Gennifer Choldenko: Al Capone Does My Shirts

Louis Sachar: Holes

I totally forgot what an amazing story this is! This is the third reading of it, and I bawled at the end. Stanley Yelnats (stanley backwards) has terrible luck, doesn't like himself very much, and is forced to dig 5x5x5 holes in the middle of the desert as punishment ("this isn't a girl scout camp") for a crime he didn't commit.

Sachar weaves a family's history into the tale among the modern Stanley's detailed experience. The end of the story, while tidily wrapped up, is original and masterful in the manner the entire text was written.

Really a unique story, and I am SO glad I haven't (and won't) see the movie...I love the images of Caveman and Zero I have in my head, and have no desire to have anyone else's interpretation. I love my imagination!!

Definitely check this book out!

Jack Gantos: Hole in My Life

Even though the story is far from upbeat, Gantos doesn't tell a "woe as me" story of his incarceration. The events leading up to his arrest are told realistically, and the one theme that is weaved throughout is Gantos' desire to write--in any capacity. While his drug use and drinking were completely out of control, his lifestyle is essential to the story, but never appears preachy to the reader--which is slightly different from most Young Adult texts.

This is more of a story of a writers' journey to where he is today, told in a very matter-of-fact way without preaching or judging. Brutally honest and moving--I am glad Gantos published this text. He also alludes to several (more than 15) important books/authors in his journey, and could be great tool in the classroom. Students who enjoy nonfiction & biographies/memoirs will really enjoy this book. Potential writers would also benefit from reading this text as well. Check it out!

Jack Gantos: Joey Pigza Loses Control

Sharon Creech: Love That Dog

I bought and read this book the year it came out, after I had taken a “teaching writing” course down in Chicago and the instructor mentioned it. I had never encountered a book in verse before, and I instantly fell in love with it, especially since I know Myers’ works, and knew (and was/am familiar with) what an amazing writer he is. I have also been drawn to the format ever since reading this text, and most of my current favorites are books in verse.
The perspective Jack offers also enhances the read. I am not nearly as familiar with texts ideal for young boys/texts written for the young male perspective as I’d like to be, and this book opened up the possibility that I could become more familiar with quality books for boys. I think that Creech’s words contribute to my being able to identify with Jack’s perception and eloquent verbiage, but I have also come to the realization that truly good writers can write outside their gender.

The emotions that this book draws up in me also add to my love for the book. I bawl when I read Jack’s account of losing Sky, and when he is so thrilled that Mr. Walter Dean Myers read his letter and accepted his invitation. I know that thrill of getting what you have wished for, and I know the sorrow of a devastating loss. I can empathize with Jack’s hesitance in accepting poetry, and have experienced the confusion of not-really-getting what an author was getting at, and the frustration in trying to discern why I was being asked to study something that at the moment made little sense to me. I can identify with Jack’s awe of Myers, for if I were to meet my idol—and my idol responded to a request I made—I know I would be just as thrilled and “inspired” by such an event. I was explaining to one of my friends the premise of the book, and how moved Jack becomes by “Mr. Walter Dean Myers,” and I couldn’t help but well up in my description of the book’s events! I absolutely LOVE this book!

Patricia McCormick: Sold

Unbelievable. Written by the author of Cut, this is a series of vignettes from the perspective of a Nepalese girl who is sold at 13 and forced to work in a brothel. McCormick actually traveled to India and saw these brothels and spoke to some of the young women who were lucky to escape/be freed as she researched for this text--which makes it all the more heart-wrenching and emotional.
A really amazing and moving read--the imagery and details McCormick uses allow a topic foreign to most readers a more intimate relationship with those who delve into this text.
I bought it today & finished it today!

Stephenie Meyer : Twilight (Book One)

Ok, so the students have been insisting I read this. I bought it on FRIDAY, and just finished it. Haven't done much else (though I have alternated with reading Stephen King's On Writing too), and now that I am done I am quite irritated that I only have $2 and can't order the second book New Moon so I can read it.
Pretty quick read for a 497 page monster.
A modern, teen-age fairy tale of sorts--if you consider a story with great characters, vampires, and teen angst a fairy tale! :) The ending was sappy and I would have been fine with a different one, but I was pleased overall I spent the time with it.

Jonathan Stroud: The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Triliogy Book 2)

Just as good as the first in the trilogy! Bartimaeus is hilarious, and we actually get Kitty's perspective for alternating chapters. Something big is brewing, and I am looking forward to reading the third!

Janet Fitch--White Oleander

Where do I start? 446 pages of the most negative text I have ever read—including the YA novels I am so fond of!!

But I don’t want to start with the bad. I am positive that my negative is purely personal, and that the positive and amazing qualities of the text far outweigh anything I have to say.

The language was amazing. Lyrical, thick, metaphorically charged. I haven’t read anything like it before—maybe weetzie bat comes close, but that was a blink of a text while this one took endless amounts of mulling over, thinking, processing, soaking up the words—time…

Fitch must have taken an eternity to come up with such a wide array of metaphors, similes and poetry. Not a page goes by without one it seems. It distracted me initially, but then as I got deeper entrenched, it was as if the language became mine as I was immersed in it…only to be forced back into reality when I had to put it down (life, it gets in the way sometimes).

I read for several reasons. Sometimes pleasure reading is the motive—and I can pick up Harry Potter and lose myself for a while. Sometimes I need more information—research on essay revision to help students with their writing, textbooks, my journals—the English Journal/ALAN, etc. Sometimes I read to keep myself engaged with young adults today—I hope that by my wide-array of knowledge of YA texts, I can help reluctant readers find some text they could enjoy. Sometimes I read off a suggestion—White Oleander was just that—Ms. Nelson has her AP students read it (as an option), and I wanted to read what they have to read, so I did. All through my reading, if a student who had Ms. Nelson last year saw me reading it, or saw it on her shelves would rant and rave about how awesome a book it was.

So I read.

It is a fast-paced text once you get used to the thick wordiness and endless horrific encounters the protagonist endures. If you resign yourself to the notion in no way is this text awesome because of the story, then you will be totally satisfied and amazed by this book.

If you can look past the negative portrayal of women throughout the text, you will love this book. Keep in mind, not every image of women is completely negative. But, if you were to do a character study of every single woman in the text, you'd be hard pressed to find one that you would want your sister, mother, daughter, self to be.

If you want to read a book unlike any other, one in which the author has more artful craft with her words than I have in my little toe, this is the book for you.

Really, I am glad I read this book. I feel like I have been allowed into a secret world of word-appreciation and supreme usage!

:) At least give a shot!

BabyMouse--Beach Babe & Rock Star--Jennifer & Matthew Holm

I needed some lighter reading this weekend for a moment, and finally read the most recent two BabyMouse Graphic Novels. Both of them were entertaining and fun to read, Beach Babe had a good lesson (sister/little brother related), and Rock Star is a good version of "practice makes perfect." While many readers won't enjoy a graphic novel about a spunky imaginative mouse, those who are open to it and take a chance with one will find the heroine to be extremely fun to read. *Book 5 comes out this December--I am pumped!!*

**Note**
While I have been absent for QUITE some time, it wasn't for lack of reading!!!
I am nearly done with The Golem's Eye (book two in the Bartimaeus series) and have started on Harry Potter 6 finally...So, I have my "hands" in several texts right now! :)