Tender Morsels

This novel from Margo Lanagan was my stretch book, I had to check it out of the library 3 times. I put it down several times and started new books. Its a retelling of childhood fairy tales, but its done in a dark, vivid manner set in two different worlds and includes old age English.

Liga lives in her own personal heaven given to her by natural magic in exchange for her earthly life. She had two daughters, Branza and Urdda. Branza is gentle while Urdda is the curious type. Both of these girls reside in a "soft" world protected from violence, predators, and village prejudice. All these things they are protected from once hurt their mother and in this magical world, her mother strives for the well-being of her two girls. But the "real" world cannot be denied forever.

I feel like this is a symbol of adolescents and finding belonging. In knowing the safety of heaven, will these girls be able to face the brutality that lies side by side?

This novel is engaging, but was not a book I would ever pick up again because of my distance between the two worlds. This novel would be extremely difficult for me to teach because I was not engaged, but I feel this type of telling of the two worlds may be more relatable to my students. I may have this as an option for students to read event though I may not teach it.

Bounce

Natasha Friend's novels all revolve around issues teenage girls face. They are more focused and attracted to the female sex. Therefore these novels would be hard to teach in a classroom of males. But, her novels are fun, easy reads that make us think. I believe I would place this novel in the shelf of my class for students to have the choice to read.

Bounce is a novel about a father getting remarried. Evyn, a thirteen year old girl and her brother Mackey are now forced to move to Boston with their father who is marrying into a female of six children. She knows this change will make her father happy, but she just wants to be left alone.

She longs to be back in Maine with her best friend in the same school and fit in. This novel will be relatable to all students who's mother or father got remarried. It is an adjusting factor. Will Evyn be able to bounce with the changes or will she always be unhappy from here on out?

Afterall, thirteen is a hard age for this change. They strive to fit in and be accepted. She faces this same challenge in going to a new school (a private school), leaving her friends and her town all for her father. Is he going to give her anything from this journey? Will their love for each other grow? One must read to find out!

I believe through this read, you will learn the love of this little girl and the change and the "bounce" one must face when a parent gets remarried. Your life truly changes and sometimes not for the best. But those students who's parents have gotten remarried will now know that they are not alone, even though it is through the words of a fictional character who speaks to her dead mother.

Book Talk #2

Alicia Kenison
12-2-10
Book Talk

Lush By: Natasha Friend

Think back to middle school…it was a tough time, right? Relationships formed, friendships were broken or strengthen and of course development happen and some developed faster than others…Samantha Gywnn for example. She was 13 and had 3 best friends and two large breasts. Boys NEVER looked at her eyes and often stuck oranges in their shirts to poke fun at Sam. But, that was the least of her problems… She lived with an alcoholic father. She wanted more than anything for that to change. She wanted his bottles behind the toilet to disappear she wanted his family to come first and she wanted him to see what this drinking was doing to the family and one day he did. He was keeping an eye on Sam and Luke as he worked and their mother went off to Yoga, it was a nice day but the kids played inside and Luke was bouncy and making a lot of noise and accidently spilt his juice on the blue prints his father spent hours on. So, Patrick Gywnn went ballistic. He swung his Jim Bean bottle and smacked Luke square in the face, blood gushing everywhere. Sam knew this was the last straw. Luke came home with 26 stitches and a possible scar and Patrick was sent to rehab. Meanwhile, the library and books became Sam’s stronghold. She began writing to a secret pen pal revealing everything about her life and asking advice. AJK was the responder, male or female? That was her goal to find out…AJK gave advice on boys, her father, Luke, school, everything. Then a crush began with a high school boy, Drew. They’d kiss in the library and he asked her to go to a party. So she skipped the weekly sleepover at her friends and went to the party, got drunk and slept in a bed with a boy…nothing happened, but she became a slut and whore in an instant. Would she be able to rekindle her friendship? Will her dad quit drinking for good?

Friend’s books are all intense because they revolve around issues. I feel it would be good to teach but difficult because of all the emotional strings. I also feel that it would be crucial to get permission to teach something like this. I feel the end of 8th grade or beginning of freshman year would be a good place to teach this novel because it’s a warning of high school struggles and prepares students for what could happen and is also a great opportunity to talk about being in control when you drink, having sex with someone special and the rumors and silly games that are played to make you feel like shit ultimately. Friend is intense but real, that is what I enjoy about her , she doesn’t hold back and talks us exactly what the middle school jungle was like the only question is are students ever really prepared for what they learn that does not involve a textbook? Are they ready to face reality? When are they ready to face reality?

Lush

Natasha Friend's novel Lush is one that would be hard to teach because it involves the issue of alcoholism. To many families, mine included, this is a reality. Sometimes students don't want to talk about or read about what they thing they already know and it could also be an emotional, touchy subject to tackle. I feel it is a good book for 8Th graders or freshman though because it could make the transition from middle school to high school a bit easier. But because of the explicit details the main character goes into, the drinking habits of the father and the whiskey bottle being smashed on the litte brothers face, I would feel it my duty to send out permission slips for parents to approve my teaching of this novel and maybe even hold a conference to summarize the material so that they understand what their children are about to read.

Anyhow, Samantha Gywnn is an 8Th grader with 3 best friends, who know nothing about her father's drinking. Middle school is hard enough, but Sam has an alcoholic father, a little brother to take care of and big breast. She finds comfort in the books at the library and begins a friendship with whoever AJK is that reads the whale book. Each day Samantha writes asking advice and then this secret person 'AJK' writes back. Sam tells him/her her whole life story: dad, brother, boobs, drinking, Drew, her friends, everything and then after the party fiasco that gave Sam a hangover and a bunch of bad rumors that caused a fight between friends AJK needed to meet her. This of course, was after that night her dad went ballistic and smashed a Jim Bean bottle on little Luke's face and Luke got 26 stitches and her father got put in rehab. She met AJK and found out that he was a boy, the library stacker.

So, does Sam's life get put back together? What about Drew? Does her father go back to drinking? Does Luke's face have a scar? What about AJK? Is Sam's long lost friendship with Charlie Parker, the boy who stole her bra for money, rekindle? I guess you'll just have to read to find out...

Friend's book was a page turner in which I completed in 4 hours, but it causes a lot of questions in which a great classroom conversation could spark. I also want to read Bounce and Perfect by Friend. She makes her novels short but meaning full and they all deal with issues somehow. This one dealt with Sam Gywnn's father being a Lush, Perfect deals with anorexia and Bounce is dealing with divorced parents.

Pictures of Hollis Woods

Patricia Reilly Giff's novel was a Newbury Honor book with chapters of the here and now with in between snip-bits or "pictures" of life before.

Hollis Woods was an orphaned baby she was found in Hollis Woods with a note that said, "name her Hollis." All her life she was trying to belong. All she wanted was a family, hope and someplace to call home. The agency that dealt with her care referred to Hollis as a "mountain of trouble" because she had a mind of her own and ran when she felt unwanted or got too close to a family. The two families that she loved the most are intertwined in the chapters as she tries to figure out what it is in life that she really wants. They are also the two families she stayed with the longest.

First, we have Izzie, Steven and the Old Man, as she called him, they lived in a summer home in Branches. They made Hollis a "Welcome Home" cake. She was satisfied because she found everything in her 'W' poster, a mother (M), a father (F), a brother (B), a sister (S) and a house (H). This picture was dear to Hollis and was the center of the story. Although her teacher saw no (W), what Hollis saw was 'want,' 'wish,'and 'wouldn't it be loverly.' But after the terrible truck accident, Hollis did what she did best and ran.

Now, she was placed in a home with Josie and her cat Henry. Josie was an elderly women, an artist whom often forgot things. Hollis learned to be her memory. They became great friends and stayed up til midnight watching movies, having a big shopping trip when Josie got her check each month and Josie even let Hollis skip school multiple days in a row to walk down by the river and hangout. Hollis liked this life very much but she yearned to have a family again, the type of family she had with Izzie, Steven and the Old man.

When the state found out about Josie's Alzheimer's they needed to remove Hollis from the house and find a replacement home. Hollis was determined to stay by Josie's side. Josie needed someone to remember things for her and finish her sentences. So, they escaped for the summer home in Branches right before the agency came to pick up Hollis.

I find this book interesting, intriguing and easy to teach. I was always hoping Steven would find her and maybe he did, I'm not giving the ending away ;) Hollis may have been a "mountain of trouble" but she had a wish and want and hope to belong because she had never belonged to anyone before.

Through her pictures we hear the real story and see the family that is really hers. I'm not going to write down what I would do if I taught this book because you will find out in my curriculum design project. I definitely hope that I will be able to teach this book in my classroom.

Most teenagers would have the same reactions as me and want to know the story of Hollis Woods because teenagers feel like they don't always belong either. Hearing someone else's story tends to help us relate to the reality of life, it could be so much worse than it is...What if you were Hollis? Wouldn't you be a "mountain of trouble"? I know I would!

Winter Girls

Laurie Halse Anderson has a tendency to write about "issues" that are real, heart-breaking and emotional. She digs underneath the skin. She puts us there and helps us feel the characters pain. Their pain can be related to many teens everywhere.

Winter Girls deals with anorexia and death of best friend and also pulls us into the perspective of divorced parents and over controlling parents.

Lia is a senior and had been in and out of treatment centers for her eating disorder. Her and her best friend, Cassie, made a pack, bet per say that they will be the skinniest girls ever. They were very depressed and living in a state of mind where they weren't dead, but weren't alive either. They were Winter Girls.

Lia lives with her professor father and her evil step-mother, Jennifer and her step-sister. Her mother is a doctor and very overbearing, always asking about her weight and eating habits.

Cassie died one night and tore Lia apart. Lia saw Cassie in her dreams and had 33 messages from her the night she died. Could she have saved her? Should she die to?

Anderson writes to bring her audience in. She wanted us to scream at Lia and cry for Cassie dying alone. She wanted us to feel the pain and struggle of the family memebers close by.She uses many techniques to help writing convey emotions. She had two blank pages and repetitive words and phrases giving the reader a chance to think about the emotional pull and bring the important facts up over and over again.

Later, Lia cuts herself to be with Cassie. She is fortunately saved. Winter Girls can be saved. And if you are a winter girl, you are not alone!

Anderson's novels help teens feel "normal" and help them struggle through the tough times they may face, but are not meant for everyone to read because they coul cause depresion. This book was hard to read because of all the descriptions in cutting and the dier need to be thin and perfect. We all have to sit back and realize what is perfect for one will not always be perfect for everyone!

song that goes with book talk

book talk

Alicia Kenison
EDU 330
Clarissa Thompson
10-18-10

You Remind Me of You
By: Eireann Corrigan

Close your eyes

Imagine a girl who weights 80 lbs. She’s a sophomore in high school. She eats and eats and eats. And then, she runs and runs and runs. She forces herself to hit that 80 lb mark again. Her father follows her in the station wagon, in case, she faints on her run. She showers when she gets home and sometimes her father has to come and pick up her naked body from the wet tub. He has to listen for the tumble and quickly switch the water from hot to cold.

Do you see her?

Do you feel her pain?

Now, imagine a boy. This girl was in love with him. They were going to go to prom together, but one of his friends’s called her and told her the rumor. Daniel thought she was fat. That word stabbed her like the kitchen knife she was washing.

How would you feel if you had to force feed the girl you loved?

How would you feel if your second home was a chair next to her bedside?

Would you get sick of holding her hair back as she puked up everything she just ate?

After awhile wouldn’t you feel guilty? Daniel did. He started doing drugs. He got so depressed, he attempted suicide while his sister was upstairs and she was chatting on the phone to their mother, who was on a business trip.

Eireann and Daniel were going to be seniors in high school and now they were in two different hospitals. This love brought them closer. They visited each other all the time hospital to hospital. They kept each other alive.

This is a coming of age story with love, harm and recovery. This is a poetry memoir of real life and is incredibly more emotional than other issue book because it is real. Her poetry flows from happy to sad or sad to happy. She has a way of keeping the audience focused and brings raw emotion into our lives.

I don’t feel this is a book for everyone and I would definitely not teach it unless I feel my students could handle it.

You Remind Me of You

I am a big fan of "issue" books, but Eireann Corrigan actually lived this life, so it hit home harder. I feel like most middle and high school students would not be ready to read something as real and raw as this poetry memoir of her battle with anorexia. For three years, she was in and out of treatment centers and by the time she graduated, her doctors were convinced that she was going to die.

This "issue" book doesn't only touch upon eating disorders, but coming of age, loss, love and attempted suicide. All of Corrigan's poems revolve around herself not being able to reach defection. Who is perfect? Even though I won't encourage my students to read this, Corrigan has a way of keeping her audience engaged and humor through the hurt. She accounts her struggle with anorexia and her boyfriend Daniel's struggle with attempted suicide. Within minutes, she's lost the man who spoon-fed her to another hospital down the road. Over their years of recovery they went from hospital to hospital trying to bring about this sense of life and being. Daniel couldn't bear the hurt Eireann was facing, so he relied on weed to carry him on. "Your problems don't only hurt you!" When things got so bad, he tried to end his life in his basement while his sister was upstairs talking to their mother on the phone.

This is the story of love, harm and recovery. The poems begin happy and fade to depressing and visa verse. They keep you hooked and at times make you cry and actually feel for her. This is not what I considered an "issue" book is some body's lifestyle and feel it was Corrigan's form of therapy.

In a classroom, I might read a poem or two and have a discussion, but I would not force my students to read this. Although, I think they should be introduced because these topics are so real and happen to many teens daily.

Christina Aguilera's song, "Beautiful" reminds me of the face that people don't see in the mirror when they have eating disorders. They don't realize that they are beautiful. They don't realize that they are fine and do not need to lose weight. Anorexia is a hard disorder in which many teens face and have nobody who will listen.
This book is a great reminder that you are beautiful and have a purpose.

The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold novel was a #1 national bestseller in 2002 and was recently turned into a movie. It is a first person narrative about Susie Salmon who was raped and murdered on December 6Th, 1973. Susie is the person telling us the story about her neighbor murdering her and her family's healing process and search to find the killing. Her sister and father take big risks to assure that nothing like this will happen again in the neighborhood.

It scares me to think that most rapes and murders occur by people that the child knows and happens close to home. I definitely won't teach this to middle school students or Freshman. It has too many raw details and made me emotional and kept asking "why" so I think it would depress my students.

For my teaching around a text project, I'm thinking about using this novel to teach foreshadowing, flashbacks and voice. Sebold does an excellent job taking us from "heaven" with Susie back to the exact moment of the rape. She also does an outstanding job of adding humor en though it is a very depressing novel.

Rape is something a lot of people do not want to discuss and Sebold establishes that if you give it time you can always find answers even if they are right in front of your eyes the whole time. It is a novel of courage, hope, forgiveness and love. Susie was truly loved.

Inside the snow globe on my father's desk,
there was a penguin wearing a red-and-white
striped scarf. When I was little my father
would pull me into his lap and reach for the
snow globe. He would turn it over,letting all
the snow collect on the top, then quickly
invert it. The two of us watched the snow fall
gently around the penguin. The penguin was alone
in there, I thought, and I was worried for him.
When I told my father this, he said, "Don't worry,
Susie; he has a nice life. He's trapped in a
perfect world." -The Lovely Bones

No matter how many times I read this I feel like I could help Susie if I were there. I feel she was too naive to say no and run. I feel helpless. This novel will bring up a ton of discussion, what could we do? How do you feel?

Summer's End

Audrey Couloumbis writes this historical fiction novel about the Vietnam War, draft cards, coming of age and running from troubles. This novel is set in the time of the Vietnam War and right before Grace's planned 13Th birthday party. This is the year she invited all her classmates. This was the birthday Grace was waiting for her whole life until her world was turned into turmoil because of her idiotic older brother.

Grace and Collin never really got along. He was the hippie of the family and attended sit-ins and had a dog and a long-time girlfriend. He was 18 and just got his draft card. This card meant that he WOULD be drafted. Before he even made it home for dinner, he did the unthinkable. He burnt the draft card. This mistake tore the family apart and caused Grace to have to cancel her party. Collin only did it as taking a stance in freedom, but it led o a long journey to Canada with Caboose, his dog.

Almost a full year later, Grace finds the present Collin got her for her 13Th birthday. She than discovers he really loved her and he is forever closer in her heart.

This book may be intriguing for everyone, because it has war parts and love parts and also touches on freedom and finding yourself. Grace is able to find that she i loved and a birthday party is just a birthday party. It becomes no big deal that her special day was ruined because of her brother's stupidity.

Maybe burning the draft card was the best thing Collin could do for his family, just maybe...

Speak

Unlike "Inexcusable", Laurie Halse Anderson takes "Speak" in a different light and analyzes the victims pint of view. Why can't see talk about it? Why is she now an outcast at school? Why won't anybody listen? "Speak" was named a 2000 Printz prize honor book and was transformed into a film in 2004.

The main character, Melinda, has become an outcast because she called the cops at a party. The party got busted and everyone was in trouble for being underage. What nobod knows is that she called because she was being sexually abused by the novels antagonist, a hot, soon-to-be senior, Andy Evans. Heather, the new kid, becomes her only best friend and art is her escape. Melinda is a very depressed student because she wants to talk, utnobody will listen. When she finally speaks,will it be too late? Heather dithes her for her old best friend who starts having a crush on Andy. Melinda tries to warn her, ut she is not believed. All she has to do is speak. Will it be too late when she finally finds the words?

Read the book to discover if Melinda takes a stand.

Anderson does a great job to illiterate the feelings and mood that sink deep inside Melinda. Melinda never wanted to loose her friends, but they would refuse to trust her. After all, she ruined their summer party. How would you feel if you couldn't escape 'it'? How would you feel if 'it' stared you in the eye everyday and you couldn't say one word?

She can't stay silent forever, can she?

Inexcusable

In this book by Chris Lynch about failure, rape and becoming an outcast Keir Sarafian realizes the importance of a simple two lettr word. Lynch's book became a finalist by winning the National Book Award in 2005.

"I am a good guy. Good guys don't do bad things. Good guysunderstand no means no, and so I could have done this because I understand."

This novel hits the hard topic of rape in the guy's point of view. We see his denial. He couldn't have done anything wrong bcause he loved Gigi. This football player and loyal friend has an inside struggle with himself because (1) he hurt a player from another team at the beginning of the season and paralized him and (2) he "raped" Gigi,one of his best friends. Keir doesn't understand what he did and now he doesn't have anyone to turn to, his sisters won't listen and his father is more like just a partner in the game of "Risk," they share beers and conversation, but that's it. Keir then recounts all the events that led up to the incident. He believes this is all one big mistake, but something very unexcusable.

I believe that children under the age of hig school level should not be exposed to Lynch's words since some is worrisome and may make one emotional. But, students have to realize that this is real. I find it admirable that Lynch wrote in the male point of view because so much of these rape stories are written in the victims mindframe.

Charlie St. Cloud

I picked up this book by Ben Sherwood, mainly because Zac Efron stars in the film and was on the front cover of the book. I never watch movies without first reading the books, because the book gives us time to make our own visualizations. This book shows how some deal with death.

Charlie and his brother Sam took a rode trip that ended in tragedy. Charlie drove to Fenway being only 14 and "killed" his brother. His life changed greatly.Charlie was brought back to life in the ambulance and was given a power to see and talk to the dead. After graduation, he moved into a little cabin in the graveyard and became the grounds keeper whiel his mother moved as far away from the place of the incident as she could and simply moved on with her life, gaining a new family and new kids. Charlie had always had a hard time keeping a girlfriend and friends because he had to be in the field by sundown to play catch with his dead brother. Meanwhile, he runs into Tess, a popular girl from town who sails for a living. She is gorgeous and he needs to make a choice, Tess or Sam? Should he hold on to Sam forever or let go? Throughot the novel, we see a big twist in plot.

I suggest everyone read it. This is not a book for just teens, but adults and teens alike. It helps us come up with reasons why we should move on. It is not good to forget, but how long is too long to hold on to someone who we know is not coming back?

Introduction

Dear Readers,
Over the next 18 weeks,I'm going to read YA (young adult) literature to familiarize myself with this genre and gain the ability to teach my students what they enjoy. Through these independent books, I will put myself out there to the struggles in the real world. I enjoy books on issues because it ensures me that nobody is perfect, but I also want to read books that are challenging to me. Those that are challenging to me may be those that my students love. Through this project, I will blog a book review that states my likes and dislikes along with how and why we could teach a book like this. Stay tune, Alicia :)