Red's Journey Through Bookland

Crutcher, C. (2011).  Angry management . New York: Greenwillow. For this assignment I had the privilege of choosing a book to read from the author Chis Crutcher. I absolutely fell in love with Chris Crutcher's brash personality and sense of humor when I met him at the LSU YA conference in the summer of 2014. Chris Crutcher has written 14 books so far, and nearly all of them are on the top of my TBR list, and are often recommended by me to students. The first work that I read by him was Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes  because when I was teaching GT 7th grade, this book was a choice for literature circles. I have always loved his complex characters and story lines and how relatable he is. I think that he and Laurie Halse Anderson are like writing soul mates as their books nearly always tackle tough topics like depression, abuse both sexual and emotional. I love suggesting his books to any of my students because I know that they will get more out of them than just a book a...

Green, J., & Levithan, D. (2010).  Will Grayson, Will Grayson . New York: Speak. First, I want to address why I chose this book to read. In our assignment, we were given a list of authors names that we were allowed to choose a book from. On this list was John Green. John Green has had a very successful writing career with tons of fans both of his written works and his vlog with his brother, Hank. The first book that I had read of his was Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances  written by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle. At that time, I knew nothing about John Green, in fact I believe it was a Christmas present. Then in college I was introduced to his other works in my YA literature class, specifically Looking for Alaska , and by my younger cousin who was a freshman in high school at the time, who introduced me to The Fault in Our Stars. Thus a few months of devouring every book that he has ever written ensued, which did not leave many options.   ...

Thomas, A. (2018).  The hate u give . New York: Balzer Bray. The Hate U Give  by Angie Thomas is, in my opinion, one of the most influential and important works in modern realistic fiction, period. Not YA fiction, but all fiction. This story follows Starr on her brutal journey after witnessing her friend, and first crush, die by the hands of a cop. Starr struggles with Khalil's death and the survivor's guilt that comes with being the one who is still left. Throughout the book, Starr deals with identity and self-esteem issues- never feeling like she is able to be truly herself. She is stuck between Williamson Starr and Garden Heights Starr, always feeling never enough. She is both a nerd, like "the hood trio" which was a Harry Potter fan group with her two best friends, and a sneaker head, obsessed with sneakers specifically Jordans. It discusses diverse family structure like the issues between Mavrick and Uncle Carlos. The dual identity of feeling like a traitor...

Ness, P. (2018).  The knife of never letting go . Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. The Knife of Never Letting Go  by Patrick Ness is the first of the Chaos Walking Trilogy. This dystopian novel follows Todd Hewitt the last boy in Prentisstown, a town full of men infected with the Noise Germ. The noise germ makes all of mens' thoughts available to hear to anyone- no hiding and no secrets- or so Todd thought. Todd is so excited to become a man in one month, on his 13th birthday, until his surrogate fathers Ben and Cillian send him away with a knife and his mom's old journal. For all of Todd's life, he believed that all of the women died from the Noise germ when they arrived to this world, but it is only when he meets a 'live girl' for the first time in the swamp does he realize that not everything is what it seems, even when you can hear everyone's thoughts.  Todd, Viola, and Manchee embark on a great and terrible adventure to make it to Haven to escape the...

Chapter 6: How do Adolescents develop?   This chapter analyzes the different aspects of development and how we know readers. A reader’s development (physical, emotional, mental, etc.) helps us as teachers and librarians better match books to adolescents. This is important because you do not want to give a student a book that they are not ready for or already far surpassed because it may turn them off reading and that is the last thing we would want to do.   First is physical development, adolescents are going through puberty. It is physical development that makes adolescents more insecure because they are always bombarded about “if they are normal?” This is something we need to remember when suggesting books that help them realize that they are normal in a way. Piaget is known for his theories on intellectual development. Adolescence is often considered the time when they transition from concrete thinkers to abstract formal thinkers. If a student is still in the ...

Garden, N. (2013). Annie on my mind. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Annie on My Mind  by Nancy Garden tells the story of two teenage girls falling in love. This book was originally written and published in 1982 which makes this particular love story very unique. Liza meets Annie in her happy place, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is by herself as she normally is going to use the art as inspiration for her senior project. It is then that she meets this quirky and outgoing girl that she quickly befriends. Both Liza and Annie know that this is more than a normal friendship, but they struggle to say it aloud. This story show the struggle of the LGBT community during the time this book was set. Liza barely knew what homosexuality was or gay meant when she realized she was in love with Annie. Liza goes through a journey of guilt, acceptance, and self discovery throughout this book. Liza recognizes as she recalls her memories of Annie in short flashbacks or vignettes that she...

Chapter 5: What is YA Literature? This chapter covers the 10 essential characteristics that helped define YA literature. These 10 characteristics came from Mertz and England in 1983 to help define the classification of YA literature. The 10 characteristics include: - The protagonist is youthful - The point of view centers on an adolescent’s perspective on events - Direct exposition and confrontation of events - There is normally a significant change in the main character’s life - Exemplifies high amount of independence in the protagonist - Shows a gradual change in the character’s growth (coming of age- incomplete not completely grown) - Brings to light concerns over contemporary issues - Shows a character dealing with the consequences of their decisions and actions - The setting, timer period, and characters might be brief and limited as part of the main characters world view (structural convention) - It builds on how adolescents actually develop over time These...

Chapter 4: Genres & Formats This chapter covers genres and formats, specifically debunking some assumed genres and formats during the new trend of genrefying libraries. The two genres are fiction and nonfiction; everything else is consider a subgenre. Within Fiction, there are two major branches realism and fantasy. Realism encompasses the books that cover topics that we would see in our current everyday world or in history; it is rooted in reality. Fantasy, on the other hand, has traditional which covers everything from fairy tales, myths, to folktales. These traditional versions of Fantasy normally fall under 398.2 in the Dewey decimal classification and housed in the nonfiction section. Modern Fantasy is normally housed within the fiction section of the library as it covers fantasy and science fiction, another subgenre of fantasy. Underneath Modern Fantasy there are 4 catagories: Hard Science fiction, Soft Science fiction, High Fantasy, and Low fantasy. Hard science fiction ...

Myers, W. D., & Myers, C. (2008).  Monster . New York: HarperCollins. Monster tells the story of an aspiring filmmaker during the trial that will decide how he will spend the rest of his life: as a free man or in a jail cell for the proposed 25 to life sentence. Steve Harmon tells the story of his trial through 2 formats that come naturally to a budding filmmaker and a teenager: screenplay and diary.  Steve seems to be caught up in a very nasty situation. As a young black man, he is being tried for felony murder. It seems the just knowing the wrong people can somehow make you a part of their plot. Walter Dean Myers, a very prolific African American author, allows readers to follow along with Steve's journey and make their own assumptions and deductions based on the information in his case. The format of the story allow for the book to be a quick read and really suck the reader into the world that Steve is living in.  This book discusses the criminalizatio...

Gephart, D. (2016).  Lily and Dunkin . New York: Delacorte Press. Lily and Dunkin  tells a weaving story from two perspectives entering the alarming year of eighth grade. Lily (formerly known as Tim) goes on a journey to convince her parents and her peers of who she really is. She meets Dunkin on the street on her first day of "practice" of being herself- wearing girls clothing. Dunkin sees her after moving to Florida with his mom after a traumatizing experience. They seem to weave in and out of each others lives as Dunkin gets accepted by the basketball team, also known as Neanderthals because of how they torment Tim in school. Both find out that while on a journey to find themselves and live their own truths that self discovery can be very challenging at times.  Lily's journey sheds an incredible light on what transgendered individuals go through when born into the wrong body. It is tactfully done and helps the reader develop empathy for people like Lily desp...

Anderson, L. H., & Carroll, E. (2018).  Speak: The graphic novel . New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. Melinda Sordino has changed over night. She went from having close friends to being a freshman pariah. Her ex-best friend Rachel/Rachelle won't speak to her, and Melinda fears she will always be known as the girl who called the cops during the final summer party. Speak tells the story of a girl trying to silently cope with her experience with rape. Throughout the story she battles her inner demons (or in this case bunny rabbits) that seem to always lead her down the rabbit hole of depression. The graphic novel published in 2018 is a fresh new look at how Laurie Halse Anderson's raw gripping novel, Speak , can relate to every generation. A big part of Melinda's recovery and self-discovery is through her art class assignments, so it seems perfect to see this story also told through a new art form. The specific style of art (all black and white) used in conjunction wit...

Facebook or Twitter: Which one is better for a library's promotion and networking?  We have all had a lot of experience with facebook and twitter. They are the way that we communicate across countries, develop relationships, maintain relationships, and sometimes even for self promotion. Look at me and all the great things I am doing! Now why not do this for your library? Many people have had this idea- this is a look at how successful these two social media networks are for promoting libraries.  Facebook;  When I did my initial search for school library pages I had to scroll past many Library organizations, non-profits, and educational resources before I was able to find any effective school library pages. These are the Library pages that I found:  Green Forest High School Library  Green Forest, AR On this Facebook page for Green Forest High School's Library, you can tell that the Media Specialist uses this page to advertise the success of...