Forged by Fire

After finishing Tears of a Tiger, I had no choice but to immediately launch into the sequel. I was actually introduced to Sharon Draper's Hazlewood High trilogy through my student teaching experience, and it was Forged by Fire that was being read as a read-aloud by my Cooperating Teacher. We hadn't gotten very far by the time I left the classroom, and I have honestly been looking forward to finding out what happens to Gerald and his family. And now that I've successfully read the book in its entirety, I can say that I loved this book just as much as I loved Tears of a Tiger. Everything I said about Draper's style in the first book - her graceful and careful handling of extremely difficult content - rings true here as well. Gerald's life, starting here in his toddler years and much before the timeline of Tears of a Tiger, is extremely difficult and heartwrenching to read, but Draper once again manages to write about these circumstances while keeping the book very PG-rated. This book ties into the plot of its predecessor well by beginning with Gerald as a toddler and then gradually moving forward in time until it "catches up to" Tears of a Tiger in the order of events. Because of this, the book - which would still be extremely powerful on its own as a stand-alone novel - becomes more emotional for readers who know what will happen to the boys as the plot continues because they have already read about the accident in the first book. Forged by Fire would be an excellent book to recommend to a student for silent, individual reading but would also be great for an engaging and emotional read-aloud as well. My only word of caution is that there are clear mentions and suggestions of sexual molestation in this plot that repeatedly comes up, so it would be wise to know where those parts are and know how you will skip over them and/or edit them for a read-aloud if you are uncomfortable reading them straight from the text. They are only implied and suggested, rather than described explicitly, but you may still feel that it's necessary to edit somewhat. Overall, though, the Hazlewood High trilogy continues to be fantastic, and I can't wait to get my hands on Darkness Before Dawn.

I'm Baaack!

Remember me? It's been approximately forever since I've written a post on this thing, but I HAVE been reading and I HAVE been thinking "Hey...I should probably post on that thing..." But I haven't. Mostly because it's summer and somewhat because the internet stinks at my house, but regardless of all reasons, I'm back. And I figured few things would be better to welcome my return to your inboxes and Google readers than a basically useless post from me that honestly tells you nothing.

...actual book reviews to follow soon.

Tears of a Tiger

I'm back! It's been a while, but grad school's got to get finished somehow and jobs don't get applied to for you. Graduation is tonight and the interviews are finally starting, though, so I'm back to casually reading on occasion. And the first one I picked up was Tears of a Tiger, written by Sharon Draper. I'd heard about this series for the first time during student teaching in the fall; the English department had been given sets of the trilogy and my Cooperating Teacher used the second book in the series as a Read-Aloud. I only got to hear some of the second book during my time in her classroom, but I was hooked and knew that I would want to read all three books at some point. So...here we go:

Andy and his good friends - including his best friend Robbie - are out celebrating that night's basketball victory over a rival school. They're riding around in Andy's car - after many drinks each - when the car crashes and Robbie is killed almost immediately. The other three boys, including Andy, manage to escape much physical damage but the emotional damage is endless. This becomes especially true for Andy, who was driving the car the led to his best friend's untimely death. Although many characters remain focal points throughout the story, the bulk of the plot surrounds Andy and the rest of his school year.

I think what I really appreciated about Tears of a Tiger is that even though Draper deals with realistic and heartwrenchingly mature themes, she does so in a really classy and appropriate way. I've read "Young Adult" books that focus on the same issues and same subgroup of adolescents and they were virtually unreadable because of the profanity and sexual content. Even if those elements are realistic of true life, we don't always need that level of reality in our faces when we're reading books aimed at young audiences. It really bothers me and has completely eliminated books from my teaching arsenal because I can't support or recommend them. This one, though, deals with traumatic storylines such as underage drinking, accidental death, teenage relationships, abusive parents, and suicide but manages to remain profanity and sex-free. Sometimes the effect is a little similar to watching the movie Remember the Titans: you know that these boys yelling at each other would be cussing each other out like crazy, and the lack of cussing seems a little corny but you appreciate the fact that you're not having to hear it. I truly do appreciate that. Beyond that, though, the plot is also really interesting and engaging. The end is fairly traumatic - even more so than the beginning - and I will say that it wouldn't be a light and fun Read-Aloud, but it would definitely provide good conversations about deeper subject matter than most books. The fact that it's written in a unique prose-ish format makes it easy to zip through as well (I read it in one day. I know I'm not a middle school student, but still). I highly recommend this one, and I'm excited to see what happens next in Forged by Fire!

Confession

I have a confession: I haven't gotten past the fourth or so page of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Granted, work has gotten busy again and schoolwork has really picked up and I'm in the midst of applying to every potential job in the state of Virginia (and then following up on all of those applications and hounding principals that I'm interested in working for...) and so I honestly don't have much time to be reading, but I miss it. I miss wanting to make time for reading and Roll of Thunder sadly isn't doing it for me. I'm not very far into it, and I know I'll love it some day when I pick it up again - it's one of those that I've owned for probably ten years but never read - but for now I think I'm going to need something with more immeditate grabbing capabilities.

Page [1]: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Here's the first page [basically] of the book I'm reading, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, written by Mildred Taylor:

"'Little Man, would you come on? You keep it up and you're gonna make us late.' My youngest brother paid no attention to me. Grasping more firmly his newspaper-wrapped notebook and his tin-can lunch of cornbread and oil sausages, he continued to concentrate on the dusty road. He lagged several feed behind my other brothers, Stacey and Christopher-John, and me, attempting to keep the rusty Mississippi dust from swelling with each step and drifting back upon his shiny black shoes and the cuffs of his corduroy pants by lifting each foot high before setting it gently down again. Always meticulously neat, six-year-old Little Man never allowed dirt or tears or stains to mar anything he owned. Today was no exception."

Stay tuned for my thoughts after I finish!

The Pigeon Wants a Puppy

How could you possibly go wrong with a Pigeon book? You can't.

We've already seen Pigeon declare his love for public transportation in Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, but in this one he's moved on to puppies. Just as persuasive as you would expect, Pigeon tries his best to convince you that he will be a responsible ("I'll water it every day!") and loving ("I'm a puppy-lovin' pigeon!") parent. When logical reasons such as those don't seem to work, he resorts to a sudden and hilarious rant ("I WANT A PUPPY!"). He really pulls out all the stops on this one, showing the full range of persuasive techniques. His arguments have improved slightly but he still hasn't learned much in the ways of successful persuasive angles and effective techniques. He doesn't get a puppy just like he doesn't get to drive the bus, but you might be surprised with why he doesn't get the puppy. This one's just as hilarious/entertaining/voice-filled/persuasion-filled as any of his others. The Pigeon doesn't disappoint. How could he?

Movement

I decided that because I've done so many picture book reviews lately and am adding new ones all the time, "Picture Books" deserves its own page. All picture book reviews have been moved from "YA Lit" to "Picture Books," where they make much more sense anyway.