The Hunger Games

image source: http://www.amazon.com/The-Hunger-Games-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0439023483

Citation:

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic Press, 2008. Print.

Annotation:

Children age 12-18 years gather in the middle of an old town square. Parents wait anxiously, roped off from them. They all hold their collective breath as an official from the government draws the name of a single boy and girl name. This is not a time you want to win the lottery. Katniss, already rebelling against the power structures, takes the place of her younger sister after her name is drawn.  Peeta, the baker’s son, stands as the boy from his district. They must prepare for the fight of their lives literally.

Nomination Thoughts:

Unless you live under a rock, you may be aware that The Hunger Games book was released as a movie earlier this year. I strongly encourage reading the book even if you saw or plan to see the movie for the biggest reason you can “hear” Katniss thinking. She lives in Panem, a post-revolution America taken over by tyrants bent on maintaining a status quo where only a few live comfortably. The rest of the people live in districts radiating from the new Capital in what was once the central area of America. Due to extreme inequalities, the folks from the outlaying districts produce the goods and services that make the Capital a gleaming wonder while they suffer with starvation and cruelty.

The powers-that-be wield any and all tools they can to maintain control. As part of that goal, every year one boy and one girl age 12-18 years from each of the 12 districts is “offered” up as tribute to fight to the death until only one stands. It is shown on live. It is mandated to watch. And it is brutal. Into this game of life and death, Katniss and Peeta struggle to maintain their humanity as they bond trying to stay alive. Unlike the movie, the book brings Katniss’s inner thoughts into complete view. She works as a complicated character. You can read her as a cold calculating person who has no trust in anyone or anything. That changes as the book progresses. Help for the duo comes from surprising places though their mentor, Haymitch. The supporting characters add to the complex dynamics of the book. It is easy to fall in love with Katniss and Peeta but sad to know for them to live, others must all die. In the end, the game dictates only one winner. Katniss and Peeta team up in a most brilliant way to show the people of Panem cracks in the power structure. All this is possible only once Katniss takes a leap of extreme faith.

Nominate?

Yes! The Hunger Games has crisp dialog and a fast pace. The main characters grow as the book progresses. Salient issues in a YA’s life such as friendship, loyalty, injustice and love are tackled with unflinching honesty. Due to the nature of the book (the whole fight to the death thing!), background information should be given to prepare both the student and parent if the this is to be read in class. There are great conversations and historical context that can be discussed. I recommend this book because of the issues it raises and how it has drawn so many reluctant readers to tear through a book.

Genre:

Challenged or Censored Title, Dystopian

Two Moons in August

image source: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Moons-Martha-Brooks/dp/0747548412

Citation:

Brooks, Martha. Two Moons in August.  Onterio, Canada: Groundwood Books, 2008. Print.

Genre: Romance, Coming of Age

Annotation:

Two August moons mark a horrid month for Sidonie. A year later, her family is still reeling from the events of that month. Just when life seems most intolerable, a new boy moves to town. Maybe things will look up after all.

Nomination Thoughts:

Even though Sidonie’s mother has been sick her whole childhood, her death still comes as a surprise. To make the event more horrible, it was also Sidonie’s 15th birthday. The book’s events are narrated in first person almost one year from the mother’s death. Sidonie’s sister, Roberta, has come home from college to spend the summer at the family’s rural Canadian home. Her father, a doctor, spends all day away from the home. The cat is actually her best and about only friend. Books offer her the only escape from the crushing loneliness and grief.

Then in the middle of all this emotional baggage, a new boy, Kieran moves in across the street. They both have parents who are doctors and their fair share of family tragedies. Even though they got off to the wrong foot, they do form a friendship that keeps teetering to more than that. In 1959, when the story takes place, the best thing to do it hang out at the local lake. It is there they spend most of their time flirting and trying to stay cool... in more ways than one.

There are a number of things that work well in this book. The family dynamics are fascinating and intriguing. Each of them is dealing with the loss of the mother in their own isolating ways. It feels as if acknowledging their grief with each other would shatter them so they ignore it. Yet, it sits squarely in the middle of every conversation, dinner and fight. Sidonie’s flashbacks to her mother’s life and death add just the right amount of tear jerking without becoming sappy. As the story moves, there are watershed moments when finally the family (aunts and all!) come together. The bottled up grief is like a tangled ball of yarn that finally is fixed up to be neat and tidy- the loss remains but the reconnection with family members makes it more bearable.

As Sidonie is working her way through her family’s dysfunction, she does make a friend who becomes her boyfriend. I thought this part of the book was weaker. The love interest’s tension and sparks never seemed to hit the same crescendo of the grief aspect. Kieran and Sidonie do best when Kieran revels why his parents do not live together and how he struggles to not make the same mistakes. Those are the tender moments I wanted to see more. I think so much of the book’s emotional energy was focused on grief, loss and isolation that to truly tackle the budding romance adequately, the book needed to be longer than 160 pages.

The characters, setting and plot do come together in a perfectly fine story. This is another book I find to be more than compelling enough to include on the classroom YA bookshelf but not up to muster for our final Printz Award.

Nomination?

No.

Dovey Coe

 Image source: http://www.amazon.com/Dovey-Coe-F-Dowell/dp/0613554450
 

Citation:

O’Roark Dowell, Frances. Dovey Coe. New York: Athenaeum Books for Young Readers, 2000.

Genre: Mystery

Annotation:

Stuck up rich teen Parnell Caraway had it coming. When 12 year old Dovey Coe wakes up to Parnell’s mom screaming as she discovers Dovey next to her son’s dead body, everyone in town assumes Dovey killed him. But why would a girl so young take such action and was she really the one who did it?

Nomination Thoughts:

Dear Dovey grew on me as I raced through this book. She’s about as scrappy as they come. It took a couple pages to fall into the dialect of the setting, mid 20’s North Carolina. The way the characters speak adds authenticity though. The book would not have the same power without it. Dovey does not take crap from anyone which drives Parnell Caraway a little crazy. He has free reign over the town because his family is the richest in it. Whatever he wants, he gets… except when it comes to the Coe family. Most the other townspeople are poor and beholden to the Caraway family. The Coe family might not be rich but they are self sufficient. According to Dovey “The way I seen things, us Coes had everything we needed in this world” They are happy with their lives. Even her deaf brother gets along ok in life. Her older beautiful sister unfortunately becomes object of Parnell’s lust. Since she is the prettiest girl in town, Parnell thinks she should marry, take care of and have lots of babies for him. She flatly turns him down in favor of following her dream to go to college and become a teacher. Shortly thereafter, Parnell is found dead next to Dovey.

I would recommend this as a possible contender for our Printz Award. As mysteries go, I am sure there are stronger ones out there. What this book has going instead is the depth of the characters. You find yourself believing they could exist. They interact in real ways that reflect a wide range of behavior and expectations based on social economic backgrounds. This holds true right down to a justice system that is heavily weighted against the spunky Dovey as she goes on trial for murder  at the age of 12 years. YA can see people they know in the characters. The plot moves along at a good pace. Did I mention how much I enjoyed Dovey’s voice?! There is much suspense as the crime is picked apart. This book gives a YA audience plenty to chew on- lust denied, inequalities, disability concerns, justice system issues, family dynamics and taking a stand for what you believe in.

Nominate? Yes.

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.