The Giver

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York: Random House Children’s Books, 1993.
ISBN: 0440237688 pbk.
$ 6.50

Reader’s Annotation:
A classic utopian tale that follows the actions of one young boy caught in a world that only looks perfect.

Booktalk:
What does it mean to be the Giver? Jonas is about to find out. Jonas has spent his whole life in the community. His life has held no pain, no fear, no war, and no choices. Every part of his everyday is carefully orchestrated so that he never has a disagreeable moment. When Jonas turns twelve he receives his first surprise. Jonas is picked to become the next Giver.

Being the Giver involves pain, it involves fear, and it involves choice. Those choices are plainly illustrated to Jonas with his first communication from the Giver. He is informed that he can lie and that he is allowed to be rude. Yet, the Giver carries a great burden for he may not take pain medication, he may not share his dreams, and above all else he may not apply for release.

But what is that the Giver does? What does he give? Jonas will soon find out the duties of the Giver. He will find that his new duties involve something more than giving. They involve holding a new knowledge. Will Jonas be able to handle his new assignment? He must for he is The Giver.


Awards:
A Boston Globe- Horn Book Honor Book
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
An ALA Notable Book for Children
Winner of the Regina Medal
A Booklist Editor’s Choice
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

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Eragon

Paolini, Christopher. Eragon. New York: Random House, 2002.
ISBN: 044023848x pbk.
$ 6.99

Reader’s Annotation:
This fantastic tale follows a young farm boy who finds a dragon stone.

Booktalk:
Eragon is just a poor farm boy hoping to find some food, but what he finds instead will change his world, his destiny, and your reality. Experience the transformation in: Eragon.

-Parallels to other fantasy most notably Tolken
-A quest
-Movie tie-in
-Coming of Age
-Set in an imaginary kingdom with Elves, Dwarves, Dragons
-Source of power Dragon/Sword
-Similar to King Arthur tale and others- fostered child ignorant of true destiny
-Good versus Evil dynamic
-Teacher student dynamic with Brom the storyteller

Awards:
#1 New York Times Bestseller
#1 Publishers Weekly Bestseller
USA Today Bestseller
Wall Street Journal Bestseller
Book Sense Book of the Year

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Sabriel

Nix, Garth. Sabriel. New York: Harper Collins, 1995.
ISBN: 9780061474354 pbk.
$9.99

Reader’s Annotation:
A young girl finds out what it truly means to harness her command over the dead when she uses her powers to save her father.

Booktalk:
Death is scary. Dead people are creepy. But what is even scarier and creepier is when dead people do not stay dead. Welcome to Sabriel’s world. Sabriel exists in a world where the boundaries between life and death are not clear cut. The dead walk the Earth, the living walk among the dead. The boundary between life and death is policed only by an Abhorsen.

Sabriel’s dad is such an Abhorsen. He controls the dead with a set of special bells capable of imprisoning roving spirits and sending them to the underworld. When the bells show up at Sabriel’s school she knows her time has come. She must become the new Abhorsen. But what can a young girl with little training accomplish against the dark forces that have destroyed an experienced Abhorsen?

With every step Sabriel comes closer to death. She comes closer to the evil that claimed her father’s life. It is only by embracing her destiny that she will defeat her enemy. She must become Abhorsen and leave Sabriel behind.

Awards:
Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review
Winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel
ALA Booklist Starred Review

Image provided by:
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the house of the Scorpion

Farmer, Nancy. the house of the Scorpion. New York: Simon and Schulster, 2002.
ISBN: 0689852231 pbk.
$7.99

Reader’s Annotation:
This story follows the life of Matteo Alacran, a clone, who fights against his destiny.

Booktalk:

Matteo Alacran is not only a clone. He is the clone of the most powerful drug lord in a country called Opium. You would think that this would make Matt important or even special, but that is not the case. Matt is lower than the lowest animal, yet he is special. Matt is different from the other clones. He thinks, he dreams, he is artistic; he is most definitely different from the mindless drones that surround him. But what makes him different from other human beings?

Matt doesn’t know why he’s different. He just knows he is. But will this difference be enough to save him from his fate, the fate of all clones? Will he find out what that fate is before it’s too late? Matt’s story is one of difference and its importance. Sometimes difference can make you a target and sometimes it takes one person to make a difference in the world. Find out what happens in the house of the Scorpion.

Awards:
National Book Award Winner
Newberry Honor Book
Michael L. Printz Award
Booklist Starred Review
Kirkus Starred Review

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Am I Blue

Bauer, Marion Dane. Am I Blue. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.
ISBN: 0064405877- Paperback edition
273 pp.

Readers Annotation:
Am I Blue is a collection of stories that answer the fundamental question, “Who Am I?”. The stories in this anthology are the first ever collection of young adult gay and lesbian short stories. These tales offer multiple answers to who we could be and for some may speak to who they might be.

Booktalk:
The editor of Am I Blue wraps up the anthology with a short story of her own. The short story, Dancing Backwards, closely mirrors an incident in Bauer’s own childhood. The story chronicles the sexual discovery of two girls. This discovery is not dirty or explicit, it is pure and nebulous. The girls in this story are good girls; girls that stumble upon their sexuality instead of actively pursuing it.

Bauer’s short story is one of the few that is decidedly homo erotic. Most of the characters in this anthology never have a sexual experience. Some of the characters never officially identify as gay or lesbian. However, all of these stories deal with confusion. The characters are unsure, uncertain, and confused. These stories are the tales of their confusion. They serve to reaffirm that it’s okay to be confused, it’s okay to not know, and if you do know that you’re different it’s still okay.

This collection of stories serves as a guide for all young adults. It crafts their understanding of what it means to be gay, lesbian, or just uncertain. It shows that it’s okay to ask, “Am I different?” or perhaps, “Am I Blue?”.

Awards:
ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults
ALA Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Book Award
Horn Book Fanfare
New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age
Minnesota Book Award

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Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. New York, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1967.

ISBN: 0385040199 - Hardcover edition
308 pp.
$21.95
Translated By B.M. Mooyaart Doubleday.
Introduction by: Eleanor Roosevelt

Reader’s Annotation:

Anne Frank is a young Jewish girl caught up in the horror of the Holocaust. Her diary documents the traumatic maturation of a young girl forced to grow up in hiding. During her confinement Anne seeks to define herself as a person, while coming to grips with what it means to be part of persecuted nation.

Review:
Anne starts her diary with the wish that she will be able to confide completely in her diary and thus derive some sort of comfort. This wish, presented at the onset of Anne’s diary , immediately pulls the reader into a personal relationship with Anne. Throughout Anne’s experience she draws closer and closer to her diary, and therefore her reader. Anne wishes to make a best friend out of her diary and we the reader genuinely want to participate in this experience.

Despite the intense relationship between reader and author, engendered by Anne, she still questions why anyone would be interested in the revelations of a young girl. She reveals that, “neither I-nor for that matter anyone else- will be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year old schoolgirl” (Frank, 12). However, the events that come to shape Anne’s life are bigger than the “unbosomings of a thirteen-year old schoolgirl”. Anne’s narrative comes to embody the Jewish plight during World War II. It is through Anne’s diary that multitudes of young adults gain their first Holocaust experience. Through this experience the reader finds the human element behind World War II. Anne’s diary turns a war that often gets obscured by statistics and big events into a human narrative.

This diary is particularly compelling for young adults. In an age when no one wrote books for teens by teens Anne produced a diary that does exactly that. Despite the atrocities that frame Anne’s narrative her story is a typical teen age story. This story has all the usual teenage angst. Anne has a strained relationship with her parents and sibling. Anne is interested in boys and maintains multiple infatuations throughout her diary. Anne worries about her grades, her looks, and everything else a teenage girl could worry about. But above all, Anne is concerned with making a deeper connection with her friends that isn’t all about the “common round” (Frank, 13). As the war progresses Anne shows maturation. Anne moves from worrying only about herself and her own personal drama to making connections between what is happening and how it impacts the world at large. The Diary of a Young Girl is the original coming of age story told by a firsthand participant.

Despite the author and subject of this diary being a young teenage girl, the audience for this work extends beyond the generation gap. This diary, despite its engaging narrative, is a true story- a story that bears witness to one of the greatest cultural atrocities of our time. This book brings awareness to the world, not just a generation. Unlikely readers, such as Nelson Mandela, have found great comfort in Anne Frank’s narrative. This diary bears witness across generations and for this reason it should be included in every young adult collection around the world.

Awards:
ALA Best Books for Young Adults -1996
New York Times Bestseller (Nonfiction)-1995
Waterstones Books of the Century -1997

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Go Ask Alice

Anonymous. (2006). Go Ask Alice. New York: Simon Pulse.
ISBN: 0689817851 pbk.
185 pp.
$5.99


Reader's Annotation:

Go Ask Alice is the story of a teenage girl that struggles to find herself and instead finds the seductive and engaging world of drugs.

Review:

Alice’s story is presented to the reader as a diary. This format allows for a quick and provocative read that picks the reader up, rams full speed ahead and then dumps one at the end without ever stopping for a breath. This quick charged format mimics the craziness of Alice’s experience. However, this format also allows the author a loose hand with the details. The quick episodic nature of a diary allows the author to focus the reader on sensationalist details without having to provide a lot of explanation. Because the author has the diary format to rely on Alice’s story is lent an air of credibility that might otherwise be lacking.

The voice of Alice in Go Ask Alice is a very believable teenage voice. Alice obsesses over boys, her weight, her parents and the normal societal pressures of a teenage girl. The genuine nature of this voice makes this book relatable no matter the generation that reads it. However, Alice’s drug voice is sadly lacking. Alice’s descriptions of drug use are highly sensationalistic, inaccurate and read like an anti-drug pamphlet. Phrases like, “after you’ve had it there isn’t even life without drugs,” sound like they are pulled directly from a D.A.R.E. program. The rapid and extreme escalation of her drug use is highly improbable and made believable only by the episodic nature of Alice’s diary. The connection between sex and drug use is also contrived, especially the frequent link to homosexuality.

Despite all of these idiosyncrasies, I am not sure how I would have regarded this book as a teenager. I am not sure if it would have made me scared of drugs or intrigued. However, I do know that I would have found Alice relatable. Alice’s voice is a sympathetic one that makes the reader pull for her, in spite of her self-damaging choices. This book’s ability to relate to the experience of being a teenager is what makes it a classic. Classics are often not the best story, but the story that resonates the most soundly with an audience. Alice’s story does just that it resonates regardless of whether or not it rings true.


Awards:
Christopher Award
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
YALSA 100 Best Books (1950-2000)


Image provided by: http://www.marshall.edu/library/bannedbooks/books/goaskalice.asp