Personalized Reading Recommendations for Jaycie PART 5

This is my last post for this series that I created to explore the recommendations my professor of Adolescent Literature, Dr. Ellington chose for me according to  my personal preferences. So far I have only had the time to read a few of these suggestions, but I have placed them all on my “To-Read” list on Goodreads and plan to read them this summer. As for the ones I have read, I think that Dr. Ellington did a great job finding books tailored just to me!

The description of this book on Goodreads is one sentence long! Yet from that one sentence I am just itching to read this Coretta Scott King Award for Author Honor (1995)! Lena has problems, but so does Marie, being the only black child in her class. I am curious to see how both girls work together to overcome their issues presented in this book. Goodreads gives the book a 3.82 out of 5.00 stars.

“Marie, the only black girl in the eighth grade willing to befriend her white classmate Lena, discovers that Lena’s father is doing horrible things to her in private.”

The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti sounds perfect to me. Not only does the story sound mysterious and captivating, but I already feel like Jade and I have a lot in common since I was diagnosed with severe social anxiety disorder. Mine doesn’t seem as serious as Jade’s is described, but I can relate to the panicked feeling that you’re going to die from a distressing situation. I am fascinated by Sebastian’s character already too. I may have to move this one up on  my list to read soon. This novel receives 3.87 stars and a South Carolina Book Award Nominee for Young Adult Book Award (2009).

“I am not my illness. “Girl with Anxiety,” “Trauma of the Week” — no. I hate stuff like that. Everyone, everyone has their issue. But the one thing my illness did make me realize is how necessary it is to ignore the dangers of living in order to live. And how much trouble you can get into if you can’t.Jade DeLuna is too young to die. She knows this, and yet she can’t quite believe it, especially when the terrifying thoughts, loss of breath, and dizzy feelings come. Since being diagnosed with Panic Disorder, she’s trying her best to stay calm, and visiting the elephants at the nearby zoo seems to help. That’s why Jade keeps the live zoo webcam on in her room, and that’s where she first sees the boy in the red jacket. A boy who stops to watch the elephants. A boy carrying a baby.

His name is Sebastian, and he is raising his son alone. Jade is drawn into Sebastian’s cozy life with his son and his activist grandmother on their Seattle houseboat, and before she knows it, she’s in love. With this boy who has lived through harder times than anyone she knows. This boy with a past.

Jade knows the situation is beyond complicated, but she hasn’t felt this safe in a long time. She owes it all to Sebastian, her boy with the great heart. Her boy who is hiding a terrible secret. A secret that will force Jade to decide between what is right, and what feels right.

Master storyteller Deb Caletti has once again created characters so real, you will be breathless with anticipation as their riveting story unfolds.”

Laurie Halse Anderson, the author of Speak, which I really enjoyed, also wrote this book Wintergirls, which is also recognized with an abidance of literary awards: Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award (RT Award) Nominee for Best Young Adult Novel (2009), An ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (2010), ALA Teens’ Top Ten (2010), Milwaukee County Teen Book Award (2010), Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award Nominee (2010), Iowa High School Book Award Nominee (2011), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2014), Goodreads Choice Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2009), Cybils Awards Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2009). This novel describes an issue that is not uncommon amongst young girls, though maybe not as severe as the case of Lia and Cassie. Cassie dies?!? That’s what I’m getting from the description anyway, and Lia has to live with the fact that a stupid, and yes I mean stupid, competition killed her best friend… 3.98 stars; I can see why.

““Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.”

Have you read any of these books?!

Out of the Dust

 

Billie Jo is an inspiring young girl in this free verse novel by Karen Hesse. Out of the Dust is set in the dust bowl of Oklahoma during the middle of the Great Depression.

Billie Jo loses her mother and new born brother and damages her own hands because of a kerosene fire incident. She used to love to play the piano any chance she got and even dreamed of going to school to study music. After she hurt her hands and lost her family, besides her silent father, Billie Jo lets her dreams dry up just like their crops.

The free verse is a very colloquial and matter-of-fact style; however, it’s apparent that Hesse choses her words very carefully, and she is left with some very beautiful lines.

As I was reading my heart really did rise and fall with the characters of the story for the hope of rain and the end of all of the dust.

I suggest a big glass of water with this one!

Kids of Kabul

 

This book of interviews between Deborah Ellis and the kids of Kabul is heart wrenching and eye opening. We all hear of the injustices of Afghanistan rule, especially towards women and children, but hearing firsthand accounts of children really gives the reader a new perspective.

Americans are very privileged and we take our education possibilities for granted, at least I know I do. I complain about how much homework and studying I have to do each semester; the children of Kabul want to learn so eagerly that they will study in secret!

The Taliban movement is over, yet many people still believe in their arbitrary ways, viewing education as unnecessary.

The Hunger Games- Novel and Film

 

I was surprised to discover that I really enjoyed this book. I had seen the movie before reading it and didn’t like it much at all. After reading the novel I watched the film again and had a new appreciation for it. The filmmakers did a really good job recreating the strong images Suzanne Collins depicts in the book.

One of my favorite scenes is when the tributes are staring on their platforms waiting for  their opportunity to grab survival supplies at the cornocopia. As the clock counts down to zero the panic and the horror of the first slaughters felt so real as I was reading it and watching it.

I think the movie creators did fantastic  work casting the film as well. A lot of the times books turned movies aren’t as good because we feel the films are miscast, but every character in the movie was just as I imagined them in the book. This could also be because I had seen the movie prior to reading it; however, I still think these actors embodied their characters perfectly.

The romance between Katniss and Peeta seems more genuine in the movie than in the book. In the book she says she is pretending for the cameras and giving the Capitol a show just for the sponsorship. In the movie we don’t hear this inner dialogue so it appears that she is truly developing feelings for him.

Overall I would have to admit that I loved this first book to The Hunger Games trilogy and I can’t wait to read the others!

Yummy- The Last Days of a Southside Shorty

This graphic novel tells the true story of n 11-year-old boy and gang member in Chicago in 1994.

Was Robert “Yummy” Sandifer a victim or a cold-blooded killer?

I loved hearing everyone ‘s opinions and theories both in Yummy’s neighborhood and “experts” on television:

“I blame his parents! They made him into a monster;” “Just looking for attention;” “He’s just lost;” “He’s a thug plain an’ simple.”

It’s hard to decide whether Yummy deserves our sympathy or our apathy. He was young and lost, looking for a place to belong, but he also took an innocent girl’s life. Those are the facts.

This graphic novel explores poverty, gangs, abused children, foster care and all of the systems used to address (or ignore) these issues…

Blue is the Warmest Color

Blue is the Warmest Color is a tragic love story, familiar to all audiences, except this one is about a lesbian couple.

This full-color graphic novel paints a picture for readers about what it’s like to fight against your desires, to rebel against what other people think is right or wrong, and to finally come to terms with who you really are and who you really love.

Clementine leads a normal life until she sees Emma, an openly gay girl with captivating blue hair. With Emma’s help, Clementine discovers that “We do not choose who we fall in love with, and our perception of happiness is our own and is determined by what we experience.”

True love may not be between a man and a woman, as it “should be,” but that doesn’t make it  any less powerful or any less true.

I can appreciate that Clementine has an internal struggle with who she is. She feels disgusted with herself for having lesbian thoughts, because that’s not “normal.” I imagine that someone discovering this about themselves would have the same sort of battle with themselves; questioning their identity, morals, and desires.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

This book is not at all what I expected. I expected something more sic-fi and fantastical to happen with the meeting of the two Will Graysons. They are literally just two different boys with the same name and completely different lives.

The only character that was at all interesting was Tiny Cooper, but he was a little too much for me.

Nothing really climactic happens throughout the story. Even when the two Wills meet, I didn’t think that it was very culminating.

Although homosexuality is a major topic of this book, I feel like it wasn’t what was driving the story. Not that every book with homosexual aspects has to be the core of the story, but I just thought there would be more emphasis on it.

It wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t what I expected.

Rules

I found Rules by Cynthia Lord to be very believable and very relatable even though I have never had a person with a disability involved in my daily life. The interview with Cynthia at the end of the book really made me appreciate the story that much more because she has a son with autism.

This is one subject that I feel like you have to have firsthand experience with in order to write about it truthfully.

Catherine seems selfish but she is twelve years old and just wants a normal life for once. At this age image and other people’s opinions about her seem like the most important. So when Ryan and Kristi judge her because of her brother David’s disabilities, she finds it unfair. I find her character very believable because I know when I was at that age I had the same priorities. However, I did not have the same responsibilities so I can empathize with her.

I think this is a must read for young adults to “help readers feel less afraid and more understanding towards people with disabilities in their own communities and schools.”

Personalized Reading Recommendations for Jaycie PART 4

This is a series I started to take a closer look at the recommendations my professor of Adolescent Literature, Dr. Ellington, made for me according to my personal reading tastes. I find the books from the list on Goodreads, then I check out the rating it has, the literary awards the it has received, and read the description to see what I think. 

 

I’m not one to usually pick up a book about sports, but by this book’s description on Goodreads I might just have to make an exception. I’m intrigued by the characters already and the synopsis gives me just enough to want more. Boy21 by Matthew Quick earns a 4.05 out of 5.00 stars on Goodreads rating scale and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee (2012), YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults (Top Ten) (2013), Cybils Award
s Nominee (2012) literary awards.

“Basketball has always been an escape for Finley. He lives in gray, broken Bellmont, a town ruled by the Irish Mob, drugs, violence, and racially charged rivalries. At home, he takes care of his disabled grandfather, and at school he’s called “White Rabbit”, the only white kid on the varsity basketball team. He’s always dreamed of getting out somehow with his girlfriend, Erin. But until then, when he puts on his number 21, everything seems to make sense.

Russ has just moved to the neighborhood. A former teen basketball phenom from a privileged home, his life has been turned upside down by tragedy. Cut off from everyone he knows, he now answers only to the name Boy21—his former jersey number—and has an unusual obsession with outer space.

As their final year of high school brings these two boys together, “Boy21” may turn out to be the answer they both need.”

 

Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard only receives 3.41 stars, but I think that the story has more potential than that from reading the synopsis. Did they murder the friend?! I have to know what really happened in this William C. Morris YA Debut Award Nominee (2012).

“At the beginning of his junior year at a boys’ boarding school, 16-year-old Alex is devastated when he fails to save a drowning friend. When questioned, Alex and his friend Glenn, who was also at the river, begin weaving their web of lies. Plagued by guilt, Alex takes refuge in the library, telling his tale in a journal he hides behind Moby-Dick. Caught in the web with Alex and Glenn is their English teacher, Miss Dovecott, fresh out of Princeton, who suspects there’s more to what happened at the river when she perceives guilt in Alex’s writing for class. She also sees poetic talent in Alex, which she encourages. As Alex responds to her attention, he discovers his true voice, one that goes against the boarding school bravado that Glenn embraces. When Glenn becomes convinced that Miss Dovecott is out to get them, Alex must choose between them.”

 

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick sounds like an extremely powerful novel; 4.17 stars and a National Book Award Nominee (2012) plus a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults (Top Ten) (2013). I don’t even know what else to say except this one will definitely make me cry throughout…

“When soldiers arrive at his hometown in Cambodia, Arn is just a kid, dancing to rock ‘n’ roll, hustling for spare change, and selling ice cream with his brother. But after the soldiers march the entire population into the countryside, his life is changed forever. Arn is separated from his family and assigned to a labor camp: working in the rice paddies under a blazing sun, he sees the other children, weak from hunger, malaria, or sheer exhaustion, dying before his eyes. He sees prisoners marched to a nearby mango grove, never to return. And he learns to be invisible to the sadistic Khmer Rouge, who can give or take away life on a whim.

One day, the soldiers ask if any of the kids can play an instrument. Arn’s never played a note in his life, but he volunteers. In order to survive, he must quickly master the strange revolutionary songs the soldiers demand—and steal food to keep the other kids alive. This decision will save his life, but it will pull him into the very center of what we know today as the Killing Fields. And just as the country is about to be liberated from the Khmer Rouge, Arn is handed a gun and forced to become a soldier. He lives by the simple credo: Over and over I tell myself one thing: never fall down.

Based on the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond, this is an achingly raw and powerful novel about a child of war who becomes a man of peace, from National Book Award finalist Patricia McCormick.”

Beneath the Meth Moon is by Jaqueline Woodson, who is a three time Newberry-winning author, but this particular book hasn’t received any literary awards. Goodreads only gives it a 3.63 out of 5.00 stars and the description has me feeling a little skeptical. I’m not sure why they decided to tell readers that she moves on from the meth to rewrite her story… Wouldn’t that be a climactic turning point in the plot? Anyway it does sound like a type of book I would enjoy so, I guess there’s only one way to find out.

“Laurel Daneau has moved on to a new life, in a new town, but inside she’s still reeling from the loss of her beloved mother and grandmother after Hurricane Katrina washed away their home. Laurel’s new life is going well, with a new best friend, a place on the cheerleading squad and T-Boom, co-captain of the basketball team, for a boyfriend. Yet Laurel is haunted by voices and memories from her past.

When T-Boom introduces Laurel to meth, she immediately falls under its spell, loving the way it erases, even if only briefly, her past. But as she becomes alienated from her friends and family, she becomes a shell of her former self, and longs to be whole again. With help from an artist named Moses and her friend Kaylee, she’s able to begin to rewrite her story and start to move on from her addiction.

Incorporating Laurel’s bittersweet memories of life before and during the hurricane, this is a stunning novel by one of our finest writers. Jacqueline Woodson’s haunting—but ultimately hopeful—story is beautifully told and one readers will not
want to miss.”

Have you read any of these titles?!

5 Things I Loved This Week #celebratelu 4/12/14

It has been a loooong week, but I have so much to celebrate  from it!

1. Flowers

Since the weather has been so sporadic, I decided to bring spring inside with these beautiful daffodils. I love the way they look in this vintage hinged mason jar! Speaking of mason jars…

2. DIY  Herb Garden

So I got the mason jars from my boyfriend’s aunt who had them sitting in her barn from an auction. So, they are legit in my opinion as far as vintage goes. Then, I found the antique metal “milk crate,” as it was described in the advertisement, on http://chadrad.com. The jars fit perfectly and I really love the way it looks. I’ve seen similar project ideas on, yep, you guessed it, Pinterest. If you want to follow my “Do It Yourself” board on Pinterest, I am always pinning these sorts of projects. http://www.pinterest.com/jaycie11/

3. Nights In

When my week is bustling and I have a lot of homework I forget to relax and just enjoy what I’m doing. Requirements and deadlines shouldn’t take away the pleasure I get from reading. I love nights in where I just snuggle up with a cup of coffee and a good book. And maybe treat myself to some lemon almond biscotti. YUM!

4. New Reading Location

I invested in my first “real” sofa. It’s a chocolate brown microfiber sectional… I am very pleased with it. Some might argue that it’s too large  for the space, but I love how cozy it feels in my living room. I also live to read on the chaise lounge!

5. Playing Hooky

Speaking of new reading locations… I skipped class (I know) and enjoyed the lovely weather we were having this week. My boyfriend and I went fishing in Ft. Robinson. He caught rainbows and I caught some rays while I read by the water.

   

What did you celebrate this week?!