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ENGL 7701:
Introduction to
Literature
Spring 2011
Select one of
the following
books focusing
on the theme
of challenges
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
In a stunning first novel, Anderson uses keen observations and vivid
imagery to pull readers into the head of an isolated teenager.
Divided into the four marking periods of an academic year, the
novel, narrated by Melinda Sordino, begins on her first day as a high
school freshman. No one will sit with Melinda on the bus. At school,
students call her names and harass her; her best friends from junior
high scatter to different cliques and abandon her. Yet Anderson
infuses the narrative with a wit that sustains the heroine through her
pain and holds readers' empathy. A girl at a school pep rally offers
an explanation of the heroine's pariah status when she confronts
Melinda about calling the police at a summer party, resulting in
several arrests. But readers do not learn why Melinda made the call
until much later: a popular senior raped her that night and, because
of her trauma, she barely speaks at all. Only through her work in art
class, and with the support of a compassionate teacher there, does
she begin to reach out to others and eventually find her voice.
Through the first-person narration, the author makes Melinda's pain
palpable: "I stand in the center aisle of the auditorium, a wounded
zebra in a National Geographic special." Though the symbolism is
sometimes heavy-handed, it is effective. The ending, in which her
attacker comes after her once more, is the only part of the plot that
feels forced. But the book's overall gritty realism and Melinda's
hard-won metamorphosis will leave readers touched and inspired.
Ages 12-up. (Publishers Weekly)
Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg
Senior quarterback Bobby Framingham is gay and
tired of keeping it a secret. He confides in a close
friend who promises not to tell, and then does.
Suddenly Bobby is in the spotlight, and raw
emotions come into play. His best girl friend is hurt
and disgusted. His coach insists that he's not really
gay. His teammates' reactions range from supportive
to freaked out to furious. In the meantime, his father
undergoes treatment for cancer, and the football
team comes together to prepare for a championship
game. The sports-action sequences are well drawn
and engaging, and the bond among teammates is
strong. Character interactions are believable and
often surprising, and Bobby is a likable narrator. A
few repetitive scenes are a small price to pay for a
thought-provoking, funny, and ultimately uplifting
story of self-actualization that masterfully defies
stereotypes about both coming out and team sports.
(School Library Journal)
The Disreputable History of Frankie
Landau Banks by E. Lockhart
In the summer between her freshman and sophomore years, Frankie
Landau-Banks transforms from “a scrawny, awkward child” with
frizzy hair to a curvy beauty, “all while sitting quietly in a suburban
hammock, reading the short stories of Dorothy Parker and drinking
lemonade.” On her return to Alabaster Prep, her elite boarding
school, she attracts the attention of gorgeous Matthew, who draws
her into his circle of popular seniors. Then Frankie learns that
Matthew is a member of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, an
all-male Alabaster secret society to which Frankie’s dad had once
belonged. Excluded from belonging to or even discussing the
Bassets, Frankie engineers her own guerilla membership by
assuming a false online identity. Frankie is a fan of P. G.
Wodehouse’s books, and Lockhart’s wholly engaging narrative, filled
with wordplay, often reads like a clever satire about the capers of the
entitled, interwoven with elements of a mystery. But the story’s
expertly timed comedy also has deep undercurrents. Lockhart
creates a unique, indelible character in Frankie, whose oddities only
make her more realistic, and teens will be galvanized by her brazen
action and her passionate, immediate questions about gender and
power, individuals and institutions, and how to fall in love without
losing herself. Grades 7-12. (Booklist)
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Steve Harmon, 16, is accused of serving as a lookout for a robbery of a
Harlem drugstore. The owner was shot and killed, and now Steve is in
prison awaiting trial for murder. From there, he tells about his case and
his incarceration. Many elements of this story are familiar, but Myers
keeps it fresh and alive by telling it from an unusual perspective. Steve, an
amateur filmmaker, recounts his experiences in the form of a movie
screenplay. His striking scene-by-scene narrative of how his life has
dramatically changed is riveting. Interspersed within the script are diary
entries in which the teen vividly describes the nightmarish conditions of
his confinement. Myers expertly presents the many facets of his
protagonist's character and readers will find themselves feeling both
sympathy and repugnance for him. Steve searches deep within his soul to
prove to himself that he is not the "monster" the prosecutor presented
him as to the jury. Ultimately, he reconnects with his humanity and
regains a moral awareness that he had lost. Christopher Myers's
superfluous black-and-white drawings are less successful. Their grainy,
unfocused look complements the cinematic quality of the text, but they do
little to enhance the story. Monster will challenge readers with difficult
questions, to which there are no definitive answers. In some respects, the
novel is reminiscent of Virginia Walter's Making Up Megaboy (DK Ink,
1998), another book enriched by its ambiguity. Like it, Monster lends
itself well to classroom or group discussion. It's an emotionally charged
story that readers will find compelling and disturbing. (School Library
Journal)
Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini
This wacky, irreverent novel stars an uncouth, smart, nerdy, but
sympathetic antihero, Jeremy Heere. The teen actually keeps
Humiliations Sheets on which he tallies the number and types of
affronts that he encounters in his daily life at his New Jersey high
school and finds solace in the evenings viewing Internet porn. When
the girl he secretly loves is cast opposite him in a school play, he
decides to find a way to break the mold he's built around himself so
that she will understand and reciprocate his admiration. Buying an
extreme bit of illegal nanotechnology in the back room of a Payless
shoe store, Jeremy swallows the "squip," which embeds itself in his
brain and advises him on all the cool things to say and do to impress
Christine. Vizzini has devised a hilarious alternate reality, very close
to the one available to Jeremy's real peers–Eminem is a pop-culture
presence (although he has recently died in this world). The squip
malfunctions when Jeremy takes Ecstasy (not only miscuing Jeremy
but also defaulting to Spanish), and so on. There are genuine and
serious issues of morality folded into this story, including Jeremy's
dilemma of how to make himself both attractive and sincere in
Christine's perception. Like Janet Tashjian's The Gospel According
to Larry (Holt, 2001), this novel has substance as well as flash, and
lots of appeal to bright teens. Although it is literary and funny, the
blatant sexual themes and use of profanity may limit its acceptability
in schools. (School Library Journal)
Black and White by Paul Volponi
"Kids who are different colors don't get to be all that tight in my
neighborhood. But we get past all that racial crap," says Marcus, an
African American senior whose best friend, Eddie, is white.
Together, the boys are known at school as Black and White. Both are
basketball stars entertaining scholarship offers from local New York
City colleges, but they risk everything for more spending money.
Considering fast-food jobs too demeaning, they turn to armed
stickups, and during their third robbery, they shoot and wound their
victim. In alternating chapters, Marcus and Eddie recount the
terrifying days after the event as they wait for the police to find and
arrest them. The disparate treatment each receives highlights their
racial divide, which is occasionally echoed on the streets in harsh
language full of hate: a man on the subway tells a white girl that
"niggers are going to fuck you, too." Using authentic voices that will
draw in both strong and reluctant readers, Volponi writes a taut
novel that avoids didacticism and deftly balances drama and passion
on the basketball court with each boy's private terror and anguish.
Teens will want to discuss the story's layered moral ambiguities,
heartbreaking choices, and, as Marcus says, "the line that separates
black and white." (Booklist)
Select one of the
following texts
focusing on the genre
plays
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
Recently, in my eighth grade English class, we read To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper
Lee. During our study of the 1930's in Alabama we were assigned to read another book
by an African American author. I chose A Raisin the Sun because my mom
recommended it. Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun written in 1959 is an
intriguing, must read play. This play shows the strength of an African-American
family's values and ability to stick together. They face many hard things that shock the
reader and the audience including an accidental pregnancy. They battle against harsh
prejudice and a system that attempts to keep them from having good opportunities to
improve their life. Hansberry does a good job of intertwining family hardships with the
individuality of each character. She develops each character personally and carries on
his or her traits through out the entire book. The attitude she takes towards the great
struggles of a Chicago family, Walter, Ruth, Mama, Beneatha and Travis Younger is
convincing because of her tone and description. She shows that life for an African
American person at this time is difficult and full of obstacles more challenging than the
ones that white people faced. Although A Raisin in the Sun takes place 29 years after To
Kill a Mockingbird, African American people are still treated with no respect and are
limited in their rights. Both stories constantly demolish African-American families'
dreams. Hansberry illustrates through her tone that the family life is rough and the
Youngers' are eager for a big change. This action in the plot causes excitement and
suspense. As a reader I constantly want the Younger family to over come their
challenges and do well in the future. In the same way, In To Kill A Mockingbird I was
always hoping that Tom Robinson would be freed. Although there are similarities in
the way black people are treated in both books, Lorraine Hansberry as a black author
develops her black characters more thoroughly than Harper Lee. Lorraine Hansberry
leaves her white characters to roles that are minor. I like this play because it is realistic
and shows how strong a family bond is no matter what comes between them. She really
showed how the Youngers' were struggling financially but still managed to succeeded
all of the obstacles in their way. (Amazon)
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
As usual, Arthur Miller was in rare form when he wrote "The
Crucilble." Although on the surface it is about the Salem Witch
Trials, Miller's true inspiration came from the Red Scare that
plagued Hollywood in the middle of the twentieth century (and
included his pal Elia Kazan). The fact that Miller wove factual
history with the hysteria of his day makes "The Crucible" all the
more chilling.
Throughout the course of the play, a collection of teenage girls
'confess' to having seen various women and men of the town of
Salem with the devil. This hysteria sweeps over the town as even the
authorities fall under the sway of these lying young girls. Caught in
the middle of these hysteronics is the Proctor family - John and
Elizabeth, who have struggled in the past, but are trying to rebuild
their marriage. They are rent apart when Elizabeth is suspected of
being a witch. John hopes to clear his wife's name, but only manages
to make matters worse for both of them.
The hysteria experienced in Salem is chilling in the fact that these
sorts of witch hunts occur today, in all different areas of society.
"The Crucible" shows how easily people can be swayed, with the
barest of evidence, to believe something that is false. Miller's play is
extremely well-written and informative, and almost too
frighteningly real. (Amazon)
Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose
Sequestered in a closed room, twelve jurors must
decide the fate of a young man who has been accused
of first-degree murder and faces the death penalty.
One juror must tactically argue to convince the other
jurors that this case has significant "reasonable
doubt." The talented cast, including Richard Kind,
Hector Elizondo, Robert Foxworth, Joe Spano and
Dan Castellanetta, provide 85 minutes of riveting
entertainment, recorded in front of a live audience.
The most trying aspect of this audiobook is matching
jurors with actors since the jurors are simply given
numbers and not names. The back cover of the
audiobook is very helpful; it offers a photo of each
actor along with his name and juror number. But it
can still be a bit frustrating since characters are
never referred to by name or juror number. This
slight confusion certainly will not prevent people
from enjoying this illuminating play about American
justice. (Publishers Weekly)
Select one of the
following books
focusing on the theme
of being different
Does My Head Look Big in This?
by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Like the author of this breakthrough debut novel, Amal is an
Australian-born, Muslim Palestinian "whacked with some seriously
confusing identity hyphens." At 16, she loves shopping, watches Sex
and the City, and IMs her friends about her crush on a classmate.
She also wants to wear the hijab, to be strong enough to show a
badge of her deeply held faith, even if she confronts insults from
some at her snotty prep school, and she is refused a part-time job in
the food court (she is "not hygienic"). Her open-minded observant
physician parents support her and so do her friends, Muslim,
Jewish, Christian, secular. Her favorite teacher finds her a private
space to pray. The first-person present-tense narrative is hilarious
about the diversity, and sometimes heartbreaking. For her uncle
who wants to assimilate, "foreign" is the f-word, and his overdone
Aussie slang and flag-waving is a total embarrassment. On the other
hand, her friend Leila nearly breaks down when her ignorant
Turkish mom wants only to marry her daughter off ("Why study?")
and does not know that it is Leila's Islamic duty "to seek knowledge,
to gain an education." Without heavy preaching, the issues of faith
and culture are part of the story, from fasting at Ramadan to
refusing sex before marriage. More than the usual story of the
immigrant teen's conflict with her traditional parents, the funny,
touching contemporary narrative will grab teens everywhere.
(Booklist)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time
Indian by Sherman Alexie
Arnold Spirit, a goofy-looking dork with a decent jumpshot, spends
his time lamenting life on the "poor-ass" Spokane Indian
reservation, drawing cartoons (which accompany, and often provide
more insight than, the narrative), and, along with his aptly named
pal Rowdy, laughing those laughs over anything and nothing that
affix best friends so intricately together. When a teacher pleads with
Arnold to want more, to escape the hopelessness of the rez,
Arnold switches to a rich white school and immediately becomes as
much an outcast in his own community as he is a curiosity in his
new one. He weathers the typical teenage indignations and triumphs
like a champ but soon faces far more trying ordeals as his home life
begins to crumble and decay amidst the suffocating mire of
alcoholism on the reservation. Alexie's humor and prose are
easygoing and well suited to his young audience, and he doesn't pull
many punches as he levels his eye at stereotypes both warranted and
inapt. A few of the plotlines fade to gray by the end, but this
ultimately affirms the incredible power of best friends to hurt and
heal in equal measure. Younger teens looking for the strength to lift
themselves out of rough situations would do well to start here.
(Booklist)
The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
This story was about following our dreams and helping
others to find theirs. The main character, Barney Snow,
lives in an experimental clinic, where everyone one around
him is terminally ill. He helps his friends to build the
bumblebee. A bumblebee is not supposed to be able to fly,
but it does; therefore, a bumblebee is a miracle. In this
Barney made us realize that we can never give up, on life or
anything else. It was not important of where Barney lived or
who his friends were; he made us realize that we should
open up to the people around us and that sometimes people
need to some help in pursuing their flight of the
bumblebee. The part I liked most about this story was the
plot. There was not much action or adventure, but the story
always had an unexpected surprise waiting around the
corner. This story was not what I would call fast paced, but
for some reason, it always kept me on my toes and wanting
more. (Amazon)
We Beat the Street
by Sampson Davis, et. al.
"What started out as three boys skipping class turned out to be the
most significant experience of our lives," says George Jenkins, who,
together with Sampson Davis and Rameck Hunt, made a teenage
pact to leave their impoverished New Jersey neighborhood, attend
medical school, and become doctors. Author Sharon Draper helped
shape chapters, written in the third person, describing each doctor's
challenging childhood experiences, including a parent's drug
addiction, forays into crime, and succeeding in an environment that
made "failing equal to being cool." Following each story, passages
written in the doctors' own words offer advice and strategies, and
acknowledge the help received along the way. This information is
directed straight to young people growing up in similar
circumstances, but all readers will be riveted by the profoundly
inspirational stories and personal, intimate voices that frankly
discuss big mistakes and complicated emotions, including "survivor
guilt" for choosing a different path from friends and family. Strong
readers may want to follow this with the doctors' first book, for
adults, entitled The Pact (2002). (Booklist)
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
Kaye Gibbons is a writer who brings a short story sensibility to her
novels. Rather than take advantage of the novel's longer form to
paint her visions in broad, sweeping strokes, Gibbons prefers to
concentrate on just one corner of the canvas and only a few colors to
produce her small masterpieces. In Gibbons's case, her canvas is the
American South and her colors are all the shades of gray. In Ellen
Foster, the title character is an 11-year-old orphan who refers to
herself as "old Ellen," an appellation that is disturbingly apt. Ellen is
an old woman in a child's body; her frail, unhappy mother dies, her
abusive father alternately neglects her and makes advances on her,
and she is shuttled from one uncaring relative's home to another
before she finally takes matters into her own hands and finds herself
a place to belong. There is something almost Dickensian about
Ellen's tribulations; like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or a host of
other literary child heroes, Ellen is at the mercy of predatory adults,
with only her own wit and courage--and the occasional kindness of
others--to help her through. That she does, in fact, survive her
childhood and even rise above it is the book's bittersweet victory.
(Oprah’s Book Club)
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
A wonderful story of triumph over imperfection, shame,
and loss. Large, awkward, learning-disabled Maxwell Kane,
whose father is in prison for murdering his mother, and
crippled, undersized Kevin are both mocked by their peers;
the cruel taunting they endure is all too realistic and
believable. The boys establish a friendship-and a
partnership. Kevin defends them with his intelligence,
while Max is his friend's "legs," affording him a chance to
participate in the larger world. Inspired by tales of King
Arthur, they become knights fighting for good and true
causes. But Kevin's illness progresses, and when he dies,
Max is left with the memories of an extraordinary
relationship and, perhaps, the insight to think positively
about himself and his future. The author writes with
empathy, honoring the possibilities of even peripheral
characters; Kevin and Max are memorable and luminous.
Many YA novels deal with the effects of a friend dying, but
this one is somewhat different and very special. (School
Library Journal)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
by Mildred D. Taylor
In all Mildred D. Taylor's unforgettable novels she recounts
"not only the joy of growing up in a large and supportive
family, but my own feelings of being faced with segregation
and bigotry." Her Newbery Medal-winning Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry tells the story of one African American family,
fighting to stay together and strong in the face of brutal
racist attacks, illness, poverty, and betrayal in the Deep
South of the 1930s. Nine-year-old Cassie Logan, growing up
protected by her loving family, has never had reason to
suspect that any white person could consider her inferior or
wish her harm. But during the course of one devastating
year when her community begins to be ripped apart by
angry night riders threatening African Americans, she and
her three brothers come to understand why the land they
own means so much to their Papa. "Look out there, Cassie
girl. All that belongs to you. You ain't never had to live on
nobody's place but your own and long as I live and the
family survives, you'll never have to. That's important. You
may not understand that now but one day you will. Then
you'll see." (Amazon)
Pretty Like Us by Carol Lynch Williams
Beauty is a shy sixth grader in a small town in Florida
struggling to make friends and adjust to her mom's
boyfriend as her teacher. To make matters worse, he
encourages her to befriend the new girl in class. Alane has a
rapid-aging disorder, progeria, which makes her even more
of an outsider than Beauty is. The two girls become close
friends, and Beauty learns Important Life Lessons in the
process. Her voice is consistent and easy to believe. She is
as moody and self-conscious as any girl her age. Readers
will relate to her struggles to fit in while being true to
herself. Alane is less believable. She has social graces far
beyond her years, and readers never see her struggle. After
learning the value of life from being around Alane, Beauty
and her classmates all become nicer people. The story
moves at a gentle pace with some intense situations, but
few surprises. Medical details of progeria are ageappropriate and revealed in a realistic way . (School Library
Journal)
Select one of the
following books
focusing on the theme
of exceptionalities
Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer Choldenko
In this appealing novel set in 1935, 12-year-old Moose Flanagan and
his family move from Santa Monica to Alcatraz Island where his
father gets a job as an electrician at the prison and his mother hopes
to send his autistic older sister to a special school in San Francisco.
When Natalie is rejected by the school, Moose is unable to play
baseball because he must take care of her, and her unorthodox
behavior sometimes lands him in hot water. He also comes to grief
when he reluctantly goes along with a moneymaking scheme
dreamed up by the warden's pretty but troublesome daughter.
Family dilemmas are at the center of the story, but history and
setting--including plenty of references to the prison's most infamous
inmate, mob boss Al Capone--play an important part, too. The
Flanagan family is believable in the way each member deals with
Natalie and her difficulties, and Moose makes a sympathetic main
character. The story, told with humor and skill, will fascinate readers
with an interest in what it was like for the children of prison guards
and other workers to actually grow up on Alcatraz Island. (School
Library Journal)
Eva by Peter Dickinson
Following a terrible car crash, Eva, 14, awakens from a strange
dream and finds herself in a hospital bed. Medical science, in this
book's future setting, has allowed doctors to pull her functioning
brain from her crushed body and put it into the able body of a
chimpanzee. With the aid of a voice synthesizer, she communicates
with others and adjusts to her new body; because her father is a
scientist who has always worked among the chimps (who have been
crowded by the massive human population out of any semblance of a
natural world, and into iron and steel jungles), Eva is comfortable
with her new self. She takes on the issue of animal rights, setting up
(with the help of others, of course) an elaborate scheme to release
chimps back into the last of the wild. Years later, that is where she
dies. The story is riveting from the outset, especially as Dickinson
details the ways in which Eva's life is saved, and the progress of her
recovery. As the story becomes more political, the author loses sight
of some compelling questions he has sewn into the opening pages:
Who owns her--the chimp's owner, her parents, herself? Eva's
human aspect becomes a device that allows her to help other chimps
survive, but is otherwise unquestioned. The drama is no less
suspenseful for that, but it is less satisfying. (Publishers Weekly)
Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes
This is a wonderful and highly original novel about a mentally
challenged man named Charlie who wanted to be smart. One day,
his wish was granted. A group of scientists selected him for an
experimental operation that raised his intelligence to genius level.
Suddenly, Charlie found himself transformed, and life, as he knew it,
changed.
His story is told entirely through Charlie's eyes and perceptions in
the form of progress reports. The reader actually sees the change in
Charlie take place, as his progress reports become more complex,
well written, and filled with the angst of personal discovery and
growth, as well as with his gradual awareness of his amazing and
accelerated intellectual development.
The progress reports are a wonderful contrivance for facilitating the
story, and the reader is one with Charlie on his voyage of selfdiscovery. What happens to Charlie in the long run is profoundly
moving and thought provoking. It is no wonder that this author was
the recipient of the Nebula Award which is given by the Science
Fiction Writers of America for having written the Best Novel of the
Year. This is definitely a book well worth reading. (Amazon)
My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary
Poppins, and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger
In his first novel for young readers, Kluger revisits themes in his
adult titles: baseball, romantic sparring, and social activism. Boston
teens T. C. and Augie are such close friends that their families
acknowledge them as brothers. Alejandra has recently arrived from
Washington, D.C., where her father served as a Mexican ambassador
to the U.S. Written in multiple voices and nontraditional formats,
including instant messages and school assignments, Kluger’s
crowded, exuberant novel follows the three high-school freshman
through an earth-shaking year in which musical-theater-obsessed
Augie realizes that he is gay, Alejandra reveals her theatrical talents
to disapproving parents, and T. C. tries to make a deaf child’s
greatest wish come true. At the center are heart-pulling romances
(even a few among adults) and a broadening sense of what family
means. A few plot twists will require readers to suspend belief, and
the voices tend to sound alike. Still, the appealing characters are
bright, passionate, and fully engaged in their lives, and many
readers will lose themselves in this original, high-spirited story.
(Booklist)
A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Maas
Mia, 13, has always seen colors in sounds, numbers, and letters, a
fact she has kept secret since the day she discovered that other
people don't have this ability. Then she discovers that she has a rare
condition called synesthesia, which means that the visual cortex in
her brain is activated when she hears something. From then on, she
leads a kind of double life-she eagerly attends research gatherings
with other synesthetes and devours information about the condition,
but continues to struggle at school, where her inadvertent pairing of
particular colors with numbers and words makes math and French
almost impossible to figure out. Her gradual abandonment of her
frustrating school life in favor of the compelling world of fellow
synesthetes and the unique things only they can experience seems
quite logical, although readers may feel like shaking some sense into
her. Finally, and rather abruptly, her extreme guilt at her beloved cat
Mango's illness brings her back down to earth and she begins to
work on some of the relationships she let crumble. Mia's voice is
believable and her description of the vivid world she experiences,
filled with slashes, blurs, and streaks of color, is fascinating. Not all
of the many characters are necessary to the story, and some of the
plot elements go unresolved, but Mia's unique way of experiencing
the world is intriguing. (School Library Journal)
So B. It by Sarah Weeks
Heidi and her mother have lived in an apartment that adjoins with
their neighbor, Bernadette, since the 12-year-old was probably no
more than a week old. Bernadette accepted and loved them from the
moment they arrived at her door but could never ask questions since
Heidi's mentally challenged mother simply "didn't have the words to
answer them." Bernadette's agoraphobia further isolates the child.
Heidi struggles with knowing nothing about her father or her family
history, and never having a real last name. Then she finds an old
camera, which prompts her quest to learn the identity of the people
in the photographs it holds and to discover her past. While traveling
by bus from Nevada to Liberty, NY, the girl relies on her luck,
instinct, and the people she meets on the way to learn the truth
about her mother and her own background. Readers will pull for and
empathize with the likable characters, especially Heidi as she
struggles for self-knowledge. The almost melodramatic story has
fantasy elements such as Heidi's lucky streak; hitting a slot machine
enables her to buy the bus ticket to New York. Heidi's naive voice,
however, creates a willing suspension of disbelief as she learns what
she set out to and matures along the way. (School Library Journal)
Select one of
the
following
books
focusing on
the genre
science
fiction/
fantasy
Feed by M. T. Anderson
In this chilling novel, Anderson (Burger Wuss; Thirsty) imagines a society
dominated by the feed a next-generation Internet/television hybrid that is
directly hardwired into the brain. Teen narrator Titus never questions his world,
in which parents select their babies' attributes in the conceptionarium,
corporations dominate the information stream, and kids learn to employ the
feed more efficiently in School. But everything changes when he and his pals
travel to the moon for spring break. There Titus meets home-schooled Violet,
who thinks for herself, searches out news and asserts that "Everything we've
grown up with the stories on the feed, the games, all of that it's all streamlining
our personalities so we're easier to sell to." Without exposition, Anderson deftly
combines elements of today's teen scene, including parties and shopping malls,
with imaginative and disturbing fantasy twists. "Chats" flow privately from
mind to mind; Titus flies an "upcar"; people go "mal" (short for
"malfunctioning") in contraband sites that intoxicate by scrambling the feed;
and, after Titus and his friends develop lesions, banner ads and sit-coms dub
the lesions the newest hot trend, causing one friend to commission a fake one
and another to outdo her by getting cuts all over her body. Excerpts from the
feed at the close of each chapter demonstrate the blinding barrage of
entertainment and temptations for conspicuous consumption. Titus proves a
believably flawed hero, and ultimately the novel's greatest strength lies in his
denial of and uncomfortable awakening to the truth. This satire offers a
thought-provoking and scathing indictment that may prod readers to examine
the more sinister possibilities of corporate- and media-dominated culture.
(Publishers Weekly)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a story of a society that has been changed to a
dystopia. High authorities try to regulate life to make people happy. To achieve this
happiness, firemen (which has been redefined) burn books to people don't know
what the past was like. The city is a dystopia in a utopia.
Guy Montag, firemen who finds out that he isn't happy once he has multiple
conversations with a spontaneous adolescent girl named Clarisse. Clarisse doesn't
thrive in the dystopia like everyone else. She does not accept that books are bad.
She late affects the train of thought for Montag. Mildred, Montag's wife is happy
with her life. She accepts the thought of books being bad. She agrees that
destroying books brings happiness. She spends most of her time watching T.V. all
day. Faber is an old man who enjoys books, but he is terrified of the firemen. He's a
smart coward. Captain Beatty reads books from time to time, but he doesn't believe
anything he reads.
The common theme for the book the collective loss of memory, history, and the
outside world in a society will result in an easy psychological manipulation of
mankind by a government ultimately leading to dehumanization of the people. This
is the theme because they are erasing history in an effort to achieve happiness. The
common characteristics used in the book are relying on physical and somewhat
psychological torture to maintain order. They threaten to burn books and houses if
you're caught with books. The society the government runs thought to be an utopia
but is far from it, the government basically runs and controls everything.
Fahrenheit 451 really unfolds when Montag begins to take books for himself. His
wife is terrified that he wants to keep the books. She is afraid that her house will be
burned by the firemen, but Montag is a fireman, but does this make him able to
read books? Things become more interesting when he is caught with a plethora of
books in his home. (Amazon)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
If there really are only seven original plots in the world, it's odd that boy meets girl is
always mentioned, and society goes bad and attacks the good guy never is. Yet we have
Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, The House of the Scorpion—and now, following a long
tradition of Brave New Worlds, The Hunger Games. Collins hasn't tied her future to a
specific date, or weighted it down with too much finger wagging. Rather less 1984 and
rather more Death Race 2000, hers is a gripping story set in a postapocalyptic world
where a replacement for the United States demands a tribute from each of its territories:
two children to be used as gladiators in a televised fight to the death.Katniss, from what
was once Appalachia, offers to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, but after
this ultimate sacrifice, she is entirely focused on survival at any cost. It is her teammate,
Peeta, who recognizes the importance of holding on to one's humanity in such inhuman
circumstances. It's a credit to Collins's skill at characterization that Katniss, like a new
Theseus, is cold, calculating and still likable. She has the attributes to be a winner, where
Peeta has the grace to be a good loser.It's no accident that these games are presented as
pop culture. Every generation projects its fear: runaway science, communism,
overpopulation, nuclear wars and, now, reality TV. The State of Panem—which needs to
keep its tributaries subdued and its citizens complacent—may have created the Games, but
mindless television is the real danger, the means by which society pacifies its citizens and
punishes those who fail to conform. Will its connection to reality TV, ubiquitous today,
date the book? It might, but for now, it makes this the right book at the right time. What
happens if we choose entertainment over humanity? In Collins's world, we'll be obsessed
with grooming, we'll talk funny, and all our sentences will end with the same rise as
questions. When Katniss is sent to stylists to be made more telegenic before she competes,
she stands naked in front of them, strangely unembarrassed. They're so unlike people that
I'm no more self-conscious than if a trio of oddly colored birds were pecking around my
feet, she thinks. In order not to hate these creatures who are sending her to her death, she
imagines them as pets. It isn't just the contestants who risk the loss of their humanity. It is
all who watch.Katniss struggles to win not only the Games but the inherent contest for
audience approval. Because this is the first book in a series, not everything is resolved, and
what is left unanswered is the central question. Has she sacrificed too much? We know
what she has given up to survive, but not whether the price was too high. Readers will wait
eagerly to learn more.
(Publishers Weekly)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
When he ditches school one Friday morning, 17-year-old Marcus is hoping
to get a head start on the Harajuku Fun Madness clue. But after a terrorist
attack in San Francisco, he and his friends are swept up in the extralegal
world of the Department of Homeland Security. After questioning that
includes physical torture and psychological stress, Marcus is released, a
marked man in a much darker San Francisco: a city of constant surveillance
and civil-liberty forfeiture. Encouraging hackers from around the city,
Marcus fights against the system while falling for one hacker in particular.
Doctorow rapidly confronts issues, from civil liberties to cryptology to
social justice. While his political bias is obvious, he does try to depict
opposing viewpoints fairly. Those who have embraced the legislative
developments since 9/11 may be horrified by his harsh take on Homeland
Security, Guantánamo Bay, and the PATRIOT Act. Politics aside, Marcus is
a wonderfully developed character: hyperaware of his surroundings, trying
to redress past wrongs, and rebelling against authority. Teen espionage fans
will appreciate the numerous gadgets made from everyday materials. One
afterword by a noted cryptologist and another from an infamous hacker
further reflect Doctorow's principles, and a bibliography has resources for
teens interested in intellectual freedom, information access, and technology
enhancements. Curious readers will also be able to visit BoingBoing, an
eclectic group blog that Doctorow coedits. Raising pertinent questions and
fostering discussion, this techno-thriller is an outstanding first purchase.
(School Library Journal)
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
After conjuring the pitfalls of a technologically advanced society in
The Giver, Lowry looks toward a different type of future to create
this dark, prophetic tale with a strong medieval flavor. Having
suffered numerous unnamed disasters (aka, the Ruin), civilization
has regressed to a primitive, technology-free state; an opening
author's note describes a society in which "disorder, savagery, and
self-interest" rule. Kira, a crippled young weaver, has been raised
and taught her craft by her mother, after her father was allegedly
killed by "beasts." When her mother dies, Kira fears that she will
be cast out of the village. Instead, the society's Council of
Guardians installs her as caretaker of the Singer's robe, a precious
ceremonial garment depicting the history of the world and used at
the annual Gathering. She moves to the Council Edifice, a gothicstyle structure, one of the few to survive the Ruin. The edifice and
other settings, such as the FenAthe village ghettoAand the small
plot where Annabella (an elder weaver who mentors Kira after her
mother's death) lives are especially well drawn, and the
characterizations of Kira and the other artists who cohabit the
stone residence are the novel's greatest strength. But the narrative
hammers at the theme of the imprisoned artist. And readers may
well predict where several important plot threads are headed (e.g.,
the role of Kira's Guardian, Jamison; her father's disappearance),
while larger issues, such as the society's downfall, are left to
readers' imaginations. (Publishers Weekly)
Messenger by Lois Lowry
Matty, who has lived in Village with the blind Seer since running away
from an abusive childhood, is looking forward to receiving his true
name, which he hopes will be Messenger. But he is deeply unsettled by
what is going on. He has discovered his own power to heal others and
learned of disturbing changes within his community. Under the gentle
guidance of Leader, who arrived in Village on a red sled as a young boy
and who has the power of Seeing Beyond, the citizens have always
welcomed newcomers, especially those who are disabled. But a sinister
force is at work, which has prompted them to close admission to
outsiders. Also, it seems that Matty's beloved Mentor has been trading
away parts of his inner self in order to become more attractive to
Stocktender's widow. When the date for the close of the border is
decided, Matty must make one more trip through the increasingly
sinister Forest to bring back Seer's daughter, the gifted weaver Kira. On
the return journey, Matty must decide if he should use his healing but
self-destructive power to reverse the inexorable decline of Forest,
Village, and its people. While readers may be left mystified as to what is
behind the dramatic change in Village, Lowry's skillful writing imbues
the story with a strong sense of foreboding, and her descriptions of the
encroaching Forest are particularly vivid and terrifying. The gifted
young people, introduced in The Giver(1993) and Gathering Blue
(2000, both Houghton), are brought together in a gripping final scene,
and the shocking conclusion without benefit of denouement is bound to
spark much discussion and debate. (School Library Journal)
1984 by George Orwell
Among the seminal texts of the 20th century,
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that
grows more haunting as its futuristic
purgatory becomes more real. Published in
1949, the book offers political satirist George
Orwell's nightmare vision of a totalitarian,
bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's
attempt to find individuality. The brilliance
of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern
life--the ubiquity of television, the distortion
of the language--and his ability to construct
such a thorough version of hell. Required
reading for students since it was published, it
ranks among the most terrifying novels ever
written. (Amazon)
Reading
groups will
be arranged
around each
of the
following
nonfiction
texts. You
will read
ONE!
The Perfect Store by Sebastian Junger
Junger's carefully researched and
sympathetic book is a mesmerizing chronicle
of man's struggle against nature. Davidson's
unassuming, slightly nasal tone subtly
captures the drollery of the salty New
England attitude. "People often get
premonitions when they do jobs that could
get them killed ... the trick is knowing when
to listen to them." He makes listening to The
Perfect Storm seem like you're bearing
witness to a natural disaster. You're
powerless to help, but the awesome spectacle
has such an emotional hold that it's nearly
impossible to turn away. (Amazon)
Into the Wild by John Krakauer
After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992,
top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned
his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to
charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he went to live in the
wilderness. Four months later, he turned up dead. His diary,
letters and two notes found at a remote campsite tell of his
desperate effort to survive, apparently stranded by an injury
and slowly starving. They also reflect the posturing of a
confused young man, raised in affluent Annandale, Va., who
self-consciously adopted a Tolstoyan renunciation of wealth
and return to nature. Krakauer, a contributing editor to
Outside and Men's Journal, retraces McCandless's ill-fated
antagonism toward his father, Walt, an eminent aerospace
engineer. Krakauer also draws parallels to his own reckless
youthful exploit in 1977 when he climbed Devils Thumb, a
mountain on the Alaska-British Columbia border, partly as a
symbolic act of rebellion against his autocratic father. In a
moving narrative, Krakauer probes the mystery of
McCandless's death, which he attributes to logistical blunders
and to accidental poisoning from eating toxic seed pods.
(Publishers Weekly)
The Devil in the White City
by Erik Larson
Not long after Jack the Ripper haunted the ill-lit streets of 1888 London,
H.H. Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett) dispatched somewhere
between 27 and 200 people, mostly single young women, in the churning
new metropolis of Chicago; many of the murders occurred during (and
exploited) the city's finest moment, the World's Fair of 1893. Larson's
breathtaking new history is a novelistic yet wholly factual account of the
fair and the mass murderer who lurked within it. Bestselling author
Larson (Isaac's Storm) strikes a fine balance between the planning and
execution of the vast fair and Holmes's relentless, ghastly activities. The
passages about Holmes are compelling and aptly claustrophobic; readers
will be glad for the frequent escapes to the relative sanity of Holmes's costar, architect and fair overseer Daniel Hudson Burnham, who managed
the thousands of workers and engineers who pulled the sprawling fair
together 0n an astonishingly tight two-year schedule. A natural
charlatan, Holmes exploited the inability of authorities to coordinate,
creating a small commercial empire entirely on unpaid debts and
constructing a personal cadaver-disposal system. This is, in effect, the
nonfiction Alienist, or a sort of companion, which might be called
Homicide, to Emile Durkheim's Suicide. However, rather than anomie,
Larson is most interested in industriousness and the new opportunities
for mayhem afforded by the advent of widespread public anonymity. This
book is everything popular history should be, meticulously recreating a
rich, pre-automobile America on the cusp of modernity, in which the sale
of "articulated" corpses was a semi-respectable trade and serial killers
could go well-nigh unnoticed. (Publishers Weekly)
Freakonomics
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Forget your image of an economist as a crusty professor worried
about fluctuating interest rates: Levitt focuses his attention on
more intimate real-world issues, like whether reading to your baby
will make her a better student. Recognition by fellow economists
as one of the best young minds in his field led to a profile in the
New York Times, written by Dubner, and that original article
serves as a broad outline for an expanded look at Levitt's search
for the hidden incentives behind all sorts of behavior. There isn't
really a grand theory of everything here, except perhaps the
suggestion that self-styled experts have a vested interest in
promoting conventional wisdom even when it's wrong. Instead,
Dubner and Levitt deconstruct everything from the organizational
structure of drug-dealing gangs to baby-naming patterns. While
some chapters might seem frivolous, others touch on more serious
issues, including a detailed look at Levitt's controversial linkage
between the legalization of abortion and a reduced crime rate two
decades later. Underlying all these research subjects is a belief that
complex phenomena can be understood if we find the right
perspective. Levitt has a knack for making that principle relevant
to our daily lives, which could make this book a hit. Malcolm
Gladwell blurbs that Levitt "has the most interesting mind in
America," an invitation Gladwell's own substantial fan base will
find hard to resist. (Publishers Weekly)
Lies My Teacher Told Me
by James Loewen
Americans have lost touch with their history, and in Lies My
Teacher Told Me Professor James Loewen shows why. After
surveying eighteen leading high school American history texts, he
has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history
interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing
combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer
misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the
ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past.
In this revised edition, packed with updated material, Loewen
explores how historical myths continue to be perpetuated in
today's climate and adds an eye-opening chapter on the lies
surrounding 9/11 and the Iraq War. From the truth about
Columbus's historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our
national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring the vitality
and relevance it truly possesses.
Thought provoking, nonpartisan, and often shocking, Loewen
unveils the real America in this iconoclastic classic beloved by high
school teachers, history buffs, and enlightened citizens across the
country. (Amazon)
Fast Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser
Schlosser's incisive history of the development of American fast food indicts
the industry for some shocking crimes against humanity, including
systematically destroying the American diet and landscape, and undermining
our values and our economy. The first part of the book details the postwar
ascendance of fast food from Southern California, assessing the impact on
people in the West in general. The second half looks at the product itself:
where it is manufactured (in a handful of enormous factories), what goes into
it (chemicals, feces) and who is responsible (monopolistic corporate
executives). In harrowing detail, the book explains the process of beef
slaughter and confirms almost every urban myth about what in fact "lurks
between those sesame seed buns." Given the estimate that the typical
American eats three hamburgers and four orders of french fries each week,
and one in eight will work for McDonald's in the course of their lives, few are
exempt from the insidious impact of fast food. Throughout, Schlosser fires
these and a dozen other hair-raising statistical bullets into the heart of the
matter. While cataloguing assorted evils with the tenacity and sharp eye of the
best investigative journalist, he uncovers a cynical, dismissive attitude to food
safety in the fast food industry and widespread circumvention of the
government's efforts at regulation enacted after Upton Sinclair's similarly
scathing novel exposed the meat-packing industry 100 years ago. By
systematically dismantling the industry's various aspects, Schlosser
establishes a seminal argument for true wrongs at the core of modern
America. (Jan.) Forecast: This book will find a healthy, young audience; it's
notable that the Rolling Stone article on which this book was based generated
more reader mail than any other piece the magazine ran in the 1990s.
(Publishers Weekly)