Books #17-25

Wang, Jen (2018). The Prince and the Dressmaker. New York: First Second.

          The Prince and the Dressmaker is on the current Quick List from YALSA.  It is the story of a Prince Sebastian, who loves fashion and dresses, and his seamstress, Frances.  Frances designs a dress for client that is daring and bold which causes her to be fired from her job.  Fortunately, it catches the eye of the Prince.  He sends Emile to hire her and ends up revealing that she has been hired to design dresses for him.  Prince Sebastian sometimes feels more comfortable in dresses.  Lady Crystallia is born when Prince Sebastian goes out on the town in Frances’s creations.  Even as the prince is introduced to a string of princesses, including Princess Juliana, he grows closer to Frances who knows the whole prince.  As Frances’s designs become more popular, Madame Aurelia, who designs costumes for the ballet takes notice as does the son of a department store owner.  There is a spark between Frances and Prince Sebastian but when his father falls ill, Prince Sebastian feels that he cannot let Frances show her designs to the costumer because she might figure out his secret and he is to be king.  Frances leaves and Lady Crystallia goes out on the town.  Prince Marcel discovers Prince Sebastian’s secret and reveals it in front of the court on his wedding day.  With his secret revealed, Prince Sebastian flees to a monastery.   The King reveals to Frances that he thinks the Prince is perfect.  Frances has a collection showing at the new department store and feels the pressure to create mainstream clothes.  The Prince arrives just in time to encourage Frances to show her real designs Emile and the King bring them life along with Prince Sebastian.  Frances’s designs are an overwhelming success and the Prince realizes that he is loved and supported by his family plus he and Frances share a kiss.

            The thing that I love most about this book is that Prince Sebastian’s parents love him just the way he is.  While the King is surprised to find out that Prince Sebastian wears dress, he knows that “He is perfect.”  Many teenagers feel that their parents would never understand what they are going through when they haven’t given their parents a chance to understand.  Prince Sebastian thought that he could never truly be himself.  When the King finds out the Prince wears dresses, while shocked at first, he is understanding and loves his son.  He even wears a dress for the fashion show.  The Prince is struggling with his identity and Frances helps him.  I liked that sometimes Prince Sebastian liked to wear dresses and sometimes he felt comfortable in other clothes.  I think that there are students will relate to Prince Sebastian wanting to wear dresses, a wig, and makeup, and wanting to be romantically involved with Frances.  All in all, it was refreshing to have a book with parents who are supportive and a main character who is different than most princes who is loved by his friends and family.  This would be a great book to share with a student who is struggling to find their place and worried about being accepted by others.  There is a great interview by Lauren Orsini where Jen Wang talks about the book https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurenorsini/2018/02/12/the-prince-and-the-dressmaker-is-a-genderqueer-fairy-tale-for-all-ages/#7a9262745625

            Jen Wang describes her process in the last pages of the book.  Students wanting to create graphic novels will find this helping and encouraging.  I like that she’s used the same mechanical pencil for six years!

Smith, Andrew (2013). Winger. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

The book opens with Ryan Dean, known as Winger, hanging over a toilet on the first day back to Pine Mountain his junior year. Ryan Dean is assigned to Opportunity Hall as punishment for stealing a teacher’s phone and hacking it. His new roommate Chas is his least favorite person. Chas invites Ryan Dean to a poker game where the loser has “the consequence”. Annie, Ryan Dean’s best friend and love interest, is angry that Chas forces Ryan Dean to drink a beer at the game. They fight but make up and go to Stonehenge where Ryan Dean confesses that Annie would date him even though he’s two years younger than her. Megan, Chas’s girlfriend, is in a study group with Ryan Dean and they end up kissing. This makes Ryan Dean cocky around Chas and he begins to suspect something is going on. When JP invites Annie to the Halloween Feast, he and Ryan Dean get in a fight resulting in Ryan Dean receiving 17 stitches. Joey leaps in to protect Ryan Dean. Annie and Dean Ryan share a kiss but later she says she can’t love him leading to frustration on his end. Having lost a late-night poker game, Ryan Dean and Chas must drive to buy Halloween costumes for the group. Under pressure, Ryan Dean confesses to kissing Megan. Ryan Dean askes Joey why he doesn’t have a boyfriend and Joey admits that he has a secret boyfriend. Ryan Dean tells Megan that he can no longer see her. Ryan Dean is confronted by Casey and Nik but doesn’t tell Casey’s secret that he is gay. At the Halloween party, Ryan Dean apologies for coming between Chas and Megan. Chas has to admit that Ryan Dean has courage to apologize. Drunk Casey threatens Joey’s live. After the party, Ryan Dean notices that Joey is missing. He and Chas help the police in looking for Joey and discover the body. The trauma is too much for Ryan Dean and he stops talking. While his parents want him to come home, Ryan Dean stays at school.

Winger is the raw, hilarious, and gut-wrenching story of 14-year-old junior, Ryan Dean, coming of age at posh Pine Mountain boarding school in Oregon. The hilarious book is sprinkled with illustrations and diagrams that enhance the first-person narrative. There is a tragic gut-wrenching event at the end of the book where a gay student is beaten to death that could be a trigger for students so I would want to give them fair warning before they read the book even though it is a spoiler. Smith’s dialogue is spot on and it truly feels like a teenage boy is telling the story. There is a good balance of raunchy, foul language, and funny. Ryan Dean often refers to himself as a loser which is in contrast to the fact that he is so smart he skipped two grades and that he is a star rugby player with supportive friends. He goes through crushes, makes some really bad decisions, and deals with tragedy. I think that students will relate to his experience.

Grimes, Nikki (2018). Between the Lines. NY: Nancy Paulsen Books

From the YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults list, Between the Lines is written from nine different character’s perspectives. Darrian Lopez, Tyrone Bittings, Li Cheng, Jenesis Whyte, Marcel Dixon, Valentina Alverez, Kyle Newton, and Angela Marie Bailey. Each with their own struggles, the students are brought together in Mr. Ward’s Poetry class. Darrian wants to be a journalist and feels his heart soar when his father brings him the New York Times from his bus route. He worries about disappointing his dad. Tyrone worries about not being able to continue on the path he started last year. Li wants to write poetry but knows her Chinese parents if she doesn’t pursue medicine. Jenesis is navigating the foster system and worries about what will happen to her when she ages out of the system. Marcel deals with his father’s loss of his dreams after he is falsely arrested and uses poetry to help him process his anger. Valentina is caught between two world and wants to show she can be proud to be American and an immigrant. Kyle isn’t made of glass and wants everyone to know that his bum heart isn’t going to slow him down plus “they need a token white kid”. Angela Marie Bailey has a paralyzing fear of everything and hopes that poetry will help her overcome her fear. The students grow and evolve over the course of the school year and depend on each other for more than weekly poetry slams.

Nikki Grimes captures the voice of teenagers and shines a light on the problems that they face. How many teens are in the foster system and worried about what happens next? How many are worried after becoming the parent to their parents? The mix of narration and poetry makes this book even more interesting to read. There is something for every student to relate to. All nine students are in the same class yet are all dealing with different problems. I tend to forget about poems as stories. This book reminds me of this in spades. I think that students who like this book would like Garvie’s Choice which is also written by Nikki Grimes and is written entirely in poems. Below are links to two articles Nikki Grimes has written about her experiences and books.

https://www.mackincommunity.com/2017/09/27/nikki-grimes-from-foster-child-to-famous-author-and-poet/

https://www.bookish.com/articles/nikki-grimes-between-the-lines/

Schusterman, Neal (2016). Scythe. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Prinz Award winning Scythe takes place 300 years in the future where the Thunderhead, an artificial intelligence evolution of the cloud, takes care of everyone. People have their every need met and can reset their age to 21 whenever they grow old. They have nanites in their blood streams that heal the body and control emotions. When someone dies, their body is healed and they come back to life unless they are gleaned by a Scythe. Scythe’s keep the population under control by killing people and are treated like rock stars. Citra and Rowan are chosen to be trained in the way of the Scythe. Scythe’s are the only people who are not monitored or recorded by the Thunderhead. Faraday, a Scythe, trains Citra and Rowan who are both hesitant at first. They learn weaponry, poisons, and Bokator- a form of martial arts. Faraday follows statistics from the Age of Mortality to choose who he gleans. Goddard carries out mass gleanings writes in his gleaning journal that he derives pleasure from the killings. When Faraday speaks out about Gaddard at an assembly of Scythes, Goddard strikes back by declaring that Citra and Rowan must glean the apprentice who is not chosen to become a Scythe. In an attempt to save them, Faraday throws himself in front of a train. Rather than being set free, Goddard steps in to mentor them. Scythe Curie steps in to take over Citra’s apprenticeship and the two are separated. Curie is very different from Faraday and Citra thrives under her care. Curie gleans by looking for people who seem to be dead already and have no joy in living. Citra begins to adapt to her new life. Citra begins to research Faraday’s life and realizes there is some sketchiness surrounding Faraday’s death. She suspects Goddard. Citra and Rowan are together again at the next assembly and he breaks her neck as part of an apprentice test. Goddard suspects Citra is on to him so he frames her for the death. Citra chases down leads to find out that Faraday is actually alive. Rowan is horrified by Goddard and the other Scythes that live with him. He uncovers an important piece of information about High Blase Xenocrates- he has an illegitimate daughter who is at Goddard’s house. Rowan kills Goddard and his followers at a Tunist monastery. High Blase Xenocrates puts an end to the investigation so that Rowan will not tell others about his daughter. Citra and Rowan must kill a family member as their next test. Citra wins the contest but ends up tricking everyone and giving Rowan one year of immunity. This gives Rowan a chance to escape with Faraday.
Scythe strikes the perfect balance between dystopia and reality. The book is an engrossing read that is hard to set down. Just one more page! I felt very fortunate that the second book in the trilogy Thunderhead was already out. It is every bit as good as the first book. Now I am waiting on pins and needles for the third and last book in the series is released. Students will relate to the story about having to grow up too fast and yearning for a simpler time in your life while looking forward to the next step. There are several heavy concepts that are introduced throughout the book including death and freewill. Is it worth it to surrender your choices to all knowing technology that will keep you protected and safe or to make those choices for yourself? Scythe is fast moving and leaves you wanting more.  I am anxiously awaiting the Toll, the third and final book in the series.  If your students love Hunger Games, this will be right up their ally.

Woodson, Jaqueline (2018). Harbor Me. NY: Nancy Paulsen Books

From the YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults list, Harbor Me, is told from Haley Anderson’s perspective.  She is in a class for students with learning differences and the students have one hour at the end of Fridays to talk with each other without a teacher present.  At first the students are hesitant and find the whole thing odd.  Haley gets the idea to record the student’s stories and thoughts as a way to preserve their ideas.  She records herself recounting a lesson by Ms. Leverne asking whether they would take land for themselves or harbor the Lenape?  Each week a different student shares their story and the barriers the students have put between them begin to disappear.  Haley even works up the courage to share the story of her father being in jail and rebuilding a relationship with him after her mother’s death.

I would love to try this experiment with students.  Give them time to sit with each other and talk with no agenda or lesson provided.  I think that students will be able to relate to the students in the book’s stories.  While people may not be in the same exact situation, they can relate to the struggle of figuring out changing relationships with parents.

On page 12, there are study/discussion questions for the book from Random House.

http://images.randomhouse.com/teachers_guides/9780399252525.pdf

You can hear Jacqueline Woodson talk about the book here:

Summers, Courtney (2018). Sadie. New York: Wednesday Books.

If you love “S-Town” and “Serial”, you will like Sadie. However, it is hard read. The book includes sexual abuse and assault, violence, child abduction, child death, and pedophilia. It is raw and painful to read. For me, it was a hard book to crawl out of and stuck with me. The narrative alternates from Sadie to West McCray and is blunt and honest from them both. Sadie made the YALSA Quick Picks list but I’m not so sure I would be able to recommend it to students. The message is important, there are girls who suffer terrible abuse on a daily basis, children raising other children, and children who are neglected. The podcast that is associated with the book provides an interesting twist and is a great marketing strategy https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-girls/id1413420595?mt=2. A similar book is The Fall of Innocence by Jenny Torres Sanchez. Here’s a great interview with Courtney Summers https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/77764-q-a-with-courtney-summers.html

Sadie’s works hard every day to provide her sister Mattie with a roof over her head and food. Sadie is only six years older than Mattie but when their mother leaves, Sadie takes over the responsibilities. When she is 19 years old, Sadie’s sister is murdered, and Sadie is determined to track down the killer. Then Sadie disappears. Five months later, West McCray is a podcaster covering small forgotten towns who Sadie’s surrogate grandmother begs to find Sadie. The story flips between Sadie and McCray following in her footsteps months later. There is no closure at the end of the book which I found unsettling; however, it is true to form for author Courtney Summers. The audiobook won the 2019 Odyssey and is worth tracking down.

Watters, Shannon and Leyh, Kat (2018). Lumber Janes Vol. 11. BOOM!

From the YALSA Great Graphic Nolels for Teens, Lumber Jane’s can’t be missed. The ladies are the epidemy of strong women, great friends, and working together. Time is freezing and the Roanoke Cabin at Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types is there to save the day. Molly makes a deal with the voice in the forest so that she spend more time with her friends. An unexpected consequence is that time starts to jump around. This series is all about the power of sticking together with friends and supporting each other and there’s adventure and danger, too. I haven’t read a bad one yet.

I would recommend this to students as a light read with a big message. Ladies can do anything and are strong, smart adventurers. Friendships are valuable and should be cherished.

From the YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens, Lumber Jane’s can’t be missed. The ladies are the epidemy of strong women, great friends, and working together. Time is freezing and the Roanoke Cabin at Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types is there to save the day. Molly makes a deal with the voice in the forest so that she spend more time with her friends. An unexpected consequence is that time starts to jump around. This series is all about the power of sticking together with friends and supporting each other and there’s adventure and danger, too. I haven’t read a bad one yet.

I would recommend this to students as a light read with a big message. Ladies can do anything and are strong, smart adventurers. Friendships are valuable and should be cherished.


Lee, Harper and Fordham, Fred (2018). To Kill a Mocking Bird: A Graphic Novel. NY: Harper.

This beautiful adaptation of the classic To Kill a Mocking Bird is not only on the YALSA list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens, it is also endorsed by Harper Lee’s estate. The subtle water color illustrations are true to the time period of the book. The graphic novel format makes this classic easily accessible to all readers. Students who are reluctant to read the full novel will connect with the graphic novel.

Atticus takes on a controversial case in the small town of Macomb, Alabama. Jem and Scout befriend Dill who becomes fascinated with the haunted house near them. The house is owned by Nathan Bradley. Whose brother Boo lives there as well. Boo hasn’t left the house in years. Scout goes to school for the first time and on their way home the kids discover presents left for them in a tree. When Dill returns, the kids act out Boo’s story, however, Atticus puts a stop to it. When a fire breaks out at a neighbor’s house, Boo is blamed. Atticus agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, when he is accused of raping a white woman which leaves Jem and Scout vulnerable to the other kids’ bullying. When the trial begins, Tom is held in jail and a mob comes to kill him but Scout’s quick thinking saves him. Even though there is strong evidence that shows Tom’s innocence he is found guilty of the crime. When he tries to escape prison, he is shot and killed which devastates Jem. Bob attacks Jem and Scout but Boo saves them and accidentally kills Bob. Scout’s faith in humanity isn’t shaken even though she has witnessed hate and prejudice.

Thomas, Angela (2018). On the Come Up. NY: Blazer + Blay

From the NYT Bestseller list, On the Come Up shouldn’t be missed.  While set in the same fictional Mississippi neighborhood as The Hate U Give, Bri’s experience is vastly different from Starr’s.  Bri is an outspoken aspiring rapper whose first song goes viral and now Bri has to face the consequences.  Her father was a rapper who died right before he went big and now Bri feels like she has a lot to live up to.  Bri’s mother is a former crack addict and she fears that her mother will relapse.  After her mother loses her job, the family finds it hard to make ends meet and they have to choose between gas for the car and electricity.  While dealing with heavy topics such a racism and poverty, the book is funny.  Bri has a spunky spirit and close friends, Sonny and Malik.  Themes that are seen in the Hate U Give resurface in On the Come Up in a very appropriate way.  Two racist security guards throw Bri to the ground and the video goes viral.  Bri has to decide if she will be the face of the social justice movement.

I was fortunate to go hear Angie Thomas talk about this book.  It gives a voice to teenagers who are often marginalized.  Thomas creates strong female characters who are intelligent, resourceful, and imperfect.  She draws on her experience as an aspiring rapper to infuse realism into her character.  Although her mother was never a drug addict!  Thomas is inspiring and up lifting.  She even rapped one of Bri’s raps from the book.