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Wednesday, December 8, 2010
ISBN: 9781599900704
Rapunzel lives a quiet life behind the walls of the castle with her mother, Gothel. One day, bored of everything and dying with curiosity to know what is behind the wall, she disobeys her mother and finds a way over the wall. What she finds is a barren land and a line of dingy people waiting to get water from a well. One of the people, a woman, looks familiar. Rapunzel realizes that this woman is her real mother and that Gothel had taken her from her real family. When Gothel finds out she's discovered all this, she has Rapunzel placed in a large tree tower with no way down, located miles and miles from the castle. There she stayed for four years until one day her hair has grown long enough for her to lasso a neighboring tree to swing herself over. She journeys back to the castle, meeting Jack and his golden goose and other wronged citizens of the land on her way. Then, as all fairy tales must end, she defeats Gothel and liberates the whole kingdom.
An interesting take on the Rapunzel tale, this version features a wild west quality about it; with Rapunzel wearing a cowgirl outfit and using her hair as lassos. Even the dialect of the story carries that western twang. Perhaps the most interesting twist in the story itself is that Rapunzel, instead of waiting around to be rescued, gets herself out of the tree, and even passes a pseudo Prince Charming on his way to rescue/take advantage of her.
As a graphic novel, the colors are vibrant and the drawings are excellently suited to the story. Nathan Hale does an especially good job of bringing the landscapes to life. The arrangement of the panels remains dynamic enough not to bore the reader while also remaining easy to determine the direction to follow to continue the story.
Rife with humor, adventure, and a little romance, this book is recommended for readers 6th grade and up. Also recommended for those who like altered fairy tales, especially ones where the helpless maiden is transformed into a butt-kicking heroine.
Image taken from: http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/h1/h8093.jpg
ISBN: 9781600610707
The Zombie Apocalypse has come and for one guy, he's about to join the zombie population. Chris Lynch finds this poetry journal in the detached hand of a zombie who's just bitten him. He has time before the change to scribble a note in the first few pages detailing what happened to him. The reader then goes on to read the journal of the original owner, who liked to describe his day in haiku. The journal's owner continues to write haiku even after he has turned into a zombie, giving the reader poetic detail even as he eats his own mother's brains.
If gross humor is the way to a young adults heart, then this is the book for them. Each page of the book is filled with two to four haiku, that is each poem is three lines long with alternating 5-7-5 syllables in each line. Each page of the book is also filled with bloody fingerprints, photos of decaying zombies, and unidentified green goo. As the poems begin with a man who is still alive, the reader gets the fun of anticipating what's going to happen as the man is puzzled when "Beth from accounting, is just sitting in her car, eating spaghetti." Yeah, that's not spaghetti. Then the reader is treated to the introspective thoughts of what zombies do think about, eating brains and losing body parts. The frame story of the man who finds the poetry journal adds a second layer of fun. He begins by telling his story and at the end he knows he's going to turn into a zombie, and he apparently keeps writing through the transition as he says he loves his wife and he wants to eat her brains.
As before, gross humor and violence. Not to mention the illustrations, while definitely enhancing the book, would make me hesitate to put this into hands younger than high school. However, for the age appropriate audience, this book has a lot of potential to show young adults that poetry is not always stodgy, classical, or deep.
Image taken from: http://www.metroactive.com/metro/07.30.08/gifs/Books_Zombie.jpg
Monday, December 6, 2010
ISBN: 9780375714573
Satrapi illustrates the story of her life growing up in Iran from 1979 - to around 1984 while she was ages 9 - 14. The Islamic Revolution took place in 1979 and Satrapi begins the graphic novel with the immediate effect it had on her life: that schools must be gender separated and girls must start wearing the veil. What follows is the story of a young girl trying to make sense of the changes going on around her, learning who to look up to as a hero, facing bombings and death, and trying to come to terms with a God who allows such things to take place.
The illustrations in this graphic novel are done in a stark black and white. But far from lacking the vivacity of color illustrations, Satrapi's artwork comes to life with the use of patterns for textures and inking the negative space in most of the panels to make the people in them stand out more and overall setting a darker tone to the work.
The story manages to balance placing the reader into this vastly different world from America, yet makes it easy to put ourselves in Marjane's shoes as she reacts to the events going on around her. There comes a point in our lives where we are either think our parents are heroes for what they do or we are humiliated because our parents do not meet some societal ideal of heroic. For Marjane, she thinks her father's not a hero because he was not imprisoned and tortured.
Teens will enjoy this window into growing up in a very different country and may be surprised at the similarities they find between how Marjane thinks and how they do. There are many violent scenes and implied violence, but when you consider that Satrapi lived through these scenes and that she probably withheld even more violent ones, I think you'll find this graphic novel young adult appropriate. Recommended for 9th grade up.
Image taken from: http://iranpersepolis.wikispaces.com/file/view/persepolis_cover_big.jpg/32579625/persepolis_cover_big.jpg
Monday, November 22, 2010
ISBN: 0060502517
In this meandering biography, Crutcher lays bare stories from his childhood. He grew up in a small town in Idaho, where it was impossible not to be noticed. He tells of being a mediocre athlete in a place where everyone was expected to participate in all sports. In between laughs, we learn of his inability to control himself when he is angry, and his theory behind why that is so. We learn of his experience with religion and God, his family, and of revelations he's had about his childhood now that he's grown and studied psychology, and his realization of what truly makes someone a hero.
Having never read a novel of Chris Crutcher's this reviewer is at a disadvantage to point out what childhood stories Crutcher drew upon for his novels or how much of himself is inserted into each of his stories. Judging from this biography, I'm certain that many of his characters share his acerbic wit and short temperament. That said, the stories of childhood that King of the Mild Frontier is filled with are both funny and insightful to the experiences, good and bad, that have formed this person Chris Crutcher.
The timeline of the story changes from chapter to chapter, placing the reader when Crutcher was 6 at one moment and in high school the next. I will not call this a disadvantage of the book because I'm sure some readers will enjoy the plotting, but I will say that at times it took me a moment to catch up to what was going on.
Teens will read this book because it is easy to identify with the trials of high school, athletics, girls, and family (especially older siblings). Each humiliating event after the other, from getting shot in the head with a BB gun to getting his teeth busted by a baseball bat will make teens cringe and laugh. They will keep reading because Crutcher's style makes each story hilarious. And when they finish they will have gleaned the wisdom that a hero is not simply some great athlete, but everyday people who manage to overcome a real problem and spend every day using all their strength to keep overcoming those obstacles. For a genre that is hard to persuade most teens to read, this book gives teachers and librarians something to work with. Recommended for readers in high school.
Image taken from: http://www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/2/9780060502492.jpg
ISBN: 9780547237602
As the only student in his class not to have religious instruction on Wednesday afternoons, Holling Hoodhood was all that stood between Mrs. Baker and an afternoon off. For that reason he knows that she's out to get him. Enlisting the help of his parents is impossible. His father places business over everything and expects Holling to not cause any trouble that may damage their reputation. It's 1967 and there's a war going on in Vietnam, on college campuses across America, and in the Hoodhood household between Hollings parents and his sister, Heather. After a few rough Wednesdays in which chalk dust ruins some dessert, and two killer rats are set loose, Holling and Mrs. Baker settle in to reading Shakespeare each week, ultimately creating a rapport that guides Holling through life's obstacles and gives Mrs. Baker, whose husband is away at war, something to focus on.
For people in America today who feel unaffected by what's going on in the world, this novel does of great job of showing how major world events can affect every family in even the smallest neighborhood. The Vietnam war has not only taken the husbands of women like Mrs. Baker, it has also brought children like Mai Thi, a Vietnamese orphan, to America where she periodically experiences prejudice and cruelty. The unrest in the country divided households like Holling's as his sister followed the 'flower child' political view despite the disapproval and disgust of their father. Essentially, Schmidt brings us to 1967 and makes us feel as though we've now lived through part of it.
Also well done in this story is the coming of age transformation of Holling. Each month, each play, each major event and decision he makes lead him to exchange between him and his father in which they debate what makes a man a man, and his father asks the question, "so who are you Holling?" The reply is that he doesn't know yet, but you can be sure that whoever he turns out to be, he will have chosen that path for himself.
Each chapter of this book represents the events of one month, giving readers not as strong as others good places to leave off. The story is continuous, but each month is dominated by a major theme or event, such as Holling's relationship with Meryl Lee, or Holling joining the track team. Each set of events in Holling's life also mimic the Shakespeare plays he is reading with Mrs. Baker, making this novel a better read for high school students who've been exposed to Shakespeare.
Image taken from: http://www.melissacwalker.com/blog/wednesday%20wars.jpg
ISBN: 9780375831003
Three times death notices Liesel Meminger as he completes his never ending work of collecting the souls of the dead during World War II. The third time, he rescues from the garbage a hand written book titled The Book Thief; the writing of which saved Liesel's life. Liesel and her brother are sent to live with the Hubermanns as foster children. Her brother dies on the train ride there and is buried in the snow. One of the grave diggers drops a book, which Liesel takes even though she cannot yet read. In the Hubermanns she finds loving, if strange, parents. Rosa's words are often sharp, though the tone betrays her love. Hans is kind to a fault, which causes much difficulty under a Nazi regime. With Hans she learns to read the book she has stolen, a guide to grave digging, and soon hungers for more books to devour. Stealing books from the Mayor's wife with her best friend and cheering up the Jew hidden in the basement color Liesel's days until one day, as Death is not afraid to tell you, a lot of people die, though not Liesel because she was in the basement writing her book.
The narration of this story is the most excellently done aspect. Personifying death as someone who likes to notice colors and must perpetually take vacations in his mind to escape all the suffering he sees somehow makes humans bent on destruction and people living in pain seem more frightening than he is. Also well done are his frequent interjections with either: a note, or a definition, or explanation, or description of something in the story. Typically such exposition must be worked in by the main character or inferred in the description somewhere, but having death flat out explain that BDM stands for the Band of German Girls saves the reader some trouble.
Another thing excellently done and essential to the success of the book is that the author brings each and every character to life. Death makes very clear that most of these people are doomed to die but when it actually happens it is still surprisingly heartbreaking because the reader has come to care for the silly boy next door who only wants a kiss from Liesel. This is also important because it humanizes Germans living in Nazi Germany. Many times it is easy to believe that all Germans were inhuman automatons, and this book reminds us that there were real people with opposing view points just trying to survive and help their friends do the same.
This book is on the long side at 550 pages, but I think teens will remain hooked in the story as they read to find out the fate of Max, the Jew being hidden in the Hubermann's basement, or of Hans when he is sent off to war or to see if Liesel ever gives in and kisses Rudy. I would recommend this to readers 8th grade and up.
Image taken from: http://www.itsallwrite.net/aspbite_protect/imagemod/00000521_the%20book%20thief.jpg
Monday, November 8, 2010
ISBN 9780439023511
In the concluding novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss finds herself a refugee in District 13, previously thought to be devoid of all life. As a survivor of two Hunger Games and devastated by the capture of Peeta, Katniss is understandably troubled by nightmares and hallucinations commonly found in post traumatic stress patients. Across the districts all out war has commenced, with 13 doing everything in their power to prosecute the war all the way to the capital, including trying to recruit Katniss to film inspiring Mockingjay propaganda videos to spur on troops. Katniss is distrustful of 13, especially Alma Coin, the president. What follows in this book is an epic sized Hunger Games on a grand scale, with Katniss being used as a pawn by both sides of the fight. In the end Katniss' troubles all seem for naught, and as a woman with everything she loved stripped from her, makes the decision to kill the new President Coin to avoid a repeat of the same society she was fighting against.
Collins has already proven that she is not afraid of depictions of violence to children in this series and that trend continues here. Interestingly she does shy away from describing in detail the sexual perversions done to Finnick, and I wonder that she included it at all since the violence of the regime was quite enough to have me against President Snow.
This past September a Booklist reviewer said that this book shows, "that war mixes all the slogans and justifications, the deceptions and plans, the causes and ideals into an unsavory stew whose taste brings madness. That there is still a human spirit yearning for good is the book's primrose of hope." Dystopian novels work well for teens because they are supposedly not yet cynical about the world, that teens still have hope. That hope in this novel seems very obscure and hard to find for me. Or perhaps it is just that Katniss, after having hope for the whole series, seems to lose it after she kills Coin. By killing Coin she's expressing one last hope that their society can and will do better. She retreats to a simple life with Peeta and takes many years of convincing to bring children into the world. I guess frankly I was disappointed that the ending was so dismal. The ending did bring to mind the "cultivate your garden" message in Voltaire's Candide.
Each chapter is packed with either heart-rending or heart-stopping action that will have teens flying through the novel in no time. Due to the graphic violence of the novel though I'd only recommend it for mature teens in 9th grade and up.
Image taken from: http://www.bookpage.com/the-book-case/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/mockingjay.jpg
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