Question of the week #1

I couldn’t think of a good poll, so I’m going with a question of the week.  Please post your response in the comments below.  

 

If you could be any character in any book and live their life who would you choose and why?

 

I’ll post my response in a few days.  I’m really curious to see who people pick.

The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins

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The Hunger Games had been on my reserve list at the library for several weeks before it finally came.  It was worth the wait.  I would not classify myself as being a lover of sci-fi or fantasy, but I really liked this book.  In this book 24 teens are forced to compete to the death for the entertainment of the capital city.  It follows one girl in particular and her experiences within the game.  While one might think the book would be overly violent it isn’t, and focuses more on relationships and human nature than the killing of other people.  I wish that in addition to the perspective of the girl we also got more information about how the citizens watching the games reacted.  It can be seen as commenting on what our society views as “entertainment.”  The characters were interesting and easy to relate to.  I didn’t know while reading that there is a second book coming out, but by the end I definitely wanted to read more.  (The sequel is set to release September 1, 2009)

This book could be used in a classroom.  I would say that it is appropriate for grades 8-10 based off of reading level.  But could be used for older grades as well, and for some 6th/7th graders depending on their maturity.  I believe this book would appeal to both male and female students even with a female protagonist.

AWARDS:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
USA TODAY BESTSELLER
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: CHILDREN’S FICTION
NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE CHILDREN’S BOOK OF 2008
AN AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION TOP TEN BEST BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS SELECTION
AN ALA NOTABLE CHILDREN’S BOOK
#1 ON CHILDREN’S INDIE NEXT LIST
KIRKUS REVIEWS EDITOR’S CHOICE, 2008
A HORN BOOK FANFARE
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOKS Of 2008
A BOOKLIST EDITORS’ CHOICE
LA TIMES FAVORITE CHILDREN’S BOOKS, 2008
BARNES & NOBLE BEST BOOKS OF 2008 FOR TEENS AND KIDS
BORDERS BEST BOOKS OF 2008: TEENS
AMAZON BEST BOOKS OF 2008: 
    TOP 100 EDITORS’ PICK
    TOP 10 BOOKS: TEENS

Ultimate YA Bookshelf

YALSA has come out with their “Ultimate YA Bookshelf” which has 50 books, 5 magazines, and 5 audiobooks.  The premise behind it and a link to the pdf can be found here.

Here are the 50 books-  I am interested in how many of them I’ve read- and whether most of them are specifically YA lit or just books that Young Adults might enjoy…

Just so I can keep it straight I will BOLD the ones I’ve read and UNDERLINE the one’s I’ve never heard of- as, I’m afraid to admit there are many!

1. Acceleration by Graham McNamee
2. Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
3. All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot
4. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
5. Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
6. Beauty by Robin McKinley
7. Black and White by Paul Volponi
8. Blizzard! The Storm that Changed America by Jim Murphy
9. Bone series by Jeff Smith
10. The Book Thief by Mark Zusak
11. Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
12. The Chosen by Chaim Potok
13. The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank
14. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
15. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
16. Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
17. Feed by M.T. Anderson
18. Fruits Basket series by Natsuki Takaya
19. The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
20. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
21. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
22. The Guinness Book of World Records
23. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
24. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
25. The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
26. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
27. I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan
28. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
29. If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
30. The Killer’s Cousin by Nancy Werlin
31. Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
32. Looking for Alaska by John Green
33. Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
34. My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr
35. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
36. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
37. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
38. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
39. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
40. Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer
41. Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
42. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar
43. Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman
44. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
45. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
46. Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman
47. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
48. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
49. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
50. Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

Wow, I’ve read only 15 out of the 50.  Oh, and I’ve gone through The Guinness Book of World Records, but have not read it cover to cover… has anyone?  That’d put me at 16.  I’m glad that several of the books are already on my to read list!

I’ve never heard of 22 of the books.  I have heard of many of those authors though.

June Recap

I am sorely disappointed in myself for my reading habits this month.  Though in my defense; I moved and started working full time.  I will do better in July I promise.

Here are the THREE books I read in June:

1.  Ghostgirl- Tonya Hurley

2. Max- James Patterson

3. The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins (not reviewed yet)

 

Total YA Books in May: 3

Total Adult Books in May: 0

Total Books in May: 3

Total Books for Year: 32

 

Please keep stopping by, I promise more updates.  Look on Thursday for The Hunger Games review.

Max- James Patterson (Maximum Ride Novel #5)

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After becoming pretty interested in the first four books in this series I was very excited to get my hands on Max the fifth installment.  I was under the impression that this was the final book- I cannot remember if there was a specific reason that I believed that but- I was wrong.  The ends are not tied up neatly at the end of this book.  Instead I am once again left wondering what happens next.  I am not sure how I feel about that.

 

I am unsure as to how I should feel about this because this book lacked something the others had.  I am not sure exactly what it was, but I was much less satisfied with this one.  Certain parts of the story are developed more, such as the relationship between Max and Fang.  But I felt we went no where with regards to who Jeb is, how Max is going to fullfill her destiny, and several other things.  This is not to say I don’t recommend it, but just be prepared?  I will probably continue reading the series, because Patterson did what he set out to do with these books and made me want, if not NEED to know what happens in the end.  

 

I hear that a movie is in the works… and I think that could be super cool or super lame.  We’ll see which way it goes.  

 

On a quite positive note, one of the kids that I have in the summer camp I’m working with loves these books so we were able to establish a connection/relationship by talking about them.  Which is one of the reasons I like reading YA.  

My previous recommendations for these books being suitable for middle and high school students who want to read outside of school still stands.  In fact I noticed even more in this book how careful Patterson is to make sure that the language and situations are age appropriate.  

Ghostgirl- Tonya Hurley

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I do not usually comment on the “cover appeal” of a book, but as soon as I received this book in the mail I was instantly intrigued because of how cool the cover is.  The white background in the middle of the cover shown above is really clear plastic with a black silhouette on it.  The book seems luxurious, and the pages on the outside have silver on them.  

OK, enough about the cover.  The premise of this book is that a high school girl dies unexpectedly and before she gets the chance to go to the fall dance with her dream date.  She discovers however, that once she is dead she still has plenty of things to learn, and people to help.  There were several things that I specifically enjoyed about this book that I felt make it a little more unique.  One of those things were the quotes, poems, and song lyrics that were placed on the first page of each new chapter.  From Evanescence to Poe and Dickinson, they were all very interesting to read.  I also felt that the selfishness/self-centeredness of the main character was portrayed quiet realistically to how, lets face it, the majority of teens are.  I enjoyed the rest of the book though there were some lines here and there that I felt could have been excluded and made the book seem a little bit more high-quality.  I wish I could find my example again easily, but alas, I didn’t mark the page.  I wouldn’t use this book as a teaching tool, but I will be including it in my classroom library.  There is a little bit of discussion of teenage sexuality but there are no graphic scenes in it.  This is definitely a book that female students would enjoy rather than their male counterparts.  And I would say that any one from perhaps the 8th grade and up could read it.  IT’s easy enough for younger, but the sexual parts that are included to me, make it unsuitable for younger readers.

 

There is a website that goes along with this book and its sequel that comes out in just a few more days!  Visit Ghostgirl.com for more information.

 

I will be reviewing the sequel to Ghostgirl, Ghostgirl: Homecoming within the next few weeks I hope.

YALSA YA Bookshelf Project

Someone on one of the Ning’s  I belong to mentioned the YA Bookshelf Project being done by YALSA so I decided to explore it more.  On the YALSA wiki they are compiling a list of books that would appeal to a broad range of 12-18 year olds.  They explain that it isn’t just a “best of” list, but rather aiming to be more all-encompassing.  A list that has something for everyone.  

The list, found here, has many books that I haven’t heard of, and every book that I thought of to add was already on there.  I like that the include a section for non-fiction as there are plenty of non-fiction books out there written for young adults.  

I think that I will perhaps refer back to this list as I grow my classroom library!

May Recap

May wasn’t my greatest month for reading.  But, I did get some good books read. So in case you missed it- here’s what I read:(Numbers correspond to their placement on my list of books read so far for the entire year.)

24. Being Nikki- Meg Cabot 
25. The Chocolate War- Robert Cormier 
26. Dead is the New Black- Marlene Perez
27. Jellicoe Road- Melina Marchetta
28. Tears of A Tiger- Sharon Draper
29. The House on Mango Street-Sandra Cisneros 

Total YA Books in May: 5

Total Adult Books in May: 1

Total Books in May: 6

Total Books for Year: 29

Oh and I still haven’t finished 1984… I just need to sit down and power through the rest of it I think.  I am over half way through!

 

Reading The House on Mango Street officially started my summer reading.  You can see my ever growing “to be read” summer list here.

Tears of A Tiger- Sharon Draper

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Written in 1994 Tears of A Tiger will still resonate with students now, 15 years later.  This story deals with the aftermath of a drunk driving accident that kills a high school student.  The relationships between friends, children and parents, teachers, and counselors are all discussed through transcripts of discussions, newspaper articles, diary entries, and letters.  This is the first book in the Hazelwood High trilogy, but each book stands completely on its own.  I have taught this book to 10th graders before and they ATE IT UP.  Many went on to read the next book in the series, Forged By Fire.  I highly recommend this book for use in a classroom (9-10th grade) and for individual students to read.  

 

Here is a link to Sharon Draper’s Teacher Resources for this book.  As a National Board Certified English teacher, she knows her stuff:  Sharon Draper’s Site

 

Awards:

Winner–1995 American Library Association/Coretta Scott King Genesis Award for an outstanding new book
ALA Best Book for Young Adults

Outstanding book by

-The Children’s Book Council
-The New York City Library
-Bank Street College
-National Council for Social Studies

Best of the Best by YALSA as one of the top 100 books for Young Adults

 

Jellicoe Road- Melina Marchetta

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This Printz winner took me a while to get into. I’d say I was a third, to half of the way into it before I really became intrigued, but then I didn’t put it down.  There are numerous interesting characters whom I loved, but at the same time had some difficulty keeping everything straight.  There is mystery involved in the story- and I reached the end I felt like I needed to go back and re-read because I had to have missed some things along the way.  The main character, Taylor, is finishing up her Junior year and attends a boarding school in rural Australia.  There are two mentions of sexual activity within the book but they are not overly explicit.  There is a bit of violence at times in the novel as well.  I think this book could be used potentially in a classroom.  I would recommend it to teen girls and boys as there are strong characters from each gender.   I think this book is appropriate for high school students.

 

Awards:

ALA Best Book for Young Adults
Michael L. Printz Award
Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book