The Reading Nook

So. This was not the first time that I met Mr. Pullman. I went to his B&N Signing once and also attended a lecture and introduced myself afterwards at both occasions. However, today, I was at a Random House party, thrown especially for Mr. Pullman and he actually registered who I was and asked about The Dalton School. I was thrilled. When I told him that when I talk about Daemons, many of my students totally understand that I mean those populating Lyra’s world, he seemed genuinely pleased! He was, as always, intelligent, outspoken, extremely courteous, and humorous, as well.

I gushed a bit but without losing any real composure! I told him how much joy his books such as I Was a Rat, and Scarecrow and His Servant brought to my family when we share them by reading aloud. We got into a little discussion of how he cannot understand any writer listening to music while writing since he needs to “listen” to the cadence of his sentences. How could anyone write with competing rhythm in their head? I guess it is possible that some people write TO the beat of whatever music they listen to? I’ll bring that up again when I next see him.

And I got the 10th Anniversary Edition of the Golden Compass as a party favor, too! I’m both psyched and apprehensive about the upcoming movie… love the fabulous website though!

Today we had our second Literary Lab and here were those who attended this fun and exciting session:

Ben L., Leighton B., Kheyana M., Mack M., Deven K., Gabe L., and Mrs. Feldman
Ben was very taken by The Arrival by Shaun Tan. We looked at the book and talked about what’s going on in each page. Then, the other people came and we ALL got quite into the book. As we looked and deciphered this wordless book, we found the strange but endearing creatures most amusing and decided to name the species of the man’s pet. Some suggestions: IngoDingoDum (Leighton’s idea) - Geroge Jones (name of this specific animal); Kobbler (Mack’s idea): Mangeokiwi; Panster (Deven’s idea): Bob Jones (George’s brother)

Then we voted that this animal belongs to the species of IngoDingoDum, genus of Kobbler, and branch of panster:. This specific animal is named Mangeokiwi Mangeococonutorangeman (Kiwi for short.)

That was a lot of fun! Another thought that we all shared was that these creatures that follow all the people around in this strange and beautiful world remind us so much of Philip Pullman’s daemons in His Dark Materials series.
Kheyana read Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby - a book about a deaf girl and a man with a monkey. It’s a really sad book. But she really liked it and read it quickly because the book has really good writing and is exciting to keep you interested. She also recommended a wonderful science fiction/fantasy book called Atherton: The House of Power by Patrick Carman. It’s the first in an exciting new series.
Gabe and Mrs. Feldman both think that The Wall by Peter Sis is definitely not for young children — but for older teens and adults.Deven thought that The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio by Lloyd Alexander drags on quite a bit and he couldn’t get pass page 50.

Deven read and enjoyed One Thousand Tracings by Lita Judge and thought that it was kind of sad.
Deven highly recommended Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy: This is an entertaining tale of a skeleton detective who can do magic. Check out the book’s website at http://www.skulduggerypleasant.com/ He also really enjoyed Ranger’s Apprentice series.

Mack recommended any book by Sharon Creech and also the Bartimaeus trilogy. He loves the character Bartimaeus because he is “dry and wry and funny!” Mack didn’t like the Warriors series and thought that the cats all have stupid names… like Grumblebark and Lightening Earlobes… umm… he made these up to make a point!

Again, The Giver was mentioned and we all agreed that there is no need for The Messenger to follow the book. Deven really wanted Jonas and Gabriel to “stay dead.”

When 15-year-old Ruby’s Mother dies, she is forced to move to L.A. to live with her famous father. She has to leave behind her boyfriend, Ray, and her best friend, Lizzie. When Ruby met her father she could not understand why he had left her mother, he seemed like a perfectly good parent. Later on she discovers her father became homosexual a short while after she was born; and in fact he had come to visit her when she was young but both of Ruby’s parents decided it would be better for Whip, Ruby’s dad, not to come back anymore. This book is written in a poetic manner, each page has a title and they have versus. I enjoyed being able to know and understand everything that was happening at each exact moment. This was an excellently written book, it was very enjoyable. I thought they didn’t explain many things in the book. For example they would introduce a new person make a cliffhanger then never explain what happens next. This can easily fit into the YA category for many reasons. Ruby is a teenager and the story is written in her point of view. The whole story revolves around this independent and intelligent girl. This book is a little longer then a normal YA book, it has 268 pages, but every page has a small amount of writing. Through the book Ruby becomes more aware of her place and everyone around her, she matures and grows to like her new home, despite all the things that were taken away from her. Sonya Sones wrote this book reflecting her memories of L.A. that is why it is so incredibly well written novel.

Today is our first 6th Grade Library Literary Lab. In the Library Classroom on the 10th floor. I (Mrs. Feldman) had the pleasure of talking to Ben L.; David W.; Gabe L. and Ms. Edinger. Here are some notes:

Ben is currently reading the 4th book in the Five Ancestors series. He told me that the different animals are the kung fu styles that each character practices. The five main characters are all boys except for Crane who is a girl in disguise. Ben likes this series because the characters fight as if they have superhuman powers. There are also mysteries because they need to find out about their own personal histories. Then Ben told me that he likes books where the main character is not born with magical powers, they might be strong but not necessarily magical at the beginning of the tale. Along the way, though, the character is drawn into amazing adventures and great experiences. This connects him, a regular boy reader, to the character — as if something magical or extraordinary could then happen to him as well.
At this point, David, Gabe and Ms. Edinger joined us and we started talking about Harry Potter and the controversy over J.K. Rowling’s public statement last week that she always thought of Dumbledore as gay and his relationship with Grindelwald a case of unrequited love. I thought that it is really outrageous for an author to just toss something like that AFTER the story has closed. If she “believed” that her character being a particular way, she should have portrayed the character in such ways that the readers can make sense of it. We pretty much all agreed!

David thought the epilogue of Harry Potter was very bad… (he used a different word) - because the whole book was so sad and full of larger than life scenarios and then all of a sudden they all ended up happily and so ordinary in the Epilogue. We all agreed with David, as well. (Even if, as Gabe pointed out, Rowling wrote this Epilogue before she wrote the series. So it has some “writing history” value.)
David is also reading the Pendragon Series by McHale. Ben and Gabe both enjoy this series as well. We couldn’t quite decide whether it is a science fiction or a fantasy series and had an intense discussion on whether in a Sci-fi novel, things can happen randomly without rooted in real science. Gabe also admitted that he never READ ALL THE LORD OF THE RINGS books. Now it’s his job to read them all.

This concluded our first small Library Literary Lab. I hope to see more 6th graders next Monday!

Catcher and the Rye, written by J.D. Sallinger, is the story of Holden Caulfield. A teenager who is trying to discover who he is in New York City. This book can be read by adults and teens but it could still definetly be classified as YA. This famous book captures a teenagers emotions in a way that had never been done before. This book can be classified as that because

o Holden is a teenager
o He is telling the story the way he sees it (first person)
o The problems he goes through many teenagers can identify with
o Holden is smart and mature
o The novel it is 288 pages
o The Catcher in the Rye can be funny, sad and evoke a lot of emotion
o Alienation from one’s society or group – being an outcast
o In the book Holden deals with sex
o He is discovering who he is, who he wants to be.
o He escapes to New York

These ar just a few of the reasons why this book is YA. I love this book for it’s deep writting and strong capture of a teenagers mind. After reading Catcher and the Rye you can clearly see why it is a classic book for all time.

The Book Black and White is a book about a black kid, Marcus and a white kid, Eddie. They live in Manhattan and are stars on the high school basketball team. They know that the College scouts will be watching the games coming up and a new pare of Nike shoes had just come out. They needed them to look good for the scouts. But neither of them had much money. Eddie new his father had a gun in his attic. So they decided to do a few stick-ups and get some money. The first few went well but one night Eddie’s finger slipped and the gun went off and might have killed someone so they ran. The rest of the book is about how they have to deal with their actions and the results of there mistakes. Marcus ends up going to jail, and Eddie ends up going to college even though it was Eddie’s idea and he was holding the gun.
I think it was written very well. It was a little slow at some parts but barely ever so it didn’t really effect me. The descriptions aren’t to long, but not to short. Overall the writing was very good.
I think the setting and Plot was very good. I got a real feel for the kind of life these kids had to live. It was also very realistic. There wasn’t anything in the book that I would not have believed if it were real life. So overall I would give this book a nine out of ten. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read a realistic story about issues that go on today here on the streets of New York.

After The First Death is an excellent book. Although it has many immensely disurbing plots, it is still beautifully written and suspenseful. Each character has a unique personality and has a very different outlook on the situation at hand. Robert Cormier uses death, treachery and most importantly interpretation in this novel. Interpretation seemed the most striking theme of all. It all came down to interpretation, who interpreted what in which way. This might seem petty, but all the events came to pass on the terms of subjectivity. Treachery, one of the other important themes, was significant because it was interpreted differently by different characters in the book. The two main characters are Miro and Ben. Miro is a terrorist or “Freedom Fighter” as he calls himself in the book. He is fighting for a country he has never seen. Ben is the son of a general who is caught up in this terrorist act. When Ben is asked to deliver a package to the terrorists, he also gets caught in the line of events that follow. They are almost the exact opposite, but through their differences there is almost a similarity. They both strive for the same thing, but have different means of achieving it. They come from different backrounds, different places, but through all this they are both teenagers with similar interests. There other characters who are almost complimentary of Miro and Ben. They are characters who effect the decisions, thoughts, and ideas that Miro and Ben have. There is Ben’s father the general who Ben is constantly tries to impress with his patriotism, and there is also the bus driver, Kate, who questions the ideas Miro has become familiar with. One could say this is a YA book, but it just does not strike me as one. It has plots that contain themes far beyond the expectations of most other YA books I have read. I highly reccomend it for anyone who is interested in a disturbing, yet wonderful book.

-Nick Barber

For my YA assignment I read The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. It is a book about a boy in a highschool with strong traditions, and what happens to that boy when he defies the traditions. The main characters are Jerry Renault and Archie. Jerry Renault is a young boy starting the highschool, whose mother has just died. Jerry refuses to take part in a traditional chocolate sale and suffers the social consequences. Archie is the leader of a secret organization at the school called the vigils that essentially run the school. He is responsible for most of the hardship that fall upon Jerry. The book talks about how hard it is for people especially teenagers to be different. The poster Jerry keeps in his locker characterizes this. “Do I dare disturb the Universe?” Although the book had an interesting plot, I found the writing a little bit monotonous, and it took me a while to really get into the story. I would recommend reading it, but it is not one of my favorite books in the world.

The Chocolate war is a YA novel because:
1. Almost all the characters, and all of the main characters are teenagers.
2. The book deals with teenage issues, especially social ones.
3. The dialogue has slang and swears and is supposed to sound like teenagers.
4. The book is told from the first person and the person telling it is a teenager.
5. The main character matures over the book.

Anatol Klass

Black and White, a novel by Paul Vilponi captures the realities of racism, friendship, and crime. Black and White is clearly a Young Adult book according to scholars. In the novel there are two main characters that are both teenagers in their senior year. What makes the book interesting is the same story switches off from two friend’s perspectives of a situation that is occurring in the book. These are two elements that make a Young adult book. Black and White is a story about a black boy and a white boy that are best friends, and stars on their basketball team. Their only vice is they do stick ups to get money to afford a new pair of basketball shoes, as they are not wealthy or middle class. While they are attempting a stick up, they shoot a man in the head by accident. This made their whole lives change, they now need to become more responsible for their lives, and they become a great deal more mature by the end of the novel. An unsettling fact is the boy Marcus who is Black who did not shoot the man goes to jail, and the white boy, Eddie who shot the man does not go to jail. Although in the book this does not have to do with their skin colors, it seems as if it has a hidden meaning that life is not fair, and sometimes, racial stereotypes are present. Unlike a children’s book, this book does not have a happy ending. It is a good thing that this book has a sad ending because it is the truth, and it is the reality we have to face; we must pay a price for our actions. All of these components put together make this novel classified as a Young Adult book.
This is a fabulous book. It captured my attention right from the beginning, as it was in the middle of a scary scene. The novel was written in a way that feels like the situation that occurs could happen in everyday life. The author, Paul Vilponi did an excellent job on cornering and expressing the exact emotions of two teens. I loved how the story switched back and fourth from two perspectives of the same situation. This made me understand the book to a greater level, and gave great insight. It was a good choice not to have a cliché ending because if that were the case, the book would not be as meaningful. After I finished this novel, I really took into account my actions, and how one slip up can change my life forever, as did Marcus’s. I definitely recommend this book for girls and boys from the age 11 and up. It is an easy and meaningful read. Two thumbs up!

The Year of Secret Assignments is an amazingly captivating book by Jaclyn Moriarty. At first the book was confusing because there were so many characters to keep track of, but once it was figured out who was who everything was much easier to understand. I loved this book because once I thought I had gotten to the climax, there was a twist and then another. This book was exciting and kept me reading it. The main characters are Emily, Lydia, and Cassie, three best friends who are in the 10th grade and live in Australia. Their all girl school, Ashbury, decides to have a pen pal program with their rival all boy school, Brookfield. Each of the girls are paired up with a boy: Emily with Charlie, Lydia with Seb, and Cassie with Matthew. The story is told through the letters they write to each other and how they lead to super secret assignments, Cassie going crazy, hidden identities, and a little law breaking.

The Year of Secret Assignments is a YA novel because:
• the main characters are teenagers
• dialouge reflects teen speech, including curse or slang words
• events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers
• the events are told from a first person point of view of a teenager
• the main characters have become more mature by the end of the novel
Some themes in the book are:
• Alienation from one’s society
• Meeting a challenge (psychologically)
• Dealing with death
• Dealing with political injustice

Born Blue is a YA Novel by Han Nolan. It is about a girl named Janie, who later becomes Leshaya. There are a few reasons why this is a YA book. One of them, is that Leshaya has to deal with being around people who are into drugs. Another one is that she has to deal with being in foster homes which can sometimes be not such a nice place to be, and can wind up being kind of depressing. Here is a list of things that show that it is a YA book:
o The main character is a teenager
o The events are told in a first-person point of view from a teenager
o Dialogue reflects teenage speech
o The main characters have become more mature by the end of the book
o The main character becomes self-aware and responsible for his/her life
o Does not make the reader happy
o Social concerns about racial issues
o Social concerns about teenage pregnancy, and family conflicts
o Dealing with death
Those are the main reasons that this book can be considered YA. I personally did not really like this book. I found it kind of depressing, and would not read it again. I would probably rate it ** (two stars). Although it was not my kind of book (I like more happy plots), it seems like something that would be considered good by someone who likes more depressing books. I have to say, it was not THAT depressing, just simply not my kind of book. Although I did not like the plot, I thought it was well written, and really got its points across clearly and quickly. It was a pretty easy read (when it comes to words that are used), except that the main character used a lot of slang. Overall, I would not recommend this book unless, like I said before, you are into depressing books.
~Tara

One fat summer is a great Young Adult (YA) book for several reasons. It is a book that includes a variety of interesting characters: Bobby Marks, Joanie Miller, Dr. Khan, Willie Rumson and Pete Marino. One Fat Summer is about Bobby Marks, a fourteen-year-old kid who spends his summers Near Rumson Lake. Bobby is an overweight teenager who has trouble making friends due to his weight. However, Bobby does have a close friend named Joanie Miller. Joanie also has trouble making friends because of her social skills and her very large nose. When Bobby finds out that Joanie is going to New York City for most of the summer, he is left with nothing to do and a bully named Willie Rumson constantly harassing him. Bobby decides to get a job from a tough and strict estate owner, Dr. Khan. Through Dr. Khan’s strict and tough ways, Bobby learns about discipline, hard work, and sense of accomplishment. Now that Bobby feels more confident, he is not going to let Willie Rumson pick on him as easily as before…

Reasons for being a YA book:

-Book is about a teenager
-deals with the maturation of a young adult
-invloves issues with being able to fit in
-shows that you have to work hard to accomplsih your goals
-to always have confidence no matter what people say

Go Ask Alice is a chilling tale about a girl who accidentally gets addicted to drugs. The book is written in diary form which makes it even more interesting because it is in the perspective of the drug user. One of the things you will notice in this book is that the protaganist’s name is never mentioned. When the girl starts using drugs her whole life is turned upside down. She experiments with all kinds of drugs and can’t seem to stop. She finds herself lying to her parents and eventually selling drugs to younger students at her school. Not only is she addicted to drugs, but another reason it makes it difficult for her to stop using them is because she is at a new school and she is finally part of a group. If she stops with the drugs she will not be wanted by anyone. The author of this book is anonymous.
Why Its a YA book.

1. The main character is a teenager.

2. The protagonist deals with problems that young adults deal with many times.

3. Its about a girl who needs to find where she belongs.

4. The content of the books is targeted for young adults.

By, Danielle Recanati

English section A

I read the book Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers and I really liked it because I like action books and because it shows that if any of the characters in this book made the wrong step it would be either between life and death. This book also shows how people felt and acted during the war. In this book the main character in this book is Perry and he is the one speaking him and his friends have to go through try to stay a live during the Vietnam war. All of them ended up in Vietnam for different reasons. Perry starts out with one friend but then that one friend introduced him to some of his friends and now Perry has many friends to look up to.

• This book contains curses and slang.
• All of the characters are teenagers
• The main character is in deep danger and it is his job to try and stay alive
• He was by himself before he met his friends

By Joe Yoshii

Owl in Love is a story about the struggles of a girl and her secret identity. Although this sounds young or more like fantassy, it’s not really. This story describes a girl who is human by day and owl by nite. She can’t eat anything other than mice and small creatures. She is a bit of an outcast at school, she is known for her strange skin color and face shape. She learns how strong her compassion for her science teacher really is. She tells herself she will be bounded to him forever because when owls find their love they are commited forever. The young adult factor with this book is that it is in first person of a teenager. It makes the reader semi-uncomfterable. It is also short and the main character is more reponsible by the end of the book. Although this book is not innapropriate and completely okay for a younger child to read it may seem a little hard (not in reading but in style).What I mean by this is that the style is complicated. Overall I give this book **** for how well it is written and how complicated and intricate the whole plot is.

-Julia

I personally did not like this book. Even though it wasn’t badly written or boring, it just wasn’t my type of book. My favriote books are classics like The Wizard of Oz, and girly books like The Princess Diaries. Books where the main charecter goes off to a happy land of Oz, or where a girl becomes a princess. In Gingerbread a 15 year old girl has to get an abortion! It was just such an edgy book. In my opinion this book was also somewhat sad. This girl dressed in all black, got pregnant, had an abortion, couldn’t tell her mother about it, and had a horrible relationship with her family. She was dumped by her boyfriend Shrimp, she bearly knew her father till she was 15, and she thought that her doll, Gingerbread, was alive. She was such a sad case that it creeped me out. It made you think about how the different types of unfortunate can range from this, to being an orphen, and both can make you sad. I did think it was well written, intresting, and really made you think. But I would not read it again.

The earth, my butt, and other big round things by Carolyn Mackler is a great story about being who you are. The main character, Virginia Shreves, has to go through many troubles to find her right place in her perfect family. Virgina had always felt like an outsider in school and in her home until two words were said that changed her forever.

Why it’s YA book

• The main character is a teenager
• It’s told in the voice of Virginia
• She has to deal with being over weight (a problem most teenagers go through)
• Virginia becomes more mature at the end
• It’s less than 250 pages (244)
• She starts as an out cast
• She learns it’s awsome just to be her self
• She uses slang and curse words constantly
• The book makes you smile and laugh but at parts makes you gasp and cry

By Shakira Jasmine Grant  English Section B

Gingerbread, by Rachel Cohn is a really great and interesting YA book. Rachel Cohen discusses themes that make the reader feel uncomfortable but yet fascinated. Cyd Charisse, the main character, narrates her life that includes boys and parental issues/fights in first person. She is 16 years old and thinks that she knows everything about anything. This criterion is part of what makes this book considered in the YA category. Cyd treats her doll, Ginger Bread, as her child/friend. Rachel Cohen uses Gingerbread to portray Cyd’s true and hidden feelings. Cyd hates living in her house (which she calls Alcatraz) under the strict rule and guidance of her mother Nancy. Cyd is extremely mature and talented but she doesn’t know how to use these qualities in a productive way. Instead she usually finds herself in trouble with a situation that she has created. The trip that Cyd takes to visit her biological father helps her realize who she really is and makes her become more aware of the situations in her life. This book is also less than 200 pages which again shows how Ginger Bread is a YA novel.
By, Tiana S.

I read the book Shooter, by Walter Dean Myers. I strongly dislike this book, because it was slow, and unexciting. Which is misleading because the title and the cover both seem like the book would be very action-packed and thrilling. Another point that I particularly disliked was the style that Walter Dean Myers chose to write. He wrote almost the whole book as an interview, mostly just on one character. From these interviews you read about how the Main character, Leonard, and two of his friends have to struggle through troubles and try to fit in. Later in the book, during an interview, a friend explains the main incident at the school, which is the of the book. Although there is no build up to this incident, and I think this is because of the dialogue format. Overall I think it was a boring and unenjoyable read, because of the format and the plot itself.

Why it’s a YA novel:
• The main character is a teenager.
• Dialogue reflects teenage speech: slang, curses.
• The main character tried to take matters into his own hands and tries to resolve the conflict himself.
• The story makes readers uncomfortable, although challenges the readers minds.
• The main characters were outcasts
• There were social concerns about race, ethnicity, violence, family conflicts, death….
By Bryce Connolly

Hard love is about three teenagers: John, Brian, and Marisol and John’s experience when he finds that his friend Marisol, who is a lesbian, he is attracted to. They were considered friends but he has a strange attraction to her and they can never be more than friends because she is a lesbian. John has a good grasp on a deeper meaning of life. He often posts magazine like format memmoirs called bananafish about his life and he reads other peoples posts who have written the same thing about their life . John’s unpopular only friend Brian gets a new girlfriend who is strangly becoming more regular and popular. This deals with John trying to make it seem like to him, He and marisol are just friends. This creates a very difficult situation in this Young Adult Novel by Ellen WittLinger
This is a Young Adult Novel because:

It is told from a first person

It is about teenagers,

it deals with trying to fit in

it deals with teens and homosexuality

It has some strong language

It deals with someone getting a deeper meaning on life

It deals with popularity

I do not consider this a YA book but I do consider it YA poetry. As Teresita is embracing life after her mom has passed away(commit scuicude) she tries to be the string one. Things have changed and peopled have transfomed. People have become ones that Teresita does not recognize, including herself. She does not remember who she was before her mothers death and how to become that person again. She does not know who her brother has become, carving his worries and trouble into the wall and eventually into himself. Her sister’s head is up in the sky, not down to earth like it should be. Her friends want the old Teresita but they are the ones changing as well. As Teresita is maturing she is relaizing her place in society and how to be ready to embrace life at a new level. This YA book is written like a poem. Breif sentences saying more than they can bare. Teresita is discovering her mother’s past but in her actions she is discovering other peoples futures. This YA books puts you through a damaged teenage life trying to fight it’s way back into realtiy.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time was a very interesting and exciting book. The book is about a boy who is writing a book and he tells his very interesting life. He is a very interesting character not only because he knows every prime number up to 7,057 but he also has autism. The boy, Christopher, is a very wierd kid, he hates the color yellow and loves the color red. If he sees 3 yellow cars in a row its a bad day, 3 red cars a good day. Even through christopher is a bit wierd he tells a very interesting story and overall I thought it was a great book
I thought this book was most definatly a YA novel. It fits everything that YA novels are suppose to have. The main character is a teenager and he tells the story from the first person. The events that happen in the book might not really happen in real life but they would for a teenager with autism. Overall I thought that not only it was a great book but also a great YA novel.

The Year of the Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty is one of the best YA books I have ever read. Three girls from the most preppy and rich private school writing to unknown guys from a drugdealing and wild public school for an unwanted english assignment. What could be interesting about this book? Hmmmmm……Maybe the fact that you see same events occur through different perspectives. Let me explain that a little better. Jacyln Moriarty writes these absurd events that take place. Each chapter is written in first person even if they are all different charcters. You get opinions from all types of teenagers of the same events. You get to know what a preppy girl would write in her a diary. What an upcoming shakespearian poet type of person would write in a “HOW TO MAKE A BOOK” journal. You get inside ‘drugdealers’ minds and peverts thoughts. What more is there to want? Of course like any YA book there is always romance. It is the very cute and flirty romance that makes you want to say ‘awwwwwwwww’. I reccomend this book to anyone who likes to control the book their own way. The book leaves out certain events so you get to create it in your on mind. The book deals with all the drama of any fifteen year old. Except on a more extreme level.

The year of the secret assignments was such a good book. It was told by 6 different people in a series of letters, diary entries and lists made by a busy father. The fact that not only one person told the story, kept it lively and fresh. There is a bit of mystery in the book and at one point, it gets slightly frightening, but all is explained in the end. The characters were so real and extremely funnny. They all have brilliantly written personalities, one even has a weird, evil mastermind demeanor. When you read the book you can’t exactly tell that they live in Australia, at first. As you continue it becomes more clear, but it is hard to keep in you memory as you read. The language in it is very much how we talk aside from some Australian slang. The high point of the book for me was all of the weird assignments that Lydia, a main character of the book, and Seb (Sebastian) another main character, send to each other. Seb is my all time favorite character in any Y/A book I have read. They send letters telling one another to do crazy things, like pull fire alarms and break into teacher’s cars. The main characters are all in the same grade, participating in a school to school letter sending project. They all become more mature and aware of their surroundings by the end of the novel. The middle of the story is a little hard to read but by the end it has a light and mellow feeling that fills you with joy. I recomend this book to anyone who likes a funny, quick read that makes you think about friendship.
By
Izzy Cassou
Coop

My Heartbeat is an interesting novel about a girl who is in love with her brother’s best friend. The brother is in love with his best friend also, but he denies that he is gay. The best friend has slept with other men before, to make the brother jealous. It is a great book, and has unexpected changes. I think that this book is a Young Adult book. It possesses all of the traits below.

o The main character is a teenager.
o The events are told from a first-person point of view of a teenager.
o Events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers.
o The teenage main character is sensitive, intelligent, mature, and independent.
o The novel is short, rarely more than 250 pages.
o The main teenage characters tend to take matters in their own hands and try to resolve conflicts themselves.
o The main characters have become more mature by the end of the novel.
o The main character becomes self-aware and responsible for his/her own life.
o The story tends to make the reader uncomfortable, rather than happy, and thus challenges the reader’s minds and sensitivities.

I read a book called SHOOTER, by Walter Dean Myers. I think this book is okay, but it definately wasn’t a great book. I think the reason I didn’t like it was probably because of the way the author wrote it. He wrote this book so that it was like a script. The book was about a 17 year old boy named Leonard, and his friend Cammeron getting through their troubles together and overcomming the difficulties of not fitting in. This deffinately qualifies for a young adult book because it includes all of these things:

o The main characters are teenagers
o The events in the book all have to do with Leonard and Cammeron.
o In the book, there is some teenage language.
o The main characters are outsiders, and don’t fit in anywhere.
o This book is short. It has only 225 pages.
o Both of the main characters are outcasts and don’t belong to any group
o Both of the characters meet a phycological challenge. 
o This book deals with death
By Arjun Iyer (c13ai)

The book Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a very intriuging book. It is told looking back and looking forward. Eric Calhoune tells the story from first person, one main reason it is a young adult book. Eric Calhoune looks back on the days when he was extremely fat and of his friendship with a girl named Sarah Byrnes whose face is badly burned. The two stuck together and survived socially in the late years of middle school and the early high school ones. The story starts out very convulutedly with constant flashbacks to the past. At the time of the story Eric has many friends, is not fat and is an excellent swimmer. Sarah Byrnes however has stopped talking. Stopped cold. The book gives you liitle snippets of the past and you have to piece the story together. The writing style is extremely good, it uses this flashback effect and also provide a large amount of background color, fully developing all of the characters. There is a class that Eric attends called Contemprary American Thought class. It tackles issues like abortion, shame, and religon. The author uses it as a device to make some very interesting points. The story evolves into trying to figure out what actually happened to Sarah Byrnes, dealing with present issues, and trying to solve the main conflict, Sarah Byrnes relaionship with her father. The book is quintessential young adult dealing with school issues like horrible bullying and friendship. The book is 215 pages and written in a fast paced style. Eric is in his Senior at high school, so he is a teenager. The time that is described in this book defines Eric as a human being, so yes he does mature. The book definitely imitates language using curse words and slang. It is definitely a young adult book and a good one too. By Patrick Donovan, English B.

Alison Kaplon Dawson Eng. B

Looking for Alaska is an intriguing novel about a boy, Pudge, who goes to boarding school, and tries to be liked while doing well in school. His roommate, The Colonel, and his friend, Alaska, are both intelligent like him, however; together they and two others enjoy a rebellious life at the boarding school; smoking, sneaking around, drinking, and pranking. Pudge is very attracted to Alaska as most are, but she doesn’t like him back. So he just does things to keep their friendship. Everything is fine until a startling event blows Pudge and the Colonel away. After this they go through a painful journey trying to find Alaska and themselves.

Why it is a YA book

• Pudge and his friends are all teenagers
• It is told by Pudge
• Pudge starts drinking and smoking because his friends do it.
• A lot of cursing
• Graphically describes porn and oral sex
• Pudge and the Colonel become more mature throughout the book and find themselves
• The book can make you cringe, frown, and maybe smile, but mostly cringe and frown.

The Year of the Secret Assignments is a book by Jacilyn Moriatay is a great book that both boys and girls can relate to. It is a book written in a series of letters, which makes it fun to read. There are lots of funny letters, personally I love Lydia. She is kind of weird but really knows how to express her self. In an attempt to bridge the gap between the rich Brookfielders and less-fortunate Ashbury kids, a penpal club is arranged with the intentions. The children are witty and smart but the letters are a little to well written and almost unbelievable at times.

Tangerine by Edward Bloor is a really good novel about a kid named Paul Fisher. Paul has really thick glasses, because, supposedly, he once stared too long at a solar eclipse. Paul struggles with people making fun of him because of his thick glasses, his brother, Erik, being mean to him and bullying him with his friends, and his tendency to have flashbacks to scary moments in his life. However, he has a great talent in playing soccer, despite his visual impairment. Then, Paul and his family move to a development in Florida. He tries to join the soccer team at his new school, but the coach kicks him off the team, even though he could see fine, for his eyesight. He tells Paul that there would be insurance problems if he was on the team. This makes Paul quite angry. Then his school is destroyed by a sinkhole, and he has to switch to a catholic school called Tangerine middle school. Here, he has a little trouble fitting in, but he is able to play soccer and have a good time. He makes some good friends on the soccer team, and they respect him, despite his thick glasses. Then, his brother, Erik, hits Paul’s friend Tino. Luis, Tino’s brother, tries to confront Erik later, and he gets hit on the head by Erik’s ‘minion’, Arthur Bauer. This eventually kills Luis, and his brothers (Tino included) go after Erik and Arthur. I really like this book, and I encourage everyone to read it.
~Owen~

Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous, is about a girl name Alice, and how being a teenager is one of the hardest times in life. This book is one of the most teenlike YA novels I have ever read. I liked it a lot, and thought that at times the plot was too sad. The reason why I liked it was because of the adventure. Throughout the book Alice travels and comes into some treacherous incidents. Overall I give it a 3 out of 5.
Main Characters:
Alice’s Parents - Alice’s parents are nice people who have all faith in Alice.
Alice - Alice is a nice girl who is troubled throughout the book.
Joel - Joel is a kind boy who develops a small relationship with her.
Chris - Chris, Alice’s good friend who is the only one who really sees Alice for who she is.
The language is not supposed to be great since the book is a fraud. The cover of the book says…based a real diary…when it was always a hoax. The author said it was a real diary of a girl named Alice, when there was no such person. The author intended the writing to be mediocre to fit the style of a teenager’s writing.

Elements:
o The main character is a teenager named Alice.
o In the book Alice is the narrarator (since the book is ni diary form)
o During the book there is a big problem with drugs and money. Alice becomes an addict and has trouble letting go.
o In the book there is a huge amount of cursing. During some of the more graphic chapters, the book deals with sex and anger.
o Alice is smart at the beginning and the end of the book. During the middle she is so dazed with drugs that her academic studies fall down. (Most of the book deals with the summer so there isn’t a lot of school)
o The novel is short, and is 185 pages.
o Alice, when being addicted to drugs, takes matters into her own hands by moving out of the house with her friend.
o At the end of the novel Alice has realized that what she had done was terribly wrong. When she lays off the drugs, some of the meaner girls start planting drugs in her own belongings.
o Alice becomes self-aware and responsible for her own life.
o The story makes me feel sad at the end. (SPOILER) After her grandparents die she is found dead. This made me realize that if you are having problems, you should go to an adult.

Themes
o Alice is alienated from almost everyone at the end of the book. All of her friends betray her and try to pretty much kill her.
o Alice is faced with the challege of drugs. She overcomes these in the end of the book.
o Alice is an outcast in the end and is very highly excluded.
o There are a lot of sex references in the book. Alice is forced to have sex with someone or her drugs will be cut off.
o There are three deaths in this book. 1. Her grandmother 2. Her grandfather 3. Alice
o There is a lot of peer pressure in this book. In one scene Alice subconsciously knows that her drink is spiked but drinks it because of the pressure.

Charlie Panek (C.P.) English A.

The Book I read is called The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Nighttime by Mark Haddon. It is about a 15-year-old autistic boy named Christopher living in England. He finds his neighbors dog murdered in their own backyard. It is a Young Adult novel for many reasons. One is that Christopher takes it into his own hands and tries to solve the mystery himself. Another is that it deals with the death of his mother and also contains a lot of curse words. I defiantly think that it qualifies as a YA book, but I think that the author just added the curse words to make it qualify more. Also the story is from the view of Christopher, who is a teenager. I liked the book, but I think that it gets a little annoying after a while because Christopher is autistic and he doesn’t speak normally so it might give you a headache. He doesn’t fully understand verbs, for instance he says. “We did chatting.” Also, he goes off on tangents about random things like constellations and math problems. Other that that, I liked the book a lot. The plot is really good and it has many interesting twists. From what I know about autistic people, I think that the author did a very good job of portraying Christopher.

I just finished Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, and I think its definetely one of the top ten books that I’ve ever read. It’s about a girl named Verna LaVaughn who starts babysitting for a seventeen year old named Jolly with two kids, and how the two of them try to get Jolly’s life back together. And when I read the climax I started to get very nervous, even though it was just a book. I think this was a YA novel, but it was different from other YA novels. The main character is a teenager, and it is in first-person. It is written in the way a teenager would speak, with slang and incorrect grammar. One of the great parts of this book was that all the way through the book, the lines of text end whenever one thought ends. LaVaughn is independent and mature; she understands people and follows her dream of going to college. The book is less than 250 pages. But it differs from other YA books because it doesn’t have many things most YA books do. There is virtually nothing in the whole book about LaVaughn’s social life at school. In fact, there are only four characters that are present and active throughout the entire book. There are references to sex, as Jolly has been impregnated twice and was felt up by someone at work. And there is also the aspect of death; LaVaughn’s father was shot when she was very young. So I would define this as a YA book, it just doesn’t have anything about LaVaughns friends, popularity, cliques, or any other themes most YA books have. I give this book * * * * * .
–Jacob Kogan–

The book i read is called Speak.  Speak is about a girl named Melinda in her first year of highschool.  She has a bad experience at a summer party that involves her calling the police and crashing the party.  Because she crashed the party all her old friends aren’t talking to her.  The rest of the book is about Melinda’s struggles and problems with being an outcast and having a very big secret that she can’t tell anyone.

This book is a Y.A novel because of these reasons:

o The main character is a teenager.  Yes
o The events are told from a first-person point of view of a teenager.  Yes
o Events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers.  Yes
o Dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang or curse words.  Yes
o The teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature, or independent.  Yes
o The novel is short, rarely more than 250 pages.  Yes
o The main teenage characters tend to take matters in their own hands and try to resolve conflicts themselves.  Yes
o The main characters have become more mature by the end of the novel.  Yes
o The main character becomes self-aware and responsible for his/her own life.  Yes
o The story tends to make the reader uncomfortable, rather than happy, and thus challenges the reader’s minds and sensitivities.  Yes

It also deals with being a social outcast and sex.

I thought this book was a good Y.A book, however I didn’t like it because I’m personally not a big Y.A fan.  This book was well writen, but a little too depressing.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is about a teenage girl, Liz, age 15, who dies. The story is about her after life. I think that this is a YA book because it talks about Liz’s difficulties being dead while she is a teenager. In the book she has a lot of teenage problems, like most YA books. There is not a lot of profanity in the book, but there is some. In Elsewhere your age goes backward, so she will never get to do all the things she wanted to do. This makes Liz not have an open mind. Liz acts like a regular teenager, except for the fact that she is dead. She thinks that being dead is horrible even though it might not be. She only cares about her problems and is very oblivious. When she hurts somebody’s feelings she doesn’t even realize it. The theme of this book was Liz dealing with her death. Her family and friends had to deal with it too but she was probably the most devastated. Throughout the beginning of the book Liz wanted to go back to earth and be with her family and friends. She hated elsewhere and hated all the people there. By the end of the book Liz matures and realizes that everything is not always about her. I think that this book taught Liz a lot about responsibility. I liked this book a lot. I read it really quickly because I thought it was really interesting. I liked it because it was really different. It wasn’t like most of the YA books I have read. Liz was in Elsewhere, a place where dead people are, with her grandmother who is now 33 since time goes backward. I thought that it had a strange plot, and yet I still liked it very much.

Annie on My Mind By: Nancy Garden is the story of Annie and Eliza (Liza) two girls who fall in love. During this time in their home and schools, being anything other than a heterosexual was not welcomed. I really enjoyed this book and I give it 4 3/4 stars. The only reason it doesn’t get a full 5 stars is because it was a bit slow at times than I wanted, but it shows the fear and questions of two girls pushing to envelope. In Liza’s world, everyone looked up to her, so she was somewhat of a role model for her younger brother Chad.  Annie on the other hand comes from a small slightly unknown family which seems to accept her anyway she is. It was interesting to me to see the sneaky moments and the stolen kisses that take place in this book. I was always wondering; are they going to get caught?; is someone going to see them? It was particularly funny to me though, the moments they were speechless or the moments I thought they would be closer, they couldn’t be farther apart. All in all I would really recommend this book for children and adults maybe 13 and up, because it helps you to understand that feeling different is not bad. And it shows adults that it doesn’t hurt to be open-minded.

I know that “Annie on My Mind” is a YA novel for the following reasons:
o The main character is a teenager. (17 years old)
o The events are told from a first-person point of view of her. (Liza)
o Events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers.
o Dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang or curse words.
o The teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature, or independent.
o The novel is less than 250 pages.
o The main teenage characters tend to take matters in their own hands and try to resolve conflicts themselves.
o Liza matures by the end of the book
o The main character becomes self-aware and responsible for his/her own life.

~Dayna Campbell~

I think “Son of The Mob” has it’s ups and downs. Some of it’s ups are the humor that Gordon Korman uses, and the ironic situations that he writes about. For instance, Vince is dating a girl and finds out that her dad is the FBI agent who’s trying to arrest his dad, who’s the godfather of the mob. Some of it’s downs are that nothing extremely exciting happens throughout the course of the book and that it’s very repetitive. I like the thought of Vince being the only one in the family to disapprove of what his father does for a living. I think it’s interesting that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with ‘the life’, but realizes that the clothes on his back, the food that he eats, and the roof over his head are all financed by his dad’s job. I also like the fact that he slowly gets dragged into his father’s occupation without intending to.

I think that “Son of The Mob” is a YA novel for the following reasons:
o The main character is a teenager.
o The events are told from a first-person point of view of a teenager.
o Events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers.
o Dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang or curse words.
o The teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature, or independent.
o The novel is short less than 250 pages.
o The main teenage characters tend to take matters in their own hands and try to resolve conflicts themselves.
o The main characters have become more mature by the end of the novel.
o The main character becomes self-aware and responsible for his/her own life.

o The main character is a teenager. Yes.
o The events are told from a first-person point of view of a teenager. Yes
o Events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers. Yes
o Dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang or curse words. Yes
o The teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature, or independent. Yes
o The novel is short, rarely more than 250 pages. Yes
o The main teenage characters tend to take matters in their own hands and try to resolve conflicts themselves. Yes
o The main characters have become more mature by the end of the novel. Yes
o The main character becomes self-aware and responsible for his/her own life. Yes
o The story tends to make the read. Yes

Overal this was certainly a YA novel, that I somewhat enjoyed. I would recommend this book to anyone that actually likes YA novels, however I do not really like this genre.

This book is from three perspectives 1) Miro a “Freedom Soldier” who is trying to kill the bus driver 2) Kate the bus driver and 3) The general’s son who is reflecting on the hijacking . This book, I think, should not be a YA book for many reasons. The first reason is because there isn’t really one main characters because the perspectives keep changing but the problems that they face aren’t ones that would be considered problems for a young adult. In the end non of the characters mature except for the generals son(i’m not telling out how because that would ruin the book) and the last reason of all is because the book doesn’t talk about becoming a teenager.

When I first picked up the book Son of the Mob it seemed to me like an a really interesting story because it was about a kid named Vince who’s dad is a mafia leader and his girlfriend’s dad is an FBI agent trying to track his father down. It was about his struggle against who he was while trying to trying to maintain a good relationship with an FBI agent’s daughter. As the story goes on Vince finds out many things about his father, himself, and his place in the world.

This Book does fall under every aspect of the criteria of being a young adult book.

-Vince was a teenager (he was 17)

-The story is told from his view of the world (first person)

-He is dealing with the issues of being the son of a gang boss and a relationship with an FBI agent’s child

-The book is relatively short, being around 200 pages

-In the end, he matures and understands where his place in the world is

Even though the plot was a really interesting idea, the author could’ve made the characters develop more because most of the characters were very bland and predictable. Also, they didn’t change much throughout the story. Even though it wasn’t the best book ever, it was entertaining in the end.

The Earth, my Butt, and Other Big Round Things is a book that I really enjoyed. It is about a girl named Virginia Shreves and she is considered ’fat.’ This book is about her struggles with her weight, family, and friends. Her and Her older brother, Bryon has many struggles with their relationship after he does something so bad he gets kicked out of his school. Virginia’s best friend, Lydia, has just left for Walla Walla; so she has to survive school with no friends, which is very hard for her. This book contains the basic drama that you go through when you are a teenager; the popular skinny girls, where to sit at lunch, and being overweight and looking different. It seems to Virginia that her whole family besides her is slim, brilliant, and impossible to live up to. Virginia also deals with love, and even though the guy seems like he likes her; he might just be like that when they are in private. Virginia has a lot of issues that she has to deal with and some of them can change her life.

The things about this book that makes it YA are… The main character is a teenager. The events are told from a first-person point of view of a teenager. The events that happen to Virginia are events that happen to teenagers. To writing is in the way a teenager would talk. The book was short only 246 pages. Virginia tries to resolve conflicts by her self even if it is a very big problem that she will never be able to solve. Virginia becomes a lot more mature and aware at the end of the novel and makes it clear that even though she didn’t resolve all of the problems she did the best she could. Virginia is an outcast which, is a fact in most YA novels.

The book Spellbound is about a 16-year old girl trying to get a real start in life. After having a baby, droping out from school, and not having a job, Raven, the main character, must now turn her life around. After her sister tells her about a program that will help her get into college and will pay scholarship money for 4 years. Wow, what a break! In the end she wins the bee, overcomes some adversity, and learns you can never give up on life.

The reasons this book stands out as a YA novel is because it has about 180 or so pages, is about an adolesent, and has some sort of crude language and overcoming of something.

I liked Spellbound because it is a real story. When you read it you will understand it, and get into the story, and ask yourself how could she get out of the ghetto? How can she go to college without a high school degree? Just believe in her and you will succed.

Hope Was Here is about a girl named Hope and her life. We meet Hope when she gets her first waitressing job at the age of 14. It then brings us three jobs later as she and her Aunt Addie are boarding up the Blue Box Diner in Brooklyn which was the greatest diner and Brooklyn but is now boarded up and closed. After writing “Hope was Here” on a place in the diner, a tradition Hope has done in every place she has left, Hope hops into the car on her way to Mulhoney, Wisconsin to work at a diner with a man named G.T. Stoop who has recently been diagnosed with Lukemia. On the way there Hope thinks about con artist Gleason Beal who tricked them into all their money and ran away. Hope also thinks about her mother, an amazing waitress who left Hope with Addie when Hope was prematurely born and named her Tulip (which Tulip legally changed to Hope at twelve years old), and her father who even her mother does not know. Hope has moved many times so she is used to it now, but this move will be different then any before. Hope works as a waitress at G.T.’s diner, Welcome Stairways where she meets many different characters. The big surprise is that almost immediately after Hope and Addie get there G.T. decides, against all odds, to run for mayor against the nasty, tricky and selfish Eli Milstone, who will do anything to stop them.

Hope was Here is catagorized as a Young Adult book because:

- Hope is a teenager

- The events are told from a first-person point of view of a teenager

- Hope deals with the issues of love and sickness

- The book is only 186 pages
- Hope learns a lot of lessons by the end of the book

-Hope matures by the end of the book

I really enjoyed the book Hope was Here. It manages to tell a hard story to hear while still being a fun, light book. Hope has a lot to deal with but while dealing with it, it is nice to read about her interesting personality. All the descriptions of food made me really hungry!

“Why mess around with Catholicism when you can have your own customized religion? All you need is a disciple or two. And a god.”

Godless is mainly a book about the teenage Jason Bock and his questioning of religion. The book manages to deal with religion in general without criticizing one particular belief. While also addressing the bigger religions, Hautman, the author, includes the little “religions” that make everyone unique. Jason’s mother, for instance, is convinced he has some “exotic and possibly terminal disease.” Her mind magnifies everything, a swollen thumb suddenly becoming an early symptom of cerebral palsy. “She has this enormous book describing every illness known to man, from nail fungus to cancer of the eyeball. She reads it the way some people read the Bible.” (12) Although Hautman never actually describes anyone reading the Bible, it is clear how avidly Mrs. Bock devours each ghastly medical fact.

Shin, Jason’s nerdy and withdrawn (perhaps slightly disturbed) best friend “thinks science is sacred. He invokes science as if it were the name of God.” (7-8) He keeps a tank of gastropods in his room, which he cares for, and in his own words, is their god. He provides their food, water, changes their temperature, and controls their light. Later, when Shin becomes obsessed with Jason’s new religion of worshipping the Ten-Legged One (the town’s water tower) he lets his precious snails die. This is only one example of how great Jason’s influence over Shin is–and he doesn’t even realize it.

I liked this book because I could easily relate to it. Although I have not had any experience nearly so drastic as what happens one night on top of the water tower, I still question all religions and in third grade I also created my own. I think that is the main reason why I enjoyed this book so much. The writing style was typical but carried the voice of a slightly bored teenager very well. It was very much as if I were simply a part of Jason and could know what he felt without being directly affected. The setting never really entered in to the story except to give me a sense of the “valley” being isolated and a community of its own: a sense of there being nothing outside of it. This was an interesting take. The teenagers and grown-ups lived in their own little world that was overseen by the water tower. Whether Hautman created the effect purposely or not it was very striking and made me like the book more.

The characters had a range of opinions, appearances, and qualities that rounded the book and made it more realistic. There were several people I know who are just like certain characters from the book. This also made the book more alive for me because I could vividly picture the characters, even those whom I do not know the likes of. As for the plot, I cannot decide whether it is plausible or overdone. It is simply possible. On a scale from one to ten I would probably give the book an eight, mostly because of the many interesting ideas but not because of the writing. In general I do not think that YA books are good for their writing.
The book is certainly a YA book by any measures. First of all, the main character and all secondary characters are also teenagers. Secondly, the story is told from the first-person perspective of Jason Bock. His problems and questions as a teenager are all expressed, mainly focusing on his doubts about his parents’ religion, but also focusing on his feelings towards Magda Price. There is not too much cursing, but the characters have distinct ways of expressing themselves, like Magda’s constant “omigod” and the generally ever-present “like.” Jason Bock is sometimes mature, but usually blends seamlessly with his friends; he basically fulfills the qualities that define a teenage main character because of his extraordinary independence. He alone started the religion and did not need anyone’s, let alone his parents’, coaching. The novel is 198 pages long, or rather short, again qualifying it as a YA book.

In a way the Chutengodians try to take matters into their own hands by creating their own religion and rebelling against the stale religion of their parents. By the end of the novel they are more mature and probably will not try such a venture again. Jason has let Chutengodianism drop, and although he has not yet found his own religion he knows he will. He has realized how much he can influence his friends and what the consequences might be. In this respect he is more self-aware and responsible than before. The book made you think and did not let you relax or lean back; it might even be offensive to a very devout Catholic. All this alone would be enough to qualify it as a YA book, but a quick overview of its themes would also convince the reader. Most obvious of all, there is the psychological challenge Jason must face against his parents and the town in general when he refuses to be a Catholic. Alienation ties in to that, especially at the end of the book. His concerns about religion are what eventually cause family issues, another YA theme. Jason’s self-perception alters throughout the book, from seeing himself as a hulking body six feet tall to a Chutengodian with a religion but no faith.

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen, is a book that deals with a fifteen year-old girl Colie, who tries during the summer to overcome her past years of being ridiculed. It is definitely considered a YA book because the main character is a teenager, it is a first person narrative, there is usage of profanity, the book is short, there are conflicts, and because by the end of the book Colie is able to find and like herself. Also within Colie’s problems she tries and wants to deal with them herself. The main theme of the book is Colie trying to forget and put aside her memories of being treated as a “fat girl”, a typical outcast in her school. Also another theme is that fitting in is not as easy as it seems. This is so because when Colie finally loses weight, in hopes of becoming a new person and being accepted, the mean girls at her school only tease her more saying she’s a slut. It’s only then when Colie goes to stay with her aunt that things start to change for her. Throughout the book Sarah Dessen uses Colie as an example of many girls that do not fit in because they are different. She demonstrates that even when girls who are not necessarily cool and take the initiative to try and fit in they are immediately made fun of for thinking they could be different and are ignored. It’s the typical scene of middle school where everyone has their own cliques to stay with and the people who aren’t in one group do not have a place to fit in and are alone. In the book the text tries to tell the readers that if you are ever in a situation where you are not accepted you should just let yourself go. The most important thing is to try and be confident and believe in yourself, because no one else will. The text explains that everyone is a caterpillar waiting to become a butterfly because everyone has the potential to be something greater, but that you have to make it there yourself. Overall I really enjoyed this book because it was modern and easy to relate to and comprehend. It had a clear plot, good characters, and even though it was a little slow it was fun to read.

Just a note: I am expecting a post from each of you (in Dawson core) that is more than just a short paragraph with a few sentences.  I want to see you really analyze the book according to the assignment sheet — addressing several elements and a few literary aspects of the novel.

For our YA assignment I chose a book called Make lemonade by Virginia E.Wolff. This book, written from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl named La Vaughn who goes to work for a single 17 year old mom definitely qualifies as a YA book. It deals with teen pregnancy, maturity and with poverty. All of these topics are things one that you would not just throw into a childrens book but require a bit more maturity.I think one of the most interesting things about this book is that it is written from a teen’s perspective onto another teen’s life. This adds a twist because it’s a girl roughly our age telling the story. The book is written not by paragraph but by the girl’s thoughts. I found this slightly annoying because it’s difficult to read in these strange blocks of thought. On the other hand it’s very interesting to read the book from the perspective book might not usually be told in. The girl’s thoughts are also written with grammatical problems because she has terrible speech. One of the great things about this book is how well the character is developed .As I read the book I really began to feel for La Vaughn and as the character grew I became more attached to her.
Overall I found this a book well worth the couple of days it takes to read.