Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Heckerling, Amy. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Universal Studios, 1982. R. DVD. 90mins. ASIN: B00029RTCG

Plot Summary

Fast Times at Ridgemont High tells the story of a group of high school students during the course of a school year. The lives of Stacy Hamilton, her older brother Brad, Linda Barrett, Mark “Rat” Ratner, Mike Damone, and surfer stoner Jeff Spicoli intertwine in adventures of love and hooking up, after-school jobs, football games, and pranks. Stacy and Linda are friends at the pizza place, and Stacy enlists her help and advice as she becomes sexually active and later becomes pregnant after having awkward sex in a pool changing room with a classmate, Mike Damone. Spicoli continually annoys his history teacher, Mr. Hand, who eventually gets back at him on prom night by arriving at his house and administering a surprise exam, the outcome of which will determine whether Spicoli, who is often high on marijuana, will graduate. Brad’s life seems to be crumbling as one job experience after another ends badly and his girlfriend breaks up with him to see other people before they go to college. Stacy and Brad develop a sibling bond when he talks to her after she has an abortion, which she and Damone agreed was the correct thing to do. He had promised to pay for half, but he was unable to obtain the money; Linda makes him pay in other ways. Eventually, Brad’s life turns around as he thwarts a robber’s attempt and becomes a local hero, and Stacy and Mark begin to develop a relationship. At the end of the movie, the credits begin rolling with the characters’ futures inscribed.

Evaluation
A classic high school movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High details the adventures of kids in a Southern California high school. In fact, writer Cameron Crowe spent a year undercover at a Southern California high school before writing the script. His characters can be found in any high school. Spicoli is the quintessential example of the surfer stoner dude, played by Sean Penn in one of his first roles. Innocent Stacy fumbles with love and sex as she begins dating, and her more sexually-experienced older friend tries mentors her. Dating, sex, jobs, cars, friends, football, and school provide the setting and conflicts these teens encounter. They face the traumas of being a teenager in high school with awkwardness and humiliation, and the audience can appreciate and relate to the experience. The end result is a very entertaining movie with unforgettable characters.

Readers Annotation

Students at Ridgemont High try to muddle through the school year as problems seem to occur left and right. After a series of unfortunate yet humorous events, they start summer older, if not wiser.

Information about the Director
Amy Heckerling was born May 7, 1954. She attended New York University, where she studied film and TV, and then received a Masters Degree in Film from The American Film Institute. It wasn’t until 1982 that she received attention. That was the year she made Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In 1987, she got the idea for another movie, Look Who’s Talking, when she was pregnant, and made that movie in 1989. Then, in 1994, she wrote the movie Clueless.

Amy has been married and divorced twice, and she has one daughter, Mollie Israel. She is an environmentalist and helps environmental charities whenever she can. Information about Amy Heckerling was found at imdb.com.

Genre
Comedy; Drama; Romance; Teen movie

Curriculum Ties
Sex education, teen pregnancy

Why Included?
Who can forget Spicoli ordering a pizza to be delivered during history class? When I was a kid, my parents did not let me see this movie. I understand why, now, and even when I did see it for the first time, I didn’t understand all of it. What was Spicoli doing in the van when it was all smoked up? I wanted to include this movie because it is one of the most famous high school movies and also my cousin is in it. He’s the guy at the cash register with the irate customer when Judge Reinhold’s character, Brad, gets in trouble and fired.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Hopkins, E. (2004). Crank. New York. Simon Pulse.

ISBN-13: 978-1-41699-513-5

Plot Summary

Kristina is sixteen years old, gets straight A’s, and has a comfortable home, but her life is turned upside down when she is court-ordered to leave Reno, Nevada and visit her estranged father in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She hasn’t seen him in eight years. In Albuquerque, Kristina meets Adam who introduces her to things she’s never known: love and crystal meth. She’s not Kristina anymore, though; she has left that life behind her and calls herself Bree. Bree becomes addicted to the highs she feels when held by the grips of the monster (what she calls crank, or meth) and the lust she feels for Adam. This new side of her resents and hates Kristina’s monotonous life when she returns to Reno, and she gets caught up in the downward spiral addiction creates. Two new boys enter her life, but one is bad and rapes her while the other is good and loves her. Pregnancy forces her to make a decision that changes her life. Now 17, she tries to leave the monster behind.

Critical Evaluation

The first thing the reader sees upon opening the book is how it’s written; the book is written in verse instead of prose. The free verse style is an example of poetic form following function: the arrangement of the words into lines and stanzas, changing on each page, reflect the disjointed, broken life Kristina/Bree is living. It allows for her fragmented thoughts that flow through this first-person narration. Often, the lines will create a concrete poem in which the words and lines are arranged in such a way that suggest the topic or subject of the poem. For example, the poem “Home Sweet Home” is actually shaped as a house. Another example is the poem “Paydirt!” when she discusses losing her virginity. The shape of the poem is a giant “V” and it represents what a big deal it is to Kristina. In poetry, every word is thoughtfully planned so the reader is left to focus on what is there and the result, in this case, is the complete control the monster has on Kristina. Plus, despite the ugliness of the drug, there are moments of artful word choice as in the alliteration this line creates: “I wanted to walk with the monster” (231). One purpose of alliteration is to make the words stand out and its affect here is that nothing else is as important as the drug. Also, many poems can be read more than one way with lines on two sides of the page. Perhaps this creates a confused effect, which might represent Kristina’s mind. Perhaps this represents the two sides of the character. Furthermore, referring to the drug with the metaphor of a monster gives the drug a life of its own with negative, frightening connotations. The ending is left hopeful with new life and patience, but the conflict Kristina/Bree has with the monster is not resolved.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Kristina has everything going for her in Reno until she visits her estranged father in Albuquerque, and everything changes. The monster has its grip on her and Kristina (or is it Bree?) struggles with this new life it has created.

 

Author Information

 

The Ellen Hopkins website’s homepage has two choices: adult and young adult. http://www.ellenhopkins.com/

 

Ellen Hopkins is a freelance writer, a poet, and an award-winning author of nonfiction books and novels in verse. Hopkins has published numerous articles about topics ranging from child abuse to winemaking. Born in Long Beach, CA on March 26, 1955, she was adopted by an older couple and grew up in Palm Springs. Her father was a self-made millionaire, and from him Hopkins learned the value of hard work. From her mother, she developed a love of reading and even began reading chapter books before kindergarten. This nurturing environment of her childhood helped Ellen Hopkins become the writer she is today.

 

Despite her comfortable upbringing, Ellen Hopkins experienced much personal hardship in her life. Two relationships ended; one in divorce and another resulted in the kidnap of her daughter for three years. Then, in 1991, she married her John Hopkins, whom she calls her forever love and best friend. They moved to northern Nevada in 1990, and it is there she began writing for a living. Crank is based loosely on her own daughter’s experience with crystal meth. The baby at the end, named “Hunter,” is her grandson Orion, born in 1996. They took guardianship of him and then adopted him when he was almost four.

 

Ellen Hopkins enjoys speaking at schools and libraries, and encourages her readers to contact her via email and blog posts. She also offers tips to help writers. Ellen Hopkins is more than happy to sign and personalize bookplates as well.

Genre

Young adult

Poetry

Alternate format

Drugs

Rape

Teen pregnancy

Curriculum Ties

Forms of poetry and figurative language

Book Talking Ideas

Different kinds of drugs, addiction, handling stress

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Appropriate for ages 14 and up

Challenge Issues

Sex, drugs, rape, sex, language, teen pregnancy

Challenge Defense

If it were challenged, I would consult ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library  Materials.

I would also cite these reviews:

Booklist 11/15/04

Publishers Weekly 11/01/04

Kirkus Review 10/01/04

School Library Journal 11/01/04

Kliatt 09/01/04

Voice of Youth Advocates (V.O.Y.A.) 02/01/05

Why did I include this title?

I read this book in a day. It exhausted me. Kristina/Bree had a hold on me like the monster had on her. It made me wonder how many people I might know who are struggling with an addiction and how it makes them change. It’s a book that will terrify you. It shows how incredibly damaging drugs are and how they can ruin your life.

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.