The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

So this book is a throw back to a more classical, canonical text compared to the others I've posted on the blog so far. It's hard to find someone who hasn't read The Catcher in the Rye at some point in their academic career or adult life, and even harder to find someone who has never at least heard of it. The name Holden Caulfield seems to ring a bell with anyone.

To be honest, I hadn't read this novel until this year for this project. I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower several times in high school and now recently, and I was always told that “Perks is the new Catcher”, so I figured I better read the Catcher to not only be able to see what everyone was talking about in relation to Perks but also in general. It couldn't be that bad if it had stood the test of time so well, right?

The story chronicles the experience of Holden Caulfield, a seventeen year old who has just been booted out of yet another private school, this time the fictional Pencey Prep. Holden narrates the story for us, discussing his experiences at Pencey and then in New York City where Holden has several less-than-savory encounters and experiences. Holden is driven by his daydreams and his drunkenness, and his ramblings eventually expose to the reader the true experience of their guide in the novel, which, even at the end of the novel, is not completely clear but an explanation can at least be inferred.

Overall I liked the novel. I can definitely see the connections between the classic Catcher and the more modern Perks, in that they both deal with mental illness and are ultimately coming-of-age stories about young males. I wouldn't agree that Perks is the “new” Catcher per se, as I believe that there is a lot of value to be found in the latter that isn't necessary explored in the former, and it isn't fair to figuratively replace a canonical text with one that may be more appealing to our modern students because “similar” is not simply not equivalent to “same”. I think both texts have value, and so both should be read at some point by all adolescents.

Holes, Louis Sachar

Stanley Yelnats (that's a palindrome!) has been having a string of bad luck. All of the Yelnats men have been put under a curse because of a curse put on his great-great-grandfather by a Gypsy woman, Madame Zeroni. Stanley's bad luck lands him in a juvenile detention center called Camp Green Lake (which coincidentally is located on a desert area that used to be a lake) for a crime he did not commit. At Camp Green Lake it's no fun and games for the boys; every day each camper has to dig a hole that is five feet in diameter and five feet deep in the dry, hard dirt where the lake used to be. It turns out that the warden, a mean lady with a lot of attitude and a tough-as-nails work policy, is using the boys to try and find a treasure that is rumored to be somewhere on the land of the Camp. You'll have to read to find out what happens when the boys start finding things in the holes...

I really liked this book; it had a lot of voice and a really interesting story line with plenty of twists and turns that could keep any reader glued to its pages. The story has a ton of very unique and dynamic characters, with names like Armpit, Zero, X-Ray and Zig Zag. Sachar does a great job of using parallel plots to create foreshadowing without giving the ending away too early. I don't know if I would consider the narrative technique to be complex enough to use the book in the curriculum alone, but I think it would be a great pick for a series of literature circles, and I would recommend it to any student as an independent reading book.

Holes received the Newbery Medal in 1999, among several other awards and honors.

The Devil's Arithmetic, Jane Yolen

The book tells the story of Hannah, a young Jewish girl in modern America. Hannah is a teenager, and she serves as our narrator throughout the novel. Hannah is a “typical” teenage girl, and she is preoccupied with clothing and social activities more than she is interested in her family's heritage and religion. When the story opens our first experience with Hannah is her ambivalence towards the Jewish holiday that she is celebrating with her family, and this ultimately makes it very difficult to like her at the beginning of the book.


However, this changes when a major shift in the plot occurs. During the holiday meal, Hannah is chosen to symbolically welcome the Prophet Elijah by opening the door to the apartment where she and her family are celebrating. This action somehow transports her back to Poland in 1942, where World War II is in full swing and every Jew is persecuted. Hannah is put into the body of 13-year-old Chaya Abramowicz, and before she even has a grasp on what is happening and where she is, she and her “uncle” and “aunt” are on a train to a concentration camp.

Here is an excerpt from this moment in the book:

“The men down there, she cried out desperately, "They're not wedding guests. They're Nazis. Nazis! Do you understand? They kill people. They killed--kill--will kill Jews. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. Six million of them! I know. Don't ask me how I know, I just do. We have to turn the wagons around. We have to run!"

This moment shows Hannah/Chaya's confusion and ignorance in the situation, and it becomes evident to both the reader and to Hannah herself that she needs to develop some grasp of what is happening around her. She has to rely on her limited knowledge of her people's history and put trust in strangers in order to survive the persecution of the Nazis.

Some of the themes present in this novel are kindness towards strangers, trusting your instincts, the importance of family and heritage, and the strength and resilience of the human spirit. The end of the book provides a final plot twist that makes the book well worth reading overall. If you like this book, you might also like Night by Elie Wiesel or Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

Set in the early 90's, The Perks of Being a Wallflower outlines the experience of high-schooler Charlie through the style of an epistolary novel. What is an epistolary novel, you ask?

“An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used.” (wikipedia.org)

Okay, so Charlie is writing these letters, which make up the body of the novel, to a friend that he has who we never really learn the true identity of. We see how Charlie's experience as a freshman in high school is especially challenging, and throughout the course of the novel it is difficult not to get very attached to Chbosky's extremely well developed protagonist. The final few letters by Charlie serve as an insight into the mental and emotional turmoil experienced by many teenagers, and I truly believe that any reader could not only relate but also feel comforted by the moving representation of the difficulties of being a teenager. The novel's realistic voice and popular culture references draw the reader in and allow for interaction with the text and even ownership.

I would suggest this coming of age story to any of my students regardless of their interests or ability level. I think that any kid who has ever felt left out, awkward, scared, lonely, ANYTHING, would find something in this novel to relate to or learn from. I have often heard this book be connected to The Catcher in the Rye, and I am curious to read the canonical text and see how it relates to this book.

Your Own, Sylvia: A verse portrait of Sylvia Plath, Stephanie Hemphill

This book is written in a completely original and interesting way. The book is a fictionalized biography (based on Plath's own writing and other nonfiction sources) of Sylvia Plath that chronicles the artist's life from childhood through her death. The poems are written about milestones in Plath's life, by people who would have been directly involved in that milestone, from teachers to friends to her husband.

I like that the book is based on true events and people, and I found the poems to be very well written and evocative of Plath's own voice and style.

I would like to share one of my favorite pieces from the anthology, a poem written by her brother between 1942-3, that reflects on his first memories of Sylvia writing:


Selfish
Warren Plath, Sylvia's brother 1942-1943
Mommy gave Sylvia
a blue cloth book
without words
where Sylvia puts words
each day.

I ask her what stories
are in there,
but Sivvy shakes her head,
locks the book under her bed,
says that the words are hers,
that the stories are her thoughts
that the book is called a journal.

I tell Sivvy that I want one too.
I have lots to say.
She says, “No, you don't.
You're too little to say anything
important.”

Mean, mean, mean,
I think under my breath.

The City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau

Ember is an underground, post-apocalyptic city that is run completely by electricity generated through the Pipeworks. The city is only a few generations old, but already any knowledge of a world beyond Ember has been lost except for a set of instructions for escape enclosed in a box that has been passed through the mayors but never opened since the cities establishment. We are introduced to Ember through the experience of 12 year-old Lina Mayfleet, an orphan who has just begun her job as a Messenger for the city.

Shortly after the story begins Ember begins to fall apart. Supplies are scarce, the generator is dying, and it becomes clear that before long Ember will perish. As a messenger, Lina works closely with several members of the city, taking correspondence back and forth between the citizens, including the Mayor. Lina begins to piece together the secret to escaping Ember, as well as the secret to the city's history. The series of events that occur after this discovery ultimately decide the fate of the dying community.

This novel is a page-turner. It's a pretty easy read, something I would suggest students grade 7 and up read on their own. I don't think that I would choose to build a unit around this book, but I do think that it serves as interesting and valuable reading material that has the potential to make even the most hesitant child enjoy reading.

*This novel now has two sequels, and a film version has been made!

The View From Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg

One of my favorite novels growing up, The View From Saturday looks at “The Souls”, a group of sixth graders (Nadia, Ethan, Noah and Julian) who compete as a team in the Academic Bowl for their school under the supervision of their paraplegic teacher Mrs. Olinski. The Souls are underdogs, becoming state champions over even the seventh and eighth grade teams in their own school and across the state. The most interesting feature of the novel is the narrative structure; the book is a compilation of stories with each chapter featuring the story or experience of one member of the team, half told from the point of view of the character and the other half told in the more traditional novel style of third person narration. The stories show how the characters lives overlap and are connected, and also give us insight into the diverse personalities that make up the ultimate team of brainiacs.

My favorite character in the story is Ethan, because I can identify with his struggle to escape the shadow of his big brother who seems to be practically perfect in every way. Growing up I had a lot of the same teachers as my sister, and so I often felt like I had to live up to her when I entered their classroom (by the time parent teacher conferences rolled around my parents always heard how different we were, and it didn't always seem to be a good thing in their opinion). In the book Ethan finally has a teacher that doesn't know his brother, and it serves as an opportunity to finally let his personality shine through without feeling like he is letting anyone down. Ethan is an introvert, but his silence doesn't mean that he isn't bright or that he doesn't think about things. To the contrary, Ethan is always thinking and is pretty brilliant in my opinion, and when he starts hanging out with the Souls he comes out of his shell and is able to finally share everything he has always had to offer but never had the chance to in the past.

I would recommend this book for seventh and eighth graders, and I would probably use it as a tool to teach different narrative structures and voice, since the novel is told from multiple points of view and by several different speakers.

*This book was the 1997 Newbery Medal Recipient