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Imagine you had a vision of an accident where people you knew were killed and in body bags. Would you stop it? What if they were strangers and you were hurt too... would you take the chance to stop it and save strangers if you could be killed in the meantime? Lisa McMann's sequel in the Visions series, Bang, makes you ask yourself that very question.
Jules saved the lives of a bunch of people, including the delicious Romeo to her Juliet, Sawyer. Their families have despised each other for a generation, but they refuse to carry on the ridiculous tradition. In saving his family's restaurant, however, she has put herself on the wrong side of her father's mental illness. Now he doesn't trust her and will do anything to keep her away from Sawyer. Luckily for Jules, her sister Rowan and her brother Trey are comrades in the war against their unpredictable father, and they help her to come and go without his knowing. All would be perfect if only Sawyer hadn't had a vision...
When he tells her he had a vision, she can't believe she somehow "infected" him with such a burden. They have no idea how he got the vision, but they all know the ramifications of what he has seen. He knows it is some kind of school because the shooting takes place in a classroom, but the vision is so difficult for him to cope with that he can't seem to get a handle on it to get any specifics. Jules knows she has to help him to work through the vision, but are they willing to risk their own lives to save the lives of a bunch of strangers?
Whenever I first start a McMann book, I am usually turned off by the "uber-teen" language that sounds campy, hokey, and forced. I work with teens, live with teens, spend an exorbitant amount of my life with large amounts of adolescents, and I don't know any who talk like Jules and the others do in these books. It is kind of a turn off for any older readers, but I have found middle school students don't seem to mind it (maybe they think that's how high school students talk!). It is a shame that language struggle happens because as soon as I get into the book a little, I am sucked into such a good story! Sadly, that campy language detracts from the engaging, exciting story McMann wove, but at least I can ignore it once the excitement of the story takes over.
The stories are really exciting, and McMann writes a good middle-of-the-road book where the language is very simplistic but the books are engaging enough for a mature reader (if you can get past the silly language). I use these for those 12-14 yr old students who struggle to stay with a book because their reading skills are lower than their interest. And the stories are short enough that they can get through the story with only reading 20 minutes a day or so. With larger books they tend to lose track of what is happening, but the story in McMann's series' are condensed and fast, so they can keep up.
In addition, this story has some really deep, adult situations, like the fact that Sawyer's father and grandfather have a tendency to hit him. Or the fact that Jules' dad's mental illness made the entire family walk on eggshells. There was one scene where her mother comes into her room where Jules and her brother and sister are sitting. They expect her to be mad for setting off their father again, but instead she just tells them she is so grateful they have each other. It was such a devastating and moving scene, I couldn't get over the ridiculous campy language McMann put into Jules' mouth. Such a weird juxtaposition! But still, this is a great series and it will be great for those older struggling readers. I can only imagine where McMann is going to go with all these visions!
In a family feud, no one really knows who is right and who is wrong. In fact, the younger generations may not even really know what started the feud. In Lisa McMann's new novel Crash, a family feud becomes much more serious when one party can see into the future... and it isn't something she wants to see happen.
Jules and her brother and sister don't live an easy life, but they have learned to live day to day. Their parents run an Italian restaurant and pizzeria, but the whole family works there. Day after day, the kids report to work just to keep things going. They don't complain, but mostly because they don't want to see their father lose it again. Jules' dad is unpredictable, except when it comes to the family that owns the rival restaurant. And with them, Jules' dad is always on edge, predictably so. But even worse is their dad's hoarding. Their whole house is so piled with junk, and their mother is so overworked just trying to keep up on the days when their father doesn't leave his bed, that they never bring anyone home.
When Jules sees an accident at the rival pizzeria, she is most disturbed by the fact that she sees Sawyer, her star-crossed crush, in a body bag. She tries to warn him, but their families can't even see one another without bitter hatred spilling out like waves in the ocean. She and Sawyer certainly don't hate one another, in fact, their childhood friendship still lingers over them, but they know their families would forbid their ever set eyes upon one another. This vision complicates things for Jules. She tries to fly under her father's radar, but she simply cannot let this boy die. Her vision is hard to decipher, but as the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together, she will stop at nothing to stop the accident form happening. Even if it means breaking all the rules.
I like Lisa McMann. She writes interesting, yet simple stories that always keep me coming back for more. They are short and easy to read, and you can't get enough of them. The start of the Visions series is no different. I really liked Jules and there is so much more to her dysfunctional family that unraveling the mystery is half the interest. The whole description of her father and the tension of the family was so real and written so well, I almost felt like I knew them.
This is a great story for those readers who might struggle or be behind their peers, but crave mature books. McMann gives you realistic scenarios, especially in terms of interpersonal relationships, but she does so with simple language that is best for students who may not be the strongest readers. It is great for anyone with a variety of reading levels in their classroom. And since this is another McMann series, there will be more to come! I am really looking forward to seeing where this series goes, especially after such a heart-stopping ending!
When I tell my students there were no real cell phones (remember the car phone in a bag??) and Facebook hadn't been created yet when I was in high school, they look at me like I was alive when dinosaurs roamed the earth. But what they don't realize is that their iPhones and Facebook and wireless internet are very young in the grad scheme of things. Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler examine what a teenager in the 1990's would do if they stumbled upon their future selves as is represented in Facebook in The Future of Us.
It's 1996 and Emma's father got her a brand new computer as a consolation prize when he got remarried and started his replacement family. When Josh Templeton stops by, she is surprised since things have been awkward between them since he admitted he liked her. They are still friends, just not the kind of friends who hang out at each other's houses regularly anymore. So when he comes over, she is shocked, but excited by the AOL disc he is carrying. His mother got it in the mail and thought she might like it for her new computer since Josh's mother doesn't believe in the internet. when Emma pops the disc in, something strange happens. A screen called Facebook pops up. Emma checks it out and realizes the woman named Emma Nelson Jones is her... in the future.
She calls Josh over because she just can't believe what she is seeing. Married to a man who doesn't come home at nights and might be cheating on her is not how Emma hoped her future would turn out. But Josh is convinced this is all an elaborate joke. Until he sees his own Facebook page and he is married to the hottest girl in school. But every time they open up the program, their lives have changed. They begin to realize every choice they make changes their future in small ripples. Emma, sad about her depressing future, starts to do things to purposely change her future, but Josh is worried about ruining what seems like an awesome future. What they quickly realize, though, is that the future is something you can't predict or control. Or can you?
I loved Asher's book 13 Reasons Why. It rocked my literary world. So I had high hopes for this book. I liked this book, but it wasn't as good as 13. I think it had a much younger feel than the first book. Even though the characters are thinking about college and talking about graduation, their reactions and actions feel very young- almost middle school-like. Also, I LOVED the nostalgic nods to life in the 1990's (when I was in high school- yep. I'm that old). The music (Dave Matthews and Green Day) and the greeting when you first open AOL, instant messenger, etc. It was like I was back in high school again! Oh wait, I hated high school. Never mind! But seriously, the references were fun, but they would be totally lost on kids of today. The references to old technology would be interesting in an anthropological sense, but I don't think they would enjoy the pop culture references.
Still, the book was interesting and fun to read. The way small things changed their futures was something that makes you really think, especially about fate vs. free will. How can your choices change what you become in the future? This would be fun to talk with your students about, maybe even plan out how some choices could lead them to different future possibilities. I think the characters might seem to young for more mature students, but middle school through youngish high school students would appreciate this fun story. And most important moral of the entire book? When Josh asks, "Why would anyone say this stuff about themselves on the Internet? It's crazy!" (although this was a close second: "Why does it say she had three hundred and twenty friends? Who has that many friends?").
Have you ever wondered what you were do if given the opportunity to view a glimpse of your future? How far would you go? How long would you stay? Liz Kessler's novel A Year Without Autumn shows the life of a girl as she skips through her future.
Jenni's family goes to the condo for one week out of every summer. The best thing about the family trip, besides the fact that she loves her family, is that her best friend Autumn's family comes too. Jenni and Autumn are the kind of friends who can barely go 2 hours without seeing each other or talking to each other, so being on vacation together is a must. But this summer is different. Jenni is supposed to go horseback riding with Autumn, but when she decides to take the old elevator in Autumn's building, something crazy happens- she is transported a year in the future.
In that year, she missed a lot. While she tries to figure out what happened, she realizes something horrible happened to Autumn's family that day they were supposed to go horseback riding. When Jenni didn't show up for riding, Autumn's little brother Mikey went. The horse was spooked on the ride and Mikey was thrown, but the ambulance took over two hours to get to him. Mikey slipped into a coma and never came out. Now everything has changed. Autumn's lively, vibrant family has fallen apart. Even Jenni's own family has been rocked by the accident to the point of being totally unrecognizable. Jenni knows the only way to fix things is to go back in time and stop the accident, but first she must go forward. But how far forward can she stand to go? And if she goes forward, is there a chance she can never go back?
This was a heartwarming story about a little girl who just loved her family and friend so much, she knew she needed to help them. In fact, the friendship between Jenni and Autumn made me nostalgic for those friendships we had when we were kids. Remember those? Where you talk on the phone for hours every night even though you saw each other all day in school? Those friendships defined us as adults too, helping us to open up and love our friends unconditionally and whole-heartedly. Kessler really knew how to tug the heart strings with their friendship. Also, the idea that one event, Mikey's accident, could ripple through everyone's lives is both scary and very realistic. Who wouldn't be affected by the loss of such a young little boy?
This is a great story for middle readers through young adults. The story is very clean and will appeal to a wide range of ages due to the serious nature of the plot. It can be the food of much discussion with a student about how events connect to one another and whether or not we should know what happens in our future. For young people who have a very hard time seeing past their own immediate lives, it might be nice to take some real-life situation and see how the ripples of that event have influenced everything around it. Getting children to think outside their immediate lives is a difficult but worthwhile venture.
