Module 6 LS 5623 Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy

Book cover image from Amazon.com

STOP PRETENDING: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY BIG SISTER WENT CRAZY
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sones, Sonya. 1999. STOP PRETENDING: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY BIG SISTER WENT CRAZY. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 9780060283872.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Sonya Sones takes a look at mental illness through the eyes of the people left behind. During Christmas Break, Cookie's big sister has a breakdown and is put in a "psycho" ward. Cookie writes in her journal to deal with all the confusion going on in her mind. "When I was lost/you were the one who found me/now you're the one who's lost/and I can't find you anywhere."

As the family comes to terms with Sister's illness, Cookie goes through fear of being crazy too, loss of friends, depression, and first love. At one point, after missing her sister's help on homework, she writes,"I'm sitting here taking the test/but the numbers on the page/keep scrambling in my head/and the only equation/ I really understand is: 4-1=0." By the end of the novel, Cookie and her family have adjusted to their new version of "normal".

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This book, written as a diary in verse, is most powerful when one reads the author's notes. STOP PRETENDING is based on Sones own experience as her sister has a mental breakdown. After sharing a poem about visiting her sister in the hospital, Sones was encouraged to share even more of her poems because "Poems like this would be helpful to anyone who has a family member with a problem that's throwing the rest of the family off-kilter".

The first person narrative of this book is written so that anyone experiencing this type of situation could relate. Her sister is called "Sister", while Sonya is called "Cookie". This quote from the review in Children's Books in Ireland explains the book best, "It is undoubtedly engaging, in places poignant, and skillful in sketching in the background details of home, family relationships and hospital. But its overall tone is uncertain".

4. HONORS AND AWARDS
California Department of Education's 2002 Recommended Literature List: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From School Library Journal: "An unpretentious, accessible book that could provide entry points for a discussion about mental illness-its stigma, its realities, and its affect on family members."

From Amazon.com Review: "In a sequence of short, intense poems based on the author's own experiences, a 13-year-old girl suffers through her shifting feelings about her sibling's mental illness."

Module 6 LS 5623 Tricks

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TRICKS
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hopkins, Ellen. 2009. TRICKS. New York: Margaret K. McElderrey Books. ISBN 9781416950073.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Eden lives the beginning of her life with her evangelical preacher father and mother. When she falls in love with a boy from another religion, she is sent away to "A sizable chunk of desert dubbed Tears of Zion. Oh, it's a very special place where Father and his 'disciples' rehabilitate incorrigible youth." Ginger has been used and abused by her prostitute mother for childcare, housekeeping, and even for a few "tricks" with older men. Ginger escapes with her girlfriend to Las Vegas and begins life as a stripper/escort.

Seth, a farm boy, is disowned when his father discovers that Seth has been involved in a homosexual relationship. Seth begins his life as a kept man, being cared for by older gentlemen until he discovers Vegas and becomes an escort.
Whitney has an absentee father, a "perfect" older sister, and a mother who loves her older sister more. Whitney falls in love with an older man, who takes her away to Las Vegas. He becomes her pimp, and introduces her to heroin.
Cody becomes trapped in financial worries as his gambling addiction grows and his stepfather passes away, leaving Cody with a pile of debt. He is lured into becoming an escort for other males, and uses the money to help his family out.

"Lucky me. I found the right kind of love. With the wrong person." So could be the lament of the five main characters in Tricks. Five different teens with five different stories all wind up in Las Vegas, pulling tricks.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Hopkins tells the story of each character in their own voice. The book is written as a series of different poems. Just as in Crank and Glass, Tricks tackles tough issues in a straight forward way. There were times that I did not think I would be able to get through the book due to the nature of the subject matter, "Graphic sex, rape, drugs, bitter loneliness, despair—and eventually, blessedly, glimmers of hope"(Kirkus Reviews. The hope at the end of the book makes the rest of it bearable. This book is clearly for older readers.

One of the unique traits of Hopkins writing is when she spaces some of her words out to the side of a poem so that when they are read individually, they create their own mini poem.

Possibilities
As a child, I was wary,
often felt cornered.
To escape, I regularly
stashed myself
in the closet,
comforted by curtains
of cotton. Silk. Velour.
Avoided wool, which
encouraged my
itching
the ever-present rashes
on my arms, legs. My skin
reacted to secret, lies,
and taunts by wanting
to break out.
(The italicized lines are the lines which would appear to the right of the poem and can be read together.)

4. HONORS AND AWARDS
ALA's 2010 Rainbow List

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Booklist:"Teens will queue up for this one—some, admittedly, for the sensational subject matter—and find Hopkins’ trademark empathy for teens in rough situations."

From Kirkus Reviews:"Hopkins sharply portrays extreme adolescent turbulence with her biggest cast yet, as five disparate, desperate teens are sucked into the Las Vegas world of selling sex."

Module 6 LS 5623 The Plain Janes

Book cover image from Amazon.com

THE PLAIN JANES
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Castellucci, Cecil and Rugg, Jim. 2007. THE PLAIN JANES. New York: DC Comics. ISBN 9781404211158.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Jane is moved to suburbia from Metro City after she is injured in a 9/11 type bombing of a cafe. As she reevaluates her life, she begins high school, determined not to be so complacent. Through a series of letters to a comatose John Doe she met at the hospital after the attack, Jane documents her life. She befriends a group of "loners" who all happen to be named Jane, thus her "tribe" begins. There is brainy Jayne, athletic wanna be Polly Jane, and dramatic Jane. This group of misfits begins a group called P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art in Neighborhoods), and it is in plotting and carrying out their plans to help people "find something beautiful everyday" that each girl gains the confidence to realize her own dream.

3. CRITICAL ANAYLSIS
This graphic, young adult novel was developed to appeal to teen girls. True to its form, this novel will appeal to reluctant readers, too, "It’s sparsely worded, but the art depicts scenes with a mastery of teen life"(KLIATT Review). This first person narrative is believable and true to teen language "this sucks". Each stereotypical high school cliche is represented by a believable character: the rebel, the jock, the drama queen, the misunderstood loner, the genius, the mean girl, and even the student who has "come out". What isn't stereotypical is that this isn't a cute little novel happening in the typical high school fashion: "Ultimately, the book’s message is about the transformative and healing power of art, and the role outsiders have always played in bringing that message to the masses" (Cooperative Children's Book Choices).

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Library Media Connection: "This book represents an excellent blend of YA fiction and graphic novel, and is destined to be very popular with junior high and high school students."

From Booklist: "Cecil Castellucci’s first graphic novel is both funny and serious in its depiction of our post–9/11 world where conformity is too often equated with security. Much of the humor comes from Jim Rugg’s illustrations, which perfectly capture the sense of adolescent ennui and enthusiasm."

Module 5 LS 5623 Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and the Recovery of the Past

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BODIES FROM THE ICE: MELTING GLACIERS AND THE RECOVERY OF THE PAST
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Deem, James M. 2008. BODIES FROM THE ICE: MELTING GLACIERS AND THE RECOVERY OF THE PAST. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780618800452.

2. BOOK SUMMARY
Imagine that you have reached the summit of a glacial mountain and are triumphantly climbing down only to notice what looks like trash from other climbers, but upon closer inspection you discover human remains. The mummified remains are studied and discovered to be thousands of years old.

As the glaciers in the world melt, more and more of the terrain is being exposed along with artifacts and remains of various missing people from long ago. Deem takes the reader through the Alps to a North American glacier, where different human bodies have been found. There is even a chapter on the Andes where may frozen children have been found, used in sacrificial ceremonies to "appease their gods".The final part of this informational book is a plea to save the findings of the past by thinking about the future of our environment.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Each page is a visual feast for the eyes because “The book is full of colorful photographs and paintings of the various glaciers and the bodies and artifacts buried in them, many of which take up over half a page, letting the reader experience the beauty of glaciers as and the wonders they have entombed”(Children’s Literature). The text is not just fact after fact and glacier after glacier, but the reader is drawn in as each discovery is explained and given the human touch to it. The explanation of how the glaciers form and move: “Deem discusses how glaciers operate like “a giant conveyor belt—essentially a moving river of ice.” With force and power, glaciers churn up, and turn up, mountain debris. This debris sometimes includes human remains that offer amazing insights into the past” (Children’s Literature).

While the some of the visuals could be disturbing “Moving quickly beyond the sensationalism of each gruesome discovery, Deem carefully considers the terrain, ice formations, and glacial movement that variously entrap and preserve, or displace and dismember human remains”( The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books).
While many of the pages contained sidebars of extra information, one of the most significant occurred near the end of the book. The reader is give “Personal Ways to Help the Environment”. The book ends with a list of glaciers to visit, suggested websites, acknowledgements and bibliography, illustration credits, and an index.

The seven chapters divide the book but also make it easy for the reader to choose where he/she would like to start. I began with “Chapter 4: Frozen Children of the Andes”.

4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2008 Kirkus Best children's Books
2009 National Science Teacher Association's Outstanding Trade Books for Students K-12
2009 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Honor Book

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Booklist: "There are books about melting glaciers and books about frozen bodies, but this attractive offering combines the topics in a way that will intrigue readers."

From Kirkus Reviews: "An intriguing read ... with a bonus environmental message."

Module 5 LS 5623 We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Book cover image from Amazon.com

WE ARE THE SHIP: THE STORY OF NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nelson, Kadir. 2008. WE ARE THE SHIP: THE STORY OF NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL. New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion. ISBN 9780786808328.

2. BOOK SUMMARY
In the late 1800’s Negro baseball players were unable to play on professional baseball teams. This came from a secret meeting in which a “gentleman’s agreement” was made forcing all Negro players off of teams and not hiring any more. On February 20, 1920 Rube Foster met with all of the other owners of black baseball teams in the Midwest, and started the Negro National League. Rube said, “We are the ship, all else the sea.”

Nelson introduces us to many of the famous players in the league and explains the conditions that the players endured, “Try sleeping in a car with your knees to your chest, crammed with eight other guys, only to play a game the next day.” The players were often discriminated against and couldn’t even eat in the restaurants in some of the towns they played. Even during the Depression, there was baseball.
Some of the players would go to Cuba to train, and possibly try to stay since the players weren’t discriminated against in Latin America. The heat and absolute perfection demanded of them sent many of them back to the US to continue to play for the Negro leagues.

The Negro Leagues began to become obsolete when some of their players crossed to play in the Major League. “If a colored boy can make it on Okinawa and Guadalcanal … he can make it in baseball. Jackie Robinson was the first player to cross, and in 1948 the Negro League ended.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
What caught my attention first with this book were the amazing illustrations. “Each turn of the page provides a visual treat for the reader, whether it is a portrait of a player, or an action shot such as that of Jackie Robinson stealing home “(Children’s Literature). The images were so realistic and were just as powerful as his illustrations in Henry’s Freedom Box.

The book was told from the view point of every man. In Nelson’s Author’s Notes at the end of the book he gives his reasoning for choosing this way to tell the story, “I chose to present the voice of the narrator as a collective voice, the voice of every player, the voice of we…it became clear that hearing the story of Negro League baseball directly from those who experienced it firsthand made it more real, more accessible.”

Another part of this book’s appeal is that the each chapter has its own title, but instead of being given just a number, it is called a certain inning. For example, the first chapter is called “1st Inning: Beginnings”. The last chapter is called “Extra Innings: The End of the Negro Leagues”.

The book ends with a listing of all the members of the Negro Leagues who made it to the Major Leagues and those who are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. These two lists come before the Bibliography, Filmography, End Notes for each chapter, and Index.

4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2008 Horn Book Fanfare
2008 Kirkus Best Children's Books
2008 Publisher's Weekly Best Children's Books
2008 School Library Journal Best Books
2009 Booklist's Top 10 Black History Books for Youth
2009 Author Winner of the Corretta Scott King Book Award
2008 Winner New York times Best Illustrated Children's Book's of the Year
2009 Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children Honorable Mention
2009 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Winner
2008 Society of Illustrators' Award Silver Medal

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Booklist: "The stories and artwork are a tribute to the spirit of the Negro Leaguers, who were much more than also-rans and deserve a more prominent place on baseball’s history shelves. For students and fans (and those even older than the suggested grade level), this is the book to accomplish just that."

From Kirkus Review's: "Along with being absolutely riveted by the art, readers will come away with a good picture of the Negro Leaguers' distinctive style of play, as well as an idea of how their excellence challenged the racial attitudes of both their sport and their times."

Module 5 LS 5623 The Wednesday Wars

Book cover image from Amazon.com

THE WEDNESDAY WARS
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Schmidt, Gary D. 2007. THE WEDNESDAY WARS. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 9780618724833.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Holling Hoodhood lived in what his father called the perfect house right in the middle of the town. It was not to the north where all the residents went to temple or to the south, were the residents attended mass, but in the middle, where Holling attended the Presbyterian Church and had a pastor who was “old enough to have known Moses” and “could have called Isaiah a personal friend”. Holling is the only student in his seventh grade class who doesn’t have religious instruction on Wednesday afternoon, so he and his teacher spend this time together. Mrs. Baker uses this time to “punish” him by having him learn Shakespeare.

Through the year, the Shakespeare lessons help Holling deal with the turmoil going on around him: the Vietnam War, cream puffs and rats, bullies (especially Doug Swieteck’s brother), first love, racism, track, and these are the issues he contends with at school. While at home, he deals with a father who is more concerned about business contracts and “being a candidate for the Chamber of Commerce Businessman of 1967” than he is about the well being of his twelve year old son and sixteen year old “flower child” daughter. Through it all, Holling begins to grow into his future persona, to “become a man who brought peace and wisdom to his world because he knew about war and folly… he loved greatly because he had seen what lost love is. And …he came to know, too, that he was loved greatly”.


3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Holling Hoodhood narrates THE WEDNESDAY WARS and, as Booklist so eloquently puts it, “Holling’s unwavering, distinctive voice offers a gentle, hopeful, moving story of a boy who, with the right help, learns to stretch beyond the limitations of his family, his violent times, and his fear, as he leaps into his future with his eyes and his heart wide open.” Holling is a believable narrator as he goes through the unrest of the time…the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, racial protests, and flower children.

One could be overwhelmed by all that is taking place historically, but the character of Holling is so likeable that the reader becomes caught up in his everyday life. “There is a lot going on in this novel not all related to the politics of the turbulent 1960s. The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, and the unpopular Vietnam War play a part in Holling's seventh grade year but so do two rats, Sycorax and Calliban, with their clacking yellow teeth; a part as Ariel in yellow tights; a track team; bullying and racism; a camping trip; and disappointment in a first love (VOYA).” Schmidt brings 1967 alive, but what truly lingers when the book is over is the characterization of Holling Hoodhood and his remarkable teacher, Mrs. Baker.


4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2008 John Newbery Medal Honnor Book
2007 Washington Post Best Books for Young People
2007 Booklist Editor's Choice Books for Youth
2008 Booklist's Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth
2008 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Children's Literature: "This story interweaves the issues of the period with grace and power, resulting in historical fiction both entertaining and endearing."

From VOYA: "This novel is funny, warm, sad, and touching all at the same time."

Module 4 LS 5623 The Dead & the Gone

Book cover image from amazon.com

THE DEAD AND THE GONE
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pfeffer, Susan Beth. 2008. THE DEAD & THE GONE. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780547258553.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Alex Morales is an average seventeen year old boy. As he lives in New York City with his Puerto Rican family, he values his faith, his family, and ‘a full scholarship to Georgetown and summer internships with United States senators. He wanted to be the first president of the United States of Puerto Rican descent.” When an asteroid hits the moon and knocks it closer to Earth, Alex’s dreams change...now he wants “to wake to hear Papi cursing him out and Mami defending him. He wanted the moon back where it belonged and pessimistic scientists to crawl under rocks. More than anything, he wanted to know his parents were safe.” During the seven month span of the book, Alex bears witness to tsunamis, floods, rising tides, volcanic ash blocking out the sun, earthquakes, Yankee Stadium becoming a morgue, and much despair. He struggles to keep his sisters alive and to be among the living, not the dead or the gone.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Susan Pfeffer creates a science fiction novel which soon draws on dystopian aspects. An asteroid hitting the moon and knocking it off course is what causes the action in the novel, but it is how the characters interact with themselves and each other that kept this reader involved and kept this book from being just another sci-fi tale. Because the author labeled each chapter as a date without a year, we know that the story covers seven months. The language and situations used give it a modern day feel.

Seventeen year old Alex Morales is the protagonist. While he struggles with keeping his sisters in line, his biggest problem is what the world has become with the moon being off track. During one portion of the novel, his supplies dealer tries to trade him safe passage for him and his sister, Brie, by using his younger sister as the bartering item.

Booklist declares “Religion is one of the strong threads running through the novel.” This is evident in the way that Alex continues to pray during all that is going on “As long as he prayed, he didn’t have to think. He didn’t have to remember”. He sends his sister, Bri, to a convent in the country, he goes to a private catholic school, and he and his sisters frequently pray to Madre Santisiana.


4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2008 Cybil Award Finalist
2009 Texas Lone Star Reading List

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Booklist:"The story’s power, as in the companion book, comes from readers’ ability to picture themselves in a similiar situation; everything Pfeffer writes about seems wrenchingly plausible."

From Kirkus: "As in the previous novel, Life as We Knew It, realistically bone-chilling despair and death join with the larger question of how the haves and have-nots of a major metropolitan city will ultimately survive in an increasingly lawless, largely deserted urban wasteland. Incredibly engaging."

Module 4 LS 5623 Among the Imposters

Book cover image from amazon.com

AMONG THE IMPOSTERS
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Haddix, Margaret. 2002. AMONG THE IMPOSTERS. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks. ISBN 0689839081

2. PLOT SUMMARY
“It’s not reform school or anything”. As these words are spoken to Luke Garner he realizes that they carry a deeper meaning for him. “The word stuck in Luke’s brain…they were going to re-form him. They were going to take a Luke and make him a Lee”. Luke’s identity is changed to that of Lee Garner. As he starts his new life at Hendrick’s School for Boys, he thinks he is leaving behind his life of being an illegal third child, hidden from the outside world by his loving parents. As he begins his life at a boy’s boarding school, he struggles to “blend in”. What Luke discovers is that all of the students at Hendrick’s carry the same secret, and when the true imposters are revealed, Luke’s life, and those of his fellow barons, are in danger.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Haddix has created a dystopia novel with a young protangonist in Luke while supplying readers with enough unanswered questions to require another novel in this series. According to Kirkus Review, “Thought-provoking issues, such as a government with too much power, raised in the first novel, as well as Luke's determination to change the world, carry on throughout this impressive sequel”.

By using the Population Police, Haddix creates a scenario almost too horrific to comprehend…a country in which third children born in a family are illegal and must be destroyed. Interestingly enough, the whole school Luke is involved in, is filled with wealthy families’ third children, called Barons. This play between the wealthy and poor classes and the intrusive nature of the Populaton Police creates this novel’s dystopian effect.

During the storyline we watch Luke “grow from a participant to a leader in this milieu, surprising himself with his own solutions “(Bulletin of Center for Children’s Books). Luke is heroic as he finds the solution to his dream--helping other third children like himself to live a more meaningful life.


4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Booklist: "Luke and his experiences are believable in the appealing, simple futuristic story."

From Kirkus: "Thought-provoking issues, such as a government with too much power, raised in the first novel, as well as Luke's determination to change the world, carry on throughout this impressive sequel. In the end, Haddix leaves readers longing for more about Luke Garner."

Module 4 LS 5323 Mockingjay

Book cover image from amazon.com

MOCKINGJAY
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Collins, Suzanne. 2010. MOCKINGJAY. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 9780439023511

2. PLOT SUMMARY
"My name is Katniss Everdee. I am seventeen years old. My home is District 12. I was in the Hunger Games. I escaped. The Capitol hates me.” In surviving the Hunger Games, Katniss becomes a reluctant pawn for the rebel forces. She has witnessed her childhood friend beaten, her partner in the games supposedly obliterated, and her beloved home destroyed along with ninety percent of District 12’s population. “I have no confidence that my becoming the mockingjay will benefit those who are trying to bring it down. How can I help the districts when every time I make a move, it results in suffering and loss of life?” Katniss does become the Mockingjay and symbolizes hope for those who have been oppressed by the government. When she realizes her dream to do away with the evil President Snow, the truth influences her final act as the Mockingjay. After those in charge of the revolution decide that a slaughtering of children in future hunger games will continue, Katniss comes to her own realization, “Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences…The truth is, it benefits no one to live in a world where these things happen.”

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
All of the books I reviewed for Module four were either companion books (THE DEAD & THE GONE), next in the series (AMONG THE IMPOSTORS) or concluding books in a series (MOCKINGJAY). MOCKINGJAY has been the hardest of the three to analyze because, in my opinion, it relies so much on the other two books in its trilogy. Trying to look at it as a stand alone piece was ineffective for me. This may be because when the Hunger Games trilogy was started, Suzanne Collins knew she would be writing three books. I learned this from her at the 2010 TLA Conference during her Hunger Games Session.

The obvious elements of this novel to Fantasy are the creation of the Mockingjay creature. The types of air crafts and special effects (the way the skin was transplanted after Katniss and Peeta were burned) also lend to this element. The governments involvement in the destruction of the different Districts, the Hunger Games themselves, and the obvious controlling of people (such as the scheduling of each inhabitant of District 13) brings in the dystopian effect of this novel.

Katniss battles herself through part of the novel, but the real antagonist of the novel is not so much President Snow, but the abuse of power associated with some who are in control of others, especially in government.


4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Booklist: "The highly anticipated conclusion to the Hunger Games trilogy does not disappoint. If anything, it may give readers more than they bargained for: in action, in love, and in grief."

From The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books: "Readers will not be disappointed by the series conclusion, as the superb characterizations and unending plot twists that were hallmarks of the previous books are all here, but they may be surprised by Collins’ bleak—albeit accurate—depiction of war. Neither the Capitol nor the rebels can claim innocence as their separate quests for power continue to rack up the body count and destroy Katniss’ world. The bittersweet ending is at once heartbreaking and appropriate, as it stays true to both the determination of Katniss and the brutality of the Games."

Module 3 LS 5623: Dairy Queen

Book cover image from Amazon.com

DAIRY QUEEN
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Murdock, Catherine. 2006. DAIRY QUEEN. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN9780618683079.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
DJ Schwenk is not your typical fifteen year old girl. She has been the driving force behind her family’s dairy; keeping it going after her father is hurt and can’t work. Her future as a basketball star is put on hold due to the increase of work she must commit to at home. She trains her school’s rival quarterback, Brian Nelson, and makes him starting material, and then she, herself tries out for the Hawley football team because, ”I was so unhappy I tried to find something that made me happy, and I had this idea of playing football..And that made me happy so I thought I’d try.”

All of the things that have caused her unhappiness: her father’s injury, the fight that caused her two older brothers to leave, trying to discover why her younger brother won’t speak, why her mom is working two jobs isn’t coming home very much, her best friend’s avoidance of her after revealing her “big secret”, failing sophomore English, and, worst of all…knowing that she is in love with a boy she doesn’t think she is worthy of, have kept her from truly expressing herself. DJ’s football career begins, and so does her new voice.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Murdock uses the likable D.J. Schwenk to narrate this story. D.J.’s inner dialogue uses a talk show format as Oprah asks questions about the people in D.J.’s life and D.J. tries to figure them out. Brian Nelson, the spoiled, lazy rich boy becomes likable as he spends the summer being trained by D.J. While D.J.’s change is subtle, Brian’s is dramatic as he goes from spoiled little rich boy to respected leader of his football team. His prodding and questioning of D.J. brings her to the point where she can express herself to those around her, try out for the football team, stand up to her father, encourage her younger brother and mother, and get the help she needs to pass English so her transcript can be F free. “Murdock’s cast of characters, from major to minor, show depth and credibility, never relying on stereotype” (CCBC -Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices).

Wisconsin is the perfect setting for this story where dairy farms are numerous, small towns plentiful, and football teams are glorious. The rivalry between D.J.’s and Brian’s school is realistic and helps explain the betrayal Brian feels when he realizes that D.J. knows all about his abilities and can use this against him when she plays against him. The biggest betrayal for him is the fact that she didn’t tell him herself, “When you don’t talk, you know, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.”


4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2006 Kirkus Best Children's Books
2007 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From School Library Journal: "Wry narration and brisk sports scenes bolster the pacing, and D.J.'s tongue-tied nature and self-deprecating inner monologues contribute to the novel's many belly laughs. At the end, though, it is the protagonist's heart that will win readers over. Dairy Queen will appeal to girls who, like D.J., aren't girly-girls but just girls, learning to be comfortable in their own skins."
From Booklist:"This humorous, romantic romp excels at revealing a situation seldom explored in YA novels, and it will quickly find its place alongside equally well-written stories set in rural areas."

Module 3 LS 5623: Whale Talk

Book Cover image from Amazon.com
WHALE TALK
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Crutcher, Chris. 2001. WHALE TALK. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books. ISBN 0688180191.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
T.J. Jones is a rarity in his high school. Not only is he the only multiracial student in his Spokane, Washington high school, he is one of the few true athletes who has no desire to be part of a traditional athletic team or to earn a letter jacket. As he watches some of the school jocks belittle those less fortunate, he is asked to help build a school swim team at Cutter High School. The Merman team is formed complete with its own unusual Magnificent seven: T.J., “the adopted athlete”, Chris Laughlin, a Special Ed student trying to come to terms with the death of his older brother, Daniel Hole, “the genius”, Tay-Roy, “the body”, Simon Deloy, the “fat “kid, Jackie Cray, the invisible one, and Andy Mott, the one-legged swimmer whose true injuries are even worse. Although they have no swimming pool on campus, this band of misfits works together at the all night swim pool with the help of a homeless man to bring pride, and letter jackets, to their team.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This story is set in Spokane, Washington, and this is imperative to the story because of the racism in the area. Without this, WHALE SONG would not be as powerful.

The story begins at the ending…TJ has graduated and it is at the end of the summer. He is looking back to the year before and the events of his life that led up to a most traumatic event in his life. While this story is about a misfit swim team overcoming prejudice, it is also a redemption story…one life lost so another can be saved. An unlikely hero, burdened with a horrific secret from his past, losing his own life to save another, and finally being able to forgive himself.

Crutcher’s characterization of TJ’s adopted father is one of a gentle giant who accidentally killed an eighteen month old child in a freak trucking incident. This caused much pain for Mr. Jones since the mother of the child he killed was a woman who he had fallen in love with, and guilt-ridden, they part, never to see each other again. Mr. Jones becomes an advocate for all children, and the abused TJ becomes his son. He has married a lawyer, who mostly works on child abuse cases, and the two of them raise T.J.

Into their lives comes Heidi, a mixed race child who is so hated by her adopted, white father that she tries to scrub the color off of herself so that she will be accepted by him. Heidi comes to live with the Jones family after her father abuses her, her mother, and twin baby brothers one too many times. Rich Marshall is the former athlete who has graduated and makes life miserable for the Jones, his wife, and children. His hatred causes the most explosive moment in the book, in which the theme of forgiveness rings true. “Not one moment for revenge”. This book shows that by using “well-constructed characters and quick pacing to examine how the sometimes cruel and abusive circumstances of life affect every link in the human chain, and a heartwrenching series of plot twists leads to an end in which goodness at least partially prevails” (Booklist).



4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2002 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
2001 Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Publisher's Weekly: "Crutcher's gripping tale of small-town prejudice delivers a frank, powerful message about social issues and ills. Representing one-third of his community's minority population ("I'm black. And Japanese. And white"), narrator T.J. Jones voices a darkly ironic appraisal of the high school sports arena."
From VOYA: "We have met the enemy and he is us" chillingly describe Crutcher's latest book in which hatred simmers, boils, and burns its characters. Narrator-protagonist T. J. is multiracial--black/Japanese/white--intellectually and athletically gifted, and sarcastic, his words both hilarious and insightful."

Module 3 LS 5623: Inside Out

Book cover image from Amazon.com

INSIDE OUT
1. BIBLOGRAPHY
Trueman, Terry. 2003. INSIDE OUT. New York, NY: HarperTempest. ISBN 0329389084.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
All Zachary Wahhsted wanted when he went into the coffee shop to wait for his mom to pick him up was a maple bar. Instead he has walked into a robbery situation gone wrong. “I mean, I guess I’m scared, but this all seems so normal to me. The thing is, I’m used to seeing and hearing really weird stuff, so this doesn’t feel that strange to me at all. It feels familiar.” Due to his schizophrenia, Zack hears and sees things that aren’t really there. While the two young robbers began to panic, Zack begins to float in and out of reality. Each chapter begins with a doctor’s report on Zack’s condition and by the end of the botched robbery; you realize that the true prisoner will be Zack. As one young robber says to his partner, “We’re in trouble here, I know that, but we’ll get out of it sooner or later-Zach is never going to get out of what’s happening to him. Man, I’d rather be us any day.”

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
While the story is taking place in the present, we learn about Zach’s schizophrenia through the clinical notes Dr. Curtis has taken after Zach attempts suicide. The book itself is narrated by Zack. As he frustrates the two young robbers, we understand even more about him. Although Booklist wrote, “the narrative blend isn't entirely successful; the facts often feel clumsily inserted, and Zach's unreliable voice doesn't allow his story to develop fully”, I liked the way I learned about Zach’s condition. His voice remained true to who he was, and in his simplicity, one can truly relate to what schizophrenia is. Most schizophrenics are void of emotions, Zach’s narration is true to form.

The story takes place in Spokane, but it has the feel of anywhere America. Trueman creates characters that are believable, and he even manages to help the reader develop sympathy for the two young robbers. As things are falling down around them, one tells the other, “I don’t want them to tell Mom…she’ll blame herself...she’s too sick.” Later in the book it is discovered that the guns the young men have used don’t even have bullets in them. The two teenagers are trying to get money to help their uninsured mom with her cancer treatment.

Although for some “the shocking ending also feels tacked on” (Booklist), the ending is very realistic for someone experiencing this disease. During the book we find out through Dr. Curtis’s notes that he has explained to Zach’s mother there is not a cure for schizophrenia. “INSIDE OUT is tense and gripping and it does not have a fairy-tale ending" (The Lorgnette-Heart of Texas Reviews) just like this mental illness.

4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2004 YALSA Best Books for Young
2004 ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
2005 International Reading Association's Young Adults' Choices

5. REVEIW EXCERPTS
From School Library Journal: "Trueman uses Zach's narration to challenge readers to feel the confusion and dark struggle of schizophrenia. The effect is disturbing, if somewhat didactic. Both the grim topic and strong language in this edgy novel suggest a mature audience."
From Booklist:"Sixteen-year-old Zach isn't frightened when two armed teenagers hold up the coffee shop where he's waiting for his mother. "The thing is," Zach says, "I'm used to seeing and hearing really weird stuff." In his second novel, the author of Stuck in Neutral (2000) takes readers inside the mind of a schizophrenic teenager. Excerpts from Zach's psychiatric records interweave with his first-person account of the dramatic robbery, offering readers the medical facts as well as Zach's personal story, especially the terror and confusion he feels when he can't distinguish between the real and the imagined."

Module 2 LS 5623: Between Mom and Jo

Book cover image from Amazon.com.

BETWEEN MOM AND JO
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Peters, Julie Ann. 2006. BETWEEN MOM AND JO. New York, NY: Little, Brown, and Company. ISBN 0316739065.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Nick is a fourteen year old boy who has faced many of the challenges teenagers face: losing a pet, a workaholic mother, an alcoholic parent, a mother fighting breast cancer, questions about his sexuality, his parents splitting up, and his parents fighting over custodial rights. The difference is that Nick lives with his two moms, and he has endured a completely different set of problems being the only child in his class who has parents who are gay. As Nick is pulled between his two moms, he discovers how to voice what he truly needs.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This story is told from the view point of Nick, and the author helps us to know him by having him flashback to the events of his youth that bring us to where he and his moms are today. In a flashback from when he was three and had been taken to the hospital by Jo, his “other” mom, “That was my first memory of being alive…Where was Mom? At work probably. Or home…I don’t know why I kept a reminder of that day...Some things leave permanent scars.”

The lesbian relationship was important to the story, but it wasn’t what drove the story. This line from the School Library Journal review of the book explains it better, “This novel is a timely exploration of the struggles faced by same-sex couples and their children, and while the issues are significant, the story is never overwhelmed by them.
Even though Nick has issues involving his classmates and teachers due to the sexuality of his moms; cancer, alcohol, and infidelity are the bigger problems for Nick’s family.
As Nick faces the loss of Jo, who has no custodial rights since she didn’t adopt him, one of the true themes of the book comes to light…”a child in a family facing divorce hurts-no matter what genders comprise the parent couple” (VOYA). Nick explains, “When Jo moved out, she took more than her stuff. She stripped the soul from this house.”

It is imperative that the issues facing our young people today be addressed, and that what occurred at Rutgers University last week becomes a thing of the past. I realize the need for books such as this and I might have been guilty of the self censoring described in the following review excerpt from VOYA, but not now! “Because of this family makeup, many librarians will self-censor the book, doing what Nick's elementary teacher did with his drawings. But the novel needs to be read. Doing so takes one step toward helping this kind of family feel less invisible; doing so represents one step closer to recognizing and supporting their very real existence.”

4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2008 American Library Association’s Rainbow List

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From the School Library Journal: “This coming-of-age novel powerfully portrays the universal pain of a family breakup. It also portrays what is still a weird situation to many people (as reflected in the behavior of Nick's babysitter) as totally normal from one young man's point of view.”
From Booklist: “ Fourteen-year-old Nick has two moms who couldn't be more different. His biological mother, Mom, is dependable and careful; Jo, Mom's partner, is irresponsible and impulsive. Nick tells their story in vignettes, including little things, such as the teasing he gets at school, as well as big things, such as Mom's cancer and Jo's alcoholism. Eventually these vignettes turn into a divorce story: Mom finds a new partner; Jo, who has no rights to Nick, struggles on her own; and Nick breaks down after Mom refuses to allow him to see Jo, with whom he wants to live. Nick's incapacitating depression and Mom's refusal to acknowledge it drag on far too long, turning into turgid melodrama. Yet Peters deftly depicts Nick's relationship with his moms and theirs with each other, and the story stays rooted in Nick's sensitive but limited perspective. A novel that will spark discussion.”

Module 2 LS 5623: Before I Die

Book cover image from Amazon.com.

BEFORE I DIE
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Downham, Jenny. 2007. BEFORE I DIE. Great Britain: David Fickling Books. ISBN 9780385751551.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
"I want to die in my own way. It’s my illness, my death, my choice.” Tessa Scott creates her own “bucket list”…ten things she wants to accomplish before the cancer that she has fought for four years takes her life. At sixteen, and knowing that she has but a few months to live, Tessa doesn’t worry about the consequences of the actions on her list. She begins with having sex (and with a stranger), using drugs, shoplifting, taking her father’s car, saying yes to everything in a single day, being interviewed on the radio (to become famous), and falling in love. Completing the list isn’t possible: holding her pregnant friend’s baby, finishing school, travelling the world, and …growing up. By working on the items on the list, she has a reason to live. It is in the living that she begins to be able to accept the inevitable end of her life.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
So much comes together to make this book work. The book is written in the first person. Every part of the story is seen through Tessa’s eyes from discovering that her cancer has progressed to having such a bloody nose she must go to the hospital.
The characters are written realistically and their emotions are understandable. Tessa’s dad is compassionate and lonely since he quit his job in order to care for his ill daughter. Her mother has left the family, but is tentatively coming back to help Tessa as her illness progresses. There is even a bit of pity for her when she takes Tessa to the hospital because of her bloody nose but can’t tell when Tessa’s last blood transfusion was because she wasn’t there. Just when it seems as if her maternal side will not kick in, she keeps Tessa’s attention away from what is going on during a procedure by telling her about the family all trying oysters for the first time. Cal, Tessa’s little brother, goes through a range of emotions from crying because he doesn’t want his sister to die to being mad at her and telling her, “I hope you die while I am at school!..And I hope it bloody hurts! And I hope they bury you somewhere horrible like the fish shop or the dentist’s!”

Reading about duvets being pulled up over someone in bed, living in a flat, having a Mum, falling on your “arse”, calling a sexual experience a “shag”, and retrieving a “fag from a box” to smoke all lead to the revelation that the story is taking place in England. The setting allows for a richness of language and , according to Kirkus reviews, “Lucid language makes a painful journey bearable, beautiful, and transcendent.”

“Most memorably, listeners hear Tessa's unspoken words-snippets of inner monologues, dreams and flashes of memories that drift into her fading consciousness as she lays dying (Publisher’s Weekly).” The pages of the last chapter show more and more space, and as Tessa’s thoughts begin to muddle with the words she hears spoken around her, she leaves this Earth. Having the character die makes this novel even more realistic to all who read it, and keeps its message about the frailty of life going on long after the reader finishes the book.

4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2007 Booklist Editors' Choice: Books for Youth
2007 Kirkus Best Young Adult Books
2007 Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books
2008 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
2009 Tayshas High School Reading List

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Kirkus Reviews, labeled a starred review: "Lucid language makes a painful journey bearable, beautiful and transcendent."

From the New York Times Book Review’s John Burnham Schwartz, "This may sound too depressing for words, but it is only one indication of the inspired originality of Before I Die, by Jenny Downham, that the reader can finish its last pages feeling thrillingly alive ... I don't care how old you are. This book will not leave you."

Module 2 LS 5623: Sweethearts

Cover image from Amazon.com.

SWEETHEARTS
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Zarr, Sara. 2008. SWEETHEARTS. New York, NY: Little, Brown, and Company. ISBN 9780316014557.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were social outcasts and best friends. “How us being together all the time made us a bigger target, the whole of our exile being greater than the sum of our outcast parts. How we didn’t care because we had each other.” One day Cameron disappears without telling Jennifer good-bye. Now the lisping, overweight, binge eating Jennifer has no one to call friend.

The summer before Jennifer begins seventh grade, her mother marries Alan Vaughn.
Jennifer becomes Jenna Vaughn and she starts life over in a new school district. She has lost weight, no longer lisps, and becomes part of the “in” crowd. On her seventeenth birthday she receives a package in the mail from Cameron, telling her he is back in town. Cameron comes back into Jenna’s life and has transformed as she has.

Jenna has never forgotten her first friend nor has Cameron forgotten her. As she laments about how horrible their childhood was together he tells her, “We had each other. I never needed anyone else.” As Jenna grows closer to Cameron, she discovers why he left without explanation (he and his family were victims of domestic violence and left his abusive father). Cameron again leaves, but this time he is able to contact Jenna and tell her why. Jenna is left wondering if her love for Cameron was the true love of forever.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
As I began this book, I thought I would be reading a sweet little romance. The cover had a heart cookie on it with a bite taken out of it and the title was Sweethearts. I was pleasantly surprised. This story is written in the first person narrative. Jenna Vaughn aka Jennifer Harris tells us the story from her point of view. In flashbacks we meet the overweight, unclean, lisping Jennifer who steals food in order to fill a hunger within that has nothing to do with food, but acceptance. Her elementary years are tolerable due to her friend, Cameron, who lives in a home where domestic abuse is the norm. After escaping a terrifying incident concerning Cameron’s father, the two children are even closer than ever. That makes Cameron’s abrupt departure from Jennifer’s life even harder for her to accept.

The voice of Jenna Vaughn, the now slim, clean, clear spoken seventeen year old is one of confidence until her seventeenth birthday arrives and she is confronted with the memories of her young self, as Cameron reenters her life. We are given a first hand account of Jenna’s struggle with herself as she begins to feel the need for food and binging. “Jenna struggles to see the child she was more clearly, to find a way to integrate her past into her present and to work toward self-acceptance” (School Library Journal).

The author brings to light many tough issues that young people go through from binging to homelessness, in a way that is realistic. According to the School Library Journal, “Sweethearts is not saccharine; it is substantial.”


4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2009 Booklist Best Books for Young Adults
2009 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
A starred review from VOYA: "[Zarr is a] master of show-not-tell....[a] subtle, beautifully-written novel."
From Kirkus Reviews: "Haunting and ultimately hopeful....A convincing, fire person narrative voice....Zarr transfixes teen readers with enticing explorations of identity and enduring love."

Module 1 LS5623: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Book cover image from Amazon.com
THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alexie, Sherman. 2009. THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN. Ill. By Ellen Forney. New York, NY: Little Brown Books for Young Readers. ISBN 9780316013697

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Junior was born with “too much grease in his skull”, he stutters, had seizures, had his ten extra teeth all pulled during the same dental visit, and he lives on an Indian reservation. Having a parents who drink too much, a sister who after living in the basement all the time ran away, and having his dog shot by his dad because they couldn’t afford to take him to the vet are just a few of the trials faced by this fourteen year old cartoonist who uses his art “to talk to the world” in hope that the world will pay attention to him.
Junior is given the chance to go to school twenty-two miles away from the reservation in a place where the only other Indian is the school’s mascot. As Junior tries to find his place in the world (half-way in the white world and half-way in Spokane Indian world) we are privy to the journey through his “diary”. Junior goes from low man on the totem pole on the reservation to finding his place as a scholar, basketball player, and leader at his new school. Along the way he loses his best friend, experiences the deaths of two family members, and finds love with a beauty named Penelope.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Sheman Alexie brings humor to this book in which the young protagonist must overcome his own prejudices about his life in order to move forward and become the person he is meant to be. By creating this novel from the first person view point of Junior, Alexie mastered the first characteristic of young adult novels…writing from the view point of young people. Since Junior had a close relationship with his grandmother and his alcoholic parents weren’t always around, characteristic two was achieved (I want the credit).
Characteristic five (body of work includes stories about characters from many different ethnic and cultural groups) was met by creating the character of Junior, a young Indian boy living on a Spokane Indian reservation but trying to go to school off of the reservation, with the “rich” kids. Junior fights against the prejudice shown to him by his own people “They call me an apple because they think I’m red on the outside and white on the inside” , and he becomes neither red nor white, but himself.


4. AWARDS/HONORS
2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
School Library Journal Best Books of 2007
2008 American Indian Library Association American Indian Youth Literature Award
Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of 2007

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
On the site, Teen Links, Elina from Auburn, AL, wrote, “But for a story about a disabled teen who has an alcoholic father and faces bullies, racism, and the deaths of several close relatives, this book made me laugh a lot… If your heart breaks as you read this book, chances are you're laughing, too. It really does read like an absolutely true diary: genuine, poignant, in-your-face, and oh-so-real. So, laugh, cry, and love this book as much as I did.”
From School Library Journal featured as a starred review: “Exploring Indian identity, both self and tribal, Alexie’s first young adult novel is a semiautobiographical chronicle of Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a Spokane Indian from Wellpinit, WA. The bright 14-year-old was born with water on the brain, is regularly the target of bullies, and loves to draw…The teen’s determination to both improve himself and overcome poverty, despite the handicaps of birth, circumstances, and race, delivers a positive message in a low-key manner.”

Reference: Nilsen, Alleen P. and Kenneth L Donelson. 2009. LITERATURE FOR TODAY’S YOUNG ADULTS, 8th ed. (Boston, MA: Pearson).

Module 1 LS5623: Stuck in Neutral

Book cover image from Amazon.com
STUCK IN NEUTRAL
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Trueman, Terry. 2000. STUCK IN NEUTRAL. New York, NY: HarperCollins Children’s Books. ISBN 006285192

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Shawn McDaniel is a fourteen year old boy who loves his mother, enjoys the taste of smoked oysters, and has never taken care of any of his own needs. Although Shawn has never spoken a word, he can remember every conversation he has ever heard, and he is able to read. Since he is unable to express himself, Shawn’s IQ measures out to be that of a three to four month old baby. The worst part of his cerebral palsy isn’t the seizures that often plague him nor his life of total dependence: it is the feeling Shawn has that his dad wants to kill him. “If my dad walked into this room right now and killed me, no one would know what I was really like.”(Trueman, 60)

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Terry Trueman writes this novel in the voice of Shawn, who can’t communicate with the outside world. Using Shawn’s voice is a powerful way to present this tough subject of possible euthanasia and the life of a person trapped within themselves. Although Shawn is physically imprisoned within his own body, his mind is free.
“Have you ever wondered if a definition of love might not include taking responsiblility for someone who can’t take responsibility for his or her self?” This is the question that Shawn’s father grapples with as he watches his son “suffer” or so he believes. It is obvious that there is a bit of man vs. man conflict here, but there is also man’s conflict within himself, as Shawn begins to accept the possibility of his own death at his father’s hands. When I began this book, I was incensed at the thought of a father taking his son’s life, but Trueman’s masterful development of each character, especially those of Shawn and his father, helped me not to cast Shawn’s father in such a bad light. The ending is one that has the reader revisiting the story, trying to decide what was the fate of Shawn. “But before either of us can speak again, I feel crackle-crackle-crackle. I can’t tell what’s going to happen next. My seizure begins to spin slowly through me. What will my dad do? Whatever it is, in another moment I’ll be flying free. Either way, whatever he does, I’ll be soaring.” Even more gripping are the author’s notes at the end that explain Mr. Trueman based the character Shawn after his own son. “While I invented Shawn’s world and make up all the things that happen, I also based what I wrote on being the parent of a kid like Shawn, my son Henry Sheehan Trueman.”


4. AWARDS/HONORS
2001Michael L. Printz Honor Book
2001 ALA Best Book for Young Adults
2001 ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
2000 ALA Booklist Top Ten Youth First Novels

5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
School Library Journal recommends this book for Gr 5-9. The review: “Shawn McDaniel has cerebral palsy. With no control of physical functions, he appears to the outside world, including his family, to be hopelessly retarded-a "vegetable." Because he narrates the story, readers know that he is, in fact, a near genius, completely aware of his surroundings, and able to remember everything he has ever heard…His struggle to be known, and ultimately loved, is vividly captured, and the issue of euthanasia is handled boldly but sensitively…This story is bound to spark much lively discussion.”

From Barnes and Noble’s customers’ reviews: “I JUST LOVE THIS BOOK, and definitely recommend this book to any age. I'm an eighth grader, and I just love to read. And this is one of my favorite books. As you read you become so excited that you want to read more. WOW GREAT BOOK.. SAD ENDING TOO.”

Module 1 LS5623: Seventeenth Summer

Book cover image from Simon and Schuster web site
SEVENTEENTH SUMMER
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Daly, Maureen. 1968. SEVENTEENTH SUMMER. New York, NY: Pocket Books. ISBN 0671619314

2. PLOT SUMMARY
This book, considered to be one of the first young adult novels, tells the story of Angie Morrow, a seventeen year old girl who, after finishing high school, is spending the summer preparing to start college in the fall. At the beginning of the summer, she meets Jack Duluth, star basketball player, whose family owns a bakery. Through boat rides and cokes at the corner drugstore, Angie falls in love for the first time and chronicles the experience, knowing that “never again would there be anything quite as wonderful as that seventeenth summer!”

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This book is the stereotypical “shy girl meets popular boy from wrong side of tracks”. What makes this story of first love so appealing is the innocence of the time. This story happens in the 1940’s, and barely are there even kisses shared. It seems more like a young adult novel of today when smoking and drinking occur, but that was more acceptable during that time then a young lady making herself readily available to a boy, as Angie’s sister, Lorraine does.
While the story is written from Maureen’s view point, the age of the story makes it feel f as if the protagonist is older than seventeen, even though Daly was in high school and college when she wrote this novel
. The copy I checked out from the library had a cover that had been redone to make the novel appear more contemporary, showing a young couple reclining in a field together. The sweetness of the story would appeal more to a fifth or sixth grade student, rather than the seventeen year olds that the title implies.

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
On the Amazon.com site, Kiddy, a high school student from Northern California, wrote:
“Earlier this summer I picked up Seventeenth Summer and fell in love with the illustrious characters Daly has perfectly painted into her novel. It surprised me, however, when I checked the copyright date and noticed it was published in the early 1940's. I had absolutely no idea, considering the way love is truly timeless and this beautiful novel proves all of the above. As a high school student, I can completely relate with the giddy feelings of first love for a teenage girl and this novel perfectly portrays all of the emotions, trials and even tragedies that are intricate into such a powerful emotion.”

From Publishers Weekly: “College-bound Angie Morrow falls in love for the first time in the perennially popular Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly (1942), written while the author was still in college herself. Diary Like entries depict the trials and tribulations of adolescent amour.”