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.

Sorry For Partyin'

Title - Sorry For Partyin'
Author - Bowling for Soup
Release Date- July 28, 2009

Plot -The content of this CD is essentially an ode to the Crazy antics of Bowling for Soup.  A Band that has been around since 1994, they hit is big in 2005 with the release of their single 1985, an ode to previous music and hard partying ways that they seem to have missed.  They have continued this crazy chaos in their Album Sorry for Partyin'.  What this album does excellently is represent their desire to be a group who does not wish to take anything in life too seriously. 

It begins with an ode to Dance Music (to which they primarily hate).  They tease in the lyrics that they are writing this song because they need the money for things their families want.  It's second song, and first single on the album is called No Hablo Ingles, a reference to an inability to speak the English language.  The song really is an ode to not taking responsibility for anything, to which the refrain No Hablo Ingles aids them in this ability.  While primarily about the desire to live a life free of encumbrances, they seem to recognize that they are tied to a community of people they love, nevertheless.  Songs such as BFF, Me With No You, and I Just Wanna Be Loved refer to a need to be loved and connected either romantically or to friends that they have.  But don't take them too seriously, as I Hate L.A. is an ode to disliking the L.A. scene despite having Jimmy Kimmel and In and Out Burgers.

Critical Review-  Bowling for Soup, while coming out of the Punk music scene, with its simple chord sets and fairly repetitive music, is a refreshing breath of fresh air in the genre.  There is an air of refreshing non-seriousness about this group.  Wierd Al'Yankovic would not be able to parody this band as they are a parody in and of themselves.  They spend time taking stabs at people who write pop music because of the money, and for others who want others to do poorly at games with the song Choke.  And all the while they have the ability to develop a beautiful love ballad with Everything to Me.  I would say sit back, have fun, and enjoy the ride, because Bowling for Soup is never going to be Sorry for Partyin'

Reader's Annotation- So many different uses . . . you don't need no excuses, it's as easy as the third grade. The perfect getaway, it's all you gotta say, quatro cinco seis . . . no hablo ingles.  Never be Sorry for Partyin'.

About the Author- Jaret Reddick formed the band in 1994 with Band mates Erik Chandler, Chris Burney, and a previous drummer(now filled by Gary Wiseman since 1998).  The four decided that they wanted to create a different form of music that was happy.  They saw all of the message bands out there who were frequently wanted to decry their problems with life and relationships.  Bowling for Soup wanted to do something entirely different.  They wanted to make music that people would go to see and leave with a smile on your face.

While not afraid of being crass, they decided to create music that would not be so message heavy.  Hits such as I'm Gay are reflective of the desire to be happy, taking the original meaning of the term gay.  Even in Sorry for Partyin' they have never been afraid of innuendo as a means of humor.  In their song My Wena the joke is whether Reddick is singing about his dog, or a piece of his male anatomy.

Genre- Music, Punk

Curriculum Ties - Literature - Poetry

Music - Punk

Booktalking Ideas - N/A

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 10+

Challenge Issues - Crass Language and some questionable content in the Music

Overcoming Challenge - Compare it to modern music of the era and how it is relatively innocent in terms of its lyrics.  Discuss the use of double entendre and the ability to discuss methods and forms of humor.

Why Included - This has been one of my favorite Bands since the release of their single 1985; and this is one of my favorite albums.  Its humor and spirit are reflective of many of the teens I run across at the library.

Blood Roses

Title - Blood Roses
Author - Block, Francesca Lia
ISBN - 9780060763848
Publication Date - 2008

Plot - To try to attempt to write the plot of Blood Roses would be impossible unless you were going to write out everything for each of the short stories in the set.  The beginning story, Blood Roses, consists of Two sisters who enter into a house where a person they seem to know keeps discussing with them about serial killers and how people survived the serial killers.  There is an air of brooding that exists where the two have to make a mad dash to escape and get out through some barbed wire, but they are missing something, a screwdriver.  Another story called Grant deals with Rachel Sorrow, who is trying to adjust to all of these intense new feelings she is having.  This is causing her some problems as she now fears relationships with boys and what may happen if she attempts to connect to the boys she likes.  She instead fades away into a bunch of questions about the outcome of the story. Block leaves it open ended leaving us to understand that when we are in the middle of a story, its hard to see what the end is going to be like; its hard to move forward.  Each of the stories consists of vivid imagery and a great deal of confusion about what is real. 

Critical Review - A series of stories generally has some dramatic theme to them, developed to have a consistent message.  I would argue that the author put this together as a collection of stories to question the reality versus perception of the characters of the individuals, and sometimes things that are perceived to be big are not quite as big as they would seem.  The visual imagery used to convey the theme is amazing.  I think that the stories often remind me of Flannery O'Connor with her extensive use of metaphor and allegory to tell a story.

Reader's Annotation - Come to the world of Francesca Lia Block, a world of darkness, mystery and wonder, where love is the real magic.

About the Author--  Francesca Lia Block focuses much of her tales in the Los Angeles scene, being this is where she is from.  She believes that she tries to tell stories that blend magic and realism to try to tell a story.  It is through this she tries to convey the message that love is the one thing that can bring us through,.  It is this love that has a sort of magic quality that can take anyone through anything.

Primarily her way of telling stories is through fairy tales, created to further her messages to her audience.  These can take the form of allegory or some sort of mystic realism.  She desires to tell stories with a harsh realism, yet at the same time with room for grace and escape.

Genre-  Fantasy/Realism

Curriculum Ties - Allegorical Studies - Literature; Short Stories - Literature

Booktalking Ideas - Encourage each person in the group to read the book and write a short story of their own.

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 10+

Challenge Issues - No obvious issues

Why Included - I write short stories for fun and enjoy the art form of the short story.  It is fascinating where an author has to convey a large theme in a limited amount of space.

Nevermind

Title - Nevermind (CD)
Author - Nirvanna
Released - September 24, 1991

Plot - Not that an album necessarily has a plot to it, but there can be many themes running through an album.  Nevermind's first hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is an anthem for the disaffected masses that are drawn together for wildly varying reasons.  Cobain was very concerned with what he considered the overly catchy pop sounds of most of mainstream music, and how it drew people together mindlessly (his idea of teen spirit).  In Bloom concerns the innocence of the individual who comes along and sings along to all of the songs, but he doesn't know the depth of the meaning. This quasi innocence is portrayed in the rest of the album through his response to relationships.  All of this relationship pain is brought about by the innocence of the person.  Dreams that a person suggests include planting a house and building a tree in breed and the dichotomy of the person in Lithium who is dealing with his emotional feelings, I like you, I need you, I killed you, compared to his mental state which keeps repeating he is not going to crack.

Critical Review - It becomes really difficult to review in an objective fashion what many consider to be one of the most revolutionary albums of the last 20 years.  Certainly the strains and the music of Nevermind are repetitive, but they are imbued with a melodic quality that much of the Seattle Grunge scene of its day was missing.  To encapsulate these with haunting lyrics that resonate is genius in its own right.   While I would criticize the albums repetitiveness of theme and music, there is also a method to the madness, in that it reflects the spirit of the age, which sometimes needs repetition to have something sink in as we are bombarded by so many different images.  What is really haunting is that much of this music reflects about the destructiveness of Cobain's feelings about his relationships, and many consider his death to be the conclusion of his destructive relationship with Courtney Love.

Reader's Annotation - How does one quibble with perfection?  One of the greatest albums from one of the greatest bands in the last twenty years perfectly encapsulates the teenage plight of its day, where innocence has been abused and something much more frightening takes its place.

Information about the Author - Kirk Cobain was born into a musically talented family, out of which several had been a part of bands or played instruments.  Cobain developed his talents.  At the age of eight, his parents divorced, having a profound effect on the young child.  He seemed to be ashamed of himself, as he did not consider himself to be normal.  He desperately wanted normal.

Being thrust into the music scene as the bastion of the Grunge Era, Cobain had a hard time with handling the success of his music.  Much of his lyrics criticized the non-unique sounds and rhythms of much of the music going around.  What he did not count on was that his instant popularity would spawn people copying him.  His struggle with his own sense of self worth led him to heroin usage and to abusive relationships.  This was obvious in his music and his life, culminating in his death from a probably self inflicted gunshot wound.

Genre - Music - Alternative

Curriculum Ties - Music Theory.  Explore the lyrics of the music as literature. - Literature

Booktalking Ideas - N/A

Interest Age - Grade 10+

Challenge Issues -
Possible criticism of Cobain as a result of his extensive heroin abuse and suicide, as well as the discussion of his libido and other sexual terminology.

Overcoming challenges - Discuss how this is an excellent opportunity to discuss negative repercussions of abuse as well as enabling a frank discussion of suicide, and how to help people.  Especially in Smells Like Teen Spirit, discuss the fact that Cobain is criticizing the mindlessness of the people in the song, not praising the people he speaks of.

Why selected - As the best of the grunge bands, and from my time as a teen as a I graduated in high school in 1991 when this album was released, I wanted to include some music in the selections of materials for teens.  And the fact that Smells Like Teen Spirit was the first single it somehow seemed appropriate.

Clueless

Title - Clueless
Author- Jane Austen (Emma)/Amy Heckerling -Director
Publication Date : July 19, 1995

Plot - Amy Heckerling's 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's Book Emma tells the story of Cher(Alicia Silverstone), a High School student in Beverly Hills who decides to take a social interest in a girl, Tai(Brittany Murphy), who would not normally be considered in her Social Circle.  Through her machinations she ends up convincing the girl that she is really interested in Elton( Jeremy Sisto). This does not work itself out as she eventually finds that Elton's interests are more in Cher herself.  All of which brings us back to the person of Cher, who comes to realize that sometimes the life that you should be most involved with is your own, as when you step away from getting involves in the lives of others, things do tend to work themselves out, for them, and for yourself.

Critical Review - Amy Heckerling does a creditable job of adapting the work of Emma to the big screen and giving it a teenage sensibility.  Although maybe Heckerling did not have to stretch that far to confer upon high school students that kind of Characters that Austen had envisioned with Emma.  You have the social outcasts, as well as the people misconstruing intentions, and gossip abounding in a small little community.  This would seem to fit perfectly into the high school atmosphere.  The pace is light hearted and fun.. and Cher finds her own Mr. Knightly in the end, or as Cher would put it, her own Baldwin.

Reader's (Watcher's) Annotation - Sometimes the life that you try to save, will ultimately be your own.  Cher, in attempting to fix everyone else' life finds that her own is in a fix, and she just might lose the person she loves, to the person she tried to help.  Can she fix things in time?

Information about the Author - Jane Austen lived the vast majority of her life on the fringes of the English gentry, giving her the perfect place with which both to view and critique the manners and mannerisms of the English social set.  These societies seemed to have their own set of rules that they thought were OK to follow.  What sets Austen apart is her biting social commentary and a keen understanding of human nature and the foibles that one may get into when trying to do the right thing for the wrong reasons, or vise versa.  Much of her novelizations are commentaries about class structure, and the importance of love and family.

Amy Heckerling has been a box office darling and one of the few successful female directors in the business.  Like Austen herself, she has had to face a industry dominated by men, but through her wit and charm and an understanding of human nature has been able to make herself a success in her chosen profession.  She has directed such hits as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Look Who's Talking, and Clueless, two of which have spawned TV series as result.

Genre - Movies, Comedy

Curriculum Ties - Discuss film adaptations of English literature - Literature

Booktalking Ideas - Do a combined study of Emma for a book talk and have a showing of Clueless at the Library.  One might also do a double feature with a film adaptation of Emma to compare it to.

Interest Age - Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - None

Why Included - I suppose aside from my love of Jane Austen and including another teen movie adaptation, there might be a side of me who is subtly paying homage to some of the former teen actors who have recently passed away i.e. Brittany Murphy.

Ten Things I hate About You

Title - Ten Things I Hate About You
Author - Shakespeare(Taming of the Shrew)/Gil Junger
Production Date  - March 31, 1999

Plot - A retelling of the classic Shakespeare Play "The Taming of the Shrew," 10 Things I Hate About You, tries to tell the story to a younger, more modern teenage Audience.  Heath Ledger plays Patrick Verona, the Petruccio character of the play, coming into Padua high school, upsetting the social scene as he plays the rebel who will try to woo and win the fair, but shrewish, Katarina's heart.  Of course it is not as simple as all of that, as there are schemes and plots hiding underneath the surface, as with the regular play.  There is also another sister to be wooed, and her apparent interest in another person from the beginning.  Manipulations, double crosses, and hi jinx abound as the more modern look at teenage promiscuity and alcohol abuse is viewed.  The one large lack from the stage play seems to be the ending where Katherine in the play confounds her audience by telling others why it is great and essential not to be a shrewish bride.  It was an interesting point in Shakespeare's play that would have been difficult to adapt to modern sensitivities.  Finally, as Padua High, all is well that ends well.  Padua (Heath Ledger) gets Katarina(Julia Stiles), and Bianca(Larisa Oleynik)  is somewhat chastened and learns that sometimes the brightest love and best love may not always come in the shiniest package.

Critical Review - Despite some of the trivializing of the Shakespearean Play, with comedic turns where Petruccio breaks out into song on a football field to win Katarinas affections, and the seemingly limited content where in the play Petruccio spends time trying to break the spirit of his bride, 10 Things I Hate About You does a creditable job of trying to update the Shakespearean play for the modern teen.  While any adaptation of a play is subject to the interpretation of the director, 10 Things does a creditable job of trying to update the themes for the audience.  As there is a little more sympathy to the plight of the girls than their might have been in Shakespeare's day, the girls are having to develop their own thoughts and feelings about the world, and not having the men dictate it to them.   One might even argue that Padua is the one who is actually broken by the end of the movie, going from outsider bad boy, to tenderhearted soul.

Readers Annotation - Padua High is up for a revamping, as the classic Shakespearean Tale of Taming of the Shrew gets a high school face lift.  While not a brand new pair of breasts, Junger takes his audience on a ride of relationships, and a true understanding of love.  For when you love something, you have to be able to let it go.

--Author Information--
Shakespeare was a 16th century playwright, of which much is said and much is debated.  What is not debated is that the person known as Shakespeare was credited with some of the most complex and amazing literature ever written in the English language, with complex and basic themes.  He understood the heights and depths of human character and emotion, and his literature put that on full display.

Gil Junger is ironically known for his directorial debut, 10 Things I Hate About You.  He works for Touchstone Pictures, a subsidiary of the Disney Corporation.

Genre - Comedy, Films

Curriculum Ideas - Adaptations of Shakespeare in Film - Literature
What Makes a Comedy(Does it always end in Marriage)? - Literature

Booktalking Ideas - Adaptations - How does one go about adapting something to the stage or screen?  What does one cut out?  What does one include?

Reading(Watching) Level - Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - There is some teen partying and drug use.

Overcoming Challenge - The movie is a reflection of today's teen culture.  People who do those things such as abuse alcohol or sex, are punished or shown in a bad light

Why Included - This is one of my favorite modern Shakespeare adaptations, and perfect as it is directed at a teen audience.  Also, I  miss Heath Ledger as an actor.

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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Gossip Girl

Title - Gosspi Girl : A Novel
Author - Cesily Von Ziegesar
ISBN - 0316910333
Publication Date - 2002

Plot - Serena van der Woodsen has been at a private boarding school for quite some time, and now she is coming back into the neighborhood to upset the social scene as it were.  Ah the life of being a teenager, from sexual rumors and innuendo, Serena is about to upset the world of the high school upper class in this community.  From jealousies to rumor, people are about to stop Serena at any cost from getting what she seems to want.  When truth gets thrown out the window at this School, Serena is challenged to make a life that is not exactly what she had expected, but she seems to be all right with this ending.  Blair Waldorf sees that Serena is going to get something that she wants, and lying is not beyond her to take it from her.  They both seem to want Nate, but Serena has already had her hands on Nate, so Blair lets people think all kinds of wild and crazy stuff from her sleeping around to spreading STD's to crashing and burning with drugs.  Nothing is beyond Blair to stop Serena from keeping Nate.  Of course, lies are bound to create trouble in the long run, and Serena finds that despite the lies, she has found people who like her for who she is, in Dan and Jenny.  The best people in the end to hold onto, are those who like you, regardless of what anyone says about you.

Critical Review - A series of little vignettes tell the story of Serena van der Woodson and how she has an impact on the high school that she comes back to after being away at boarding school. Rumors follow as any new kid comes to a school, and bigger rumors follow kids that have left a school and then come back.  This is the world of all of these rumors at hyper speed.  It would seem to be an excellent choice for the High School Girls set who are caught up in the world of gossip, where the truth easily gets brushed aside, and the rumor takes on a  truth of its own.  I did appreciate that despite all the crazy rumors going around that the reader was allowed into the world of  Serena, to show how she felt about things as the truth was given a back seat.  And despite the lack of morality being told about, beginning with a quote from Oscar Wilde ("Scandal is Gossip made tedious by Morality"), there is a moral subtext here.  We are not left without some conclusion to be gained.  As Serena asks Dan at the end about what he thinks about all of the rumors, he does not believe them for a second.  The people who are important to us should be those who have faith in who we are, despite the rumors.

Readers Annotation - The new school girl in town has everything: looks, personality, charm, and the eye of every kid in school.  What is Blair Waldorf to do about it?  Lie!  Come to the World of Gossip Girl, where lies are truth, and truth means only as much as what someone believes.

About the Author - Cecily Von Ziegessar grew up in the world of Gossip Girl.  She knew first hand about the lives of the young and rich, whose worries did not tend to their parents business, but who was sleeping with whom; who got drunk; and who was taking the latest drug of choice.  She was raised in the boarding school system, where you were away from your parents for months at a time, and you developed your own set of morals to fit what you wanted. 

Her favorite quote: "Success is in the details," perfectly encapsulates both the novel and the success of the Gossip Girls Series on a broad scale.  Von Ziegessar's attention to detail in the novels gives the reader a good understanding of the mind and thought of each character.  It is the nuance in the characters that has brought her great success.

Genre - Chic Lit

Curriculum Ties - Discuss Appearance vs. Reality and the nature of Gossip.  - Ethics
Discuss some of the broad themes in Literature presented in the novel - Hubris (extreme pride)  --Who is going to be falling?

Booktalking ideas - Discuss the success of the Internet and the blogging community.  How can a blog positively/negatively effect the world around us?

Reading Interest - Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - The novel includes extreme sexuality, alcoholism and drug use without seemingly any real consequences.

Overcoming Challenges - Talk about previous generations of authors whose morals seemed to be lacking.  Talk about how the novels reflect society and the importance that society see its own reflection.  The book can be discussed in terms of morals and how morals are developed.  Provide material for parents to interact with teens concerning individuals with little to no moral understanding.

Why Included - I was not really looking forward to the Chic Lit section of this assignment, but I felt it needed some balance, and I found the reading to be far more enjoyable that I would have considered it to be upon first glance.

Serenity : Those Left Behind

Title : Serenity : Those Left Behind
Author : Joss Whedon
ISBN : 1593074492
Publication Date January 2006

Plot - Mal leads a bunch of miscreant people on a mission in space.The beginning of the graphic novel sets up the kind of characterization for the people in this episode for what would seem merely like a comic book.  They are a bunch of criminals who are set out to steal some money from this organization that is in charge of the planetary system.  As their plans unwind and some other criminal element seizes the money from them, they end up having to run away on this planet because everyone blames them for the theft. 

The plot continues as they are offered another job to get some money from this large battle that had happened in space and money was supposedly never found there.  When they get there they discover that this plan was a trap, as it was intended for a particular person to hurt Mal (the captain of  Serenity), and for this other "governmental" element to take River and her Brother who are stowed away on this Spaceship.  Mal ends up getting these people out of harms way, but not before offending nearly everyone in the crew, and not being able to connect personally to someone he does love and care about.

--Review--
Being a fan of the Serenity TV Series by Joss Whedon, I was looking forward to reading the graphic novel based upon the Series.  The downfall of trying to create a graphic novel based upon a TV series is that unless you have watched the TV series, much of what is going on in that action of the story is lost.  No one would understand what a browncoat is, or who the men with the blue gloves are and why they are going after River and his brother.  While they seem like side plots to the individual graphic novel they are important story plots to the actual series.  The relationships between the characters also seem to have a little to be desired as you don't know who likes who or what or why?  And the character of the Shepherd always seems to be lurking in mystery, although that is something that the show left open as well.  For a fan of the series though, it is worth reading as I believe Whedon is trying to fill in the holes he left in the TV series and the resulting movie, even dealing with why and how the Shepherd leaves Serenity in the first place.  I hope that Whedon continues to develop this graphic novel series to complete with his TV series and movie.

Reader's Annotation - If  you were torn apart every which way by war, famine, and being an outlaw in almost every end of the planet, to whom would you turn?  Who would be your family?  Mal discovers his own family and what it really means to connect to people, to have no one who is left behind.

Information about the Author - Joss Whedon is a self styled third generation television writer, whose dad worked writing scripts for the Electric Company and the Golden Girls, and a grandfather who worked for the Donna Reed Show.  He began writing television scripts himself as he was able to edit for the Roseann Show.

He made his big break with writing the screenplay for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  It was originally made into a movie with which he had little control and was unhappy with the way it turned out.  As a result he ended up pitching the same idea to television who would then create the hit series.  It is this desire for control over his own projects that has lead him into many of his TV shows.  Serenity was originally a TV series that was released mid season and not picked up for the following season.  It got enough notoriety that he was eventually able to pitch Serenity as a movie which was released in 2005.

Curriculum Ties - How does one convert a movies into literature. Discuss the nature of films as literature.


Reading Level - Grade 9+

Book Talking Ideas - Comparing film versions of stories with their literature counterparts.  Why is the graphic novel a good place to convert films into?

Challenge Issues - A prostitute is an accepted lead profession in the story.

Handling Challenge Issues - Compare/Contrast time in Serenity with American westerns and the history of the development of the Old West.

Why Included - I included this because I love Joss Whedon and was interested in this novel because it was based upon the TV Show that I liked.

Bone - The Great Cow Race

Title : Bone : The Great Cow Race
Author : Jeff Smith
ISBN : 9780439706391

Plot - Fone, Phoney, and Smiley Bone are three Bone Characters caught up in a plot that would seem to be beyond themselves.  As this is one in a series of Graphic Novels by Jeff Smith, it covers these three characters as they have been taken in after being thrown out of their village, by Grandma, Thorn and others.  Fone is in love with Thorn, a young female villager, who seems to have a past of her own that comes up in dreams.  She has dreams of Dragons and maps and other such goings on.  They seemed to have increased since the Bones have come into the village.  This particular book deals with a Spring festival where Fone Bone decides he is going to confess his love for Thorn in a letter, and Smiley and Phoney Bone are set up in a plot to be able to take money from the villagers by setting up another character to beat the Grandmother character in a race.  They convince the villagers to bet against Grandmother because she was old.

Eventually the plots come crashing down together as a group of rat beings attack Fone bone and end up in the middle of this Cow race.  The "Phoney plot" becomes revealed and Grandmother has to rescue the more miscreant Bones.  The plot running through the story is about the history of Thorn and possibly how the Bones might be connected. Grandma knows more than she is letting on to Thorn and believe somehow the Bones may be connected in some way as well.

--Review--
Graphic Novels kind of have a dual way of reviewing them.  Part of the story is told through the dialogue of the characters,  but a great deal of the story is told through the visuals that are created on the page.  The novel is told with bright vivid colors that are modified slightly when dreams are being told.  Dreams and back story seem to have a more artistic feel to them with more detail to the drawings.  They do a good job of mixing what is going on in the current story with what the larger plot is, allowing for enjoyment of the individual novel and hooking a person effectively into the larger plot.  The interplay with the Bones is comedic and well done.

Reader's Annotation - If  you want someone to tickle your phony bone... or even your Phoney Bone, join the Bone's as they travel across the planes seeking to escape from evil rat creatures, and looking for dragons.  Join them as Grandma and Thorn go on a Cow Adventure with the Bones.

Information about the Author - As early as the age of ten, Jeff Smith was developing his characters for the Bone's in what would be his greatest graphic novel works.  He says that early development of his love for comics was developed by Charles Schultz and his famous Peanut comics, but other comics that inspired him include the Pogo series of comics.

The Bone series was originally published as a set of comics from 1991 to 2004.  Aside from Bone, Smith has worked with many different comic Characters including Captain Marvel, put out by DC Comics.  Overall Smith finds himself well connected and well-suited for the comic/graphic novel genre he has chosen.

Curriculum Ties - Discuss Graphic Novels as a literary format/genre. Literature
Comics as graphic Art.
How the Comic transformed itself into a Novel - Literature

Reading Level - Grade 9+

Book Talking Ideas - Discuss the use of the serial in literature - How effective is the use of serialization in literature? Have people discuss what secrets are being kept by the characters.  Have them try to guess what secrets they may be holding before reading the next book.

Challenge Issues - N/A

Why Included - I included this because I was interested in these characters and had seen this set of Graphic Novels at my work.