Hate List

Hate List by Jennifer Brown is a disturbing premise that is really about hope, healing, and tolerance. Valarie's boyfriend walked into school one day and opened fire on students and teachers. He killed 6, injured many, and permanently scarred the entire town. Valarie saw him aiming at the head cheerleader, a girl she personally despised who picked on her and called her "Sister Death". Despite hating the cheerleader, Valarie stepped between her and Nick, who was wielding the gun. He shot her in the leg. Nick then turned the gun on himself and ended the day none of them would forget.

Despite the fact that Valarie ended the massacre, the Hate List she and Nick created led many to think she was as guilty as he was. The book picks up in the September of the following year with Valarie returning to school. She is scared, still grieving the loss of a boyfriend she loved who is spoken of with disgust by the entire country, and not necessarily wanted back at the school by teachers and students alike. Even her parents aren't sure what to think about Valarie.

This book reaches new levels of a terrifying experience. Yet, it does so with the ability to look beyond the death and destruction and view the future beyond such an experience. While this is certainly mature material, the author delivers the story in a way for the young adult genre to be a perfect venue- children have to consider the consequences of their actions. I have read many books on this topic, but this one was the first to consider the unwilling participant- a young girl who loved her boyfriend and didn't know him as well as she thought he did. It also explores the root of the problem with bullying and tormenting that takes place in every high school in America. But if so many are bullied, what would lead someone to this extreme? As adults, why can't we stop the bullying? As humans, why do we feel the need to humiliate and dominate others? This book is a great way to question the unquestionable.

Slam

by Nick Hornby

Contributed by Peter Machera.

Often it seems young adult novels sacrifice quality for accessibility, or vice versa. With Slam, Hornsby has accomplished both, and in effect this novel will appeal to readers of all ages. Most normal adults will not be especially interested in Tony Hawk, as is the protagonist Sam. However, they will appreciate Sam's ironic and sometimes absurd approach to his situation. The teenage skater (no, not ice skating) acts as narrator, revealing that his mother had given birth to him as a teen. Sam reluctantly loses his virginity to a beautiful girl he has met. He shows a precocious, and perhaps finicky sense of morality by supposing that his new friend, Alicia, is using him to exact revenge upon her ex-boyfriend. He rationalizes that being in love is simply the temporary state of not being sick of each other yet, and so their making love is not immoral, in his complex code of right and wrong. 

This novel is a cautionary tale against random teenage sex, without being preachy. The tone is reminiscent of Catcher in the Rye, in that the reader feels as though the writer is speaking directly to him. Since, apparently, teenagers don't identify with Holden anymore, they might as well check out Sam. Slam has laugh-out-loud moments consistently, and will keep you interested throughout. There isn't an ounce of fat in the three hundred page book. The author A Long Way Down, and High Fidelity demonstrates in his latest work not only that he is still relevant, but can speak in the voice of the ADD generation with, well, high fidelity. 

King of the Screwups

Liam Geller is on his last, last chance. He succeeds at the all the social aspects of school.  He wears the right clothes, is desired by the most popular girls at school, and excels at sports. Everyone thinks he has it made; everyone, that is, except his father. Allen Geller, is a CEO, with an appreciation for rules, regulations, and societal norms. Liam's mother, Sarah, is a former fashion model who left the modeling world behind to raise her son and usually defers to Allen in matters of child rearing. When Liam is caught in his father's home office, drunk and half naked with a girl Liam doesn't even LIKE, there is no recourse but to send Liam away. It is Allen's plan to send Liam to his grandparents, but Liam manages to wrangle an exodus to his Uncle Pete instead. As he rationalizes, "Living with my cross-dressing uncle in his trailer park will be a hundred times better than living with my military grandfather and the world's strictest grandmother in Nevada."

No one is happy about the arrangement, but Liam heads off to Uncle Pete's where he is taken in not just by Pete but also by Eddie, "the most effeminate man I've ever laid eyes on", Dino "the polar opposite," and Pete's partner Orlando, who is "not so bad" but also turns out to be Liam's English teacher. Liam struggles to get used to his new environment. He decides that the only way to survive school is to be the opposite of who he was at home:  he needs to study hard and be unpopular. When those goals become impossible, we see that Liam has a few more "last chances" left in him as he pushes the limits with his new caretakers, his new classmates, and his new school. He seeks to redefine himself and his family as he grapples with his inability to please his father and learns what it means to be the real Liam Geller.

I have long been a fan of K.L. Going. Her novel Fat Kid Rules the World was one of the first young adult books I read as an adult that truly captivated me. She constantly creates unique characters who somehow remain accessible, and she is the master of one of my favorite themes: how we create family among people in our world who are not our blood relations. In King of the Screwups, I love the opposing forces in Liam's character: a popular boy who doesn't want to be; a boy who wants to please his father even though his father is a jerk; a boy who can't understand how his wonderful mother can remain in a marriage with his draconian father. Adolescence is a difficult enough time without having to reconfigure your entire family to include a ragtag group of uncles and decide whether or not to keep your emotionally toxic father around. This is a must read for anyone who has screwed up.  It's a must read for anyone who struggles to reconcile different aspects of him/herself.  More importantly, it's a must read for anyone who spends time with an adolescent boy, a ragtag friend, or an emotionally toxic family member. Give it a read and then try Fat Kid and The Liberation of Gabriel King as well as St. Iggy so you get an idea of K.L. Going's range.  Bravo, Ms. Going, whatever your K. stands for.

Marcelo in the Real World

by Francisco X. Stork

GE:  5.3

Interest Level:  Grades 9-12

Marcelo's father wants him to give up his summer job caring for the ponies at Paterson School. Marcelo's father wants him to spend the summer working in his law firm, where he can get a taste of the "real world." Marcelo's father wants him to spend his senior year at Oak Ridge High, where he will be challenged. Marcelo father makes a deal with him; if Marcelo can be successful at the law firm, Marcelo can choose which school he wants to attend in the fall. Though he's reluctant to give up his summer job, Marcelo sees no other choice. His concession will allow him to remain at Paterson for his senior year, and he knows he cannot survive at Oak Ridge High.

Marcelo (he's very clear that it's pronounced Mar-SEL-o, not Mar-CHEL-o) speaks of himself in the third person. He refers to his parents by their names, Arturo and Aurora. He hears music inside his head that no one else can hear (internal music, or IM, he calls it). He has an obsession with religion, and despite his Christian background, he meets regularly with the rabbit to discuss religious issues. He has regular appointments at the hospital, where his brain is scanned; the doctors never find much that is remarkable. Marcelo suffers from an unidentifiable disorder that falls somewhere on the autism spectrum.

When he is forced to leave the comfort of Paterson, Marcelo confronts challenges he never imagined: commuting to work on the train; binding documents in the mailroom; getting lost while delivering a document to a client for a signature. Marcelo befriends Jasmine, who runs the mailroom at the law office, and develops some degree of competence working there. He cannot work fast, but he can do the work that is asked of him, at least until Wendell, his father's partner's son, tries to blackmail him into setting him up with Jasmine. When the delicate balance of power between the sons of the owners is upset, Marcelo discovers a mystery and a coverup that force him to question his family loyalty and his understanding of right and wrong. When the mystery is unraveled, he realizes there is a future for him in the elusive "real world." 

Marcelo is a captivating character. Although the mystery of the injured girl Ixtel and the Vidromax windshield manufacturers carries the story forward, the greatest interest for me lay in Marcelo's development. The reader watches as he transforms from a student defined by his disability into a young man with "normal" hopes and dreams. The story dances around the theme of nature vs. nurture and the ways in which the environment can either limit or encourage personal development. If you like a good mystery, this is a good pick for you; if you like a good psychology novel, it's even better.

How Do You Define Normal?

...by guest author A.J., Grade 8.

Define “Normal”

By: Julie Anne Peters

I read the book Define “Normal” by Julie Anne Peters. I chose this book because I liked the sound of the title, but I also read the back and what it was about. It seemed interesting, so I started to read it, and I really liked it.


Define “Normal” is about two girls from totally different worlds. One of them, Antonia, is a very nice girl. She gets to class on time, she gets all straight A’s, and participates in everything, including peer counseling. Antonia is assigned to help Jazz, the “punker,” as a mentor and counselor with Jazz’s problems. 

The other girl, Jasmine or “Jazz,” is very different. She skips classes to hang out with her friends instead; her friends are mostly drug dealers (so people think), and she doesn't care for girls like Antonia. Jazz has a deep dark secret that she doesn't want anybody to find out about except her parents. Jazz has a big talent for playing the piano; her dream is to go to Juilliard, a school for teens who are more than amazing at playing an instrument. But when her parents start getting too close to her as a family, Jazz quits piano, and her dream ever since she was born to go to Juilliard dies. Both girls have two things in common; they both go to counseling every week. 

Everyone in the school who just judges Jazz think she’s a drug dealing pot-smoker who wears black lipstick that you can only get off with turpentine. If they saw her hanging out with Antonia, all the kids would probably flip.  A girl like Jazz, the unpopular, the loser, the freak, can’t be seen around a girl like Antonia, a somewhat popular girl who is very pretty and tries to make friends with everyone except Jazz. 

Jazz and Antonia also have family issues. Antonia’s father hasn't come home in years and her mother needs psychiatric help. She’s never there for the kids; she’s always smoking or in her room sleeping and not eating. She is also very close to losing her house because she has not been paying the bills for a long time. 

Jazz, on the other hand, also has family issues. Her parents are home with her and feeding and treating her like a daughter, but Jazz has fights with her mom all the time usually about Jazz. She thinks her parents are trying to ruin her life because they don’t let her be who she really is. Jazz’s mom wishes for Jazz to be “normal” like all other kids out there. Jazz’s dad doesn't let anything past him. If he doesn't like the way Jazz dresses, then she better go change, or she gets grounded for two weeks, sometimes even a year. 

But at the end, Jazz and Antonia start understanding each other. They know everything about each other and have each other’s backs. Antonia gets her life back with her mom and the rest of her family. Jazz’s parents after going to her recital, seeing how she plays and what she wears, are speechless. They learn to respect her and appreciate her for who she is and what she wears.

I think this book is very good for teens and some adults. This book reminded me a lot of myself and what I went through at a particular time in my life. I started reading the first page but didn't think I would like it at all. It didn't seem like my type of book, but it was so good I finished it. By the end tears welled in my eyes, because the way the author had written the book, it touched my heart and made me feel so happy for the two girls. I would definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to read a thrilling book about two different girls who can relate to each other so much that a punker and a prissy girl become best friends.

Short Takes: The Power of the Short Novel

There's a lot to be said for a short novel. If you teach beginning readers or reluctant readers, it is imperative to have an arsenal of these treasures. The best part of a short novel is...well...its shortness. I hate to be obvious, but when you're 16, and you can't read, a 98 page books seems more manageable and a lot less scary than something like a 700 page Harry Potter. That students can move through them quickly helps to build confidence and a feeling of accomplishment. Maybe, just maybe, you can encourage the budding reader to pick up another. If you're lucky, you can choose one slightly longer and slightly more difficult the next time. Repeat. Length, however, is not my only motivation for seeking out the short novel. Much like short poems, short novels must convey powerful themes, with few words, in a limited space. I love that juxtaposition of the deep and powerful in the seemingly simplistic.

One of my favorite short novels is Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech. It is told in a prose format; the text is large (but mysteriously not babyish) and well spaced. When students open it for the first time, there is an almost audible sense of relief.  This, they may think for the first time, I can do. This deceptively simple story is told in Jack's journal as he works through his teacher's poetry unit. Though initially reluctant to read or write poetry, Jack develops a passion for the work of Walter Dean Myers. Through Jack's journal entries he explores his feelings about poetry, develops confidence in himself as a learner, explores his feelings about a personal tragedy, and, ultimately, find his voice.  (Click to see inside)

128 pages of large, well spaced text. You can read it today. And you should. And if you have TWO hours, you can read the sequel, Hate That Cat!

So I was wandering about Oblong Books and Music with three gift cards and saw this book. The physical book is beautiful. The cover is an elegant green with texture and delicate ivy twining about. Then you open the book to beautiful paper, delicate green ivy on every few pages and beautiful illustrations of signs and headstones about once per chapter. I know they say to never judge a book by its cover, but this one was too pretty to put down.

The story itself begins with a young family with a daughter, Courtney, who move to Murmur, MA. They move into an ancient and imposing house adjacent to the cemetery and immediately notice the encroaching ivy all about the house and the cemetery. The story quickly evolves into a mildly creepy ghost story about long deceased parents trying to protect their long deceased daughter.

While this story is fairly predictable, it has the feel of a more mature book while still being innocent and readable enough for a middle school student. I think a more precocious student would be quickly bored with the book, but it would be wonderful for a high-skilled 4th grader to a relatively low-skilled, innocent 8th grader. The ghost story is not terribly scary or complicated, but it has a nice flow to it, and the characters are quite endearing. Don't be afraid to give this book to a student who needs a little mystery to keep them reading!