Book Talk - I Am J

Beam, Cris. I Am J. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2001.
ISBN 9780316053617; hardback; $16.00.

Annotation:
J faces the truth about his identity and explores the impact it has on his relationships with family, friends, and himself.  Recommended for high school and public libraries.

Awards:
• Junior Library Guild Selection, 2011
• Kirkus, Best Books for Teens, 2011
• American Library Association Best Fiction for Young Adults, and Rainbow List Top Ten, 2011 
• Amazon Best books of March, 2011

Book Talk:
Swimming in over-sized clothes and layers of shirts used to conceal his shape, J has spent his whole life feeling trapped.  He is a boy inside a girl's body.  Growing up in New York City, half-Jewish and half-Puerto Rican, J faces physical and verbal harassment in school and in his neighborhood, after all, they knew him when he was Jeni.

Armed with his camera and his best friend, Melissa, J faces life as a transgendered teen, complete with girlfriends, binders, and the magical drug T.

Can he pass the test?  Can he be seen for what he is inside?  He must first accept himself and embrace his quirky group of friends who become more like family, only then can he open up and tell the world "I Am J."

To learn more about this book and the topic of transgender teens, check out Cris Beam's website.

Here's a short book trailer for I Am J:

Book Talk - The Fault in Our Stars

Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. New York: Dutton Books, 2012.
ISBN 97805525478812; hardback; $17.99.

Annotation:
Hazel has been fighting cancer for some time when she meets Augustus, a dreamy cancer survivor, and the two develop a relationship that takes them father than they could've thought.  Recommended for any high school or public library.

Awards:
 - #1 New York Times bestseller

 - #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller
 - #9 The Bookseller (UK) bestseller
 - 
#1 Indiebound bestseller

 - New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice

 - Starred reviews from Booklist, SLJ, Publisher’s Weekly, Horn Book, and Kirkus

Book Talk:
Where does the fault lie?  For Hazel Grace, with tumors in her lungs, and Augustus Waters, who only has one leg left, the question is hardly worth considering.  At a support group meeting in the "literal heart of Jesus" for teenagers with cancer, Hazel and Augustus meet and become friends.  Over a few short months, their live change rapidly and through hospital stays and travels abroad, they face their fates - also their hopes and dreams.

Their acquaintance with a mysterious and miserable author brings clarity and closure while Hazel and Augustus prove to be each other's strongest supports.

What can be blamed for their tragic situations but fate?  And how can such young people face life and death and not feel compelled to sit around and watch reruns of America's Next Top Model all day, every day?  For Hazel and Augustus, it is themselves - their hope, devotion, and love for each other, their families, and their friends, that guides their experiences and lives, that allows them to live not as "cancer kids" but a real people.  Does the fault lie within ourselves? Or within our stars?



 Here's a video of John Green reading the first chapter of The Fault in Our Stars.  Also, check out The Vlog Brothers on YouTube to see more updates and fun videos from John Green and his brother, Hank.  Take part in the fun and become a NerdFighter yourself!

 

Also check out this great review from NPR Books called "The Fault in Our Stars: Love in a Time of Cancer" by Rachel Syme.

From John Green's website:

"Q. What kind of soundtrack do you envision for the TFIOS movie?

A. Mountain Goats, Mountain Goats, Mountain Goats, Mountain Goats, Mountain Goats, Laurena Segura, Mountain Goats, Mountain Goats."

I particularly love this because TFIOS is an amazing book and The Mountain Goats are an amazing band.  Here's some mood music: 

Fancy vocab

Hey check out the 'Word of the Day' I just found in my email!  How fitting - I was just looking up Coming-of-Age books!

Bildungsroman

Bil·dungs·ro·man  [bil-doongz-roh-mahn; Ger. beel-doongks-raw-mahn]

noun, plural Bil·dungs·ro·mans, German Bil·dungs·ro·ma·ne  [-mah-nuh] 

a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.

Origin:
1905–10;  < German,  equivalent to Bildung  formation + -s  noun ending in compounds + Roman  novel

Book Talk - The Fault in Our Stars

Actual book talk to follow once I've stopped sobbing.

Book Review - Fun Home: A family tragicomic

Bechdel, Alison.  Fun Home: A family tragicomic.  New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
ISBN 9780618477944; hardback; $19.95.

Awards:
 - 2007 GLADD media award for Outstanding Comic
Book
  - finalist 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award

Fun Home is an autobiographical graphic novel set in Central Pennsylvania.  Covering the span of the authors early childhood through young adult years, the reader is introduced to the dysfunctional Bechdel family who live in a restored Gothic Revival home complete with gilt ornamentation and leather-bound library.  Although Bechdel narrates, arguably the main character is her father (whose full story comes out slowly, leaving the reader as in the dark as Bechdel was) who was an English teacher and mortician.  Father and daughter bond over books and eventually through their individual experiences with sexuality and gender identity.  Choosing the format of a graphic novel (the illustrations were all done by herself) was a perfect fit for this story and brought a little lightheartedness to the serious topic.

I didn't exactly 'enjoy' Fun Home, but I'm glad I read it.  It's an intense, rough story that came off less hopeful and more just as a documentation of the struggles people can face who do not fit into the right social mold.  Bechdel's father is a totally tragic character (as is her mother although she does not receive as much attention in the book) and the reader is only able to feel good that Bechdel was able to live her life in a more open and accepting society.  Dealing with themes of sexuality and identity, the graphic novel portrays the experience many young people have while growing up and questioning themselves. Because of this, Fun Home would be a valuable addition for high school libraries (although the content may be seen as too racy by some) as well as public library YA collections. 

Book Review - The Outsiders

Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. New York: Speak- Penguin Group, 2006. 208 pages. Paperback. $10.00. ISBN 9780142407332

Awards:
 - New York Herald Tribune Best Teenage Books List, 1967
  - Chicago Tribune Book World Spring Book Festival Honor Book, 1967
  - Media and Methods Maxi Award, 1975
  - ALA Best Young Adult Books, 1975
  - Massachusetts Children’s Book Award, 1979 

S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders seems to be required reading for most U.S. high school students.  Set in the mid 1960s, the story follows Ponyboy and his gang of friends and brothers while they grapple with being young, poor, and directionless.  The conflict between the Greasers and the Socs is a somewhat forced representation of the socio-economic clash felt in many areas throughout the country - the kids from the wrong side of the tracks versus the preppy, rich ones.  After tensions reach a breaking point between the two gangs and a tragic accident upturns the Greaser's world, Ponyboy is left to face the chaos and decide what he wants out of life.  Stay gold, Ponyboy.

Hinton wrote the book when she was a teenager and it is laughably obvious at points - why else would every male character in the story be described as more handsome than the last? - but it is also this perspective that has allowed The Outsiders to become a YA classic, still feeling very relevant to teens today.  After first reading The Outsiders in ninth grade, I've probably reread it about a dozen times and have sobbed during each and every one of them.  The characters are interesting, the story is heart-wrenching, and every teen (and adult) should be familiar with The Outsiders because it offers a humanizing and sympathetic glimpse into the life of a teenager growing up in a troubled environment.  This book should be in every public and school library, without exceptions.

Although no where near as good as the book, the movie is pretty rad, too.

Book Review - Clockwork Angel

Clare, Cassandra. Clockwork Angel. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2010. 479 pages. Hardback. $19.99. ISBN 9781416975861.

Awards:
   - Winner of 2011 YALSA Teens Top Ten Award
   - Winner of 2011 Silver Inky Award

Clockwork Angel is the first book in the Infernal Devices series which is set about 150 years before Cassandra Clare's other popular series, The Mortal Instruments.  The story is set in Victorian Era England and the aesthetic is reminiscent of the steam punk movement - all cogs, gears, and dark colors.  The story begins with Tessa, the main character, traveling to England to meet up with her brother but things quickly go wrong and she is introduced to a magical world filled with vampires, warlocks, demons, and those who fight to protect the ordinary humans from those creatures.  The story is an entertaining mix of fantasy, historical fiction, romance, mystery, and teen drama, with a groan-inducing cliff hanger for an ending.

Although it took me about a quarter of the book to get excited about the story, by the end I was way too into it and I can't wait to read the next installment.  I'll admit that I'm a little over the whole vampire thing but they were not a huge part of the story and the new fantastical 'creature' she created - the Shadowhunters - are pretty cool.  Despite the obvious Harry Potter rip-offs (a magical castle that Muggles - I mean Mundanes - can't see because they're too preoccupied with themselves?) I think Clare was able to bring some originality to the genre and the story can hold its own among historical fiction and fantasy alike.  I would definitely label this book YA due to the age of the characters and the themes of growing up and self-realization.  This and Clare's other series have gained immense popularity and I think they have earned a place in any public library or school's YA collection.

 Here's an absurdly cheesy book trailer put out by the publisher!

If you're interested in the author, Cassandra Clare, you can follow her on Twitter @cassieclare!