genre

Sports Fiction

Curriculum Ties

None

Book Talking Ideas

Do you ever feel like right as things are coming together, something comes along and changes everything?

Reading Level

12-17

Challenge Issues

Touches on child abuse.

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

The teacher mentioned the author.

The Hero and the Crown

Bibliographic Info

Title: The Hero and the Crown

Author: Robin McKinley

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Publication Date: 1985

ISBN: 978-0688025939

Plot Summary

The Hero and the Crown is the prequel to The Blue Sword.  In the story, Aerin is the only child of the king Damar.  She feels like a disappointment to her father.  She isn’t very capable at the feminine arts (being graceful, displaying proper manners, shopping) and as such her prospects are lost for providing any kind of diplomatic advantage that as a woman, would otherwise be her highest aspiration.

When Aerin finds the recipe for a fire-protection salve, she and her retired war-horse Talat find their purpose in hunting down the little dragons that plague the villages.  They are mostly a nuisance to the warriors of the kingdom, who consider them to be more vermin than threats.  But the demons of the Northern Lands unleash a true dragon, Maur who would have been a match for an army.  Aerin faces him alone.

Critical Evaluation

This book provides a window into the history of The Blue Sword.  Aerin, the heroine of the story, is courageous and self-sacrificing, not self-effacing as many fairy tale princesses are, but physically putting herself in the path of destruction because it is her responsibility.  The story lacks some of the tightness and continuity of first book.  Still, it is a treasure.

Reader’s Annotation

As Aerin stumbles around the castle, feeling useless, she has no idea how the future will bring her face to face with a destiny so powerful, it will define her people for centuries to come.

Author Info

Robin McKinley was born Jennifer Carolyn Robin McKinley on November 16, 1952 in Warren, Ohio.  She graduated from Bowdoin College in 1978.  McKinley held several jobs including editor, research assistant, bookstore clerk, teacher, and barn manager.  She began writing at age 26.

McKinley currently lives in Hampshire, England with her husband, Peter Dickinson.  She says she enjoys grand opera and long walks to keep her imagination active.

Genre

Fantasy

Curriculum Ties

None

Book Talking Ideas

Do you believe in fate or destiny?

Reading Level

12-17

Challenge Issues

Magic

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

A friend suggested the book.

The Blue Sword

Bibliographic Info

Title: The Blue Sword

Author: Robin McKinley

Publisher: Puffin Books

Publication Date: 1982

ISBN: 978-0141309750

Plot Summary

Harry Crewe has lived in Istan for three months, and while staring out at the mountains on the horizon of the desert, she is restless.  She’s always had trouble doing what was expected of her – embroidery, lessons.  She preferred to ride horses and read adventure novels.  When both of her parents die and she moves to the privileged house of kind relatives in remote Istan, she strives to behave herself in a world of white napkins, dances, and servants.

When Harry is kidnapped by the king of the Hillfolk, life becomes an adventure, and for the first time in her life, Harry feels like she is where she belongs.  Her initiation into the Damarian culture leads her to discover her past and her true strengths.

Critical Evaluation

In The Blue Sword McKinley has created a rich world and a resonant story of a girl finding herself in a kingdom far from home.  The elements of the story compelling and echo something eternal that rests within the human spirit – a connection with the natural world that calls you, the grandness of kings and queens who are noble, not by title, but by deed, a kind of magic that seems like a force of nature.  The story has a strong female protagonist.  The story is strengthened by a romantic subplot, and by the Harry’s friendships.

Reader’s Annotation

Harry’s life on the remote outpost of Istan leaves her restless.  When she is kidnapped by the king of the Hillfolk, she discovers a world that she never knew, but was always a part of her.

Author Info

Robin McKinley was born Jennifer Carolyn Robin McKinley on November 16, 1952 in Warren, Ohio.  She graduated from Bowdoin College in 1978.  McKinley held several jobs including editor, research assistant, bookstore clerk, teacher, and barn manager.  She began writing at age 26.

McKinley currently lives in Hampshire, England with her husband, Peter Dickinson.  She says she enjoys grand opera and long walks to keep her imagination active.

Genre

Fantasy

Curriculum Ties

None

Book Talking Ideas

Do you ever find yourself staring out the window, thinking that your true destiny lies somewhere else?

Reading Level

Challenge Issues

Magic

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Recommended by a friend.

1 Giant Leap (DVD)

Bibliographic Info

Title: 1 Giant Leap (Movie)

Author: (Directors) Jamie Catto, Duncan Bridgeman

Publisher: (Label) Palm Pictures

Publication Date: (Release Date) 2002

ISBN: n/a

Plot Summary

Directors Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman have toured the world gathering musical clips, commentary, images, spoken word poetry and compiled it into a grouping of chapters on life with universal themes such on love, death, god, and more.  Interviews by Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, Ram Dass, and Dennis Hopper are featured.  Music by Michael Stipe, Baaba Mall, Robbie Williams, and more are laced throughout the film.  The slogan of the film is “seeking unity in diversity.”

Critical Evaluation

This collection is inspiring.  The themes are strongly anti-commercial, spiritual, but non-religious, and embracing of individuality.  The music is powerful and inclusive of cultures worldwide.  The film is one of a kind and leaves the viewer with feeling full of the strongest elements of the human experience – creativity, vitality, awareness.

Reader’s Annotation

This intense and beautiful mosaic of human culture explores universal concepts like love, death, money and more.

Author Info

Jamie Catto was born in London, England on August 14, 1968.  He is a singer/songwriter and art and video director.  He runs an online record label website.  He’s an activist for free speech and civil disobedience.

Jamie Catto (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Catto.

There is no biography available for Duncan Bridgeman.

Genre

Movie

Curriculum Ties

World History, Religious Studies

Book Talking Ideas

Demo: Ask one person to read a poem, another to stomp rhythmically, another to clap, another to read an editorial at intervals.

Reading Level

15+

Challenge Issues

Seriously grown-up topics such as sweat shop labor, the porn industry, violence in the name of religion.

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

The DVD was a gift.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home (Season 8, Volume 1)

Bibliographic Info

Title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home (Season 8, Volume 1)

Author: Joss Whedon

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Publication Date: 2007

ISBN: 978-1593078225

Plot Summary

Season 8 of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic series picks up where the television series ended.  The Hellmouth has been destroyed, and all the “Potentials” have become fully realized slayers.  Despite the rosy potential of a great evil’s destruction and the unleashing of girl superheroes across the land, all is not well in Slayerville.

A new version of the Initiative has formed with the mission of taking Buffy out, who certainly must be powerful if she wiped out an entire city.  Now she’s commanding an army of female superheroes.

Buffy must face down the monsters sent by the Initiative to destroy her.  Willow also comes face to face with a monster from her past.  Once again, it’s up to Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles to save the world and stay alive.

Critical Evaluation

For Buffy fans, this comic revives a beloved television show.  Joss Whedon’s writing stays true to the themes and dialogue of the t.v. show.  The images created by George Jeanty compliment the story and add a cool visual element to the text.

Reader’s Annotation

Even after the Hellmouth is wiped out and slayer powers granted to all the Potentials, Buffy’s still got it rough.  A new division of the Initiative has formed with Buffy as a target.  What they send after the Scoobies will test all of the gang’s powers.

Author Info

Joss Whedon (born Joseph Whedon) was born in New York City on June 23, 1964.  His father and grandfather were also television writers.  His mother was a history professor at Riverdale Country School in New York City.  Whedon graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987.

Whedon created several television series in addition to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, such as Angel, a spinoff of Buffy, Firefly, and Dollhouse.  He wrote or co-wrote films such as Toy Story, Alien Resurrection, and Titan A.E.  Whedon has written for several comic books and for online media like blogs.

Joss Whedon (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joss_Whedon

Genre

Comic book.

Curriculum Ties

None.

Book Talking Ideas

Suddenly a target for a new Initiative, Buffy, Willow and Xander fight off fiends new and old.

Reading Level

14+

Challenge Issues

Witches, monsters, a super-sized STD (uh, eww, actually Dawn turns into a giant after sleeping with a Thricewise)

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Stumbled across in the library.

Twilight

Bibliographic Info

Title: Twilight

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Publication Date: 2005

ISBN: 978-0-316-03837-9

Plot Summary

Seventeen-year-old Bella Swan has just moved from Phoenix to the tiny town of Forks, Washington.  She’s not looking forward to the constant rain, or to being the new kid in a high school with only 57 other kids in it.  What she doesn’t expect is to meet Edward, an impossibly handsome, impossibly strong, impossibly wealthy vampire, who, despite really wanting to suck her blood, becomes Bella’s impossibly devoted boyfriend.

Critical Evaluation

This book has massive appeal for a wide audience.  The plot is fairly tight.  The world and its rules are well drawn.  It’s also corny, sometimes morose, and Bella has an unfortunate tendency to think of herself as worthless, while Edward is perfect.  Still despite the shallow lure of being near extraordinarily beautiful, wealthy, smart, uh, beings through the medium of fiction, at heart there is that universal desire to be loved, as you are, and even if, apparently, you don’t deserve it.  This may account for part of the book’s popularity.

Reader’s Annotation

Bella’s just moved from Phoenix to Forks, Washington, population 3,000 something.  Things are looking grim until she meets Edward Cullen, dreamboat of epic proportions.  When she finds out he’s a vampire, she’s immersed in a fairy tale world where real wonders and real monsters play hand in hand.

Author Info

Stephenie Meyer was born on December 24, 1973 in Hartford, Connecticut.  She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona with five brothers and sisters.  She earned a BA in English at Brigham Young University.

Before writing Twilight, Meyer had never written so much as a short story.  She was a stay at home mom, who had once worked as a secretary.  Meyer claims to have received the idea for Twilight in a dream.  She wrote the novel in three months.

Meyer lives in Cave Creek, Arizona with her husband Christian Meyer and their three children.  A novella accompanying the Twilight series is set to be released in summer 2010.

Stephenie Meyer (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenie_Meyer

Genre

Vampire Romance

Curriculum Ties

None

Book Talking Ideas

Discuss: Author Stephenie Meyer says that she got her idea for the Twilight book from a dream.  Have you ever had a dream that you thought would make a cool book or movie?

Reading Level

14+

Challenge Issues

Some might object to vampire stories, also Bella’s boy-obsession is unhealthy.

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

A coworker gave me the book.

Salamander Dream

Bibliographic Info

Title: Salamander Dream

Author: Hope Larson

Publisher: Adhouse Books

Publication Date: 2005

ISBN: 978-0972179492

Plot Summary

Hailey, age eight, used to swim, listen to stories, and dream in the woods with Salamander.  As she grew up and made friends, she began to see him less, but once in a while she would find him in quiet moments in the forest.  Before she was about to move away for college, she found him one more time.  This time, she told him a story and she left him sleeping in a meadow.  She never went back.

Critical Evaluation

Salamander Dreams is a beautiful story about carefree childhood – swimming in a lake, running barefoot, climbing trees.  As the character grows older, these things are replaced by magazines and secrets, but whenever she returns to the wood, when there is quiet, her friend Salamander returns and it’s as if they were never apart.  The story is touching, visually poetic, and recalls the best moments of childhood.

Reader’s Annotation

Eight-year-old Hailey wanders through the woods in bare feet, looking at butterflies and cicadas, running up and down hills.  In the forest, she meets her friend Salamander, and swims and listens to his stories.  As she grows up, she begins to loose touch with Salamander, but occasionally, he’ll appear, and will tell her a story.

Author Info

Hope Larson was born on September 17, 1982.  She grew up in Asheville, North Carolina.  She earned a BFA in 2004 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Larson lives in Asheville, North Carolina with her husband Bryan Lee O’Malley.  She is currently working on a graphic novel adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time.

Hope Larson (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Larson.

Genre

Graphic Novel

Curriculum Ties

None

Book Talking Ideas

Think back to a time when you were young, and to a place that was all your own.  What did it look like?  Do remember how it smelled during the summer?  If you went back there again, what do you think it would be like?

Reading Level

13+

Challenge Issues

None

Selection

Found it while searching for Robot Dreams for my daughter.

Ironman

Bibliographic Info

Title: Ironman

Author: Chris Crutcher

Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: 1995

ISBN: 978-0060598402

Plot Summary

Bo Brewster is starting out his senior year with a record three suspensions in the first two months of school.  This time is serious.  If he doesn’t make amends with the football coach/English teacher, he’s looking at home tutoring with the most boring teacher alive.  A journalism teacher with a kindred spirit takes it upon himself to negotiate Bo’s return to school.  The sentence, as it turns out, is for Bo to attend an anger management class.  The class is notorious for being full of thugs, but Bo doesn’t have much choice.

The honesty of the anger management kids, along with the anger management teacher, Mr. Nakatani show Bo a way through the self-destructive mess he’s making of his life.  He learns just how bad things can be, and are, for the kids in his class.  He sees how his struggle with his father is actually giving undeserved power to the bullies in his life.  His new found perspective makes it possible for him to put his energy into training for a triathlon.

Critical Evaluation

Picking up a book about sports and emotional frustration may not sound like it would have wide appeal.  This book is different.  Through the main character’s love of pushing himself to the ends of his physical limits, it’s possible to understand the passion that drives some athletes to greatness, and what makes a sport worth playing.

The author does a remarkable job of capturing a masculine voice in the story.  While it might seem obvious that a male author would be an authority on the male viewpoint, in this case, the writing seems to open up another world of perception, like a person might see if they suddenly woke up a bee, seeing in ultraviolet.

Reader’s Annotation

Bo Brewster called his English teacher an asshole.  Under his school’s three strikes and you’re out rule of suspension, Bo may be out of school for good.  When a good-hearted teacher takes it upon himself to advocate for Bo, Bo finds his way back in is going to be through an anger management class full of felons.

Author Info

Chris Crutcher was born on July 17, 1946 in Dayton, Ohio.  He grew up in Cascade, Idaho, a small logging town.  He studied psychology and sociology at Eastern Washington State College, which is now Eastern Washington University.  He later earned a teaching certificate and taught in Washington and California.

Crutcher served as the director of an alternative K-12 school in Oakland, California.  The school was racially diverse a place of last resort for many students.  Crutcher claims that the students he worked with there provided a lot of inspiration for the characters in his stories.

Crutcher moved to the Northwest after around ten years at the Oakland school.  He worked as a child advocate and began writing.  He continues to act as a therapy consultant.    He has written more than a dozen books and several more short stories.

Crutcher, C. (n.d.). Crutcher bio. Retrieved April 26, 2010, from http://www.chriscrutcher.com/content/blogcategory/20/9/

Genre

Sports Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Health

Book Talking Ideas

Discuss:  Have you ever had a teacher who you just couldn’t get along with?  How did you handle it?

Reading Level

15+

Challenge Issues

Deals with difficult issues, such as child abuse, abandonment.

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Teacher mentioned the author.  Searched for his books.

Cool Salsa

Bibliographic Info

Title: Cool Salsa

Author: Editor Lori M. Carlson

Publisher: Fawcett Juniper

Publication Date: 1994

ISBN: 978-0805031355

Plot Summary

This collection of poetry, shown in English and Spanish encapsulates the experience of growing up in the U.S. as a Latino. Poets from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Argentina, the U.S. and more remember things like the smell of orange blossoms, singing, dancing, hurting, missing.  The poems speak often about loss – the loss of the land and relatives and identity as even the words used to express feelings and thoughts have to change when in America.

Critical Evaluation

These poems speak to everyone, thinking back to a childhood ritual or a beloved family member.  They remind one of things that have been lost and will never return.  They provide a bridge for non-Latinos, linking to a rich culture.  For Latinos, they likely provide something altogether different.

Reader’s Annotation

Cool Salsa is a tribute to the Latino experience of living in the U.S.  Latinos and non-Latinos will appreciate the remembrance of the beauty of childhood, and the sorrow of leaving it behind.

Author Info

Lori M. Carlson was born in Jamestown, New York.  She earned an M.A. in Hispanic Literature from Indiana University.  She has taught at several universities and compiled several books.  Carlson lives in New York City.

Carlson, L. M. (2010). Lori Collins biography. Retrieved April 22, 2010, from http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/15263/Lori_Marie_Carlson/index.aspx

Genre

Poetry

Curriculum Ties

U.S. History, especially immigration

Book Talking Ideas

Discuss: What’s it like to visit a place that’s different from where you’re from?  Are people friendly towards you?  What do you think about most of all?  Excitement?  Home?

Reading Level

13+

Challenge Issues

None

Selection

Internet search for multicultural teen poetry.

The Quotable Slayer

Bibliographic Info

Title: The Quotable Slayer

Author: Compiled by Micol Ostow and Steven Brezenoff

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: 2003

ISBN: 978-0743495486

Plot Summary

This book takes quotes from the scripts of Buffy the Vampire Slayer television shows and sorts them by character and later by topics such as “Slaying,” “Religion,” and “Love.”  The book highlights some of the best moments in the quirky banter of the Scooby Gang, compiled for fans on a reminisce.

Critical Evaluation

Clearly this book isn’t for everyone.  If Buffy the Vampire Slayer was and is a monument in your life, then it’s a great read.  The quotes are occasionally taken from the more somber parts of the shows, but generally the bright, silly conversation will keep a fan chuckling, and thinking, “oh, I remember that.”

Reader’s Annotation

For die-hard Buffy fans, The Quotable Slayer is a must-read.  It will stock your coffers with an appropriate Buffy-speak response for every situation (particularly on those crazy nights where you’re taking out a Chaos demon in 4-inch heals).

Author Info

Micol Ostow has written more than 40 books for people of all ages.  In 2009, she graduated from Vermont College with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.  She lives in New York City with her husband, Noah Harlan.

Steven Brezenoff, age 35, lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife and son.  His debut novel, The Absolute Value of -1, is set to be released in September 2010.  Brezenoff claims to have recently disabled his World of Warcraft account, which may lead to a second published novel.

Brezenoff, S. (n.d.). Profile of Steven Brezenoff. Retrieved April 22, 2010, from http://www.blogger.com/profile/17974929351763422930

Ostow, M. (2010). The official website of author Micol Ostow. Retrieved April 22, 2010, from http://www.micolostow.com/bio.php

Genre

Non-fiction, Film, Television

Curriculum Ties

I've heard there are Buffy studies classes out there.  I want to go to that school.

Book Talking Ideas

In a world where creatures of the dark walk the streets of her hometown, Buffy’s super strength and speed have nothing on her powerful puns.

Reading Level

13+

Challenge Issues

Vampires, demons, magic, sex… so much to despise, or relish.

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Stumbled across during a search of local library website.

Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland

Bibliographic Info

Title: Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown Colonial Maryland

Author: Sally M. Walker

Publisher: Carolrhoda Books

Publication Date: 2009

ISBN: 987-0-8225-7135

Plot Summary

This non-fiction book illustrates how much information can be found in the skeletal remains of Jamestown colonists from the early 1600s.  The body of a 16-year-old boy tells a story of ill health, and ultimately of a violent death at the hands of Powhatan Indians.  An arrowhead lodged just a hair’s width from the boy’s femur and a broken collarbone indicated how the boy met his end.

The body of an indentured servant told a different story.  The boy, approximately 14 years old, showed signs of abuse, such as a fractured wrist.  The body was found under the home of a plantation owner, who used the space as a garbage dump.  Since, at the time, a proper burial was mandated of slaves and indentured servants, anthropologists believed that the body was concealed amongst garbage to hide the boy’s poor treatment during life.

Several other lives, such as the remains of a family of Catholics who had likely fled religious persecution in England, were highlighted.

Critical Evaluation

This book is an excellent example of how non-fiction can be made fascinating.  The author introduces what seems like a puzzle and slowly reveals a picture of a human life through the details of scientific discovery.  The excellent photographs add to the experience of unearthing the stories.

Reader’s Annotation

The hardships, lifestyles, and personal details of the residents of the first U.S. colony are unearthed by forensic anthropologists in this non-fiction work.  The book contains photographs of skeletal remains, excavations, tools, and more to document the findings.

Author Info

Sally M. Walker was often in trouble for daydreaming in elementary school.  She would let her mind wander to the book she was reading.  She wrote stories for her parents and gave them as presents.  Walker’s father would tell her and the children from her neighborhood non-fiction stories about colonists and Indians.

When asked what parents can give their budding writer children, Walker recommends a library card.  She also suggests pens and paper.  She describes the most importan gift, though, to be time to wander and dream.

Walker, S. M. (2009). Author Sally M. Walker. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://sallymwalker.com/biography.html

Genre

Non-fiction

Curriculum Ties

U.S. History

Book Talking Ideas

Did you know that a skeleton’s number of teeth or the shape of a thigh bone can tell a forensics specialist how old a person was at the time of their death?

When you imagine what life was like in the colonies, what do you picture?

Reading Level

10-14

Challenge Issues

Photographs of human remains.

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

2010 Finalist for YALSA’s Excellence in Fiction for Young Adults award.

Parrotfish

Bibliographic Info

Title: Parrotfish

Author: Ellen Wittlinger

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: 2007

ISBN: 978-1-4169-1622-2

Plot Summary

Angela Katz-McNair is on the verge of a big move – she’s planning to return to high school after the Thanksgiving holidays as a boy named Grady.  She doesn’t have all the details worked out exactly, but she starts by cutting her hair, binding her breasts, and buying boy’s clothes.

The first hurdle she, now referring to herself as he, must pass is his family.  The family takes the news in with various levels of comfort and understanding.  At school though, the going’s a little harder.  A carton of milk is dumped down Grady’s back in the cafeteria.  A popular girl decides to humiliate Grady by taking his clothes while he’s in the shower and replacing them with revealing women’s clothes.

Things improve for Grady as he finds new friends, and old friends adjust to the change.  He is supported by some teachers and soon by his family.  He even wins the attention of a beautiful girl.

Critical Evaluation

While this book is valuable in its effort to represent transgendered teens, its delivery leaves something to be desired.  The dialogue feels so contrived, that it’s as if the reader has been thrust into a scripted role-playing exercise.  Also Grady’s announcement is met with immediate acceptance by one classmate, who instantly becomes Grady’s best friend and protector.  This sounds nice, but is completely unrealistic.  The sudden positive attention of a popular couple is also unrealistic.  When the couple separates briefly, the gorgeous popular girl expresses interest in Grady.  It simply doesn’t ring true.

On top of the plot and character issues, there is a constant drone about the specifics of transgendered individuals.  The reader is being educated, which may be positive in some respects, but the lessons don’t belong in the realm of fiction.

Reader’s Annotation

Grady is an average boy, concerned with making and keeping friends, interested in girls, trying not to seem like a complete dork.  There’s just one catch, Grady was born a girl, with all the physical specifics that that entails.  He must struggle to assert himself in a world which doesn’t provide a neat category for people like himself.

Author Info

Ellen Wittlinger was born on October 21, 1948 in Belleville, Illinois.  She attended Milliken University in Decatur, Illinois.  She earned her MFA in writing at the University of Iowa.

Wittlinger mainly wrote poetry and plays until she became a mother, and worked as a children’s librarian.  She began reading and writing young adult fiction and published her first novel, Lombardo’s Law, in 1993.

Wittlinger, E. (n.d.). About Ellen Wittlinger. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.ellenwittlinger.com/about.html

Genre

GLBT Lit

Curriculum Ties

Health, especially human sexuality

Book Talking Ideas

Imagine that since birth you had been dressed in sweat pants.  You hate sweat pants, but now you’re a teenager and everyone things that your clothes say something significant about you.  Well they don’t.

Reading Level

14+

Challenge Issues

Story is about a transgendered individual

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Assigned.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Bibliographic Info

Title: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Author: Sherman Alexie

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Publication Date: 2007

ISBN: 978-0316013680

Plot Summary

Arnold Spirit was lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Eastern Washington.  He’s skinny and has seizures and gets beat up a lot.  All around him he sees the chronic health problems and poverty of the people of his tribe.  One day, when he’s handed a geometry book that has his mother’s name inside the cover (as in, it’s that old), Arnold loses it.  He throws the book, which hits his math teacher and leaves the teacher with a broken nose.  Arnold has to get out of the reservation if he’s to hang on to any hope of a decent future.

When he decides to attend the white high school in the nearest town, things start to pick up.  He gets a sort of girlfriend.  He befriends some cool kids and turns out to be a star basketball player.  Though life is seemingly improving, he struggles with never fitting in on more than a surface level, with hiding a lot of personal information, including that he’s completely broke, and worst of all, he lost his best friend Rowdy when he switched schools.

In this coming of age story, Arnold Spirit boldly inserts himself in a strange environment, dealing with all that comes with being the one Indian kid in a white school – the ignorance, the racism.  He also contends with the ongoing issues of being a rez kid, like the early death of his grandmother.  Though she’d never had a drink in her life, she was hit and killed by a drunk driver.

Critical Evaluation

This story is sorrowful, hopeful, and full of self-deprecating humor.  It offers a window into the life of a kid who is fighting for survival.  In order to achieve self-truth, he has to betray his family, friends, and his tribe.  He can’t get what he needs from them, and even though it’s painful, separation is necessary.  Readers can feel for Arnold’s internal conflicts, but laugh along with him through the pain.

Reader’s Annotation

Arnold Spirit was born with water on his brain.  He lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation where he witnesses poverty, violence, and chronic health problems.  To grasp onto hope, he transfers to a white school outside the rez, but through the trials of being the one Indian kid and leaving his friends and family behind, the victories that he achieves in his new school are confused by his feelings of betrayal and shallow, empty relationships with his new friends.

Author Info

Sherman Alexie was born in October 1966.  He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation.  Like his character, Arnold Spirit, he was born with hydrocephaly, or water on the brain.  He had surgery at six months of age to correct the problem.  He was left with side effects, such as seizures, which he experienced throughout childhood.

Just as in the story, Alexie found his mother’s name in a textbook in Wellpinit High School and decided to transfer to a high school off the reservation.  He became a star basketball player and excelled academically.

After high school, Alexie attended Gonzaga University, then transferred to Washington State University, where he fell in love with writing poetry.  Alexie developed a drinking problem in college, but gave up drinking at age 23, after finding out that one of his poems would be published.

Alexie has written screenplays, acted as a public speaker, stand-up comic, and advocate for the preservation of American folk history.  He lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife and two sons.

Alexie, S. (2010, January). Sherman Alexie. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.fallsapart.com/biography.html

Genre

Realistic Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Native American Studies

Book Talking Ideas

For Arnold Spirit, transferring schools is like moving to a foreign country.

Reading Level

12-17

Challenge Issues

Mild Violence

Words, such as “boner” may be offensive to some

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

The book was a gift from a Tribal libraries and archives conference.  I had been meaning to read it.

Monster

Bibliographic Info

Title: Monster

Author: Walter Dean Myers

Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers

Publication Date: 1999

ISBN: 978-0064407311

Plot Summary

16-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder.  If he’s found guilty he faces life in prison or the death penalty.  The trial seems like a parade of one criminal after another and Steve feels like he’s losing his sense of himself, wondering if he’s just like them.  As if the fear of the trial’s outcome wasn’t enough.  As each day comes to a close, Steve has to face the terror of the jail cells, where inmates are always fighting.  One man was even raped in Steve’s cell.  And then there’s Steve’s parents.  His father doesn’t seem to know what to make of the situation, as if he thought he knew his son, and suddenly, his boy is a stranger.  His mother’s pain is almost unbearable.

In order to keep from losing it, Steve writes the story of his trial down, as if it were a movie, happening to someone else.  Through the lens of a screenplay, Steve makes sense of his situation and finds a bit of safety in its pages.

Critical Evaluation

Monster is an excellent depiction of the quirks and flaws of the justice system, viewed from the inside from the eyes of a black teenager.  In the story, the jury has decided Steve is guilty even before the trial begins.  The book places a face behind a stereotypical story of a couple of black kids in a convenience store stick-up gone wrong.  This book demonstrates beautifully the power of fiction to transform prejudice into understanding and compassion.  By the end of the story, readers know Steve intimately.  They know that he’s not just another sad statistic.  He’s human.  And so the other real-life sad statistics may be as well.

Reader’s Annotation

In the beginning of his trial for murder, the prosecuting attorney calls Steve Harmon a monster.  Is he?  He struggles with questions about who he is while surrounded by violence, and on trial for his life.

Author Info

Walter Dean Myers was born August 12, 1937 in Martinsburg, West Virginia.  He was sent to Harlem to be raised by a man named Herbert Dean, and his wife Florence.  Myers dropped out of high school at age 17 and joined the army.

One of Myers’ high school teachers recognized Myers skill in writing and encouraged him to keep at it, no matter what.  As an adult Myers recalled this advice and began writing about his teen years, which he claims were the most difficult of his life.

Myers, W. D. (n.d.). Walter Dean Myers Author. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/bio.html.

Genre

Realistic Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Social Studies, especially Civics

Sociology

Book Talking Ideas

Have you ever done anything morally questionable, then looked around you to find out if it really was that bad?

Imagine that you woke up in jail.  Your days were spent listening to people accuse you of something terrible.  Your nights were spent listening to fighting and worse.

Reading Level

13+

Challenge Issues

Main characters aren’t upstanding citizens

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Won ALA’s Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Literature for Young Adults.

Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour

Bibliographic Info

Title: Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Harper Teen

Publication Date: 2004

ISBN: 978-0060519513

Plot Summary

Jessica Day has just moved from Chicago to the small town of Bixby, Oklahoma.  At first, Jessica is mainly concerned with fitting into her new high school – not sticking out, making friends, but soon she discovers that Bixby’s different.  She starts waking up at exactly midnight to a frozen blue world that belongs to her and four other teens, plus a horde of ancient monsters that seem to have it out for her.

In order to protect herself, and to understand the unusual behavior of the midnight hour monsters, the Midnighters seek to find Jessica’s place in the secret hour.  What they discover spells Jessica’s salvation and the doom of any monsters who cross her path.

Critical Evaluation

The book is captivating as readers seek to unravel the mysteries of this secret hour along with the characters who are trying to make sense of their world.  The world that Westerfeld creates is sometimes marvelous, sometimes terrifying, but is utterly unique and well established.

Reader’s Annotation

Like a dream where you wake up to find yourself in a world similar to your own, but somehow different, and something dark chases you, Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour, takes you on a journey to an alternate reality.  For the characters of the story, however, there is no escape in waking from the midnight hour.

Author Info

Scott Westerfeld is an author of adult and young adult fiction.  He was born in 1963 in Dallas, Texas.  He has held jobs as a textbook editor, substitute teacher, computer programmer, and factory worker.

Scott Westerfeld and his wife Justin e Larbalestier (also a writer) live in New York City and Sydney Australia.  He enjoys Mexican and Thai food and never wears jeans.  Never!

Westerfeld, S. (2011, March 11). Westerblog. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

Genre

Fantasy

Curriculum Ties

None

Book Talking Ideas

What if you woke up in a strange world, much like your own, only none of the things you know can protect you from an ancient evil that has it out for you.

In Jessica Day’s new world, she must rely on four strangers to explain the mysteries of the midnight hour, and to save her from the monsters of the night.

Reading Level

12+

Challenge Issues

Some elements, especially weapons, resemble magic

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Introduced through class author/genre study.

New Moon (Movie)

Bibliographic Info

Title: New Moon (Movie)

Author: Adapted for the screen by Melissa Rosenberg

Publisher: Summit Entertainment production

Publication Date: 2009

ISBN: None

Plot Summary

On her 18^th birthday, Bella Swan awakens from a nightmare where she is an old woman.  In the dream her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen kisses her wrinkled hand and wishes her a happy birthday.  The real nightmare begins when Bella gives herself a paper cut opening a present at her birthday party at the Cullen home.  Edward’s brother, Jasper makes a move to eat her, and in the mêlée, Bella ends up needing some stitches.  After this, Edward decides to leave Bella.  His whole family moves away from their home in Forks, Washington.  Bella is heartbroken and sinks into a hopeless depression.

When her father threatens to send her to Jacksonville, Florida to live with her mother, Bella fights back.  She starts spending time with friends, especially Jacob Black, and is at last starting to revive.  Things get complicated when Bella finds out that she’s being stalked by a vampire with a grudge; plus her new best friend is a werewolf.

Critical Evaluation

Fans of the Twilight series won’t be disappointed with this adaptation of the book.  The story stays true to the novel, but is less gloomy.  The actors playing main characters Bella Swan and Jacob Black are more impressive and convincing on screen than in the books.  People who are unfamiliar with the Twilight series will be able to follow the movie as a stand alone.

Reader’s Annotation

Bella Swan’s world is divided in two in this sequel to the Twilight movie.  After her vampire boyfriend Edward leaves her and breaks her heart, a new friend comes into her life and fills it with warmth.

Author Info

Melissa Rosenberg was born August 28, 1962.  She was raised in Marin County, California.  She attended Bennington College in Vermont, studying dance and theater.  She later earned a Master’s in film and television production at the University of Southern California.

Rosenberg has written for television shows, including Showtime’s Dexter.  She wrote the film Step Up in addition to the adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight and New Moon books.  She currently lives with her husband in Los Angeles.

Melissa Rosenberg. (2010, March 18). Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Rosenberg.

Genre

Fantasy

Curriculum Ties

None

Book Talking Ideas

Focus on the conflict between her friendship with Jacob and her feelings for Edward.

Reading Level

Rated PG-13.

Challenge Issues

The werewolf pack is often filmed sans shirt

Violence

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Popular media

Pretties

Bibliographic Info

Title: Pretties

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: 2005

ISBN: 978-0689865398

Plot Summary

In Pretties, the sequel to Uglies, Tally has just received the operation to make her pretty.  Life is all that it should be.  She’s beautiful and popular and even meets a boy, Zane, who is both gorgeous and the leader of a popular clique.  The only problem is, Tally keeps saying the wrong thing.  She’s almost grim when she ought to be “bubbly.”  She also has strange, confusing half-memories of her time in the Smoke, the settlement she lived in while she was rescuing her friend Shay.  With Zane’s help, Tally begins to unravel the confusion and remember the truth of her pre-pretty experiences.

After she connects with a friend from the Smoke and discovers a note dictated by the unlikeliest of all people – herself, she has to make a fast decision to trust the note and take some mystery pills, or not.  What she decides means that she and Zane have got to get out of their city, to escape the tight grasp of the authorities, and more urgently, to save Zane’s life.

Critical Evaluation

This sequel to Uglies is every bit as fast-paced and exciting as the first book.  Tally’s character responds appropriately to the dazzle of graduating to a world where everything is fun, everyone is beautiful, and her brain has been altered to fog over anything but delight.  Still, her natural character peeks through at all the right moments.  The world of Pretties is amazing, but the story never weighs down in the elements of cool.  Instead it is propelled forward by a compelling plot.

Reader’s Annotation

Tally Youngblood is finally pretty, but something inside her won’t just let the champagne and parties dull her mind.  When she meets Zane, she is no longer alone in her feeling that there are frivolous excesses in the pretty world and confusing memory gaps within herself.  Together, they must escape the city to find answers, and to save Zane’s life.

Author Info

Scott Westerfeld is an author of adult and young adult fiction.  He was born in 1963 in Dallas, Texas.  He has held jobs as a textbook editor, substitute teacher, computer programmer, and factory worker.

Scott Westerfeld and his wife Justine Larbalestier (also a writer) live in New York City and Sydney Australia.  Westerfeld enjoys Mexican and Thai food and never wears jeans.  Never!

Westerfeld, S. (2011, March 11). Westerblog. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/.

Genre

Science Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Political Science

Philosophy

Book Talking Ideas

Imagine yourself at the best party among the coolest kids you’ve ever met, but for some reason, you’re not having the time of your life.

Reading Level

12+

Challenge Issues

Self-inflicted starvation

Self-mutilation

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Sequel to ALA Best Book Uglies.

The White Darkness

Bibliographic Info

Title: The White Darkness

Author: Geraldine McCaughrean

Publisher: Harpertempest

Publication Date: 2005

ISBN: 978-0-06-089035-3

Plot Summary

Sym is awkward.  She trips over things.  She doesn’t care for boys like her friends do.  She even has a sort of imaginary friend.  Her entire life she’s studied and dreamed of Antarctica.  It’s an absolute thrill when her uncle Victor tells her that he’s planned to take them on a trip to the frozen continent.  Or is it?

Sym can’t seem to put a few things out of her mind, like that her mother was supposed to come on the trip (originally Victor said it was a weekend trip from England to France), but her mother’s missing passport left her stranded on the train platform.  Later Sym found the passport in her uncle’s shirt pocket.  Sym doesn’t know for sure if Victor told her mother about the change of travel destinations.  Sym also wonders how Victor funded the trip.  There are so many little questions that won’t stay quiet in the back of her mind.

As the trip goes on, the little questions begin to stack up, and then to unravel.  A whole lot of larger mysteries come to light, showing the unfathomable actions of a desperate and disturbed man.  Sym, awkward Sym, has to keep it all together if she wants to come out of the trip alive.

Critical Evaluation

The White Darkness is a phenomenal work.  The depth of Sym’s character, the complex weaving of the story, and the details, so surprising that they seem to spring out of the natural chaos of life make the book a masterpiece of fiction.

Reader’s Annotation

Sym can tell you the names of the mountains nearest the South Pole.  She can give you a list of the ten most common fatal mistakes that Antarctic explorers committed.  She can’t tell you what it’s like to kiss a boy.  When her uncle surprised Sym with a trip to Antarctica, she should be ecstatic, but something in the back of her mind knows it’s wrong, all of it.  Those tiny glimmers of recognition tell her nothing, though of the darkness that awaits her on the frozen continent.

Author Info

Geraldine McCaughrean was born June 6, 1951 and raised in North London.  She went to school at Christ Church College of Education in Canterbury.  She held many jobs before becoming a full time writer, including secretary, teacher, and journalist.

She has written around 150 books, mostly for children, but with some young adult novels as well.  She currently lives in Berkshire, England with her daughter and husband.

McCaughrean, G. (2006). Official Website of Geraldine McCaughrean. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.geraldinemccaughrean.co.uk/.

Genre

Adventure

Curriculum Ties

Social Studies/Health, related to understanding people with disabilities

Book Talking Ideas

Intuition.  Have you ever felt like something just wasn’t right, but had no idea why?

What if someone you trusted suddenly turned out to be mentally unstable?

Reading Level

12+

Challenge Issues

Mild Violence

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

ALA  Printz award winner

The Hunger Games

Bibliographic Info

Title: The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Publication Date: 2008

ISBN: 978-0-439-02348-1

Plot Summary

Katniss Eberdeen is 16 and the main breadwinner in her family.  Her father was killed in a mine blast.  Her mother withdrew from life, from her two children.  Since she was 12, it’s been on Katniss’ shoulders to take care of her family in a world where starvation is commonplace.  In order to keep her family fed, she must sneak under the sometimes electrified district fence to hunt and forage for food.  It’s a hard life, but on the day of the reaping, the weight of supporting a family is the least of Katniss’ concerns.

The people of District 12 are required to stand in the town square as two tributes are drawn to represent them in the hunger games – an annual reminder of the uprisings of 74 years ago that led to the eradication of District 13.  Now each year two children between ages 12 and 18 are chosen from all 12 districts for the games, where they must fight each other to the death.  There can be only one winner.

At the moment when the town gathers waiting for the first name to be called, Katniss’ only thoughts are that she can’t be called.  She has to take care of her family.  Her shock at the sound of her little sister’s name being called is only paralyzing for a moment.  Then she volunteers to take her sister’s place.  Katniss will compete in the hunger games.  For the sake of her family, she has to win.

Critical Evaluation

The Hunger Games takes place in a world that seems entirely possible, almost recognizable.  The people of the capital enjoy a pampered and frivolous lifestyle, which is possible because of the various districts’ labor.  The characters in the story are built according to their particular level of deprivation, and respective of their personalities.  The action is a relentless engine that moves the story.  The combination of these elements is a provocative, suspenseful, and exciting story that will keep readers glued to the book.

Reader’s Annotation

Welcome to the 74^th hunger games!  For the ghastly entertainment of the ruling class, and the perpetual subjugation of the masses, two dozen children, including the beloved heroine of the story will murder each other before the ever-watching cameras.

Author Info

Suzanne Collins was born in New Jersey on November 21^st, 1947.  She was the child of a military officer.  She earned her MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University.

Collins began her writing career as a children’s television writer.  She wrote for Little Bear, Oswald, and Clarissa Explains It All among other shows.  She wrote a five-book series called the Underland Chronicles that were inspired by Alice in Wonderland, but instead of falling down a rabbit hole, the concept questioned what would happen if one fell down a manhole.  The Hunger Games is a planned trilogy, with the final book, Mocking Jay set to come out in August 2010.  The books were inspired by a Greek myth.

Collins currently lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children.

Collins, S. (n.d.). Suzanne Collins. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/index.htm

Genre

Science Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Social Studies, especially oppressive government structures

Greek Mythology

Book Talking Ideas

Imagine that you are dropped into a stadium with 23 other kids who were all desperate to kill you.  What’s your first move?

Discuss: Introduce the living conditions in Panem.  How do you feel about the U.S. outsourcing work to less developed countries?  Is it similar to the structure in the story?

Reading Level

12+

Challenge Issues

Violence

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Assigned

Catching Fire

Bibliographic Info

Title: Catching Fire

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Publication Date: 2009

ISBN:  978-0-439-02349-8

Plot Summary

In this sequel to Hunger Games, Katniss Eberdeen is back home in District 12, co-victor of the 74^th Hunger Games.  Though she’s dreading the tour of districts that she’ll be required to make, with Peeta, her fellow winner, she doesn’t expect a visit from President Snow.  His appearance and his message are her signal that she and her friends and family are in greater danger than ever.  What she learns as she tours the districts is that she’s responsible for the well-being of far more people than she could have guessed.

She’s pressed to see how she can subdue the tide of rage that she’s released by unintentionally, or at least unconsciously, by defying the Capital.  She must rely on her strength, her wits, and her friendships to save herself, her loved ones, and the many strangers for whom she’s come to represent a rebellion.

Critical Evaluation

Catching Fire stalls a bit in the beginning as the book recaps the events of Hunger Games. It’s also slower as Katniss struggles with information about uprisings in the various districts.  She must flail around a little to discover what her role will be.  When Katniss finds herself locked into another round of hunger games, the action picks up and propels the story to a surprising end.

Reader’s Annotation

In this sequel to Hunger Games, the stakes are higher than ever for Katniss Eberdeen.  She must continue to fight for her life, for her loved ones, and for the many who she’s enflamed to rage over the injustices of Panem.

Author Info

Suzanne Collins was born in New Jersey on November 21^st, 1947.  She was the child of a military officer.  She earned her MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University.

Collins began her writing career as a children’s television writer.  She wrote for Little Bear, Oswald, and Clarissa Explains It All among other shows.  She wrote a five-book series called the Underland Chronicles that were inspired by Alice in Wonderland, but instead of falling down a rabbit hole, the concept questioned what would happen if one fell down a manhole.  The Hunger Games is a planned trilogy, with the final book, Mocking Jay set to come out in August 2010.  The books were inspired by a Greek myth.

Collins currently lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children.

Collins, S. (n.d.). Suzanne Collins. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/index.htm

Genre

Science Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Social Studies, especially conditions that lead to revolt

Greek Mythology

Book Talking Ideas

Catching Fire!  Katniss’ symbol in Hunger Games is the girl who was on fire.  Apparently by her gesture with the berries, she sparked the anger of the citizens of Panem.  Her tour of the districts in the sequel only serves to fan that spark.

Reading Level

12+

Challenge Issues

Violence

Defiance of authority

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Sequel to assigned book.

Catching Fire

Uglies

Bibliographic Info

Title:  Uglies

Author:  Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date:  2005

ISBN:  9780689865381

Plot Summary

Tally stares out of her window in Uglyville to the party towers, tethered hot air balloons, and fireworks in New Pretty Town.  With only three months left until her 16^th birthday, all she can do is wait until that day when she’ll be surgically stretched and shrunk in all the right places, her face transformed into whatever gloriously beautiful design the Pretty Committee chooses.  Only then will she join her best friend Peris and the party in New Pretty Town.  It’s what she’s been waiting for for forever.

When Tally meets fellow ugly, Shay, life is bearable again.  Shay teaches Tally to hoverboard, and the two come up with clever pranks to pass the time.  At least Tally’s passing the time.  More than once Shay talks about not wanting the operation to turn pretty.  Somehow she’s content with the way she and Tally look as uglies.  She also talks about a mysterious guy who she can supposedly summon in the Rusty Ruins, a ruined city from the days when people carelessly destroyed nature, each other, and finally themselves.  Just before the two are set to turn sixteen and pretty, Shay springs something major on Tally – there’s a group of people living out in the wilderness who never turn pretty and Shay’s running away to join them.  She wants Tally to come too.

Tally stays behind with only a cryptic note telling her where her friend has gone.  Then, on the day when it’s all set to end – the confusion over letting Shay disappear into the wild by herself, the longing for her best friend Peris, the waiting to turn pretty – the authorities inform Tally that she’ll either follow Shay’s note to uncover a troublesome group of renegades, or Tally will stay ugly forever.  Her decision leads her on a journey that changes everything, inside and out.

Critical Evaluation

Uglies stars out as a journey into a fantastical futuristic world of floating cars, hovering bridges, and goods that appear out of a hole in the wall and recycle themselves into dust just as quickly.  It’s a world of flawless beauty and absolutely carefree lifestyles.

As the story progresses, the dark side of this carefree life starts to show.  The story leaves readers questioning how much freedom people are willing to hand over in favor of comfort and ease.  It also shows the power of manipulation that makes people give up everything – their appearance, their interests, their certainties, in order to be normal.

Reader’s Annotation

What would you give up to join a world of ultimate perfection?

Author Info

Scott Westerfeld is an author of adult and young adult fiction.  He was born in 1963 in Dallas, Texas.  He has held jobs as a textbook editor, substitute teacher, computer programmer, and factory worker.

Scott Westerfeld and his wife Justin e Larbalestier (also a writer) live in New York City and Sydney Australia.  He enjoys Mexican and Thai food and never wears jeans.  Never!

Westerfeld, S. (2011, March 11). Westerblog. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

Genre

Science Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Environmental Science

Philosophy

Book Talking Ideas

Discuss:  How much do you think the media influences your idea of pretty?

Reading Level

12 and up.

Challenge Issues

Drinking, alludes to casual sexual encounters.

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Noted as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults in 2006.

Little Brother

Bibliographic Info

Title: Little Brother

Author: Cory Doctorow

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

Publication Date: 2008

ISBN: 9780765323118

Plot Summary

Marcus Yallow’s got his world wired – cool parents, good friends, the upper hand when it comes to his blustering vice-principal.  The worst he’s got to worry about is busting himself and his best friend out of sixth period to meet friends for his team sport of choice – an alternate reality game that’s part treasure hunt, part logic puzzle, and part trivia dig.

Getting out of class is no big trick though.  His school relies overmuch on technology in everything from snitching standard-issue laptops to gait recognition cameras, to library check-out systems on steroids, which monitor students’ locations as they pass sensors.  Marcus has his tech down though, and hacks around laptop surveillance; he’s got a solution for every prying piece of technology.

At the moment when a terrorist bomb hits San Francisco, Marcus’ carefree days are done.  He’s hauled in by the Department of Homeland Security as a possible terror suspect and is alternately humiliated, threatened, and tortured for days before he’s released.

Marcus returns to a world he doesn’t recognize where police will question anyone for taking a detour on the way home, schools start preaching anti-free speech propaganda; even Marcus’ father seems taken in by the need for the government to have their eye on absolutely everything.  And then there’s Marcus’ best friend Darryl.  Along with Marcus and two friends, Darryl was also taken to the makeshift prison, nicknamed Gitmo by the Bay.  Darryl never came back.  So with technology, with smarts, and with likeminded kids in numbers, Marcus decides to fight back.

Critical Evaluation

Smart, fast, yet with depth and complexity, Little Brother will appeal to anyone with a tech bent.  The issues blown up and examined in this story would likely touch a broader audience as we’re living in post 9-11 world, where the potential for terrorist attacks is actual, and if unchecked, could be upstaged by how our government, our teachers, and our neighbors respond.

Reader’s Annotation

Marcus Yallow is a smart, tech-savvy high school senior.  He’s got things set in his favor, but when a terrorist bomb hits his city of San Francisco, the U.S government makes him a target.  They don’t count on him fighting back.

Author Info

Cory Doctorow is a blogger, journalist, and author.  He’s an activist for copyright issues.  Doctorow co-founded a free peer to peer software corporation in 1999 and served as the first Independent Studies Scholar in Virtual Residence as the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada in 2009.

Doctorow was born in Canada in 1971.  He now lives in London with his wife, Alice Taylor, and their daughter Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow.

Doctorow, C. (2010, February 3). Cory Doctorow's Craphound.com. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://craphound.com/bio.php

Genre

Science Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Government Study, especially U.S. Constitution.

Book Talking Ideas

Do you feel safe?  Discuss:  Growing up after 9/11, do you feel threatened by terrorists?  Do you feel like your privacy is respected by our government, by your school?

Reading Level

13 and up.

Challenge Issues

Anti-government, anti-authority.

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Assigned.