Art Lives!

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older 

New York, NY : Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., c2015.    

297 p. ; 20 cm. 

I had been wanting to read this book for quite a while. I was going to read it during Hispanic Heritage Month, but a students checked out the copies we had (which is great!). So when they came back in I checked it out to myself and read it.

Shadowshaper is the debut novel writers dream of - it was a "Top Ten" on ALA and YALSA lists, a "Best Book of the Year" at NPR and Publishers Weekly, and received stellar reviews, etc. The praise was not undeserved. It's a wonderfully creative novel - undergirded by concerns of ethnic heritage, sexism, gentrification, cultural appropriation - that manages to be a supernatural thriller, urban fantasy, and coming of age story all at once.

At the heart of the story is Sierra a Puerto Rican teen artist/muralist living in Brooklyn. As the story unfolds she learns that her powers are not just artistic, but connected to an age old spiritual power that allows her to bring spirits into her works of art - literally bringing them to life.  This of course would be a ho-hum story without an evil force that seeks to destroy shadowshapers like Sierra so as to gather all that power into himself.  It is a life-and-death danger and Sierra must confront it head on with the help of a another shadowshaping artist - Robbie - and her friends and brother.  The battle between the forces of Sierra and her allies and their nemesis provides the action of the novel.

For some this action will be what draws and holds them in the story.  For me this was the weakest part of the novel. The climactic battle scenes feel like they owe too much action movie staging. I found the most moving parts of the novel were the beginnings of Sierra's understanding of her powers and the descriptions of the art works coming to life, and her meeting with her grandmother's spirit.  But that's me, and I recognize that the gruesome creatures and the bone-crunching fights will be what keeps many readers going right to the satisfying end.

This Will Be Your Final Notice

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

New York, NY : Harper Teen, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]

373 p. ; 22 cm.

Adam Silvera has a brilliant set up for his novel. The time is the near future, but in his future, people receive a cell phone notice shortly after midnight on the day they are going to die.  The notifications are handled by a company, Death Cast, and "Deckers" - recipients of the call - are given no details about how, or how many hours they have left, but only that they will die on that day (and there is no recourse or escaping one's fate).  In this world - set in New York City - Deckers can use an app called Last Friend so they don't have to spend their last day alive alone or utterly lonely.  

So what happens if the Deckers are young, say seventeen or eighteen years old? That's what this novel is all about.  Two young men - one orphaned and troubled, and one with only one parent who is very ill and in a coma - connect on the Last Friend app and push each other to live their last day to the fullest and to really embrace the person they are.  They develop a deep attachment in the short time they have and compliment each other well.  It's a well developed novel and holds up well.

Often I'll find a novel that has a great premise (like this one does) but the author just can sustain it throughout or doesn't finish it in a way that is satisfying.  Silvera delivers on both these counts, and manages to deliver a really poignant and thought-provoking read in the process.  I really appreciated it. 

For me the weakest part of the novel was the opening act of physical violence committed by one of the main characters.  I think it was meant to convey his troubled and angry recent life, but it was jarring for me and left me alienated from the main character.  There are continuing issues that come up with him and his victim that also detracted from the overall read (for me).  In spite of this (and some readers may actually like this aspect of the book) I found the book a solid read. It has great pacing, character development and emotional power.  I would definitely recommend it to a young adult reader.  

Who's Messed Up?

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2018.

372 p. ; 22 cm.      

I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy this book when I first started it.  It has that YA "thing" of a main character who is so witty and facile with banter and snark that he makes Holden Caulfield look like Greg Brady after a nap. But the book got some favorable reviews and even won a prize from YALSA - the prestigious Morris Award (2020) for debut YA novel. 

Funny thing about this book, though, is that it has a way of growing on you.  The whole set-up of a Haitian-Canadian teen moving to Austin, TX for his junior year of high school has a lot of potential.  As Canada (the nickname Austonians gift Norris with) adjusts to the hellish heat and big strangeness of Texas, USA he starts to pick up some friends, a job, and even a smart, artsy girlfriend.  The relationships really make this novel work.  And some striking twists and turns in friendship and romance help Norris to see that maybe his condescension says something about his own jerkishness, not just everyone else's.  I also like how issues of diversity, multiculturalism, and racism are woven naturally into the story and handles with a light, but substantive touch. 

I couldn't help but like this book, it's clever, funny, and a bit overdone at times, but ultimately it has a lot of heart.  I'd definitely recommend it to a student.

Touching on Family

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

New York, NY : HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]

374 p. ; 22 cm.

At first glance, it might seem surprising that Far From the Tree won the 2017 National Book Award.  In some ways it seems like a typical teen "problem novel" - one about three teens who share the same birth mother, but who have had very different lives since birth, and reconnect in various ways as they try to bond with each other and figure out what family really means.     

But the writing is strong in this novel and - in spite of myself - I found myself tearing up several times throughout the book. The emotional moves in the book are subtly developed and when they reach a climax they are quite convincing.

The novel also draws strength from having both a common thread - the three characters are all children of the same birth mother - and from having really complex dynamics: one of the sisters has just given up a baby of her own, one of the teens has an adoptive family that is experiencing a divorce, and one of the teens never got adopted at all.

Each character grows separately and in interactions with the others as the novel moves through several intense episodes and moves toward a final climax that is surprising and also satisfying.

If you have a student looking for a compelling read about family relationships, this novel is highly recommended.

Open Heart

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2017].
445 p. ; 22 cm.

Yes, it's kind of a long book (logging in at over 400 pages) but it reads pretty easily and it really is a lovely book to read.  A cursory description of the book (teen with dead mother has loving gay adoptive father, smart snarky female friend who loses her mother, and homeless friend who loses his mother, all set in a Mexican American family setting in El Paso) might make it seem like a parody of the YA realistic problem novel, but it is a lot more than that.

The novel is definitely a bildungsroman centering on Sal, the boy whose mother died when he was three and who left him in the care of her wonderful gay friend, the painter Vincente who raises him.  Sal has to deal with changes in him that happen during his senior year.  Who "really" is he?  What is this new anger that causes him to punch out a couple of bigots and homophobes? How will he cope with the loss of his beloved aunt Mima who is old and dying.  And what about his friend Sam - who is very smart and ambitious, but only dates crummy "bad" boys? And theirs Fito, too, Sal's friend who lives with an addict mother - is studious and saving up for college - and ends up homeless?  Yes, it's a lot and yet, Sáenz manages to spin out his novel as if he's just telling you the true story of his own life. 

There is so much heart in this novel.  Several passages really did get me teary, especially the depth of friendship between the teens and the depth of parental love from Sal's father.  As a Kirkus review states, this book is another "stellar, gentle look into the emotional lives of teens on the cusp of adulthood."

In this year of bigotry, racism, presidential vulgarity, and government-inspired hatred of immigrants, reading this novel felt like a spa-vacation for my heart and a retreat for my mind.

Yes, I would recommend it!

Gruesome Transformations

Nightstruck by Jenna Black
New York : Tor Teen, a Tom Doherty associates book, 2016.
302 p. ; 22 cm.

This was an exciting, creative, and very readable paranormal, horror novel. The hero of this tale, Becket, unwittingly becomes the bridge to a portal to evil forces, allowing them to enter the regular world and wreak havoc in Philadelphia.  At sunset inanimate objects come to life inflicting injury and death on anyone caught outside. People are safe from these terrifying "constructs" as long as they are indoors, but some of the people caught outside become Nightstrucks - accomplices to the forces violence and mayhem taking over the city at night - and they can enter homes and do violence.

The novel builds in horror and suspense as it goes on, claiming surprising victims and pitting the hero of the novel against her best friend who has become one of the Nightstruck.  The hero also gets to find romance in this terrible time, so all is not bad...

However, the novel has a few problems, that remain unanswered.  The above mentioned best friend is unlikable before her transformation, and absolutely horrid afterward - and yet the hero of the novel just can't seem to fully reject her.  Also one has to wonder why the supernatural horror is limited to the boundaries of Philadelphia?

Problems aside, the novel is exciting and keeps one's attention.  Its ending is pretty surprising and clearly invites a sequel.  The reviews of the sequel are not very good, and I started it and had to agree that the first few pages were pretty bad.  Maybe the author should have let it end at one installment, but my guess is that she was under pressure to drag it out into at least a trilogy and maybe more, which is too bad.

     

Still Strong

Speak: the graphic novel by Laurie Halse Anderson (artwork by Emily Carroll)
New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 2018.
371 p. : chiefly ill. ; 22 cm. 

I am very pleased that a graphic novel adaptation of Anderson's groundbreaking YA novel, Speak, is now out.  It's hard to believe that it has been almost 20 years since Speak came out.  It is a powerful story of a freshman girl who is shamed and shunned for calling the police during a summer party. Melinda, the hero of the novel, also silences herself until she is finally able to speak her truth - she called the police because she was raped by a popular senior boy.

In the powerful introduction to this graphic novel, Anderson states that she first wrote Speak to "deal with the depression and anxiety that had shadowed me since I was raped when I was thirteen years old." She also notes that graphic novels were not the popular and available format for literature that they are now and that most of the social media now so prevalent did not exist back then.  That made her story perfect for updating.

Sadly, her story's as necessary as ever.  Even as I write this, the President of the US (admitted sexual predator ) has just mocked a rape survivor .

Speak has remained a novel that still circulates widely, and hopefully this graphic novel will expand the number of people who read it.

Almost Out of the Cage

A List of Cages by Robin Roe
Los Angeles : Hyperion, 2017.
310 p. ; 21 cm.

There are a lot of good things to say about A List of Cages.  It tells a good story - a likeable kid, Adam, who reconnects with, and befriends, a younger marginalized kid (Julian, who was briefly his foster brother) and eventually helps save him from the terrible cruelties of an uncle who adopted him. 

Roe unravels the story in chapters alternately told from one of the two main characters perspectives. 

What I liked about the book are its portrayals of the difficult world of high school - especially for a student struggling with social and academic challenges.  It does this without the cardboard villains of bullies and horrid teachers that often people such novels.  Instead several characters are a times unlikeable, while not being terrible people.  I also like that even Adam, the hero of the novel, struggles with his own behavioral issues and emotional ups and downs. 

I also like that this novel deals with some pretty outrageous and terrible child abuse, but feels way less heartfelt than the supposedly true Child Called It books.  Ultimately though, the severity of the abuse is, I think, its undoing.  The novel ends with a far too rapid, and too rosy resolution of the plot.  Despite this, I still would suggest it to a student since its overall arc is one of compassion, love and the healing power of kindness and friendship.

Reasons to Read Not to Watch

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
New York : Razorbill, c2007.
288 p. ; 22 cm.   

As you can see, Thirteen Reasons Why was published back in 2007, so why am I getting around to reading it ten years later?  In one word: Netflix.  Back in March, Netflix launched a thirteen episode series based on the novel, and the series has proven hugely popular and controversial - more so than the book.

So I ended up both watching the series and reading the book.  I was an interesting experience.  It really makes you think about what works in reading - and conversely what doesn't work when filmed. The book is not perfect, but it is strong and it's brevity saves it from becoming voyeuristic, lurid and exploitative - which I believe the Netflix version unfortunately is (in addition to being irresponsible and just plain icky).

But what about the book?  I liked the book well enough.  The book is clearly a work of fiction - and as such functions more like a mystery, tragedy and psychological ordeal instead of a supposedly accurate depiction of bullying and suicide.  Also it's brevity allows it to move along and not drag out scenes for dramatic effect.

I'm guessing many, many more people are going to watch the series.  I just hope that especially young people will watch it with supportive friends and adults.  Despite its shortcomings, the series does invite discussion of extremely important topics such as bullying, date rate, sexism, and of course, suicide.  The popularity of the series has also led to an increased demand for the book, and so I'm glad I had a chance to read it.

Transformative

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
New York : Flatiron Books, 2016.
280 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm glad I read Russo's book about a transgender teen girl who has moved to live with her father and attend a new high school after bullying and brutal assault at her previous hometown and school.

I think what I loved most is that the book manages to be basically a sweet tale of friendship and romance - while threading that narrow ground of avoiding being either a tale of brutality and violence or a naive upbeat "everything will be okay" fable.  As the review from Kirkus notes, it is "a sweet, believable romance that stokes the fires of hope without devolving into saccharine perfection or horrific tragedy."

It's a great book for trans teens, adults and cisgender folks like me! 

I also really liked that the author, a trans woman, has an afterword, especially meant for cis readers, where she explains ways in which her story reflects only one version of reality (and a creatively fictionalize one at that), and should not be taken as plain truth guide to what life is like for trans teens.  She also includes several hotline resources for readers who may be contemplating suicide.

Two Squared

Girls Like Us by Gail Giles
Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2015.
210 p. ; 20 cm.

This was a daring book for Gail Giles to write and a rewarding book to read.  In a helpful interview with School Library Journal, Giles says, "I was told by a publisher that I would be 'flayed' if I attempted this. I think trying to get into a mental impairment that you do not have is tricky."

When I first started reading the book, I wasn't sure she was going to pull it off successfully - one character, Quincy, is - as she puts it - "mixed race" and the other, Biddy, has an intellectual disability.  Each chapter is written in the voice of either Quincy or Biddy and features their particular slang and grammatical errors.  But as the novel goes on - and the smarts, courage and strengths of each of the girls is revealed - the dialect begins to feel both natural and respectful.

There is a lot that is touched on in this short, gritty and uplifting novel - prejudice, rape, friendship, race, bullying, sexual abuse, pregnancy, work, and becoming independent.  In spite of this there is a calm and lovely pace to the book and it doesn't usually feel forced.

I'm pleased to see that the book has been well reviewed, was long-listed for the National Book Award, and won the Schneider Family Book Award in 2015.  A teacher here at the UHS recommended the book to me and I'll definitely recommend it to students.


     

King Ick

King Dork by Frank Portman
New York : Delacorte Press, c2006.
344 p. ; 22 cm.

Some books work for me and some don't.  This one just didn't, which surprised me since it received a lot of very positive reviews.

As someone who has been working in public schools for over a decade, I found what Booklist calls "a humorous, scathing indictment of the current public education system" to be instead a cynical, crass and deeply dishonest portrayal of public school life.  The high school of Dorkworld is a vicious place where faculty gladly and frequently bully students, where bullying by students is completely accepted and condoned, and where the academics are non-existent.  That would all be ok, if the intention of hte book was to create a exaggerated parody of public high schools.  Additionally, the teachers in Dorkworld are a bunch of imbeciles, bullies, fools, and/or pornographic criminals - and the academic world they preside over is one where even the AP classes offer little more than inane fluff.

Finally, the main "hero" of Dorkworld is supposedly an unappealing outsider subject to bullying, ridicule and insults - but as the novel ends it becomes apparent that he's really as crass as any of the pathological normals that he hates, considers himself better than everyone else, and somehow ends up as the sensual boy-toy of two rather attractive girls.

The writing is pretty good.  Dialogue is well done.  But for me this book just lacks heart.

Homage to Gatsby

Even In Paradise by Chelsey Philpot
New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2014]
360 p. ; 22 cm.

This debut novel received a lot of praise and I think it is well deserved.  So often I'll read a young adult novel where the characters are on witty overdrive, or hyped-up cynicism - but not Chelsey Philpot's Paradise. The Booklist reviewer notes that there is "nothing...we haven't seen before" - and notes that Philpot knows this too, and so offers a graceful pleasure of a read as she probes the intensities of love - in friendship, in family, and in romance.

The novel revels in the private boarding school setting, the old-money wealthy setting of the Buchanan's vacation estate on Nantucket.  She also conveys the way that this wealth and Buchanan's sense of having an elite place in the world wows the narrator who - from a working class family - is attending the boarding school and becomes a part of the Buchanan "family" due to fortunate happenstance.

I was pleased that Philpot did not over use the upper class - lower class differences to create false drama, but instead leaves it to the main character to figure out what can work, and what can not as she finds herself more and more involved and more and more in love with the "great Buchanans."

I'd definitely recommend this to a student who likes well written relationship novels.

Slow Start, Awesome Finish

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth
New York, NY : Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013.
359 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. 

When friend and scholar (and author of the invaluable American Indians in Children's Literature [AICL] blog, Debbie Reese, told me at the end of the summer that I should read this YA novel by Eric Gansworth, I made a note to myself to do that.  Well, a lot has happened since the end of the summer and I have finally gotten around to reading If I Ever Get Out of Here, and I'm glad I did.  It's a great little treasure of a book about friendship, being poor, fitting in / not fitting in, bullying, racism, family ties, and the wonderful (and not so wonderful) moments of coming of age in junior high.

I have to confess that beginning the novel, I was a bit suspicious that this was going to be simply a rehash of Sherman Alexie's wonderful The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.  There are some striking echoes of that book in the beginning - a dorky (smart, scrawny, funny, likable) Indian kid who is in a school program of nearly all white kids and has to deal with the prejudices at school and the resentments and hassles from friends and family on the reservation. Fortunately the similarities are only that and Gansworth's novel stands on its own charms and strengths. 

I also have to say that the novel started out a bit slow for me, but shortly after the midpoint of the book, I was hooked and had a hard time putting it down. The coming together of several plot lines and dramatic events really makes the last third of the novel a wonderful read.

I can't say enough good things to convey the quality of this book.  The heart of the novel is the friendship between two middle school boys - Lewis, a Tuscarora Indian, and George, son of an Air Force Dad whose family lives on a base and is always threatened with having to up and move.  The boys first bond over their love of music - especially the Beatles and Paul McCartney (and so the picture at the top of this post), but soon learn how hard it is to really be truthful and steady in friendship.  I love that Gansworth manages to weave together several (many!) important strands with passion, grace, humor, intelligence and - dare I say - love.  Seriously, we have a book of two boys in junior high becoming friends in the deepest sense, of the frictions between minority and majority culture, of the love of making and listening to popular music, of military life, of the complicated good and bad bonds of family life, of bullies and their accomplices, or life in the 70s...wow! Additionally the book includes a playlist of all the songs touched on in the book - and you can access this playlist on the author's website.

Sometimes I read a YA book and it has such promise and then falters with what feels like gimmicks meant to make it more appealing to a teen audience.  I really didn't experience that in this fine novel.  I will definitely recommend this to any student who has enjoyed Diary of a Part-time Indian (it's in our school's curriculum) and will be sure it gets on the radar of teachers looking for another author who can lay down a good story, shine a light on what it's like to grow up Indian in the US, and keep it real.   

Dessen Does Not Disappoint

Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen
New York : Viking, 1998.
281 p. ; 22 cm.

Novels by Sarah Dessen are popular at UHS Library and I've been meaning to read one of her novels for a long time. After finishing The Handmaid's Tale for our book club, I decided to pull Someone Like You off the shelf and take it home to read.

The novel focuses on two senior high school friends, Scarlett and Halley who are neighbors and best friends. Early in the novel Scarlett is pregnant and Halley is changing from her parents' "good girl" into a young woman interested in serious dating, and breaking rules. Halley's coming of age is complicated by having a mother who's professional life is being a writer/expert on raising adolescents. It sounds all rather boilerplate and boring, but...

Dessen has an extraordinary ear for dialogue and for subtlety that escapes many less capable YA authors. Her strength is very rich character development that avoids stock characters and stereotypes. Additionally her plotting is interesting and moves along briskly; I found the book hard to put down. Probably the most refreshing aspect of this book was the way in which almost all the characters in the book are sympathetic, but imperfect. Reading it, I found my sympathies shifting between characters as they developed and confronted situations that showed their deeper qualities...

I would definitely recommend Sarah Dessen to anyone interested in the "problem novel" who wants a well written, complex, character-driven but enjoyable story.