Saint Iggy by K.L. Going

I have accidentally started collecting K.L. Going books. Collecting but not reading. Out of her seven books, I've somehow gathered up three of them without even realizing, so I decided to give one a try. I had Saint Iggy with me in Tennessee.

Iggy is a delinquent by his own estimation. The story begins on the day that he is ejected from his school which will lead to a hearing which will probably lead to an expulsion. Many delinquents wouldn't care, but Iggy does. Iggy does because he's not really a delinquent.

Certainly, Iggy struggles with school. He was born already hooked on a drug which is what happens when an infant's mother takes drugs while she is pregnant. He thinks that he is stupid and perhaps he's not the brightest, but it seems to me that his biggest issue is focus. Everything seems to distract him and he constantly imagines conversations in his head.

Iggy also has a friend, Mo, who is supposed to be a kind of mentor, but really is just another kid looking for a drug problem. Iggy can see that unless something changes, Mo is going to get himself killed. He also wants to clear his hearing and make it back into the good graces of the school. These two problems drive the narrative.

The story was quick paced and easy to read. The book features short chapters, a linear plot, and a single point of view. So, it's a good book for struggling readers. The end however, is oddly jarring. It's not how I would have expected it to end and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. It fits the story, but it didn't seem to be where things were headed.

It was decent, I didn't love it.

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

I actually met Jason Reynolds at a NCTE conference about a year and a half ago. I had one of those weird experiences for a reader where listening to the author made me believe that I would love his book...and I did. I passed it around all my friends and they loved it too. One of them loved it so much, in fact, that they walked off with it and we had to replace it. Jason Reynolds is officially on my watch list, so I was very excited to see a series coming out from him.

The Track series, of which Ghost is the first, is about four friends of about middle school/high school age who are members of a track team. Four books are scheduled and each book follows a different one of the four.

Ghost kicks it off with Castle Crenshaw, known to himself as Ghost. Ghost is a poster child for tragic and damaged. His father is in jail for shooting a gun at he and his mom. So now his mom works hard in a hospital cafeteria during the day and studies to be a nurse at night. She works hard for him and Ghost knows it.

However, knowing something like that doesn't mean that it's easy or even possible to be the perfect kid. In fact, that's almost a recipe for a lot of internal turmoil and conflict. Ghost struggles and he has a temper. He gets in trouble at school a lot mainly because he hates a bully and he hates a showboat. This intolerance for a showboat sparks him into racing a hot shot sprinter on the team and one thing leads to another.

Ghost is good. Like really good. I gulped down the whole thing in about three and a half hours. It is a short book but the conversational tone of the writing and the pacing really gripped me hard. I was just watching this kid, who could easily be a kid that I teach, making all of these totally obvious mistakes and instead of getting annoyed with him, I really worried for him. Reynolds did a great job of capturing Ghost's voice.

Don't you Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Sometimes I recognize an author's name and I don't know why. At my last book buying trip I snagged on this book because the author's name seemed familiar. Later, I figured out I recognized it from her book Just Ella which was a 'thing' when I started teaching. In any case, I picked out this specific title to try because of its premise.

Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey is a novel in the form of  a required journal written by a girl named Tish Bonner. Basically, Mrs. Dunphrey makes a deal many English teachers make which is "If you just write, I promise I won't read the entries you tell me not to." (It's a deal I've been tempted to make myself.) So, Tish writes in her journal. She writes even though she almost aims at being a poor student. She writes because there's too much going on in her life, she has no one else to talk to, and Mrs. Dunphrey keeps her promise not to read it.

As the book continues, Tish's home situation deteriorates until she comes to a breaking point and must make a decision.

This book hit me hard. When I finished it, I was in tears and I sat stunned for several minutes. The reasons for this are complicated and personal to myself.

First, it hit me right in an anxiety button. I've never been in a situation where there was not enough money or food to take care of the necessities, but it's always been one of my driving fears. I don't know why. Tish's situation in the book takes that basic fear and gives it a hard twist because, as a 16 year old with a younger brother to watch out for, her options for providing enough money to live on are very limited.

Second, I spent most of the book frustrated and angry and Mrs. Dunphrey for not seeing the warning signs that something serious was wrong with Tish. Of course, I know it's not that easy. It's not easy for me when I have 10 students in a classroom and I cannot imagine how impossibly difficult it is for someone with 30 or 40 students in a room at a time.

In the end, the resolution relies on the trust Mrs. Dunphrey earns with Tish by keeping her word. Still, it was very hard to read and very good.

Thematically, this book is about neglect and resiliency. It's about the love of a sister who tries to protect her brother. It is about a teenager dealing with sexual harassment of her manager at her job and her limitations in dealing with him because of her desperate need for money. In an overarching way, it is about both the flaws of the educational system and the strengths of individual teachers. It is a beautiful and tough book.