The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares

This book is both a guilty pleasure for me (I LOVE this series, and the movies) and also, to me, anyway, a reminder that young adult literature dealing with girls and written with girls in mind don't have to be all about sex, drugs, and cat fights. With series like Gossip Girl becoming so overwhelmingly popular and providing young girls with poor role models, I can't stress enough the value I find in a series like The Sisterhood. The four young ladies represented in the novel, Lena, Bridget, Carmen, and Tibby are models of honest, interesting, talented young girls who are perfectly happy being and acting the age that they are.

I wouldn't use this book as a class text, but I think it would be a good option to offer in a literature circle set up or to suggest as free reads and have in the classroom library.

Crank, Ellen Hopkins

Written by a mother, Crank is the story of Ellen Hopkin's daughter's downward spiral into drug addiction and destructive behaviors. Kristina is the protagonist, but her alter ego “Bree” shows us the ugly side of the innocent, successful, and attractive honors student that Kristina appears to be. The story's title, Crank, is a reference to the highly addictive drug crystal meth, referred to throughout the book as “the monster”, which leads Bree down a path of dangerous and deadly behaviors. The book is very disturbing in its gritty and emotional depiction of the impact drugs can have on an individual and on a family.

A cool quality of the novel is that it is written in verse form. The narration of Bree's downward spiral appears as a series of poems, with Hopkins emphasizing certain moments or words through creative word placement. There seems to be almost as much thought put into the content of the novel as there is into the appearance of it.

I would recommend this book only with a strong warning attached. Hopkins really didn't hold much back in this novel, and there are a lot of situations and incidents that deal with very, very heavy material, from drugs to sexual experiences. Parents, read this before you let your kids do. Teachers, probably not one to be handing out left and right, but a reasonable choice for a classroom library.

Boy: Tales of Childhood, Roald Dahl

I have to admit that this book was sort of a selfish choice. Growing up I always loved Roald Dahl books, from Matilda to The BFG, he still remains today as one of my favorite authors for both adults and for children. I think that Boy serves as an excellent piece of nonfiction that concerns itself with the coming-of-age experience, one that I don't feel can be represented enough in the literature we give to our students. By providing students with accounts of adolescence, we give them the opportunity to find something to relate to and use it to help them however they need help, whether it be understanding their feelings and emotions to helping them understand what's going on around them or just giving them something, in the form of character or experience, that they can relate to and identify with and therefore maybe not feel so alone.

I like the way that Dahl shares his experience in this collection of essays about his adolescent and young adult experiences. Dahl has a unique voice that reflects his humor and is an effective communicator, and so I could easily see this text being used as a tool to discuss narrative structure and sequence and how to develop a “voice” in your writing. I don't know that I would use the whole text as a class novel, but I think that a few of the chapters could be used as examples of how an author's voice comes through in a text and how to do this in their own writing.

Lucky, Alice Sebold

This novel is a memoir written by Alice Sebold about her freshman year in college where she experiences a tragic rape but uses it as a vehicle for self improvement and to develop an altered perception of life and the world instead of as a reason to give up and fall out of everyday life. The title “lucky” gains its meaning from the sequence of events that immediately follow the sexual assault, when Alice is told that she should consider herself lucky since she was just raped, and earlier a woman had been murdered there. The twisted statement serves as the platform upon which Sebold develops her story, showing how something beautiful, herself as an adult woman, could grow out of such an ugly and tragic situation. The aftermath of the crime, right through Sebold's struggle to get justice by prosecuting her rapist, is communicated thoughtfully and poignantly, and the emotions of Sebold come through very clearly in her writing.

I think that this story is not only an interesting but an important one. I think that this book works as a means by which to more clearly communicate the effect of sex crimes on not only the individual but those around them, and I would suggest that any person that knows someone who is a victim of sexual assault read this novel. I would not suggest it to younger audiences, maybe fifteen year olds at the youngest and only with resources available for them if they need to talk or process their feeling and emotions that are sure to come up during their time reading the novel.

Spud, John Van De Ruit

Hilarious. Freakin' hilarious. That's all I can really say. This was the first time in a while that I have actually laughed out loud this much over a book. If I had to try to otherwise describe this book it would be by calling it a more modern day version of The Power of One for a younger audience. Same type of coming of age story, same type of setting, same type of struggle (personal and national), just a little lighter and geared towards the younger set. It could really even be put in the same camp as Catcher and Perks, really. Yet another book that I wouldn't use as a class text, unfortunately, but one that I definitely intend to have in my classroom library. Probably even two copies of it.

The main character in the novel is Spud Milton, a young man in his first year at a private boarding school. He comes from a family that will make yours look painfully normal and boring, and his generally crummy attitude and snyde remarks work to create a lot of humor in the novel. Spud is a pretty outgoing kid, and his crew of cronies create an interesting cast of characters that make for a fun account of a crazy year through Spuds journal entries.

This book is awesome for boys, still pretty great for girls, and definitely good for anyone age 12 and up based on the difficulty of the text and the content, I would say. The text serves as a sort of history lesson in a way, too, because it takes place in South Africa during the time that Nelson Mandela was released from political prison and could easily serve as a great way to consider world events and the impact that a corrupt ruling system has on a nation.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963, Christopher Paul Curtis

This book tells the story of the Watson family (Daniel, Wilona, Kenny, Byron and Joey) who hail from Michigan but are taking a road trip to visit family in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. The Watsons are African American, and their trip to Alabama during this year develops suspense from the first page because of the connections between their destination, the year, and our knowledge of historical events that are not known by the characters we are following. As the family embarks on their journey we see not only problems within the family (mostly between older brother Byron, a bully, and his younger brother Kenny, our sort of nerdy narrator) but with the world: clearly segregation is still a problem in the South, and one that the Watson children aren't so familiar with because of their northern upbringing. The events that play out in the novel provide modern readers with an interesting insight into both the history of our country and the experience of a persecuted minority group.

I am typically very cautious in selecting literature that deals with diversity and social justice issues because their accurate representation is absolutely necessary in my opinion, and it seems that very seldom are books released that provide unbiased and accurate representations of such individuals and groups. I found that The Watsons is one of the few novels that I have read that deals with issues of segregation and oppression in a thoughtful and seemingly informed and accurate lens. I could see this book being used in literature circles or even as a class text as a gateway to consider current issues of social justice in our world, both domestic and international.

The People of Sparks, Jeanne DuPrau

This second book in the Ember series picks up pretty much exactly where the first book, The City of Ember, left off. Lina and her friend, Doon, have not only found a way out of Ember (through the Pipeworks), but have led the majority of Ember out of the underground and into the post-apocalyptic world above ground. The citizens of Ember are completely naïve to the new world around them, not sure about things as simple as natural light and certain plants, animals, and lifestyles. The Ember-ites come to a city called Sparks that offers to assist them until they are strong enough and knowledgeable enough about their new world to be sustain themselves. Ultimately the city is too populous with Ember relying on the resources of Sparks to survive, even though there is only enough for one to survive. Obviously conflict ensues because of the stress that develops as a result of scarce resources and a huge group of guests who have clearly overstayed their welcome, and it is up to the people of Ember and Sparks to either get along and work together to survive or go down as a collective.

I'm not typically a fan of sequels, but this one is pretty well done. It's an interesting look at the human condition and universal truths such as the inherent desire of a person to survive, and stands as almost a cautionary tale in some ways. The state of the world that the people of Sparks and Ember are living in is a direct result of the overuse of resources and neglect to care for the earth and its resources. This series would serve as an excellent platform upon which to consider world issues like global warming and the threats it poses, as well as what we can do to make changes and move towards becoming a sustainable nation ourselves.