The Devil's Breath by David Gilman

Gilman, D. (2007). The Devil’s Breath. New York: Delacorte Press.

ISBN-13: 978-0-385-73560-5

Plot Summary

Fifteen-year-old Max Gordon attends a private all-boys boarding school near a military training zone in England. Something is amiss when he narrowly escapes an assassin’s shot. When he gets back to his room, items are misplaced. Furthermore, his brilliant ecological adventurer father, Tom Gordon, is missing and presumed dead. Max then sets out to find his father and his adventure leads him from Europe to Africa. Along the way, Max makes new friends who help: !Koga is a bushman boy who understands the language in Africa and Kallie is an aviator. Together with the help of his computer genius friend Sayid back in boarding school, Max and his new friends encounter numerous complications such as extreme weather, car chases, hand-to-hand combat, poisonous arrows, and evil monkeys. When Max learns that his father is caught up in Shaka Chang’s monstrous plot of water pollution that could kill thousands of people, he must find his father and stop Chang in time.

Critical Evaluation

The story opens with the attempted assassination of Max Gordon, and the plot does not let up from there. The twists and turns of this adventure story lead the reader to multiple locations; some readers might be easily confused by such quick setting changes. However, it is these unrelenting twists and turns that create the fast-paced plot. In fact, The Devil’s Breath is very much like Horowitz’s Alex Rider books. Readers will be intrigued by the Bushmen people’s language as it is translated by !Koga for Max. The African setting is significant because it is as foreign to Max as it probably is to the reader, and the detailed descriptions of this unfamiliar place add to its intensity. However, sometimes the descriptions can be quite lengthy and the reader might feel lost. The reader will recognize clear references to the ecological dangers of water pollution.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Max Gordon’s adventurer father is missing and Max, with the help of his friends, faces dangers in the African wilderness to try to find him. When he realizes the evil plan that will kill thousands, Max must find his father before it’s too late.

 

Author Information

 

David Gilman is a successful television screenwriter in the UK and was a writer for a show called A Touch of Frost from 2000-2009. Before that, the sometimes tragic turns of events in his own life provided him with experiences that took him all over the world. He grew up in Liverpool, England and because his father’s job required him to move every six months, Gilman attended many different schools. He was always looking for new experiences and frequently went missing from the time he was four. When he eventually found a love of books at a public library, he continued to get lost in the worlds he found in the pages. Of reading, he says, “I’m convinced that reading helps to socialize even the most disadvantaged or disruptive child and makes an enormous difference to communication skills. Reading lights up synapses other activities can’t reach!”

Gilman held a variety of jobs while living in South Africa before going to school to learn how a screenwriter. His many jobs working in a dairy and in a clothing emporium where he learned how to tailor clothes. He lied about his age to become a traffic cop and then as part of a Fire and Rescue Service. His jobs took him from South Africa to England to Canada to Australia and back to England again. There, he became a screenwriter for a television show and novelist.

More information about David Gilman can be found on his website:

http://www.davidgilman.com/

Genre

Young adult

Action Adventure

Survival

Curriculum Ties

Geography, environment

Book Talking Ideas

What would you do to help someone you loved? What kinds of adventures would you expect to have in South Africa?

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Main character is in high school; appropriate for ages 15 and up

Challenge Issues

N/A

Challenge Defense

N/A

Why did I include this title?

Evil monkeys. Enough said. Seriously, though, this novel does feel an awful lot like an Alex Rider novel for an older crowd. It is fun to read. Fans of Alex Rider novels will enjoy this ride.

Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos

Hijuelos, O. (2008). Dark dude. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

ISBN-13: 978-1-41694-804-9

Plot Summary

Fifteen-year-old Rico is the “palest Cubano who ever existed on the planet.” He loves comic books and dreams of being a writer. However, his New York City neighborhood increasingly makes life difficult. His family is struggling to survive, and Rico must attend a dismal Harlem public high school. When his “big brother” Gilberto miraculously strikes it rich playing the lottery, he makes a huge impression on Rico by showing him the peaceful landscape picture of the college he enrolls in as a way of getting out of the neighborhood without going to Vietnam. On the other hand, Rico’s other good friend Jimmy, an artist, turns to drugs as a different means of escape. Deciding to leave the inner city and a hopeless life behind, Rico and Jimmy hitchhike their way from Harlem to the promising pastures of Wisconsin, the land of milk and honey. Rico compares his new life to his life in New York and wonders if he made the right decision.

Critical Evaluation

The setting of Dark Dude is important to the story. Rico lives in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. New York City itself is rich with many ethnicities that historically are in constant conflict with each other: Peurto Rican, Cuban, African-American, Jewish, and Irish. When Rico’s best friend displays the Wisconsin college brochure, the stark contrast between the dirty inner city New York and the rolling green hills of Eden-esque Wisconsin are obvious. The book’s division into Rico’s first person narration of his life is dotted with humor throughout Dark Dude. One example is when he decides to stay away from his Harlem school, which they referred to as Jo Mama’s (demonstrating total lack of respect), as much as possible: “I just couldn’t go back to Jo Mama’s on a regular basis. It was like an antimagnetic thing, and I was a piece of metal” (115). This kind of humor balances out the conflicts he faces with stride. Many of the conflicts are a result of his skin color. He is Cuban, but instead of having dark skin and eyes, he is pale with freckles and hazel eyes. As a result, he does not fit in with any group. Readers will connect with Rico’s desire to be accepted as part of a group and his conflict of identity. Readers will also appreciate Rico’s desire to get out of the problems that plague his life through whatever means it takes. Readers will also understand the theme that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, everyone has problems; it’s how you deal with them that counts.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Fifteen-year-old Rico feels out of place in his Harlem neighborhood because of his light skin and his aspirations to be a writer. Hoping to find a better life, he runs away and finds his life’s purpose.

 

Author Information

 

Oscar Hijuelos was born August 24, 1951 in New York City. He is the son of Cuban immigrants and his experiences influence his writing; his books explore life as a Hispanic in America. His first novel, Our House in the Last World (1983), is about a Cuban family living in 1940s America and received much critical praise. However, it was The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989) that earned him international recognition. In 1990, Hijuelos received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Mambo Kings.

Hijuelos has been a National Book Award nominee, has received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Rome Fellowship and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation as well as the National Endowment for the arts. He currently lives in New York City but spends part of his time in Durham, North Carolina, where he is a visiting professor at Duke. Dark Dude is his first young adult novel. Of it, Hijuelos says, “This is the kind of book I wish I’d read when I was a teen.”

More information about Oscar Hijuelos can be found where I found this information at Biography.com:

http://www.biography.com/people/oscar-hijuelos-188849

Genre

Young adult

Coming of Age

Historical Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Vietnam War, Cuban immigration to the United States

Book Talking Ideas

What are your goals for the future? What do you want to be?

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Characters are in high school; appropriate for ages 15 and up

Challenge Issues

Drug use, language

Challenge Defense

If this book were challenged, I would refer to these reviews and consult ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library  Materials.

Booklist starred 11/01/08

Publishers Weekly starred 09/01/08

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 10/01/08

School Library Journal 11/01/08

Horn Book 04/01/09

Voice of Youth Advocates (V.O.Y.A.) 10/01/08

Kirkus Review 09/01/08

Wilson's Senior High School 06/01/10

Why did I include this title?

I enjoy reading anything about New York City. Having lived there for a short time myself, I can appreciate the tension between the ethnic groups. I enjoyed reading about the Harlem neighborhood with the street numbers and bodegas. This novel paints a vivid picture of Harlem life, yet it does so in an endearing way. Anyone reading this novel will be able to connect with Rico’s struggle to find his way in life.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Ryan, C. (2009). The forest of hands and teeth. New York: Delacorte Press.

ISBN-13: 978-0-385-73681-7

Plot Summary

Mary has listened to her mother tell stories about the ocean, and her hope is to see it. That would mean leaving her village, which sits secluded in the middle of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. The village is surrounded by a fence, and outside the fence is where the Unconsecrated live. They are zombies, but they infect their victim instead of eating flesh. The Sisterhood has rules and religion to keep the village alive. It’s a post apocalyptic story that takes place seven generations after a plague that kills people, but the people come back as zombie-like creatures. Mary’s father left the village never to return, taken by the unconsecrated, and Mary’s mother has been pining for him ever since until she is infected as well. When the protective fence is breached, Mary and her friends must fight to stay alive. Meanwhile, a love triangle develops between Mary and two brothers, Travis and Harry. Ultimately, one of them is infected, and Mary must put him out of his misery. Mary eventually does reach the ocean and learns a valuable message.

Critical Evaluation

The narrator of The Forest of Hands and Teeth is Mary, and through her first-person account, readers are drawn into a rich setting made clear through descriptive details. Readers are captivated by the first few lines: “My mother used to tell me about the ocean. She said there was a place where there was nothing but water as far as you could see and that it was always moving, rushing toward you and then away” (1). The suspense begins here and builds through the plot’s twists and turns. In some ways, The Forest of Hands and Teeth is reminiscent of Lois Lowry’s The Giver with their similar ruling societies and barriers. However, in this story, Mary is facing the Unconsecrated, which adds to it an element of horror. Also like The Giver is a sexual undertone. Much of the story is Mary’s thoughts rather than plot action. When the story reaches its conclusion and Mary is at the ocean, the frame created by the link to the beginning presents us with a satisfying conclusion and still leaves an opening for the next installment, The Dead-Tossed Waves (2010). Readers will be inspired that determination and hope can ultimately wash evil away.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Mary would love to see the ocean her mother has always talked about, but she cannot leave the watchful eyes of the Sisterhood and the fence keeps her protected from the zombies on the other side. When the barrier is breached, Mary and her friends must fight for survival while they are being challenged by conflicts of knowledge, friendship, and love.

 

Author Information

Carrie Ryan was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. She was very active in sports and read on the weekends. She especially enjoyed Sweet Valley High and Christopher Pike. She went away to college to experience a different climate in Massachusetts, but ultimately she did not like how it was cold most of the year, so she moved Virginia. There she wrote books that agents did not like. She then tried her hand at chick lit, but she felt did not have the kind of life experience that would lend itself to this kind of writing.

 

Ryan made the life-altering decision to go to Duke Law School to pursue a career in law. It was there that she met her now-husband, JP. He took her to see the first horror movie she had seen since Poltergeist. She hated horror movies. Dawn of the Dead (the remake), fascinated her and she was intrigued by everything zombie. JP happily indulged her new obsession. Ryan wanted to know what happens after a zombie apocalypse generations later and so The Forest of Hands and Teeth was born.

 

More about Carrie Ryan and her books can be found at her website:

http://www.carrieryan.com/

Genre

Young Adult

Science Fiction

Horror

Survival

Zombies

Romance

Curriculum Ties

Geography, infectious diseases

Book Talking Ideas

Infectious diseases, epidemics

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Appropriate for ages 14 and up

Challenge Issues

Horror

Challenge Defense

If this book were challenged, I would cite these reviews as well as consult ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library  Materials.

Booklist 01/01/09

Publishers Weekly starred 02/02/09

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 04/01/09

School Library Journal starred 05/01/09

Horn Book 10/01/09

Kirkus Review 02/15/09

Why did I include this title?

 

Who doesn’t love zombies? They’re the new vampires. Mary’s story teaches us a good lesson: if you have hope and determination, you can get through anything.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Forman, G. (2009). If I stay. New York: Speak.

ISBN-13: 978-0-14-241543-6

Plot Summary

What begins as an enjoyable snow day outing in Oregon ends in tragedy for Mia and her family. Seventeen-year-old Mia just barely survives a terrible car crash. Her parents died in the collision, and her little brother, Teddy, is barely alive. Mia is in a coma in the ICU and is having out-of-body experiences as she remembers the past and thinks about the future. She aspires to be a famous cellist, and her boyfriend Adam is in a band that is finally enjoying some notoriety. As her family and best friend Kim rally around her in the ICU, Mia wonders what life would be like without her there. Mia must struggle to choose between surviving, which would mean facing the despair of losing her family, and dying, which would mean losing out on a life of love with her boyfriend and a talented music career.

Critical Evaluation

This first person narration told by Mia gives readers a unique perspective. Mia alternates between the past and the present. Through her eyes and her realistic narration, they experience the joys of life as she falls in love, the complexities of family and friend relationships, and the hopes and concerns about the future. Readers will be able to relate to Mia’s having to make life-altering choices. Readers will also feel Mia’s uncertainty and despair as she wonders what decision to make: to live or to die. Furthermore, readers, especially teens, will be able to connect with Mia’s feelings of doubt, uncertainty, and insecurity. The setting of the Oregon coast provides a realistic backdrop for the story and ultimately affects the plot; because snow is so rare, they are having a family outing. If not for this aspect of the setting, this tragic chain of events would not have happened. This story will make readers think about their own lives, what family means, and what makes life worth living. The end satisfies the readers and leaves the story open for the follow-up book, Where She Went (2011), which is told from Adam’s point of view.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Seventeen-year-old Mia has everything going for her: she is a talented musician, she is in a loving relationship with her boyfriend, and she has creative, supportive parents encouraging her every step of the way. When a tragic car crash leaves her comatose and an orphan, Mia must decide between living and dying, and in the process, she comes to understand what makes life worth living.

 

Author Information

 

Gayle Forman was born June 5, 1970. She began her career as a writer for Seventeen magazine. She later became a freelance writer for Elle, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and The Nation. Before becoming an author, she was a journalist who specialized in writing about social justice problems and young people. She spent a year traveling the world with her husband and as a result, many of her experiences have influenced her writing. Her first book is a travel memoir titled You Can’t Get There From Here: A Year On the Fringes of a Shrinking World (2005).

When she came back home from traveling the world, she realized that she could take amazing journeys in her head and write about them. The characters in these stories were all young adults ages 12-20. Her first young adult novel, Sisters in Sanity (2007), was based on a social injustice article she had written for Seventeen. If I Stay is her second novel and is based on true events she remembers from her childhood.

Gayle Forman currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

More information about Gayle Forman can be found at her website:

http://www.gayleforman.com/

Also, please visit the novel’s website:

http://ifistay.com/index.php

Genre

Young Adult

Realistic Fiction

Romance

Accidents

Friendship

Music

Out of body experiences

Curriculum Ties

N/A

Book Talking Ideas

What does family mean? How do you make difficult decisions?

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Protagonist is in high school; appropriate for grades 8 and up

Challenge Issues

N/A

Challenge Defense

I cannot think of why this book would be challenged, and I did not find any challenges to date. If it were challenged, I would consult ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library  Materials.

Why did I include this title?

A very bright student of mine recommended this book to me. I appreciated Mia’s internal conflict and questioned what is important to me in my own life. It is a good reminder that your life can change in an instant.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Foer, J. (2005). Extremely loud and incredibly close. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

ISBN-13: 978-0-618-32970-0

Plot Summary

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an amateur inventor, tambourine player, and Shakespearean actor who is playing “Yorick” in a school presentation of Hamlet. His father, whom Oskar worshipped, tragically died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. A year later, Oskar has found a key inside of a vase in his father’s closet. The vase is labeled “Black.” The key does not open anything in the apartment, so, determined to find the lock that the key will open and the answers to his questions, Oskar sets out on a quest to ask every person in the New York phone book with the last name of Black about the key. In doing so, he meets colorful characters who each have their own story to tell and who have a lasting impression on Oskar. Oskar has a mute grandfather, who survived the bombing of Dresden, and in the end, the two stories weave together. When Oskar finally finds the answer, he finds the meaning of life.

Critical Evaluation

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is told in the first person narration of Oskar; he is nine, but he does not always sound like he is nine, which is reasonable given that Oskar himself is quite a unique child. The narration is often beautifully poetic and more than often quite humorous. Foer enhances the narrative with frequent surprises for the reader. For example, there are graphic illustrations, over-written text, and photographs. Booklist (February 2005) refers to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as “the most beautiful and heartbreaking flip book in all of literature.” The humor balances the tragedy in a healing way. The setting of post-9/11 New York City significantly shows the emotional aftermath of the terrorist attacks that affected the entire country. The gaping holes at Ground Zero are nothing compared to the gaping holes in the lives of those who lost loved ones that day. Foer’s account of a boy searching for clues about his father will appeal to anyone who has lost a loved one. The theme that “in the end, everyone loses everyone” is a reminder to all readers about the meaning of life.

 

Example of Oskar’s vivid, imaginative narration:

 

“What about little microphones? What if everyone swallowed them, and they played the sounds of our hearts through little speakers, which could be in the pouches of our overalls? When you skateboarded down the street at night you could hear everyone's heartbeat, and they could hear yours, sort of like sonar. One weird thing is, I wonder if everyone's hearts would start to beat at the same time, like how women who live together have their menstrual periods at the same time, which I know about, but don't really want to know about. That would be so weird, except that the place in the hospital where babies are born would sound like a crystal chandelier in a houseboat, because the babies wouldn't have had time to match up their heartbeats yet. And at the finish line at the end of the New York City Marathon it would sound like war.”

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Nine-year-old Oskar has found a key in his father’s closet. His father died in 9/11, and the key does not open up anything in the apartment, so Oskar sets out on a quest to find the lock and, as a result, unlocks the truth of life.

 

Author Information

 

Jewish-American Jonathan Safran Foer was born in 1977 in Washington D.C., and earned his degree from Princeton University where he won awards for creative writing all four years. Under the guidance of Joyce Carol Oates, who was teaching a creative writing course there, he finished a manuscript for Everything is Illuminated before graduating with a degree in psychology in 1999. Oates was also his senior thesis advisor; Foer wrote about the life of his maternal grandfather, a Holocaust survivor. He later went to expand on his thesis in the Ukraine. Everything Illuminated was published in 2002.

Foer refers to himself as an occasional vegetarian as he has dabbled in vegetarianism most of his life, yet still eats meet. These notions led him to write his first nonfiction book, Eating Animals (2009). He has taught writing as a visiting professor at Yale University and is currently a professor in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University. Foer lives with his wife, Nicole Krauss, and two children in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

His very interesting website is somewhat difficult to navigate:

http://www.theprojectmuseum.com/

Genre

Cross-over

Mystery

Curriculum Ties

Holocaust, 9/11 

Book Talking Ideas

9/11, grief

Reading Level/ Interest Age

High School, adults

Challenge Issues

N/A

Challenge Defense

I cannot think of why this book would be challenged, and I did not find any challenges to date. If it were challenged, I would consult ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library  Materials.

I would also include that it is listed in ALA’s Outstanding Books for the College Bound Literature and Language Arts 2009

http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklists/outstandingbooks/2009/literature

Why did I include this title?

This book made me cry. At first, I couldn’t put it down. I was tearing through pages, reading as fast as I could. Then I realized that if I kept up that pace, I would finish it quickly. And I didn’t want it to end. So I slowed down. I feel guilty enjoying such a book that would not have existed had 9/11 not happened.

“I hope that one day you will have the experience of doing something you do not understand for someone you love.” (one of my favorite quotes from this novel)

The Truth or Something: A Novel by Jeanne Willis

Willis, J. (2002). The truth or something: a novel. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-7079-8

Plot Summary

World War II is over, but scrappy, nine-year-old Mick is fighting his own fight in working-class England. His mother is taking them to live by the sea with Harry, who Mick is made to believe is his father come back from the war. Mick frequently has nightmares, which often result in his wetting himself. Through a series of events as Mick grows up, he is forced to live alone, with friends, or with different relatives including Nan, his maternal grandmother. He begins to learn the unsettling truths about his family and the little sister he remembers and whom he once believed his mother sold to the “rag-and-bone man.” Then Mick goes to live with his biological father who is kind at first but then does the unspeakable to Mick. Mick’s bloody revenge on his father forces him to run away from home, which is where the novel actually begins with this gripping first line: “I don’t know if I’ve killed my dad or not.”

Critical Evaluation

This novel, which is based on true events, takes place in working class post-war England. It is depressing and gray, and the bleakness of the land and times creates a melancholy mood, which is mirrored in the mood of the adult characters. In the beginning, Mick seems to be a carefree boy as shown through the child-like first person narration. However, as he grows older and is more aware of circumstances, the narration’s tone changes accordingly, even with humor, to represent his adolescent maturity and understanding. Characterization and setting are further enhanced through the dialect: “I realize my feet are cold but my arse is steaming. Wet myself again” (12). Readers unused to British dialect will quickly become acquainted with words like bloke and wellingtons. Readers will be able to connect with Mick’s changing from a young boy to an adolescent and trying to make a world for himself despite an insecure family, constant change and moving, and damaging events. Mick is determined to not be beaten in life, no matter what. The inconclusive ending is a dose of reality to readers; not everything in life is neatly tied up at the end.

Reader’s Annotation

 

Mick does not know where he fits in in the world. When tragic events happen to him, he is determined to make his place in the world.

 

Author Information

 

Jeanne Willis is most known for her award winning children’s books in the UK. Born in St. Albans, Hertz, United Kingdom, on Bonfire Night in 1959 (that’s November 5^th for those of us on this side of the pond), Willis always had an active imagination. In fact, her teachers and mother were so worried about her that her mother took her to see a doctor. Her creativity helped her with a career in advertising, which ended with her short stay in a psychiatric ward due to stress. It was a very stressful time in the 1980s. The Truth or Something is based on a friend’s triumphant childhood despite his growing up in a very troubled family.

Jeanne Willis currently lives in London, England, with her husband, son, and daughter. She is happy to give speeches, author talks, and workshops in schools, libraries, and bookstores.

For more information about Jeanne Willis, please visit her website. She has an entertaining biography made up of a picture collage:

http://jeannewillis.com/index.html

Genre

Young Adult

Historical Fiction

Coming of Age

Curriculum Ties

1940’s Post WWII Great Britain

Book Talking Ideas

How do you define family? How does a person’s environment affect him? How did WWII affect England?

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Appropriate for ages 15 and up.

Challenge Issues

Sexual Abuse

Challenge Defense

In defense of a challenge, I would cite these reviews as well as ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials.

Booklist 06/01/02

Publishers Weekly starred 05/20/02

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 06/01/02

Why did I include this title?

This coming of age story grabbed my attention when I first saw the cover (again, judging a book by its cover?). The little boy looks so downtrodden, yet still hopeful. The time period also grabbed my attention. So much of what I have read during this time period has to do with the Holocaust and survival, but this story was about a different kind of survival. So many children are sexually abused, and this story presented it in a very real way. You can’t just get over it. I also appreciated that it has a phone number and website for a helpline for children offering free, confidential counseling service for any child with any problems at any time of the day: www.childhelpusa.org

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York: Scholastic Press.

ISBN-13: 978-0-439-02348-1

Plot Summary

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen will do anything to protect the people she loves in District 12, a coal mining society and part of the Capitol’s far-reaching empire. Every year, the Capitol reaps two young adults from each district as tributes to compete in the Hunger Games as a way of keeping its citizens under its oppressive rule. The Hunger Games are televised for all to watch in entertainment and horror. This year, Katniss’s sister, Prim, has her name drawn. Katniss jumps to take her place, and she and Peeta, the boy who kindly gave her bread when she was a starving child long ago, must fight 22 other tributes in an evilly devised game field full of natural disasters and monstrous creatures. The winner of the Games will live a life of fame and luxury, but there can only be one winner. Katniss and Peeta create a love story that draws the attention and sympathy from people throughout the district, and when they outsmart the Hunger Games and the Capitol, their lives are about to change.

Critical Evaluation

Suzanne Collins creates a world where the Capitol of twelve districts manages every aspect of society. Through careful reading, we come to understand that the districts are areas of a post-apocalyptic America, and Katniss’s District 12 seems to be the coal mining areas of East Coast. Each District contributes in its own way to the Capitol creating a dependency that holds the districts together. Furthermore, when the children from each district meet each other, they see for the first time how each district is different and the comparisons between wealthy and desperate are obvious. The District itself serves as an obnoxious, glaring example of what happens to people in a world of vapid excessiveness. Vivid descriptions of the arena increase the game’s horrow. The plot is fast-paced and tension-filled as plot twists move from one problem to another as Katniss, Peeta, and the other tributes fight each other, the elements in the game, and their internal conflicts. Not all conflicts are resolved, however, leading the reader to the next book. Themes of individual freedom in a world of government control run throughout the novel. The characters’ holding up the berries for all to see show readers that one’s decisions are ultimately your own no matter what.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Katniss Everdeen would do anything for her family, even risking her life to compete in the Hunger Games. Katniss wants to win, but the Capitol and the other tributes have another idea.

 

Author Information

 

Born in 1962 in Connecticut, Suzanne Collins attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts and then earned her FMA from New York University in Dramatic Writing. In 1991, she began her career as a writer for children’s television shows including several shows for the children’s network, Nickelodeon. Her first books, five books of the Underland Chronicles, were published between 2003 and 2007. She attributes the inspiration of this series to when she realized that in New York City, people were more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole as in Alice in Wonderland. The Hunger Games, the first book in this series, was published September 2008 with great acclaim. Due to the popularity of this trilogy, Time named Collins as one of the 100 most influential people of 2010. Filming of The Hunger Games movie began in 2011, and Collins has adapted the novel for the film herself.

 

Collins currently lives in Connecticut with her husband, their two children, and an adopted family of feral cats that they found in their backyard. She says the idea for the Hunger Games came to her when she was flipping through the channels on her television between a reality show and news coverage of the Iraqi War.

 

More about Suzanne Collins can be found at her website:

http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/bio.htm

 

And:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games

Genre

Young Adult

Science Fiction

Survival

Romance

Dystopian Society

Post-Apocalyptic

Curriculum Ties

U.S. government, geography

Book Talking Ideas

What do dystopian society settings tell us about the world we live in? What sacrifices would you make for the people you love?

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Main character is 16; appropriate for grades 7 and up.

Challenge Issues

Violence

Challenge Defense

In defense of a challenge, I would cite these reviews as well as ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library  Materials.

Booklist starred 09/01/08

Publishers Weekly starred 11/03/08

Horn Book starred 09/01/08

School Library Journal starred 09/01/08

Library Media Connection starred 11/01/01

New York Times 11/09/08

Why did I include this title?

I had been meaning to read this for a few years. It is one of the most circulated books at my school. Many reluctant readers have changed their minds about reading when this book is put into their hands. Once I realized I had to read it for class, I sped through it this summer. I was hooked and immediately had to find the next two books. When I visited my friend in Philadelphia this summer, and I didn’t want to take multiple books, I bought a Kindle to download them because I couldn’t live without them. I feel it is an important discussion to have with students: how much control should a government have over its people’s individual rights?

The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci

Plum-Ucci, C. (2000). The body of christopher creed. New York: Harcourt, Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-0-15-206386-3

Plot Summary

Torey Adams spends his senior year away from his hometown of Steepleton, and away from his friends, at Rothborne, a boarding school. He could not bear to face the people there after what happened in the woods. During his junior year, a socially awkward classmate whom he had punched out in the sixth grade and had not spoken much to since, disappeared. That was the year Christopher Creed, after sending an email to the school’s principal indicating his either running away or suicide, went missing. Now, in the aftermath, most of Torey’s friends at school, including his girlfriend, take Christopher’s disappearance lightly, too lightly for Torey who feels bad for Christopher. Torey befriends Ali and her boyfriend, Bo, and together they launch a plot to find out more information about Christopher and find him. When their plan backfires, Torey explores the woods behind his house because a psychic had told him he would find Christopher in the woods. Torey enters an ancient Indian burial ground, breaks his leg, and stumbles into an underground cave. There are wrapped Indian bodies as well as an unwrapped body that is newer. At first, Torey believes it to be Chris, but then realizes it is Bob Haines before the air causes it to disintegrate. Christopher Creed remains missing.

Critical Evaluation

Told in flashback and first person narration, The Body of Christopher Creed begins with Torey in his new school recalling events that occurred the year prior and still searching for information. The flashback creates a frame of the story with the beginning and ending taking place in the same location; perhaps the significance is that a person’s past will always affect them and you cannot truly get away from it as Torey wanted to do by finishing high school somewhere else. The reader sees the world through Torey’s eyes and watches as he changes. Torey is a well-developed, dynamic character. In the beginning, he is judgmental of the “boon,” those students from the wrong side of town, but later, he begins to see them in a different light and ultimately changes his idea of who his friends are. Other labels the high school students apply to each other, such as jock and nerd, are common in real life as well. Perhaps readers will be able to see how being labeled affects a person’s actions; the primary example is, of course, Christopher Creed, labeled as an outsider, who essentially creates a separate, imaginary identity for himself and ultimately is pushed outside of reality by disappearing. Readers will be able to recognize a Christopher Creed in any school they attend. The framework of the story also adds a touch of irony: in searching for the missing Christopher Creed, Torey himself goes missing by attending the boarding school. Readers might see how people’s actions affect others in ways they might not be aware of and that what people believe to be true is just that, their perception. Torey, as well as the reader, will see that some mysteries will never be solved. The trick is in discovering how we get over them once they have changed our lives and move on.

Reader’s Annotation

 

High school junior Torey Adams seems to have a perfect life. When Christopher Creed, the socially awkward school outcast, mysteriously disappears, he struggles with doubts and questions that lead him to a dramatic realization. Her father and paternal grandmother operated funeral homes and much of her imagination can be attributed to lying awake at night above the funeral parlor and wondering what the noises were downstairs.

 

Author Information

 

Carol Plum-Ucci was born August 16, 1957 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. As she was growing up, she always knew she wanted to be a writer. Her father and paternal grandmother operated funeral homes and much of her imagination can be attributed to lying awake at night above the funeral parlor and wondering what the noises were downstairs. In fact, one of her favorite memories was of taking her friends down into the funeral home and telling them there was a body there to scare them when, in fact, there really was a body down there (I love her humor). Plum-Ucci attended Purdue University where she received her BA in communication in 1979 and then received her Masters degree from Rutgers. She worked as Assistant Producer to the Miss America Pageant in 1984. She has also been a ghostwriter, critic, speechwriter, and essayist. Her most famous work is The Body of Christopher Creed, for which she won the Printz Honor Book Award in 2002. It was also named as a finalist for the Edgar Allen Poe Award.

Plum-Ucci very actively communicates with her readers. She strongly encourages them to contact her for help writing. She welcomes students and teachers to Skype her. She speaks at many schools. Plum-Ucci also takes local school interns during the summer months.

For more information about Carol Plum-Ucci, including what her favorite songs are, please visit her website:

http://www.carolplumucci.com/index.html

If you enjoyed The Body of Christopher Creed, you will be happy to know that there is finally a sequel. Following Christopher Creed was published September 6, 2011.

ISBN-13: 978-0-15-204759-7

Yay!

Genre

Young Adult

Mystery

Running away

Suicide

 

Curriculum Ties

Lenape Indians, burial grounds

Book Talking Ideas

Mental illness, burial grounds

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Characters are in high school; appropriate for grades 9 and up

Challenge Issues

Has been challenged for age-appropriateness.

Challenge Defense

In defense of a challenge, I would cite these reviews as well as ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials.

Book Report 11/01/00

Notable/Best Books (A.L.A.) 01/19/01

Booklist 03/15/01

Publishers Weekly 05/22/00

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 04/01/00

School Library Journal starred 07/01/00

Kirkus Review 05/15/00

Voice of Youth Advocates (V.O.Y.A.) 08/01/00

Why did I include this title?

I first read The Body of Christopher Creed and was moved by it. I recognized many of the characters as the same types of people I went to school with, and Christopher Creed could have been any number of outcasts I knew. It made me think about my own actions towards them. This book is a great mystery and the scene in the Indian burial ground still replays in my mind even today.