Module 4: Newbery Winners

February 2, 2018 

Module 4: Newbery Winners

Title: Criss Cross  by Lynn Rae Perkins

Genre: Young Adult/Realistic Fiction/Love & Romance

Book Summary: 

Criss Cross traces the summer experiences and personal growth of a group of friends, taking place during a summer in the 1970s. Debbie has a wish that something, anything, would happen to her, as does her friend Hector. Both Debbie and Hector long for “something” or “some change” to happen to them. Together, along with their friends Patty, Phil, and Lenny, they take walks to town, visit the local Tastee Freez, and sit in Lenny's dad's truck listening to the nightly radio show, "Criss Cross." Hector is inspired to take guitar lessons after hearing a guitarist play at the Coffee House. Debbie begins her own adventures and declares her own independence by moving into the front part of her family’s house. She begins a part-time job, caring for Mrs. Bruning and meets her grandson, Peter, which results in a weeklong, short-lived romance. Lenny discovers his penchant for teaching as he helps his father with home projects and building a roaster, experiments with chewing tobacco, and gives Debbie a lesson driving a stick-shift truck. The teens' personal growth comes to fruition at a neighborhood block party, where each teen realizes the changes in their lives.

APA Reference of Book:  Perkins, L. R., (2005). Criss cross. New York : Greenwillow Book.

Impression

This was a different type of young adult novel, not the typical teen romance. The book takes a serious look at how teenagers view themselves and their perceptions of the world around them. I was surprised that the age range was 10+. There isn't anything gratuitous in the book, however, a ten-year-old may not be able to relate to the struggles a 15-year-old girl may be having with struggling to establish her own independence. It will definitely resonate with teens who are seeking to find their own individuality and figuring out how they fit in.

Professional Review:

Catching fireflies in a jar, fourteen-year-old Debbie (first met in Perkins’s spectacular debut novel All Alone in the Universe, rev. 9/99) watches the bugs’ “glow parts go on and off,” appeasing her guilt over capturing them by convincing herself that “once they were free, their small, basic brains would
. . . have no memory of being imprisoned.”

Perkins’s wonderfully contemplative and relaxed yet captivating second novel, again illustrated with her own perfectly idiosyncratic spot art, is a collection of fleeting images and sensations—some pleasurable, some painful, some a mix of both—from her ensemble cast’s lives. Like All Alone in the Universe, the story is set in a 1970s small town, but teen readers won’t have to be aware of the time period to feel connected to Debbie, Hector, Lenny, and the rest as the third-person narrative floats back and forth between their often humorous, gradually evolving perspectives. The book’s title refers to a radio show that the neighborhood teens listen to on Saturday evenings; on a thematic level, it also refers to those barely perceptible moments of missed communication between a boy and a girl, a parent and a child, when “something might have happened” but didn’t. In keeping with Perkins’s almost Zen-like tone, such flubbed opportunities are viewed as unfortunate but not tragic. “Maybe it was another time that their moments would meet.” Like a lazy summer day, the novel induces that exhilarating feeling that one has all the

time in the world. C.M.H.

Heppermann, C. M. (2005). Criss Cross. Horn Book Magazine, 81(5), 585-586.

Library Use

1. Debbie and Patty are looking through the yearbook as the school year comes to an end. They consider making Haikus about the seniors. The teacher can review the Haiku format and students can write a Haiku about themselves, and create a "Haiku wall" in the library, where they can share their work with others.

2. Debbie's necklace is lost and takes an interesting "trip" throughout the novel. Have students draw a map of the travels of the necklace, making sure to label all the places it was "found".

Read alikes: These books have similar themes of self discovery.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

What Every Girl Knows (Except Me) by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Okay for Now by  Gary D. Schmidt