Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Riggs, Ransom.   Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.   Philadelphia:  Quirk, 2011.  

Audience:  Upper High School, 16+

Genre:  Fantasy, Biomythography, Realistic Horror, Crossover YA/Adult

Topics of Focus:  Dreams, Time travel, Normality, Family

Red Flags:  May be too dark for a younger audience.

One should not judge a book by its cover, but I certainly did with Riggs’s first novel, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.   The little, levitating girl on the front jacket cover looked strange, grotesque, eerie, and yes, peculiar.   The images on the back jacket were reminiscent of a David Lynch movie or that weird bear scene in Kubrick’s The Shining.    Now that’s the kind of stuff worth reading!   Like the bogs of Wales, this one draws you in slowly, but surely.

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty

Neri, G. Yummy:  The Last Days of a Southside Shorty.  New York: Lee&Low, 2010.

Audience:  Middle School, 12+

Genre:  Graphic Novel, Urban/Street Fiction, Teen Problem Novel, Boy Book

Topics of Focus:  Teen Boys, Gangs, Incarceration, Choices, Violence, Judicial System, Class Disparities

Red Flags:  Graphic Violence

I remember reading the 1994 Time article about the life and world of Robert “Yummy” Sandiford.   It was a world I didn’t know, didn’t travel in, and didn’t want to experience.   I was working with significantly-at-risk students at the time.   They were Madison’s toughest.   They thought they were street-saavy.   They thought they were smart.   Some were a little like Yummy, feeling invincible.    This story could have showed them another facet of the street life in a format more accessible than the Time article I shared with them.  

G. Neri’s award-winning Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty is a sad shock to the white, middle-class mindset. 

Lockdown

Myers, Walter Dean.   Lockdown.   New York:  HarperCollins/Amistad, 2010.

Audience:  Middle School, 12+

Genre:  Urban/Street Fiction, Teen Problem Novel, Boy Book

Topics of Focus:  Teen Boys, Incarceration, Choices, Violence, Judicial System

Red Flags:   Violence, Suicide, Abuse

True to form, best-selling author Walter Dean Myers once again delivers a punch with his economical novel,  Lockdown.   Set primarily in a juvenile detention center in the Bronx, the first-person narration of Reese Anderson shows the reader the gritty system inside a jail cell.  

In Trouble

Levine, Ellen.   In Trouble.   Minneapolis:  Carolrhoda, 2011.

Audience:  High School, 14-17

Genre:  Problem Fiction Novel

Topics of Focus:  Abortion, Rape, 1950s, Pre-Roe v. Wade era, Choices, Family Support Systems

Red Flags:   Abortion, Rape, Teen Pregnancy

Ellen Levine does not shy away from a difficult topic.   In her recent novel, In Trouble, she takes on one of the toughest for our current culture to debate—abortion and freedom of reproductive choice.  

Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto

Janesczki, Paul B.  Requiem:  Poems of the Terezin Ghetto.   Somerville, Mass:  Candlewick P, 2011.

Audience:  Middle School, 12+

Genre:  Poetry, Holocaust, Social Studies

Topics of Focus:  Jews, Holocaust, Theresienstadt, Terezin, war, genocide

Red Flags:  The whole book!

 When I ordered this book, I was so hopeful to have access to poems that came out of the horrors of war, genocide, and the evil of the Nazi agenda.   Deceptively advertised and promoted as “Poems of the Terezin Ghetto,” I was sadly disappointed and somewhat disturbed by the reality that Janesczki was not the editor of a collection of authentic pieces, but the slight dark poems were of his own hand about the Terezin environment.   Janesczki admits in the Author’s Note toward the close of the text that all the personas and voices presented in the compilation are fictional (but one).   I felt deceived and disturbed by a level of disrespect toward individuals who lived and died through this experience.  

 I recalled as I was reading that I was somewhat disappointed in the quality of the poetic writing, but I was willing to forego judgment based on the horrific experiences that the supposed-prisoners endured.   Only to find, that the writer of these poems was not of that experience and was writing BAD poetry on top of it all.   Most of it is a short paragraph of an idea chopped up into broken lines and lost punctuation.   Strong images are rare.  The inclusion of “fake” voices of the SS officers and brutal townsmen also added a layer of obscenity that I could not overlook.

Don’t even bother checking out this book from the library.   It made me feel somewhat soiled after learning of the deception of the writer.

Annotation by Denise Aulik

Payback Time

Deuker, Carl.   Payback Time.   New York:  Houghton Mifflin, 2010.

Audience:  Middle School 13+

Genre:  Sports Fiction

Topics of Focus:  Football, Body Image, Assumptions, Coming of Age, Self Esteem, Journalism

Red Flags:   None

Carl Dueker is well known for his young adult books that appeal to reluctant readers and the sports-minded.   His Payback Time continues on this path.  

Clockwork Angel: The Infernal Devices

Clare, Cassandra.   Clockwork Angel:   The Infernal Devices.   New York:  McElderry, 2010.

Audience:  High School, 14+

Genre:  Fantasy, Steampunk Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Romance

Topics of Focus:  Supernatural World, Victorian Era, Coming of Age, Betrayal, Different Abilities, Power & Control, Industrial Revolution, Strong Female Protagonist

Red Flags:   Gore

While fantasy, steampunk fiction is not usually my area of interest, I found Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel: The Infernal Devices a fun and compelling read.    Well-known for her Mortal Instruments series, Clare takes the reader in a different direction, back to the possibilities of the Victorian Age.  

Insatiable

Cabot, Meg.   Insatiable.   New York:  Morrow, 2010.

Audience:  High School, 16+

Genre:  Young Adult Fiction, Horror, Romance

Topics of Focus:  Vampires, Prognostication

Red Flags:   Sexuality, Violence

Call me crazy, but I love good vampire stories.   I also enjoy a little romance here and there.   So, combine the two in a more mature young-adult novel, and I’m going to try it out.   The highly popular writer with the teen girl set, Meg Cabot, did not disappoint me.   Insatiable is not your common Twilight drivel.   It’s a smart, funny, possibilities-of-history-base-but-with-mythology-blended-in type of vampire story with a strong female protagonist.     

Bronxwood

Booth, Coe.   Bronxwood.   New York:  Push, 2011.

Audience:  High School, 15+

Genre:  Urban/Street Fiction

Topics of Focus:  Race, Class, Social System, Personal Choices, Drugs, Family Supports, Coming of Age

Red Flags:   Profanity, Sexuality, Violence

Continuing shortly after where Tyrell left off, Coe Booth’s Bronxwood allows the reader to walk in the sixteen-year-old narrator’s shoes once again.   This time around is no easier than the last.  

Compulsion

Ayarbe, Heidi.   Compulsion.   New York:  Balzar & Bray, 2011.

Audience:  High School, 15+

Genre:  Young Adult Fiction, Problem Novel

Topics of Focus:  Mental Illness, Soccer, Coming of Age, Friendship, Support Systems, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Red Flags:  Profanity, Teen Sexuality, Alcohol Use

If you are looking for a fun, light, adolescent problem-to-be-easily-fixed read, this is not the book.   Heidi Ayarbe’s Compulsion leads a reader through her protagonist’s daily anguished obsessions, anxieties, and imprisoning strategies of prime number calculations.  

Jumped

Williams-Garcia, Rita.   Jumped.   New York:  HarperTeen/Amistad, 2009.  168p.

Audience:   Middle and High School, 13+, Reluctant Readers

Genre:   Urban Fiction,

Topics of Focus:   Adolescence, Anger Management, Bullying, Decision Making, Personal Responsibility, Support Systems, Adolescent Violence, Urban High School

                    

Renowned author Rita Williams-Garcia once again presents a text with its fingers on the pulse of the American urban teenager. 

How I Made It to Eighteen

White, Tracy.   How I Made It to Eighteen:  A Mostly True Story.   New York:  Roaring Bk P, 2010. 151p.

Audience:  Young Adult, 15+

Genre:   Graphic Novel

Topics of Focus:  Eating Disorders, Mental Health, Sexualized Abuse, Depression, Self-Mutilation, Co-dependent Relationships

Using a tight, formulaic structure throughout her graphic novel, Tracy White depicts a minimalist approach to her 24-week, in-patient internment in a psychiatric hospital at age 18. 

Marcelo in the Real World

Stork, Francisco X.  Marcelo in the Real World.   New York:  Levine/Scholastic, 2009.   314p.

Audience:   Upper High School, 15+

Genre:  General Fiction

Topics of Focus:  Asperger’s Syndrome, Different Abilities, Ethics, Decision-Making, Coming of Age

Marcelo Sandoval enjoys taking care of the Haflinger ponies during the summer before his senior year at the Paterson School, a private institution for special-needs children.   He is happy there, does well in his classes, and learns at his own pace.   Paterson is safe, familiar, and comfortable.   Marcelo is a high-functioning student on the Asperger’s Spectrum. 

Nation

Pratchett, Terry.   Nation.  New York:   HarperCollins, 2008.  307p.

Audience:  Middle School to Adult, 12+

Genre:   Adventure Fiction, Philosophy

Topics of Focus:   Survival, Resiliency, Non-western Cultures, Spirituality, Religion, Ethics, Colonialism, Coming of Age

Once again, Terry Pratchett delivers.   His snarky side-comments and well-rounded characters assist a strong plot line in Nation to carry the reader deep into the realm of spirituality, religion, and human ethics.   Nation is Survivor + Treasure Island + Lord of the Flies + Ishmael + the Bible.   It is the best book I have read all year, and I will place copies in the hands of all different kinds of teen (and adult) readers.

The Ghosts of Ashbury High

Moriarty, Jaclyn.   The Ghosts of Ashbury High.   New York:  Levine/Scholastic, 2010.  444p.

Audience:   High School, 14+

Genre:   Horror Fiction

Topics of Focus:   Adolescence, Romance, School Personalities, Ghosts, Gothic Fiction

While Moriarity is popular for her earlier published works set at Ashbury High, this one really misses the boat.   It tries to be too much all at once.   The author presents her narrative through a combination of standard shifting character voices and artifacts consisting of letters, meeting notes, test questions, emails, blog posts, and school assignment handouts.   Like the characters floating through adolescence, the reader is sent flying through the text without firm grounding, benchmarks, or a map.   The only true consistency is the familiar setting of the author and parody of the gothic novel form.    While I must admit that I gave up on the quirkiness of the text well before its conclusion, the annoyance of the book’s fragmented form was too great to stick with it.   The story held no redeeming sociopolitical subtext to make it worth my time.   If you want an artifact-driven, shifting-narration, gothic novel, read Bram Stoker’s Dracula.   I would only use this book as a doorstop in my classroom.

Annotation by Denise Aulik

Please Ignore Vera Dietz

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 King, A.S.  Please Ignore Vera Dietz.   New York:  Knopf, 2010.  326p.

Audience:   High School, 14+

Genre:   Problem Fiction

Topics of Focus:   Friendship, Adolescence, Abuse, Grief, Resiliency, Forgiveness

King presents a relatively entertaining text for an average teen reader.   There is nothing significantly unusual or spectacular about the story.   It’s just a good read.  Using the trendy shifting narration style, King allows the reader to unravel a mystery facing the main character, Vera Dietz:What really happened to her best friend Charlie Kahn and did he burn down the pet store, hurting numerous animals?   Charlie has always been Vera’s best friend.   They’ve shared childhood curiosity, secrets light and dark, and even the beginnings of innocent love.   Yet, when adolescence moves in with force, so too does adolescent angst, doubt, jealousy, and secrets too dark to discuss.   Add in Vera’s ex-stripper mother who skipped out on the family leaving V’s father broken-hearted and bitter.   Blend in perceived class differences between Vera and Charlie’s families and the known reality of domestic abuse in the Kahn household.   Drop in a pinch of Vera’s lonely, alcoholic father who believes that being a workaholic is the key to overcoming all of one’s problems.   Fold in a set of nasty, jealous, and drifting teens who abuse others to feel better about their own lives.   Place it all in a common, small-town setting and let it simmer in the mind of the main character.   The final result, however, is not fully satisfying.   It’s good, but not great.   There are too many side stories undercooked.   The ending is predictable.    And, the narrative voices of the dead Charlie and the pagoda just skew the integrity of the story.  Though, I have to admit that I really loved the flavor of the dad’s flowcharts.   They added a needed lightness to the overall effect of the novel.

I believe that teens would pick it up and read it on their own.   They would not need support or discussion from an adult to work out the underlying intent of the story.   They might be intrigued by the characters and the unfolding mystery surrounding Charlie’s death.   Yet, this book isn’t one that I will recommend over and over again, nor does it hold significant purpose for use as a classroom text.   It’s just a plain good read.

Annotation by Denise Aulik

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Green, John and David Levithan.   Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  New York:  Penguin/Speak, 2010. 

Audience:   High School, 15+

Genre:   LGBTQ Fiction

Topics of Focus:   Friendship, Adolescence, Same-Sex Relationships, Sexuality

With John Green and David Levithan both being award-winning writers, I really expected to like this book, but I didn’t.   The author’s present a funny cast of characters and an entertaining plot line, yet there was no real substance. 

Revolution

Donnelly, Jennifer.   Revolution.   New York:  Delcourte, 2010.   481p.

Audience:   High School, 14+

Genre:   Historical Fiction

Topics of Focus:   Grief, Mental Health, Parental Expectations, Coming of Age, French Revolution, Resiliency, Louis XVII, Paris

Jennifer Donnelly once again provides the reading world with a phenomenal mix of history, romance, intrigue, violence, and deep human issues. 

Unraveling Freedom: The Battle for Democracy on the Home Front During World War I

Bausman, Ann.   Unraveling Freedom:  The Battle for Democracy on the Home Front During World War I.   National Geographic, 2010.   

Audience:  Middle School, 12+

Genre:  Non-Fiction, Social Studies

Topics of Focus:  First Amendment Rights, Civil Liberties, Woodrow Wilson, World War I, Wartime Security

Bausman presents an appraisal of the challenges to civil liberties in the United States at the onset of World War I that is inconsistent in strength and effectiveness.   While her language is approachable to a younger, middle-school reader, it may be too advanced in concept and historical perspective for that same audience.