Category: Controversial Issue/Debate


“The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie and a World Transformed”

Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Controversial Issue/Debate, Human Rights Issues, Non-fiction by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
February 7, 2012

This week–February 8, 9, 10, and 11–the Colony High School Theater Arts Department is producing the play The Laramie Project. After seeing this powerful production, students who want to learn more about Matthew Shepard should consider reading The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie and a World Transformed. It’s available in our library.

“The mother of Matthew Shepard shares her story about her son’s death and the choice she made to become an international gay rights activist. Today, the name Matthew Shepard is synonymous with gay rights, but before his grisly murder in 1998, Matthew was simply her son. For the first time in book form, Judy Shepard speaks about her loss, sharing memories of Matthew, their life as a typical American family, and the pivotal event that changed everything. The book follows the Shepard family in the days after the crime, when their incapacitated son was on life support; how they learned of the response from strangers all across America who held candlelit vigils and memorial services for their child; and finally, how they struggled to navigate the legal system as Matthew’s murderers were on trial. It not only captures the historical significance and civil rights issues, but it also chronicles one ordinary woman’s struggle to cope with the unthinkable.”–From publisher description.

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“Divergent”

Filed under: Adventure Stories, Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Human Rights Issues, Literary Read Alike, Mature Readers, Over 375 pages, Sci-Fi/Futuristic, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
February 2, 2012

Divergent by Veronica Roth

“Every faction conditions its members to think and act a certain way. And most people do it. For most people, it’s not hard to learn, to find a pattern of thought that works and stay that way. . . . But our minds move in a dozen different directions. We can’t be contained to one way of thinking. And that terrifies our leaders. It means we can’t be controlled.”

Beatrice Prior is a Divergent. And she’d better keep that a secret. Because in the future, specifically in the future Chicago of the novel, society is broken down into five factions based on the qualities of character that individuals demonstrate. The motto “Faction before blood” means that families are less important than factions. At sixteen, children attend a ceremony in which they choose the faction they will live with from then on. To choose a faction different from that of his parents means that the teen will be separated from his family for life.

Beatrice is from the Abnegation faction, the group of people who are self-sacrificing. They run the government since it is unlikely that they will make selfish grabs for power. The four other factors are: Candor (always tells the truth, no matter how rude or mean); Amity (friendship); Erudite (intelligent and bookish—love learning); and Dauntless (brave, fierce).

Living in the Abnegation faction is hard. Everyone is expected to always give up comforts for others. They are nice, they take turns, they listen to others, they don’t worry about fashion (all clothes are gray), and they don’t speak up before hearing someone else’s issues. Still, despite the lack of individualism in this, as a group, Abnegation plays nice. Not all groups do.

Like all sixteen year olds, Beatrice goes through a simulation that, based on her reaction to various situations, will indicate to which of the five factions she belongs. But her simulation results are inconclusive. She reacts to the virtual dangers as an Abnegation, a Dauntless, and an Erudite. The woman monitoring the simulation whispers that she is a Divergent. This is dangerous. She is not to tell anyone, but she should choose a faction. Unsure of what she should do, Beatrice (hence forward Tris) chooses Dauntless.

The Dauntless, traditionally brave, have the job of protecting the city. But in recent times, the leaders are more sadistic than courageous and the initiates are treated cruelly and encouraged to be brutal to one another. Only ten initiates will be accepted into the faction. Those who are cut will be factionless for the rest of their lives, impoverished nobodies, living on the street. The vicious, even gruesome, initiation process is heart-stopping. You won’t be able to stop reading through it—and it covers most of the book.

At the same time the initiates are vying for a spot in Dauntless, there is a rumor that Abnegation is misusing its power and that the Erudite want war and hope the Dauntless will cooperate. One of the young trainers of the initiates is Four, who tells Tris, “They don’t want you to act a certain way. They want you to think a certain way.” As a Divergent, her mind isn’t easy for others to control, so she’s a primary target, a girl who may be able to help Abnegation because of her many qualities.

If you’re looking for a good read after finishing The Hunger Games trilogy, this is a great choice. (I think the cover even tries for a subconscious Hunger Games feeling.) Be mindful that it’s for mature readers who aren’t sickened by the violence, which is excessive and somewhat repetitive. And, yes, the romance is there, too, a very sweet one that will have you rooting for Tris and Four. This is obviously the beginning of a trilogy. We don’t even know how the world outside of Chicago functions—whether this is something neglected by the writer as she was swept away with her descriptions of Dauntless sadism or purposeful, something we will learn as society breaks apart and moves outward. But we will certainly check out ‘book two’ because we want to find out.

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“Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock”

Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Controversial Issue/Debate, Human Rights Issues, Non-fiction by Ms. Waddle — 1 Comment
January 23, 2012

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Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick

When young and learning about desegregation in the South, for me, one photograph stood as the example of the deep southern racial divide. It portrays all the hatred of the Southern whites for the Blacks who were trying to get equal access to a good education. It is one of the most powerful images I’ve ever seen.

That image—a photograph of a white student at Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas screaming obscenities at Elizabeth Eckford—one of the Little Rock Nine who were chosen to integrate Central High—has stood as the iconic image of racism for more than fifty years.

And for many years now, whenever I see the picture posted on display for a celebration of the Civil Rights Movement, I’ve wondered: Who is that screaming white girl? How did she have that much hate at that age? Times have changed and she must be an old woman now. What does she think today?

One thing always bothered me more than anything else. What the girl did was truly awful, but she just happened to be captured at what was probably the worse moment of her life and given out to the world as a demon-child. She was fifteen. What would it be like to become the face of racism, permanently, in every textbook and display for fifty years? What would it be like to have your entire life judged on something you did at fifteen?

Finally, Elizabeth and Hazel is the book with my answer. The girl is Hazel Bryan, and her story is told along with that of Elizabeth Eckford’s. The book gives the reader background to the date of the photograph (the Brown v. The Board of Education decision three years earlier, how the Little Rock Nine were chosen, etc.)

On September 4, 1957, the first day of the school year for Little Rock Central High and its first day of court-ordered desegregation, eight of the Little Rock Nine met and went to school together as a safety measure. Elizabeth didn’t get the message (her family had no phone) and, after being barred from entering the school by the National Guard, she had to walk a gauntlet of screaming whites to go back to a bus stop and wait to go home. (While she waited, people continued to harangue her. When a white woman who was a Communist tried to shame the crowd, people accused the Little Rock Nine of being in cahoots with the Communists.) During this walk, Will Counts, a young local reporter, snapped the iconic photo.

“When it comes down to it, Count’s famous photograph of Elizabeth is really more of Hazel Bryan; it is on Hazel that the eyes land, and linger. Despite the tricky lighting, her face is perfectly exposed: the early September sun shines on her like a spotlight. It hits her from the side, painting her face in a stark chiaroscuro that makes it look more demonic still. She’s caught mid-vowel, with her mouth gapingly, ferociously open. At that instant, and in perpetuity, Hazel Bryan, always the performer, has the stage completely to herself. Others played their own small parts in the picture, but ‘the mouth,’ she later said, ‘was mine.’”

Elizabeth is also an icon of the Civil Rights Movement because of her dignity in that frightening, lonely walk. She continued at Little Rock High for the year although a group of students was always slamming her into lockers, pushing her, spitting on her. However, Hazel was not one of those students. Her parents took her out of the school after seeing her in the newspaper photo. She never attended school with Elizabeth. In fact, Elizabeth didn’t like to look at the photo, and didn’t know about Hazel.

The photograph took on a life of its own. A white farmer paid to have it republished in a newspaper with the heading, “Study This Picture and Know Shame.” Some of the kids at Central High felt the same. They were all being judged for the bad behavior of a small group of vicious students. News men were interviewing them, trying to trip them up, the ASB president thought.

Hazel married and had children very young. Also young, she began to question her upbringing and her life. She did things that would have been considered very odd at the time. In pregnancy, she took Lamaze classes. She practiced yoga and learned to belly dance. But most important, she realized how bad her behavior was on September 4, 1957.

“When she was around twenty years old, Hazel found herself lying awake, thinking about Elizabeth, and about her won legacy. She wanted to be for her sons the role model on racial tolerance she’d never has herself. To put it more brutally, she didn’t want either of them to become the bigot she had been.”

She tracked down Elizabeth so that she could apologize. Afterward, she did a lot of volunteer work with underprivileged youth. She was “disfellowshipped” from her church for her rebellious attitudes. She didn’t fit in.

Elizabeth has had a difficult life although she has met presidents and received many awards, including the Congressional Gold Medal. She appears to have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome before it was recognized. Her mother was mentally ill as was her son, and she appears to have suffered from depression herself throughout her life.

That these two women could become friends seems too good to be true. And maybe it was because they couldn’t maintain their friendship for more than a few years. But how their lives converge is an interesting story. Elizabeth and Hazel is a very readable book, and a wonderful look at important moments in U.S. history.

And, after all these years, I can finally look at that haunting photograph and have some answers.

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More than just memoir: Deeper thinking about the Holocaust “The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness” and “Man’s Search for Meaning”

Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Controversial Issue/Debate, Faith-Based/Religious Element, Fiction, Human Rights Issues, Non-fiction, Short Stories by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
January 19, 2012

 

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The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon

You are a prisoner in a concentration camp. A dying Nazi soldier asks for your forgiveness. What would you do? Withe responses by Robert Coles, The Dalai Lama, Matthew Fox, Mary Gordon, Harold S. Kushner, Dennis Prager, Dith Pran, Desmond Tutu, Harry Wu, and forty-four others.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Viktor Frankl survived more than one concentration/death camp, including Auschwitz, during World War II. His father, mother, brother, and wife all died in the camps. He lost everything he’d owned. Frankl was also a psychiatrist. In his classic Man’s Search for Meaning, he reflects on why some people survive in the most horrific circumstances possible. He asks –and answers—how can man find life worth living?

Those of us who’ve worked with teens for awhile know that you ask yourselves this difficult question. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean that you haven’t had a crisis, a ‘dark night of the soul.’ If you do worry about life having any meaning, reading this book is a great start toward answering your questions.

The book has two parts. The first part reviews some of Frankl’s experiences in the death camps. He looks at what causes friends to give up hope and what brings moments of happiness. In every case, the individual has to make sense out of his suffering. Frankl believes that all suffering (even that which ends in death) has meaning. Man can rise above his fate by choosing to be worthy of his suffering.

The second part covers logotherapy, Frankl’s school of psychotherapy. In this second part, the reader sees how Frankl uses his experiences to help ordinary people who feel that life isn’t worth living.

Many students ask for books by or about Holocaust survivors. This is different from others because it delves into life’s purpose as much as it does into the story of Frankl’s captivity. I found myself wanting to copy down quotations to remember.

“The majority of prisoners suffered from a kind of inferiority complex. We all had once been or had fancied ourselves to be ‘somebody.’ Now we were treated like complete nonentities. (The consciousness of one’s inner value is anchored in higher, more spiritual things, and cannot be shaken by camp life. But how many free men, let alone prisoners, possess it?)”

“I remember two cases of would-be suicide, which bore a striking similarity to each other. Both men had talked of their intentions to commit suicide. Both used the typical argument—they had nothing more to expect from life. In both cases it was a question of getting them to realize that life was still expecting something from them; something in the future was expected of them.”

“From all this we learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only two—the ‘race’ of the decent man and the ‘race’ of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of ‘pure’ race.”

“What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess champion: ‘Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?’ There simply is no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from a particular situation in a game and the particular personality of one’s opponent. The same holds true for human existence. One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated.”

There’s much hope for all of us in this little book. If you’re in the middle of a tough time and looking for purpose, check it out.

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For Read 180 and English Learner students

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Mature Readers, Read 180, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
January 13, 2012

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High Interest Series

Check for these books in our new library section: 372.41

 Choices series:

The Choices series is for teens who are emerging readers. They are not complete stories. They set up situations that require teens to make a choice. The choice is one that teens might have had to make in the past or will make in the future.

 The books are about 50 pages long. They work best for teens who are learning English. If you can already read at the 4th grade level or above, you might find Choices too easy. It may bore you. If you are learning to read English, you might like the Choices series. You might enjoy thinking about what you would do in the same situation.

 Sample title:

 Friend or Foe?

Two friends are running for class president. A third friend (Jazz) tells one of them (Cory) that he will vote for Cory. But Jazz would make a better class president. Should he keep his promise or should he run for class president?

 Orca Soundings series

The books in Orca Soundings vary a lot. They cover a lot of situations. They are written for teens who read below grade level. Most of the books have a 2.5-6 grade level of reading, but they have a lot of action. The pace is really quick. The topic are sometimes for mature readers—teenage sexuality, underage drinking, bullying. These are not books for students in grades 2-6.

I found the Orca Soundings books that I read to be interesting. I wanted to know how things would turn out. They are the same number of pages as the shorter books in the Bluford series. (I discuss the Bluford series next—see below.) Still, Orca Soundings books are a little shorter than Bluford books. The print is bigger.

Since the books aren’t connected as they are in most series, I’ve got three sample titles to give you an idea:

Comeback

Ria is rich, pretty, popular, and has a great boyfriend. Her problem is that her parents are getting a divorce. She blames her mother because her mother wanted the divorce. Ria enjoys her father’s positive attitude about life. She enjoys how he is always doing something fun.

I liked this book because I wasn’t able to guess what would happen. When Ria’s father won’t take her on a plane trip, I thought Ria would find out that her father was having an affair—and that she had misjudged her mother. But Ria’s father is very bad in another way, one right out of today’s headlines. He’s bad in a way that affects a lot more people than just his family.

Charmed

Charmed is for the very mature student.

Izzy is embarrassed of her mom’s boyfriend, Rob the Slob. He’s a racist. In fact, he’s a jerk in a lot of ways. The man of Izzy’s dreams is Cody Dillon. Cody’s a good-looking high school dropout and he’s popular with some girls. But Izzy thinks the “bada#$” boys are the best ones. And even with Rob the Slob as proof that she’s wrong, Izzy won’t listen to anyone about Cody.

When Izzy’s mom chooses Rob the Slob over Izzy, Izzy thinks Cody Dillon is her ticket out of the mess of her life. Bad choice.

Chill

Although Chill has a disability, he doesn’t let it affect him. He’s a great artist and he works on his strengths. He stood up to bullies when he was a kid in elementary school, so by high school, people respect him. But then a new teacher comes to town. And he truly is a bully, not just to Chill, but also to all of the students in his class. He seems to want to break their spirits. But he acts like a completely different person around other teachers, so the staff has no clue.

Through his talent in painting, Chill is able to stand up to Mr. Sfinkter. (Yes, ha, ha. Great name.) His story s also the story of friendship and how to learn to forgive friends when they let you down.

The Bluford Series

The books in the Bluford series are connected. They all take place at Bluford High, and some of the same characters appear in various books. Some are sequels, but the series isn’t one continuous story. If you want to know which books are sequels, check the link here or look under “Readers’ Advisory” on Colony Library Lady. It has a list of all the books and a quick blurb about each one, which tells you which are sequels.

The Bluford books are a little longer—150-180 pages—so they are able to more fully develop the characters. You feel like you get to know some of them. They have very real high school problems. They have a subplot, or second story line so the world of Bluford High seems real, with multiple problems. If you read one, you may get hooked. (And that’s a good thing.)

Sample title:

Pretty Ugly

Jamee Wills feels like she can never live up to her parents’ expectations because her older sister, Darcy, is the smart one. Darcy studies hard and plans to get a scholarship to college next year when she is a senior.

Jamee loves cheerleading because she’s a talented athlete, good at jumps, dance steps and tumbling. But of she doesn’t keep up her grades, she’s going to fail math—and then it won’t matter if she makes the cheer squad. But in order to go to practice, she lies to her parents about staying after school to get help from her math teacher.

In cheer practice, it becomes obvious which girls are the school’s queen bees. Particularly awful is Vanessa Pierce. Vanessa makes fun of Angel, a shy girl who is trying out. She goes on to bully Angel. When Jamee stands up for Angel—and for what is right—she also becomes the target of Vanessa’s attacks. With all the girls afraid to stand up to Vanessa (or they will be next), the attacks become worse and include cyber-bullying.

I particularly liked Pretty Ugly because it shows how hard being an outsider in high school can be.

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Tough Teen Topics: An Occasional Series Post 1–Violence

Filed under: Adventure Stories, Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Historical Fiction/Historical Element, Mature Readers, Movie Tie-In, Multicultural, Romance, Sci-Fi/Futuristic by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
December 16, 2011

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What about mature teens who are asking for books that delve deeply into the difficult subjects they are grappling with? Do we sanitize reading too much for your age group? You are, after all, sprinting on the heels of adulthood.

The problem for those of us adults responsible for teaching you is that you have such a wide range of maturity. A freshman is usually very different from a senior. Some books that take on difficult subjects are welcome—a relief, really—to students who’ve had a tough go and need to have their experience validated. Those same books may upset certain parents who feel that reading about the seedier side of life encourages the reader to participate in it when s/he wouldn’t have otherwise. I’m not that sort of parent myself—my kids have always read widely, on every sort of subject—but I respect that most parents are trying to do the best they can for their kids in a world that’s hard to figure out.

Ultimately, I believe both you and your parents can make the right reading choices for you if you have a pretty good idea what books are about. So, I want to write periodically on books that cover difficult topics including violence and teenage sexuality. I want to show you books that deal explicitly with the subjects, but that have value—that help you do that mature grappling with the difficult world. And if you feel that the content of the book is too explicit, then the review will have helped you make your choice to find something more appropriate.

My first go at this is to reflect on books with violence. And I do intend to look at teen books that address violence, but while thinking about the subject, I couldn’t forget that—while rather a wimp myself—some of the absolutely best contemporary books I’ve read were breathtakingly violent.

All of those great, yet violent, books were by Cormac McCarthy, a man widely regarded as one of the country’s best living authors. I asked some English teachers whether they thought their students could read McCarthy and get something valuable from him or whether those students would just see the novels as endless rounds of murder and mayhem. Based on their answers—they believe teens can benefit from the books as the violence in them is not of the gratuitous sort found in current movies—I am going to start my series with them.

In discussing the use of violence in literature and teen reading, we need a common definition of “gratuitous.” If it the definition means that the violence is ‘unnecessary to tell the story’ rather than meaning ‘a very heavy dose,’ then McCarthy’s violence is not gratuitous. Nevertheless, it’s unrelenting. And his narrative often has a camera-eye quality in the sense that we learn what happens and are left to sort it out for ourselves. Sometimes the camera extends into people’s musing on life and fate (as it does with Sheriff Bell in No Country for Old Men), but even then, no moral judgment is made for you. You must figure it out on your own.

The question then, at your age, is: Can you read this kind of violence and be able to form your own judgments? If you haven’t had some good practice in critical thinking, then I really don’t think McCarthy’s books are for you. If you have had that practice, a second question to ask yourself is whether you enjoy the qualities of excellent storytelling, the mythic sweep of a great narrative, and some of the best imagery/pictures of landscapes that you will ever read? If so, give McCarty a try.

Blood Meridian: This book is an unflinchingly realistic portrayal of the some of the worst examples of lawlessness in the wild west of the nineteenth century. I grew up in a time when all westerns were of the John Wayne variety with strong, silent men forging a new America. For anyone who knows nothing other than that image, Blood Meridian is an excellent antidote.

The nineteenth century in America was a time of deep culture clash (but then, when isn’t that true?). Blood Meridian is historical fiction in that its subject is the Glanton Gang, scalp hunters who were paid by the Governor of Chihuahua, Mexico in 1849-50 to kill Comanche and Apache Indians. Those two tribes had raided Mexican towns, and Glanton received $200 per scalp, scalps being evidence that the Indians had been murdered. But, as the cliché goes, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to imagine the possibilities. Considering that lots of folks in Mexico had black hair, when the Glanton Gang ran low on Apaches and Comanche to kill, they just started killing anyone they could get their hands on.

Gruesome? Absolutely. The Glanton Boys kill indiscriminately—men, women, children, old people. They pillage. They rape. One of the main characters, Judge Holden, is well educated, always curious, something of a botanist and purveyor of human nature. He is also pure evil, and the banality of his wickedness—the way is it just an ordinary part of his life—will highlight for the thoughtful reader the fact that the west was ‘won’ by groups of men who included demonic characters.

Critics compare Blood Meridian to many works of classic literature, some of which you’ve read in high school or will read in college—Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. There’s Huck Finn lighting out for the territory, but not in a way that Mark Twain’s satire makes you smile at our cultural foibles. It’s so straightforward and void of emotion that you may feel physically sick over man’s inhumanity to man. You might think of your sophomore literature, Lord of the Flies, because the gang is outside of the reach of the law for so long. Their instincts for hurting others take over just as the marooned boys’ did after the plane crash.

If you are seeking a book to read for a literary analysis paper, there’s much to go with here—conflicts include man v. man and man v. nature (the deserts of Mexico and the borderland between the US and Mexico are arid, brutal in their lack of food and water). Ultimately, for the mature reader with an iron stomach, Blood Meridian has value in helping him to be able to recognize the ‘heart of darkness’ within us.

No Country for Old Men is another story that takes place along the border between Mexico and Texas, but this one has a contemporary setting—and the lawlessness is also contemporary.

A man named Llewelyn Moss is out hunting and accidentally stumbles upon the carnage that has resulted from a drug deal gone bad. When he realizes that most of the dealers are dead in the cars and all the drugs are still there, he also knows that the drug money couldn’t be far off. Finding the (now dead) man who tried to get away with the suitcase with the millions, Llewelyn takes the case. Once he does so, the novel primarily follows three characters: Llewelyn Moss; Anton Chigurh, a true psychopath without any conscience or remorse, a hit man in pursuit of Moss; and Sheriff Bell, the lawman attempting to sort out the details and catch Chigurh. Bell’s sections of the novel are more monologues about both life in the past and the present and about the crime. He thinks of Chigurh as a sort of ghost because he is impossible to catch—but he’s real, and he’s out there.

In No Country for Old Men the universe is not a benevolent one, and if you think it’s just the bad guys who are killing off one another, or at least bad guys killing off folks whose greed gets them mixed up in the seedy side of life (like Moss), McCarthy wants to show you otherwise. The evil can be purely arbitrary—especially for Moss’s wife (Carla Jean), whose only connection to the madness, for which she pays dearly, is to have fallen in love with and married Moss.

Again, if you are looking for a novel to read for a literary analysis paper, there’s a lot here. You have the same man v. man and man v. nature as in Blood Meridian. You’ve also got the chance to discuss nihilism and morality.

More recently, McCarthy published The Road, and while it’s about a post-apocalyptic United States, surprisingly, I found more hope in it than in the two books above. I reviewed it earlier and you can read the review here.

OK, if you are saying, “Ms. Waddle, I am a mature person, and I know I need a dose of reality in my reading, but this is just way more than I can take at once,” then I recommend you start with McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, the first book of which is All the Pretty Horses. The title, while appropriate, is unfortunate in that teen guys will turn away from it, thinking it’s a sweet little book meant for girls. Ah—no.

I reviewed All the Pretty Horses here. If you are working on literary analysis or asking yourself the bigger questions, the novel makes you think: What’s in a national identity? What does it mean to be Mexican-America? Can someone be multicultural if he stems from European (Anglo) stock but has a Mexican nanny who teachers him Spanish, and later crosses the border to live in Mexico for a period of time?

If you want to read critical analysis of McCarthy’s books, there are some good articles on the library’s database. You can click on these links, but you may need to type in your Ontario City Library card number to view the articles. (They are in the Literature Resource Center database.)

Eaton, Mark A. “Dis(re)membered Bodies: Cormac McCarthy’s Border Fiction.” Modern Fiction Studies 49.1 (Spring 2003): 155-180. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 260.Detroit: Gale, 2009.Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Dec. 2011.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1100085017&v=2.1&u=onta59809&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

“Blood Meridian.” Contemporary Literary Criticism Select.Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Dec. 2011.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1114060000&v=2.1&u=onta59809&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

Cooper, Lydia R. “‘He’s a psychopathic killer, but so what?’: Folklore and morality in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men.” Papers on Language & Literature 45.1 (2009): 37+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Dec. 2011.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA194974981&v=2.1&u=onta59809&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

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“Self Storage”

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Literary Read Alike by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
December 12, 2011

Self Storage by Gayle Brandeis 

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How difficult is it for the ordinary you or me to do the right thing? Well, if we are middle class and living in the US, usually, it’s not too tough. We are supported by a great safety net and we often have the means to support those around us, as long as we band together and coordinate our efforts.

But small things can make big changes in our lives, and we might have to make decisions we never could have imagined. Self Storage is about those life-altering events, about how to say ‘yes’ to what’s good, even when you really aren’t sure where that ‘yes’ is going to lead you.

Flan Parker’s mom died when Flan was only seven, leaving behind an old copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. This book of poems is Flan’s most precious possession, and just about all she has left of her mother. As an adult, Flan, mother of two small children and wife to a graduate student working (or not—he’s addicted to soap operas) on his Ph.D., has created a small business venture to help support the family. She bids at auction on items left in self-storage lockers. When people don’t pay the rent on these self-storage spaces, the items are auctioned to the highest bidder. However, bidders can only look into the locker for a minute with a flashlight. They are a hopeful sort, imagining treasures in the boxes piled in those lockers. But they are also reaping from others’ misfortune.

Flan wins a box that she opens, finding inside only a beautifully-painted interior and a note that says ‘yes.’ She determines to find the owner of the box and to learn what the yes means. This combined with her love of Walt Whitman, helps Flan decide that she must seek the yes in her own life as well.

This is 2002, the year after the 9/11 attacks. Flan’s role as a seeker is tested when a neighbor, a native of Afghanistan, burqa-clad and something of a hermit, accidentally turns the Parker household upside down. Flan’s efforts to sort out post-9/11 life remind the reader of why civil rights traditionally granted in the US, such as free speech and due process, deeply matter.

Several things that may appeal both to students and teachers are: The novel takes place in Riverside and Mount Baldy and you’ll recognize lots of local character; Brandeis is a local author and reading her works is a great shot in the arm for other locals—it’s an invaluable YES to the belief that things that happen right here in the IE matter; Brandeis, a winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction (in support of a literature for social change), will be one of the speakers at our Writers’ Conference on March 28 (more information to follow), so if you’re an aspiring writer, you’ll have a chance to talk to her about the writing life in the IE; it’s a quick read for those who are interested in current politics but aren’t interested in long diatribes and taking a partisan beating. Lastly, if you’re looking for a book with a literary tie-in and enjoy Whitman, you’ll love the connections.

While Self Storage certainly has appeal for teens who are interested in social and political issues, it is an adult novel and much of the book deals with themes of married couples drifting apart and coming together—supporting one another, yet needing to seek self reliance and personal goals—and of the deep value of friendships. For these reasons, teen appeal depends very much on the individual (adult appeal, I think, is wide and general).

Since Brandeis will be coming to speak to our schools’ (CHS and COHS) aspiring writers (teen and adult alike), I will be reviewing her other books. Three that have a lot of teen appeal are The Book of Dead Birds (for which Brandeis won the Bellwether Prize), Delta Girls, and My Life with the Lincolns. A few years back, I reviewed The Book of Dead Birds and you can see that review here. My reason for reviewing Self Storage before the others is that I unexpectedly found myself in the hospital for a few days last week, and asked my husband to bring me something to read during my stay. He grabbed Self Storage from the pile of unread books on my nightstand. So—it’s fresh in my mind and now was the time to write about it. But check back because I’ll get to Delta Girls and My Life with the Lincolns very soon!

And mark March 28, 2012 on your calendar to come after school and participate in the mini writers’ conference. We’re hosting a poet and a non-fiction writer as well.

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Bluford series: Five new titles are here!

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — 1 Comment
December 2, 2011

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The popular Bluford series  is here! We’ve got all 15 titles now. And there are 5 copies of each one, so come on over and check them out!

If you want to know which of the Bluford books are sequels or what order you might want to read them in, click here for a list of all 15 books and see which ones are related to others.

Newest five in the Bluford series:

No Way Out by Peggy Kern

Bluford High freshman Harold Davis is trapped. Medical bills for his sick grandmother are piling up, and a social worker has threatened to put him in a foster home. Desperate for money, he reluctantly agrees to work for Londell James, a neighborhood drug dealer. Will Harold escape the violence that surrounds him?

The Test by Peggy Kern

Liselle Mason is in trouble. For weeks, she ignored the changes in her body and tried to forget her brief relationship with Oscar Price, her moody classmate at Bluford High. But when Liselle’s clothes stop fitting, and her brother notices her growing belly, she panics. A pregnancy test confirms her biggest fears. Unwilling to admit the truth, Liselle suddenly faces a world with no easy answers. Where will she turn? Who will she tell? What will she do?–From back cover.

Breaking Point by Karyn Langhorne Folan

Vicky Fallon can’t take it. Her father has lost his job. Her parents are constantly fighting, and her troubled little brother is out of control. Once an honor student, Vicky is quickly falling behind in her classes at Bluford High. Now her teachers, friends, and new boyfriend, Martin Luna, want answers. Pressured from all sides, Vicky knows something is about to snap. But the explosion that hits her home is worse than anything she could image.–Book back cover.

Pretty Ugly (sequel to Breaking Point)by Karyn Langhorne Folan

Jamee Wills never expected Vanessa Pierce and her friends to go this far. The trouble starts at cheerleading practice when Vanessa begins teasing Angel McAllister, a shy new girl at Bluford High. When the insults turn nasty, Jamee tries to stop them. She wins Angel’s friendship but makes many enemies. Now Jamee is a target, and someone is texting lies and pictures of her all over school. Unwilling to tell her family or snitch on her fellow cheerleaders, Jamee is cornered. Will her next move solve her problems–or make them worse?–From back cover.

Schooled by Paul Langan

There’s no backing down for Lionel Shepard. With a dream of joining the NBA, all he wants to do at Bluford High is play Basketball. But everyone’s trying to stop him. Bad grades, bad advice from family members and friends. Will he pursue his dream or get caught in a nightmare?

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Surviving Southside

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Multicultural, Sports, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
November 30, 2011

 

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Finally!

Some good, interesting books for high school students who are learning to read or improving their reading skills. I’ve mentioned that we’ve been buying these books. Well, now most of them are here. I plan to post about different series. See which series sounds good to you and then come check out a book.

At Colony High, we’ve created a section in the book stacks just for these new books. Look under the call number 372.41. (Don’t be shy about asking for help if you need it. That’s what we’re here for!) You’ll find a few hundred choices.

The first series up is Surviving Southside. Here are five titles:

Shattered Star by Charnan Simon

Cassie is the best singer in Southside High’s Glee Club and dreams of being famous. She skips school to try out for a national talent competition, but her hopes sink when she sees the line. Then a talent agent shows up out of nowhere, flattering her and saying she has “the look” he wants. Soon, she is lying and missing rehearsals to meet with him, and he’s asking her for more each time. How far will Cassie go for her shot at fame?

Recruited by Suzanne Weyn

Kadeem Jones is a star quarterback for Southside High. He is thrilled when college scouts seek him out. His visit toTellerCollegeis amazing, but then NCAA officials accuse Teller’s staff of illegally recruiting top talent. Will Kadeem decide to help their investigation, even though it means the end of the good times? What will it do to his chances of playing college football?

Bad Deal by Susan J. Korman

Fish hates having to take ADHD medication. It helps him concentrate, but it also makes him feel weird. When his crush, Ella, needs a boost to study for tests, Fish offers her one of his pills. Soon, more kids want pills, and Fish is enjoying the profits. To keep from running out, Fish finds a doctor who sells phony prescriptions, but suddenly the doctor is arrested. Fish realizes he needs to tell the truth, but will that cost him his friends?

Benito Runs by Justine Fontes

Benito’s father, Xavier, returns fromIraqafter more than a year suffering from PTSD–post-traumatic stress disorder–and yells constantly. He causes such a scene at a school function that Benny is embarrassed to go back to Southside High. Benny can’t handle seeing his dad so crazy, so he decides to run away. Will Benny find a new life, or will he learn how to deal with his dad–through good times and bad?

Plan B by Charnan Simon

Lucy has her life planned out: she’ll graduate and then join her boyfriend, Luke, at college inAustin. She’ll become a Spanish teacher, and they’ll get married. Deciding there’s no reason to wait, and despite trying to be careful, Lucy gets pregnant. Now, none of Lucy’s options are part of her picture-perfect plan. Together, she and Luke will have to make the most difficult decision of their lives.

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“Story of a Girl”

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Mature Readers, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
November 16, 2011

       When Deanna was only thirteen years old, her father caught her having sex in the back of a car with Tommy, a seventeen-year-old friend of Deanna’s brother.

Bad, yes. Embarrassing, yes. But what ruins Deanna’s reputation is that Tommy—who, after all, is much closer to adulthood—goes to school and tells everyone, making a joke of Deanna. With her reputation, Deanna’s school and social life are also destroyed. She is tagged as the school slut, and just about every comment directed at her is a nasty joke or sexual innuendo. There’s no escape for her, though she hangs on by writing in a journal.

Fortunately, Deanna has two friends, but the relationship among the three is complicated, and, in anger and jealousy, she even alienates them. Meanwhile, her brother has become a father far too early and is living in the family basement with his girlfriend and their baby daughter. Three years after the event, Deanna’s father is still angry and cannot forgive her. The family is a wreck.

  When Deanna decides to get a job at a pizza place, she finds Tommy working there as well. What could be worse? And yet having to face Tommy forces the two to actually talk about what happened and why. And in that, there is healing.

This is a super-short, super-quick, and super-good read about life-changing events and how to move on into forgiveness. I recommend it to all. But be advised that it has some profanity and explicit discussion of teen sexuality.

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