Module 15: Censorship Issues

May 3, 2018
Module 15: Censorship Issues

Title:

What My Mother Doesn't Know

Genre: Young Adult/Verse Novel

Book Summary:

Sophomore year, the year of friends and boys boys boys. Sophie and her two best friends, Grace and Rachel, are boy crazy. Boys come and go throughout the year. Until her impromptu "stay-cation" during winter break when her two BFFs have left her to fend for herself. She heads to her favorite museum and, is surprised to find school reject, Murphy, (of the "you are such a Murphy!" fame), next to her favorite painting. From that first meeting, Sophie learns that true love comes in all different shapes and sizes. After spending her Christmas break with Murphy, also known as Robin, she realizes that she has to brace herself for her friends' reactions to her dating Robin/Murphy. She has a bit of a freakout and realizes that, despite the stares of her classmates, she wants to stay with him.

APA Reference of Book: 

Sones, S. (2001). What My Mother Doesn’t Know. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

Impression:

I loved this book and the ease of reading free-verse. I have to say I am stunned that this book is on the banned books list for being "sexually explicit". The only things that happen in this book is kissing! This book is a perfect rendition of true teen angst. What 15-year-old girl hasn't liked boy after boy after boy! The way the book was written truly expresses the mind of a young girl. The scene where she enters the cafeteria and is torn between sitting with Rachel and Grace or, incurring the wrath of negative stares by all students and sitting with Robin. "Is everyone/in the entire cafeteria/looking at me?/Or is it just my imagination?/I want to scream/I want to run away./I want to---" (Somes, 2001) Everyone who has EVER sat in a high school cafeteria, at one time or another, has been in the same situation as Sophie. I look forward to reading the next book, What MyGirlfriend Doesn't Know, written from the perspective of Robin/Murphy.

Professional Review:

Gr 6-8 --Astory written in poetry form. Sophie is happily dating Dylan, "until he's practically glued himself to my side." Then she falls for cyberboy ("if I could marry a font/I'd marry his"). Imagine her surprise when he becomes down-right scary. In the satisfying ending, Sophie finds the perfect boyfriend-someone she's known all along. Sones is a bright, perceptive writer who digs deeply into her protagonist's soul. There she reveals the telltale signs of being "boy crazy"; the exciting edginess of cyber romances; the familiar, timeless straggle between teens and parents; and the anguish young people feel when their parents fight. But life goes on, and relationships subtly change. Sones's poems are glimpses through a peep-hole many teens may be peering through for the first time, unaware that others are seeing virtually the same new, scary, unfamiliar things (parents having nuclear meltdowns, meeting a boyfriend's parents, crying for no apparent reason). In What My Mother Doesn't Know, a lot is revealed about the teenage experience-("could I really be falling for that geck I dissed a month ago?"), clashes with close friends, and self-doubts. It could, after all, be readers' lives, their English classes, their hands in a first love's. Of course, mothers probably do know these goings-on in their daughters' lives. It's just much easier to believe they don't. Sones's book makes these often-difficult years a little more livable by making them real, normal, and OK.

Korbeck, S. (2001). What My Mother Doesn't Know (Book Review). School Library Journal, 47(10), 171.

Library Use:
This book, such as others, could be used during Banned Books Week. ELA teachers could assign a banned book and have students reflect/react to the book being deemed a "banned book".

Read alikes:

The following are books that are written in verse format and are included on the banned book list. These could be read, in conjunction with Banned Books Week.

TTYL by Laura Miracle
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone

Module 14: Poetry & Story Collections

April 29, 2018 

Module 14: Poetry & Story Collections

Title:

Rubber Houses

Genre: Verse Novel for Young Adults

Book Summary:

Kit’s little brother, Buddy, has been diagnosed with cancer and the world as she knows it is irrevocably changed. Buddy takes it with a grain of sale and relates his fight with cancer to that of the game of baseball, which is his one true passion. At first/ he thought it was a game/ Round of Chemo/ like merry-go-/ Round of Chemo/ like ring-a-/ Round of Chemo” (Yeomans, 2007).  As the chemo blasts its way through Buddy’s body, Kit does what she can to keep his spirits up, while realizing at the same time that death is heading its way towards home plate. Buddy’s fight ends when he says, “I’m calling the game” (Yeomans, 2007). Upon his passing, Kit and her family now experience a new normal and must learn to cope with the loss of Buddy. The author portrays the experience of loss from the perspective of Kit and her parents hits a nerve, especially for those who have experienced the loss of a loved one from cancer. Upon entering Senior year, Kit begins to pull away from those who have been with her from the start and she loses the desire for planning for her future.  She attends a bereavement group for teens and tries to cope with the different stages of her grief. Stumbling into a job at the local hardware store and fostering her interest in community service projects shows Kit that there is hope for her and her future.

APA Reference of Book: 

Yeomans, E. (2007). Rubber houses. New York. NY: Little, Brown, and Company

Impression:

I read this book in one sitting and could completely relate to the struggles Kit deals with, having lost a sister in my younger years. Yeoman’s style of free-verse writing allows the reader great insight into Kit’s innermost emotions, her struggle with dealing with her brother’s diagnosis while struggling to keep a straight face throughout Buddy’s treatment. Kit’s actions portray the different stages of the grieving process, from shock to denial, resentment and anger and then isolation from everything around her. They say time heals all wounds. It’s not a case of “closure” per se, but the learning of a living with a new normal, for both Kit and her family. This book would be an excellent read for students who have experienced the loss of a loved one. I wish there was a book like this one written at the time I lost my sister to help me through the grieving process.

Professional Review:

Continuing her thematic preoccupation with death, Yeomans creates a free-verse diary for 17-year-old Kit's year-long period of grief, guilt and ultimate coping strategy following the loss of her nine-year-old brother Buddy to cancer. Juxtaposed with baseball terminology, Buddy's first love and obsession, the poems are divided into five sections imitating the year-long cycle of the sport: "Warm-Ups, 'Regular' Season, Postseason, Hot Stove, Spring Training." Sad, often depressing and achingly difficult to read with sustained interest, Buddy's illness and death are described in the first two sections followed by Kit's long, drawn-out feelings of despair, anger and general lack of concern for her own future without her little brother. Finally, as with the promise of each new "Spring Training," Kit finds refuge and recovery working as a clerk in the local hardware store, renews neglected friendships and resolves at least to begin her higher education at the local community college. Perhaps a little too cathartic and personal, Yeomans's symbolic use of the happy American pastime is discordant with the somber and grave issue of premature death. Dismal reading.

Yeomans, Ellen: Rubber houses [Review of the book Rubber Houses, by E. Yeomans]. (2006). Kirkus Reviews, 74(24), 1275. Retrieved from www.kirkusreviews.com.

Library Use:

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and the library could display this book, along with similar novels, in support of this cause. It could be done in conjunction with a blood drive for the community. Another program could be held during National Poetry Month, held each April. The librarian could read selections from Rubber Houses and students could write responses, or could create Book Spine Poetry in response to selections from Rubber Houses.

Readalikes:

The following books, all written in free verse, could be spotlighted during National Poetry Month. They could also be used for creating Book Spine Poetry as a reflection to the readalouds.

Far From You by Lisa Schroeder
Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder
I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder
Street Love by Walter Dean Myers
Jinx by Margaret Wild
One Night by Margaret Wild
Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?: a Mystery in Poems by Mel Glenn
Things Left Unsaid by Stephanie Hemphill
One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones
Hugging the Rock by Susan Taylor Brown
What my Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

Module 13: Graphic Novels & Series Books

April 22, 2018 

Module 13: Graphic Novels & Series Books

Title:

Stitches: a memoir

Genre: Young Adult Graphic Novel/Memoir

Book Summary:

David Small never felt like he fit in with his family. Mom was always angry for reasons he didn't understand and his dad, a doctor, spent most of his time at the hospital where he worked.  He was a sickly baby and at the age of ten, a family friend noticed a lump on his throat.  After many tests and an operation, he woke to discover he was mute, unable to talk about a whisper. His parents never explained what was wrong with him and years later David discovers that he was diagnosed with cancer, however, his parents chose to keep it a secret from him. Because of that betrayal, David grew into an angry and troubled teen, transferring from school to school, until he finally left home at the age of sixteen, never to reconcile with his parents. 

APA Reference of Book: 

Small, D. (2009). Stitches a memoir. New York: W.W. Norton.

Impression:

This memoir blew me away. The fact that parents would lie to children about their condition baffled me. I get the idea of protecting your kids from the possibility of being hurt, however, there is always a price to pay. In this case, it was David never speaking his parents again. The author touched on some touch issues, such as childhood cancer and the betrayal of his parents. I liked the way that Mr. Small illustrated the book. Some pages were both pictures and words, whereas some were just pictures. He was able to illustrate the emotions in a way that the reader, no matter what age, could empathize with the character. When David wakes from his surgery, to find that he has can only "squawk", no longer talk, the anger on his face is easily identified. He is drawn with a persistent scowl on his face. While there is some choice language, I would recommend that this book should be included in a high school collection. There are many issues that kids can relate to, such as the struggle between parents and children and how it feels to feel different when around others.

Professional Review:

Emotionally raw, artistically compelling and psychologically devastating graphic memoir of childhood trauma.

An award-winning illustrator of children's books (That Book Woman, 2008, etc.), Small narrates this memoir from various perspectives of his boyhood in the 1950s. He considered his radiologist father one of the "soldiers of science, and their weapon was the X-ray…They were miraculous wonder rays that would cure anything." Or so it seemed to a young boy who realized early on that his family was what now would be labeled "dysfunctional." His mother was cold, neurotic and acquisitive, with little love for either her spouse or their children. His older brother had little use for or contact with his younger sibling. His father was barely a presence in the household. The author was chronically ill, with treatment prescribed by his father, including X-rays. When Small was ten, he developed a growth on his neck that his parents were too preoccupied to have diagnosed, though friends of the family urged them to. It wasn't until after he turned 14 that he finally underwent surgery for what was initially considered a harmless cyst but turned out to be a cancerous tumor. A second surgery left him with only one vocal cord, all but voiceless as well as disfigured. Terse and unsentimental throughout, the narration becomes even sparer once the author loses his voice, with page after wordless page filled with stark imagery. Yet the intensity of the artistry reveals how he has been screaming inside, with nightmares that never fully abate when he is awake. Psychological therapy helps him come to terms with his condition, as does his precocious artistry. While the existence of this suggests somewhat of a happy ending, the reader will find forgiving and forgetting as hard as the author has.

Graphic narrative at its most cathartic. (Author tour to New York, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, Mich., Kalamazoo, Mich., Boston, Agent: Holly McGhee/Pippin Properties)

STITCHES: A Memoir. (2009). Kirkus Reviews, 77(12), 649.
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Library Use:

This book could be used to help young adults talk about emotions. Students could, instead of talking, draw pictures that represent their emotions. They could create a graphic novel of their emotions, explaining through the drawings and some words, what the feeling is and why they feel this way. The librarian could ask the Art teachers for some suggestions as to how to begin this type of project.

Readalikes:

These are all memoirs, in the same vein as Stitches and could be used as further reading recommendations for students.

Liar’s Club by Mary Carr
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The End of the World as We Know It by Robert Goolrick