I created a little photo collage of everything that I have either on hold at the library or in my possession. I’m reading Zombies v. Aliens right now. What should I read next…..
Month: January 2016
El Deafo – Review on Goodreads
I just finished reading El Deafo by CeCe Bell. Can’t wait to discuss it with book club on Tuesday!
In the mean time, check out my review on Goodreads!
Or, you can find it here on my Goodreads page!
Have you read El Deafo? What should I read next? Let’s talk below…..
All American Boys – Punctuation Prompt
All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book.
In an unforgettable new novel from award-winning authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.
A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement?
But there were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before.
Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken from the headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth. Courtesy Simon and Schuster
This book is amazing. It is so well written and touches on issues of racism and violence in a way that kept me thinking. I really felt that the best way to respond to this book was through the Punctuation Prompt.
Question Mark
Every time Dad said it, it was always the same. Just like the army talk. But this one was even worse, because it had a rhythm to it, like a poem, or a chant. Never fight back. Never talk back. Keep your hands up Keep your mouth shut. Just do what they ask you to do, and you’ll be fine. (p. 50)
At this point in the novel, Rashad’s dad is giving him a lecture about looking like a “thug” or looking respectable. Rashad is spending a few moments reflecting on the different lectures his dad always gave him.
This part made me wonder if families give their sons and daughters these lectures. I thought to my own experiences and I know my parents never gave me this type of lecture. But, was I alone? Did my friends-white, black, Asian, rich, poor-get this lecture from their parents?
Even more though, why is our society such that parents would have to have this conversation with their daughters and sons? How can we fix this disparity? How can we eliminate racism and profiling? How can we treat each other with respect?
Comma
But he
re are words that kept ricocheting around me all day: Nobody says the words
anymore, but somehow the violence still remains. If I didn’t want the violence to remain, I had to do a hell of a lot more than just say the right things and not say the wrong things. (p. 218)
At this point in the story, Quinn has been thinking about the events of the past week and asking himself why they happened. Quinn is trying to discover what he can do to add positively to the dialogue.
This passage made me stop and think because it is just so true. People today do not come out and say that there is still racism in America. Yet, we see examples of it daily on the news and in our cities and towns. People are still treated unfairly because of their race, religion, or political beliefs. We need to all pause and say this word because it still exists.
Racism.
Exclamation Mark
I repeated it to myself like a mantra. I was marching. I kept saying it as I scanned the crowd for Jill, pumping myself up, because some people had told me racism was a thing of the past, they’d told me not to get involved. But that was nuts. They were nuts. And more to the point – they’d all been white people. Well, guess what? I’m white too – and that’s exactly why I was marching. I had to. Because racism was alive and real as shit. It was everywhere and all mixed up in everything, and the only people who said it wasn’t, and the only people who said, “Don’t talk about it” were white. Well, stop lying. That’s what I wanted to tell those people. Stop lying. Stop denying. That’s why I was marching. Nothing was going to change unless we did something about it. We! White people! We had to stand up and say something about it too, because otherwise it was just like what one of those poster in the crowd outside our school said: OUR SILENCE IS ANOTHER KIND OF VIOLENCE. (p 202)
This scene near the end of the book is one of the most powerful that I have read in modern literature. Here Quinn is attending the protest march. He is scanning the crowd, and thinking about all of the racial tension and issues that have led him to this point.
I reacted strongly to this part of the text because it is so true. We need to step up, no matter what our race, and say how unjust this is. Racism exists. When we do not say the words, when we ignore it, when we lie, we are also victimizing those who experience racism. Nothing says it better than this line:
OUR SILENCE IS ANOTHER KIND OF VIOLENCE.
I strongly suggest this novel for book discussion, for personal reflection, and for opening the conversation about racism in America today.
Harry Potter Thursday – January 28, 2016
Harry Potter Moment of the Week hosted by Uncorked Thoughts! Check out the blog-hop and other cool stuff over there!
The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object, quote etc. from the books/ films/ J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related!
Today’s Potter Question: What do you think would be your best subject? Not necessarily your favorite, but your best.
This is an interesting question – especially as I think about my own journey through school. I certainly am a Hermione: someone who studies hard and learns from reading.
I know it would NOT be: herbology, magical creatures, flying/broomstick navigation, divination
I would think I would be pretty good at potions or magical history. Something that requires me to read a lot of things and talk about them.
Kind of boring, but that’s what you get today!
What would be your best subject? What would be your favorite? Let’s talk below….
IMWAYR – January 25, 2016
This week I read 2 books for YA Lit Class. Let’s just say the theme of good characters permeated my reading.
This week I stared by reading Page by Paige, by Laura Lee Gulledge. Paige is your typ
ical teenage girl – except her passion is for sketching. Paige struggles through a year with her sketchbook, discovering herself and following her grandmother’s rules for drawing.
This book has AMAZING illustrations. I also really like how Gulledge allows us to see the “inside her head” Paige, and how that differs from the “outside her head” Paige. I really felt like Gulledge was speaking to me and illustrating my life! Paige is not the little girl her parents knew, blossoms as she first finds friends, then a boyfriend, then her friends again. Slowly, Gulledge shows the inside and outside Paige melting together in a beautiful ode to growing up.
Some of my YA Lit classmates also read this book, and it is interesting to see which “rules” they posted to Twitter. Check it out over there….then read Page by Paige and share your favorite.
I then jumped into the world of Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell. Talk about amazingly complex characters!
Eleanor and Park are high school kids who end up sitting by each other on the bus. They become unlikely friends and end up falling in love. Yet neither has a perfect life. Park – the seemingly perfect Asian boy – has an uneasy relationship with his father, and hates many of his classmates/neighbors. Eleanor – brilliant and new to school – has been allowed to move home to a tiny house with her abusive stepfather, and her mother and siblings.
Rowell did an excellent job in alternating perspectives and getting us inside their heads. Park doesn’t have it all together, and neither does Eleanor. They fall in love and push each other away. They are complex, struggle with things that are beyond their shared circumstances, and try to survive.
I love how the cover symbolizes their shared existence (the “&” is the tangled headphone cords – they both love music) and the way they need each other to survive. The cover, and their world, only exists when they are sharing the music.
Well, that’s my reading for the week. What did you read this week? What do you think I should read next? Let’s talk below….
Mind Map – Eleanor
I just finished Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell.
Eleanor is a complex character. I admire her tenacity, her attempt to keep the best and worst parts separate from one another, and her vulnerability in her times of need.
Snapshot of the Week – January 22, 2016
Hi there readers!
I am just going to give you a brief intro to something I am challenging myself to try this semester. I want to share with you a bookish picture that I take during the week. I mostly use my phone to take pictures, so the quality isn’t the best. Anyway, I took this picture for my Twitter this week and want to share it on my blog.
My goal is to share one bookish pic (that I take) each week. Maybe I’ll start calling it the Saturday Snapshot. Who knows?
Now….on to the picture.
This week I started a list (with all my favorite pen colors) of all the new books I want to read this semester!
What picture captures your week in reading? Share the link and let’s make this idea fly…..
(Wh)YA?
Here we are in week two of YA Lit class, and I have jumped head first into the pool of reading. I’m not a polar bear, but I am excited to dive into the pool of YA literature. I’m looking forward to this semester of “having” to read each week and “having” to respond to my reading. It is good practice and I really enjoy it.
But, why YA? More specifically, why is reading YA literature so engaging? Why do these books appeal to teens and adults alike? What do YA books teach us about life? about ourselves?
What I Know About YA
YA books are books that are written and marketed for students aged 12-18 – the middle and high school students that we all know (and love). These include these books that we grew up reading (depending on your age: Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High, Goosebumps, etc.) and the books that teens read now (Hunger Games, Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, etc.).
YA lit has changed and evolved through time. A Crash Course in YA Lit describes this historical shift in an amazing way. Take a few moments to read through her article because I don’t think I can improve on her history lesson.
Essentially though, we are in a new golden age of YA lit. YA lit is not just relegated to school libraries. In fact, some of the current best sellers, movie franchises, and pop culture phenomena are considered YA.
Okay….but WHY?
Now we get to the meat of it. What about YA lit appeals to people of all ages? What makes it so popular? Between Tweeting with my classmates and reading the articles assigned to us, I come to two conclusions. First, YA is about characters. Second, YA is about finding yourself.
Characters are what make a book for me. I love a book where I am drawn into the character’s world, feel their feelings, want to talk to them, cry with them, celebrate with them. Characters who are authentic, mixed up, confused, not just “good” or just “bad”, and multidimensional are characters who appeal to me. YA lit does a great job of writing authentic characters.
Katniss Everdeen. Hazel Lancaster. Augustus Waters. Tris.
These characters are so diverse that I can relate to all of them. They are real to me and their struggles and joys are real.
Secondly, and more importantly, YA is about finding yourself. Now you may be thinking, You are an adult. Adults have it all figured out. You don’t need to “find yourself”! Here’s a secret. Yes, yes I do need to find myself. I bet that there are many more out there still trying to find themselves too.
Remember how I said that I see myself in parts of each character? Remember how I can relate to their struggle, their pain, their joy? Well, I think that is because YA Lit is also a mirror. We inhabit these worlds, these characters’ minds, walk in their shoes and fight their battles. And in the end, we close the book and think about what we have learned about ourselves.
Practicing YA Lit
As we are diving into the next semester of YA reading, I am asking myself what I am good at and where I want to grow.
Strengths – I have read quite a bit of YA lit, especially these last few years. I am pretty confident with YA lit that is popular. I’ve also done extensive reading in the shorter works of YA lit. My favorite genre is mystery, and that is the same in YA. But, I also love dystopia and the adventure stories of Rick Riordan.
Growth areas – As my book club and I discussed this week, we are not really wide readers in YA lit. I tend to stick to the same types of books because I know I will like them. I love that our plan is to read a different genre or style of writing each week. This will hopefully expand my horizons, open the window into some amazing YA lit, and find some additional “favorites” to add to my collection.
Whew! That’s a lot of thinking about why I should explore even more YA literature. What can I explore in the realm of YA? What books would you suggest? Let’s talk below……
Harry Potter Thursday – January 21, 2016
Welcome back to Harry Potter Thursday! I took a few weeks off between the semesters, but I thought I’d blog myself right back to it.
Harry Potter Moment of the Week hosted by Uncorked Thoughts! Check out the blog-hop and other cool stuff over there!
The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object, quote etc. from the books/ films/ J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related!
Today’s Potter Question: Would you rather have Potions with Snape or tea with Umbridge?
It is interesting that this question, which has been scheduled for quite a while I think, comes a week after Snape actor Alan Rickman passed away. There has been much in the Potter-verse about Rickman and he certainly portrayed Snape in a convincing way.
Now, onto the question. As much as I dislike Snape as a character – I still don’t agree with the “secret hero”/always loved Lily view of him – I would do anything in the world to avoid Umbridge. Her pink suits and evil “teaching methods” just are horrid. If there is 1 big baddie in the Wizarding World, it would be Dolores Umbridge.
I guess while I am taking Potions with Snape (okay, maybe after class), I’d try to figure out if he was a good guy or a bad guy.
How about you? Potions with Snape? Tea with Umbridge? Let’s talk below….
IMWAYR – January 18, 2016
This week I was the first week of the new semester, and I had the chance to delve into an amazing book.
Cinder, by Marissa Meyer, is the story of Linh Cinder – a mechanic and cyborg who lives in the midst of New Beijing. One day young Prince Kai arrives at her shop. He is asking her to fix his beloved tutor android.
Meanwhile, the city is falling to a plague called leumosis. Cinder’s family is affected, resulting in the death of her beloved stepsister Peony. Even the Emperor dies as a result of this plague.
The Queen of Luna (a colony on the moon) is working hard to sway Prince Kai, soon to be crowned Emperor after his father’s death, into marrying her. Her devious plans include taking over Earth, becoming Empress and murdering Kai, and generally being a not nice person.
This book was surprisingly amazing. I went in expecting to like the book, but ended loving it. I’m not a huge sci-fi person, nor do I tend to like romance. Yet I saw so many students reading Cinder that I knew I had to try it. Not bad for week 1 of YA Lit Class!
What did you read this week? Do you have any YA recommendations for me? Let’s talk below…
OZ and Other Lands 