YALSA's Top Ten Teen Texts of 2016

YALSA has also posted their 2016 Best Fiction for Young Adults. Of those many, many titles, they highlight their Top Ten:

Yay for TAYSHAS!

The Texas Library Association, earlier this month, released their list of high school recommended reads via TAYSHAS. Yay!

So far, I've read:

• The Steep and Thorny Way by Cat Winters (3/5 stars)
• And I Darken by Kiersten White (4/5 stars)
• The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith (4/5 stars)
• If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo (4/5 stars)
• Replica by Lauren Oliver (4/5 stars)
• The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schiltz (2/5 stars)
• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (5/5 stars)
• Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley (3/5 stars)

You can see the full list of books on TAYSHAS 2017 here or you can feast your eyes on the list via infographic:

Book Review: The Assistants by Camille Perri

The Assistants is a dream novel for millennial readers. It features current internet jargon, the daily struggle of finances in a world where "Money buys less than it did a generation ago, while at the same time paychecks have dwindled" (Perri 191), nerdy-sweet love interests, pop culture and literature allusions, and stick-it-to-the-man-itis. And as someone who grew up in Texas, the Robert-isms that Tina's inner monologue quotes is spot-on with southern idioms. I definitely heard different people "saying" them in my head. The Assistants is a romp! 

Plus, I don't think I've ever felt so understood by the protagonist. Yes, I've identified with characters in books and movies before, but it really felt like Tina has experienced the same things that amalgamate into the humdrum of my everyday life: the endless scrolling, memes, and social justice plights of Tumblr; sprawled out in pajamas binge-watching Netflix; living the "comfort over style" wardrobe; the endless pop culture and literary references bouncing around in my head combining to make some weird Frankenstein tweet. I can't wait to see how other millennial authors depict us. I know I'm tired of being demonized by Baby Boomer media as lazy and unwise with my money.

5/5 stars

Text-to-Text Connection: jFic and Suspense Horror Edition!

Reading Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret for my Lit for Youth class, and Nancy Wheeler showed up on page 4! I wonder if the Nancy Wheeler in Stranger Things is an allusion to this Nancy Wheeler?!?

P.S. If you haven't watched Stranger Things yet, move it to the top of your Netflix queue! 

Module 15: Geography Club

Amazon. (2016). Geography club.
Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/
Geography-Club-Brent-Hartinger/dp/
0060012234

Book Summary: Russel is a closeted gay; high school is where he must wear his disguise of straight teenager. However, he is a frequent visitor to an online chat room that is a safe space for LGBT-identifying people. It’s there, that he finds out someone else in his town (!!!), who goes to his school (!!!!!), in his grade (!!!!!!!!!) is gay! They meet, and, lo and behold, it’s Mr. Popular Jock, Kevin, who is this other gay guy at his school. Turns out there are some others, too: Russel’s friend Min and her girlfriend, Therese, and Ike. They form a support group, but disguise it as a “Geography Club” so as to prevent other students from joining them. Of course, teenage drama ensues as Russel and Kevin start dating, Russel’s friend Gunnar convinces him to double-date with Trish and Kimberly and peer pressure and sex and a gay guy do not make a good combination, bullying at school, and potential outing and resulting ostracization all happen. In the end, though, the Geography Club is dissolved and a true and authentic Gay-Straight-Bisexual Alliance is formed.

APA Reference:

Hartinger, B. (2003). Geography club. New York City: HarperTempest.

Impressions: High-school me needed this book because, like Brian Bund, I often sat by myself at lunch and had no friends. Any book that supports outcasts banding together is an important read. Like Belinda and Min champion before the Geography Club is disbanded, those who feel like they can’t relate to the “norm” can find support from one another; they need that support. This, in conjunction with the positive LGBTQIA+ message makes Geography Club an important book to include in a collection. However, I can imagine how when it was first published in 2003 Geography Club made waves in libraries. Hopefully, more than ten years later, things are getting better for LGBTQIA+ teens.

Professional Review:

Rochman. H. (2003, April 1). Geography club [review of Geography Club]. Booklist, 99(15), 1387. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/

Gr. 7-12. Russel is gay, and he knows he better keep it secret, or he’ll be a total outcast in his small-town high school. But then he discovers that there are others like him--including Min, his longtime best friend, and her lesbian lover, as well as gorgeous, popular jock star Kevin. Seven of them form a support group (the “Geography Club ” is their cover-up name), and for a short time, life is blissful. Russel has friends with whom he can be himself, and he also makes love with Kevin. Then things fall apart. Russel refuses to have sex with a girl, and word gets out that he’s gay. Kevin can’t come out, so he and Russel break up. Things are settled a little too neatly in the end, but there’s no sermonizing. With honest talk of love and cruelty, friendship and betrayal, it’s Russel’s realistic, funny, contemporary narrative that makes this first novel special. The dialogue is right on; so is the high-school cafeteria; so is the prejudice. Booktalk this.

Library Use: Include Geography Club in a GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) Start-Up Pack, along with links like GSA Network (https://gsanetwork.org/), GLSEN’s start-up kit (http://www.glsen.org/jumpstart), True Colors GSA Curriculum Guide (http://www.ourtruecolors.org/Programs/GSA-Youth-Leadership/PDF/GSA-Curriculum.pdf), The Trevor Project (http://www.thetrevorproject.org/), and It Gets Better Project (http://www.itgetsbetter.org/). Other books to be included are What We Left Behind by Robin Talley, The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth, Being Jazz: My Life as a Transgender Teen by Jazz Jennings, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, and I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson.  

Lakeside Middle School. (2016). GSA club.
Retrieved from http://lakeside.valverde.
edu/for_students/g_s_a_club

Module 14: October Mourning

Amazon. (2016). October mourning:
A song for Matthew Shepard.
Retrieved from https://www.amazon.
com/October-Mourning-Song-
Matthew-Shepard/dp/0763658073

Book Summary: A book of poems exploring the emotions surrounding various people and anthropomorphized items after the hate crime of Matthew Shepherd, a gay college student in Wyoming, who was beaten and left to die, tied to a fencepost on the Wyoming prairie.

APA Reference:

Newman, L. (2012). October mourning: A song for Matthew Shephard. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Impressions: I’m picky about my poetry. Like our textbook discusses, I hated poetry in high school because it was an exercise in trying to read my teachers’ minds about what the poem’s “true” meaning was. In college, I started writing poetry to cope with my depression, and I learned a lot about crafting images and the lyricism that accompanies certain orders of certain words. I also took an English-majors-required class on poetry, which, that semester, was entirely steeped in the poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Between these experiences, which happened just about on top of each other, I grew in my understanding and appreciation of poetry.

I want poetry that speaks volumes. October Mourning does that to such an extreme that I hope it resonates with every reader, as Leslea Newman states in her author’s note, that it changes the world’s perception of LGBTQA+ persons.

October Mourning is a beautifully layered piece. The first layer is the story of Matthew Shephard’s death. It is a horrific story, which tears through the reader’s mind with bloody, desperate, and violent images. The second layer is how Newman expands the world of who all is affected by the death beyond just Matthew, his parents, his friends, his aggressors, and his college community. The doe, the rope, the fencepost, any and every mother in the world, the box that holds his ashes, the candles lit as vigils across the nation, gay individuals everywhere are all affected by the unnecessary and uncalled-for violence. This illustrates that while Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson thought they were just beating up a gay guy, they were really beating up anyone who has had a son, a brother, a gay friend, a gay family member. The third layer is the power of words. Newman knew the power her presence would have at University of Wyoming’s Gay Awareness Week just days after Matthew’s death. She knew that the words she provides in these poems will empower others to not forget the horror that this innocent man had inflicted upon him and to fight to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Professional Review:

Cart, M. (2012, September 15). October mourning [review of October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shephard]. Booklist, 109(2), 68. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/

/* Starred Review */ Grades 8-12 On October 6, 1998, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was lured into a truck, driven into the country, savagely beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die—which he did, five days later. In the 68 poems that make up this novel-in-verse, Newman re-creates the events and circumstances surrounding this unspeakably vile hate crime and offers a moving tribute to a young man she regards as a martyr. Her poems are told from multiple points of view, including that of the fence, the rope that bound the boy, and a doe that stood watch over him. The beautifully realized selections are also written in a variety of forms, ranging from haiku to villanelle, from concrete poetry to rhymed couplets. Each form (discussed in an appendix) matches the tone and mood of its content, creating an almost musical effect that is both intellectually and aesthetically engaging. Written with love, anger, regret, and other profound emotions, this is a truly important book  that deserves the widest readership, not only among independent readers but among students in a classroom setting, as well. Most importantly, the book  will introduce Matthew Shepard to a generation too young to remember the tragic circumstances of his death.

Library Use: For a series of resources to combat bullying and promote the growth of empathy in readers, books are an important addition. Within the series (which is broken up into resources for different ages: elementary, middle grades, and high school), there are different marginalized groups, such as African-Americans, LGBTQA+, women, etc. October Mourning is to be included in a high school resource for the LGBTQA+ list. Other resources for this group include I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, a search for LGBT on Teen Ink at http://www.teenink.com/search_google.php?q=LGBT&x=0&y=0, The Trevor Project’s website at http://www.thetrevorproject.org/, and more.

Module 13: 2095 (Time Warp Trio)

Amazon. (2016). 2095 (Time warp trio,
vol. 5). Retrieved from https:
//www.amazon.com/2095-Time-
Warp-Trio-Vol/dp/0142400440

Book Summary: The Time Warp Trio -Sam, Joe, and Fred- are on a class field trip to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. When the 1890’s prove too boring, the friends decide to use The Book, a family heirloom, to travel to the future: 2095. There, they are in danger with scolding museum directors, telemarketer-robots, and addle-patted Uncle Joe. Thankful, they are rescued by their great-granddaughters: Joanie, Freddi, and Samantha, who them return to 1995 and their museum worksheets.

APA Reference:

Scieszka, J. (1995). 2095. New York City: Viking.

Impressions: 2095 is a quick read and an engaging one for reluctant readers. This installation is the fifth in the Time Warp Trio series, so there is no background information or scene-setting, but that’s what makes it read-able for kids who would rather not pick up a book. The cliff-hanging chapter endings also help in the desire to not close the pages.

As an adult, I love series books -especially in the fantasy genre- because of the world building aspect. Expositions are often hard to get past, but, with series books like the Time Warp Trio, Harry Potter, and The Lunar Chronicles, after you’ve read the first book’s exposition, readers can usually jump right into the thick of the plot. I had never been able to articulate that aspect of series books until I read Truby’s (2003) “A Fresh Look at Series Books”. As a brand new teacher, fresh out of college, I’m so glad I encouraged my students to read what appealed to them instead of focusing on canon literature. And as a librarian, I promise to remember Truby’s (2003) words: “Readers learn to be better readers not through exercises and multiple-choice questions, but by reading lots of text that they find personally rewarding.”

Series books like Time Warp Trio can help (especially reluctant) readers find stories that are personally rewarding.

Professional Review: Walton, J.Y. (1995, June 1). Books for youth: Books for middle readers. Booklist, 91(19/20), 1772. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/

Books for Youth, Middle Readers: Gr. 3-5. The Time Warp Trio is back--to the future, this time, as Joe, Fred, and Sam travel to the year 2095 , again courtesy of Uncle Joe's magic book. Launching their trip from the 1920s room in the Natural History Museum, the boys arrive in the future's museum, where they see the 1990s showcased in an exhibit of the past. Such ironies of time travel abound as the three encounter their great-grandchildren, who rightly strive to return their ancestors to the past. Scieszka writes with a kid's perspective at all times, blending a warp-speed pace with humor that ranges from brainy riddles to low brow upchuck jokes. Although the plot is a bit thin and meandering, readers will find sufficient distraction in the robots and levitation footwear of the future. Smith targets the audience equally well with black pencil illustrations brimming with zany, adolescent hyperbole.

Library Use: Include 2095 in a Reluctant Readers list (either in print or online): “Why RR’s will read it: short, cliff-hanger chapters, humor, and series’ familiarity. Why RR’s will want to read it: time travel, adventure, friends, and humor.”