Notes for a War Story - Graphic Novel

Italian graphic artist, Gipi, uses watercolor and pencil in grays and black to set a bleak atmosphere for his graphic novel, Notes for a War Story. This is a tale, set in the war-torn Balkans, of three friends and their life in the hostile periphery of the conflict. Two of the three young men, Little Killer and Christian, have no family to depend on while the narrator, Giuliano, leaves his middle class family behind to join his friends. The three drift from town to town, living in abandoned houses and stealing car parts for money. Their fortunes improve when they cross paths with Felix, a profiteer, and become his bag men; collecting and extorting money on Felix's behalf. After being beaten and robbed their paths diverge, with Giuliano returning to his family and the other two joining a militia. The ending shows that the lawless life they have lived has robbed them of their souls.

I initially had a hard time getting into this book, probably because of the dark and gloomy illustrations and a little confusion over the characters. I warmed up to it, however, as I read further. As I read, I couldn't help but compare the relationship between Felix and the boys to the characters in "Slum Dog Millionaire". The characters in both stories must survive in a harsh world and turn to an older, charasmatic underworld figure for leadership.

This book is definitely for mature readers. Boys would probably find it more interesting because the characters are boys. Depsite that this is a war story, there is not a great deal of action. I do really like the exploration of the choices people make when they are without resources. This story could be used to start a discussion about children in our own country who are abandoned or left to fend for themselves.

Notes for a War Story won the ‘Best Book’ prize at Angouleme, the international comics festival and was on The American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults list, YALSA's Great Graphic Novel for Teens and Books for the Teen Age, New York Public Library. I think an appropriate hook for this book would be to ask students what choices they would make if they had no where to live and nothing to eat. Would illegal behavior be justified?

King Dork - Edgy, Mystery

Tom Henderson, or as he thinks of himself - King Dork, has no illusions about his status in the school hierarchy. Given the abuse and ridicule he receives at the hands of the “Normal” people it would be hard not to realize that he is considered a loser. He has gotten to know his only friend, Sam Hellerman, by default; they stood next to each in line, alphabetically, in grades four through eight. The two friends share an interest in music and video games and together they try to form a band. They constantly change the name of the band, the names of the band members and the name of their first album. These names are quirky and funny and are a source of humor in the book.

Band: Balls Deep

Guitar: Comrade Gal-hammer

Bass and Embroidery: Our Dear Leader

Real fancy and important percussion: The lonely dissident

First Album: We control the horizontal

This book by Frank Portman explores high school through Tom’s eyes. Tom speaks very little but has a running mental commentary that is sarcastic, funny and sad. His policeman father died four years earlier and there are conflicting stories about how he died. He tries to feel closer to his father by reading his father’s collection of books from high school and discovers a ciphered message in one of them. He spends much of the book trying to solve both mysteries. The Catcher in the Rye figures prominently in the story, it is both required reading in school and one of his father’s books.

King Dork is not a book that I liked. I simply could not relate to it and I really didn’t really care about Tom. I also kept waiting to discover the answers to the mysteries, but was disappointed. To be fair, high school students may have quite a different take on the book; I am so far removed from high school that it probably colored my perception.

Mature students who are into bands and music would probably enjoy this book. I would not specifically recommend it to any student, however, because of the sex and the drug use in the book. This brings me to a second problem I had with the book, the few girls in the story are merely there to perform oral sex on Tom. Not only are they merely sexual objects, but I really didn’t think it was plausible that they would be interested in giving King Dork Tom the time of day, let alone be dying to have close personal contact with his private parts.

I read some reviews that were all very positive (although I tend to take reviews with a grain of salt) so I might be totally off the mark. I would be interested to see what others think.

I found the following passage entertaining and might be used as a hook:

First on the program in Mr. Schtuppe’s class, when the introduction had finally ended, was a book called 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary. “In 30 days, you will learn how to make words your slaves.”

This book is a big list of fancy-pants words and our job as self-improvement vocabularists was to prove we knew what they meant by saying them aloud and using them in sentences.

Mr. Schtuppe’s unique twist on this was that he managed to mispronounce around half of them.

“The first word is ‘bete noire,’” he said. But he pronounced it “bait noir-ay,” with the emphasis on the “ay.”

“Bait noir-ay,” we all said in unison.

“Excellent. Now, class, listen carefully: magnanimous…”

(We would have to wait until the end of the alphabet before we witnessed Mr. Schtuppe’s finest hour. That would be “wanton” which he pronounced like “won ton.” The delicious Chinese dumpling often served in soup at the Pacific Rim’s finest eating establishments. That’s why Sam Hellerman and I will sometimes refer to a sexy girl as a Won Ton Woman.)

Web Crawl - Chris Crutcher

After finishing my web crawl, I found it difficult to choose between three authors, John Green, Gary Paulsen and Chris Crutcher. John Green appealed to me because his site was engaging and humorous, Gary Paulsen because his website discusses not only his books but his own adventures and Chris Crutcher because his books are controversial. Of these three, I chose Chris Crutcher because I wanted to explore the censorship issue. An added bonus is that he was born in Dayton.

The main characters in Chris Crutcher’s books are mostly male teenagers who are athletes and many have personal problems. His books include: Running Loose, Chinese Handcuffs, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Whale Talk , The Sledding Hill , and Deadline. I personally have not read any of his books but after reading excerpts and reviews for many of them I plan to. They sound funny, touching and deal with important issues.

Before he began his writing career, Mr. Crutcher was a teacher, a therapist, a child protection advocate, and he directed a “last chance” charter school for at-risk students. These experiences give flavor to his books; they deal with real problems teens face, in an honest way. These issues include prejudice –both racial and religious, child abuse, disabilities, and poverty. His books often include strong language and discussion of situations that many people feel young people should be shielded from, such as abortion and homosexuality, and many of his books have been challenged or banned. On the flip side, he recieved the Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2000 for lifetime contribution to young adult literature.

As a result, Mr. Crutcher’s website devotes a lot of space to censorship, the first amendment and his interactions with those who would ban his, and other authors' works. He is very passionate about free speech and it shows in emails that he has posted between him and people who are angered by his books and beliefs. These interactions are not just about his books, he also published a series of emails from a correspondence with a woman who felt he should have refrained from putting a “Vote for Obama” advertisement on his website. She felt it was “BAD JUDGEMENT and UNPROFESSIONAL”. His response to her was, in essence, that it was his right to state his political opinion just as it was her right not to go to his site.

This particular situation made me think about my own reactions to censorship issues. I am a firm believer in free speech and don’t feel that well written books with a message should be omitted from library shelves. I also agree with Mr. Crutcher about his right to advertise his support for Barack Obama on his website. That being said, I had an issue during the 2004 election with the school I worked at and my daughter attended. The school took a busload of kids during school to watch President Bush’s campaign motorcade drive by. They said it was not a conflict because he was our president. In addition, the school secretary posted Bush campaign stickers, wore several buttons and had election memorabilia all around her desk and surrounding area. I found both of these things out of line in a school and I complained. I felt the better way to handle the election in the school was to explore both candidates and the issues, rather than just advocating for one side. I see a difference between Crutcher’s personal website advocating for a particular candidate and a public school doing the same. I don’t know; I may be wrong. I did, however, advise my sister, a middle school art teacher, that I thought that she should not be wearing an Obama button in the school. She didn’t agree with me.

To end this very long blog, I think Chris Crutcher is an important author for young adults and think his books are worth exploring.

Whispers from the Dead - Modern fantasy, supernatural

“Enough early-evening light streamed through the window next to the front door to yellow the walls, spreading its glow across a spindly, antique table I’d never seen before. On it, lying on its side, was an unfamiliar crystal vase of early spring sweet peas, spilled and dripping onto white marble-like tiles.

The sound of crying stopped. Then out of the silence came a whisper so heartbreaking, so desperate, that it tugged me forward: “İAyúdame! İAyúdame!”

My heart was pounding so loudly that I could hear it in my ears as I moved closer to the railing, bent over, and looked straight down.

Directly below me, under the brown-red splattered walls, lay a pool of blood.”

This would be a good hook to interest middle school students in the supernatural tale Whispers from the Dead by Joan Lowery Nixon. Sixteen year old Sarah Darnell has a near-death experience which leaves her with an ability to receive communications from the dead. When she and her family move from Missouri to Houston, Sarah begins seeing and hearing messages from a young Spanish woman whose spirit inhabits their new home.

As Sarah begins making friends with a neighbor girl, she realizes that their new neighbors are all keeping a secret from them, a secret she already suspects because of her visions. A murder occurred in their house four years before. In fact, the boy who lived in the house was suspected of killing a girl delivering pizza, but was never convicted.

Throughout the story, Sarah's visions help her to slowly uncover the truth and find the murderer. The story is full of twists and turns that could keep middle school students engrossed. The chapters are short and the story linear. Whispers from the Dead won several readers' choice awards in the early 1990s. It won the 1992 Nevada Young Readers Award, the 1995 Indiana Young Hoosier Award, the 1996 Wyoming Soaring Eagle Book Award and the 1990 Texas Lone Star Reading List.

Despite the awards, I personally did not like the book very well. I found the story rather predictable although that may be because I have read many stories in this genre and am good at making predictions. I also found the book, written in 1989, to be dated. It was written before internet usage was common and many situations reflect that. Sarah uses microfiche at the library to do research and writes letters to communicate with her friends in Missouri. She also rides her bike everywhere even though she can drive (something today's 16 year old would only do as a last resort). I found that I was distracted from the story by these details.

The bottom line is that it would probably not be a book I would recommend to students, but it wasn’t so horrible that I would purge it from my shelves.

Speak- Realistic Fiction

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a realistic fiction tale about alienation and it stresses the importance of communication and in standing up to injustice. The main character, Melinda, is raped at a party shortly before the beginning of her freshman year in high school. She calls the police but is unable to tell them what is wrong. Traumatized, she walks home. When the police arrive, she is not at the party and they arrest the party goers for underage drinking. Since Melinda was overheard calling the police, the students of her school blame her and she becomes a social pariah.

As the year goes along, she progressively finds it harder and harder to speak – to anyone. Everything in her life becomes more difficult to deal with as she speaks less. Her grades go down, her only friend is a girl new to the school who cares more about being popular than in being a friend, she starts cutting class and her parents argue frequently. Her family and the school administrators don't understand that her behavior isn't just due to normal teenage moodiness and try punishment to resolve the problems.

Melinda is paralyzed by her despair until she does a report on woman's suffrage that includes a silent protest and, little by little, she begins to improve. Melinda begins to do yardwork, talking to her parents and even has a conversation with a girl she used to be friends with about her rapist's reputation. The girl tells her that "he's only after one thing, and if you believe the rumors, he'll get it, no matter what." She begins to realize that her silence enables her rapist to hurt other girls. She eventually has a confrontation with him which unleashes her anger and she is finally able to talk about what happened to her.

I really enjoyed this book. Even though she doesn't speak, Melinda has a constant commentary running in her head which is quite entertaining. Despite its dark subject matter, I didn't find the book depressing. I did feel Melinda's pain, though, especially when she is rejected by her only "friend". I would recommend this book to high school students, especially girls, the story is engrossing and the message important. Speak has received numerous accolades and awards including: ALA Best Book for Young Adults, Edgar Allan Poe Award finalist, IRA Young Adult Choice, Michael L. Printz Honor Book, National Book Award Finalist, New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, New York Times Bestseller List, SCBWI Golden Kite Award, and YALSA Popular Paperback for Young Adults

Melinda's list of the first ten lies they tell you in high school would be a good hook. They are:

1. We are here to help you.
2. You will have time to get to your class before the bell rings.
3. The dress code will be enforced.
4. No smoking is allowed on school grounds.
5. Our football team will win the championship this year.
6. We expect more of you here.
7. Guidance counselors are always available to listen
8. Your schedule was created with your needs in mind.
9. Your locker combination is private.
10. These will be the years that you look back on fondly.

My first class is biology. I can't find it and get my first demerit for wandering in the hall. It is 8:50 in the morning. Only 699 days and 7 class periods until graduation.

The Rag and Bone Shop - Realistic Fiction, Mystery

Robert Cormier told an interviewer from the School Library Journal, "I'm very much interested in intimidation and the way people manipulate other people. And the obvious abuse of authority." In The Rag and Bone Shop, a mystery tale in the realistic fiction genre, he explores these themes. To do this he tells a tale of a murder investigation in third person by two different characters, Jason and Trent.

Jason is a twelve year old boy who doesn’t fit in with kids his own age, but prefers the company of younger children. He struggles with school and often feels stupid. On the first day of summer vacation after 7^th grade, he visits the home of a boy his age and works on a puzzle with the boy’s seven year-old sister, Alicia. She is later found dead from a blow to the head. There is no physical evidence to point to the murderer and there is political pressure being applied by the grandfather of one of Alicia’s classmates, a U.S. Senator. Unfortunately, Jason was “the last person to see her alive” and with the pressure to solve the crime mounting, the detective relies on his gut, honing in on Jason as the likely killer.

Trent, a top-notch interrogator who has never failed to elicit a confession, is called in to interrogate Jason. He has recently lost his wife and is becoming burned out and a little haunted by his work. He sees this interrogation as a way to gain favor with the Senator. He interrogates Jason without his parents present under the pretext “helping the investigation”. As the interrogation progresses, he realizes that Jason is not guilty, but continues to push for a confession.

Cormier does a good job at showing how people can be intimidated, manipulated and bullied into admitting almost anything, nearly believing it themselves. Through Jason, he also shows how the result of intimidation can last beyond the interrogation itself.

I really liked the way you saw the events unfold from both Jason and Trent’s point of view. The book kept me glued to it and I was unprepared for the ending which stayed with me for several days. I would recommend this book to high school students especially those who are fans of crime stories and television crime dramas.

I believe Trent’s description of the interrogation room would be a good way to interest students in the book. He writes, “The office to which Braxton led him was perfect. Small and cluttered and claustrophobic. No windows, which eliminated the necessity of drawing the shades. No lamps on the desks, the light coming directly and harshly from a ceiling bulb. No air conditioning, either. Trent, in fact, felt a slight wafting of heat as he entered the room. Two desks and a filing cabinet took up most of the space, which meant that he and the suspect would be in close proximity, their knees almost touching as they sat in the two chairs arranged opposite each other. That was the intent, of course, to conduct the interrogation in a small space with no room for the suspect to be comfortable.”

Monster-Realistic fiction

Monster is not only the name of this realistic, coming of age story by Walter Dean Myers, but what the woman prosecuting Steve Harmon for felony murder calls him. He has been arrested and is being tried for the murder of a drug store owner; killed during a robbery. Was he the lookout for the "crew" responsible for the robbery and murder or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? It really doesn't matter at his trial; what matters is whether the jury sees him as a monster or not.

In the meantime, Steve is living in fear. He is in jail pending the outcome of his trial and is afraid of both the constant violence of the jail and that he will be found guilty and locked up for 25 years to life. In an effort to make sense of what is happening, he writes the events of this experience as a movie script. The story is told through his script.

I was quite engaged by this book and I believe junior and senior high students will be too. I especially liked that I was unable to predict the outcome of the trial and that it felt real, with loose ends that were not neatly tied up for the ending. I also liked that the story included details that showed that although Steve and his family are consumed by the trial and its outcome, it is just another case to the lawyers, judge and court personnel.

Monster won the Michael L. Printz Award for Young Adult Literature in 2000 and was a Coretta Scott King honor book and a National Book Award finalist. I would recommend this book to all young adult readers, including reluctant readers. I believe that Steve and his sense of helplessness and dread will engage both boys and girls and that the style of writing, with short sentences and dialog makes it easy to read. There could be some difficulty understanding the camera directions, but they are not critical to understanding the story.

The first line of the book is attention grabbing and would be a great Book Talk "hook". It is:

"The best time to cry is at night, when the lights are out and someone is being beaten up and is screaming for help."