will grayson, will grayson

Green, John and David Levithan.  will grayson, will grayson.  New York: Dutton Books, 2010.  Print.

Awards

2010 Indie Lit Award Runner-up

2011 Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Honors Award

2011 Rainbow Bibliography

2011 Rainbow List

Annotation

Will Grayson and Will Grayson may have the same name, but they don’t know each other…yet.  After they meet with the help of fate, though, their lives are changed dramatically.

Booktallk

There’s Will Grayson and then there’s o.w.g. – the Other Will Grayson.

Will Grayson is excited.  He’s about to meet Isaac, the boy he’s been talking to online for weeks.  Even though they only live a train ride away, they’ve never seen each other in person.  Will Grayson can’t wait to meet Isaac, he already knows he’s in love.  The only problem is, will Isaac like him back?  And what will he tell Maura, his girlfriend?

The Other Will Grayson is apathetic.  He’s not interested in school and while he is interested in Jane, he is deliberately pretending that he couldn’t care less.  Will is afraid to get hurt, but he’s also afraid that he is all of the things his best friend Tiny Cooper accuses him of: essentially, being a whiny sidekick, too scared to take a stand and go after what (or who) he wants.

Will Grayson and Will Grayson “might as well live on different planets”, but they’re about to meet in a weird twist of fate that’s going to change both their lives dramatically.  And it will be Tiny Cooper, the original Will Grayson’s best friend, who unknowingly helps to bring them together and keeps them together as they each begin “respective romantic turns-of-heart”.

*Phil (16 years old) told me about this book; he originally read it because one of his friends suggested it to him and "loved it"!  He thought the novel was "funny and a lot of fun...definitely different that what you'd expect".  He also mentioned that the two-person narration added a "cool twist" to the story because it allows readers to get the "perspectives from both of them".*

Image credit:  http://johngreenbooks.com/will-grayson/

David Inside Out

Bantle, Lee.  David Inside Out.  New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009.  Print.

Awards

2009 Rainbow List

Annotation

David likes his best friend and fellow track teammate and even though Sean likes him too, he doesn’t want anyone else to know about it.  Will David decide to stand up to Sean, follow his heart and be honest about his feelings?

Booktalk

What would you do if you were in love with your best friend?  What would you do if you didn’t want to be in love with your best friend?  If you were trying to hide this love by dating someone else, but all you really wanted to do was tell the truth?

This is exactly how David feels.  He’s dating a girl at his school, Kick, but it’s Sean, a member of his track team that he really wants.  Sean wants him too – but he doesn’t want anyone else to know about it.  What will David do?  Will he stand up to Sean and tell him he wants to be honest about his feelings?  Will he finally be able to come out to his friends and family?  Will he lose his friendship with his once-girlfriend, Kick?  What about the relationships with his track teammates?

Image credit:  http://leebantle.com/

Rapunzel's Revenge

Hale, Shannon and Dean Hale.  Rapunzel’s Revenge.  Illus. Nathan Hale.  New York: Bloomsbury U.S.A Children’s Books, 2008.  Print.

Awards

2009 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens

2009 ALA Notable Children's Books

2009 ALA Popular Paperback

2009 Leah Adezio Award for Best Kid-Friendly Work

2010 ALA Amelia Bloomer Project Bibliography List

2011 Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Readers Choice Award

Utah Book Award for Children’s Literature

Cybil Award

Annotation

Rapunzel, along with her sidekick Jack, wants to free her mother and the townspeople of Gothel’s Reach from being under the control of evil Mother Gothel.

Booktalk

Rapunzel grows up inside Mother Gothel’s villa where there’s always food to eat and the garden is always green.  Curious about the outside world, though, Rapunzel decides to climb over the wall that guards her home and is shocked by what she sees.  Being on the outside reveals to Rapunzel Gothel’s evil ways: how she is starving the townspeople by drying up all their land and how she stole Rapunzel from her real mother years ago as punishment for a crime committed by her father.  In a race against time Rapunzel and a friend she meets along the way, Jack, are now on a mission to destroy Gothel and free everyone from the clutches of her evil magic. 

Gothel is powerful though and she has growth magic on her side.  Will Rapunzel and Jack be able to fight off her and her henchmen?  Will they be able to get to Gothel’s villa in time before she hurts Rapunzel’s mother?  And most importantly, will they be able to survive the journey to the villa, first having to fight off “a rampaging boar…a pack of outlaw kidnappers…a horde of blood-hungry coyotes…a sea serpent…[and] Tina’s Terrible Trio”?

If Rapunzel and Jack can’t solve the mystery and figure out where Gothel is getting all of her extraordinary power from, everyone’s lives will be in extreme danger…

Image credit:  http://www.squeetus.com/stage/books_rap.html

The House on Mango Street

Cisneros, Sandra.  The House on Mango Street.  New York: Vintage Books, 1984.  Print.

Awards

1985 Before Columbus American Book Award

Annotation

Esperanza describes growing up in a Latino section of Chicago and living in a run-down house on Mango Street, while hoping and working hard to have a better life.

Booktalk

What would you do if you felt you were trapped by the place where you living?  If you wanted a real house, but got a temporary one instead?  If you felt like you were “a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor”?  Esperanza feels like Mango Street is holding her back.  She doesn’t have a best friend, she only has her sister Nenny but she’s annoying most of the time.  She doesn’t have a real house, the kind her family always dreamed of buying with a staircase on the inside.  Instead, she has the small red one on Mango Street where the bricks are crumbling and the front door sticks.  She wants new shoes; she wants a new name; and later, she wants a new job.  Despite all of this, Esperanza knows that the street is teaching her valuable lessons and it is in this house that she transforms from a little girl into a woman. 

Different from other novels, Esperanza tells her growing-up tale in The House on Mango Street in short chapters, or vignettes, each one their own complete story.  Take the journey along with her and find out if she ever leaves that little, red, falling-apart house behind, trading it in for a dream home: “quiet as snow, a space for [her]self to go, clean as paper before the poem”.

Image credit:  http://www.sandracisneros.com/major_works.php?work=house

The Vast Fields of Ordinary

Burd, Nick.  The Vast Fields of Ordinary.  New York: Dial Books, 2009.  Print.

Awards

2009 New York Times Notable Book of 2009

2010 ALA Stonewall Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature

2010 ALA Rainbow Books

Annotation

Dade is spending his last summer before college doing ordinary things in his small town of Cedarville until he meets Alex, someone who is different from anyone else he knows and who will spark changes in his life that can’t be undone. 

Booktalk

“I practiced saying I was gay to inanimate objects around the house.  I told the soap dish in my bathroom, the ceiling fan above my bed, the blue drinking glass I favored above all the others simply because over the years its entire family had perished one by one during various interactions with hard surfaces around the kitchen and I’d convinced myself our solitude was linked. 

“I’m gay,” I told these things.”

Dade Hamilton has just graduated from high school and can’t wait to get out of Cedarville and go to Fairmont in the fall.  In fact, only a few days ago he was at his senior prom, drawing the initials DH + PS in a heart on the wall of the boy’s bathroom.  PS stands for Pablo Soto, his sometimes boyfriend.  Now Dade is spending his last summer at home, working at FoodWorld and going to parties hosted by Judy Lockhart, also known as Pablo’ girlfriend.  Dade loves Pablo, but Pablo isn’t ready to admit yet that he’s gay.  While trying to figure out how to deal with this, Dade meets Alex at a party and soon their friendship grows into something more. 

From this chance encounter on, Dade’s summer will start to unfold in ways he never expected from his parents’ marital troubles to the disappearance of a local autistic girl.  As Dade struggles to keep up he realizes that it’s not college he’s longing for, but the truth.  Will Dade be able to be honest with others?  Will those around him reveal their own truths?  Will the end of the summer finally bring with it some answers or just more questions?

Image credit:  http://www.worldcat.org/title/vast-fields-of-ordinary/oclc/275150000?referer=brief_results

Along for the Ride

Dessen, Sarah.  Along for the Ride.  New York: Viking, 2009.  Print.

Awards

2010 ALA Teens’ Top Ten

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Annotation

Auden decides to spend the summer before her freshman year of college at her dad’s beach house with her step mom and the new baby.  She expects to use the time to prepare for the upcoming semester, but instead starts to learn the value of having fun, having friends and having a boyfriend.

Booktalk

Auden is serious about school, she’s serious about pleasing her parents and she’s serious about using the summer to prepare for her freshman year at college.  That’s why Auden surprises everyone by agreeing to spend the summer at her father’s beach house with her step mom and their new baby.  She plans on spending most of her time studying for the upcoming semester, but once in Colby Auden finds herself getting pulled into new experiences. 

Having missed out on social events while in high school and also having been afraid to disappoint her mother who’s a professor, Auden finally starts to learn over the course of the summer how important it is to have friends…and to fail sometimes, just as long as you get back on the bike.  She also finds herself on a quest to make up for her lost childhood and begins doing all the fun things she never had time for before – bowling, having a paper route, starting food fights and, of course, riding a bike.  It’s Eli, a champion bike rider, who is teaching her all of these new skills and it’s only when spending time with him that Auden begins to understand how important it is to enjoy life and to go along for the ride.

*Elle (16 years old) inspired me to read this book; she is an avid fan of the author and thinks "Sarah Dessen's books are great".  She also loves that Auden spends the summer at the beach "having fun and learning new things...even when she's scared", including how to ride a bicycle.  "Everyone loves the beach" she adds, pointing out how almost everyone can relate to Auden's experience.*

Image credit:  http://sarahdessen.com/book/along-for-the-ride/

Upstate

Buckhanon, Kalisha.  Upstate.  New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005.  Press.

Awards

2006 American Library Association ALEX Award

Annotation

Seventeen-year-old Antonio is accused of stabbing his father to death and is sent upstate to serve a ten-year sentence.  While locked up, he exchanges letters with his girlfriend, Natasha.

Booktalk

What would you do if you were locked up at seventeen?  If you were locked up for a crime you committed trying to protect your family?  If you had to leave your friends and family behind for ten years?  If you could never see your boyfriend or girlfriend again?  If you couldn’t go to prom?  If you couldn’t graduate from high school?

This is the situation Antonio is facing at seventeen years old.  He is arrested for stabbing his father in an attempt to stop him from beating his mother.  His lawyer insists he has a good chance of being acquitted at first, but as the trail drags on things get complicated and Antonio agrees to serve a ten-year sentence as part of a plea deal.  Unable to see his family and friends, except on visitation days, he misses out on the end of high school, going to college, getting a job and watching his brothers grow up.  The one thing Antonio doesn’t want to miss out on, though, is a chance to keep his relationship with his girlfriend, Natasha, alive.  Struggling to reach her Antonio begins writing Natasha letters, and is forced to ask her “ baby, the first thing I need to know from you is do you believe I killed my father?”

Image credit:  http://us.macmillan.com/Book.aspx?isbn=9780312332686