December Progress

December fell off the map. I read some of the list, but I also pick up things from various places, so instead of revisiting the overall list. Here's what I actually read:

1. Fever 1793 by by Laurie Halse Anderson 
2. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (L)
3. Cress by Marissa Meyer (L)
4. Winter by Marissa Meyer (L)
5. Monster by Walter Dean Myers (L)
6. Moving Pictures Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B) 
7. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) 
8. Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
9. Saints by Gene Luen Yang

Certainly, not my worst month. Overall, it's been a productive year. While I got behind on the blog from time to time, I've restored my habitual reading. 

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers has been writing YA Literature since the mid 80's and so he's part of my childhood. I was definitely familiar with his name. However, what he writes tends to be oriented to a more male audience. Monster is the first of his books I've read. I became aware of the title through a NCTE reading list on culturally diverse literature.

Monster is amazing. It won a ridiculous number of awards including the Michael L. Printz Award and the National Book Award Honor for Young People's Literature. Awards aren't everything, but I'm really beginning to trust the Printz award. Everything I've read that won that award is just amazing.

So. Monster is about Steven Harmon, 16 years old, and his experience on trial for felony murder. The writing alternates between journal entries and a hypothetical screenplay of Steven's experience written by Steven. It's an incredibly powerful strategy the effectively conveys this kid's terror of his experience of prison (the journal entries) in contrast with his weird dissociation of his experience at trial (the screenplay.)

Here's a kid who, despite being very different from me, I could see myself in. I remember being that age and wanting desperately to seem tough, or worldly, or something indefinably adult. I think it must be a pretty universal experience, however, many of us stay clear of actual legal repercussions. So, it's easy to sympathize with this kid who clearly just got sucked into something way over his head.

By the way, felony murder is a death that happens as a result, direct or indirect, of the commission of another felony. So, if a guy drops dead of a heart attack during a bank heist, everyone involved in the heist in any way is suddenly on the hook for murder. This is something we actually teach our kids once per year because LD/ADHD kids are higher than normal risk for impulsive decisions that lead to this kind of thing.

Steven's trial, for most of the book, leaves it pretty unclear just how involved he actually was. However, his ruminations on responsibility and human nature are very mature without being overly cerebral.

Excellent, quick read.

Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang

Gene Luen Yang is famous for writing the graphic novel American Born Chinese which was the first graphic novel ever nominated for a National Book Award. Yang is currently serving as the 5th ever ambassador for young people's literature (a Library of Congress designation).

Boxers is about the the Boxer Rebellion in China (1898) which happened when swarms of foreign missionaries and soldiers basically took over China and bullied chinese peasants. Little Bao watches the missionaries and chinese converts basically destroy his family and harass his village.

Bao joins, and eventually leads, a group of kung fu trained peasants who march on Peking. In terms of the story, the peasants are actually possessed by various chinese deities. While strange, it does a good job of emphasizing the conflict between two very different cultures. Yang does a good job of showing the desperation and outrage of the chinese citizenry as well as the unbelieveable rumors going around the demonized the white missionaries.

It's a bit of a downer and the fantastical elements are sometimes very jarring. However, it's also quite good.

The plot line of Saints overlaps with the story of Boxers. Vibiana, born as Four-Girl, was the unwanted girl child in a large family. She didn't even have a proper name and, while not actually abusive, she wasn't nurtured or feel loved. In fact, she is often called a demon and even comes to believe and embrace her "demon" nature

At least not until she encounters Christianity. What starts out as a way to escape her family and snag free cookies soon becomes a full conversion of faith. However, Vibiana soon discovers the flaws in her adopted faith/culture.

In many ways, Yang depicts the missionaries as sympathetic but flawed people. It's never as simple as good vs. evil and Yang conveys that.

Blindsided by Priscilla Cummings

Just before my grandfather died, his eyes finally gave out and he could no longer read. I remember thinking at the time, how awful that would be. My grandfather and I shared a passion for reading. We didn't read the same books, by any means, but we both really loved the written word. I can't imagine losing that capacity.

(Audio books are, by the way, not the same. They'd be better than nothing, but I just can't get lost in the story by listening the way I do reading.  Maybe I'd have to figure out braille. Oh god, maybe I should go ahead and learn braille just in case. Although, braille editions are massive. hmmmm)

Blindsided is about a girl, Natalie, who was born without irises. It's a pretty rare condition and can incidentally lead to blindness because the irises act like a light filter. Natalie has been losing her sight for years. She's a sophomore at the beginning of the book. They've done surgeries. They've tried everything. She's going to lose the rest of her sight, and soon. So, her parents send her to a blind school in Baltimore to learn the skills she'll need to function.

Natalie is not pleased. She's angry and prefers to live in denial. So this book is really about grief and adjustment. It's really a sweet little story.

Rules by Cynthia Lord

So, in my efforts to fill the gap in my reading ladder, I've discovered enough books with autistic main characters to make an entirely separate ladder.

Catherine has an autistic brother, David. In families, when there is a disabled or chronically ill child, all the focus tends to go to that child. It's a natural thing and the siblings, in my experience, understand. However, it's got to be tough for the non-disabled child to be held to different standards and feel like their needs for attention are over looked. I'm an only child, so I have not personally experienced this, but I have had several close friends who grew up in this situation and I've taught several students with this family situation. Listening to them is interesting. It seems like few families manage the balance well and often that non-disabled kid ends up acting out because it's the only way they get attention. The other side of the coin, are the kids who end up holding themselves to impossibly perfect standards. One of my roommates in college was like that. They never get to be kids and make mistakes like other kids. Imagine the pressure of making a mistake when your parents are already so stressed out on behalf of your sibling. It's rough.

Mind you, I am absolutely not criticising these families. I cannot imagine dealing with what they have to on a day in/day out basis. I just feel for the "normal" sibling. That's what Rules is about. Catherine knows that David has more needs and she really tries to do her share, but shes still a teenage girl and craves those normal teenage experiences. When she meets a CP kid named Jason and helps him with his communication board she really has to struggle with who she is. Jason has no normal teenager words, and Catherine helps him with that. She helps him feel more normal, but how does she get to feel more normal. Who can help her with that?

The blurbs all say that this book is about acceptance and that angle is there. However, I think the most important aspect is that sibling perspective.

December List o' Learning

So, the last month of the year begins. I have quite handily met my reading goal and exceeded it for the year. Which leads me to my reading goal for next year. Clearly I need to be reading a lot of YA literature in order to keep up with my students' reading. However, I need to be reading more than just YA. Anyway it's something to think on.

1. El Deafo by Cece Bell (L)
2. The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs
3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments)
4. Walk Two Moons by Sarah Creech (L)
5. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (L)
6. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (L)
7. City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
8. Masquerade by Nikki Grimes (L)
9. Year's Best SF12 ed David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
10. Demon Glass by Rachel Hawkins
11. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (B)
12. Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson (L)
13. Sold by Patricia McCormick (L)
14. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (L)
15. Cress by Marissa Meyer (L)
16. Winter by Marissa Meyer (L)
17. Monster by Walter Dean Myers (L)
18. Autobiography of My Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers (L)
19. Yummy, The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri (L)
20. The Writer's Workbook by Jenny Newman et al (NF)
21. Family by Micol Ostow (L)
22. Star 1 ed. Frederik Pohl
23. The Case Against Tomorrow by Frederik Pohl
24. Moving Pictures Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
25. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
26. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
27. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) * (RR)
28. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
29. Stiff by Mary Roach
30. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (L)
31. Down to the Bone by Justina Robson 
32. Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson (L)
33. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling 
34. Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
35. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (RR)
36. Where the Sidewalk Ends  by Shel Silverstein (RR)
37. Our Children's Children by Clifford D. Simak 
38. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (NF)
39. The Short Reign of Pippin IV by Steinbeck (B)
40. The Amulet of Samarkand by Johnathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy)
41. So B. It by Sarah Weeks (L)
42. Window Boy by  Andrea White (L)
43. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran (B)
44. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin (L)
45. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (L)