Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow

 

Citation:

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow. New York: Scholastic Nonfiction, 2005. Print.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Annotation:

“I begin with the young. We older ones are used up…But my magnificent youngsters! Look at these men and boys! What material! With them, I can create a new world.” Adolf Hitler. So indeed does Hitler use the youth of his country to forward his vision of the world. Follow12 youth who were really there and see their paths as they live life in evil’s shadow.

Nomination Justification:

Bartoletti spent two years researching this book. The end result is a book that comes alive with authenticity. People often wonder how Hitler could brainwash so many people. A big answer to that question can be found in the Hitler Youth. This was an organization that a many German children belonged. They pledged their very lives to Hitler and his Germany. No longer did they belong to their parents, they were Hitler’s. You can see in this book how innocently they are indoctrinated to believe all Hitler tells. Underneath the fun of almost Boy Scout activities, a steady stream of propaganda is pushed on the Hitler Youth. Children are forming the foundation of their thinking and morality and with the right nudge, some can fall prey to fascism. Hitler Youth even could be trained to turn on their parents. As this book also shows, some refuse to go along with party line and do so at great cost. I believe this highlights one of my tenants in life- we have free-will and choice.

Bartoletti’s writing honestly and as exactly as possible conveys the words and thoughts of her subjects. The reading is almost more brutal because of the straight forward way she writes about the children’s lives. Here is a writer who respects that YA can handle some very ugly truths and grapple with them as they try to make sense of life. I personally don’t find her the most eloquent of writers but her methodical approach backed up with years of research more than make up for any loss of lyrical quality. There is a certain chill reading the book knowing how badly WWII ended and all the lives lost. This book provides many answers for how it could happen. YA will have an easy time following the chronological approach. This helps also to place events in context.  The horror of WWII slowly builds, ratchets up and ends in shear shock over how it all came to be. The pictures provide additional support for YA who may need extra help building the story in their head. There is a timeline of WWII, glossary, explanations of the photographs used in the book and epilogue to complete book. 

This book is engaging, well researched and offers valuable lessons for today... especially considering the convergence of politics, media and advertising in the lives of YA and us all. I’d like to throw this book in the nomination ring.

The Other Wes Moore

Source: http://chautauquabookstore.ciweb.org/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=881

 

Genre

Biography, Autobiography or Memoir

Citation

Moore, Wes. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2010. Print.

Annotation

Two men share the same name and at one time, spent childhood years in the same neighborhood. Neither had a father growing up. Both end up in the newspaper for different reasons- one for becoming a Rhode Scholar and one for murdering a police officer. This coincident propels the author Wes Moore to ask what happened.

Nomination Thoughts

I think this book has the potential to be very thought provoking to a YA audience. The author Wes Moore and the Wes Moore in jail both had barriers in their lives that included grinding poverty, living in drug infested projects, missing fathers, trouble with the law, anger and struggling in school. The author Wes Moore says, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his”. This book is all about why they turned out so different.

The author Wes Moore is not a professional writer and that does show in the eloquence of word flow. Some parts of the book don’t read smoothly. Where he makes up for that lack is in how honest he is in portraying both their lives. The reader is not shielded from the drugs and violence that both experienced. He walks the fine line of nature versus nurture. He does not go all Horatio Alger, and if you just pull harder on your battered boots you can make it. Nor does he claim your family and environment are the end all be all for your destiny. Instead he opens the door to show how they interact. Both of the Wes Moores made critical choices with consequences good and bad. They are smart, young black males who deal with clashing expectations placed on them by culture, family and themselves.

As the author Wes Moore chronicles their lives, YA will have many chances to see how the Wes Moores could have gone either way in terms of jail or Rhode Scholar and imagine the same in their lives. I like how the author is not preachy. He inspires hope and offers paths of redemption for YA who are at critical points in their lives.

This book is a worthy nomination based on how well it speaks to universal issues YA are facing as they grow into adulthood. It respects their ability to ponder worlds other their own and the power to choose the path even as they fight against power structures within society. It's a short quick read perfect for reluctant readers yet deep enough for more advanced readers.

Kissing Doorknobs

Source: http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/056/8/4/84e9e0d200fef4416ab15de35fa8e357-d2o1t2z.jpg

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Citation: Hesser, Terry. Kissing Doorknobs. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1999. print

Annotation:

 

Author Terry Hesser presents the reader with the story of Tara. Since a very age, Tara has worried and more so than most children. Once at age 11 when she hears the rhyme “Step on a crack and break you mother’s back”, her obsessive compulsiveness kicks into high gears. The book follows Tara from that point to 14 years old. Along the way, we witness how family, friends and Tara herself are affected by her worsening condition.

Nomination thoughts:

I do not recommend this otherwise ok book for our final nomination. The book never went for the kill. By that I mean that the author has all the pieces in place for an outstanding book and yet ended up with an average book. The character development of Tara was strong enough and her family struggles with her poignant. The narrative structure was too simplistic to delve fully into the complexity of the family structure though. The dialog throughout the book was somewhat sparse. If there had been more, the reader could have better understood the complexity of Tara and other characters. The book also had too simplistic of sentence structure and flow. Parts had lyrical power but most read choppy. Due to that reason, it might appeal to younger teens or tweens who want a book that deals with a real life issue but has a lower lexile score. I still believe, even with the aforementioned issues, that the book takes an honest enough look at OCD to help teens relate to the issue as someone with it or someone who knows a person with it. The overall quality just does not rise high enough to justify a nomination from me.

A Wreath for Emmett Till

(source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/24/RVGCTC9H0N1.DTL)

Citation: 

Nelson, Marilyn. A Wreath for Emmett Till. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Print.

Annotation:

Marilyn Nelson approaches a historic event in “A Wreath for Emmett Till” by using poetry. Emmitt Till was a Chicagoan young teen visiting family in the heart of the segregated south in 1955. A group of white men beat him to death  for the supposed crime of whistling at a white woman. Nelson weaves that event, his mother’s sorrow and a nation’s shame together in a series of heroic sonnets. This form follows the basic structure of sonnets with the added twist of creating a group of 15 linked sonnets. The last line from the previous poem becomes the first line of the next poem. The final sonnet is the first line of each other preceding sonnets. The poems take on additional depth when they are overlaid vibrant artwork.

Nomination thoughts:

I found this to be a fresh examination of the Emmett Till killing. The beginning of the book offers an explanation of heroic poems and the end goes into more details about word choice, symbolism and art meaning. I would recommend this book as a nomination with a couple caveats. This book needs scaffolding, more so than other texts that may be read in class. The poet has to work within a very specific framework and thus students need to see how the sonnets are linked. This set of poems will keep a mind busy wondering what to make of the figurative language. Once again, the back of the book is critical for understanding the writer’s intent and helping the reader come to their own ideas about the book. Lastly I want to mention the gorgeous art work. I almost got as much emotion from it as with the poems themselves. Together they make a powerful statement about hate, hope and a mother’s grace. This book will take extra work to break down but is worth the effort. 

Please note: I originally bought it on Kindle and can not understate my disappointment in that version. The artwork and text has a totally different appearance on the Kindle- completely disjointed from each other. I actually went out and bought a paper book once I realized how negatively my reading experience was affected by the poor layout.