March 6th, 2018
Module 7: Realistic Fiction
Title: Eleanor & Park
Eleanor & Park is the story of two “outcast” teenagers living in Omaha, Nebraska during the 1980’s. Eleanor has wild, curly red hair and wears bizarre looking clothes. Park is half Korean and half white and is into alternative music. Elanor's home life is one she is tyring to escape: she lives with her younger siblings, mother and stepfather. Her stepfather, Richie is often verbally and physically abusive to Eleanor, Eleanor’s mother and siblings. Park comes from the traditional family of four: a brother and two supportive parents. When these two characters first meet, there is anything but a "love connection". As they begin their adventure on a path to some kind of odd, yet tender, love connection, the reader will learn that judging a book by it's cover is not always the best bet and you never know what you may miss out on without looking inside the book.
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Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Porter
Title: Eleanor & Park
Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Romance
Book Summary:
Eleanor & Park is the story of two “outcast” teenagers living in Omaha, Nebraska during the 1980’s. Eleanor has wild, curly red hair and wears bizarre looking clothes. Park is half Korean and half white and is into alternative music. Elanor's home life is one she is tyring to escape: she lives with her younger siblings, mother and stepfather. Her stepfather, Richie is often verbally and physically abusive to Eleanor, Eleanor’s mother and siblings. Park comes from the traditional family of four: a brother and two supportive parents. When these two characters first meet, there is anything but a "love connection". As they begin their adventure on a path to some kind of odd, yet tender, love connection, the reader will learn that judging a book by it's cover is not always the best bet and you never know what you may miss out on without looking inside the book.
APA Reference of Book:
Rowell, R. (2016). Eleanor & Park. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.
Impression: I absolutely loved this book. I was able to connect with the two protagonistsdue to the fact that I was a kid during that time period and can remember what it felt like to try and fit in. The author hit it right on the head, showing the reader what it was like to be a teen, filled with the teen angst of an 80s teen -- fitting in, finding your place, building your self-esteem while feeling like a complete outcast, dealing with bullies. Ms. Rowell did not play anything down. I would love to read a sequel to this book, to see what happens to these two characters and if their love connection continues into the future.
Professional Review:
Awkward, prickly teens find deep first love in 1980s Omaha.
Eleanor and Park don’t meet cute; they meet vexed on the school bus, trapped into sitting together by a dearth of seats and their low social status. Park, the only half-Korean fan of punk and New Wave at their high school, is by no means popular, but he benefits from his family’s deep roots in their lower-middle-class neighborhood. Meanwhile, Eleanor’s wildly curly red mane and plus-sized frame would make her stand out even if she weren’t a new student, having just returned to her family after a year of couch-surfing following being thrown out by her odious drunkard of a stepfather, Richie. Although both teens want only to fade into the background, both stand out physically and sartorially, arming themselves with band T-shirts (Park) and menswear from thrift stores (Eleanor). Despite Eleanor’s resolve not to grow attached to anything, and despite their shared hatred for clichés, they fall, by degrees, in love. Through Eleanor and Park’s alternating voices, readers glimpse the swoon-inducing, often hilarious aspects of first love, as well as the contrast between Eleanor’s survival of grim, abuse-plagued poverty and Park’s own imperfect but loving family life.
Funny, hopeful, foulmouthed, sexy and tear-jerking, this winning romance will captivate teen and adult readers alike. (Fiction. 14 & up)
Eleanor and Park [Review of book Eleanor and Park]. (2012, December 15). Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved March 5, 2018, from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rainbow-rowell/eleanor-park/
Eleanor and Park don’t meet cute; they meet vexed on the school bus, trapped into sitting together by a dearth of seats and their low social status. Park, the only half-Korean fan of punk and New Wave at their high school, is by no means popular, but he benefits from his family’s deep roots in their lower-middle-class neighborhood. Meanwhile, Eleanor’s wildly curly red mane and plus-sized frame would make her stand out even if she weren’t a new student, having just returned to her family after a year of couch-surfing following being thrown out by her odious drunkard of a stepfather, Richie. Although both teens want only to fade into the background, both stand out physically and sartorially, arming themselves with band T-shirts (Park) and menswear from thrift stores (Eleanor). Despite Eleanor’s resolve not to grow attached to anything, and despite their shared hatred for clichés, they fall, by degrees, in love. Through Eleanor and Park’s alternating voices, readers glimpse the swoon-inducing, often hilarious aspects of first love, as well as the contrast between Eleanor’s survival of grim, abuse-plagued poverty and Park’s own imperfect but loving family life.
Funny, hopeful, foulmouthed, sexy and tear-jerking, this winning romance will captivate teen and adult readers alike. (Fiction. 14 & up)
Eleanor and Park [Review of book Eleanor and Park]. (2012, December 15). Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved March 5, 2018, from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rainbow-rowell/eleanor-park/
Library Use:
A display could be created for Valentine's Day, focusing on relationships, including Eleanor & Park and other books. Another type of display could be over books that focus on kids during the 1980s, a type of flashback display, celebrating the 80s.
A display could be created for Valentine's Day, focusing on relationships, including Eleanor & Park and other books. Another type of display could be over books that focus on kids during the 1980s, a type of flashback display, celebrating the 80s.
Read alikes:
Each of these books would be good readalikes due to the connections the characters make with each other, due to their similiar outcast status, love of music and comics and outlook on life.
Guy in Real Life by Steve Brezenoff
Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Porter
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