Speak

There are some books that speak (no pun intended) to you so profoundly that you keep thinking about them long after you finish the last page. This is one of those books, as is the other Laurie Halse Anderson book that I've just finished and will be reviewed in the next post. Anderson's unique style of writing gives you a front-and-center vantage point to all the pain and inner thoughts of Speak's main character, Melinda, who is dealing with the aftershock of being raped as well as outcasted by her entire group of friends due to a misunderstanding. Anderson's choice of writing style, which feels like a stream of consciousness more so than a diary or a typical first-person narrative, allows the reader to see not only Melinda's actions but also her thoughts and motives behind those actions. Sarcastic wit and humor are sprinkled throughout the story to keep you laughing occasionally despite the majority of the plot's upsetting details. Melinda's coping mechanism of choice is to stop speaking almost entirely with the hope that she would just disappear. Shockingly, she almost succeeds. You get to witness her parents' indifference, her teachers' ignorance, and her friends hatred all from Melinda's honest perspective; this front row seat will break your heart.

Aside from the beautiful writing and heartwrenching plot, I love this book because Anderson manages to handle extremely difficult and graphic material in a completely appropriate way. With very little bad language and almost no sexual content (the description of Melinda's rape is handled with extreme grace), I would happily share this book with students. I will say, though, that I will be sharing it only with discernment and careful selection. This book probably won't be on my classroom bookshelf open to just anyone, only because I want the students who read this plot to be able to handle it maturely. Rape is an extremely sensitive issue, and I think students who open themselves up to this book should be sensitive enough to handle it. I'll get into that more with the review of Anderson's other book, Wintergirls, next.

The Last Song

I need to be clear: for most of my life now, I've been a Nicholas Sparks snob. I love the movie The Notebook, but I have quietly made fun of the other movies, seeing them as cheesy and predictable. I loved the book A Walk to Remember when I read it in high school, but I told no one and never mentioned it again. I can't really say where this snobbery came from, but it's been there and I need to confess it. When I dropped a copy of The Last Song into my shopping cart after it first appeared, I was confused by my own actions. Aside from this being a Nicholas Sparks book, it's also starring Miley Cyrus: the book was written FOR the movie and therefore the protagonist's role was written FOR Miley. As much as I haven't been a Sparks fan, I'm much less of a Miley fan. So I still really don't understand how I own it. Even though I bought it, I didn't read it for...what? A year? A year and a half? I started it once and couldn't get past the annoying Miley voice in my head so I put it down. But for whatever reason, I picked it up a couple days ago, and....I loved it. And I have some apologizing to do.

To be fair to myself, I need to comment on the fact that Sparks reuses themes and plot devices quite often, and that some of his dialogue is cheesy and weak, and that the Epilogue was a little bit too Band-Aidey. But with those criticisms said, I really did enjoy this book a lot. I got hooked almost immediately this second time around, and I only got more hooked the more I read. The romance was sweet and snagged me instantly (if you've read any of my other posts you know that I'm such an easy sell for an attractive male character, despite my best efforts), and I appreciated the lack of sexual content SO much. There were two almost-scenes that didn't amount to anything, which was refreshing. Foul language was also basically nonexistent. (If I sound a little bit like a prude, it's just because I don't ever want to be accused of supporting/recommending/promoting books that a parent would be offended by for their middle school student, and any book that I can peacefully choose to leave on my classroom shelf rather than take off of it is a book I appreciate.) The story of Ronnie's (aka Miley's) relationship with her estranged father and annoying little brother is wonderful, full of heartwarming and heartbreaking goodness. Contrary to what I expected, I also found lots of surprising plot twists scattered throughout that kept me guessing and wondering how it would all play out. The fact that chapters rotate narrator also provides a great opportunity to discuss voice and perspective between characters.

So...I'm sorry. I'm sorry Nicholas Sparks, and I'm sorry unnamed friend of mine whose favorite author is Nicholas Sparks. I never should have laughed/scoffed/turned up my prideful nose at either of you. Or the rest of the Sparks-loving world. I was wrong.

The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero

Anyone who has read this blog in the last nine months or so knows that I am in love with Percy Jackson. I'm a huge, huge fan. So when I heard that Rick Riordan had started a new series featuring new demigods I got excited; when dear friends gave me the first book of that series to me as a graduation present I got really excited. I believe it goes without saying that I was not disappointed. I loved this book, and zoomed through the 557 pages in a couple of days.

The Heroes of Olympus series surrounds three new characters: Jason, Piper, and Leo. Jason wakes up on the first page of the book with complete amnesia of his entire life, and yet he seems to have an incredible knowledge of all things Roman (the Latin language, the Roman names of the gods, an "SPQR" tattoo on his forearm, etc.). Piper's father is a famous movie star who doesn't always have time for her, to which she responds with an impressive rap sheet and an uncanny ability to convince anyone to give her whatever she wants. Leo, highly ADHD, is a bit of a screw up who has many secrets surrounding the death of his mother and a certain terrifying babysitter who tried to kill him several times in his childhood. All three of these teenagers, as you might guess, are the children of gods and end up at Camp Half-Blood under the guidance of our favorite centaur, Chiron. An epic quest follows with enough monsters, angry gods and goddesses, and flying spirits to keep any struggling reader interested. Add a plethora of explosions, destructive storms, and an all-gold, fire breathing dragon and pretty much any reader will be interested. I miss Percy - minor spoiler alert: this series starts out with Percy mysteriously missing - but many of my old faves make appearances throughout the book which I always appreciate. The new characters are immediately endearing, which I also appreciate. Bottom line: I loved it and am anxiously awaiting the second book this Fall.

Special note as far as teaching purposes go: the chapters rotate perspective between the three main characters, providing a great example for a study on voice and perspective.

Matched

Alright. I finished this book not 30 seconds ago, and I have to be completely honest. I struggled with the first...eh...180 to 200 pages. I know that sounds like a lot of text to read while struggling with it, and it is. I wasn't struggling because I wasn't interested, though, or because the writing was bad. I was and it definitely wasn't. From the first review/synopsis I read of this book I've been genuinely intrigued and antsy to read it, and I wasn't disappointed in the plot - even during the first 180 to 200 pages. I was disappointed, though, and I did struggle with the way that the setting seemed to be a subtle rip-off of The Hunger Games. The Society of Matched is eerily similar to the Capitol of The Hunger Games; the love triangle irked me as a Katniss/Gale/Peeta copycat. Now that I've finished the book, however, I've moved on and realized that A) I don't have a lot of experience reading books that take place in the future, and maybe all these authors are just seeing the writing on the wall and doing a good job of predicting the same horrible future for us, and B) Katniss doesn't own the love triangle concept, they're just common. Period. Now that I've gotten that - and the first 200ish pages - out of the way, here's what I really think about it:

Wow. I have learned some things about myself while reading this book. For starters, I'm apparently a sucker for fictional boys. Kind of obnoxiously so. I did a much better job of resisting the wiles of Ky than I did Peeta's, but what does it really matter in the end? I fell for that charm and I fell hard. I like Ky. Of course the problem is that I like Xander. (In case you didn't catch it, this is the love triangle element.) The weird thing is that it took me most of those 200ish pages to like Cassia, the main character/antagonist/narrator. I saw her as weak and flighty...a big part of me wanted to keep comparing her to Katniss and Katniss kept winning. But, also in the end, I moved on. They're two completely different characters and Cassia wisens up considerably, changing from that weak and flighty girl into a headstrong rebel that the Girl on Fire would be proud to march alongside of. (Wow...if you haven't read The Hunger Games, you are so lost. But honestly, you've had a couple years to get on board. Read those books immediately.) As I closed the book for the last time just minutes ago, I decided that I definitely love this book. My feelings went from a mild "eh" to concrete enthusiasm, and I would recommend it without a hesitation. I also appreciate that it seems to be set up for a sequel...I just love sequels. It's so hard for me to say goodbye to characters I have come to love. And I did come to love these characters.

The more blogposts/reviews I write, the more I realize how I am so hit or miss. Sometimes I'm straight to the point and just explain myself. And other times I'm bouncing all over the place. Since this is Friday afternoon and I've been alone at work against my will for two and a half hours now, this is one of the bouncier ones. I'm really sorry about that. Here, succinct and to the point, is my review: Slow start, but comes together in the end. Loved it. Go check it out.

Happy weekend.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

Set in post-World War II London and the British island Guernsey, this book is written entirely in the letters that are sent as correspondance between each of the characters. This somewhat unique approach - or at the very least, uncommon - brings the characters so much more to life than I had expected. Virtually no character or plot development is lost through this method, and I actually think that I grew to love the characters more because I got to know them through their letter-writing. (Also, it made me really want to write letters. And receive them. And immediately join a book club.) I know I have a tendency to be generous with my support and flowery adjectives and gushes of being in love with every new book I read, so I'll spare you from that this time and just simply say: this book is really good. It's special. The characters are immediately endearing and charming; the setting is unique to me as the 20-something American who has not recently survived a war fought in my own city; the insights and perspectives offered regarding the German occupation of the island of Guernsey during World War II are honestly far beyond what I'd ever seriously considered as true events that took place. It's good...it's really, really good. The friend who recommended it to me said that her mother had given it to her for Christmas, and that both of them had already read it several times because they missed the characters so much. At the time this sounded slightly silly, but now I understand. I dearly wish that Juliet was a real person in my life. I would write her a letter a day just so I could receive her hilarious and witty responses. I honestly would.

Stepping on the Cracks

I have to say, this was my absolute favorite book in 5th grade. It made the biggest impression on me that I can remember from all the books I read in elementary school. One of my favorite memories of that year, actually, involves me making a deal with one of my male classmates who hated to read: I promised to read his favorite book for him if he read this one for me. I can't even remember what book I had to read for that deal but he loved this one. (I guess the moral of that story is that I've always been a nerd and I've always been an English teacher trying to trick kids into reading.) All of that being said, I finally got around to re-reading this week and...I have to say I'm a tiny bit disappointed. I still love it and it still holds a very special place in my heart, but it's not exactly what I remembered. I will say, though, that there are two major story lines throughout this plot, and one of them I love very much while it's the other one that I'm struggling with. I'll go with the one I'm struggling with first: this book is disappointingly anti-war. The story's protagonist/narrator has a brother who is fighting in the war, and the tragic side effects of this are more than present on the homefront. Much more central than that, however, is a focal character who is - spoiler alert - a deserter of the war. Although this character is extremely loveable and endearing, his anti-war viewpoint is heard often throughout the story...and it's really one of the only viewpoints the remains by the end. I am very interested, though, in presenting this book within a war unit, surrounded by books presenting other viewpoints as well. Obviously, presenting multiple perspectives and opinions is an important part of teaching. The other storyline that I absolutely love is about the antagonist and his relationship with the two central girs of the story. Although Gordy is presented as a bully who only cares about making other people's lives miserable on a continuous basis, the reader is able to see glimpses into his life that explain his behavior and cause true empathy for him as a character. It's extremely easy to see Gordy as a reflection of children that you grew up with or that you teach, and it is a great device for creating the need for the second look at a person, or the inspiration to discover what a child goes home to each night when they leave your classroom. Taking the time to find out what life is like for them when they leave you may give you an entirely new perspective. So despite the ways that an adult reading of this childhood favorite disappointed me, I still highly recommend it.

Smiles to Go

Smiles to Go, by Jerry Spinelli, was one of my book fair purchases. As has become the routine, I finished the fourth Percy book and didn't have the fifth at home with me, so I grabbed this one off the shelf. I bought it on a whim that day at the book fair; I hadn't ever heard about it but the name of Jerry Spinelli caught my attention - I've heard so much about him but never read any of his books - and the summary on the back of the book intrigued me. Despite what I thought was a slowish start, I really loved this book. The characters were sincere and relateable, and I laughed out loud all throughout the story as topics such as friendship, sibling fighting and the woes of unreturned crushes pester the main character. A tragic but realistic surprise towards the end of the book endears you to the characters even more (even in the face of somewhat predictable responses to the tragedy) and the final pages even made me cry. As my first Jerry Spinelli book, I was thoroughly impressed, and am now extremely interested in reading some more of his work. Any suggestions?

Shooting the Moon

This is another of the books that I picked up from the Book Fair last week simply because I had written it on my list at some point, but I couldn't really remember why I had been interested in it. When I left the next Percy book at school instead of taking it home over the weekend and I needed something to read, I figured that this one was short and would do the trick. And honestly...it took me a little bit to get into. Not because it wasn't interesting or engaging, and not because I didn't bond with the characters, because it is and I did. It took me a little bit to get into it because it isn't really filled with adventure or far-fetched plot devices that surprise and twist and turn, and while I thought that was a shortcoming at first I now disagree. The characters in this book are real, and feel real. Readers get to spend 163 short pages watching a 12-year-old girl deal with the complexities of her brother going away to a controversial war (Vietnam). She watches as her father contradicts so many things that she has spent her whole life believing about him. She finds an escape in a new hobby that also gives her the opportunity to feel much closer to her brother who is so far away. And even though there aren't the complexities of some adventure novels or the latest mind-bending movie, Shooting the Moon is simplistically true, and wholesome in its illustration of the bond of family. By the time I reached the concluding chapter, I had turned from feeling bored and fairly uninterested in the plot to feeling as if I am a part of this fictional family.

The Outsiders

After hearing about this book for what felt like my whole life, I finally got to read it this summer. (I know...I've gotten a little behind in posting these.) Despite the fact that the dialog is, honestly, a little dated, this book is pretty great and I really enjoyed it. This book explores the cliques and gangs that exist amongst high school kids, and in this plot - and, often, in real life as well - it's the haves versus the have-nots. The story is told from the point of view of Ponyboy Curtis, a young member of the Greasers who is being raised by his two older brothers and under the leadership and example of several rowdy boys who are less than perfect. When disaster strikes, though, the gang bonds together and fights for each other against some incredibly overwhelming odds. This book would be a great instrument for teaching friendship, loyalty, and character development. It's also excellent for appealing to middle school students who may come from adverse backgrounds and be exposed to gangs. Gangs are an integral and primary part of the plot of The Outsiders, but Hinton writes it in such a way that it's not extremely controversial or inappropriate for young students. There is some mild language and there is a murder in the beginning of the book, but if you are concerned about exposing your students to the controversies of Gangsterz or other books similar, then this would be a great second option. I actually had the priviledge of observing a 7th grade English classroom today that is currently reading this book, and the kids were thoroughly engaged and interested in this book. And these were students that I have had the priviledge of teaching before, and who are extremely difficult to engage; they also unfortunately all have lives somewhat similar to the characters in this book, which made it easily and instantly relateable. I highly recommend this book (and the movie, which is basically the word for word script of the book...and which has some extremely amusing footage of teenage Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, etc.)