Take Me to the Beach: Young Adult Novels

Last summer, I discovered that YA novels are the perfect beach read: quick and compelling, sometimes hauntingly beautiful. So here are my reviews from last summer, along with the list of books I'm looking forward to reading.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. Loved it and have recommended it to nearly everyone I know. A short novel (just over 200 pages) about a 10th grade girl who embodies non-conformity. Whimsical and thought-provoking.

Looking for Alaska by John Green. Liked it and still remember haunting parts. A book that is almost universally recommended for its strong narrative voice about young men at a boarding school. I think I stopped short of loving it only because I'm not a big fan of male boarding school novels. :)

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson. Loved it. Well-written, with a plot that isn't predictable, this is a novel about a teen father who decides to raise his child.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. Disappointing. Described as blending the science fiction, medical thriller, and teen-relationship genres, the story follows a young woman who wakes from a coma and struggles with issues of memory and identity. I just couldn't come to care about any of the characters, and the story line kind of creeped me out.

The New Policeman by Kate Thompson. Disappointing, and I'm not sure why. This just felt like a young adult novel? A young son sets out to find more time for his mother in the world of Irish faeries and myth. I vastly preferred the adult novel by Charles DeLint The Little Country.

And I can strongly recommend The Book Thief (by Zusack), Speak (by Anderson), Perks of Being a Wallflower (by Chbosky), Life on the Refrigerator Door (by Kuipers), Undercover (by Kephart), and White Darkness (by McCaughrean).

And here are this year's "To Be Read" beach books:

Feed by MT Anderson. The cover just isn't appealing, but repeatedly people have told me this is a great book. Amazon describes it as a "brilliantly ironic satire is set in a future world where television and computers are connected directly into people's brains when they are babies." Hm.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Picked by Gallo as "one of the best of the year," this is loved by amazon reviewers (one teen writes, "If you have the chance to only read one novel this year, THIRTEEN REASONS WHY should be that book"). The story of a young woman who leaves thirteen people with recorded messages telling why she committed suicide.

You Remind Me of You by Eireann Corrigan. Described as "one of the most powerful novels ever written in verse," the book is described by Amazon as a compelling memoir of one young woman's struggle with anorexia. I'm drawn by the chapter titles: "She Tries Out for Varsity Recklessness and Only Makes JV," and "She Never Claimed Reliable Narrator Status."

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. I've had this one on my shelf and I'm intrigued by the illustrations that make up well over half of the book. This mystery (described as "sumptuous") tells the story of an orphan living in a Parisian train station and a mysterious automaton. I can't wait!

My other choices include Bud, Not Buddy (Curtis), The Giver (Lowry), Milkweed (Spinelli), and The Stones are Hatching (McCaughrean).

The Peace of Wild Things

I've been reading a book by Philip Yancey and have fallen in love with this poem he quotes:

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Arguing for Essays: I have been guilty of cruelty to vegetables

Essay: to test the value or nature of a thing; to try something for the first time; to make a tentative attempt. I've come to appreciate essays this summer as short morsels, humorous or thought-provoking musings on a subject. At only two or three pages long, what's not to love?

Recently, I've been enjoying the essays of G.K. Chesterton (mentioned often as one of the key influences on C.S. Lewis). Here are some of my favorite bits that make the argument for essays better than I ever could:

"A dream is scarcely ever rounded to express faultlessly some faultless idea. An angel might indeed open a scroll before the dreamer, but it would probably be inscribed with some remark about excursion trains to Brighton; a knight in armour might ride by him, but it would be impossible to deny that the most salient fact about the warrior was the fact that he was wearing three hats....Dreams have a kind of hellish ingenuity and energy in the pursuit of the inappropriate." ("Dreams")

"I have been guilty of cruelty to vegetables." ("Some Policemen and a Moral")

"The whole pleasure of marriage is that it is a perpetual crisis." ("David Copperfield")

"The primary feeling that this world is strange and yet attractive is best expressed in fairy tales." ("The Flag of the World")

"What is the matter with the pessimist? I think it can be stated that he is the cosmic anti-patriot." ("The Flag of the World")

"...keep close to your heart, keep deep in your inner councils, the absurd people....let the laughable people whose faults you see and understand be the only people who are really inside your life, who really come near you or accompany you on your lonely march towards the last impossibility." ("David Copperfield")

Jigsaw Poetry

I’d like to try adapting an idea suggested by Harvey Daniels in his article “Expository Text in Literature Circles.” I’m intrigued by his “jigsaw”groups, “where different members are reading different texts on the same subject.” Daniels uses this variation on literature circles with short expository texts (so that students read different articles or chapters on anything from spiders to pollution).

What would happen if jigsaw groups were used with poetry? That is, could members choose different poems on the same subject (for example, different World War I poems), or different poems by the same author (different Emily Dickinson poems)? And if so, how would this discussion be different from normal class discussions of poetry?

One of the key differences I see is that students would have the choice of what to read. And I think it does make a difference when students are allowed to choose an author to read, or choose a subject (see the article by Carol Jago, assigned for Week 6, “When Students Choose the Poems” for ideas that might help make this work. Jago describes bringing poetry collections into the classroom for browsing.) It seems reasonable to think that the teacher or a librarian would have to help students who want to read about a specific subject (mountains, cars, technology) and would have to help them identify poems about the subject—although it’s possible that a good search engine could do some of this work also.

Poetry “jigsaw groups” are something I’d like to try with my classes, encouraging students to read and discuss poem that aren’t assigned.

Sliding into Summer?

Last week, while searching for bargain’s at TJ Maxx, I overheard two women discussing their kids’ summer plans. One mom insisted to the other, “I hate these reading lists. Kids shouldn’t have to read during the summer. That’s their time off.” I didn’t interrupt to argue, but here’s what I would have said:
•Children learn at roughly the same pace throughout the school year, but during summer, “the reading gap between low- and middle-income children widens by more than three months” (Chin & Phillips, 2005, p. 22).
•The cumulative effect of this “summer slide” can add “up to a two-year learning gap by the time low-income pupils are in middle school” (K. MacPherson, “Reading, prevent the summer slide,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 27 June 2004).
•“The magnitude of such loss increases as children reach higher grade levels, and even advanced readers are vulnerable (in R.R. Kahlenbert, “Cracking the books is now a year-round assignment,” in Washington Post, 27 July 2004).
•Despite research that suggests that the summer months are most critical for low-achieving students, many schools “have been mandating summer reading only for their best students: those in honors” (L.K. Solomon, “Many schools require summer reading only for the best students,” sunsentinel.com, 1 Aug. 2005). Schools justify this decision by explaining their concerns that lower-achieving students do not have parents who will enforce summer reading or who will purchase the books. Schools say they can no longer afford to purchase books for all students. One principal was quoted as saying that he views required summer reading as “unenforceable” (Solomon, 2005). Similarly, in the Pittsburgh Public high schools, at the same time as Summer Reading Achievers Program was being piloted for younger students, only AP students and those in the scholars program were given required summer reading—other high school students received only a list of suggested titles (MacPherson, 2004).

But there’s good news:
•“Research has shown that kids who read as few as six books over the summer can maintain their skills” says Maria Salvadore, quoted in MacPherson article (2004). Kim’s study (2004) suggests students should read at least four to five books during the summer.
•And any book is a good book. So I’m a strong advocate of giving kids lots of choices and motivations to read anything that they want over the summer. Reading is the key, and motivating reading is the job of teachers, librarians, and parents.

Reading while I'm Driving

While it's true that I read while driving (while stuck in traffic on a local bridge where I can easily read a chapter during the rush-hour crossing), I've also begun to "read" while I'm driving down expressways at 65 mph. Yup, it's audio books.

I'm convinced that some books are better listened to than read. Here are some recent favorites:

SHADOW DIVERS. As if death underwater (both during WWII and current risky diving expeditions off New Jersey) isn't exciting enough, this book's New Jersey tough-guy accents are riveting. Yikes.

OUT STEALING HORSES. The book's account of a young Norwegian boy's life-changing summer in 1948 (with flashbacks to the WWII Nazi occupation of his country) is powerful and beautifully written. It's even better when read by a narrator who makes you feel the story with a great performance/delivery.

THE MONSTERS OF TEMPLETON. I started the book and was bored, so I borrowed the CDs from the library so I could finish the book more quickly. WOW. It wasn't until I heard it read that I realized it was a very ironically funny and absurdist story. Great to listen to (what was I thinking while reading it?)

Reading Young Adult Novels

I've just finished reading oodles of book reviews of the latest YA novels, and I can't wait to dive into my wish list. Here are titles I'm hoping to read:

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
This novel tops my list and was recommended to me by a librarian friend. The book has received wildly positive reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and Publisher’s Weekly. Described as blending the science fiction, medical thriller, and teen-relationship genres, the story follows a young woman who wakes from a coma and struggles with issues of memory and identity.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
A short novel (just over 200 pages) about a 10th grade girl who embodies non-conformity. Sounds like charming fun, with underlying serious themes.

Sold by Patricia McCormick
50 reviews on amazon and an average rating of five stars (wow!), this is a novel of a young Nepalese girl sold into prostitution by her parents. I’m guessing this will appeal to those who enjoyed The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Feed by M.T. Anderson
This book has been on my “to read” list for three years; everyone I know who has read it has loved it. (it is a science fiction tale about advertising that is piped directly into the brain). What I also learned is that another title I’ve heard good things about is by the same author: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation.

Looking for Alaska by John Green
A book that is almost universally recommended for its strong narrative voice about young men at a boarding school.

A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary E. Pearson
Gorgeous language is the repeated refrain from strong reviews for this novel about a young woman caring for her alcoholic mother.

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
Amazon customers and critics alike love this novel about a teen father who decides to raise his child. I like that the novel is described as “poetic.”

A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass
A novel about synesthesia—a medical condition that supposedly affects John Mayer and the painter, Kadinsky. I’m intrigued to read and learn more.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
A critically acclaimed page-turner and a historical novel—I’m hooked. Set in the early 1900s, this is the story of a young woman caught up in the story of an actual historical murder mystery. Interestingly, amazon customers who view the book are highly likely to buy one of the Twilight series novels.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
This novel about vampires is described as hopelessly romantic—and my daughter read it in one day. I want to know what all the buzz is about!

The New Policeman by Kate Thompson
A young son sets out to find more time for his mother. Well-reviewed and loved by customers, this novel is set in Ireland and the world of myth. Sounds like DeLint’s The Little Country?

Other picks: Ironside by Holly Black (fairies), Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett (Disc-world for younger readers), Just Listen by Dessen (parallels Anderson’s Speak), West of the Jordan by Halaby (Palestinian young woman), The Earth, my Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler (great title!), Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson (I’ve loved her other books)

And great books I’ve read and can strongly recommend: The Book Thief (by Zusack), Speak (by Anderson), Perks of Being a Wallflower (by Chbosky)

Truth or Dare?

Remember the kids' sleepover game "Truth or Dare?" You could either answer a question with truth--or take The Dare (things like running naked to the mailbox and back or drinking a concoction of gunk that your friends assembled from odd liquids in the refrigerator).

I used to think about non-fiction in much the same way as "truth"--slightly scary, and usually a whole lot more boring than the other options available. But in the last five years, friends have recommended non-fiction books: memoirs, histories, even "information" books, and I've found that the Truth can be pretty exciting, too.

Here's a brief list of some of my favorites:

• The Lost King of France by Deborah Cadbury. This book solves the mystery of the fate of Marie Antoinette's son by combining historical detective work and DNA science. The truth is horrifying.


• Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo. The book's subtitle, "A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence" doesn't begin to communicate the campy creepiness of this account of the real-life shark attacks on which the movie "Jaws" was based. Eeeeeew.


• Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides. This is the account of the harrowing mission to rescue the survivors of the Bataan Death march. It's an "edge of your seat" book.


• The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs. A laugh-out-loud memoir about one man's attempt to follow ALL the rules of the Bible for one year. The photos of his out-of-control facial hair are alone worth a peek.


• An American Childhood by Annie Dillard. Dillard's writing is pure poetry, and this book is about growing up in Pittsburgh. What else could you want?!

Oh! Weakness of Joy

"Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy,

The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy,

With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won,

I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn. "

Just this year I discovered the British poet John Betjeman and all his wonderful eccentric rhymes and playfulness. Betjeman was a contemporary of many of the poets I teach (TS Eliot, WH Auden), yet he isn't included in the Norton Anthology of British Literature. Philip Larkin said that "The quickest way to start a punch-up between two British literary critics is to ask them what they think of the poems of Sir John Betjeman. For while their author has attained nearly every honour open to a writer of verse in this country, his work and its reputation still evoke a remarkable variety of response here."

I want to throw the first punch in support of Betjeman's work, specifically the poem "A Subaltern's Love Song" (an excerpt from the poem begins this post, and I'll include the entire poem at the end).

Why do I like this poem? Let me count the ways: first, it's a comic love poem, and I love British humor (humour?!). Secondly, it rhymes in ways that invite me to laugh and bounce along with it, like a tennis ball gaily hopping across the surface of a grass court on a country estate in rural England. Thirdly, I love the ways the words feel in my mouth when I read it out loud. The diction is impudent and surprising: this is the only poem I've ever read to use the word "euonymus," and I love the line "Oh! strongly adorable tennis-girl's hand!" And lastly, there's the satisfying ironic twist of an ending. So read and enjoy--and lament that Betjeman, despite being poet laureate, isn't viewed as "serious" enough to join the Official Canon of British Literature as selected by Norton--or Longman. He's just too accessible, too much fun?

A Subaltern's Love Song
by John Betjeman

Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Miss J. Hunter Dunn,

Furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun,

What strenuous singles we played after tea,

We in the tournament - you against me!

Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy,

The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy,

With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won,

I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn.

Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,

How mad I am, sad I am, glad that you won,
The warm-handled racket is back in its press,

But my shock-headed victor, she loves me no less.

Her father's euonymus shines as we walk,

And swing past the summer-house, buried in talk,

And cool the verandah that welcomes us in

To the six-o'clock news and a lime-juice and gin.

The scent of the conifers, sound of the bath,

The view from my bedroom of moss-dappled path,

As I struggle with double-end evening tie,

For we dance at the Golf Club, my victor and I.

On the floor of her bedroom lie blazer and shorts,

And the cream-coloured walls are be-trophied with sports,

And westering, questioning settles the sun,

On your low-leaded window, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.

The Hillman is waiting, the light's in the hall,

The pictures of Egypt are bright on the wall,

My sweet, I am standing beside the oak stair

And there on the landing's the light on your hair.

By roads "not adopted", by woodlanded ways,

She drove to the club in the late summer haze,

Into nine-o-clock Camberley, heavy with bells

And mushroomy, pine-woody, evergreen smells.

Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,

I can hear from the car park the dance has begun,

Oh! full Surrey twilight! importunate band!

Oh! strongly adorable tennis-girl's hand!

Around us are Rovers and Austins afar,

Above us the intimate roof of the car,

And here on my right is the girl of my choice,

With the tilt of her nose and the chime of her voice.

And the scent of her wrap, and the words never said,

And the ominous, ominous dancing ahead.

We sat in the car park till twenty to one

And now I'm engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.

Book Hoarding

I collect books the way my daughter collects shoes: I am the Imelda Marcos of paperbacks. Sometimes, when I don't have time to read, I browse used bookstores and gather books for a more relaxed future when there will be time (and indeed, there will be time, as Eliot says). If I don't own at least fifteen paperbacks that are on my "to be read" list, I get twitchy. Libraries are fine for the latest hardcovers, but it's paperbacks that I love to own, paperbacks that can be stuffed in a purse, tossed into a glove compartment, left on an airplane when I've finished.

And paperbacks are great for lending to others, although my friends are in default on many loans. And that's another reasonable excuse for hoarding books, for collecting multiple copies of my favorites: if one doesn't find its way back home, there's an insurance copy on the shelf.

Virtually Reading

Location, location, location. It's not just real estate, it's also about reading. It's an interesting question: where do you read? I read in restaurants (while I'm eating alone), in the car (while I'm driving, or at least in stop-and-go traffic), in checkout lines, in beach chairs, in gardens, on airplanes, and best of all, in bed. And since I'm a blogger, I obviously read on computers. But thus far, there's not much about the new electronic books (like the Kindle) that interests me. Do I really want to read a "device"? Sure, for long trips, it might be nice to slip one little electronic device into my purse instead of cramming a stack of books into a corner of my suitcase, but there are so many odd pleasures to the stack of books that I would miss: the search for paperbacks that can be left like gifts in airports and on trains when I've finished with them, the guilty pleasure in cracking a book's spine or turning down the corner of a page, and the opportunity to underline, draw smiley faces, or pose questions in the margins. I own books so that I can write in books. And writing electronic notes in the margins doesn't seem to allow for drawings and doodles, nor does it allow for the quirky pleasures of reading someone else's marginalia. There's a tactile pleasure to books, a physical presence that is seductive: I love the smell of old books; the feel of leather bindings; the heft of fat, meaty texts; the measuring of a bookmark that says "almost done now."

Increasingly, we're living in a virtual world of ubiquitous electronic communications. And the new literacies have their own appeal: I've e-mailed my college-aged daughter long, chatty missives far more often than I would have in the days of snail mail letter-writing; blogs offer a wonderful mixed media venue for sharing words and images; and at last night's high school Class Night, students and parents were received breaking text-message updates on the score and action of the Stanley Cup hockey final as the superintendent droned on and on.

But I draw the line at electronic books. While Kindles and their kin may offer convenience, like plastic gnomes (as opposed to those crafted from ceramic or cast iron), they have no souls.

In Defense of Trash Novels

“In the same way, after a certain kind of sherry party where there have been cataracts of culture but never one word or one glance that suggested a real enjoyment of any art, any person, or any natural object, my heart warms to the schoolboy on the bus who is reading Fantasy and Science Fiction, rapt and oblivious of all the world beside. For here also I should feel that I had met something real and live and unfabricated; genuine literary experience, spontaneous and compulsive, disinterested. I should have hopes of that boy. Those who have greatly cared for any book whatever may possible come to care, some day, for good books. The organs of appreciation exist in them. They are not impotent. And even if this particular boy is never going to like anything severer than science-fiction, even so,

The child whose love is here, at least doth reap
One precious gain, that he forgets himself.

I should still prefer the live dog to the dead lion…”

• From C.S. Lewis's "Lilies that Fester"

I've been thinking about summer reading and beach novels, and I've been wondering if I shouldn't buy a book cover to hide the washboard abs of the young man featured on the front of the latest book I'm reading, my first "summer-time reading." After all, English teachers are supposed to read Pulitzer Prize winners and Booker award-winning fiction, and I always wince a bit when asked "What's that you're reading?" when the cover of the book I'm holding is pink and the content is fluff. But then I remembered this CS Lewis quotation, and I realized that there are a lot of live dogs that I love: Watermelon by Marion Keys, Lucky You by Carl Hiaassen, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, The Terracotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri, and Knave's Wager by Loretta Chase. And then there are the dead lions whose corpses I never want to revisit: Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The Prairie by James Fennimore Cooper, most of Catcher in the Rye and nearly every novel that Hemingway ever wrote.

So I want to start this blog by defending bad books, books that may have not been censored, but which have been mocked and dismissed. This summer, Iwhile I'll read some classics and prize winners, I also plan to take a bad book to the beach, tuck a trash novel into my purse, and curl up on the couch with a really predictable bit of banal writing. And I want to post the "Readers' Bill of Rights" as set forth by Daniel Pennac in Better than Life:

Readers' Bill of Rights
Allow yourself...
1. The right not to read.

2. The right to skip pages.

3. The right to not finish.

4. The right to reread.

5. The right to read anything.

6. The right to escapism.

7. The right to read anywhere.

8. The right to browse.

9. The right to read out loud.

10. The right to not defend your tastes