Shelf Life

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California Young Reader Medal Finalist 2009-2010
Ender Wiggins, Katsa, Iggy Corso, Sammy Santos, Ray-Ray, Miles Halter, Katniss Everdeen, Clay Jenkins, Melinda Sordino… these are a few of my favorite characters from YA literature (can you name the books?). Arnold “Junior” Spirit now takes his place very near the front of that line. Sherman Alexie’s protagonist (and maybe his alter ego?) is a memorable, lovable guy. He is brave, honest, sensitive, self-effacing, and, sometimes, laugh-out-loud funny. This book is a must-read.

Arnold is a Spokane Indian living on a reservation (The Rez) in Washington State. He was born with hydrocephaly (”water on the brain”) which left him with a large head, hands, and feet, a skinny body, and poor eyesight. To say he and his tribe are poor is to vastly understate their situation. Poverty, violence, alcoholism, and worst of all, hopelessness surround Arnold. Even his loving father regularly disappears into an alcoholic haze. Death, as Arnold points out, is a large part of his world. He estimates that he has attended over 40 funerals in his short life. But though Arnold cries and grieves for his family and his tribe he refuses to give in to despair. He is determined to make a future for himself. At a teacher’s urging he transfers to an all-white school more than 20 miles from his home. He becomes a part-time Indian and, in the eyes of many of the members of his tribe, he becomes a traitor. He faces hatred and violence when he is home on the rez and racism and hostility when he is at school. But this is a hopeful and funny story. Arnold’s indomitable spirit helps him create a unique space for himself. He finds beauty and kindness in both of his worlds and helps create large amounts of both for others.

In his protagonist, Alexie has created a unique voice in YA literature. With poignancy, humor, and insight he guides the reader through the mostly undiscovered world of the reservation. Ellen Forney’s drawings perfectly complement the story and help bring Arnold to life for the reader. We can only hope that a sequel is in the works because one Arnold book is not enough.

Highly recommended for grades 7-12

By Mr. Doyle

Click to hear an excerpt
California Young Reader Medal Finalist 2009-2010
Iggy Corso is one of my favorite characters in YA lit. His story is so heartbreaking that many readers may be moved to tears. Iggy has had many, many obstacles to overcome in his short life: born addicted to crack, drug-addict parents, living in extreme poverty, etc. etc. But Iggy never wallows in self pity. Instead he genuinely wants to do good, to make a difference.

The book opens with Iggy being suspended from school pending an expulsion hearing. When he returns home there is no one to tell—his father is stoned and unconscious, his mother has disappeared, and the phone is dead so he can’t even call his social worker. In 5 days he will be expelled unless he can show he is worthy of another chance. So he vows to do something to change people’s opinions of him. He vows to make a contribution.

Iggy’s quest brings him to Mo’s door. Mo is the college drop-out who had been tutoring Iggy. Mo is from an affluent family but is rudderless, trying drugs and religions to find his way. Iggy acompanies Mo in his search for some pot, silently wondering if he will find his mom. Mo leads Iggy to a tenement drug den, resulting in a fateful meeting between Mo and Freddie, the vicious drug dealer.

Iggy is a truly good soul in a terrible situation. He is not perfect; he makes some bad decisions but he accepts the consequences. He will haunt readers long after the book has been closed. Reluctant readers should eat this up.

Highly recommended for grades 9-12

By Mr. Doyle

The California Young Reader Medal Committee announced the finalists for next year. The Young Adult nominees are:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Saint Iggy by K.L. Going
Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

I haven’t read Alexie’s book but it has received superlative reviews and is an American Library Association Best Books For Young Adults title. It is sitting on my bedside table and I will start it tonight. The other two are great books and if The Absolutely True Diary… is anything like them then this may well be the best groups of finalists ever. I can’t wait for next year. Check back here soon for the reviews to all three YA finalists.

Mr. Doyle

This book is a California Young Reader Medal nominee for 2008-2009. I read this quite a while ago and I can’t believe I never posted a review. So I will be doing this from memory (please excuse me if I get any details wrong).

Daniel and Armin, though from different social classes, are the best of friends. They are excited about the rise of the National Socialist party and its leader, Adolph Hitler. Just as Daniel is ready to become an official member of the Nazi Party his parents tell him he can’t because he is half Jewish, therefore half human. Daniel must keep the family secret or risk dire consequences. As the Nazis consolidate their power and begin the “Final Solution” life becomes increasingly dangerous for Daniel and his parents. Can they survive in their native Germany? Will they have to leave? Or is it already too late?

Chotjewitz puts the reader in the midst of horrifying but true historical events in which the characters must choose between friendship and patriotism, loyalty and justice. He ends the novel with a shocking twist that will leave you stunned.

By Mr. Doyle

This is a reposting of a previous review. This title is a 2008-2009 California Young Reader Medal nominee.

A direct impact by an asteroid on the moon is big news for scientists but for Miranda, a typical teen growing up in modern day Pennsylvania, it just looks like an excuse for more homework from her teachers. The asteroid turns out to be more massive than expected and the collision alters the moon’s orbit, pushing it closer to the earth with devastating effects. Tide surges, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions kill untold numbers of people and wipe out most coastal cities. All of which leads to the swift breakdown of society, with schools and stores closing and gas and electrical service disappearing.

Miranda and her family are left to survive on their own. Thanks to Miranda’s mother they have a store of supplies but they can’t last forever. Day by day old, mundane concerns lose their importance and are replaced by more urgent needs like food, heat and water. And as global climate change makes the earth less and less hospitable to life they wonder if there will be any reason to keep on living.

Told through Miranda’s journal entries this is a truly frightening story. Although death and destruction are all around they are not described in any detail. It is the plausible day-by-day disintegration of Miranda’s life that makes the story scary. This is a book that is hard to put down and a it is a story that will stay with you long after you finish it.

By Mr. Doyle

This is a reposting of a previous review. This title is a 2008-2009 California Young Reader Medal nominee.

McCormick’s book Cut, about the very controversial topic of self-mutilation, is one of the most popular titles is our library. In Sold she takes on another controversial topic– forced prostitution. Lakshmi is a 13-year-old village girl in Nepal. Her family is just barely scraping by, thanks to her gambling step-father. When a monsoon washes away their meager crops the family faces ruin and starvation.

At her step-father’s urging Lakshmi accepts a job working as a maid in the city. She hopes to be able to send money home to her mother, enough for food and maybe even a real roof for the house. She is transported by her new “auntie” who hands her off to an older man. Told to pretend she is his wife, she is transported over the Indian border and taken to Calcutta. She soon discovers that she has been sold into prostitution. At the brothel, Happiness House, she is beaten, starved and drugged until she submits.

This first-person narrative is told in spare, poetic language. The account of her subjugation is agonizing but never gratuitous. Lakshmi’s strength in the face of brutality and humiliation is impressive. How anyone, much less a 13-year-old girl, can endure what Lakshmi experiences is almost beyond imagining. Most heartbreaking of all is the author’s note telling readers that Lakshmi’s life is based on the real life experiences of thousands of Nepalese girls.

McCormick handles a sensitive topic better than almost any other writer could. The story is never sensationalistic and is one that demands telling.

By Mr. Doyle

A California Young Reader Medal nominee for 2006-2007 (Jr. High/Middle School category)

Naomi Soledad León Outlaw is a quiet, unassuming, mixed race-girl with a strange name. She lives with her great grandmother and her brother Owen in an Airstream trailer at Avocado Acres Trailer Park in Lemon Tree, California. Naomi and Owen have lived there for seven years, since their mother abandoned them. Owen is extremely intelligent but is physically deformed from birth defects. He also exhibits some obsessive compulsive tendencies but is otherwise a happy and well adjusted child.

Naomi is a list maker, in fact making list is at the top of her list of things she is good at. She is also good at carving, a skill she inherited from her nearly forgotten father, Santiago León of Oaxaca, México. Naomi leads a poor but comfortable life with her brother and Gram and a small, but close-knit community at the trailer park. She is painfully shy, to the point that she feels unable to defend her brother from the mocking of schoolyard bullies.

Naomi’s world is shaken to its foundation when her mother shows up unexpectedly. She has rechristened herself Skyla and has a new man in her life, the controlling Clive. Skyla claims to have turned her life around through counseling and quitting alcohol but Naomi suspects that this is a front. Skyla reveals that she intends to take Naomi with her to live in Las Vegas with Clive and his daughter. Gram and Naomi realize that Skyla and Clive only want Naomi to baby sit and to get welfare and they refuse to cooperate. Skyla threatens violence and legal action so Gram and her neighbors hookup Baby Beluga (the Airstream trailer) to a truck and head to Mexico to find Naomi’s father in hopes of enlisting him in a custody battle.

In Mexico Naomi feels like she has discovered a part of herself that has lain dormant since early childhood. She and Owen feel just as at home in Oaxaca as they do in Avocado Acres. But tension mounts as they race against time to find their father, with the specter of Skyla looming over them. Ultimately Naomi must find the lion within her—El León—to seize control of her own destiny.

Ryan does an excellent job depicting mood and setting, letting us see Oaxaca at Christmas through the eyes of a child. She vividly brings to life Las Posadas, el mercado, and the little known festival “La Noche de Los Rábanos” or Night of the Radishes. Naomi is every bit as inspiring as Esperanza and, like Esperanza Rising, the ending of this book is very uplifting.

A California Young Reader Medal nominee for 2006-2007 (Young Adult category)

Sam is a 17 year old high school senior. Instead of enjoying his last year playing sports, going to dances and parties, and hanging out with friends he is changing diapers, fixing bottles, and running from school to day care. Sam is a single, teen father.

When Sam’s girlfriend, Brittany, got pregnant Sam’s life as he knew it ended. Brittany and her parents decide that the best thing to do is to give the baby up for adoption but Sam can’t stand the thought of not seeing his son. He impulsively decides to raise Max himself. His father, a widow, is stunned but supportive. He agrees to support Sam and Max until Sam graduates from high school and can get a job. College is out of the question for Sam, a one-time honor student.

Sam enrolls in an alternative high school for teen parents and struggles to balance parenthood and school. A persistent guidance counselor and some of Sam’s peers push him to consider college, though he can’t imagine how he will manage it. The pressures of parenthood and the realization of all he has given up make Sam start to question his decision to raise Max. Is Sam up to the task? Is this the best thing for Max?

Bechard takes an unflinching look at teen parenthood. She does a very good job of portraying the exhaustion of a parent of an infant and the desperation of a teen trapped by the consequences of his actions. Sam’s decision in the end seems a little sudden but his emotions seem genuine and many teens will identify with him.

By Mr. Doyle

A California Young Reader Medal nominee for 2006-2007 (Young Adult category)

“Simon Glass was easy to hate. I never knew exactly why, there was so much to pick from. I guess, really, we each hated him for a different reason, but we didn’t realize it until the day we killed him.”

Thus begins Giles gripping story of a teen murder. Simon Glass is the class dweeb. Overweight with bad skin, bad clothes and no social skills Glass is a walking bull’s eye for the other kids. Mercilessly harassed by the in-crowd, he seems oblivious to his own social ineptitude.

Simon’s chief tormentor is one-time alpha-male Lance Ansley. Just before the story begins Lance is dethroned by Rob, a new kid with charm and charisma and, we later discover, some dark secrets. Rob decides to make a project of Simon and coerces Young, Bob, and Coop into helping him. Rob will make Simon the most popular kid in the school and will make Lance a pariah in the process.

Under Rob’s tutelage Simon begins a remarkable transformation. But as the new Simon emerges we discover that he has plans of his own and he is not the harmless, bumbling nerd that he once appeared to be. Each of the main characters has his façade peeled back and his personal and family secrets revealed. The how and why of Simon’s murder provides the mystery, not fully revealed until the disturbing climax.

This book is a real page-turner and a great choice for reluctant readers.

A California young Reader Medal nominee for 2006-2007 (Young Adult category)

This novella-length story is told from the points of view of four teens in alternating chapters. Each narrator had connected with the eponymous Emako in different ways but each had his life changed by her.

The story begins at Emako’s funereal then flashes back to each teen’s first encounter with the beautiful girl and progresses back to the present. Emako transfers from a high school in South Central L.A. to a middle class Westside school. She is there to escape the violence, drugs, and gangs that trapped her older brother and landed him juvenile prison. In addition to physical beauty Emako is an extremely talented singer, destined to be a star. Despite her gifts Emako is sweet and down to earth. She charms everyone, especially the four narrators. Even the mean-spirited Savannah is won over and changed by her relationship with Emako.

As is evident from the first chapter, Emako dies. It is the loss of this good friend that highlights for the narrators what they gained from Emako. Each of the teens is believable and invites our sympathy, even Savannah. The ending, though clearly foreshadowed, is heartbreaking. All in all it is beautiful, affecting story. The short length and subject matter are sure to appeal to reluctant readers.

By Mr. Doyle

A California Young Reader Medal nominee for 2006-2007

The title and the cover picture of a large smiling dog with his tongue lolling out of his mouth belie the seriousness of this book. Instead of a cute story of boy and his dog we get a lesson on the Vietnam War and its effects on soldiers, their families, and American society in general. The protagonist, Mark, learns some hard lessons about politics and personal sacrifice.

Mark has always lived in the shadow of his popular, older brother Danny. Danny’s talent, good looks, and outgoing personality make him the center of attention wherever he goes. Danny, with some prodding from his father, enlists in the Army to serve his country in Vietnam. Mark, jealous of the attention Danny gets for his sacrifice, impulsively decides to donate his beloved dog, Wolfie, to the Army’s scout dog program. Soon he begins to regret this “selfless” act.

Mark learns that the Army classifies dogs as equipment and has no plans to return donated animals. He also learns that the Vietcong have placed bounties on scout dogs and their handlers. With help from a teacher and some war protesters Mark begins a campaign to change the Army’s policies toward dogs. Throughout the story Mark exchanges letters with Wolfie (written by Tucker, his barely literate handler).

The changes wrought by the war on Mark, Danny, and their parents are of course profound. Sherlock handles a controversial topic deftly without becoming preachy. The bittersweet ending is very moving and will tug at the heart strings of all dog lovers. A brief afterward provides some interesting historical information on canine soldiers.

By Mr. Doyle

The CYRM committee has announced the nominees for next year and they have picked some great books.

In the Young Adult Category:
Shattering Glass by Gail Giles is about high school social experiment that ends in violence. You will be hooked from the first paragraph. We already own a couple of copies of this book.
F Gil

Hanging on to Max by Margaret Bechard is about a high school boy who refuses to let his girlfriend give up their baby for adoption. Can Sam raise Max on his own? And is that what is best for the baby? We already have copies of this one too.
F Bec

Emako Blue by Brenda Woods is about the effects that a young girl’s life and death have on her fellow students. Four friends who were brought together by the beautiful and talented Emako grieve her tragic death and tell how she changed their lives.
Coming soon.

In the Middle School/Jr. High Category:

Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan is about a young girl, her brother, and their grandmother running to Mexico to find the kids’ missing father and to escape from her abusive mother. We already own this title.
F Rya

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko tells the story of Moose and his family. It is 1935 and Moose’s dad has gotten a job as a guard at Alcatraz. Can Moose adjust to life on “The Rock” and the difficulty of living with an autistic sister?
Coming soon.

Letters From Wolfie by Patti Sherlock is about a boy named Mark who volunteers his beloved dog to serve as a guard animal in Vietnam in hopes of helping soldiers like his brother. But when the army refuses to tell him when he will get his dog back he begins to worry.
Coming Soon

The CYRM deadline is March 24th. All books must be read, reading logs submitted (or AR quizzes taken), and votes cast by that date. If you read the books last smester you can still vote. See Mr. Doyle as soon as possible.