Realistic Fiction

                                                                     

                                                                          Thirteen Reasons Why

                                                                                    By Jay Asher

Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why. New York: Penguin Group, 2007.

ISBN: 9781595141712   304 Pages, Reading Level: 3.9 Lexile: 550L Interest Level: 9-12

There are places in the heart that do not yet exist; suffering has to enter in for them to come to be.”

(Leon Bloy)

                Image hearing from someone from beyond the grave!  That is exactly what happens to Clay Jensen when he receives a box of audio-cassette tapes delivered to him by mail with no return address.  It seems that he is not the first to receive the package nor will he be the last. Contained within the package are 7 audio cassette tapes, 6 of which are double sided with the 7^th having only one side.  The surprise comes when Clay discovers the tapes are from Hannah Baker, a girl who committed suicide two weeks previously. Not only was Hannah a classmate, but it turns out that Clay secretly had a crush on her.

            As Clay makes the decision to comply with Hannah’s instructions on the tapes, we find Clay moving through an emotional state of being as he listens to the tapes in order and follows Hannah’s instructions to visit different places of importance to her slowly revealing story.  As the story unfolds, we read the back and forth dialogue of Hannah’s recorded story/comments and Clay’s overlapping ones.  Hannah is providing Clay with a telling of the 13 reasons why she ultimately decided to take her own life.

            From the moment I started reading this book, I found myself riveted to the story.  How did Clay fit into the picture? Why was Hannah giving him so much detail about other people? What is she trying to relay to Clay? The back and forth voices of the characters of Hannah and Clay provide the reader with a sense of both individuals – their reactions to different situations, different people, their individual personalities, and what high school life for them resembles.  Throughout the story, we are reminded how carelessly people can treat other people either deliberately or through short sightedness or simply by not paying attention.  I was amazed by the control the author had over his story and the way he presented it.  It flowed beautifully from beginning to end.  I thought the tapes were a terrific device to allow Hannah to have a voice after her death.  Having only Clay’s reactions to the tapes made for a “tight” story line that still managed to fill in all the details.

            I must admit that I probably would not have read this book had it not been required for our class. I did not find the cover particularly appealing nor was I attracted by the particular premise of the story until I started reading. What a terrific book – not light and cheerful - but so worth reading.

            There are untold numbers of young adult realistic fiction books, but I must admit that I am having a great deal of trouble cross referencing this particular book to another title.  Perhaps with some distance from the actual reading, I will be able to recommend other titles that strike a similar cord.  As of now, I find this particular book to new and unique to take that step.
        Having written the above and now had the distant from the story, I have looked at any number of fiction titles concerning suicide and have found a number of books that are wrapped around the subject. In some books the act of suicide is final, in one, Trigger,  it fails and the story tells the aftermath. In yet another, blame is assigned for causing a person to commit suicide and the issue of revenge upon that person is the story line (What Happened to Cass McBride).  All of the books in this list have well reviewed entries and are current time wise - published since 2005.  I have read two out of the list and don't know why I didn't originally make connections. The others are on my ever expanding need to read list.  I would recommend these titles for high school students, grades 9 through 12.   

By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead
by Julie Anne Peters

Impulse
by Ellen Hopkins

Stay with Me
by Garrett Feymann-Weyr

Trigger
by Susan Vaught

Walking on Glass
by Alma Fullerton

What Happened to Cass McBride
by Gail Giles

Death of Jayson Porter
by Jaimie Adoff

           

           

               

Author Pathfinder: Sharon M. Draper

Out of My Mind

 Latest Release

About the Author:  Sharon M. Draper      

(picture from Library of Congress – National Book Festival site)

Have you ever read a book and found yourself wondering about the author – who is he/she really, how and why do they write, what other books/stories have they written?

Here is your chance to enter the world of Sharon M. Draper. And -what an interesting world it is!  Sharon Draper is not only an award winning author of young adult and children books, she has also written professional books for teachers. She was a teacher for 25 years and was honored in 1997, by then President Clinton, with the title of “U.S. Teacher of the Year”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Let’s start our journey by looking at what the on-line Encyclopedia of World Biography has to say about Sharon Draper.

http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ca-Ge/Draper-Sharon.html

ProQuest Biographies

http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_id=xri:pqllit-US&rft_dat=xri:pqllit:reference:bio16645

Now let’s visit Mrs. Draper at her own official website.

          http://sharondraper.com

As you can see from her website, Sharon Draper provides a great deal of information about herself and her books, but she also remains very much the educator. 

BOOKS BY SHARON M. DRAPER

Just some of the books written by Sharon Draper:

Fire from the Rock

Double Dutch

Darkness Before Dawn

Romiette and Julio

Copper Sun

November Blues

On her website, Mrs. Draper provides details about the books she has written.
http://sharondraper.com/books.asp

Amazon maintains a Sharon Draper page at the following web address:

          http://www.amazon.com/Sharon-M.-Draper/e/B001IGNR7I

APPEARANCES, BOOK TALKS AND MORE

Through her publisher, the following webpage is maintained:

http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Sharon-M-Draper/706340

Mrs. Draper’s appearances at the Library of Congress – National Book Festival - are discussed at:

http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/kids-teachers/authors/sharon_draper.html

JOURNAL ARTICLES, REVIEWS ABOUT SHARON M. DRAPER

Sharon Draper named Teacher of the Year at White House ceremony

Anonymous. Jet. Chicago: May 12, 1997. Vol. 91, Iss. 25; pg. 25, 1 pgs

Contest-winner scores in education and art

Kelly Starling. Ebony. Chicago: May 1998. Vol. 53, Iss. 7; pg. 126, 3 pgs

A conversation with Sharon Draper, winner of the 1998 Coretta Scott King Award

Judy Hendershot, Jackie Peck. The Reading Teacher. Newark: Apr 1999. Vol. 52, Iss. 7; pg. 748, 3 pgs

Out of My Mind

Robin L Smith, The Horn Book Magazine(Boston) , Mar/Apr 2010, Vol. 86, Iss. 2, pg. 53 (Accessed ProQuest Literature database)

http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_id=xri:pqllit-US&rft_dat=xri:pqllit:criticism:1974337641

Romiette and Julio

Joy Freichs, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy(Newark) , Nov 2001, Vol. 45, Iss. 3, pg. 196 (Accessed ProQuest Literature database)

http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_id=xri:pqllit-US&rft_dat=xri:pqllit:criticism:89303100

CONTACT INFORMATION

          Information for contacting the author is listed on her website,

                   http://sharondraper.com

SOURCES:

Judy Hendershot, & Jackie Peck. (1999). A conversation with Sharon Draper, winner of the 1998 Coretta Scott King Award. The Reading Teacher, 52(7), 748-750.  Retrieved April 5, 2011, from Platinum Full Text Periodicals. (Document ID: 40453527).

Kelly Starling.  (1998, May). Contest-winner scores in education and art. Ebony, 53(7), 126-130.  Retrieved April 5, 2011, from Platinum Full Text Periodicals. (Document ID: 29062162).

Sharon Draper named Teacher of the Year at White House ceremony. (1997, May). Jet, 91(25), 25.  Retrieved April 5, 2011, from Platinum Full Text Periodicals. (Document ID: 11681512).



Tears of a Tiger



Non-Fiction Book Review

Non- Fiction Book Review

                        Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and Medicine

Dendy, Leslie and Mel Boring. Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science            and Medicine. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005.

ISBN: 978-0-8050-7316-4

213 p.

Reading Level: 8.2

Interest Level: 5-9

Lexile: 1100L

What seems like crazy to one person seems like commonsense to another.  In the book, Guinea Pig Scientists, the author details ten cases of medical/scientific experimentation that an individual or individuals pursued in their quest for answers to scientific inquiry. What makes these stories so extraordinary is that the named scientists experimented on themselves to obtain answers to their questions.  Information was always gained but the experiments did not always end happily for the scientist/doctor. The book chronicles just a few of the following tales:

Dr. Jesse Lazear dies after deliberately infecting himself with yellow fever from the bite of a mosquito.  He has shown that mosquitoes carried this deadly fever.

Thousands of lives are saved because of this connection being made.

 Madame Marie Curie while becoming the “mother of modern radiation therapy” suffers radiation burns all over her hands and dies from leukemia.

Lazzaro Spallanzani wants to find out how digestion works. Is our food ground up in our stomachs?  By swallowing a variety of objects in different states, he figures out how digestion takes place.

            The author cautions the reader in his introduction that experimentation on one’s self is not taken lightly. Most times, the experimenter is a trained professional with an understanding of the risks they are taking.  It is almost always done under strict guidelines and procedures.  There is risk however anytime self-experimentation is done.  It is not

something to be played out or treated as a whim. It is a regulated scientific study.

            This book was quite unusual in its content in that some of the people chronicled lived hundreds of years ago. Each chapter in the book ends with a section titled “Now We Know” which tells what we now know about the area of experimentation. The documentation in the book in relating the facts is amazing. There literally is an entire section devoted to resources used in writing the book.  The author also includes a timeline telling about other self-experimenters. Each chapter in the book ends with a section titled “Now We Know” which tells what we now know about the area of experimentation.

            In drawing comparisons to other books that approach how we gain practical scientific knowledge, I would list the book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach which deals with the knowledge gained by using human cadavers in various scenarios. Another book, Forty Years of Medical Racism: The Tuskeegee Experiments by Michael V. Uschan tells the opposite story of unethical medical studies/experiments when people being used are totally unaware of their participation.

             

           

           

Graphic Novel

   

Small, David. Stitches, A Memoir. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2009

National Book Award Finalist, 329 pages, Interest Level: 9^th grade +,

Reading Level: 3.2    ISBN: 978-0-393-06857-3

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

            In his graphic novel (memoir), David Smalls details the abuse which he experienced in his life from the age of six to the age of sixteen. Told through a series of often dark, gray-tone pen and ink drawings with some dialogue, Mr. Smalls’ recounting starts with the dysfunctional nature of his family and moves on through actual episodes where verbal and/or physical abuse occurred. The story speaks for itself as it moves forward in pictures, allowing the reader no chance to visually detach from what is happening. The graphic nature of the story allows no doubt in the reader’s mind and eye as to what is transpiring. The story is all the more sorrowful for its graphics.

            Within the story, David Small uses to great success, in several instances, the story of Alice in Wonderland and the white rabbit.  Both become a metaphor for what is happening in his life at the time of their mention or appearance.  It is quite effective especially when the white rabbit appears as a psychiatrist.

            Throughout the telling, one is struck by how alive the story becomes with the addition of the graphic format. One can read a memoir and understand what the author is trying to relate by their words but there is still a certain distance allowed. With the graphic format, you are pushed into the telling and it is very effective. It becomes hard to forget because you do not have to imagine it, you are being provided with graphic images by the author.  While the story is not pleasant, the graphic format allows the reader to appreciate the message the author is trying to deliver in a more tangible way.

            While I cannot say that I enjoyed the book, I can say that I found the graphic format to be an excellent means to relay the story to the reader. The fact that the author was both the writer and illustrator made all the difference to this particular book.  There would have been a totally different feeling had different people participated in the telling. After all, it was the author’s own personal story to tell and share.



Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm  by Ronald Wimberly 



            In the reading of this book, I could readily link it to numerous memoirs written about the horrors of child abuse, i.e.: A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer, but the books are different when a graphic presentation is used.  The following non-fiction books relate personal stories done in the graphic format.  Each in its own way is a compelling look at other people’s lives.



Maus by Art Spiegelman



Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by  Marjane Satrapi        

 




Pitch Black  by Youme Landowne  

           



Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic  by Alison Bechidel      

          





 

An Evening with Walter Dean Myers

“Scribble, Scribble, Scribble. A Life in Books”

                                                 Thursday, March 24, 2011   7:30PM

                                      Hyman Forum, the Athenaeum at Goucher College

            What a wonderful evening!  Walter Dean Myers was an engaging, often humorous speaker who led the audience through his journey from smart kid with a serious speech problem and life in a dysfunctional family to his present life as an award winning author. He gave a compelling look at his early life and the impact it had on his choice to become a writer.  

            Although born in West Virginia in 1937, he was sent to live in Harlem with adoptive foster parents at the age of three.  Although Harlem was a wonderful place to grow-up in at the time – Mr. Myers expressed how vibrant Harlem was during that time period – it was discouraging for the young Myers to find reading materials that he could identify with as an African American individual. School was difficult for him because of his serious speech problem and although he was a smart student, there were issues. He recounted fondly his fifth grade teacher – Mrs. Conway – making a huge impact on him by introducing him to a collection of books. He expressed that it was in finding and reading a short story by James Baldwin that he found that for which he had been searching.

            Having dropped out of high school, than serving in the army, Mr. Myers found his post-army work life consisting of a variety of low paying jobs.  He decided to pursue writing as a career.  Although selling his writing here and there – he acknowledged writing for the Enquirer - his first of many novels was published in 1975.  

            Mr. Myers graciously answered many questions from the audience and shared that he was a “fabulous pre-writer”.  He showed the audience a notebook in which he was outlining, developing characters, setting and timeline for a new book.  It was an interesting look at how he develops an idea into a book.  When asked if he was ever worried about writer’s block – he expressed that writer’s block was “an indulgence he could not afford”. I thought it was interesting that after the characters of a book are developed, he has them painted and cut out to hang on the wall of his office while he writes. Mr. Myers spoke about visiting jails and detention centers throughout the United States. One of the statistics that Mr. Myers brought up several times toward the end of his talk was – “there are 90,000 children in jails in the United States” – a statistic not only horrendous but troubling on many levels.  

            Overall, I found his “talk” to be truly informative and interesting.  It was wonderful to see all the young people in the audience. I would say that the majority of questions for Mr. Myers came from the younger set. 

            I am very glad that I went to hear Mr. Myers.  It was entertaining and a terrific glimpse into his writing process and what drives him to write.  Although I decided not to have books signed by Mr. Myers – I did purchase the book Kick which he co-wrote with a young man (now 17 years old) named Ross Workman. 

           

                                                                                   Beverly R. Hall

               Non-Western Book Review

   







Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Does My Head Look Big in This? New York: Scholastic Inc, 2008.

 360 pages, ISBN: 978-0-439-92233-3.  Also available in paperback 
Grades 7-12  
Reading Level 4.9 Lexile: 850L

           

To wear or not to wear, that is the question! (to paraphrase a famous author)

For 16 year old Amal, an Australian/Palestinian/Muslim teenager living in Australia, the decision to wear the hijab fulltime is an angst producing choice for which she knows there will be all kinds of repercussions.  Early on in the book, this is quite evident when she discusses the matter with her close friend Yasmeen.  Yasmeen’s response is as follows:

“ Well, duh! What are you trying to do to yourself? Isn’t it hard enough

with a last name the length of the alphabet? Now you want people to wonder

if you’re batting for Osama’s team? Stick with anonymity, girl!”

This is not enough to discourage Amal from deciding that she wishes to wear the Muslim head scarf as a “full-timer”.  Beginning with the return from winter vacation, Amal covers her head with the hijab and proceeds to dress with only her hands and face showing. 

            Even though Amal is the main character in the book and the book revolves at numerous times around her decision, it is also the story of teenagers and their interactions with each other, their families, and other adults.  It is a witty, sometimes humorous, sometimes sad look at their lives.  It is a particularly poignant glimpse of a girl who is very much like teens that we know or with whom we have come into contact. The book is an easy, entertaining read that paints a vivid picture of the scenes and dialogues between the characters. We can easily imagine Amal’s look of exasperation when the school president approaches her about giving a speech at the next forum meeting about “the topic of Islam and terrorism” (this is in response to the terrorist attacks in Bali).  As the conversation goes on, it becomes quite apparent that Amal has been asked to speak simply because she is Muslim. At one point, she says to Lara, the school president:

            “You’re Christian, right? (Amal)

…Yeah… what’s that got to do with anything? (Lara)

OK, well I’ll give the speech if you give a speech about the Ku Klux Klan. (Amal)

Huh? (Lara)

Yeah, why not? They’re really religious, so obviously what they did was textbook Christianity, right?” (Amal)  (pages 255-56)

            In looking at other young adult books, I am reminded of Sharon M. Draper’s November Blues, Melba Patillo Beals’ memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, and We Beat the Streets by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt (with Sharon Draper).  In November Blues, we meet the character of November who must deal with the life changing event of a teenage pregnancy while remaining in school.  In Warriors Don’t Cry, we read the true life story of Melba Pattillo Beals and the integration of Little Rock’s Central High. In We Beat the Streets, we have the true story of three young men growing up under rough circumstances who make a pact with each other to provide support to one another and follow their dreams.  These three books – one novel and two non-fictions –also remind us of the trials and tribulations of teen decision making, being caught up in history, or surviving despite the odds.