Telgemeier, R. (2012). Drama. New York: Graphix/Scholastic.
Have
you ever wanted to be in a school musical?
Seventh-grader Callie loves her the theater and her tech job working on
the stage crew with her friends. She is
excited to map out the sets for the new musical they are putting on, Moon Over Mississippi. Callie has a lot to deal with between making
the cannon work, her brother, her changing crushes, evolving friendships, and
the eighth-grade dance. Callie starts
off liking eight-grader Craig and focuses her dislike on his on-again/off-again
girlfriend, Bonnie. When she meets
twins, Jessie and Justin, she begins to have a crush on Jesse. Matt, who is in charge of lighting, seems
frustrated with Callie although she doesn’t know why. At lunch, Justin tells Callie that he is gay
and while she is surprised, she is okay with this. Callie and Jesse encourage Justin during try
outs for the musical and Callie admits that Bonnie is good. Liz, always a good friend and costume
designer, helps Callie sort through her feelings. While Callie ends up going to the eighth-grade
dance with Jesse, it doesn’t turn out the way she hoped. Everything gets sorted out in the end, but not
before there is much drama.
The
thing that I love most about this book is that it isn’t a book about a teenager
that is gay. It is a book about navigating
crushes, relationships, and friendships in middle school. There happens to be a character who is gay
who is friends with the main character, Callie, and there may be more
characters along the way that explore their identities but that is not the main
focus of the book. The characters are
authentic and realistic. They go to cool
book stores, read beautiful books, drink bubble tea, and text each other; just
what you would expect from modern teens. In fact when I read the book, I couldn’t
figure out why it frequently tops
most challenged book lists. After
research I learned it makes the list because “because
it includes LGBT characters and was considered “confusing.”” To me, the book is about friendships, changing
relationships, and putting on a play! Another
thing I enjoyed about this book is that there isn’t a bully. Sometimes the characters don’t make great choices,
but no one is preying on another kid. I
think that it would be a great fit for middle school students or students going
into middle school who are looking for a glimpse into what to expect. Raina Telgemeier has a great website with tons
of great information about her books, herself, and graphic novels https://goraina.com/. The resource area includes discussion
questions, interviews, pictures, and more.
The
book opens with nine-year-old Quentin and Margo finding the body of a man in
the park. Next, we see Quentin Jacobson, Q, a high school
senior who still lives next door to Margo and is slightly obsessed with Margo. Quentin comments about sameness of all his
days, that is until Margo sneaks into his window in the middle of the night to
ask him to help her complete eleven tasks.
Margo explains that her boyfriend is cheated on her with her best friend
and they are going to get revenge. They
club Jase’s car and call his parents to let him know their kid is having sex in
their house. Jase runs half naked into
the road. They vandalize Becca’s
room. After Q recovers, they move on to
Karin’s to leave flowers. Next, they leave
a fish in Jase’s house and in, Lacy, the frenemy’s car. They go to the SunTrust building where they
pick their next victim. They remove one
of his eyebrows. The last stop in the
list is SeaWorld where they bribe a guard so they can leave unscathed. Margo doesn’t return to school the next and the
following day a detective and Margo’s parents are waiting with Quentin’s parents
to question him. The detective mentions
that in the past Margo has left clues to her whereabouts. Margo’s parents lack of concern and threat to
change the locks is disturbing to Q and his parents. Quentin, Ben, and Radar discover Margo’s
first clue. Lacy is worried about Margo
and tells the group she might be in New York.
Q finds Margo’s clue in his door jam and ropes Ben and Radar into
skipping school and going with him to the address. Based on a quote they find there, Q starts
exploring pseudovisions which are later revealed to be a dead end. Quentin worries that Margo is dead like the
man they found. As Quentin prepares for
graduation, he has a break through and discovers “paper towns”, towns on maps
that don’t really exist but are there to insure maps were not copied. He thinks Margo is in Agloe and decides to skip
graduation to make the trip before she leaves.
Ben, Radar, and Lacey meet him at his new/old minivan. They quickly settle into a routine as they
drive. After a near cow-related death,
everyone is a bit shaken but the press on.
They find Margo although she insists, she didn’t want to be found. Quentin and Margo talk through their feelings
and kiss. Margo calls her family and
talks to her sister. She wants Quentin
to run away with her, but he refuses in order to go to college. They kiss one final time and seem to finally
understand each other.
Ness,
P. (2008). The Knife of Never Letting Go.
Boston, MA: Candlewick Press
Todd
lives on a distant planet in Prentisstown with his fathers, Ben and Cillian,
and the dog he never wanted, Manchee. He
is the last boy in his town and with no women, there will be no others. In Prentisstown there are no women ajnd
everyone can hear what every creature is saying, thinking, and feeling. Todd is picking apples in the swamp when he finds
a void in the noise, a silence. The same
day, he is forced to leave his home by his own fathers and what is worse they
have been planning this. Aaron, the town
preacher, beats up Todd when he finds him in the swamp and revels that he is
the one who told the town that Todd heard a silent spot. Todd ends up saving the void, a girl, from
Aaron and together they run. Ben provides
Todd with a map and the journal his mother began on the day he was born. Todd fears that the Mayor’s son has killed Ben
and Cillian. Viola doesn’t talk to Todd
at first and is unsure whether or not to trust him. Viola helps Todd burn the bridge across a gorge
to keep the Mayor and his posse from following them and makes a choice to go with
Todd. Hildy and Tam help them and take
them to Farbranch although they are not safe, and the posse returns only this
time it is an entire army. Todd and Viola
continue their journey to Haven where they hope for safety. Things start to not add up like Spackles are
supposed to be dead, but they come across one.
When Todd kills it in a fit of rage, he becomes overwhelmed with guilt. Aaron returns from the dead and takes Viola
away. Manchee helps Todd find Viola but
ultimately becomes another of Aaron’s victims.
Doctor Snow, in another town, helps Viola and Todd after their escape. Todd wakes up in a hospital and is surprised
to see children. Viola is frustrated
that her attempts to save the town have fallen on deaf ears due to the fact
that she is a girl. Todd and Viola find
Ben and truths about Prentisstown are reveled and why everyone hates people
from Prentisstown. They are the ones who
killed the women not a germ released by Spackle. Almost to Haven, Viola and Ben run into the Mayor’s
son. They are able to escape from him
but are caught by Aaron. Aaron revels
that you become a man by killing someone and that he is who Todd must
kill. Todd once again cannot kill but
Viola steps in to save the day. The
mayor’s son shoots Viola just when you think they’ve made it to Haven. Todd carries Viola to Haven only to find it
empty except for Mayor Prentiss now dubbed President Prentiss.
This dystopian
book is a coming of age story. Often
Todd struggles to keep his Noise under control and can feel his emotions
surge. He carries the knife that Ben
gave him throughout the book. It is even
foreshadowed that he will receive the knife before he gets it. Ultimately Todd begins to view the knife as
something evil. Todd must develop beyond
blindly believing that everything he has been told is true to questioning
everything around him. I think that
students who are fans of dystopian books will connect with this series. It reminds me of Hunger Games even though the
premise is completely different. Todd is
not a likable character, but he grows on you as the story progresses. I find it interesting that in a world of evil
books, writing, and journals are destroyed, and you are forbidden to teach someone
how to read or write. Education is the
foundation to freedom. I would like to
have students who are fans of this series to read Fahrenheit 451 and compare
the effects of a lack of knowledge on a community and think about why leaders
would want to prevent others from gaining knowledge. I found the book a little hard to get into
because it is written as Todd speaks with inventive spelling and slang. Students might need encouragement and support
as they start the book so that they do not get frustrated as they get accustomed
to the flow of the text. I would use
this book trailer to get students hooked.
Myers,
W. D. (1999). Monster. New York, NY: Harper.
Steve
Harmon no longer recognizes himself in the little mirror that hangs in his
cell. He doesn’t deserve to be in jail
and struggles with the horrors that it holds.
Harmon begins to detach and see his time in jail like he’s walked into a
movie and records his trial as a script.
At the trial, ADA Sandra Petrocelli points out that Mr. Nesbitt’s life
was taken with his own gun at the hands of Harmon and James King. While King’s attorney, Biggs, points out that
the prosecution’s witnesses are all testifying to get reduced sentences. Harmon’s attorney O’Brien wants the jury to see
him as human. Harmon worries that the
jury will see him as a black criminal from Harlem. Wendell Bolden testifies in order to reduce
his sentence. Through flashbacks the
script shows Steve being asked to come up with ideas for a plan to rob a
smaller store and he doesn’t answer. When
Osvaldo Cruz testifies, things get even worse for Harmon. O’Brien knows things are not going well for
them. Steve begins to think about the people
around him. At trial, Briggs points out the
terrible things that Cruz has done in order to prove that he could not have
been coerced into anything. Harmon
worries that his father can only see him as a monster. He fills in the details about his life from
the murder until he was arrested. The
script shows Steve’s arrest. Harmon
struggles with life in prison and moves past fear into anger. In the movie, witnesses continue to testify,
and a doctor testifies about the body.
The differences in King and Harmon’s reactions are highlighted. Sunday dawns with more breakfast and more
fighting. Harmon despairs at the
disinterest of the guards. The star
witness is a retired school librarian with a pristine record who positively identifies
King a point that O’Brien highlights. The
next star witness is Bobo Evans who testifies to his involvement in the robbery
with Steve and admits that he never talked with Harmon or has any idea what the
signal Harmon was supposed to be. O’Brien
has begun to turn the case. The film
moves to O’Brien coaching Harmon about how to testify so that he can distance
himself from King. When he testifies, Harmon
talks about walking around looking for places to film for his school
project. His teacher in charge of the
film club verifies his statements. Final
statements are given by the attorneys and O’Brien sticks with the strategy of
distancing Harmon from King. Harmon waits
for the verdict and thinks about how his parents feel. He is found not guilty and surprised to find
that his lawyer might not agree. The
book ends five months later as Harmon makes films about himself. He is trying to figure out who he is now and make
sense of the distance between himself and his father. He processes his lawyer stiffening as he
hugged her at the end of the trial. He
wonders if he truly is a monster.
We
never know if Steve Harmon is guilty or innocent. Why was King convicted and Harmon not? Intellectually, Harmon has not moved from the
concrete to the abstract. He takes the
complicated nuances of what is happening around him and simplifies them into a
format that he can understand. He truly
feels that he is not guilty even if we are unsure. This a book that teens can read for
philosophical speculation. If Steve was the
lookout, is he as guilty as King for what happened to Mr. Nesbitt? The book was adapted by Aaron Carter for the
stage.
Quintero,
I. (2014). Gabi: A Girl in Pieces.
TX: Cinco Puntos.
Through Gabi’s journal entries we learn about her struggle during her senior year. Gabi wants to summer to linger because of all the good food even as she struggles with being overweight. She is critical of her friend Cindy who tells her that she is pregnant. Sebastian, Gabi’s other best friend, is kicked out of his house when he revels that he is gay. Gabi crushes on the boys around her and works hard to ensure that she will get good grades and into a good college like Berkley. She worries that Sebastian will go down the same path as her father when he sneaks off to do drugs with his boyfriend. When Gabi’s father returns, he assures them that he can get clean from meth without help. Gabi’s mother lets him back into her life but he quickly relapses. She foreshadows finding him dead. When Gabi’s mother tells her that she is pregnant, Gabi worries that now she will be expected to help care for the baby and unable to go to college. Eric is kissing another girl and Gabi sees it. She has the realization that she doesn’t really like him anyway and she continues to grow closer to Martin. Poetry becomes a new outlet for Gabi as she explores her emotions. Gabi discovers her father dead and sink into a deep depression. Fortunately, her friends are there to support her. When Cindy revels that her baby is a product of rape, Gabi attacks the boy. She is unable to attend her own graduation due to her suspension. Martin, Gabi, Cindy, and Sebastian attend a graduation party and Gabi realizes she is in charge of her own fate and everything will turn out ok.
Gabi: A Girl in Pieces has won several awards
including:
- 2015
YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults
- 2015
YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, Top 10 Selection
- 2015
Américas Award Commended Title
- Booklist
Best Books of 2014
- School
Library Journal Best Books of 2014
- Kirkus
Reviews Best Books of 2014
· 2015 William C. Morris Award for YA Debut Novel
- 2015 Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and
Teens
- 2015 Tomás Rivera Book Award, Works for Older Children
- Amelia Bloomer List, part of the American Library
Association, Social Responsibilities Round Table’s Feminist Task Force
Students
will relate to this coming of age novel.
Gabi walks between the world of her Mexican heritage and “America and
the twenty first century.” Gabi’s mother
carries the shame and rejection of her own mother and doesn’t want Gabi to have
the same experience. Gabi is confused by
her mother’s reaction to Cindy’s pregnancy given her mother’s past. Another important facet to Gabi is her weight. While it is a big part of her character, it
doesn’t define her. She is not held back
in her relationships, she is attractive to others, or her character development
by her weight. Students can look to Gabi
as a role model. She isn’t afraid of
food and she has good friends. The weight
is one part of who she is not the defining part and that is affirming to others.
Alexander,
Kwame (2017). Solo. Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Blink.
17-year-old
Blade Morrison’s story is told in poetic free verse which highlights his and his
father’s musical ability. That is where
the similarities between the two end. Rutherford
is a past his prime musician who ends up in tabloids and struggles with
multiple addictions. Blade grieves his
mother who died from an allergic reaction when he was nine. Storm, Blade’s sister, tells Blade that he is
adopted in a fit of pique. After a poor
life decision (a tattoo of his cheating girlfriend’s name), Blade sets off to
Ghana to find his birth mother. Before
this can happen, he father shows up and almost ruins everything.
Students
struggling with identity can relate to this book. I think that students could benefit from this
book by empathizing with the main character.
They can see that the rock and roll life has a dark side. It is a window to another world, yet some students
can identify with a kid whose parents do not always make great choices.
Kwame
Alexander shares how music shaped his life and is reflected in Solo in this video.
Another great Kwame Alexander video
Crutcher, Chris (2003). Staying Fat for Sarah
Byrnes. New York: HarperTempest.
While there are moments of wit, this book is a
heavy read. Sarah Byrne received disfiguring
burns to her face at three and Moby is the fattest kid in school. They become fast friends and say it is
because they are both outcasts. When
they are high school seniors, Sarah is hospitalized because she stops
speaking. Moby goes to see her every day
after swim practice and tells her stories about their adventures in middle
school including their newspaper the Crispy Pork rinds which landed Moby in the
principal’s office. Moby remembers when
Dale beat up Sarah and him for their lunch money which landed him on the front
cover of the newspaper. Ellerby and Moby
join forces on the swim team to edge out the religious Brittain causing
friction. Moby recalls the article that
caused Dale to get in trouble with Mr. Mautz and how Sarah decided to befriend
him so that they could be a united front against the principal. Brittain asks Moby about practice and Moby
tries not to look like a fool in front of Brittain’s girlfriend, Jody. Moby goes to visit Sarah and finds Virgil is
there first. He’s yelling at Sarah about
faking and corners Moby to ask him the same question. Moby decides to go see if Dale can help. Dale tells Moby that Sarah’s father caused
the burns on her face and swears Moby and Ellerby to secrecy. Ms. Lemry announces that the CAT class will discuss
abortion next. Jody revels to Moby that
Brittain forced her to get an abortion last year, she is unhappy with him, and she
now wants to move on with Moby. Sarah talks
with Moby and tells him she’s been faking her condition so that she doesn’t
have to return to her abusive father.
She tells him that her father burned her face on a wooden stove while
arguing with her mother. When Moby confides
Sarah’s secret to Ms. Lemry, Sarah is furious, yet she ends up living with Ms.
Lemry and her husband. Mark Brittain
attempts suicide after Sarah confesses to the class that she had an abortion at
Mark’s insistence. Virgil hides in Moby’s
backseat and attacks him demanding to know where Sarah is. He stabs Moby in the back as his escapes and
Moby seeks shelter at Dale’s house.
While Moby recovers in the hospital, Virgil escapes. Sarah feels that she is putting everyone at
risk and tries to run away again. Ms. Lemry
stops her and she and her husband end up adopting Sarah. Brittain confesses everything to CAT class
and gains points in Moby’s book. Moby
and his friends graduate from high school as the book closes.
This is a book that teens will relate to
because it speaks to where they are developmentally in the beginning but through
a mirror moves them toward the next developmental stage. It helps students develop empathy for other
such as students who don’t look like them and to emphasize with students who
are in touch situations at home. It also
points out that relationships are fluid not cut and dry. Dale once the bully becomes the friend. Brittain who Moby hates becomes someone Moby
doesn’t hate. Here is a video of an
interview Chris Crutcher gave about writing
“With one last, almighty roar, the Frenchman
fell to his knees and died.” Teenage
pirate Emer Morrisey is cursed to live the life of 100 dogs before she can become
human again. When she returns to human
form she will have all of her memories of her previous lives, three hundred
years of history. In the 1980s, she must
figure out how to leave her family behind and recover her treasure from
Jamaica. The story flips between Saffron
the modern teenager and Emer’s life as a pirate even though they are one in the
same as well as other points of view.
This fantasy has great dialog and even though it can be graphic in
parts, it is an enthralling read. Who
doesn’t love a pirate, dogs, and a sassy teenager who constantly pictures
herself maiming her parents?
King, A. S. (2009). The Dust of 100 Dogs. Woodbury, Minnesota: Flux.
“With one last, almighty roar, the Frenchman
fell to his knees and died.” Teenage
pirate Emer Morrisey is cursed to live the life of 100 dogs before she can become
human again. When she returns to human
form she will have all of her memories of her previous lives, three hundred
years of history. In the 1980s, she must
figure out how to leave her family behind and recover her treasure from
Jamaica. The story flips between Saffron
the modern teenager and Emer’s life as a pirate even though they are one in the
same as well as other points of view.
This fantasy has great dialog and even though it can be graphic in
parts, it is an enthralling read. Who
doesn’t love a pirate, dogs, and a sassy teenager who constantly pictures
herself maiming her parents?
Readers can escape into fantasy with this
book. It is entertaining as well as a
bit edgy. I found the information about
how the author came up with the idea interesting. https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/backstory/a-s-king-author-of-the-dust-of-100-dogs/
If students like this book, you could recommend:
Ebba-Viva Fairisles: Immortal Plunder
(Pirates of Felicity Book 1) by Kelly St. Clare
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