Ms. Richards' Reads

Daisy Jones and the Six
Darius the Great is Not Okay
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Skyward
The Gilded Wolves

Friday, March 9, 2018

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

By Stephanie Richards March 09, 2018 // No comments

Citation

Alexie, S. (2009). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

Description
Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author’s own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character’s art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and four-color interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

Little, Brown and Company. (n.d.) The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian details. Retrieved from https://www.lbyr.com/titles/sherman-alexie/the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian/9780316219303/

Realistic Fiction

Scholarly Review
Gr 7-10–Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a Spokane Indian, is a bright, geeky teen who transfers from the reservation school to a rich, white high school. With honesty, humor, and unfailing optimism, he comes to terms with tragic realities and family frailties, and learns who he really is.

School Library Journal. (2007). SLJ’s best books of 2007. Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/2007/12/reviews/best-of/sljs-best-books-of-2007/

My AnalysisThis is the second time I read this book, and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time I read it. I found the main character, Arnold “Junior” Spirit, to be a relatable character because he is so awkward yet genuine. This book has been continually challenged or banned in some places since its publication. The most common reasons behind the challenges are profanity, alcohol, violence, and sexual content. However, compared to many other books on the list, this one is fairly tame. I think the message of the novel outweighs any reasons behind the challenges. This story is funny yet realistic, and readers are drawn to that. It offers a glimpse into another culture and teaches readers that some moments in life are uncomfortable, but you will get through them.

Tags
#ModernNativeAmerican

#multiculturallit

Usage
I would love to use this book as part of Banned Books week because it has been challenged so much. It could also be used in class or as part of a culture study.

Awards
2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature
2008 American Indian Youth Literature Awards. American Indian Library Association Best Young Adult Book
2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Fiction and Poetry
2009 Odyssey Award
2010 California Young Reader Medal, Young Adult Book
NAPPA Book Award
PNBA Book Award

Censorship
In 2013, this novel was banned from the Rockaway Park Middle School in Queens, New York as a result of nine parents’ complaints of the book’s “repeated discussion of masturbation.” The book was required reading before the complaints. School Library Journal was unable to get comments from school faculty, but the story made national news and went viral on social media. Sherman Alexie even tweeted a response to the banning of his novel. The publisher of the novel, Little, Brown and Company, released a statement that they fully supported Alexie and were proud of the novel.

https://www.slj.com/2013/08/censorship/alexies-true-diary-removed-from-nyc-schools-summer-reading-list/

References
Little, Brown and Company. (n.d.) The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian details. Retrieved from https://www.lbyr.com/titles/sherman-alexie/the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian/9780316219303/

School Library Journal. (2013). Alexie’s ‘true diary’ removed from NYC school’s summer reading list. Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/2013/08/censorship/alexies-true-diary-removed-from-nyc-schools-summer-reading-list/

School Library Journal. (2007). SLJ’s best books of 2007. Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/2007/12/reviews/best-of/sljs-best-books-of-2007/

Out of Darkness

By Stephanie Richards March 09, 2018 // No comments

Citation
Perez, A.H. (2015). Out of darkness. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books.

Description

"This is East Texas, and there's lines. Lines you cross, lines you don't cross. That clear?"

New London, Texas. 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as anyone. They know the signs that mark them. They know the people who enforce them. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive.

Ashley Hope Pérez takes the facts of the 1937 New London school explosion—the worst school disaster in American history—as a backdrop for a riveting novel about segregation, love, family, and the forces that destroy people.

Carolrhoda Lab. (n.d.). Out of darkness details. Retrieved from https://www.lernerbooks.com/products/t/16981/9781467742023/out-of-darkness

Historical Fiction

Scholarly Review
Two teens, Mexican American Naomi and African American Wash, fall in love and struggle to keep their relationship secret in racist 1936 east Texas. This novel weaves in the forces that led up to the 1937 New London school explosion, a tragedy rooted in the era's violent abuse against minorities. A poignant, potent, and provocative historical drama steeped in well-researched factual details.

Soltan, R. (2016, Spring). Perez, Ashley Hope: out of darkness. The Horn Book Guide, 27(1), 123. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.uky.edu/apps/doc/A448905211/BRIP?u=uky_main&sid=BRIP&xid=79a59b06

My Analysis
This book was hard to get through at times because throughout the novel the characters faced many hardships such as racism, sexual abuse, death, and poverty. While I did like the story of Wash, Naomi, Beto, and Cari, this was a very hard book to get through, especially the last 50 pages or so. I do think that this is an important book because it gives readers a glimpse into America’s soiled history as well as how those who were not white were treated. This story builds empathy for those affected by racism and abuse. Even though this book is important, I would not recommend this book for readers below high school because of the content. As an adult, it was hard for me to read.

Tags
interracial relationships, romance, historical fiction, race relations, post-Great Depression

Usage
This would be a good book to use in history or as part of a project on culture, the Great Depression, or the south. I would also use it in a book club for students who like historical fiction.

Awards
2016 Michael L. Printz Honor for Excellence
2016 Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award (Texas State Award)
2016 Américas Book Award

Censorship
I see references to this book being part of Banned Books Week in schools and libraries, but I cannot find specific challenges or articles.

References
Carolrhoda Lab. (n.d.). Out of darkness details. Retrieved from https://www.lernerbooks.com/products/t/16981/9781467742023/out-of-darkness

Soltan, R. (2016, Spring). Perez, Ashley Hope: out of darkness. The Horn Book Guide, 27(1), 123. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.uky.edu/apps/doc/A448905211/BRIP?u=uky_main&sid=BRIP&xid=79a59b06

Salt to the Sea

By Stephanie Richards March 06, 2018 // No comments

Citation
Sepetys, R. (2016). Salt to the sea. New York, NY: Philomel Books.

Description
For readers of Between Shades of Gray and All the Light We Cannot See, Ruta Sepetys returns to WWII in this epic novel that shines a light on one of the war’s most devastating—yet unknown—tragedies.

World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, many with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer to safety.

Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people—adults and children alike—aboard must fight for the same thing: survival.

Told in alternating points of view and perfect for fans of Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning All the Light We Cannot See, Erik Larson’s Dead Wake, and Elizabeth Wein’s Printz Honor Book Code Name Verity, this masterful work of historical fiction is inspired by the real-life tragedy that was the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff—the greatest maritime disaster in history. As she did in Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys unearths a shockingly little-known casualty of a gruesome war, and proves that humanity and love can prevail, even in the darkest of hours.

Historical Fiction

Scholarly Review
The stories of four young adults converge in this illumination of a little-known WWII tragedy. As Russian soldiers push Nazi forces back, Eastern European refugees flee toward the hope of evacuation by sea on the Wilhelm Gustloff, a vessel destined to sink. This elegiac tale succeeds with impressive research, affecting characters, and keen insights into humans' counterposed tendencies toward evil and nobility.

[The Horn Book Guide, 2016]

My Analysis
I really enjoyed this novel. It focuses on refugees during World War II. Most of the novel is about their excruciating journey to the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that was taking refugees to Kiel, Germany. The climax of the novel is when the ship gets hit by three Russian torpedoes, and ultimately the ship sinks, killing 9,000 people in the process. While the novel doesn’t describe too many gory scenes, but it does allude to rape, violence, and the gruesomeness of war, so this book is probably best suited to readers thirteen and older.

TagsWorld War II, historical fiction, maritime disaster, YA tragedy, refugees

Usage
This would be a good book to use as part of a history unit for World War II (or in English in conjunction with the history class) or as part of a project about maritime disasters. The librarian would be a good resource for teaching students about information retrieval and information literacy.

Awards
2017 Carnegie Medal

Censorship
No incidents found.

References
Gross, C. E. (2016, Fall). Sepetys, Ruta: salt to the sea. The Horn Book Guide, 27(2), 140. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.uky.edu/apps/doc/A467260792/BRIP?u=uky_main&sid=BRIP&xid=ab1e46d5

Penguin Random House. (n.d.). Salt to the sea details. Retrieved from https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/311729/salt-to-the-sea-by-ruta-sepetys/9780142423622/

March. Book One.

By Stephanie Richards March 01, 2018 // No comments

Citation

Aydin, A. & Lewis, J. (2013). March. book one. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf Productions

Description

Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper’s farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president.

Now, to share his remarkable story with new generations, Lewis presents March, a graphic novel trilogy, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell (winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize finalist for Swallow Me Whole).

March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.

Book One spans John Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall.

Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1950s comic book "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story." Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations.

Historical Fiction

Scholarly Review

YA Illustrated by Nate Powell. Congressman John Lewis--the last surviving member of the "Big Six" civil rights leaders--recounts his formative years in this first volume of a planned trilogy. The book opens on "Bloody Sunday" then fast-forwards to Barack Obama's January 2009 inauguration. The volume is well designed and the story expertly paced. Powell re-creates the time period vividly through his emotion-filled black-and-white art.

[The Horn Book Guide, 2014]

My Analysis

I loved this graphic novel. The story was engaging from the starte, and went back and forth through the point of view of Representative John Lewis between the 1950s/60s and Barack Obama’s 2009 presidential inauguration. The graphic novel is the first in a trilogy. March. Book One depicts John Lewis’s early life and explores how he became part of the civil rights movement. He is the only living speaker from the March on Washington. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell did a stunning job of depicting the emotion of the time as well as the events leading up to the March on Washington.

Beneath a Meth Moon

By Stephanie Richards February 26, 2018 // No comments

Citation

Woodson, J. (2012). Beneath a meth moon. New York, NY: Nancy Paulsen Books.

Description

Laurel Daneau has moved on to a new life, in a new town, but inside she’s still reeling from the loss of her beloved mother and grandmother after Hurricane Katrina washed away their home. Laurel’s new life is going well, with a new best friend, a place on the cheerleading squad and T-Boom, co-captain of the basketball team, for a boyfriend. Yet Laurel is haunted by voices and memories from her past.

When T-Boom introduces Laurel to meth, she immediately falls under its spell, loving the way it erases, even if only briefly, her past. But as she becomes alienated from her friends and family, she becomes a shell of her former self, and longs to be whole again. With help from an artist named Moses and her friend Kaylee, she’s able to begin to rewrite her story and start to move on from her addiction.

Incorporating Laurel’s bittersweet memories of life before and during the hurricane, this is a stunning novel by one of our finest writers. Jacqueline Woodson’s haunting – but ultimately hopeful – story is beautifully told and one readers will not want to miss.

Realistic Fiction

Scholarly Review

Two years after Hurricane Katrina takes Laurel's mother and grandmother, she, her father, and brother move to Iowa, where she finds new friends and a boyfriend - and meth. Laurel's descent into addiction is brutally honest and narrated in her lilting, Southern cadence. Linking the large scale tragedies of Katrina and drug addiction, the novel tells an intimate and compelling story of survival.

[The Horn Book Guide Review, 2012]

My Analysis

This book is told from Laurel Daneau’s perspective as she becomes addicted to the “moon” (meth). The book is only 182 pages with larger print, so it was a fast read. I enjoyed the story of Laurel’s journey from addiction to sobriety with flashbacks to the story of how her mother and grandmother died in Hurricane Katrina. However, I felt like there was hardly any character development and that the book could have been longer. Because of this, the book didn’t hook me in like I thought it would based on Jacqueline Woodson’s reputation. I would have loved to read more about her relationships and to have seen more of her struggle.

The Perks of Being A Wallflower

By Stephanie Richards February 26, 2018 // No comments

Citation

Chbosky, S. (1999). The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York, NY: Pocket Books.

Description

Read the cult-favorite coming of age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory. Now a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a funny, touching, and haunting modern classic.

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

A #1 New York Times best seller for more than a year, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults (2000) and Best Book for Reluctant Readers (2000), and with millions of copies in print, this novel for teen readers (or “wallflowers” of more-advanced age) will make you laugh, cry, and perhaps feel nostalgic for those moments when you, too, tiptoed onto the dance floor of life.

Coming of Age Fiction, Epistolary Fiction

Scholarly Review

Gr 9 Up --An epistolary narrative cleverly places readers in the role of recipients of Charlie's unfolding story of his freshman year in high school. From the beginning, Charlie's identity as an outsider that his class has gone through a summer of change, the boy finds that he has drifted away from old friends. He finds a new and satisfying social set, however, made up of several high school seniors, bright bohemians with ego-bruising insights and, really, hearts of gold. These new friends make more sense to Charlie than his star football-playing older brother ever did and they are able to teach him about the realities of life that his older sister doesn't have the time to share with him. Grounded in a specific time (the 1991/92 academic year) and place (western Pennsylvania), Charlie, his friends, and family are palpably real. His grandfather is an embarrassing bigot; his new best friend is gay; his sister must resolve her pregnancy without her boyfriend's support. Charlie develops from an observant wallflower into his own man of action, and, with the help of a therapist, he begins to face the sexual abuse he had experienced as a child. This report on his life will engage teen readers for years to come.

[School Library Journal, 1999]

My Analysis

Stephen Chbosky's novel is told through Charlie’s perspective as told through letters to an unnamed friend. He becomes friends with seniors Patrick and Sam, and, through that friendship, learns about and explores issues of first love, sex and masturbation, pregnancy and abortion, homosexuality, drugs, and sexual abuse. The way Chbosky writes is subtle and stunning because he inputs short scenes that make you feel to your core and leave you heartbroken. I can see why this novel has had so much popularity and success because, even though it can be hard to read in places, it is very realistic and portrays experiences that readers can relate to. Yes, it can be “explicit” in places, but for a lot of teenagers, this is a reality. The writing is honest, and readers will gain empathy for the characters. Charlie survived his experiences and grew into himself, becoming a better person. Sometimes the point isn’t the destination, but the journey.

Eleanor & Park

By Stephanie Richards February 23, 2018 // No comments

Citation

Rowell, R. (2013). Eleanor and Park. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Description

Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.

So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.

I'm not kidding, he says.

You should be, she says, we're 16.

What about Romeo and Juliet?

Shallow, confused, then dead.

I love you, Park says.

Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.

I'm not kidding, he says.

You should be.

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits-smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you'll remember your own first love-and just how hard it pulled you under.

YA Romance

Scholarly Review

Right from the start of this tender debut, readers can almost hear the clock winding down on Eleanor and Park. After a less than auspicious start, the pair quietly builds a relationship while riding the bus to school every day, wordlessly sharing comics and eventually music on the commute. Their worlds couldn’t be more different. Park’s family is idyllic: his Vietnam vet father and Korean immigrant mother are genuinely loving. Meanwhile, Eleanor and her younger siblings live in poverty under the constant threat of Richie, their abusive and controlling stepfather, while their mother inexplicably caters to his whims. The couple’s personal battles are also dark mirror images. Park struggles with the realities of falling for the school outcast; in one of the more subtle explorations of race and “the other” in recent YA fiction, he clashes with his father over the definition of manhood. Eleanor’s fight is much more external, learning to trust her feelings about Park and navigating the sexual threat in Richie’s watchful gaze. In rapidly alternating narrative voices, Eleanor and Park try to express their all-consuming love. “You make me feel like a cannibal,” Eleanor says. The pure, fear-laced, yet steadily maturing relationship they develop is urgent, moving, and, of course, heartbreaking, too.

[The Booklist Review, 2013]

My Analysis

Eleanor and Park begin their friendship with a rocky start. However, they start sharing comics and music on the bus rides to and from school. Their friendship slowly builds into a relationship. To quote The Fault in Our Stars, “slowly, and then all at once.” Park has the ideal family with loving parents and a happy home life. Eleanor, on the other hand, constantly has to avoid her abusive stepfather and lives in poverty. The novel is told through both Park’s and Eleanor’s points of view, and through the writing, the reader can feel their intense love for each other. This is a sweet love story, reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet.

I can see how this novel might be too mature for younger students, but I think that it is appropriate for high school. There are a few make out scenes, curse words, mild descriptions of abuse, and explicit writing in Eleanor’s textbook. I wouldn’t include this in a middle school library, but I would include it in a high school library or the young adult section in a public library.

Tags

abuse, romance, high school, first love

Usage

I think this would be a good book to use for a comparative book study. Most freshman are required to read Romeo and Juliet for their English classes, and Eleanor & Park contains similar themes and ideas. It would be interesting to teach both novels and do compare and contrast analyses or projects on them.

Awards

2014 Michael L. Printz Honor Book for Excellence in Young Adult Literature

Censorship

The novel was challenged in Anoka High School in Minnesota because of the graphic language used in the novel, with one parent claiming that it was the most “obscene and profane work we have ever read in our lives.” The parents who challenged the novel sited 227 uses of profanity, which included 60 uses of the ‘F’ word.

The challenge was denied, and the principal of the school issued this statement: “We did acknowledge some of the language is rough, but it fits the situation and the characters. I deal with this stuff every day working in the school with students. Did I think the language was rough? Yes. There is some tough stuff in there, but a lot of the stuff our kids are dealing with is tough.”

http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=9248 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

References

Jones, C. (2013). Eleanor & park. The Booklist, 109(9), 98. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.uky.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.uky.edu/docview/1271619172?accountid=11836 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Macmillan. (n.d.). Eleanor and park details. Retrieved from https://us.macmillan.com/eleanorpark/rainbowrowell/9781250127082/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Pekoll, K. (2017). Spotlight on censorship: ‘Eleanor and Park’. Retrieved from http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=9248 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.