Just Listen

Title - Just Listen
Author - Sarah Dessen
ISBN - 0670061050
Publication Date - April 2006

Plot - Annabel Greene should have it all.  She is intelligent, a model, and one of the most popular people around.  That is until her world comes crashing around her after she is raped by her best friend Sophie's boyfriend Will.  Sophie does not believe her and ends the friendship; her mother will not listen to her; and everyone at school ends up making her an outcast.  No one seems to want to listen to her. That is until she meets up with Owen Armstrong.  He is the prototypical emo boy.  He wears his emotions out on his sleeve, so much so that he seems to have anger management problems.  In an ironic twist, he runs a radio program called Anger Management, where he has a chance to blow off steam about any of the various issues he has with life.  Through this, Annabel ends up learning that telling the truth, and having people listen to you is more important than hiding the truth and trying to protect someone else's feelings.  By novels end, she has quit modeling; Owen and she have gotten together as a couple,; Owen has punched out Will for raping Annabel; and Will has landed himself in jail as he ends up raping someone else along the way and getting caught; and Sophie winds up alone.

Critical Review-  While the novel could have easily wound its way in a kind of a chic lit Fashion, Sarah Dressen makes sure that both the pace of the novel and the message do not resemble anything that would go on in a chic lit setting.  She focuses heavily on the message of communication.  Through openness, everyone is able to better themselves.  By Owen communicating with others, he is able to work out some of his anger management problems.  If Annabel had communicated with the police, someone else would have been spared a rape at the hands of Will.  And her communicating with her mother at the end of the novel, spares her needing to go back to modeling, and feeling like she has to live up to her mother's expectations.  If Annabel's sisters had communicated with their mother about the pressures and stresses of the job, maybe the mother would not have laid so much of her expectations on Annabel. 

Also the book does a good job of exploring the need to contribute in the other area of communication: listening.  As the book is entitled just listen, it is obvious that listening is a skill that is much needed.  Yes one does need to communicate verbally one's problems and not expect others to guess what they are.  But others need to be willing to listen to what other people have to say or they cause irreparable harm to others.  Sophie will not listen to Annabel about the rape, leaving Annabel out in the cold.  Her mother will not listen to her problems.  And the classmates will not listen to Annabel's side of the story.  If anyone would have taken the time to listen to begin with, it would have spared everyone a lot of harm.

Reader's Annotation- When the world comes crashing down around you. and life seems to be going against you in every conceivable way, sometimes you need someone to just listen.

About the Author- Born in Illinois, but raised in North Carolina, Sarah Dessen spent vast amounts of time connected to higher education.  Both her parents were university professors involved in the arts.  So her parents at an early age were exposing her to Shakespeare and mythology.

She loved to read from a very early age; and, she complains, that most of her early gifts were books when she might rather have been getting other kinds of present.  But at the age of around nine, they gave her a gift that would transform her for the rest of her life.  It was a manual typewriter.  She would begin to sit and type her first stories on that machine, developing a sense of humor and the ability to embellish.

She says her high school years were extremely important to her.  She developed a large social circle, out of which she has been able to create a lot of her young adult stories.  She never exactly intended to be a young adult writer, but her editors felt she seemed to have that kind of a voice that came out in her writing.

Genre - Drama

Curriculum Ties - Reading / Literature

Booktalking Ideas - Discuss the nature of keeping secrets and peer pressure.  How does it affect ones standing in a community?  Is the simple answer to always speak out?

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - There is multiple rapes in the novel.

Overcoming challenges - Have brochures on rape at the library and how it is important that these people speak out.  Express that the message of the novel is for people to speak out about their issues.

Why Included - I have seen Sarah Dressen's books around my library, and the plot seemed interesting.  Plus there was a further connection as there was an "emo" type individual in the novel.

Stolen

Title - Stolen
Author - Lucy Christopher
ISBN - 9780545170932
Publication Date - May 2010

Plot -  Told as a letter written towards her kidnapper, Stolen is the story of Gemma, a sixteen year old girl who is abducted at an airport and dragged off to Australia to start a new life.  From the moment her abductor makes contact with her at the airport, she feels that there is something significant and familiar about him, but she cannot place her finger on it.  He ends up drugging her at the airport in Thailand, and shuffling her off in a plane pretending that she is drunk and that they are celebrating.  Eventually she ends up in Australia, tied up in a small room.  When she is finally allowed some freedom she senses that there is not really any freedom for her, as she has no means of going anywhere, and would not know where to go anyway.  Eventually she develops a bond, and even a sort of love for her kidnapper.  She begins to have an understanding of who he is and why he did things.  Although he continues to maintain certain fictions about her parents so she will not keep trying to escape. 

Eventually she gets bitten by a snake in the outback and is in serious condition, in need of serious medical attention.  The kidnapper is not so heartless that he allows her to die and takes her to the hospital, making sure she lives, and staying with her through a plane ride to safety.  Through this they discover the situation and arrest him, notifying her parents and having them come to pick her up.  She then has to go through a lot of sorting in her mind through the rest of the novel, where she is informed of the idea of the Stockholm syndrome, where the person begins associating and eventually loving their kidnappers. She is being told by everyone else that what she is feeling for this person is wrong.  It takes a while for this message to sink in, and it eventually does, but Gemma never truly hates Ty, her kidnapper.  Some part of her wishes him well, and wants him to grow and live a normal happy life, when he does get out of prison for the crime of kidnapping her.

Critical Review - A fascinating tale, told in first person, as it is Gemma's letter to the kidnapper.  Of course no one really would want her to write this letter to him,  but her therapist felt like she would improve if she could write out her experiences.  By doing so, the readers get a good look into the mind of someone who is kidnapped.  They can see how a person can be transformed from desperation to hatred, from hatred to understanding, from understanding to appreciation, and from appreciation to a kind of love.  We see how the manipulations and lies slowly sink in to the character of Gemma, and before long she begins to appreciate and love this man, loving a part of what he has done for her.  And by the end, before Ty is arrested, she wants Ty with her at all times. 

I also think there is quite a beauty to the ending of the novel, which spends time showing Gemma with her conflicting emotions about the whole issue.  It also shows her growth in a large way about her surroundings, an an understanding and appreciation for her parents.  And I believe there is a beauty that Gemma can see in people through her experience that no one else can.  This is not to say that she negates the wrong done by her kidnapper, but can appreciate the complexities of the human soul.  I believe it is this wonderful complexity that makes the work done by Lucy Christopher an amazing tale, well worth reading.

Reader's Annotation- Gemma is kidnapped from an airport, and drug off to the vast area of the Australian outback.  There is no one around for miles.  Despite this kidnapping, she begins to develop a love for her kidnapper.  Is this really love, or merely Stockholm syndrome?

About the Author- Lucy Christopher was born and raised in Wales, and moved to Australia when she was nine years old.  It was a far away place for her where she was alone a great deal and did not understand what was around her, having to adjust to a whole new lifestyle.  She would eventually grow to love it and stay there until she was working on a MA in creative writing.

At 22 she would go back to the UK in Bath to get her masters degree.  She had several miss starts in various careers but had decided writing is where she wanted to be.  Stolen ended up being her first published novel, written while she was in her masters program.  While she has had no direct experience with kidnapping, Christopher discusses the fact that moving to Australia to nine was a kind of kidnapping for her in that it stole her away from everything that was familiar and forced her into a new place that she didn't understand that was wild and untamed.

Genre- Drama

Curriculum Ties - Discuss the novel as a letter.  How effective is it? - Literature
Discuss the nature of Stockholm syndrome.  Compare it to other famous cases such as Patty Hurst. - History

Booktalking Ideas - Have them discuss why someone would want to write a letter to a kidnapper?  What would the thinking behind the letter be?  Why is much of the letter a jumbled confusion of emotions coming from Gemma's character?

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 10+

Challenge Issues - None

Why Included - The story seemed fascinating and intense for a book that was directed for teens.

Identical

Title - Identical
Author - Ellen Hopkins
ISBN - 1416950052
Publication Date - 2008

Plot - Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical twin sisters who seem to have the perfect family from the outside.  Their father is a very respectible judge in the community, and the mother is a prominent politician.  But what looks OK on the outside is dark and sinister when seen from within.

Kaeleigh is the daughter who is constantly being sexually molested by her father.  He seems to have replaced the missing love of his wife with that of the daughter he believes more resembles her.  The abuse is horrific and terrible and Kaeleigh tries to develop some coping mechanisms through it all.  Most frequently these mechanisms are in the area of overeating and in cutting.  Eventually she takes to drugs and alcohol as well.

Raeanne seems to have escaped the sexual abuse that her father gives to Kaeleigh, but she does not like this at all.  There is something dark in her that makes her want the kind of attention that her father seems to be giving to Kaeleigh.  She turns to alcohol and sex as a way to gain the love of the father that she feels like she is not getting at home.  She is also the more dominant and protective of the sisters.  She wants to protect Kaeleigh from all of the abuse that she is receiving and will do anything to protect her.

Each of them seems to go spiraling into a darker and darker whole, to which we realize that the grandparents are aware.  Not only that, they also sense the sexual abuse that is taking place at the hands of the father. The whole world of the two comes crashing down until we realize that the two worlds are really one world.  Kaeleigh is actually experiencing Disassociate Identity Disorder, or what some may refer to as Multiple Personality Disorder.  Raeanne was not unreal, but her actual twin who had died in a car accident years earlier.  Kaeleigh has developed this as a personality to try to protect herself from the abuse that her father gives her.  And the very end has Kaeleigh experiencing some level of healing, but she still holds onto the character of Raeanne on the inside, so that she can draw from her strength.

Critical Review-  Having an aunt who is a schizophrenic and a father-in-law who suffers from bipolar disorder, I am very sensitive to the needs of the people who are a part of that community.  By putting off the revelation about the mental illness to the end of the novel, it does kind of muddy the waters about what things were actually real and what things are just a vision of the character.  But there is a truth in that, anyone who would experience that disorder, there would be moments of unreal all the time.  I know that with the bipolar disorder, when my father-in-law is not taking the medication, he experiences times of euphoria, to which he leaves all sense of reality, and cannot even be counted on for what his perception of the world is. 

Aside from the areas of disorder, the novel does an excellent job of telling of the effects of sexual abuse in the family.  It does an amazing job of showing the dark contradicted feelings of the person experiencing the abuse.  It brings up the idea that the person desperately wants love from an individual, but the right kind of love.  And when the love is an abusive sexual one, it shows how it complicates feelings of self-worth.  After reading this novel, I am definitely going to re-read it to rethink all of the issues involved.

Reader's Annotation- Two twins are connected in every seeming way possible.  They are two parts of the same person.  What happens when the "love" of a father divides the two?  What happens when that love destroys everything it touches, including the psyche's of the two twins that it is meant to love and protect?

About the Author - Ellen Hopkins began her career in the non-fiction field, writing books for children.  But in 2002 she found out that her daughter had developed a severe meth-amphetamine addiction.  Keenly aware of all the damage that was being caused by her daughters use of the drug, and desiring to sense some connection and responsibility she might bear for her daughters condition, Hopkins set out to write a novel about the monster of crank.

This cathartic journey encouraged her to explore a wide range of subjects that might be effecting teens with a series of verse novels including Burned, Impulse, Identical and Glass.  Each of these explores the drama effecting teens and how their choices have a significant impact on the rest of their lives.
Booktalking Ideas - Discuss the plot twist at the end of the novel.  How effective is the plot twist in context with the rest of the novel.  Does it leave holes in the story that would be unresolved.

Genre- Drama, Free Verse Poetry

Curriculum Ties - What is the nature of DID?  - Science

Discuss the use of Free Verse to write an entire novel. - Literature

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 10+

Challenge Issues - Sexual abuse at the hands of a father might alarm some parents to want to remove it.

Overcoming challenges - Have information on sexual abuse on hand and make a pamphlet that shows how it explores the nature of sexual abuse and all of its horrors in the novel.  Encourage parents to read novel with teen so that they can discuss warning signals and making sure they understand that they should inform someone if they know it is occurring.  Provide numbers for sexual abuse hot lines.

Why Included - I was recommended to Ellen Hopkins by the teen librarian at the branch I was working at.  She said I would find very interesting controversial literature.

Alison Rules

Title - Alison Rules
Author - Catherine Clark
ISBN - 0060559810
Publication Date - 2004

Plot -Alison has blossomed into a beautiful woman.  She has smarts, good looks and good friends.  Yet she has a bunch of rules that she has set up for herself, including not using her locker as that is a place of primarily bad news.  Why has Alison set up all of these rules?  She does not reveal this to the reader's right away.  Instead she keeps living her life trying to stick to all of these rules because they seem to be her guard that keeps her balanced.  What we end up finding out is that it is as a result of the death of her mother that she has put all of these rules together.  All of the boundaries were meant to protect her from the outside world. 

Eventually she would end up putting barriers between her and her best friend Laurie, because they end up liking the same guy.  And there is no way to deal with that.  They end up having a fight over it.  And Alison tries to patch things together by refusing the boy they both like.  She makes things worse, and Laurie and Alison try to come to some resolution about it, but fate intercedes one more time, and Laurie is taken away, never giving Alison the chance to fully reconcile with her friend. 

The last portion of the novel is Alison trying to let go of all of the pain of everything.  She knows that she needs to release the pain of her mom's death, as she needs to release the pain of her friends death. She knows that she has to crawl out of that shell, and that there are no amount of rules that can protect her from doing that.  And eventually she knows she will have to connect with the boy that she likes, because she can no longer live her life in fear of violating any rules.  The rules do not always protect  you.  Sometimes they just keep life out.

Critical Review - Catherine Clark weaves an interesting, somewhat disjointed tale of Alison, the girl who is trying desperately to protect herself from what is going on around her.  The story is somewhat disjointed as the protagonist herself.  We do not know the motivation for everything that Alison does.  As a result we are unclear about what to make of the complex character that is Alison.  Eventually we get the understanding that she is trying to keep life out, and protect her own little world that she has set up.  But the moment that Laurie leaves, before she ends up dying by jumping into the river, we know that Alison is desperately alone inside with the walls that seem more like a tomb.  Clark does a good job of not making transformation immediate and gives Alison a chance to grieve, not only for her lost friend, but for her lost mother as well. 

Reader's Annotation - A day in the life of Alison consists of spending time with her friend Laurie, avoiding her locker, and keeping her feelings to herself.  There are separate rules for each of these things.  Is someone going to help Alison Break them?

About the Author - Catherine Clark, originally from Massachusetts, now calls Minnesota her home.  Currently working as a bookseller in St. Paul, she spends much of her time following a variety of pursuits.  These include teaching and running.  Her first couple of novels had semi-autobiographical moments in them, including riding to bus as a teenager because her parents insisted.

Genre - Chic Lit, Drama

Curriculum Ties - Discuss why the rules fail to protect Alison in the end. How does the novel follow the format for setting, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.  Discuss whether there is a satisfactory resolution to Alison Rules or is it somewhat unresolved. - Literature

Booktalking Ideas - Discuss the nature of the Rules that are developed by Alison?  Discuss whether rules protect or harm people in the end.  Why/Why not?

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - None

Why included - Another opportunity to explore the chic lit genre, although I would not entirely classify this as chic lit as its themes are darker and consist of much less gossip and innuendo that the others in the genre might.

Teach Me

Title -Teach Me
Author - R. A. Nelson
ISBN - 1595140840
Publication date - 2005

Plot - Carolina Livingston is in the last year of high school.  She has but a few classes to take and then a world opens up before her.  Everything seems like it should be falling into place just right, and then she meets Mr. Mann.  He is the high school English teacher whose passion seems to emanate from within.  She is enamored by both his words and what he is communicating in class.  Soon she has to spend more time with him.  As they spend more and more time together, the fall into an elicit affair of student and teacher.  He should be the responsible one, but cannot seem to be.  She is lost in her own emotions to him as they proceed to make love for the first time, and the last.  Mr. Mann then abruptly halts everything and all contact with her, trying to end it all. 

A wedding announcement comes for his nuptials and something takes a turn in Carolina.  All of this confusion and heartbreak has converted itself to rage, and she seems bent on trying to destroy everyone and everything.  Trying to interrupt the wedding, spy on the nuptials, and tell his father-in-law that she had been sleeping with her when she was with her daughter..  Eventually she goes as far as taking a paintball gun to a poetry reading to scare Mr. Mann to death.  She drags her friend Schyuler along with her all along the way.  And despite his love and affection for her she almost destroys him as well in the process.  The epilogue consists of her seeing Mr. Mann and his wife, and the baby they had conceived together when she had just met Mr. Mann.  There is a hollow ringing of closure as she sees him as a closed part of her life, ever present, but nevermore.

Reader's Annotation - Why is there something so intriguing about the elicit?  What drives someone to do something that they know is wrong deep down, but they seem powerless to stop it.  R. A. Nelson explores the elicit romance of teacher and pupil in the Novel Teach Me.

About the Author - R.A. Nelson comes from Alabama. His father was a NASA engineer on the Apollo Moon program, so much of his time was spend insular and inventing new things and exploring his imagination.  Nelson views Teach Me, his first major work, as a cautionary tale, describing the plight of a 17/18 year old girl who is still too caught up in her own little world to be able to deal properly with the situation that presents itself with her teacher.  She should be able to take a step back and notice, but she has had control of her own life for too long.  Nelson is very sympathetic to this aspect of her character as much of his life was spent alone because of the long hours his father had to spend away working on the program.

Genre - Drama

Curriculum Ties - Compare and contrast Teach Me with Anna Karenina. How does the love affair proceed?  What is its outcome?  Is it believable?

Booktalking ideas - Engage in a discussion of how the poetry is used in the novel.  How does it support the novel's premise?  Are they an accurate reflection of the feelings of the person using the poetry?  Who uses the poetry and to what effect?

Challenge Issues - The student and teacher have an illicit sexual affair, with seemingly no dire consequences to either.

Overcoming Challenges - Have a list of materials of who to contact when abuse is taking place.  Encourage parents to engage in reading material with their child, and see what they think happened, and why they feel it was wrong.  Have a set of questions available to parents to discuss the book after reading it.

Why included - I was looking for controversial books in the teen lit department and found that this was among the top of the list on many Internet websites.

The White Darkness

Title - The White Darkness
Author - Geraldine McCaughrean
ISBN - 0060890363
Publication Date - 2005

Plot - Symone Wates is a 14 year old girl who is driven by the obsession that her "uncle," Victor Briggs places upon her.  Briggs is going to find the location of where the world goes underground.  Ascribing to the theory of a hollow crust, Briggs has dragged his "adoptive daughter" down with him to engage in this fantasy... or madness.  Along the way we are introduced to some other characters who think they are going to take advantage of Briggs situation. Manfred and Sigrud Burch are con men out to take what money they can get from Briggs.  But when you are trying to con someone who is nearly insane and hellbent on achieving something that is not real, who will not let anyone stand in his way, you are likely to come up on the short end of the stick.

Symone, who is the protagonist is observing all of this from the middle of it.  As she is led farther and farther by her uncle on this wild goose chase, she confides in "Titus," a friend of her own imagination, to help her make sense of everything that is going on around her.  Finally she realizes that her uncle is mad, and he is going to put all of them in grave danger, no matter the consequences.  Her character has a moment of epiphany, finally, when she stands up to her uncle and decides to take a different path than the one he seems to have imposed upon her.

Critical Review - A fascinating book covering not only an interesting story between a girl and her uncle, but involving shady con men and other various subplots about the relationship that she has with her parents.  While there is the obvious abuse that is going on between her and her uncle, the author does a good job of allowing the reader to see that abuse is not just what someone physically does to someone else.  Abuse cannot even be qualified as verbal with harsh language.  Sometimes abuse occurs when a person ends up saturating a person with a lot of poisonous beliefs, ones that will eventually do them harm if they are not stopped. 

Furthermore, I loved the amount of history that was discussed within the basic plot of the story.  Being able to tie their adventure to the one that went on with Scott as he attempted to get to the pole and back, it was fascinating to see all of the connections made between the fiction story and the real one.

Finally the book does a good job with questioning the lines of what is real, and what is not real.  It can be said that Victor's faith in what was not real caused harm; but the author does not make this a universal truth.  He qualifies it by allowing Symone to have an imaginary friend.  At the end of the novel we are faced with the fact that he might have been more than the imaginary friend.  He might have had a reality to him, apart from what was in Symone's imagination.  Overall it was a compelling, well-written story.

Reader's Annotation - Deep among the Antarctic, a few brave souls are trying to discover whether or not there is a world underneath our own.  If your uncle, who was a father figure to you, was the one pushing you to go forward and yet you thought his theories might be wrong, what would you do?

About the Author - Geraldine McCaughrean grew up in a family as the youngest of three children.  She grew up wanting to follow in the footsteps of her brother, experiencing the world as he saw it.  When at 14 the brother would have a work of his published, it became a secret desire of hers to do the same.

When she finally had to choose a career, she originally decided on the teaching profession but it was too confining for her tastes.  Writing for her had always been a great love, enjoying the freedom to work with settings and places that she had never been to.  She writes the way she always wanted to, writing not about the places she had already been, but about the places she wanted to go to.
Genre - Drama

Curriculum ties - Connect this book to the Scott expedition to the pole.  Discuss the preparations necessary for such a journey, and what might drive a man to do such a thing despite the odds against accomplishing the task. - History

Booktalk ideas - Discuss the blurring of realities between fact and fantasy.  Is the character of Titus a product of Sym's imagination, or in the end is there something very real about him?  Is Victor Briggs fantasy something equally as real to him?  Which is the better fantasy?

Challenges - None

Why included - I found it in the Printz award winners section of my library and wanted to include it as it sounded like an intriguing concept.  I had read about the Scott expedition and while I found the uncles belief in an underground realm nonsense, the drive to get across the continent I found intriguing.

Fallout

Title - Fallout
Author - Ellen Hopkins
ISBN - 9781416950097
Publication Date - 2010

Plot - Fallout covers the repercussions of the original character of the Crank series Kristina, or Bree as her alter ego would have one believe.  In this novel we are told the tale of three separate individuals: Hunter, Autumn, and Summer.  Each of these three individuals has a different last name, given the fact of their mother's promiscuity it is not surprising.  Furthermore, each of these individuals is hanging onto their own sanity and lives by a slender thread. 

Hunter is 19 now and angry.  He tries to live a normal life but rage is buried within him, especially when he has to confront the dad who raped him mother causing him to be born.  Autumn has been forced to live with her aunt and grandfather, and when the aunt leaves to get married, her little stability that she held onto vanished.  Summer doesn't know about any of her family.  She has been abused at the hand of foster parents and countless of her fathers girlfriends. 

All of them are rapidly headed for destruction, and at the same time they are headed for a confrontation with the mother who gave them birth, and is responsible for all of this pain that is ripping them apart as well.  This final confrontation leads them to a deeper understanding of each other and a sense of community, while at the same time the harrowing fear that each of them has their mother, and this demon, buried within them.

Critical Review - Like with Crank Ellen Hopkins visits into the world of those haunted by the abuse of drugs.  This time she decides to elevate the story of the offspring of Kristina, trying to convey the world from their perspective.  She does such a good job of telling of the hurt and pain that each of them feel.  There are so many mixed up emotions in all of it as a reader you feel like you are caught in a storm, with no way of escape.  As opposed to the first novel, Crank, which felt like you made a decision and were being sucked down into a deep dark hole, Fallout feels more like you are caught up in something with which you have no control over.  Each of these characters feels their own personal void, and being pulled to the vortex their mother created for them when she decided to make that one fateful decision and enter the world of the meth addict.  Hauntingly real despite the telling of it in free verse.  I love the fact that it feels like layers being pulled back to delve into each new section of poetry.

Reader's Annotation - What would life be like if you felt that you had no control over anything around you?  You have a pull that grabs you and you cannot tell from where or who is doing it.  And it maybe the siren song of the mermaid calling you to crash into the rocks.  Someone has blown up your world and you are not even sure who did it.  All you have left is the Fallout.

About the Author - Ellen Hopkins began her career in the non-fiction field, writing books for children.  But in 2002 she found out that her daughter had developed a severe meth-amphetamine addiction.  Keenly aware of all the damage that was being caused by her daughters use of the drug, and desiring to sense some connection and responsibility she might bear for her daughters condition, Hopkins set out to write a novel about the monster of crank.

This cathartic journey encouraged her to explore a wide range of subjects that might be effecting teens with a series of verse novels including Burned, Impulse, Identical and Glass.  Each of these explores the drama effecting teens and how their choices have a significant impact on the rest of their lives.

Genre- Drama, Free Verse Poetry

Curriculum Ties - Discuss the use of Free Verse to write an entire novel. - Literature

Compare and contrast the novel Crank with other Epic poems such as Milton's Paradise Lost, or Dante's Inferno.  - Literature

Booktalking Ideas - Discuss the nature of addiction.

Discuss the difference, if any, of the nature of many of the prescription drugs that are out there.

Discuss the efficacy of decriminalizing drugs such as marijuana and its social impact

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 10+

Challenge Issues - I think there are so many challenge issues it would be difficult to start.  As I know, Hopkins has been banned from doing book talks at certain places because of the controversy over the Crank series.  It is hard to pick one issue. But aside from language issues the novel contains a person who has to confront the man who raped her mother and was literally his father, teen alcohol abuse, and severe drug abuse without any resolution aside from the fact that we know she remorseful at the end.

Overcoming Challenges - I think it would be important to first point out that there is no glamour involved to the drug use.   Discussing with teens that actions have consequences is important and this can be a good way to begin that discussion.  Also having a list of items from drug agencies about drug abuse and its negative consequences on hand to show to parents to that they have a way to discuss the novel with their teen would be a good thing as well.  This should allay the fears of most responsible parents.

Why Included - Along with Wintergirls, I really wanted to find another book that would be considered controversial in teen literature.  A friend of mine put me onto Ellen Hopkins and I was very pleased.

Veronica Mars - Season 1

Title - Veronica Mars - Seasons 1
Author/Creator - Rob Thomas
Release Dates - September 22, 2004 - May 10, 2005

Plot - Veronica Mars has lost her best friend to murder.  Someone has given Veronica the Date Rape drug and she woke up knowing that someone must have taken advantage of her.  Her dad has lost his job as town Sheriff.  All of this is revealed in the first episode of Veronica Mars, a story about a wise cracking, intelligent high school teenager, whose detective skills rival her father's.  The first season consists of a series of questions that the creator of the series slowly reveals as each episode has its own individual plot lines.  These questions consist of who: killed Veronica's friend; is Veronica somehow the half-sister of the guy who had formerly been her boyfriend; and what happened to Veronica on that fateful night when she was drugged and apparently raped.  All these answers end up to be unexpected things resulting in a final climax where Veronica's life is in danger and she proves that she needs other people more than she thinks.

Critical Review - I loved the idea that somehow a wise cracking teenage girl could be the lead of a television series.  Not only that, she rivaled any of the male counterparts in the genre, able to return quip for quip and still be the rival of any guy out there.  Whereas many may see this as an implausible series, I believe it does an excellent job of connecting to teens, and not so exclusive that an adult would not be able to find interest in the individual plot lines.  Rob Thomas does an excellent job of setting up the mystery from the beginning, allowing Veronica to tell the tale of her predicament through flashbacks.  This works well as it allows the past to have a kind of mystical quality, and also not allow the audience to be fully convinced that the past happened exactly the way that Veronica remembers it.  Slowly this past gets revealed in the present as Veronica must discover what happened before it is too late for those around her, and those she cares about.

Readers Annotation - Veronica has lost her friend, been drugged, and her dad is now out of a job as Sheriff.  It has been a very bad day.  But those who underestimate Veronica are doing so at their peril.

About the Author- Before he became the writer and creator for Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas had a football scholarship to Texas Christian University.  Upon leaving there he would get a job teaching High School Journalism.  Following that Thomas went to writing Young Adult novels which include Rats Saw God and Slave Day.  Eventually he would set his sights on bigger things, moving into the entertainment industry.

He never seemed to leave his love for creating and being involved with things for young adults.  He would become a writer on Dawson's Creek, dealing with high school and college drama and relationship issues.  He would get his big break when he created and wrote the show for Veronica Mars.  This series was about fast talking intelligent High School Students and the craziness that they could get into.  Unfortunately the series was cancelled in 2007 due to poor ratings.

Genre- Movies, Television, Drama

Curriculum Ties - Compare Veronica Mars as detective to past detectives like Sam Spade, Phillip Marlowe and Sherlock Holmes.

Booktalking Ideas - N/A

Reading Level/Interest Age -Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - There is a heavy emphasis on relationship issues and sex that is involved in the series.  Furthermore there is a date rape drug given to the lead character and someone does have sex with her while she is on the drug.

Overcoming Challenge - Discuss the fact that despite the fact that there is a rape, it is a negative thing in the show.  Have information available on the date rape drug.  Discuss how it would allow them to discuss with their teens about the drug, and the consequences, and how easily it can be given at a party.

Why Included - I was hooked by this series when it came out in 2004 after one episode.  It did involve high school teenagers, specifically this one season.  Furthermore it had the grandson of Francis Capra, one of my favorite Hollywood directors of all time.

The Book Thief

Title- The Book Thief
Author- Markus Zusak
ISBN - 9780375931000
Publication - 2005

Plot - Death is the Narrator of the Book Thief, a novel set during WWII Nazi Germany.  Certainly death would be a large participant in the action during this time as Hitler took and exterminated millions of Jews and other people who did not fit his vision of the Aryan race. 

In this story he follows the life of a girl,Liesel, who is intricately involved with several people during this time period.  She has to deal with relationships with her foster parents and how to adjust with that.  She then deals with the arrival of Max Vandenburg.  As she is dealing with enough of her problems already she has to learn how to handle his arrival as he is a Jewish fist fighter who would be in serious danger if they found him hiding in her foster parents home.  Hans, her foster father, was saved by Max father during World War I and feels a debt towards him.  The Nazis get a little too heavy handed with Hans as he is helping people and this convinces them to try to move Max elsewhere but he takes off on his own.  Eventually the conscript Hans to go into the army. 

Liesel ends up beginning to write a book about her experiences, called the Book Thief.  In it she documents her fascination with books and with writing, beginning with her taking a book her brother would drop as he was dying in the snow.  Eventually the writing of this book would lead Liesel to being the only survivor of the family as she was writing in the basement of the family home and everyone above was killed by bombs.  In despair she leaves the book which Death ends up finding.  Death eventually gets the epilogue of the book.

Critical Review - It is telling that Death reveals at the end of the novel that he is haunted by humans, as the readers are haunted by the characters that walk around in this book.  Vivid portrayals of death abound, not only the literal death who narrates the story that we are beholding, but horrific scenes of it in one of the most deadly times in the history of the world.  We are stuck with images of dying brothers and friends and family and lovers, all of whom are torn asunder by the goings on.  Despite this fact, the book maintains an air of lightness about it that does not allow the reader to be bogged down by all the horror surrounding us.  And death himself is an almost unwilling participant in the goings on.  War is a cruel master for death as he has so much to do.  And he is especially grieved as he finds Rudy dead after the bombings and sees Liesel there to wrap up his life in a kiss.  He sees in this moment all of the potential gone in a flash.  Both amazingly written and deftly created to suit a teenage audience, Zusak weaves a tale of heartache and beauty that will stick with you long past the closing of its pages.

Reader's Annotation - Who would be best suited to tell the story of the horrors of war?  Who would be best suited to know the misery and the pain it causes?  Who could tell the harrowing tale of the death of the Jews and many others during the time of Nazi Germany?  There is no one better to tell that tale than Death.

About the Author - Zusak was born of immigrant parents to Austrailia.  His father was Austrian and his mother German. They both had harrowing tales of the Nazis and death camps and marching Jewish people off to die during this time.  These stories would eventually lead him to write about The Book Thief.

Zusak had a love of literature which was developed from an early age.  After reading classics like The Old Man and the Sea, and more modern novels like What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Zusak knew that he wanted to become a writer.  This love of reading and for language also found its way into the drama that is the Book Theif.  Liesel's character, not only taking a book at the beginning and pilfering books off of book burnings, but her eventually deciding to write one herself was emblematic of the joy he took in writing and story telling.

Genre- Dramatic Literature

Curriculum Ties - Have students read a different novel of the holocaust as opposed to the diary of Anne Frank. Compare and contrast the two novels portrayal of the time period. - Literature

Have students make a connection to the time period by reading novels set in World War II Germany - History

Compare and contrast novels with hiding places (The Diary of Anne Frank; The Hiding Place; The Book Thief)?

Booktalking Ideas - Discuss totalitarian regimes and their impact on literature.  Find other books that deal with how a country views literature when they are trying to control the people.

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 10+

Challenge Issues - None

Why Included - I have heard a lot about this book before this class.  While working in the library I found it a good opportunity to find out what it was about.

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Crank

Title - Crank
Author - Ellen Hopkins
ISBN - 0689865198
Publication Date - 2004

Plot - Kristina is a high school student with a promising life ahead of her.  All of this is about to crash down around her.  Meeting another boy called Adam she creates an alternate ego for herself that she uses to get outside of her world.  This ego would eventually stick with her, called Bree.  Bree and Adam end up going down the rabbit hole into the monster world of crank.  This addiction is instantaneous and begins to rule her life, as she becomes unable to separate fiction from fact.    She is forced to go back to her mothers and live with family there, but the addiction follows, and leaves a trail of tears.  She ends up developing relationships with multiple people.  One of these relationships is with Chase, who seems to truly care for her, and another with Brendan, who rapes her.  Eventually she discovers that she is pregnant with child and hopes that it is Chase's child, but it turns out to be the child of Brendan.  She is forced to make many decisions about what is going to happen to her and her child, all in the fog of the addiction to the monster.  At the end of the novel she is raising her child, but just barely as she still is caught by the addictive madness of the monster, calling her out the door.

Critical Review -  Upon first glance Crank would seem like a difficult read.  Lots of authors have been experimenting with using free verse to be able to tell a story, and Hopkins takes the reader down quite a path.  There is a beautiful uniqueness to the tale of Crank, where reading the story can be done in so many different ways.  The poetry can be read word by word, line by line.  Sometimes it is read top to bottom, skipping sections of poetry to give the reader a whole new meaning to what is being said.  It does a lot to maintain the readers interest, and anyone who is willing to set aside some hours getting all of the meanings Hopkins wishes to convey will be richly rewarded.  There is an even further beauty to the method of this writing for this particular story.  The poetry itself is winding, twisting and turning, leading the reader in all sorts of different directions.  Much like the drug to which the leads are addicted to, the poetry of Crank allows the reader to descend and be caught off guard into the madness of what is going on in the story.

Reader's Annotation - What     
                                               I am going to say,
                                               That can convince you
                                               To read this poem which
                                   Makes
                                               Feelings be sucked into
                                               an abyss of lost
                                               emotive turmoil.
                                   Life,
                                               crazy as it may
                                               seem to bystanders
                                               drives us to find self
                                    Worth
                                               in materials,
                                              and of memories.
                                              Like death, are we yet
                                    Living?
                                              But in that empty
                                              tomb that I call life
                                              the monster beckons:
                                    Crank.

About the Author - Ellen Hopkins began her career in the non-fiction field, writing books for children.  But in 2002 she found out that her daughter had developed a severe meth-amphetamine addiction.  Keenly aware of all the damage that was being caused by her daughters use of the drug, and desiring to sense some connection and responsibility she might bear for her daughters condition, Hopkins set out to write a novel about the monster of crank.

This cathartic journey encouraged her to explore a wide range of subjects that might be effecting teens with a series of verse novels including Burned, Impulse, Identical and Glass.  Each of these explores the drama effecting teens and how their choices have a significant impact on the rest of their lives.

Genre- Drama, Free Verse Poetry

Curriculum Ties - Discuss the use of Free Verse to write an entire novel. - Literature

Compare and contrast the novel Crank with other Epic poems such as Milton's Paradise Lost, or Dante's Inferno.  - Literature

Booktalking Ideas -

Discuss the nature of addiction.

Discuss the difference, if any, of the nature of many of the prescription drugs that are out there.

Discuss the efficacy of decriminalizing drugs such as marijuana and its social impact

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 10+

Challenge Issues - I think there are so many challenge issues it would be difficult to start.  As I know, Hopkins has been banned from doing book talks at certain places because of the controversy over the Crank series.  It is hard to pick one issue. But aside from language issues the novel contains a rapist who fathers a child, and severe drug abuse without any resolution aside from the fact that we know she is addicted at the end.

Overcoming Challenges - I think it would be important to first point out that there is no glamour involved to the drug use.  The narrator of the novel knows that it is something that is sucking away her life, which she cannot stop.  She also ends up pregnant from a thing she believes to be rape, but cannot sort it out in her mind properly and actually questions it.  Discussing with teens that actions have consequences is important and this can be a good way to begin that discussion.  Also having a list of items from drug agencies about drug abuse and its negative consequences on hand to show to parents to that they have a way to discuss the novel with their teen would be a good thing as well.  This should allay the fears of most responsible parents.

Why Included - Along with Wintergirls, I really wanted to find another book that would be considered controversial in teen literature.  A friend of mine put me onto Ellen Hopkins and I was very pleased.