Keturah and Lord Death - Leavitt - 2006 - YA Lit Week 9

Title: Keturah and Lord Death

Author: Martine Leavitt

Year: 2006

Publisher: Front Street

Course Theme for the Week: Speculative Fiction: Science Fiction & Fantasy (03-30-2011)

Date Read: 03-28-2011

Overall: * * * * (4/5)

GoodReads Blurb: "I will tell you . . . a story of magic and love, of daring and death, and one to comfort your heart. It will be the truest story I have ever told. Now listen, and tell me if it is not so."

After following a hart into the woods bordering her town, Keturah is faced with Death. Lost and hungry after following a stately hart through the forest, Keturah encounters Lord Death, who is ready to take her. Like Scheherazade, Keturah spins a story that she leaves unfinished and extracts from Lord Death a promise that if she finds her true love in a day, she can go free. Thus begins Keturah's search for her one true love and the salvation of her beloved town. But Lord Death is falling in love with her, and as the villagers begin to sense her alliance with this horrifying figure, her life twists and turns on itself.

Martine Leavitt offers a spellbinding story, interweaving elements of classic fantasy and high romance. The romance is intense, the writing is startling, and the story is spellbinding--and it is as difficult to turn away from as the tales beautiful Keturah tells to the people of her village, Tide-by-Rood.

My Review: This book read very much like a fairy tale. The language was simple, and the characters were rather flat, but it felt like it was on purpose, as this was the style and type of story Leavitt wanted to use. It was a very easy read, and I think would be more appealing for middle-grade readers than high school level.

I liked the message that only when faced with death did Keturah really try to live her life and love her town and friends for who they were. I have to say, I was really rooting for Keturah and John the whole time, and was disappointed that my first instincts were correct about who Keturah would find to be her true love. I'm not sure what kind of message it sends that her true love was Lord Death. I also didn't really like the quick summaries of all of her friends' lives at the end, and I'm unsure of how the beginning worked into the ending. Was it Keturah telling the story? And if so, to whom?

I did like this story, I just had a few minor problems, but I think young adults ages 11-14 could really get a lot out of this story. It's a nice fantasy/fairy tale book, and the quality of writing is very high.

To Purchase: Amazon, B&N

Also by this author: Heck: Superhero (2006), The Dollmage (2002), and many others!

Currently Reading: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by L. Frank Baum

Books read in 2o11: 32 (of 100)

Beautiful Creatures - Garcia & Stohl - 2009 - YA Lit Week 9

Title: Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles # 1)

Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Year: 2009

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Course Theme for the Week: Speculative Fiction: Science Fiction & Fantasy (03-30-2011)

Date Read: 03-26-2011

Overall: * * * 1/2 (3.5/5)

GoodReads Blurb: Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

My Review: I read this book as one of my two Fantasy books for my YA Lit course. I really only chose it out of convenience, since a friend of mine owned it and I didn't feel like making the trek out to the library or a store to find some of the others on the list. I spent a nice Saturday home lounging on the couch and reading this book. I was surprised with how much I enjoyed the story.

I liked the writing of Garcia & Stohl, it felt very smooth and the language didn't feel like there were two authors. The plot was alright, I'm not a big fan of "supernatural" or "paranormal" things, because I find it really difficult to get past the fact that I don't believe in any of those things, but for the most part I was able to see beyond that in this story. Ethan and Lena made a nice pair, and I felt like I understood why Lena was such a roller coaster mess half the time, it felt very believable.

I did have a few problems with this, though. First, I don't really understand that sudden change when Ethan decided that Lena should be called "L" constantly... L isn't really an initial I think works as a nickname. At all. It just felt forced, and like whoever was typing up the novel got a little lazy. Second, Ethan didn't really make sense as a boy. I mean... he seemed very much like a girl. Maybe Garcia & Stohl just aren't very good at convincingly writing from the male perspective. I don't mean the writing was bad, it just felt like I was reading from a girl's perspective the whole time. Third, I felt like Lena's "caster" family members were very typical. I knew from the first family gathering that one of them would be secretively "dark" and that their relationships would play out as they did.

This book didn't make me want to run out and grab the second in the series, but I did enjoy my Saturday reading it. I have borrowed the second one to read when I have time, though I have been told I might not enjoy it as much as the first. We'll see!

To Purchase: Amazon, B&N

Also by these authors: Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles # 2) (2010), Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles # 3) (coming in 2011)

Stitches - Small - 2009

Title: Stitches: A Memoir (Graphic Novel)

Author: David Small

Year: 2009

Publisher: Norton

Course Theme for the Week: Biography & Non-Fiction (03-23-2011)

Date Read: 03-22-2011

Overall: * * * * * (5/5)

GoodReads Blurb: One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die.

In Stitches, Small, the award-winning children’s illustrator and author, re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. As the images painfully tumble out, one by one, we gain a ringside seat at a gothic family drama where David—a highly anxious yet supremely talented child—all too often became the unwitting object of his parents’ buried frustration and rage.

Believing that they were trying to do their best, David’s parents did just the reverse. Edward Small, a Detroit physician, who vented his own anger by hitting a punching bag, was convinced that he could cure his young son’s respiratory problems with heavy doses of radiation, possibly causing David’s cancer. Elizabeth, David’s mother, tyrannically stingy and excessively scolding, ran the Small household under a cone of silence where emotions, especially her own, were hidden.

Depicting this coming-of-age story with dazzling, kaleidoscopic images that turn nightmare into fairy tale, Small tells us of his journey from sickly child to cancer patient, to the troubled teen whose risky decision to run away from home at sixteen—with nothing more than the dream of becoming an artist—will resonate as the ultimate survival statement.

A silent movie masquerading as a book, Stitches renders a broken world suddenly seamless and beautiful again.

My Review: Stitches is beautifully illustrated. The images in the story convey so much emotion, and a large number of the pages don't even have any text. I was surprised that the pages without text were my favorite, but I think it is because I was able to linger longer on those pages, trying to figure out their meaning and what part of the story they were telling.

There are a number of images in this story that are actually fairly horrifying. The "little man in the jar," in particular. I think one of my favorite panels of images was the rain scene towards the end. There is rain in the city, on the car, the view out the window, on the lawnmower, and the inside of the kitchen looks dim and lonely. I think David Small does a wonderful job with faces, showing with just a few lines the exact expression you can picture someone making.

David's story is not a happy story, though the ending is full of hope. Seeing the illustrations that match his emotions when he discovered his father had given him cancer through x-rays was, at times, really hard to look at, because I didn't want to believe that could happen and then that they wouldn't even tell him the truth about his surgery.

To Purchase: Amazon, B&N

Also by this author: Imogene's Antlers (1985), Ruby Mae Has Something to Say (1992)

Books read in 2011: 28

Currently Reading: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (2009)

Persepolis - Satrapi - 2003-2004 - YA Lit Week 8

Title: (The Complete) Persepolis

Author: Marjane Satrapi

Year: English: 2003-2004, French: 2000-2001

Publisher: Pantheon

Course Theme for the Week: Biography and Non-Fiction

Date Read: 03-22-2011

Overall: * * * * * (5/5)

GoodReads Blurb: Here, in one volume, is Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed memoir-in-comic-strips. "Persepolis" is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna, facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming, both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up. Edgy, searingly observant and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom; "Persepolis" is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.

My Review: This is my first official introduction to graphic novels, and I must say, I really enjoyed it. I loved that even such simple images could convey the feelings of the dialog and text, and I loved that Satrapi was able to include so much humor in her story.

The book combines the history of Iran with Marjane's own history, making the book not only a memoir but a learning tool for that time period as well. I was surprised by how much I learned not just about Marjane's youth, but about her culture.

To Purchase: Amazon, B&N

Also by this author: Embroideries (2006), Chicken with Plums (2006)

YA Lit Week Four: What Would Emma Do? - Eileen Cook - 2008

Read for YA Lit week four.

Course Theme for the Week: Integrity: Making Moral Choices (2-16-2011)

Title: What Would Emma Do?

Author: Eileen Cook

Year: 2008

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Date Read: 2-14-2011 (reread)

Overall: * * * * (4/5)

GoodReads Blurb: Thou Shalt Not Kiss Thy Best Friend’s Boyfriend...again...

There is no greater sin than kissing your best friend’s boyfriend. So when Emma breaks that golden rule, she knows she’s messed up big-time...especially since she lives in the smallest town ever, where everyone knows everything about everyone else...and especially since she maybe kinda wants to do it again. Now her best friend isn’t speaking to her, her best guy friend is making things totally weird, and Emma is running full speed toward certain social disaster. This is so not the way senior year was supposed to go.

Time to pray for a minor miracle. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s time for Emma to stop trying to please everyone around her, and figure out what she wants for herself.

My Review: When I first read this book, I did so because the blurb sounded similar to The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott and I was curious if it really was similar. It ended up being very different, and actually very different from a lot of YA books that I've read. I liked that Cook wasn't afraid to include religion in this novel. Even though I am not religious like Emma or the people in her town, it didn't take away from the story and I actually really enjoyed her thoughts about God at the beginning of each chapter.

I really liked that Emma was there to stick up for her friend at the end of the story and that she broke her silence about the truth. Even though Joann hadn't been much of a friend to her lately, Emma knew that speaking up would save Joann from being blamed like Darci intended to. I think it's really important for adolescents to learn that sticking up for friends and being honest will always be the best option out there. The easiest way to learn how to be a good person is to start by being a good friend.

To Purchase: Amazon

Other Books By This Author: Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood (2010), The Education of Hailey Kendrick (2011) (my review here), Unpredictable (2008)

Currently Reading: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Books Read in 2011: 21

YA Lit Week Four: Breathless - Jessica Warman - 2009

Read for week four of YA Lit course.

Course Theme for the Week: Integrity: Making Moral Choices (2-16-2011)

Title: Breathless

Author: Jessica Warman

Year: 2009

Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers

Date Read: 2-14-2011 (reread)

Overall: * * * 1/2 (3.5/5)

GoodReads Blurb: When Katie Kitrell is shipped off to boarding school, it doesn't take her long to become part of the It Crowd. She's smart, she's cute, and she's a swimming prodigy. What her new friends, roommate, and boyfriend don't know is that Katie has kept a secret about her past—that her schizophrenic older brother, Will, is quickly descending deeper into insanity. As her lie constantly threatens to reveal itself, it's all Katie can do to keep her head above water.

My Review: When I think about this book, I am undecided about how much I liked it. I enjoyed reading it, and there were a few characters that I really liked. But the book as a whole didn't really leave its mark on me. I always hope that there will be something about each book that will distinguish it from all other books, so that I can remember each one. What I most remember about Breathless both times I've read it, is Katie's friend Mazzie. At times it felt like small subplots were introduced and then they trailed off without really developing.

I like Katie's confusion about her life and especially her brother. I understood that it would easier for her to pretend he no longer existed than to accept and explain what he was really like. I haven't read many books recently that really go into the problems siblings can have with each other and the love that siblings share, which can be a really interesting topic.

I'm not sure what age group I would recommend this book to. I don't know if younger teens would be able to understand the complexity of Katie's relationships with the people around her, even her layered friendship with Mazzie. I think older teens might enjoy this story, but I might recommend Warman's other book, Where The Truth Lies, before I would recommend Breathless.

To Purchase: Amazon

Other Books By This Author: Where the Truth Lies (201)

Currently Reading: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Books Read in 2011: 21

YA Lit Week Four: Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson - 1999

Read for week four of Young Adult Lit course

Course Theme for the Week: Integrity: Making Moral Choices

Title: Speak

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Year: 1999

Publisher: Puffin

Date Read: 2-13-2011

Overall: * * * * * (5/5)

GoodReads Blurb: Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she's been struck mute...

My Review: I think this was the third time I've read Speak. The first time I read this book was in high school, and I was probably a freshman or sophomore. I remember instantly relating to Melinda, not because of the specific problems she faces, but because of how she handles them and how she curls up into herself. I felt like spending a day in her head would be eerily similar to spending a day in my own head.

This isn't exactly and easy book to read. It's harsh and depressing at times, but ultimately Melinda grows stronger by the end of the book and she finally lets the truth come out about her attack. Throughout the book I just wanted to have Melinda yell at somebody about what had happened, but she does know that she has to tell her former friend (Rachel, I think) when she begins to date the boy who hurt her.

In relation to this week's theme in the list course, integrity, I would say that Melinda had strong morals. She knew right from wrong, even though she couldn't admit what had happened to anyone. However, when a former friend gets involved, she knew she had to tell the truth because she didn't want her friend to get hurt the way that she did. It took a lot of strength for Melinda to break her silence, and her friend shunned her for it anyways. Although it works out in the end of the story, it was still hard for Melinda to do the right thing and try to protect someone who had ignored her all year.

I think this is a good book for high school students to read because it is honest and exposes that situations like those that Melinda face do happen to people all the time, and sometimes it is really hard for the victims of such violence to take a stand and let the truth out.

To Purchase: Amazon

Other Books By This Author: Wintergirls (2009), Twisted (2007), Catalyst (2002)

Currently Reading: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Books Read in 2011: 21

YA Lit Week Three: Shift - Jennifer Bradbury - 2008

Part of YA Lit course, week three.

Course Theme for the Week: Independence: The Journey (2-9-2011)

Title: Shift

Author: Jennifer Bradbury

Year: 2008

Publisher: Atheneum

Date Read: 2-3-2011

Overall: * * * * * (5/5)

GoodReads Blurb: Imagine you and your best friend head off on a cross-country bike trek.

Imagine that you get into a fight — the cheap s.o.b. won't kick in any cash.

Imagine you stop riding together.

Imagine you reach Seattle then come home alone, still p.o-ed.

Imagine the FBI is now at your college dorm.

Imagine finding out that your former best friend never made it home.

And imagine that he had actually been carrying over $20,000 in cash with him.

Imagine your world shifting....

A tour-de-force about biking, friendship, and the depths of loyalty by a debut novelist who has in fact biked cross country.

My Review: I hadn't planned on reading this book for week three of school, but my library didn't have True Confessions of a Heartless Girl when I was checking out books last week. I had mixed feelings when I started reading Shift, but I ended up really enjoying it. Sometimes I find a hard time getting into stories with male protagonists, but I liked that the chapters switched back and forth from Chris and Win's time on the road and present time. Also, I am always surprised at how well female writers can write strong, likable male characters.

I liked the parallels that were made between Chris and Win's journey on their bikes and their journeys within themselves. The further the two got from home, and then from each other, the more they grew into the people they are going to be for the rest of their lives. It felt like their friendship had to break in order for them to become new people and then they could reform their friendship as people they both liked and respected.

I think an important message this books sends is that it is ok to not do what you're "supposed to" in regards to your future. College isn't always the right decision, sometimes some time away is needed, and your own happiness is far more important than anyone else's sometimes. I liked that Chris and Win knew they would be friends forever, and that Win knew Chris wouldn't let him down and would find him in the end. I liked the mystery of it all, that Chris really didn't know where Win was until he thought hard about it and got some clues. The FBI agent was a great addition to the plot too. By the end, you could tell that he no longer wanted to what Coggans wanted, that he felt inside that it was the right thing to do to leave Win alone and let him be.

To Purchase: Amazon

Currently Reading: Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph

Currently Listening To: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (read by Carolyn McCormick)

Books Read in 2011: 16

YA Lit Week Three: Hope Was Here - Joan Bauer - 2000

This book was read for the third week of the YA Lit course.

Course Theme for the Week: Independence: The Journey (2-9-2011)

Title: Hope Was Here

Author: Joan Bauer

Year: 2000 (republished 2005)

Publisher: Speak

Date Read: 2-2-2011

Overall: * * * * (4/5)

Amazon Blurb: One new life, coming right up. Hope's used to thinking on her feet - she hasn't become a terrific waitress by accident. But when she and her aunt move from New York City to a small town in Wisconsin to run the local diner, she isn't sure she'll fit in. Luckily, she doesn't have much time to brood. G.T., the owner, has decided to run for mayor, an no one in town knows what to think. After all, G.T. has leukemia. And his opponent is the unscrupulous current mayor, who will do or say anything to win the election. Hope knows that G.T. is up against the odds=but his visiton of the future is so vivid and good that she can't help but join the campaign. Because, after all, everyone could use a little hope to get through the touch times. Even Hope herself.

My Review: As I was reading this book, I got the feeling I'd read it before, probably when I was a freshman in high school, back when I did nothing to keep track of the books I read. I really enjoyed the story though, it really is filled with hope. Hope, the character, was wonderfully strong and courageous, it felt like I was right there with her, rooting for the truth. The side characters were special too, G.T. and Addie, Braverman, Lou Ellen... they were all so well-written and had such great and individual personalities. I've said it before, but I really enjoy when you can't tell that each character was written by the same person.

I think there were a few important lessons that readers of this book can pick up on. First, somewhat obviously, is hope. That Hope chose the word for her name, and that there had to be so much of it in the lives of the patrons of the Welcome Stairways diner. Second, is that teenagers, and town members of any age, can work together to make a difference in things that matter, as long as they believe in what they're doing. Third, is that there are so many different types of family. Hope was holding out for her real father, when what she found was a very real father who just didn't happen to be here biological father. Addie, her aunt, was very much a mother to her, because her biological mother had no idea how or any desire to be a mother to her.

I think this book is great for middle school ages and up. Advanced elementary school children might enjoy it as well. I think the food analogies and the bits of warmth and humor will really pull in readers of all ages, because it's such a sweet story.

To Purchase: Amazon

Currently Reading: Shift by Jennifer Bradbury

Currently Listening To: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (read by Carolyn McCormick)

Books Read in 2011: 15

YA Lit Week Two: Forever - Judy Blume - 1975

This book was read for the second week of the YA Lit course.

Course Theme for the Week: History of Young Adults and Young Adult Literature (2-2-2011)

Title: Forever...

Author: Judy Blume

Year: 1975

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Date Read: 2-1-2011

Overall: * * * * *

GoodReads Blurb: Katherine and Michael meet at a New Year's Eve party. They're attracted to each other, they grow to love each other. And once they've decided their love is forever, they make love. It's the beginning of an intense and exclusive relationship, with a future all planned. Until Katherine's parents insist that she and Michael put their love to the test with a summer apart..."Forever" is written for an older age group than Judy Blume's other novels for children. It caused a storm of controversy when it was first published because of its explicit sexual content. It was a book ahead of its time - and remains, after thirty years in print, a teenage best-seller. America's No. 1 children's author has written some of the best books of our time about real-life issues - family stress and pressures, what happens when your parents divorce, the problems of growing up and sexual awakening, bereavement - with insight, sensitivity and honesty. The response of readers all around the world continues to make her one of the best-loved writers ever published.

My Review: This book was also a reread for me. I actually read this for the first time about a year ago. I felt like I was the only 20-something girl who hadn't read Forever yet, so I made it my mission last year. Even as I reread it, I was still struck with how honest and open Katherine is. She is so open and blunt and just very real, so very unlike many of the "woe is me, I need a man, help I am clumsy!" type girls who exist literature now.

I still love how the lesson in the book isn't about pregnancy, it isn't about HIV, it isn't about abusive first boyfriends... it's about love, and how it can feel like it will last forever at times and then that same love can change. It is such an important message for people, of any age, to know. When I was a teenager in love it felt like it would never end, that it could last forever and that I wanted it to last forever. But it didn't, and it's very realistic for people to change, and for feelings and relationships to change, even though so many "first loves" feel never-ending.

I do love that those other messages are still included in the story. Sybil experiences a pregnancy and gives the baby up for adoption, Artie experiences psychological problems, and Katherine visits Planned Parenthood to go on the pill and to get information about being safe. This book pretty much covers all the important bases when it comes to young love and young sex.

To Purchase: Amazon

Currently Reading: Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris, and Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph

Currently Listening To: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read by Carolyn McCormick)

Books Read in 2011: 14

YA Lit Week Two: Weetzie Bat - Francesca Lia Block - 1989

This book was read for the second week of the YA Lit course.

Course Theme for the Week: History of Young Adults and Young Adult Literature (2-2-2011)

Title: Weetzie Bat

Author: Francesca Lia Block

Year: 1989

Publisher: HarperCollins

Date Read: 2-1-2011

Overall: * * * * (4/5)

Amazon Blurb: Weetzie Bat lived in a fairy-tale land of glitter, glitz, and coolness. She had a bleachd-blonde flat-top and pink sunglasses, and cruised around town with her best friend Dirk and her Slinkster Dog pooch in a '55 Pontiac named Jerry.

Weetzie loved L.A., with its plastic palm tree wallets and tomahawks, its cheap cheese and bean burritos, and its surfer dudes. But still, something was missing. So Weetzie made three wishes, and they all came true...

My Review: This was a reread for me. Though, the last time I read it I think I was about 14 years old. I really didn't remember much about it. Weetzie is such a lovely character, she just wants love and happiness for herself and her friends. She wants to live in a glittering fairy land with rose petals and sparkles all around. She just wants goodness.

There are actually a lot of deep messages in this story. About children who have rough childhoods, and how they just want love in their loves and to care for someone else. Weetzie's best friend Dirk is gay, and he finds love in Duck. Duck brings up good points about HIV, though it is not directly stated. But it sounds like it when he says that loving someone shouldn't kill them.

This story is just really beautifully written, as are all of Block's stories. This makes me want to reread Echo, which I remember adoring in high school.

I think younger teenagers would love this book. It is so fantastical and magical, that even though Weetzie and her friends could be real people, they just seem to shimmer and live these wonderful lives full of love and happiness. I don't know if teens would find all of the hidden messages in the story, but I think it would be easy to get the messages about love and caring. I would be interested in hearing other peoples' opinions on the story and in hearing teenagers opinions on it.

To Purchase: Amazon

Currently Reading: Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris

Currently Listening To: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read by Carolyn McCormick)

Books Read in 2011: 14

Review of Forever... by Judy Blume will be posted later tonight

YA Lit Week One: Responses

I am writing this having just attended my first YA Lit class of the semester. One of our assignments throughout the course will be weekly responses to one or both of the books we choose to read in that particular week. I will be adding these responses to my posts for those books, possibly replacing the "My Review" section with a "My Response" section. Though I would still like to give a brief review on what I did or didn't find appealing about each book. Maybe the Responses should be a separate post, since they may often talk about multiple books and their similarities/differences? I will try to figure this out. For now, here is a summary of what we discussed in class in relation to The Catcher in the Rye and The Outsiders:

Most of the people in my discussion group didn't like The Catcher in the Rye. I was sort of the minority voice sticking up for Holden, trying to explain that he just wanted to talk to someone, and that he was depressed, and that it probably isn't good to assume that that he is just a whiny rich kid, because there are plenty of people in the world feeling as hopeless and sad as Holden did. Also, he makes a lot of good points about how the world could or should be, and that it is pretty darn depressing the world isn't as "good" as he wants it to be.

Most everyone seemed to really like The Outsiders. I was glad to have similar opinions on this book. One person in our group brought up the point that the language doesn't seem very well written, and that it sounds very young, possibly because Hinton was young when she wrote it. However, I think that the whole point of the book is that it sounds young, because it's a high school kid's point of view, and because of where and how Ponyboy grew up, he has that view point and that language.

Other people in the group read The Pigman by Paul Zindell, and seemed to enjoy it. They talked about the similarities between The Pigman and The Outsiders. Since I guess both books show these groups of people that become family, but weren't born that way. That is a major theme in The Outsiders, that needing to belong and to not only care about others, but to have other people care about you.

All in all, I really enjoyed the first class of this course and I am looking forward to next week's class.

To Buy: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, The Pigman by Paul Zindell

Reading for Next Week's Class: Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, Forever by Judy Blume

Other Reading: XVI by Julia Karr

YA Lit Week One: The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton - 1965

This is the second book due for the first week of the YA Lit course.

Course Theme for the Week: "Introduction to the Course (1-26-2011)
Title: The Outsiders
Author: S.E. Hinton
Year: 1965
Date Read: 1-23-2011
Overall: * * * * * (5/5)

Amazon Blurb: According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser. This classic, written by S. E. Hinton when she was 16 years old, is as profound today as it was when it was first published in 1967.

My Review: I didn't actually know very much about this story before reading it. I knew a lot of middle schools had this as assigned reading, but mine did not, and I just never got around to reading it prior to this. I wish that I had not waited so long to read it though, because it sucked me right in and I just had to know the rest of Ponyboy's story. At times I was fearful to keep reading, because I didn't want anything bad to happen to him or his brothers, or his friends.
I liked the honesty in Ponyboy's voice, and that he didn't seem angry about his place in the world, but that he seemed to accept things even if those things weren't fair. The differences in each character's personalities were very distinct, especially the differences between kids like Johnny or Ponyboy and kids like Dallas. Ponyboy's world is so completely different from mine that I couldn't put the book down because of how little I could relate to his world and his lifestyle.
I think that people of any age could get a lot out of this book. The ultimate lesson for me was to never let all of the bad things in the world black out all of the good things, like sunsets. When Johnny died, it did something to Ponyboy for a while, until he could see that Johnny wouldn't want him to be like that, to become like Dallas, and so in the end he tried to hold onto those bits of innocence he had left.
At some points, I could really feel some similarities between The Outsiders and The Catcher in the Rye, particularly because Ponyboy's thought process was often, in my opinion, very similar to Holden Caulfield's. There were some observations that Ponyboy made that sounded very much like Holden's (like how people are different in their yearbook pictures, and how repetitive both narrators were). This wasn't a bad thing for me, and I don't think I would have noticed if I hadn't read them within the same week.

To Buy: Amazon

Currently Reading:
For Class -- Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, Forever by Judy Blume
Other -- Bleed by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Books Read in 2011: 8

YA Lit Week One: The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger - 1951

This is the first book for week one of my YA Lit course. I will also have a review up for The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton by Tuesday night.

Course Theme for the Week: "Introduction to the Course (1-26-2011)"

Title: The Catcher in the Rye

Author: J.D. Salinger

Year: 1951

Date Read: 1-21-2011

Overall: * * * * * (5/5)

GoodReads Blurb: Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

My Review (aka What can this book offer to young adults?): One of the most amazing things about this book is how much I get out of it each time I read it. Holden is just barely hanging on as he wanders through New York. There is such a feeling of hopelessness as he goes from person to person and situation to situation trying desperately to find someone who will not just talk to him, but listen to him. He is so obviously alone and lonely. At the same time, it feels very hopeful to me, because he keeps trying and keeps going for the next person.

Everything in the book sort of contradicts itself, even Holden, constantly. Even the title is sort of wrong, since he learns from his sister Phoebe that the poem goes "If a body see a body..." not "catch a body." When he tells Phoebe he would like to be the person catching kids from going over the edge, it became clear to me that he is also hoping that there's somebody else catching him from going over the edge.

I think for first time readers of this book, it will be hard to pick up on a lot of the symbolism and the layers of the story. The red hunting hat, the questions about the ducks in central park, the difference in the Holden in the story and the Holden telling the story, etc. A second read of this book feels necessary to me. A lot of teenagers might be able to relate to the loneliness and hopelessness that Holden experiences, and that there are only a few things that really make Holden feel anything close to happiness. Life is hard, and it can really suck sometimes, but throughout the whole book, even when it feels like Holden might end up dead in some way, the reader can tell that he is alive, because he is telling the story, which gives this nice underlining of hope, even to those as lonely as Holden.

To Buy: Amazon

Currently Reading: Bleed by Laurie Faria Stolarz and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Books Read This Year: 7

Assigned Reading Book Reviews

As a heads up, I will be adding a different style of book review for the books I read for grad school. I may still give them a rating and my usual style of review, but instead of focusing on my likes or dislikes of the books, I will be focusing more on what they offer to the YA population and then might do updates to those posts after we discuss the books in class, adding in other classmates' opinions and theories. I am far more interested in other people's opinions than in my own.

I am not really a big fan of picking apart the books I read, as I would rather enjoy them (or dislike them) for my initial feelings or thoughts towards them. Digging into books feels like putting words into the author's mouth, because unless they have clearly stated it somewhere, there is no way to know their true intentions or if any insight or knowledge we gain from a book was the author's desired intent or if it is just a reflection of ourselves, the readers.

These posts will be scattered throughout my usual book review posts, and I will make note in the post title if it is a book for class.