Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Twisted.  New York, NY:  Viking, 2007. 

Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Speak.  New York, NY: Farrar, Straus Giroux, 1999.

I’ve just came off a Laurie Halse Anderson book binge.  I read Speak and Twisted back to back and loved both of them.  She ability to capture the angst and longing for belong is stunning.  I’m years (and years) out of high school, but her writing (for better or worse) took me right back.

Speak is the story of Melinda’s freshman year of high school.  The summer before she starts school she experiences a traumatic event which polarizes her from her friends and family.  She literally cannot “speak” of the event and flounders her way through high school.  Melinda’s only bright spot is art class.  Her assignment for the year is to create a tree.  The tree can be drawn, painted, sculpted, etc.  Melinda and her tree are intertwined.  Both cast off layers during the fall (tree=leaves and Melinda=friends and family), hibernate during winter and grow stronger and blossom in the spring as Melinda finds her voice.

Twisted is in the same vein as Speak.  Tyler Miller spent his summer manual labor in order to complete his court ordered community service for vandalizing the school.  He has gone from nerdy, whimp to tall, dark and “dangerous”.  As he starts school, Tyler settles into his new persona and catches to eye of a popular girl.  Swirling all around him are those who don’t accept the more confident Tyler including his father.  When Tyler’s life begins to go downhill, he must decide between continuing his transformation or his self-destructive thoughts.

The books’ undertones of being an outsider and finding one’s own place in society will resonate with anyone who attends or surived high school.

For years I had refused to read the Twilight books.  Students returning copies to the library would gush about Edward and tell me I just HAD to read them.  So knowing the final book in the Twilight series was being released this summer, I finally gave in.  All I can say is….I cannot believe I waited so long.  I devoured Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse within 10 days.  And waited not so patiently for Breaking Dawn to be published.  Now one of the best things about being a librarian is being able to get your hands on books BEFORE they are released to the general public.  Well…I was able to secure a copy of Breaking Dawn on the Tuesday before it came out.  I read all 756 pages within a 45 hour period.  Part of me wanted to savor it knowing that this was it; there would be no more.  However, how can you put it down when the story is so mesmerizing?  You CANNOT!

I love the series.  It is a timeless story of young love, sacrifice, and finding your place in society.  And although Breaking Dawn was a thrilling final chapter, I have to say I was disappointed.  For three books we learned and accepted that you must sacrifice for love, but it turns out in the Bella’s case she didn’t have to sacrifice anything.  She gets it all!  I hate tidy little endings.  They are not realistic and they don’t leave you hungry for more.  You’ll have to read the series to see my point.  I refuse to give anything else away.

An aside: I have mixed feelings on the movie.  All too often the world the book so vividly creates is lost in translation to the screen.  My fingers are crossed that it is an accurate portrayal.

I’ve never tried to hide my love for Acito’s first novel, How I Paid for College.  Many students have had me thrust it upon them saying, “You HAVE to read this!”  A story, as the title implies, of how a Julliard bound New Jerseyan Edward and his band of zany pranksters funds his college aspiration after his father says no.

I anxiously awaited his second book for something close to 4 years.  And now I wait no longer.   Or actually I teased, savored the reading of the sequel to How I Paid for College, Attack of the Theater People, knowing it would probably be 4 more years till Acito’s next novel.  But the wait was well worth it.

Without ruining too much plot…the story picks up 2 years later with Edward and gang living in Manhattan.  Edward has just been kicked out of college for being “too jazz hands for Julliard”.  Feeling lonely and ashamed, Edward tries to find a place for himself with stops along the way as a “party motivator” and unwitting insider trader.  As with the first, this sequel is a roller coaster of a ride with laugh out loud funny passages.

Think you have it bad this summer?  DJ has it worse.  She is spending the summer single-handedly trying to save her family’s dairy farm after her father injures himself.  Up at 5am to milk, then clean the stalls, then bail hay, milk again and do it all over the next day.

Football is in the family’s blood.  Both DJ’s older brothers had historic high school careers and now play college ball.  Her father used to coach and names all the farm’s cows after famous players and coaches. 

Her summer looks like it might get even worse when a family friend and rival coach asks DJ to train his starting quarterback, Brian.   As DJ and Brian train together, they begin to question themselves and what they want out of life.  DJ discovers that she doesn’t want to be a “cow” following the herd. 

” ‘You’d probably jump off the roof if they told you to.’
” ‘What are you talking about?’
” ‘Don’t you see how you live? You do all the work they expect you to do and you don’t even mind. It’s like you’re a cow. And one day in about fifty years they’re going to put you on a truck and take you away to die and you’re not even going to mind that either.’ Brian shook his head like he was truly sorry.”

In fact, she wants to follow her own beat and play high school football in the fall.  Her decision will strain her budding relationship with Brian and her family.

What would you do if on your 16th birthday your girlfriend tells you she is pregnant?  There are plenty of books and movies on teen pregnancy from the girl’s perspective.  The First Part Last tackles the question from a boy’s view.

I’ve been thinking about it. Everything. And when Feather opens her eyes and looks up at me, I already know there’s a change. But I figure if the world were really right, humans would live life backwards and do the first part last. They’d be all knowing in the beginning and innocent in the end.

Then everybody could end their life on the momma or daddy’s stomach in a warm room, waiting for the soft morning light.

Beginning his story when his daughter, Feather, is just 11 days old, 16-year-old Bobby tells his story in chapters that alternate between the present and the bittersweet past that has brought him to the point of single parenthood.  Bobby tells his parents about the baby (”Not moving and still quiet, my pops just starts to cry”) and contrasts his father’s reaction with that of Nia’s father (”He looks straight ahead like he’s watching a movie outside the loft windows”).

The way Bobby describes Nia and stands by her throughout the pregnancy conveys to readers what a loving and trustworthy father he promises to be.

I’ll be honest…I’ve been sitting on this book for ages.  I didn’t like the cover, thought the title was lame and kept putting it off.  What a mistake!  The story is told through humor, dead-on observation of Indian and teenage life, and cartoons.

Junior, aka Arnold Spirit, is a budding cartoonist and basketball player growing up on an Indian reservation in Spokane. 

“I feel important with a pen in my hand. I feel like I might grow up to be somebody important. An artist…So I draw because it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation…I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.”

 He is surrounded by poverty, alcoholism and despair. Junior feels destined to follow in the tribes footsteps, until one day he decides he can make his destiny and begins attending the all-white school in Reardon. 

“And Indian boys weren’t supposed to dream like that. And white girls from small towns weren’t supposed to dream big, either. We were supposed to be happy with our limitations. But there was no way Penelope and i were going to sit still. Nope, we both wanted to fly.”

There he is faced with racism, but comes to grips with his own identity and becomes more determined to rise above life on the reservation.

Students have been flocking to this particular author for years.  For whatever reason, I have been putting off reading her, but I decided to picked up her first novel this past Friday.  And was done reading on Sunday!  The Body of Christopher Creed hooked me from the first sentence and kept me guessing through plot twists and turns.  Even after reading it, I continue to wonder about the ending and what did in fact happen to Christopher Creed. 

“The weirdest fact about Chris Creed’s disappearnace was that he was just plain gone. There was no trail of blood, not even a drop of blood. No piece of clothing on the side of the road. No runaway bus-ticketstub. No money missing from his bank account. No empty bottle that had been filled with pills the day before he disappeared. No missing razor blades. No nothing. The only thing we knew was that Chris Creed was not abducted…”

Essentially, the story is a mystery set in the small NJ town of Steepleton.  Christopher Creed is the class freak and oddball.  The day he disappears without a trace from his family and life, an email supposedly written by him finds it way into the Principal’s mailbox.  No one can decide if it is a suicide or runaway note.  Or was it a murder the email is trying to hide?  Fingers are being pointed and no one wants to take responsibility for their role in Creed’s disappearance.  It seems the only ones really concerned about uncovering the truth is an unlikely alliance of the popular jock/musician, the class slut and the town bully.  Plum-Ucci masterfully mixes realistic teen angst with paranormal occurrences.  The result is one eerie yet powerful novel about personal identity and tolerance.

Love her or hate her, we have a woman running for President.  Her opponent is a decorated war hero.  There is an unpopular war raging in a foreign land and most people want us to pull out.  Health care, equal rights, and traditional values are all major issues.   Those who speak out against the government are labeled a liberal or communist.  Sound like the election of 2008?  Think again it is 1952!

Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady and UN Goodwill Ambassador, is tapped to run for President, after Adlai Stevenson dies at the Democratic Convention, against Republican General Dwight D. Eisenhower.  The book raises an interesting and timely question:  Could a woman become President of the United States?

Although historical fiction, Gerber based the narrative on known meetings, speeches, political figures, and events.  She even commissioned a poll to project who would have won in 1952 had Eleanor run against Ike.  I won’t give away the victor, but will say it took me off-guard.  Eleanor vs. Ike is a brilliant, face paced read full of Political intrigue, KKK assassins, and campaign scandals.  An excellent choice for anyone following the current elections!

O’Neill, Heather.  Lullabies for Little Criminals.  New York, HaperCollins, 2006.

Warning:Heather O’Neill’s novel is not for the faint of heart! This is a raw and grimy account of a girl, ironically named Baby, who grows up motherless with an uneducated, immature addict father, and an uncanny ability to survive even the most desperate of circumstances. Set in Montreal’s red-light district, readers delve into the underbelly of both a city and its culture through the eyes of twelve-year old Baby. 

O’Neill’s writing is beautifully sad and heartbreakingly honest making Baby’s character wiser, but not jaded beyond her  years.  One of my favorite descriptive passages:

 “My breath in the cold air was bleach that accidentally spilled on a black t-shirt”. 

Baby and her equally neglected and abused friends long for adulthood, anything must be better than this is their attitude. They look up to the only adult “role models” they have; lifelong druggies and sucessful thieves. Baby says,

“I don’t know why I was upset about not being an adult. It was right around the corner. Becoming a child again is what is impossible. That’s what you have a legitimate reason to be upset over.”

Ultimately, Baby’s story is compelling, and that’s what kept me reading, despite her miserable circumstances. Her appreciation for little kindnesses and glimpses into “normalcy” provide an insight into a world that few authors are able to describe without sounding like a Lifetime movie.  But maybe that is because O’Neill based the book on her own childhood.

Other inspirational (and tragic) coming of age books:

Walls, Jannette.  The Glass Castle.  New York, Scribner, 2005.

Walls’ childhood was filled will heartbreak, despair, poverty and chaos.  She was raised with her brother and sister by a loving, alcoholic dreamer father and neglectful, mentally unstable mother.  The family often moved from one state to another and from  pitiful house to slum apartment. 

For me two scenes from the book standout.  In the first, Walls burns herself at the age of three while attempting to make herself dinner.  When reading the passage you can feel the spunk and sadness of her three year old self.  

The other scene was heartbreaking because I could imagine how horrible it would have been for myself to experience.  Walls, now an adult living in NYC, sees a homeless woman sifting through trash looking for food or other valuables.  The woman she realizes is her mother. 

All in all, Walls was able to rise above the chaos of her childhood to become a journalist and writer who has a very low-key, happy home life.

Pelzer, David.  A Child Called “It”.  Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1995.

This book is an account of one of California’s worst child abuse cases in that state’s history.  Pelzer was raised (and I use the term very loosely) by an alcoholic, mentally disturbed mother.  Pelzer wasn’t loved.  He was clothed in rags, forced to eat scraps the dog did not and endured unspeakable brutality.  The fact he survived his childhood, found love with a foster family and lives a “normal” life is nothing short of a miracle.

After A Child Called It, Pelzer went on to write about his foster family in Lost Boy and becoming an adult in A Man Named Dave.  These books continue his inspirational journey.

It all starts when Nick asks Norah to be his girlfriend for five minutes. He only needs five minutes to avoid his ex-girlfriend, Tris, who’s just walked in to his band’s show. With a new guy. Norah answers him by putting her hand behind his neck and pulling him down for a kiss.

And then, with one kiss, Nick and Norah are off on an adventure (aka first date) taking in some of the sights and sounds of Manhattan. From burlesque shows to queercore punk shows to all-night borscht eateries to the Marriot Marquis ice machine room, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a wild and sweet roller coaster ride of falling in love. The constant references to music, movies and pop culture add a kick to the dialouge between the characters. Think High Fidelty for the high school crowd.

Bonus Track: Nick and Norah’s Inifinte Playlist is in movie production now. Michael Cera (of Superbad fame) plays Nick and Kate Dennings plays Norah. It is scheduled for release in Fall 2008.