Mad about ‘Mad About the Boy’

Well, it’s been quite some time since I have blogged here- years in fact! Therefore it is quite apt that my first post back be about Bridget Jones returning after a 10 year hiatus. 

I was actually going to pass this book up, woman’s intuition and all but it beckoned to me from San Diego Central Library’s new book table- that damn table, always full of temptation.

 

The thing is some things get better with time, like a fine wine (though how would I know? Self has never left wine unattained that long, though New Years Self has banned the wine, so may be able to revisit this post in later months and comment on how much better wine gets with time). However, Bridget Jones ‘Mad About the Boy’ is not like a fine wine, in fact there is very little about wine in the book but a lot of jokes about ‘farts’ leading me to wonder if she really got wiser (she def gets older) or if she regressed somewhat with the passing of Mark Darcy.

Yeah, that’s right, Darcy dies! Get over it. HE IS NOT REAL! Get a grip ladies. If there is one thing I can commend this book for is for having the courage to kill off such a main character and continue the story. Nobody wants to read about a happy middle-aged woman (that’s why my millions of followers will tune into to read this blog in 10 days when I turn 33).

The book in some ways is very melancholy. Bridget seems broken by the death of Darcy and is struggling to raise two kids (one of always says ‘de’ instead of ‘the’ except she slipped out of the accent at one point and says ‘the’ but I think it was more of an editing miss than a four year old affliction). She has gotten older, less attractive, she doesn’t even seem to drink as much anymore, she chews nicorette and she is out of touch with technology. Daniel Cleaver is now an alcoholic and her other friends are divorced or desperately trying to re-enter the dating scene. There is none of the fun, the thrift shop glamour of the old Bridget- instead her and her friends come across as horribly middle-aged, middle class and do not even offer any of the fun of a midlife crisis- they are just shuffling along as is Bridget.

Instead of counting cigarettes, Bridget counts Twitter followers. The book is filled with her being ‘distracted’ by technology. We get it Fielding, ‘the world has changed, Bridget must navigate’. Unfortunately, Bridget still being scatterbrained but this time about technology does not pack the same punch as her being addicted to cigs and booze. In any case, Bridget joins twitter and goes up and down 100 followers each day- because of course, the average person builds and loses followers like they are at a craps table in Vegas. I suspect Fielding doesn’t know what twitter is like as a non-celebrity- nobody would give a shit about what Bridget has to say (Not bitter over my 7 followers at all). In any case, Bridge meets a 30 year old man on twitter who happens to have met her friend before (just so we understand it is safe to date a man off the internet when he coincidentally knows your friend) and they get it on and it’s not a bad relationship, kind of cute. Oh, except for all the fart jokes- it was so annoying, I suspect (I am very suspicious) that Fielding wanted to show the young man’s immaturity but it was very blatant. It was super annoying watching Bridget constantly being distracted by emails, texts and twitter while going about her life. I read books so that I don’t have to stare at a screen, I don’t want to read a fictionalized account of crap I already don’t care about (Social Media Hata in the house, tweet that bitches!)

In any case, I feel like I have been long winded and haven’t gotten across any kind of a solid point- which is exactly what this book was like. Well, maybe it was that you can be a babbling, scatterbrained middle-aged woman unfamiliar with technology and someone will still read your thoughts. 

Youth Dystopia

The unfortunate end has finally come to my Youth Materials course, and what a fitting way to end it than with books about the end of the world…

The great thing about being an avid reader is that I can often disprove things to myself that I believe I like or dislike. For example, prior to the last two years- if I had heard the term ‘dystopia’, I would have equated it with a science fiction type theme. Where as that is not entirely off, many times dystopian tales involve elements of sci fi (like The Knife of Never Letting Go) the thing that  was off for me was the fact that I liked these tales. I have never been much of a science fiction or fantasy reader, to me it gives the author too much license to just work the story the way that they want to and then credit anything that they can’t explain to ‘magic’. However, what I realized about good science fiction, is that the writer often has to be able to make up a bunch of things and explain them without copping out and crediting ‘magic’. This is why I loved our last picks for this semester, none of them copped out, instead these writers created startlingly real places and situations, they created worlds that I recognized but one that I also dreaded the coming of.

Here are my thoughts on these fantastic dystopian picks, spoiler note- I would recco each and everyone of them:

Little Brother by Cory Doctrow 

This book is definitely a mind warper. Reading through it I was surprised at how the outrageous events all seemed to become commonplace and expected in the world that Cory Doctrow created. The book starts off with a group of friends skipping school to go play a video game type scavenger hunt. These teens seems pretty everyday except for the fact that they have to trick the school motion detector into not recognizing their walk and then avoid any cameras on the street for fear they will be turned into the truancy police. The main character and his friends live in a city that has a great degree of surveillance but that is accepted by the citizens because they believe that this will help the government protect them against any threats to their nation’s safety. In any case, Marcus (our main man) and his friends manage to escape and are just beginning their scavenger hunt when something goes horribly wrong. There is a ‘terrorist’ attack and the city’s bridge (san fran) crumbles and Marcus and his friends are captured by the Department of Homeland Security because their actions on that day were regarded as suspicious.

What follows next is truly terrifying and seems all too real. The teens are held for questioning and tortured when they won’t admit to any wrong doing. Eventually most of them are let go but not before allowing the government to hack into their phones and computers, and promising never to breathe a word to anyone about what happened. When Marcus gets home he realizes that one of his friends was not released and so he begins a campaign to overthrow governmental security and control over his city. Marcus becomes the leader of an underground movement of teens determined to take back their freedom. Whether he is tricking out X-boxes to create a new safe system or answering reporter’s questions through a SIMS like application- Marcus refuses to be outwitted by those who tried to take away his freedom and who still have his friend. Will he be able to save his friend or will the government capture him again and this time, perhaps he won’t come back.

This book is such a great read for those who like technology. Anyone who calls themselves a technophile will really devour this novel. The author does not skim over technology but instead offers up possible revampings. The author himself has a background of working with software and fighting for software rights, so it really lends an authenticity to the themes he is talking about. This book is a really relevant read in today’s Internet society where people don’t stop to question exactly what censorship entails. I think this would be a great book for today’s youth because it allows them to think and discuss after the book is read.

This book is also really authentically teenage- with the technology, the crushes, the rebellion- I think any teen who reads this will think it is a really cool read (though maybe they don’t say cool anymore, so I won’t mention that when recco’ing it).

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Checking out ‘The Knife of Letting Go’, the first thing that I acknowledged was that on the back of the book, another author had praised that this book had the best first sentence. I was very curious to find out what this first sentence was. Slightly disappointed to find this:

“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say, about anything.” (it goes on to say “Need a Poo, Todd” and then “Shut-up, Manchee”.)

Maybe I am a bit old fashioned, but I just don’t think that is the most brilliant line ever, and also, I think starting a story with the fact that your dog needs a poo is not the classiest way to begin- but I held off on my judgement until I got through the book and luckily I did, because it turned out to be a really great story.

I will admit at times the story seemed a bit repetitive and simplistic, so perhaps this story would be better suited at pre-teens or younger teens.

The strength of this story was within the plot, Ness was able to create a world that was so fantastical and yet somewhat ground it in reality. If anyone ever told me that I would be able to believe that a world where no women lived in town, dogs talked and all the men could hear each other’s thoughts- I would have thought they were crazy but by the end of the novel I was completely sold on Ness’ story. There are also aliens, spaceships, and a love story within this novel. Again, I think this is a great recco because after reading it teens would have a lot to contemplate. I think I read somewhere that the author said he wrote this novel to talk about how in today’s society, we are constantly bombarded through things like social media, with other’s people’s thoughts and opinions. This novel is about what happens when all you’ve heard your whole life is the thoughts of other men, and now must begin listening to your own.

As well, the other great strength of the novel is in the creation of the hero, Todd. He begins the book as a reluctant hero but then slowly begins to realize its up to him not only to save the towns, but also to save the girl who dropped out of the sky into his life. This is a great novel for those who love an unlikely hero.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman 

Unwind was the book that took the biggest leap of faith for me to believe n but it is also the one that still haunts my thoughts. Even the cover is spooky and conveys the desperation of the theme of the novel.

Unwind is about a society that makes people disposable, but not entirely. You see, parents have a choice- if by sixteen you are not considered a valuable member of society and they think that you may not live up to your promise, they can have you unwound. What that means is that you go to a space where your entire body is torn apart (but kept alive) and then catalogued based on your different parts. People who want your parts then can receive them. For instance, someone with a fault lung could wind up with your lungs after you were unwound. The book starts off with Conner, finding the papers his parents signed to have him unwound in the next few weeks. He deicides to escape, and on his way he ends up taking a hostage, a tithe. A tithe is a youth that is being unwound as a sacrifice to god. Len’s parents had 10 kids, and so a rule of their religion is they gave 1/10th of their success to god, and Len is the one child out of 10 they had chosen to sacrifice. Len has succumbed to his fate when Conner hijacks him to use him as a hostage. Along the way they also meet Risa, a soon-to-be unwound from an orphanage.

As the three struggle to remain incognito, the reader is treated to a changing in narration and each of the characters gets to tell their side of the story. This narration and characterization in this novel is very strong, and I could totally picture the characters in my head. The theme of a dispensable society was really quite interesting, and you could really feel the hurt/anger/sadness of all the unwounds as they tried to fight their fate.

This is a really strong story, I would give it to all teens even reluctant readers. The nice thing about this book is that the language isn’t too complex and the story switches views which can keep even the most bored reader’s attention. It was just a really hip read, I could see a lot of boys really liking this one.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

I honestly find it quite strange that I profess to liking ‘Life As We Knew It’ because to be honest, while reading it and even now reflecting on it, it is such a depressing read! Maybe that’s why I really liked it thought, the author does such a good job of conveying the despair of these characters and their situation.

Even as the book begins with the town looking forward to the moon being hit by a meteor. Even the passing nature f such an epic events reads true, or the fact that the people got out lawn chairs and sat around to catch a glimpse of the catastrophe. The way the author begins the story shows how tightly cocooned the town is in their comfy life. Miranda, the main character is in high school and is dealing with growing apart from her friends and family. When the meteor hits, all of a sudden everyone’s lives are turned upside down and they all have to fend for themselves as the world slowly starts to come to an end.

The book was so realistic. From filling up shopping carts of rations, to rationing the food they would eat, this book reminds me of a war diary. It is actually written as a diary from Miranda’s point of view. It shows how her, her mother and her two brothers cope with life and all the changes that come. She goes from attending high school to hardly ever leaving her house because she is too weak and the world out of doors has changed.

This book is a great read for teens who like stories about trying times, like the war. It is also a good read for those who like a bit of science fiction in their realistic fiction. I would highly recommend it even though It depressed me so much reading it. The funny thing is, today when I was googling for the cover- I discovered it was part of a trilogy and I couldn’t have been more excited!

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

This book was a bit slower for me to really get into. It actually reads quite simplistically, with short chapters and simple vocab. And actually the story itself has elements of a Narnia type or a Harry Potter- that element of orphaned children left to navigate the world by themselves.

The story begins with Daisy coming to England to live with her aunt and her cousins after her father’s new wife has exiled her there, saying it would be better for her pregnancy and for Daisy’s mental health to be away for awhile. When Daisy arrives she is struck by the uniqueness of her cousins. She describes each one of them in great detail as a sort of a fairy-tale character, you get the impression that these people are the types that are so magical, perhaps they can save Daisy from her depression.

Daisy’s aunt is involved in some sort of activism and she is off fighting for her cause when the war hits. She cannot get  back into the country and as a result the children are left to fend for themselves.

Caught up in a war where nobody knows what has caused it, the only thing Daisy and her cousins can be sure of is that nothing will separate them. When something does, they have to work against the horrible odds to find each other once again- but how the war has changed them and will affect the rest of their lives is something none of them could have predicted.

I loved this novel for the sheer fact that despite it’s depressing backdrop- the war, depression, death of parents, etc. etc. etc.- it had this strange hopeful vibe to it, it was the mysterious magic to it all that kept the reader’s hopes up that all could not be lost. This book is written quite elementary but it seems to have darker undertones- I would recommend this to an older teen who likes an unconventional love story.

The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

When I first cautiously started my foray into youth fiction- The Uglies was one of the first series that I devoured. It is my all-time favourite reco. Reading it again, I was surprised by exactly how badass it actually was- no wonder I had loved it so much and recommended it so often. It is easy to say that The Uglies has a great plot, and premise- Tally lives in a society where everyone gets turned pretty when they are sixteen and then goes off to lie a life of happy oblivion but her surgery is interrupted when her new friend runs away and the government tells Tally she can’t turn pretty unless she helps to find her. But it is more than just that, and that is what I forgot in between readings. Tally is such a wonderfully drawn out character, she is entirely believable and her struggles to decide between what is right and wrong and what she wants and thinks she wants is realistic. As well, the short chapters and language, really draw a reader in. I think this is a great book for readers who are starting out- it may seem a bit thick but the chapters are short and eventful, so you keep turning the pages.

I am going to have to go back now and read Pretties, and Specials (and I already started re-reading Extras since I own a copy). And I will also have to get the others in the ‘Life as We Knew It’ series and I heard Meg Rosoff has another haunting novel about a teenager named ‘H’- which intrigues me. I guess even though the term is done, I still have quite a bit of reading ahead of me! These dystopian novels leave me with an idea of a utopian break, reading my life away!

 

From Zero to Hero

For this week of our YA lit class we had to read books that were along the theme “From Zero to Hero”. I managed to read two of the selections, and couldn’t resist re-reading one of my favourite books ‘Getting the Girl’. I missed ‘Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’ which was kind of a disappointment since my teacher has been raving about it all semester. And I just barely started ‘I Am MEssenger’ which was actually really readable and funny – from the title I just thought it was going to be kind of a dreary Will Smith movie type read – in any case i didn’t get to finish that one.

Here are my thoughts on the three I did read:

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini 

Our teacher said for this selection, we could either read the book or watch the movie. I have tried watching the movie before and despite having that Zac Ga… guy (I think that’s his name, the bearded one) in it, I managed to fall asleep watching it- the same thing happened when I tried to watch the movie for class and so I decided to find out the story the old fashioned way and I read the book.

The REALLY interesting thing about the book is that it was written by the author after he himself had a short stay at a mental institution. I really liked that, because it made me think that the book wasn’t just some guy supposing what it was like to be depressed but that it was actually by someone who had been there and so it read a lot more believable and less gimicky. The reader knew the writer hadn’t just written the book so that they could write about a splashy controversial subject that would get them lots of press but instead the author wrote about something that was close to home, and did it so authentically that not only did he get a lot of press but a movie deal as well.

In any case, the story starts with the narrator, Craig begins the story by explaining how depressed he is. The immobility of his life just oozes across the pages and you can feel how stuck he is. He has been accepted into an exclusive high school for smart kids but he is starting to feel the pressure and he begins to feel isolated from his close friends too. One day Craig decides to end it all by literally jumping off a bridge but before he does, he calls a suicide hotline and they convince him to check into a hospital.

After he does, he decides that he is fine only to realize that he has to stay there for at least 5 days to be assessed, and he is not even in a kids mental health ward but the adult one because there is no kids one anymore. Needless to say, Craig meets really interesting characters. While he is in the ward, he begins to learn a lot about himself and what is really important to him. The pressure from school, his friends and even living up to his parent’s expectations come off as Craig begins to discover that life isn’t necessarily about rushing from one thing to the next but about enjoying the small things that you are blessed with.

I thought this was an interesting book in that it kind of commented on one of the thing I think we really push teens to do these days and that is over-exert themselves. Craig really thought if he failed one test, the rest of his life was done. I think this is a great read for any teen, it is a bit lengthy and a bit slower paced, so I would probably reco it to a teen who really enjoys reading and trying out new stories.

Paper Towns by John Green 

Paper Towns was an AMAZING book! I had heard a lot about how great John Green was from my classmates (and actually without realizing it I had already read and loved one of his books ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’) and so I approached this novel with a healthy does of skepticism. I was quickly cured of it and now I am one of those John Green praise-singers and I can’t wait to read the rest of his work.

Paper Towns is about a teenage boy named Quentin who has been in love with his next-door neighbour Margo since they were kids and found a dead body together- I know, creepy right. This image of the dead body kind of haunts the novel and sets up the weird macabre feel to it. In any case, Margo got popular and left Quentin behind but then one night as they are nearing the end of their high school careers, she enlists in Q to help her settle the score with a few of the popular kids that have turned on her. In a night full of pranks that ends with Q and Margo breaking into sea world, the author really lets the reader see why Q is so obsessed with this quirky girl.

The novel quickly turns mysterious however when Margo runs away. Q is left searching for the clues she left behind so that he can find her and bring her back. His best friends help him and in the meantime while Margo is gone, it is up to Q to protect those that can’t protect themselves against their high school bullies.

This book was everything a great read needs- it was funny (blank santas!), it was cool, it was mysterious, it had the bad guys and the good guys, and it had a heroine that was larger than life. This book would make a really great movie. (I actually read it was going to be turned into a movie but thn those pesky creative differences ot in the way).

Q emerges as an unlikely hero in this novel. It is almost as though once Margo talks to him again and he believes her to be in danger that he is able to break out of his self-imposed wallflower stance and become the cool guy that was in him all along. This book shows how you don’t have to stand back and let life happen to you, even as a nerd in high school- you have  the power to change your destiny.

I would reco this book to all teens, especially ones that like a bit of mystery and comedy. I really liked the epic road trip in the story, it was hilarious! It is a highly readable novel, a bit thick but well worth the page count.

Getting the Girl by Susan Juby

This book is one of my favourite YA novels, I love all of Susan Juby’s stand alones. This book is a great read for teens and I often look for it first when taking teens to the shelves.

What I like about this novel is that it takes the idea of bullying and ostracization head on- it doesn’t just cursorily mention it or use it as a backdrop but it shows it in all of it’s ugly realistic details. The other great thing about this novel is that it doesn’t come across as preachy- it doesn’t take a heavy handed aproach against bullying but instead shows how it affects the main character and his friends, without getting too didactic.

Sherman Mack (what a name!) has just started high school and has picked his girl crush in a much older, more popular woman by the name of Dini but when Dini starts dating one of the most popular guys in school, Sherman starts to worry about her. You see, there is this custom at this high school where girls get defiled- their picture goes up on a washroom wall with an X through it and from then on nobody in the school will associate with the girl. This has happened to Dini’s new boyfriend’s last two girlfriends and Sherman wants to protect Dini so he starts to investigate the case of defiling. He gets into quite a bit of trouble along the way but also makes some unexpected friends.

What I like about this novel is that it is soo funny! I lol’ed IRL so many times. I also like the characterization of Sherman, he is a loser but the fact that he doesn’t realize it is endearing to the readers and to the other characters in the book, and so he often finds himself hanging out with people that a zero normally wouldn’t be. I also liked the fact that Sherman had a bit of a messy family situation but that it wasn’t overdramatized but actually made humorous and had that teenage embarrassment quality to it (his mom showed up to his school in dance leotards).

I also like that in this novel, the geeks end up hanging out with the popular kids and vice versa. It really breaks down the barriers that can sometimes seem so prevalent in high school.

Awesome read, even better the second time around!

 

I give all these Zero to Hero novels, 10s!

 

Weetzie Bat- Love is a Dangerous Angel

When I started reading Weetzie Bat, I was a bit startled by the airiness of it all and the fantastical nature of the plot. The short chapters didn’t fit well with me, and the novel seemed to read like a bunch of short stories thrown into a novel. This was one of the books that didn’t really hit me until after I read it (See, Ms. Bird was right about reflection teaching you things but not right about me being married by now!).

After I finished this novel, the strange cast of characters stayed with me. Weetzie, My-Secret-Agent-Lover-Man, Dirk, Duck, Witch Baby and Cherokee- if their names alone don’t get to you, their over the top personalities will. I adored how at the end of this novel, this blended family of a gay couple, a straight couple and their baby and then another baby who had another mother but she wasn’t in the picture anymore- look, it got complicated but the moral is this novel ended the way all amazing fairytales end- with everyone living happily ever.

I must admit, one of my favorite parts of the novel is when Dirk reveals to Weetzie that he is gay and she barely bats an eye. There are such elements of reality in this novel. With broken homes, alcoholism, homosexuality, love affairs and the gritty backdrop of a kind of a punk rock feel- this novel delves into reality. However, delves shallowly. The novel is filled with fantastical elements like a genie in a bottle, voodoo and finding love with a person you essentially named… again, it’s hard to explain.

One of the quotes i love in this novel is when Dirk says to Duck “Love is a dangerous angel.” I think that aptly shows the poetry in the book, the contradiction of love being something welcoming like an angel but at the same time having an unwelcoming quality- that of being dangerous.

Sighs and can’t describe just how much I loved this novel.

 

 

 

 

Sex in my YA…

We just recently talked about ‘Sex in Youth Literature’ in my Young Adult materials class. And it made me remember what it was like to be a teen and search for those sex scenes in a book.

I clearly remember reading Sweet Valley High’s ‘Dear Sister’ and then rereading this one part over and over again. It was such a clandestine sentence or two about Elizabeth getting felt up by Bruce Patman (she was in a car accident obviously, she would never mess around with Patman!). I just remember being so shocked and thrilled that the word ‘breast’ was in a book. I remember not really knowing what it all meant, but knowing that I had found reading gold.

Similarily, I remember being around 12 and finding a copy of ‘Stone Angel’ in my sister’s books. She thought it was ok for me to read it since she had never read it (it was assigned for school, so of course she hadn’t!). I remember this one part so clearly, again it was just two lines but it described the anatomy so explicitly that the scene was burned into my mind. So much so that when I recently watched the movie, I thought that that physical description would be in it because it became such a focal point of the book for me.

The last memory that I have, that I think will really convey the attraction that teens have to these forbidden fruit books was that my sister used to collect VC Andrews books and she caught me reading one once and she forbade me to read them anymore. Those books were like the jackpot when it came to sex. I used to wake up early in the morning, slowly push my sister’s door open and then wiggle on my belly to get to her closet where she kept her VC Andrews books, I would deposit the one I had just read and sneak out another. Wiggle my way backwards while watching to make sure she was sleeping, slowly get up, shut the door and then find a place to hide and delight in weird family incests.

The truth is, I still feel weird admitting that I found these books magnetic due to the sex. I mean I know looking back it was a part of growing up and trying to figure out what that was all about but it just seems strange to admit to it. It kind of makes me feel like a pervert still, after so many years.

I wonder, if I feel this way now, how many teenagers today are really going to pick up a book like ‘Doing It’ freely? I also wonder, if these books were (or are they already) more freely available to teens and not hidden in closets or one-lined, would it still be as big of a draw for them? I wonder if part of the thrill of reading about sex is knowing that you aren’t supposed to be reading it. I also wonder if some teens feel comfortable holding a book like ‘Anatomy of a Boyfriend’ on a bus, and if they do, should that worry me or comfort me?

I am as wide-eyed as a child and I still sometimes read VC Andrews but I am more appreciative of the plots nowadays 😉

Forgiven but not Forgotten: Forever and Anatomy of a Boyfriend

RING THE ALARMS!!

Honestly, if my life were a reality show, there would be a really dramatic scene when I was almost finished  reading ‘Anatomy of a Boyfriend’. It would show me, rushing to the computer and googling searching like crazy for any entry that talked about both ‘Forever’ and ‘Anatomy of a Boyfriend’ and then finding the one other person who felt the same way that I did, of whom pointed out that the book is dedicated to Blume. Then there would be a cut to me searching for the dedication and shaking my head in disbelief and disgust.

Ok, yeah that was really boring- that’s probably why I don’t have my own reality show but the moral of the story is DARIA SNADOWSKY ripped off FOREVER! Someone tell Judy, oh, she already knows? She’s flattered? What is going on?

Let me just finish this rant by saying that one of the hardest parts about writing is figuring out the plot, it doesn’t seem fair to me that Daria used Blume’s prototype, added in some text messaging, email and a different dead grandparent at the end and called it her own. I think ‘inspired’ is a wrong word to use, I think she was directed by Blume’s text and wrote the novel like one of those color by numbers painting. The thing is, the author basically just took ‘Forever’ and made it more shocking, and sexual. A fact that is only too pronounced with the loud cover of the naked ken doll.

Ok that was my rant, now I may go on to review the books (I guess if the almight Judy is ok with it, then I have to be too?) …

Forever- Reading this novel was obviously such a throwback. I got one of the older yellowed copies from the library with this cover:

I honestly can say, that I didn’t like ‘Forever’ until the very end. Which is strange because as a teen, I think I read and loved every other Judy Blume book but this one kind of annoyed me. The books starts off at a cheesy party where two teens kinda meet but not really and then the next day decide that they were totally into one another. I found the characters really weak. Even the way they fell in love seemed out of convenience and didn’t really involve any real romance. I appreciated the sex scenes, because I think that they were pretty realistic and I can only imagine how shocking they must have been when this book was first published. The thing I loved at the end was that the main character, who was female dumps her boyfriend for another guy she meets at camp. I liked this reversal of roles, where it was the girl doing the dumping. The way the book was reading I was worried that the guy was going to cheat on her, so it was kind of refreshing at the end see the main character snap out of her lovesick puppy routine and go after what she wanted.

In contrast, in Snadowsky’s version, it is the girl that gets dumped (its like Snadowsky went retro while Blume was being futuristic). Though to be honest, it was the end of this novel that kind of redeemed the novel for me too.

I found this novel similar to ‘Forever’, in which the lovesick teenage couple who ignore their parent’s warnings of getting too serious, kind of annoyed me. I thought the sex scenes in this novel were realistic as well but even more so than Blume’s. Snadowsky manages to show the awkwardness of teenage limbs and thoughts and words during these intense physical meetings of their bodies and I appreciated her ability to really take the gloves off (but not the glove, thankfully these teens were responsible) and show what awkward teen sex is really about. There would almost be a sweetness to Snadowsky’s novel if her characters weren’t so wooden, because I think a lot of the physical scenes really showed the vulnerability of first loves.

It was the end of this novel, where I finally forgave Snadowsky for borrowing so heavily from Blume. In her final scenes where the main character, Dom deals with her breakup- you truly see the worth in this novel and the character finally comes to life. When she trashes every last thing having to do with her ex in a garbage bag, when she sends him a expletive filled email and then text harasses him, when she is so heartbroken she keeps throwing up- these moments were so real. I think a lot of teenagers reading this book can relate to what she described at the end. It was at the very end that I finally got it, maybe I didn’t really like ‘Forever’ and ‘Anatomy of a Boyfriend’ because I forget what it is like to be an annoying puppy love type teen but I didn’t forget my first heartbreak and that’s what resonated with me. I think that teens (who are less wizened and still in those first blooms of young love) will really relate to this book, and that maybe Snadowsky hasn’t done Blume a dis-service by updating her novel, but actually ended up serving her teen readers really well.

 

 

Doing It, and Doing It and Doing It- Well…

One of the first things that we talked about in my youth materials class, even prior to reading Melvin Burgess’ novel ‘Doing It’ was the controversy the covers caused. Apparently in North America, we got the tame version (middle pic).

Well…

I honestly try and imagine myself as someone who would not be ashamed to read anything (though I admit to sometimes trying to gloss over the fact that I have an obsession with Danielle Steel books) but I sincerely doubt that I would be taking the last book on the bus with me and cracking it open. The first one, maybe because when I looked at it from far away, it looked like a frog.

The second cover was the one I got to tote around for a few days, and by a few, I mean like two. I loved this book so much, I devoured it as quickly as I could. The strange thing was that as I began reading it, there was one scene that was really familiar. Then I remembered one day when I was checking in books, I had seen this title and randomly flipped to a section- which just happened to be the teacher and one of the main characters getting it on, and I read it entranced. I meant to go back and sign it out but some overzealous page shelved the cart too fast and the book was lost to me until now!

The thing was, that if that one scene hooked me- I can only imagine what this book would have been like for a teen. I thought the sex scenes in this book were some of the most honest that I have read in a teen novel. There was something about the writing that just brought to mind that awkward first teenage encounter, the tuggings and the urgency and just this sense of disappointment when you realize its not like its in the movies. There is this one scene in the book with a couple getting it on under a streetlight and it all at once seemed sweet, raunchy, gross, awkward and exciting all in one go. I just remember reading that and thinking, that’s exactly what it is like to be a teenager.

We had discussed in class how people saw this book as misogynistic but I honestly and truly thought that it wasn’t in the least bit. I think a lot of the female characters were shown in their complete dualities, with their strengths but also their vulnerabilities. That was one of my favorite parts of the book, the way that the characters seemed like real people that you would know in high school. The boys who narrated the story had their own distinct personalities, and despite the fact that they were best friends, they couldn’t have been more different or uniquely characterized.

One of the other things I appreciated about the book was the honesty revolving around teen drinking. Where as I don’t really remember as many people ‘doing it’ at the age of the protagonists in my high school, I do definitely remember really similar house parties.

That’s just the thing, I would love to recco this to teens because I know a lot of them would love it but how comfortable would I be knowing that I was offering them a book that promoted drinking and sex so blatantly. Its funny because with books like ‘Confessions of a Wallflower’, which I love recommending, there is sex and drugs, etc. in there but because it is more hidden, I feel like if I gave it to a teen they might assume I hadn’t even realized it was in there. With this book and it’s title and it’s honesty, I would feel like I was promoting things that I could get in trouble for.

I think I am pretty liberal when it comes to giving teens books to read but this one has stumped me, it might just have to be one of the ones that i lay around the teen tables so that teens will pick it up themselves while in the meantime i figure out how to do it, well, by do it, I mean recommend this title unselfconsciously…

 

 

 

 

Nobel Genes- Book Review

4Q 3P J S

Michaels, Rune     Nobel Genes

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2010. 192 pages. 21.99. Hardcover. 978-1416912592

‘Nobel Genes’ begins with the main character constantly searching and eliminating prospective fathers. His mother was fertilized by a special Nobel Prize Award Winners sperm bank where the donors do not reveal their names. His mother says that they will be able to tell who his father is by what he is good at, so she is constantly pushing him to be the best at different types of things but the narrator is never quite brilliant at any of them. So, he is left to wonder what truly defines him- the magnificent genes his father gave him or the massive failure he feels like most of the time?

As the book progresses, it begins to focus less on the narrator’s father and instead turns to look at his mother as she deals with her mental illness and alcoholism. The main character spends a lot of the novel trying to save his mother from herself, only to find at the end that maybe there were secrets his mother kept from him -to save him from himself.

This novel is about figuring out who we are beyond the superficial things that we think make us up. To prove this point, the author does not give the main character a name or even an age. Written in a simple, childlike prose- this book could definitely be read by younger readers but due to the heavy content it is more suitable to older teens. The book is a fast read, with a great unseen twist at the end. This book is recommended to any teen who likes fiction that deals with tough issues but who also likes a bit of reality blurring and fantastical elements to their novels. 

 

GLBTQ Pathfinder

LGBT Pathfinder

Reflections on Creating a Booktalk

Here’s me dressed as a flapper on Halloween, I also dressed as a flapper for my booktalk that I did for my YA class. A couple people joked that I was being cheap by wearing the same thing twice in one week, but I argued that the more I worked on the costume- the better it got.

Comincidentally, this theory also proved true for my booktalk. When we originally got the assignment, I was super excited- especially seeing all the book talks from last year. I had so many ideas in my head- I think multimedia booktalks are a great way to promote reading to teens, and even adults. I would love to see more booktalks in life myself!

I realized in actuality that thinking about creating a booktalk is a lot different than actually doing one. The first book that I chose to do a booktalk on was ‘Nobel Genes’ by Rune Michaels. I loved reading this book but when i started writing and rehearsing the script for this booktalk, I realized that all the fantastic elements of the novel- the mystery, intruige and twists and turns, were far too complicated to explain in a two minute booktalk. I also found it hard to show visuals for a book that was centered around the character’s stream of consciousness. It took me 6 hours, but eventually I realized that this booktalk wasn’t inspiring me and I was going to have to move on. As much as you may love a book, if you can’t talk about it and make people understand why you love it- you really can’t recco it.

I moved on to my backup book ‘Bright Young Things’ by Anna Godbersen. As soon as I picked up this book I wondered why I had set it to the backburner- instantly I got the idea for so many different visuals, and even realized I could dress up for my booktalk since I was the owner of a flapperish dress! Despite my inspiration, I realized at this late hour, I would have to pare things down and so I decided to just do a booktalk and maybe insert some flapper dance into the end of my video.

I thought that creating a booktalk using a digital camera would be easy; however, I quickly and painfully learned this notion was false. The first lesson I learned in doing this project was that when you are working with technical equipment, it is always best to give yourself time in case it fails or have a back-up. I had three digital cameras. One whose memory card was not compatible with the computer I was using. Another that managed to say low batteries no matter how many different ones I fed it and the last camera was lacking a memory card. Luckily, Zellers was open late. The next thing I learned is how useful it is to have another person filming, the amount of time I wasted running back and forth, pausing and checking over my views was precious. As well, I learned a lot about how hard it is to make a booktalk dynamic. You have to be very expressive when talking and make sure your eyes are looking at the camera. Furthermore, it would have been useful to be able to have my lines on a big cue card, as no matter how many times I practiced I managed to flub one line and have to redo the whole take. Another thing that you should always do when creating a video is make sure you have a lot of light in the room. My video turned out to be so dark; I was reviewing a book called ‘Bright Young Things’ but there I was in the shadows like a creepy book lurker.  I ended up using Camtasia to edit my video. A peer gave me a quick tutorial and it looked easy when he did it but the next day when I went to edit my footage for some reason my audio track separated and I couldn’t figure out how to cut down the videos even though I was sure I was just supposed to scroll over them. I soon realized that when creating a digital video it is always best to do a lot of takes so that you can insert footage over your mistakes.

In the end, I ended up asking my friend Val who has experience with VegasPro for help. I told him what my concept was and he amazingly agreed to help. Having someone to shoot you is so much better than doing it yourself. You are able to get just the right angles! After practicing so much, it was a breeze to get through the booktalk and it gave me some time to pick out just the right images that I wanted to use in the background. Youtube was a big help with selecting video footage. As well, VegasPro looked easy but having a veteran like Val really helped me to get all I could out of the program. We even googled how to do rolling credits! We had some trouble at the end with the pixels but once we resaved the images we had inserted, everything ended up working out ok. I realized that just like in my professional career, it was ok to ask for help from those who might have more experience. Sharing resources is what being a librarian is all about and I think Val will make a wonderful librarian one day. I was really proud at how the video turned out and relieved that I was able to do this project some justice.