Crank by Ellen Hopkins

I put off reading Crank for a long time because I knew how heavy it was going to be.  And, hey, it's summer - I didn't want to read anything too grim during these beautiful months of freedom.  But one of my students from last year told me over and over how much she loved Crank and that she really wanted me to read it.  My philosophy:  When a teenager loves a book that much and wants to share it with a lame adult, it's time to stop and pay attention.

The words that come to my mind after having read Crank:

Stunning.  Excruciating.  Unforgettable. 

Here's a brief synopsis from the back of the book: Kristina is the perfect daughter: gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble.  Then she meets the monster: crank.  And what begins as a wild ride turns into a struggle for her mind, her soul - her life.

Barrel of laughs, huh?  Not so much.  Painful as it was to read this story, I loved it from start to finish. Ellen Hopkins' character reached out from the pages of that book, grabbed me by the collar, and forced me to look at the very difficult and often ugly truths behind addiction and mental illness. Every brief chapter is written in verse, which I imagine was Hopkins' way of revealing the essence of each character, situation, and emotion in the story.

If I had to identify one weakness it would be that there were many elements in Crank that reminded me of Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls.  But you know what? Whiskeytown reminds me a lot of Wilco, and I don't love either of those bands any less!  (Look them up on iTunes, kids.  You won't be sorry.)

To wrap it up, I give Ellen Hopkins and Crank five stars.  However, I'm not ready to move on to her other YA novels (Fallout, Glass, and Impulse to name a few) just yet.  I need a little fantasy or maybe a romance with a semi-happy ending before I do that.  But I will definitely return to Hopkins' work and share it with all of my students once the school year begins.

Challenge: Write For Fifteen Minutes A Day

Laurie Halse Anderson, notable author of young adult novels like Speak, Wintergirls, and Twisted, will host her annual 'Write For Fifteen Minutes A Day' (WFMAD) challenge this August.  For each day of the month, she will post on her blog tips, prompts, and general words of encouragement  for those of us who want to establish a daily writing practice yet find a bajillion reasons to avoid it.  Fifteen minutes a day is doable.  God, I must play Words With Friends and check Facebook for at least 30 minutes a day, so there is no excuse for me not to take part in this awesome writing challenge.  Day 1 of the challenge is also my birthday (August 1! Yippee!), so I'm looking at it as a sort of resolution to embrace writing the way I've always wanted to.  Who's with me?

Teeny tiny review: Shiver

I don't have a lot of time today, but I really want to post about Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver.  Here's the summary from http://maggiestiefvater.com/shiver/shiver/: 

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever. 

What I loved: 

1. Stiefvater's use of descriptive language to create a vivid other-wordly setting.
2. A strong, smart, and confident female protagonist in Grace.
3. An original spin on the werewolf myth (her werewolves transform as a result of temperature changes, not the phases of the moon.
4. The cover...tee hee...
5. Teenage characters that sound like teenagers (most of the time).
6. The ending...sorry, you'll have to read it to find out.


What left me wanting:

 1. The light blue font on some of the pages.  Maybe this was just a manufacturing issue?
 2. That's pretty much it!  I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the sequel, Linger.

You can listen to the author read the first two chapters of Shiver by clicking here.

Watch an interview with Maggie Stiefvater here:

Next up: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Adolescence: Scarier than Freddy Krueger

from Middle School Confessions on HBO Family

Think back to when you were in middle school.  

What were you doing, thinking, and feeling?  

I was listening to "sad song tapes" custom-made to induce a night's worth of sobbing.  I also made sure I avoided earning A's on my report card because apparently being smart also made a person a real loser.  My hair, teeth, and feet were ginormous, and I had a bad habit of falling in love with the meanest boys in school.

Whatever your middle school experience, it was probably anything but easy or simple.  We adults, myself included, tend to forget just how difficult those years were (or maybe we conveniently bury the memories because some are so horrific).  Whatever the case, it's important for any adult who works with young people to try to understand their problems, dreams, and fears.  We need to understand and respect their world.  This isn't to say that we should allow middle school kids to get away with anything they want.  Adolescents need rules, boundaries, and a structured environment. However, I do think we need to treat them as real people and, from what I've learned so far, most people just want to be heard.  If we freak out every time they try to share something of themselves with us, we will lose their trust and our ability to give them meaningful guidance throughout some of the most confusing years of their lives.

Middle School Confessions, an HBO documentary centered around this complex developmental stage, provides a window into the lives of modern adolescents.  I won't lie - it's really hard to watch.  It will probably make many adults angry, sad, and more than a little uncomfortable.  Watch it anyway. In it you will see tweens encounter sex, bullying, depression, drugs, alcohol, and violence.  Sounds fun, huh?  Watch it anyway.  In fact, I double-dog dare you to watch it with your kids (Rated TV14).  

At the very least, click here to read more about it and to find a schedule of showings on HBO Family.

Remember, it won't do us any good to pretend our middle schoolers are still little kids.  Let's talk to them, listen to them, and share our own experiences with them.  They might cringe, roll their eyes, even slam the door in our faces...but somewhere deep down they'll know we care and that we're throwing them a life line...and when they're ready, they just might be willing to grab on.

That Summer

I stayed away from Sarah Dessen for a long time...on purpose.  I'm about to admit something I'm not proud of at all.  Okay...here it goes...I JUDGED HER BOOKS BY THEIR COVERS!  Whew, I feel so much better now.

Honestly though, during my occasional strolls through the YA section of my local Barnes and Noble I would gaze up at her (many) titles and think, 'I've heard she's good...she's been around for a while...pretty popular with teens...but I just can't get over these covers...a boy and a girl on a bike, a boy and a girl dancing on a beach, a girl doing a cart wheel on a beach...CHEESY...nope, I just can't do it...no Sarah Dessen for this crazy teacher...I want something edgier...more blood and guts!'

Then one day, I picked up the cart wheel book, opened it up, and read a little bit off the first page:

"The day my father got remarried, my mother was up at six A.M. defrosting the refrigerator.  I woke to the sound of her hacking away and the occasional thud as a huge slab of ice crashed.  My mother was an erratic defroster." (1)

Right away, I changed my tune.  This story wasn't going to be fluff n' stuff.  Those few sentences held the promise of humor and the raw emotion and upheaval experienced by families going through divorce.  This book was going to be good!


Here is the publisher's description of That Summer (a.k.a. the cart wheel book):


"For fifteen-year-old Haven, life is changing too quickly. She’s nearly six feet tall, her father is getting remarried, and her sister, the always perfect Ashley, is planning a wedding of her own. Haven wishes things could just go back to the way they were. Then an old boyfriend of Ashley’s reenters the picture, and through him, Haven sees the past for what it really was, and comes to grips with the
future."

I felt like That Summer was really more about character than plot, which is fine by me as long as the character is interesting.  Haven, the protagonist, is easy to relate to.  She's awkward, stuck between childhood and adulthood, hasn't found her voice yet, and doesn't seem to fit anywhere.  We watch her, over the course of the novel, get more comfortable with herself and with her reality.  We also see her learn how to break out of the  rescuer role in her family.  None of these things happen quickly, easily, or perfectly, and That Summer isn't the kind of book that ties up every loose end.  Instead Sarah Dessen does a great job of allowing her readers to make some of their own predictions about Haven and the rest of the characters in the book.  She subtly and and skillfully coveys some important themes: things aren't always what they seem; the importance of letting go of the past and looking ahead; accepting the imperfect love of our families.

Sarah Dessen treats her subject matter and readers with honesty and respect and comes across as very down-to-earth...not fluffy at all.  I'd be proud and more than comfortable to place That Summer in the hands of my students.

And the moral of the story is:  DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER..

Once, Then, and Now

My good friend Ms. G agreed to blog about what sounds like a fascinating trilogy by author Morris Gleitzman.  In fact, she read the last two books in one day!  That's a sure sign of a gripping story.  Here is some background information about the books followed by Ms. G's review:

Author's description: "Now is the third book about Felix.  In Once and Then, Felix is a ten-year-old boy struggling to survive in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1942.  He and his dearest friend, six-year-old Zelda, are caught up in that terrible time we call the Holocaust." 

The front and back covers of Once read:

"Everybody

deserves

to have

something good in their life.

At least

Once."

"Once I escaped from an 

orphanage to find Mum and Dad.

Once I saved a girl called 

Zelda from a burning house.

Once I made a Nazi

with a toothache laugh."

The cover of Then reads:

"I had a plan for me and Zelda:

Pretend to be someone else.

Find new parents.

Be safe forever.

Then the Nazis came."

The cover of Now reads:

"Once I didn't know about my grandfather Felix's scary childhood.

Then I found out what the Nazi's did to his best friend Zelda.

Now I understand why Felix does the things he does.

At least he's got me.

My name is Zelda too.

This is our story."

Here is what Ms. G had to say:

My mother introduced me to Once this winter - after finishing it in one sitting, I pre-ordered Then.  Last week my aunt who was visiting from Australia, brought Now.  I was sitting on my porch finishing the final pages of Then, when company returned from outings and I refused to talk to anyone as I read the final pages with tears streaming down my face.  After dinner, I stayed up until 3:30 with Now.  It is fair to say that all Holocaust stories are disturbing, so fair warning that Once and especially Then tell of those horrors, but there are laugh-out-loud moments too.  

Now is different.  It is set in modern day Australia, outside of the city of Melbourne.  While Felix narrates Once and Then, his granddaughter, Zelda, tells their story in Now.  I found all three books engaging throughout, but if you only have time for one, Then   is the best - the most heart wrenching, but the best none the less.

Listen to The Graveyard Book for free!

I'm smack dab in the middle of Sarah Dessen's That Summer right now, so won't be posting a new review today.  However, I did want to share the fact that you can watch Neil Gaiman read his award-winning The Graveyard Book in its entirety (and for free!) by visiting  http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx.  You won't be sorry!