Something Like Hope

Book Title: Something Like Hope by Shawn Goodman

Thoughts:  "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up?" When I read the first chapter, I was reminded of Langston Hughes' poem "A Dream Deferred."  The more I read this book, I was reminded of Rikers High and Lockdown, in which a male teenager is locked up in juvenile hall, but this story focuses on a girl's experience.  I have a cousin who works in a juvenile facility, but I don't think I could work there because of what I have read about what the adults do.  I would probably lose my job or be beaten up by the guards who are supposed to protect the teenagers but don't. 

Shavonne only feels anger and fear as she deals with living in a juvenile home but wanting to be a mother to her daughter.  She holds a secret within herself but eventually tells an adult who helps her deal with her life choices.  I think of all my students who have the built up anger inside them and wonder if they have experienced the same situations as Shavonne or if they will end up in the same situation.

Goodman writes with the realism of Walter Dean Myers, and this book has pulled me in with the realistic language Shavonne and other juveniles use and made me feel sympathy for all the foster children out in the world. I don't understand how adults who are supposed to protect and take care of children will abuse and molest them. 

This book also has short chapters, which makes it a quick read. Will Shavonne's dreams and hope become real or will they "dry up in the sun"? 

Delirium

Book Title: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Thoughts: I picked this book up to read over the weekend.  This is similar to Matched, Legend and Divergent but has a different ending than those. The way Oliver ends the novel, she could have a sequel, or she could not.

In a futurist America, at the age of eighteen everyone receives the government-mandated cure that prevents people from falling in love.  After the procedure, you will not have a connection with your best friend, and you may not even enjoy hobbies you enjoyed beforehand.  Parents do not even love their children; they just seem to tolerate them.  Lena has ninety-five days before her procedure is to occur, and she cannot wait.  Her mother had the procedure done four times because it did not work, and Lena worries that she will inherit the disease and be like her mother and end up committing suicide.

Lena always does what is right and safe because she is scared until her best friend, Hana, convinces her to go to an underground party as their "last chance to do anything."  Lena runs into Alex at the party, and after talking with him, she decides to meet him the next day.  Normally guys and girls cannot socialize, but because Alex has been "cured," Lena is "safe" with him.  Their friendship blooms into a romance, but they have to keep it hidden from everyone. 

In both Matched and Delirium, characters are matched to their ideal mate, but in Matched the government makes the choice for you and in Delirium, characters are given a choice of four people to choose from.  Maybe that's like when the student council sells the love grams (?), in which you answer the multiple choice questions about what you like and don't like, and then a computer determines your top four ideal dates. 

I enjoyed reading the literary techniques that Oliver uses, and she even draws a parallel of Lena's love with Alex to Romeo and Juliet's doomed love.  All four of these novels focus on people finding out the "truth" about their government and instead of accepting it like George and Hazel Bergeron, they decide to retaliate like Harrison Bergeron. 

Fallout (family problems, drug use)

Book Title: Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Thoughts: After reading this book, Hunter, one of Kristina's children reminds me of one of my students I helped with his book report over this book.  While Hopkins first two books of the Crank series focus on Kristina's addiction to meth, this one focuses on three of her children (Hunter, Autumn, and Summer) who do not know their biological mother, and only one of them knows of her father but doesn't really know him.

I don't recommend reading this book first.  I had this book sitting out at home, and my husband picked it up and began reading it but was confused on the characters and plot.  I told him he needs to read the first two books to know the background on these characters.  Picking up this book first is like watching The Bourne Legacy first.  You will be confused on why characters make the choices they make. 

Hunter is in college.  Autumn and Summer are still in high school but do not have driver's licenses.  I wonder if Summer is old enough to drive but because she is in foster care she can't get her driver's license?

I don't feel as disgusted with the characters in this novel like I did with Kristina in Crank and Glass. I do wonder if her poor choices are hereditary and if the cycle will continue.

Just like their mother, these children are not perfect and make choices that negatively affect their lives and they have to struggle through the fallout of these choices.

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Book Title: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Thoughts: This is definitely a novel geared toward girls.

When female students have read this is the past, I thought it was about how an ugly duckling became the swan.  Boy was I wrong.

I read this book to help a student find the theme of it, and I have to say I did enjoy the stress Belly deals with in deciding which guy to like.  Instead of this just having a ordinary three-way love affair, Han has Belly have to choose between three boys.  Isn't it always the guy we really like as teenage girls, the one who doesn't like us back?  Oh, the heartbreak......

Every summer Belly and her family go to Cousins Beach with her mom's best friend (Susannah) and her two boys: Conrad and Jeremiah.  Belly has had a crush on Conrad for as long as she can remember, but he treats her like a little sister.  The summer she turns sixteen, she is changing from a girl to a young woman and guys begin to notice and pay attention to her.  The guy she wants to notice her, Conrad, doesn't.  After she begins dating Cameron, another summer visitor to the beach, who tells her she is beautiful, Conrad's younger brother Jeremiah lets her know how he feels about her. Which guy would you choose? 

Even though my student told me the plot of the novel, I did cry toward the end of the novel when Belly finds out the secret everyone has been keeping from her.  I cried more than I did when I read The Fault In Our Stars but less than I did when reading The Sky is Everywhere.  I guess the parent and child relationship hit me because what happens is one of my greatest fears as a parent.

This is not a formulaic Nicholas Sparks book that teenage girls like to read.  The summer teenage girls turn pretty is when boys begin to notice them.  Will you choose the guy who compliments you on your beauty,  the guy who is your best friend,  or the unavailable guy?

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick (adventure, assassins))

Book Title: Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber

Thoughts: This book was funny.  I began laughing while reading the first page and did not stop until the last chapter.  I can visualize Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Mclovin) as Perry, but I haven't figured out who would play Gobi--maybe Rooney Mara.  The last chapter doesn't lend itself to a movie though; we need to know what Perry thinks.  Maybe if the director has Perry directly speak to the camera like in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, we would know his thoughts.  I can see Perry introducing each chapter with a quick introduction to the camera.   

Perry is a senior in high school who always does what his dad wants him to do.  His parents make him take the geeky Lithuanian exchange student to senior prom when Perry would rather play a gig with his band.  He decides he will be able to do both, but Gobi has other plans.  She forces Perry to drive her around New York City so that she can assassinate people.  This book is full of car chases, blood and gore, and fights. Schreiber uses situational irony throughout the novel to help with the humor. 

Even though Schreiber uses "chick" in the title, and we know females are not barnyard animals, I did enjoy the humor and wanting to know what the next funny situation Perry would be in.  I can't imagine many people saying "au revoir" to this book after the first page. 

Ashfall (survival)

Book Title: Ashfall by Mike Mullin

Thoughts: After reading this book, I did some research to find out more about supervolcanoes and checked to see if the ash would fall on where I live.  You might want to check out the pictures of what parts of Earth look like when covered in ash.  This book is based on the idea if a supervolcanoe erupts how a teenager would survive.

If you have read Life As We Knew It, this is like it, but Alex, the main character goes in search of his parents instead of staying at home and trying to survive.

Alex is a fifteen year old who constantly fights with his mother but convinces her that he should be allowed to stay at home in Cedar Falls, Iowa, instead of going with his family to visit his uncle in Warren, Illinois.  Three hours after his family leaves, the supervolcano erupts, and Alex is on his own in trying to survive.  He decides to use his father's skis to travel cross country (110 miles according to Google maps) to find his family.  Alex meets escaped convicts (no electricity means prisons cannot hold prisoners), cannibals, parents dragging dead children behind them, and Darla who becomes his companion in his journey.

This book kind of makes me not want to leave my own children at home in case some catastrophe occurs, and we are split apart without cell phones or landlines to be able to communicate with each other.  This book does have a sequel like Life As We Knew It, so we will have to see how Alex survives the ashfall during winter. 

Stupid Fast (football, dealing with puberty)

Book Title: Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach

Thoughts: When I read the reviews for this, I thought this was going to be a funnier book than it was.  I didn't laugh.  I felt sorry for Felton Reinstein and would not wish this type of turmoil on any teenager.  I guess I still can't laugh at the meanness of teenagers. 

Fifteen year old Felton narrates about how terrible his life is: puberty kicks in; none of his clothes fit; his mother has locked herself in her bedroom and taken his TV; his younger brother dresses as a pirate; the football coach wants him to play football; the football coach's son does not want Felton to play football; because his best friend went to Venezuela for the summer, Felton has to take over his paper route; and he has no girlfriend.

I guess I just know that some of my students have parents who check out and refuse to help and support their child that I could not laugh at this situation.  Maybe teenagers who live in this type of situation can find the humor it in, but I couldn't.  I'm not saying it is a stupid book because it isn't.  It's just if you are looking for a humorous book, I don't think this is it. 

Legend (rebelling against government)

Book Title: Legend by Marie Lu

Thoughts: I did like Divergent better than Legend, but this is not a bad book in which teenagers rebel against their government.  Like "Harrison Bergeron" the government has a strong control over the people.

Lu has two main characters, Day and June, who tell their side of the story in alternating chapters.  Day is from the poor part of town, and June is from the wealthy part of town.  Day, a criminal wanted by the Republic, is hunted down by June after her brother Metias's murder.  I did keep expecting Metias to reappear in the novel thinking that the government just made him look like he was dead to spur June to want to find and bring Day to justice.   

When Day and June meet, they do not tell each other who they are, and they end up caring for each other.  Then they have to decide if their feelings for each other are worth risking their lives. 

I did find the various escapes the characters make too Hollywood, in which they easily escape, but Lu does have the characters suffer injuries, so it is not completely unbelievable.  Day and June make a legend of themselves, and I wonder what type of legend we will be remembered for?