Poetry, Drama, Film & Graphic Novels ~ The Rose That Grew From Concrete

Book Cover Photo Source, Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Rose-That-Grew-from-Concrete/Tupac-Shakur/e/9780671028442/?itm=7&usri=tupac+shakur, accessed November 21, 2009. 

Bibliography

Shakur, Tupac.  1999.  THE ROSE THAT GREW FROM CONCRETE.  New York: Pocket Books.  ISBN 9780671028442

Critical Analysis

Written in his own hand from the time he was nineteen until the age of twenty-one, these seventy-two poems encompass the spirit and passion of an up and coming star.  The young rapper-to-be wrote poems of love, passion, depression and hope.  Some are angry, all are powerful.  The poetry is much more delicate than the rap lyrics that would make him famous.  Each poem is written in his own handwriting as well as in typeface, and ideographs are used throughout.  These characteristics will engage young readers from the start.  Broken up inot four parts, the love poetry is sensitive, often with responsibility as an underlying theme.  ""sex" only with my girl because i love her/ "babies" impossible I always use a rubber"  "What Can I Offer Her?" and "Government Assistance or My Soul" speak of unemployment and the title poem celebrates growth in spite of obstacles.  This small volume of poems of his youth were collected by his manager Leila Steinberg and published with the permission of his mother, who also writes the preface.  Readers will understand the helplessness the author felt as a young black male, wanting to become famous but not knowing how to make that happen.  Librarians and teachers should read Tupac's lyrics before recommending them to students and/or patrons.  They may be found at http://www.elyrics.net/song/t/tupac-shakur-lyrics.html.  After reading the lyrics of a selection of his raps songs, you realize, sadly, that this was a talent that died before his prime. 

Review Excerpts

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "A collection of poetry written by the rapper between 1989 and 1991, before he became famous. The poems are passionate, sometimes angry, and often compelling. Selections are reproduced from the originals in Shakur's handwriting, personalized by distinctive spelling and the use of ideographs (a drawing of an eye for I, etc.), and complete with scratch outs and corrections."

VOYA: "When nineteen-year-old Shakur joined the writing circle of Leila Steinberg, as she relates in her introduction to this collection, he became its leading force. The young rapper-to-be wrote love poems, distressed poems, depressed poems. There is passion here, including anger, but this poetry is far more gentle, albeit less powerful, than the rap lyrics that would make him infamous."

Poetry, Drama, Film & Graphic Novels ~ One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies

Book Cover Photo Source, Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/One-of-Those-Hideous-Books-Where-the-Mother-Dies/Sonya-Sones/e/9781416907886/?itm=4&usri=Sonya+Sones, accessed November 21, 2009.

Bibliography

Sones, Sonya.  2004.  ONE OF THOSE HIDEOUS BOOKS WHERE THE MOTHER DIES.  New York:  Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.  ISBN 9780689858208

Critical Analysis

In this touchingly real verse novel, we meet fifteen year-old Ruby whose mother has just died of caner.  When the story begins she is flying across the country to live in Los Angeles with her faher whom she has never met.  Ruby thinks she knows everything she needs to know about her movie star father: he left before she was born, he hasn't tried to contact her all these years, he lives in "Hell-A."  Ruby has resolved that she will not like her father, Whip Logan.  She treats him horribly, and he silently takes her abuse.  But she is not prepared for the fact that under different circumstances, she might actually like her father.  He collects classic cars, has made her room her "dream room" and has Cameron Diaz for a neighbor.  He also has a really great personal assistant, Max, whom Ruby really loves.  Ruby is enrolled in a private school where many celebrities children attend and as the school year progresses, she begins to find a home in Los Angeles.  When a boy that attends her school is killed in a car accident, the effect on Ruby is palpable.  The night of the accident Ruby has a dream that her mother calls her and tells her to "Get out of the House!"  When she wakes from the dream she puts on her clothes and walks to the "Tree of Death" where her classmate died.  Whip follows her here and as he envelopes her in a hug and she cies for the first time since her mother's death, an earthquake hits.  What follows are some important discoveries about Whip, Ruby and the past.  Ruby finds that he is quite the different person than she was led to believe.  Sones writes with a poetic plot-driven style that wondrously connects each new character to the next event in the story.  The story addresses friendship, betrayal, stereotyping and parent-child relationships in such a way that readers will find refreshing.  Young adults will be drawn to the page-long chapters, believable first-person narrative and memorable characters. 

Review Excerpts

ALAN REVIEW: "Ruby Milliken shines as a saga unfolds from the mind of a teenager in this fast-paced novel of vibrant emotions and high drama. Ruby is a fifteen-year-old who has just lost her mother, home, and reason for living. She moves across the country to live with her movie star father leaving behind her boyfriend, Ray, and best friend, Lizzie. A look into the mind of Ruby is like boarding a jolting roller coaster as she thrives on impulsive decisions and peaks of emotion."

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "In one- to two-page breezy poetic prose-style entries, 15-year-old Ruby Milliken describes her flight from Boston to California and her gradual adjustment to life with her estranged movie-star father following her mother's death. E-mails to her best friend, her boyfriend, and her mother ("in heaven") and outpourings of her innermost thoughts display her overwhelming unhappiness and feelings of isolation, loss, and grief."

Poetry, Drama, Film & Graphic Novels ~ Keesha's House

Book Cover Photo Source: Macmillan Books, http://us.macmillan.com/keeshashouse, accessed November 19, 2009.

Bibliography

Frost, Helen. KEESHA’S HOUSE. 2003. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
ISBN 0374340641

Critical Analysis

In this contemporary young adult verse novel we are introduced to seven teenagers whose common thread are the difficulties they face each day. Stephie is pregnant and struggling to make the right decisions for herself and her family, “Love and terror both grow bigger/every day inside me.” Jason is torn between his responsibility to Stephie and the baby, and the dream of a college basketball scholarship. Dontay is in foster care waiting for his parents to get out of prison, and doesn’t feel like he fits in anywhere, “I don’t mind sleepin’ on the floor a night/or two. Three or four places I can spend the night/a couple times before they figure out/I got no place/to live.” We also meet Katie, who has run from an abusive step father, Harris, who is kicked out of his house because he confesses that he’s gay, and Carmen, who after being arrested for DUI, is awaiting her case to be heard in a juvenile detention center. And in the center of it all is Keesha, whose mother is dead and whose father is an alcoholic.

Keesha has found a safe place to live at Joe’s. About a third of the way through the book we find out that Joe was just like they were when he was twelve, “-bruised, scared, clenched fists,-/all I knew then was: I could stay.” His Aunt Annie took him in and told him that he could stay as long as he needed. He stayed until she died and left the house to him. He knows that he can’t give the kids the real care that they need, but what he does say that I found profound was this: “I can give them space-and space is time.”

In the last chapter of this book we have a sense that each character is hopeful for their future. The poems flow into one another freely, one person’s words turning into the next. Dontay talks about his parents getting out of prison in three months, “Three months. That’s a mountain I can climb.” And on the next page is Carmen who is talking about not having a drink in three months, “Three months now on that mountain. I can climb/it step by step.” The characters drift in an out of Keesha’s house, some staying just a few days, some much longer, but all ending up in a better place once they have visited this house with the wide blue door set back off of the street.

Review Excerpt(s)

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY Review: “Making the most of the poetic forms, the author breathes life into these teens and their stories, resulting in a thoughtfully composed and ultimately touching book.”

KIRKUS REVIEWS: “In a surprisingly rigid format, the poems manage to seem spontaneous and still carry the plot easily. With a number of threads to follow, no one character is at the center, but there is great satisfaction in seeing the narratives gradually mesh as the isolation recedes and support is given. Impressive.”

KLIATT Review: “A new addition to the poetry novel genre, Keesha's House is composed of sonnets and sestinas in both traditional and creative structures. Frost uses these forms to introduce us to the teens who congregate in and around a safe haven, a house owned by a man named Joe who "knows the value" of having a place to stay when your own home has become toxic.”

VOYA Review: “Keesha's house with its blue door is really Joe's-a haven for lost and unwanted teens in trouble, offering shelter, safety, and sober comfort when the loving home for which one wishes just is not happening. Compelling first-person accounts by and about seven bewildered teens grip the reader.”

Connections

Invite students to write their own sestinas and sonnets about something important in their lives or at school. Talk about ways to turn their ideas into a short book. Display these in the classroom of hallway.

Biography and Non-Fiction ~ War Is...: Soldiers, Survivors and Storytellers Talk About War

Book Cover Photo Source, Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/War-Is/Marc-Aronson/e/9780763636258/?itm=2&usri=war+is+soldiers+survivors+and+storytellers, accessed November 4, 2009.

Bibliography

Aronson, Marc and Patty Campbell (ed.).  2008.  WAR IS: SOLDIERS, SURVIVORS, AND STORYTELLERS TALK ABOUT WAR.  Cambridege: Candlewick Press. 
ISBN 9780763636258

Critical Analysis

Two editors, Marc Aronson and Patty Campbell, tell stories of war in this anthology from two different perspectives.  In the introduction, Campbell describes her "passionate revulsion towards war," as Aronson argues that it is an inevitable piece of the human race.  The book contains twenty selections broken into four sections, each one articulating war's destructive nature.  Pieces chosen by Campbell resonate her belief that war is "crazy," "unbearable," and "impossible to win."  Aronson chooses to listen to these men and women who have fought in our wars because he believes that if we ask these people to fight for us "we owe them the respect of listening to them."  Memorable pieces include written accounts of war by Chris Hedges and Ernie Pyle as well as a Nagasaki memoir by renowned Japanese poet Fumiko Miura.  Also included are powerful short stories by Mark Twain, Rita Williams-Garcia and Margo Lanagan.  Other pieces discuss the reality of first combat, dishonest recruitment, the influence of war heroes, and religious convictions.  The "further reading" section provides readers with duly provocative, high-quality selections in anthologies, fiction and nonfiction that cover ancient to modern conflicts.  Teens from varied social and academic backgrounds will be attracted to this engrossing book that offers conflicting perceptions and a wide variety of experiences.  A superb addition for Social Studies and English teachers alike, this anthology would be appropriate in any high school war unit.  It would also be an excellent choice for many book groups, providing endless topics of discussion. 

Review Excerpts

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: "The openness and range of pieces offered in this collection allows for discussions to be mounted in a classroom or home setting. This book will make an impact and holds lasting thoughts for the reader's mind. It is a must read in or outside the classroom."

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "An essay about women soldiers who served in Iraq is excerpted from Helen Benedict's forthcoming book, The Lonely Soldier . And a memoir by poet Fumiko Miura, survivor of the atomic bomb at Nagasaki, is included. The volume closes with a short play and a short story about the aftereffects of war. The editors make it plain that they are antiwar, but they have made an effort to convey a variety of experiences."

Biography and Non-Fiction ~ Hole in My Life

Book Cover Photo Source, Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Hole-in-My-Life/Jack-Gantos/e/9780374399887/?itm=6&usri=A+hole+in+my+life, accessed November 5, 2009.

Bibliography


Gantos, Jack.  2002.  HOLE IN MY LIFE.  New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 
ISBN 9780374399887

Critical Analysis:

In this autobiography by Jack Gantos, we find out how he came to be a writer.  Writing was something that the young Jack had always wanted to do, but didn't have the grades in high school to persue.  He grew up in in Florida, but is living in St. Croix with his family at the age of 20 when the opportunity of a lifetime falls into his lap (or so he thinks).  An aquaintence offers him $10,000 in cash to help sail a boat full of 2000 pounds of hash from St. Croix to New York.  The young Gantos thinks that this is the only way to get off of the island he hates and finally make it to college, so he agrees to the deal.  In the end, Gantos and his partner are caught and he is sentenced to six years in a federal penitentiary in Ashland, Kentucky.  Although he only serves two years for his crime, this is enough time for him to finally slow down enough to begin to write.  Although in prison he is not allowed to keep a journal, he gets around this obstacle by chronicling his thoughts in the space between the lines of The Brothers Karamazov.  This book is evidence of the creative potential that exists in everyone's life.  Although Gantos' prison experience helped shape him as an author and a human being, it did not define his character.  His actions following prison were all aimed at distancing himself from the life of a criminal.  Although he had choices, in prison he quit using drugs, began writing, and used this time to fighure out what he truely wanted to do in life and begin to accomplish it.  Working in the prison hospital proved to provide protection from his fellow inmates while allowing him to witness the prison culture firsthand.  Due to the subject matter, Hole in My Life is best suited for older teens and adults.  It is an honest, fascinating, and life-affirming chronicle of the personal journey of one of young adult literature's favorite authors. 

Michael L. Printz Honor Book
Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

Review Excerpts:

PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY: "Gantos uses the same bold honesty found in his fiction to offer a riveting autobiographical account of his teen years [when he agreed to help smuggle hashish from Florida to New York and wound up in jail]," PW said. "It will leave readers emotionally exhausted and a little wiser."

ALAN REVIEW: "This surprising book recounts the popular YA author's late-teen life, his subsequent arrest and imprisonment. It is frank, harsh, and beautifully truthful at times — especially about life in prison. Above all, this is the story of a young writer trying to find inspiration for his work. Ultimately, he finds the greatest inspiration within himself."

Biography and Non-Fiction ~ Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow

Book Cover Photo Source, Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Hitler-Youth/Bartoletti/e/9780439353793/?itm=1, accessed November 9, 2009.
Bibliography

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2005. HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER’S SHADOW. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 0439353793

Critical Analysis

In this unique non-fiction work, Susan Bartoletti introduces us to another angle of the Nazi Party, the Hitler Youth. The book begins with pictures and short biographies of the twelve main characters in the book, many of who end up losing their lives over the course of the war. Officially formed in 1926, “the Hitler Youth offered its members excitement, adventure, and new heroes to worship.” Hitler seemed to understand that young people were a potentially powerful political force that could help to shape Germany’s future. “I begin with the young. Are there finer ones anywhere in the world? Look at all these men and boys! What material! With them I can make a new world.”

Bartoletti offers us a compelling perspective on WWII by centering the story around the young people who followed Hitler from 1933-1945. During this time, the Hitler Youth, the boys, and the Bund Deutscher Madel or DBM, the girls, grew into “the largest and most powerful organization for young people ever known.” Their stories are told with such realism that you feel as if you are there with them. The powerful black and white photos draw you in to a time in history that still is not fully understood.


One of the most riveting chapters of this book entitled “Where One Burns Books,” is about the education of children during this time. Teachers were forced to join the Nazi Party or face harsh consequences far beyond losing their jobs. We are told about one beloved teacher that refused to join and was sent to a concentration camp. Schools were allowed to only study curriculum that was approved by Hitler. These included such new subjects as racial science and eugenics. In racial science lessons, students were taught, “Aryans belonged to a superior master race”, and in eugenics they were taught, “Aryans should marry only healthy Aryans.” Hitler once said that his system of education was harsh, but central to his goal. One of the most disturbing quotes from Hitler included in the book was in this chapter. It reads: “A violently active, dominating, intrepid, brutal youth-that is what I am after. Youth must be indifferent to pain. There must be no weakness and no tenderness in it.” What a sad existence these children must have led.

On April 30, 1945, the American soldiers marched into Munich. Hitler was dead by now and the Hitler Youth vowed to fight, but decided to surrender when they realized how many tanks were coming. The next day the Americans took the captured boys to the liberated concentration camp of Dachau. What they saw there was more than they could have imagined. It would take many years for them to be able to come to terms with the role that they played in the Holocaust. Heinrch Heine, a German poet of Jewish origin whose books were burned by the Nazi’s, was quoted in the book as saying, “Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people.” No one could have known how true that statement would turn out to be.

Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

Review Excerpts
 
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: “Bartoletti's portrait of individuals within the Hitler Youth who failed to realize that they served "a mass murderer" is convincing, and while it does not excuse the atrocities, it certainly will allow readers to comprehend the circumstances that led to the formation of Hitler's youngest zealots.”

KEVIN BEACH – VOYA: “This book offers through simple and powerful primary sources an important though tearful lesson in history, citizenship, and responsibility.”

KIRKUS REVIEWS: “Case studies of actual participants root the work in specifics, and clear prose, thorough documentation and an attractive format with well-chosen archival photographs make this nonfiction writing at its best.”

Classroom Connections

This book could be used when studying about WWII, particularly the early part of the war and how Germany came into power. It could also be used as a guidance lesson on how easy it is to get caught up in something that is bad and the consequences of our actions.

Fantasy and Science Fiction ~ Weetzie Bat

Book Cover Photo Source, Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Weetzie-Bat/Francesca-Lia-Block/e/9780060736255/?itm=1&usri=weetzie+bat, accessed October 23, 2009.

Bibliography

Block, Francesca Lia. 1989. WEETZIE BAT. New York: Harper and Row Publishers.

ISBN 0060205369

Critical Analysis

When I first read Weetzie Bat I closed the book and said to myself, "that was weird." So, I read it again. This book is one of the few that I have read that I really wasn't sure what to make of it, except that I liked it.

The heroine in the book is Weetzie Bat. Weeizie's parents, Charlie and Brandy-Lynn Bat, are unhappily divorced and often retreat into a world of booze and drugs. We find out early on that Weetzie's best friend Dirk, is gay. "I'm gay," Dirk said. "Who, what, when, where, how--well, not how," Weetzie said. "It doesn't matter one bit, honey-honey," she said, giving him a hug. To which Dirk replies, "But you know I'll always love you the best and think that you are a beautiful, sexy girl." "Now we can duck hunt together,"Weetzie said, taking his hand. Together the two friends weave an outrageous web of Hollywood illusion and stuanch reality, but the one thing they both wish for most is someone to love. The book is full of magic, from the genie, who grants Weetzie's wishes, to the vicious witch Vixanne, who visits the family three times. There are beauties and beasts, castles and Cinderella-like transformations. Through these adventures Weetzie and Dirk manage to fall in love, Dirk with Duck, and Weetzie with My Secret Agent Lover Man, move in together, and have a baby. "I don't know about happily ever after......but I do know about happily," Weetzie Bat thinks at the end of the story.

The author of WEETZIE BAT, Francesca Lia Block, grew up in Los Angeles where she and her friends were enchanted by Hollywood. One day while driving through Laurel Canyon with friends in a blue vintage Mustang convertible, they passed a "punk princess with spikey bleached hair, a very pink 50's prom dress, and cowboy boots." This image stuck in her mind as the "spirit of Los Angeles," and later when she spotted another blonde pixie wearing big pink Harlequin sunglasses and driving a pink Pinto with the license plate "WEETZIE" her character was born. The book WEETZIE BAT was written in 1989. The subject matter it deals with, sex, homosexuality, drugs, and the unconventional family, are all familiar in the YA genre, but are told in such a way that you feel as if you are hearing it for the first time. The book won the Phoenix Award in 2009, which is given to a book that failed to win a major award at it's publication 20 years before.

Review Excerpts

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "A brief, off-beat tale that has great charm, poigancy, and touches of fantasy, Weetzie, now 23, is a child of hollywood who hated high school, but loves the momories of Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin, plastic palm tree wallets, and the roller-skating waitresses at Tiny Naylor's.....Nobody understands her, least of all her bi-coastal divorced parents, until she meets Dirk, who takes her slammdancing at the hot clubs in L.A. in his red '55 pontiac. When he tells her he's gay, they decide to go "duck hunting" together."