The Arrival

The Arrival

Shaun Tan

2006 * p. 128 * YA Graphic Novel

This is the first graphic novel that I have ever "read." When I first heard the term, I thought it meant graphic as in explicit and offensive material. But a graphic novel is essentially book that is mostly drawings and read almost like a comic book.

The Arrival, however, is solely pictorial. The drawings are beautiful, whimsical, and emotional.

Tan "tells" the story of an immigrant who leaves his home for a new country. He experiences the fustrations and awe of being introduced to a new language, culture, and way of life.

No nationalities are given, except I think that the main character, the man on the front cover, is European. I think the new country is America. America is portrayed as a bizarre and beautiful planet. The new country is so foreign and strange to the man that he feels like he is in another galaxy. Tan continues this almost sci-fi feeling througout.

The following are some images from the book:

-Reading level: grade 7 & up

-Themes: Immigration, loneliness, adaptation, community

-No text, only images.

-Read the book in about half hour

-Beautiful pictures

The Westing Game

The Westing Game

Ellen Raskin

1978 * p. 182 * YA Mystery

The Westing Game is a "clue-like" mystery where 16 strangers are brought together at the funeral of a man, Sam Westing, that all claim they never knew. He has left a will and devised a game that all will play to determine the heir of his money and his murderer. Most of the characters are eccentric and have fun and unusual names like Theo Theodorakis, D. Denton Dear, and Turtle Wexler. Also, each seems to know something but hides it secretly, as well as the clues they are given in pairs.

One of the 16 strangers and heirs, Judge J.J. Ford, says the following about the Westing game:

"In his will Sam Westing implied (he did not state, he implied) that (1) he was murdered, (2) the murderer was one of the heirs, (3) he alone knew the name of the murderer, and (4) the name of the murderer was the answer to the game.

The game: a tricky, divisive Westing game. No matter how much fear and suspicion he instilled in the players, Sam Westing knew that greed would keep them playing the game. Until the 'murderer' was captured. And punished.

Sam Westing was not murdered, but one of his heirs was guilty--guilty of some offense against a relentless man. And that heir was in danger. From his grave Westing would stalk his enemy, and through his heirs he would wreak his revenge" (47-48).

I read this book when I was younger and remembered loving it. After reading it again, I found t harder to get into and really enjoy. But it is a relatively fun read.

-Reading level: grade 7 & up

-Fast and easy read

-Appropriate for all readers

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

2001 * p. 172 * YA Nonfiction

Black Potatoes gives a history of the potatoe famine in Ireland. I learned much. One of the phrases that struck me was that it was a "man-made famine." It wasn't that there was no food, but rather that people didn't have any money to buy food.

Bartoletti explains many circumstances around the famine: the tension between England and Ireland, between Protestants and Catholics, between Landlords and laborers.

There are many quotes and experiences that are included by Famine survivors and relatives, most of them heartbreaking. For instance, an account of a woman that begged for money to buy a coffin for her dead infant. It is truly a humbling book. I will never look at a bag of potatoes the same again.

So many politics, and political mistakes by England, escalated the famine. An airborne, foreign fungus rotted the potatoes literally overnight. Since harvesting potatoes is what farmers survived on, most were left desitute. Everyone, mostly the laborers, were starving. When they tried to eat corn that England imported for them after months of starvation, the kernels ruptured their sensitive intestines and killed many of them. Landlords evicted residents from their homes. People ate whatever they could find: rats, cats, dogs. Disease spread. And much, much more. Truly, horrible.

The book is informative without feeling like a textbook. There are many illustrations included, most of them sketches from newspapers that reported on the famine.

-Reading level: grade 9 & up

-Big words are explained and have pronunciations

-Many illustrations

-Some disturbing details and stories

-A good segue into talking about the Irish Famine or as a supplementary text

Witch Child

Witch Child

Celia Rees

2000 * p. 260 * YA Historical Fiction

Mary is a witch. She and her grandmother (also a witch) live in 1659 England. The novel begins with Mary's grandmother being seized by the townspeople, thrown into the pond to see if she'll float, and then is hung for witchcraft. Mary is then quickly taken by a stranger and thrown into a carriage with a mysterious and regal woman. The woman barely talks, but has her bathed, fed, and dressed in new clothes. The woman then tells her that she is to be put on a ship to America with a Puritan group.

She is terrified to leave, but has nothing to stay for. The woman tells her that it will be safer for her in America. (The woman's identity is a suprise to Mary; you'll have to read!) So Mary sails to America with the Puritans and is welcomed and companioned with a woman named Martha. On the ship, Mary hopes that she can keep her secret and not run into trouble. She is fearful of being caught and looks forward to reaching their destination: Salem!

I loved this book. What is really interesting, is that Mary was supposedly a real individual who left behind a journal that Celia Rees has fashioned into a fictional novel based on her life.

Mary is a good witch. She is more like a gypsy who works with herbs and has special gifts and talents. She never uses them for evil, and sometimes her powers and visions come even if she doesn't want them. When she suddenly sees a friend's future, and how he will die, she comments:

"The visions came to me unbidden, just as they did to my grandmother, but I knew the gift did not come from her. It comes from my mother. This is art of a different order, beyond my grandmother's power. I felt it settle about my shoulders like a weighty mantle" (83).

The novel is very realistic, suspenseful, and twists and turns many times. I was a little perturbed at the ending. I had questions that weren't answered. But I still loved, loved, loved it.

-Reading level: grade 9 & up

-References to witchcraft (evil witchcraft done by others)

-Pregnancy out of marriage

-A hanging scene (though not detailed)

-A great segue way into teaching about the Salem Witch Trials, or as a bridge to Arthur Miller's The Crucible

Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath

Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath

Stephanie Hemphill

2007 * p. 248 * YA Poetry/Biography

Stephanie Hemphill tells the story of iconic poet Sylvia Plath through her own poetry. She writes the poems through the eyes of those who knew her: her mother, husband, numerous boyfriends, friends, therapists, associates, neighboors, etc.

It is really captivating. I must admit that I knew very little about Sylvia Plath. This verse portrait is really eye-opening and after you read it, you really feel like you know her through Hemphill's interesting and creative biographical approach.

Sylvia Plath was truly a unique woman. She was beautiful, popular, and brilliant. She was also boy-crazy, sexually repressed, self-harming, self-critical, eccentric, and depressed. Sylvia Plath committed suicide on February 11, 1963. It is a tragic, tragic story. But...really interesting.

Under most of the poems that chronologically tell Sylvia's life, there are brief, but more detailed explanations, facts, and quotes about her. (They really help explain and give the reader a break from so much poetry.) One I read was very interesting and I think really explains Sylvia's nature:

"The author Ronald Hayman asserts in his The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath that Nancy (Sylvia's friend and college roommate) felt that Sylvia sometimes counted on 'crises to give her creative inspiration,' and that 'for the sake of her poetry and her stories she [took] risks and [depended] on other people to rescue her from dangerous situations'" (93).

This novel is really unique. It is all poetry, but for a few clarifications and side notes, but it is easy to read and straightforward, with no guesswork. I really liked that Hemphill also wrote her poetry about Sylvia in the style of some of Sylvia's poems and connected them through the periods in her life. Really interesting.

-Reading level: grade 11 & up

-An emotional and serious read

-References to sex, promiscuity, drinking, smoking, suicide, adultery, self-harm

-A great segue into a study of Sylvia Plath's poetry

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

E.L. Konigsburg

1968 * p. 162 * YA Fiction

Claudia, the oldest of four children, decides that she wants to run away. She is 12 years old and feeling under appreciated by her parents. But she has no money. She spends it all on fudge sundaes. So she decides to pick her favorite brother, Jamie (9), because he is rich and saves all his money. (which he mostly earns by cheating at cards on the school bus.) They keep their plans a secret, and runaway to the Metropolian Museum of Art in New York City.

The sibings hide in the museum as it is closed every night. They sleep in antique French furniture, bathe in the fountain, and roam the museum. When a new addition to the museum comes, Claudia is spellbound. It is a small statue of an Angel. The rumor is that it was possibly carved by Michelangelo. Angel becomes the siblings' obsession, particularly Claudia's. She must find out if Michelangelo carved it, or she will go home humiliated.

I love both Claudia and Jamie's characters. I love a part in the book where they are looking at Angel and Claudia says she wishes she could hug it.

"I still say that it's too bad we can't touch her," Claudia complained.

"At least we're living with it. We're the only two people in the world who live with it."

"Mrs. Franweiler did, too. She could touch..."

"And hug it," Jamie teased.

"I'll bet she knows for sure if Michelangelo did it."

"Sure she does," Jamie said. He then threw his arms around himself, leaned his head way back, closed his eyes, and murmured,"Every morning when she got up, Mrs. Frankweiler would throw her arms about the statue, peer into its eyes, and say, 'speak to me, baby.' One morning the statue ans..."

Claudia was furious. "The men who moved it last night hugged it when they moved it. There's all kinds of hugging" (89).

Claudia is the typical know-it-all big sister and a spendthrift and schemer. Jamie teases, is a penny-pincher, and loves complications. :)

I read this book in either 6th or 7th grade. I could barely remember it before I read it again just a few days ago. I wish I could stow away in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, swim in a fountain, and hug a statue.

-Reading level: grade 6 & up

-Completely appropriate

-Themes of becoming an adult, self-sufficiency, becoming an individual, enjoying learning

-Contains illustrations

-Won numerous awards

The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural

The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural

Patricia C. McKissack

1992 * p. 166 * YA Supernatural

The Dark-Thirty is a collection of stories, tales, legends that come from the South from as early as 1868 up to modern day. A lot of them deal with slavery, racism, persecution, etc as all of the subjects, heros and heroines are African American.

None of them are extremely scary, but more eerie, mystical, and creepy. For example, there is a tale about a woman who begged a bus ride from a white driver on a snowy, chilling night. She needed to get her infant to the hospital, but because she had no money, the driver refused to let her on. She and the baby died in the storm, and began to haunt the streets and bus every year on the night she died.

The author recommends that the tales be told around the campfire at twilight when the spirits come out.

-Reading level: grade 7 & up

-Referenes to the Ku Klux Klan, drinking, a hanging. But nothing detailed or gruesome. I would reccommend it for all YA ages.

-Fast read

-Ideal coupled with the history of slavery, Civil Rights, racism, etc.

I personally would have loved the book more if it was a tad bit more suspenseful.

Stargirl

Stargirl Jerry Spinelli

2000 * p. 186 * YA Realistic Contemporary

Leo is a typical, fairly popular, high school student in Arizona. His life seems normal until Stargirl walks into his life. Stargirl (yes, that is her name) has been homeschooled before coming to Mica High School. She wears pioneer dresses, plays her ukulele at lunch, know everyone's birthday and sings them "Happy Birthday" at school, has a pet rat that rides along in her purse, and is totally friendly.

Everyone thinks she is just strange and fascinating at first. Soon she becomes the most popular girl in school.

"How did it happen? ... Was it the cheerleading?...The last football game of the season was her first as a cheerleader. The grandstand was packed: students, parents, alumni. Never had so many people come to a football game to see a cheerleader.

She did all the regular cheers and routines. And more. In fact, she never stopped cheering...She ran straight across the fifty-yard line and joined the other team's cheerleaders. We laughed as they stood there with their mouths open. ... At halftime she played her ukulele with the band" (8).

But everyone's enthusiasm for her fades as her wild and unpredicatable nature is still an enigma. They can't figure her out. She is now an outcast. Leo is drawn to her still, however, and when Stargirl gives him a Valentine card telling him she loves him, his world changes forever. But now Leo must struggle between becoming an individual himself or keeping to the status quo.

The novel was charming. It was innocent. Stargirl is eccentric but genuine. She does nothing but good. She is constantly doing service for others, most of the time complete strangers. She never thinks of herself.

Stargirl is utimately about individuality and acceptance.

-Reading level: grade 8 & up

-Easy, fast and uncomplicated read

-Themes of individuality, acceptance, service, popularity, first love, selflessness

-Completely appropriate for all readers

I would reccommend this book to any, and all readers. I believe there is also a sequel: Love, Stargirl. I haven't read it yet, but I plan on it.

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm Polly Shulman

2007 * p. 208 * YA Contemporary

Enthusiasm follows best friends Ashleigh and Julia. Julia is the main heroine and told from her point of view. She is referred to as a "stringbean", tall and thin and pretty. She is level-headed and constantly embarassed over her best friend's newest obsessions.

So Julia is mortified when Ashleigh's new obsession is for all things Jane Austen and Pride & Prejudice. She speaks in "Austen" language, wants to wear only empire wasited, period dresses, and determines that they both need to find their own Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley. So the two 15 year olds decide to crash the Forfield Boy's Academy's dance. The boys wear uniforms (almost like period suits from Austen's novels). Julia is embarassed but plays along.

They pretend to be on the guest list for the dance and are pleased to find that two gentleman-like boys come to their rescue, Ned and Par.

The novel dances around the doings of the quartet, love triangles, a musical, first kisses, and misunderstandings.

I actually listened to this novel as an audiobook. The audiobook is about 7 hours long. I was actually irritated listening to it because the narrator's voice drove me mad as she attempted to do all of the characters' voices. Shulman also has a hard time relating to the reader and creating characters that are cared about and probable. It was a very silly, syrupy, and almost ridiculous "potato chip" fiction.

-Reading level: grade 8 & up.

-The book does involve quite a bit of the "Austen" language and takes a little more effort to understand with all of the big and seldom-used words that we hear today.

-However, it does make it a good bridge to Austen's classic, Pride & Prejudice. The book should stir interest about why the ain characters love the classic so much that they would want to relive it.

-A reference to condoms and birth control.

-A couple of swear words.

-Potato chip fiction: mindless reading, mere entertainment.

After Enthusiasm, I would suggest reading Shannon Hale's Austenland. It is for a more adult reader but also plays off the idea of finding your Mr. Darcy. Austenland is more realistic and not as silly. Compared with Enthusiasm, Austenland is definitely the favorite.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

I Never Saw Another Butterfly Celeste Raspanti

1980 * p. 35 * YA Historical Fiction

I read the one-act cutting of the full-length play by Raspanti.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly tells the story of Raja Englanderova, a young Jewish girl who has been sent to the Nazi Camp Terezin during the Holocaust. Terezin is historically the Nazi Camp where many Jewish children were sent.

Raja is the only member of her family left alive. When she first comes to Terezin she is quiet and scared. But Irena, a Jewish woman who has been allowed to stay with the children, befriends her and helps her to know she is not alone. Irena teaches the girls when they aren't being watched by the Nazis.

Raja also befriends a boy named Honza. He sleeps in the boys barracks, and so they try to sneak out at certain times and meet and talk.

The biggest fear of all the children at Terezin is that they will be sent to Auschwitz where they will face certain death. The Nazis take a busload of children every now and then and they never come back.

RAJA: Honza, a sausage--you're wonderful--and sausage, I haven't--but where did you get it?

HONZA: I liberated it...

RAJA: Liberated it? Honza...

HONZA: Actually, I took it.

RAJA: Stole it. No wonder it tastes so good--you're so brave! (They hold hands and run together to another area.)

HONZA: I won't be here--for a few days...

RAJA: Why? Where are you going?

HONZA: Don't take any chances--coming to meet me, I mean.

RAJA: (frightened). Honza, what is it?

HONZA: Nothing. A special detail to build something outside the fortifications. They're picking the strongest--I'll be chosen.

RAJA: But--what if something happens?

HONZA: There'll be a chance for extra food. Maybe another sausage.

RAJA: I don't care about sausage...Honza, I'm afraid!

HONZA: Don't worry...they want the job done--it's some kind of walled courtyard...nothing much can happen...Well, I have to go.

RAJA: Goodbye then...Goodbye. I'll be waiting...waiting...waiting...Please come back.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly shows the horrors that Jewish children faced at Terezin. It is sad, but I think a good eye-opener for youth to understand the history of the Holocaust. It also has a little romance. After reading the one-act cutting I want to read the entire play.

-Appropriate for all readers

-Reading level: age 12 & up

-An easy read, but depressing themes that might be better discussed with more mature readers

-A good bridge to discussing WWII and Holocaust history

Speak

Speak Laurie Halse Anderson

1999 * p. 198 * YA Realistic Contemporary

Speak is about a girl named Melinda who starts high school as an outcast. No one will speak with her, not even her, now ex, best friend. She is totally alone and depressed, and her homelife isn't helping. Something happened over the previous summer before her freshman year that has labeled Melinda as an outcast and a target of rude remarks.

Melinda herself won't talk about what happened that summer. But as the novel goes on, you discover that Melinda had attended an end of the summer party with all of her friends. She has a couple of drinks and ends up being raped by a senior. After it happens, she calls the police but is too shocked to explain exactly what happened. The police come to the party, break it up, and arrest a few of the party-ers. Everyone blames Melinda as a taddle-tale, and never know that she had actually been raped and was trying to call for help.

The context of the novel sounds depressing, and it is. But it really impacted me. I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. One of the most terrifying aspects of the story are when Melinda sees, or is near, IT: the boy who raped her. Anderson, the author, portrays her terror and depression so well. It is a very emotional book only because Melinda herself refuses to be emotional about it or even recognize that it happened.

But she is still careful about where she is and with who. She becomes paranoid of everyone and everything. When the only person who is nice to her, a boy, invites her to hang out with him and some friends, she immediately says "no" and makes up excuses. On the way home, she has an argument with herself:

Melinda One: "Get a life. It was just pizza. He wasn't going to try anything. His parents were going to be there! You worry too much. You're never going to let us have any fun, are you? You're going to turn into one of those weird old ladies who has a hundred cats and calls the cops when kids cut across the her back yard. I can't stand you."

Melinda Two waits for One to finish her tantrum. Two carefully watches the bushes along the sidewalk for a lurking bogeyman or worse.

Melinda Two: "The world is a dangerous place. You don't know what would have happened. What if he was just saying his parents were going to be there? He could have been lying. You can never tell when people are lying. Assume the worst. Plan for disaster. Now hurry up and get us home. I don't like it out here. It's too dark." (132)

I truly loved this book. It was impactful and powerful. Anderson's portrayal of high school, the "lingo", scenes, and inner struggles is genius. It is genuine and realistic. This novel has been censored/challenged by a few schools because it deals with rape, but it is so piercing that I think every girl should read it to see an example of the dangers of drinking, rape, and even worse, keeping it to yourself and not seeking help.

-More appropriate for high school age.

-Has a scene of rape, but is not detailed or needlessly graphic.

-A few swear words.

-Themes of dealing with rape, denial, ostracism, unsatisfying home life, finding own identity, and "speaking up."

Laurie Halse Anderson has also written: Fever 1793, Catalyst, and Prom. I plan on reading Fever 1793 next.