YA Book Review: Shooting Kabul

Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After reading multicultural titles Bamboo People, by Mitali Perkins; The Red Umbrella by Christina Gonzalez; and Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai, I started to become critical of the books I made available to my students. I took stock of my classroom library--several hundred titles--it was lacking in variety. Where were the multicultural books? Where were the books that appeal to boy readers? Where were the books that could challenge my best readers? For each category I could think of, I wasn't happy with had. What I had was a mostly inherited collection of books, passed along by two retired teachers. I hadn't taken care of the collection by growing it, and retiring the titles that had seen better days.

What had I been exposing them to that had any contemporary value or resonance in their own lives?  Sure the yellowed and tattered Newberry winners from twenty years ago still ring true, great writing is great writing, but what about the literature being produced now? 

For the past two years I've been on a reading blitz of sorts. As best I can I pick up YA titles and have found that YA multicultural literature is out there. It just wasn't in my classroom. So, in addition to titles I mentioned above, I discovered A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata; Finding Family by Tanya Bolden, and Heart of a Samuri, by Margi Preus.

I read A Step from Heaven by An Na; The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie; and One Crazy Summer by Rita-Williams Garcia.

I read All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg; Someone to Run With by David Grossman; and Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham.

Now I've read Shooting Kabul, by N.H. Senzai. And I will be thrilled to include it in my classroom library and offer it as a book talk at the very least.

Fair or not, I am beginning to build up a expectations as I pick up contemporary YA literature. Each sub-genre carries unique expectations. Through the multicultural lens, I'm hoping my students would pick it up and be exposed to something they may not encounter in their everyday lives.

Shooting Kabul is built on the days around 9/11. Those of us who lived it (and taught through it) weren't just exposed to hatred, but immersed in it...from all directions.

Interestingly, the author notes at the end of the book that she did not want to write this book because of the sensitivity of the topic. The wounds still have not healed. How could they? Equally as interesting, my 8th graders this past year knew very little about 9/11.

(Where has the time gone?)

Oh, they knew "of" it, sure. But what was missing that had a real presence other years--an emotional knowledge and connection. The emotional knowledge of living it or gleaning bits and pieces through their family. Through the passage of time, it appears that 9/11 is beginning to take on the patina of an encyclopedia entry.

Shooting Kabul has us watch as families escape an Afghanistan growing more oppressive beneath the Taliban. Based on some of her husband's family history and escape from Afghanistan, Senzai offers many details (and opportunities for questions and classroom discussion) that my students would not likely encounter.

The family's new life in America is shattered by the events on 9/11. Living in an community called "Little Kabul" we see, from a unique perspective the fears and pressures on anyone not white. Even a Mexican is called a terrorist by an adolescent.

One note, "Shooting" in title is a reference to a camera, and not violence.

Senzai offers a comprehensive glossary of terms familiar to her culture, and unfamiliar to my traditional classroom composition.

The book reads very easily, but you wouldn't be coming to this book for its complexity of style, but for the richness of what the topic offers. I can't help but offer another photography term: exposure. Put this book on your classroom library shelf simply for the exposure it affords into a world unfamiliar to our eyes other than through the images depicted on the news--accompanied with so many explosions and so much death.

Shooting Kabul is about perseverance, love, and tolerance. I anticipate many kinds wanting to talk about what they confronted in this novel.

I highly recommend it.

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YA Novel Review: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

How many times can I write "Wow!" about a children's book? Not enough.

Kate DiCamillo's charming The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane stands alone as my favorite book that I've read this year. An adult or adolescent can read this book in under two hours--in that respect it is all children's book.

I put it down to pause and exhale a "wow" many many times.

As is the case in any book, film, or television show, story matters. DiCamillo's story is about loss, redemption, finding the ability to love within oneself, hope, being broken, and the power of time. I'm especially sensitive to the power of time in novels ever since an all too brief summer (1995) studying at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. Part of my enlightenment was that Shakespeare often devalued magic in his plays, and took great care to demonstrate that the real power and beauty in the world is in time.

Time.

It takes Edward Tulane many years and (a toy rabbit made of china, wire, and some fluffy stuff) a truly "miraculous journey" to undergo a change. Once self-centered and arrogant, the toy passes hands to many different types of owners. At times, he lays forgotten and lost in a garbage dump and at the bottom of the sea...for years and years. I love DiCamillo's patience in this regard. She makes her characters suffer.

Of course, her story has purpose without giving anything away or sacrificing her hand as at each stop along the way, Edward's shell wears away until both metaphorically and literally he is shattered.

Edward is broken.  He comes to understand the power and truth behind the line, "If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless."

DiCamillo writes a story about what it means to be human. She shows us our humanity through a once little supercilious china doll.

But like in so many instances in a life, change is possible.

It just takes a little time...and one miraculous journey.

Even though by all tokens, this presents as a young children's story, I heartily recommend it for your middle school classroom library, your high school classroom library, and your home.

Brilliant, brilliant, book.

I'll say it again...

Wow.

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YA Book Review: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My first exposure to Sherman Alexie was in the mid-90s when I saw the film Smoke Signals and then went back and read The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (the book the screenplay was built on). Both the screenplay and novel struck me as beautiful writing. I remember, “He could see his uncles slugging each other with such force that they had to be in love. Strangers would never want to hurt each other that badly.”

And I had to pull the novel off the shelf, but I remember the feelings I had reading this passage over fifteen years ago:

"How much do we remember of what hurts us most? I've been thinking about pain, how each of us constructs our past to justify what we feel now. How each of us constructs our past to justify what we feel now. How each successive pain distorts the preceding. Let's say I remember sunlight as a measurement of this story, how it changed the shape of the family portrait. My father shields his eyes and makes his face a shadow. He could be anyone then, but my eyes are closed in the photo. I cannot remember what I was thinking. Maybe I wanted to stand, stretch my legs, raise my arms above my head, open my mouth wide and fill my lungs. Breathe, breathe. Maybe my hair is so black it collects all the available light."

And then this brilliant moment near the end of the screenplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB0RgM...

"How do we forgive our fathers? Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often? or forever when we were little. Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage. Or for making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all. Do we forgive our fathers for marrying, or not marrying, our mothers? For divorcing, or not divorcing, our mothers? And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing...or leaning? For shutting doors, for speaking through walls, or never speaking...or never being silent? Do we forgive our fathers in our age, or in theirs? Or in their deaths, saying it to them, or not saying it? If we forgive our fathers, what is left?"

The "forgive our fathers" moment in the film seized me fifteen years, and then Sherman Alexie faded out of my consciousness until this past year, when I saw quite a few of my students reading his YA novel The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian. I read reviews--and adults and educators loved it. My students mostly gave it favorable reviews (a couple of boys balked at the conclusion).

But I had avoided it...and kept picking up something else, even though it sat on my desk, ready for me to read.

I felt a similar moment when I discovered Vonnegut--I started to consume all of it, and then feared nothing would be left if I read it all too fast, too soon. And then I put Vonnegut down...swore off Vonnegut for years.

I felt the same thing as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian stared at me and I stared back. Kids started borrowing it from my desk..."well, if you aren't reading it, I'd like to."

And then it disappeared into lockers for weeks...only to resurface and be scooped up again by another student.

Finally, when it resurfaced for a few days in a row I set my mind to read it over a weekend--and I did. And loved it for the following reasons:

a) Alexie's unique voice
b) the exposure I receive to Native American fears, hopes...realities
c) the humanity in his craft
d) every story he tells needs to be told
e) at their core, his stories are about survival, forgiveness, family, loss, and strength

One difference between The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is in the language...in the YA novel, the language is grittier. The youth curse. They make fun of each other. The narrator talks (briefly) about masturbation. The word "boner" appears a few times...both as a mistake, and as a teenager's physical reaction to a woman hugging him. Some adults may be offended or sour their faces at those facts--the point, in my opinion, is that this may cause some parents to steer their 12 and 13 year olds away from the book. And quite honestly, I respect that. If and when some parents want to fence out some literature because their son or daughter is too young in their estimation, that is their right. I guess, I want to say here that these pieces and bits of language are authentic to some teenagers--they are the language of some teens. It resonates as true. They can identify and connect.

And they can laugh about it.

The fact is, Alexie is an artist with language. So much of his text is poetic, powerful, and evocative.

I keep coming back to the young boy who wrote and said to me that he was disappointed in the conclusion. In my mind, he was disappointed because he read it with his own eyes and life experience, and did not have the rich experience of discussing the novel with others his own age, or even with an adult. I think he missed the nuance...he missed the craft...he missed the reward and beauty of Alexie's story.

That's a shame. I wished I had read it before him, so that I could have had that conversation with him.

I definitely recommend this for your older middle school or high school book shelf (as long as you understand what you are getting into with some of the language choices.)





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YA Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At the head of my litmus test for YA literature rests the question, "will my students like the book?"

Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone presents on the surface as another aberrant fantasy, willed and forged to be the next peculiar and maybe even unsettling HBO series--a modern Romanesque retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Except everyone is a beast.

It is so much more than that.

An attentive reader will note the patience in the writing style. The novel takes its time to develop character history and a depth of conflict. The reader...we can't really say follows because the journey is not linear...the reader steps and veers with the protagonist, Karou, a seventeen year-old female. Who also happens to be in art classes. And who also happens to run errands for a demon.

Yes, an angel falls in love with a devil...more or less. At war for centuries, Juliet and Romeo catch eyes across a crowd...and...wait, Karou and Akiva catch eyes and fall in love. He forsakes angeldom (my word) and she wants to discover who she really is. Aside from a few dramatic fight scenes or revelations of an angels fiery wings to the gasping and awe-struck general public, the angel/devil thing really fades into the background for much of the novel. The story carries the day--and an old, classic story at that--forbidden love.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone does justice to the use of magic by devaluing it (for all its impact on the plot). The real magic, as the story unfolds, is in hope. And one's will. Magic, as a matter of fact, does not solve anything and one of the powerful demons in the story, Brimstone, even speaks to the fact that all of this, the magic the war, must go away. Magic won't end the war and the war won't end anything--all war is useless. The only thing that does matter is the hope and will for a new world...a new perspective...and a coming together. A positive message and one I always appreciate in YA fantasy.

I feel like my students will like this book because its heroine, Karou, presents well. Hip, funky, honest...beautiful, artistic, clever...tough, resilient, brave...Taylor constantly places Karou in situations that reveal another favorable layer. With her long shimmering blue hair, a predilection for hand-to-hand combat, and a sharp artist's hand and eye, Karou is just likeable.

Additionally, Taylor spoon feeds the adolescent (female adolescent especially) heart with ladles of tender and/or romantic moments--the kiss where the male places his hands on her face (who could resist the two-handed face kiss?); the fact that he smells like the sea or is described with other warm and cuddly similes; and the overall patina of one true love, sought for through the centuries..."I will find you!" Etc. Etc. Etc. Adolescent hearts eat this up.

Add the moments of light humor where (with magic) Karou is able to make her ex-boyfriend's butt itch, and redesign the eyebrows of the girl he cheated on her with...into one great furry stripe. I imagine Bert's eyebrow from Sesame Street.

Initially, I pulled the book aside as possible literature circle choice because I remembered the feeling of challenging vocabulary yet one that fell into a clear 8th grade-level context. On a second reading, I started to note vocabulary words to pull for my 8th graders should they chose to read this book: scribe, tout, demurral, melancholy, irrevocably, impending, lapsis lazuli, chivvied, trill, teeming, souks, perverse, squalling, genteel, preened, plummage, lank, emanate, djellaba, plundered, exhumed, dregs, sodden, dirham, scrabble, bedraggled, smite, revulsion, juddered, loathsome, lurched, residue, appalled, keening, susurrous, seraph, seraphim, engorged, abomination, imploring, supplication, moiling, kohl-rimmed, kindled, fervor, tumult, tributaries, souks, skirr, incandescence incongruous, lissome, scapula, parried, mythos, pathos, furrowed, emanated, detonation, hindered...and that was just from pages 80 through 100!

I'm looking forward to working with next year's creative writing classes as we will be adding this book as a literature circle choice. With much to talk about here in a classical context, or in terms of vocabulary, or sentence composition and complexity...Daughter of Smoke and Bone passes the litmus test. I'm confident my kids will like it on its own merits, and then garner so much more out of it in discussion and written reflection...or imitation!

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YA Book Review: The House of the Scorpion

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Complex and rich, Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion grows from the family history created by drug lord, El Patron--a character mirroring the often bizarre machinations in characters spawned by Oscar Wilde or Nathanial Hawthorne.

El Patron, the most powerful man in the world, builds an empire on opium, slavery, augmented reality, and cruelty. He keeps himself alive for 148 years by harvesting organs from from clones created from his DNA.

The story follows the life of Matteo (called Matt), created from El Patron's DNA. We follow Matt's journey because unlike the other El Patron clones, his brains were kept intact. He was not drugged and operated into idiocy. He was not to be touched or harmed...yet, he was loathed by most around him.

It seems clones are akin to mongrels...not human. Dirty and without souls, many fear them and cringe when one is near. All, except for Matt, are kept away from humans...some strapped in hospitals or animal pens.

Beyond the main characters and those with the most text devoted to them, Farmer excels at building character. Many characters experience emotional highs and lows, moments of humanity, and moments of darkness--darkness emerging from fear, revenge, greed and several other of humanity's frailties.

In this excerpt, we see a bit of Farmer's ability to use artful dialogue to develop character. You may not know this novel, but we know a little something of Matt, Fidelito, and Consuela in just this snippet of text:


Matt blinked away tears. "How can anyone celebrate death?"
"Because it's part of us," Consuela said softly.
"Mi abuelita said I musn't be afraid of skeletons because I carry my own around inside," said Fidelito. "She told me to feel my ribs and make friends with them."
"Your grandmother was very wise," said Consuela.

The writing is so strong in The House of the Scorpion, that novels such as Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, M.T. Anderson's Feed, and Lowry's The Giver came to my mind as I read.

The plausibility of the circumstances surrounding the novel also engaged me--I didn't have to suspend belief because so much of the tale is woven on morality. Gosh, so many opportunities exist for reflection and conversation on morality, science and nature, as well as what makes us human. I love the opportunities presented here for great discussion and most certainly clean, healthy, challenging thought.

I can imagine adolescents having many questions--often beginning with "Why did he/she..."--and I do love that about this book.

Decorated like a naval hero (National Book Award; Newberry Honor Book; Printz Honor Book; ALA Notable Children's Book; ALA Best Book for Young Adults; among others) The House of the Scorpion once passed from hand to hand in my classroom (only a few years ago). Now, with so many other choices flooding the market and our classrooms, great books sometimes find themselves lost in the boneyard.

It is up to teachers, and teachers who are great readers, to keep great contemporary literature in the
hands of adolescents. Please consider adding this to your classroom library and do a book talk on this gem to keep it alive in the hands of this generation of readers.




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YA Book Review: Goliath

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While my review for the second novel in the Leviathan Trilogy was brief, I would like to take this space to summarize my thoughts on the trilogy over--as each novel strikes me as so similar that reviewing each individually would be like taking one novel (such as Cather in the Rye), dividing it into thirds and reviewing each section. The act becomes tedious, and unfair to what is a pretty good book in and of itself when you leave reviewing and blogging and "what did you think" out of the way.

Actually...what a pretty damning exercise in handing our students study guides to answer chapter questions as they read a novel.

My point--the Leviathan Trilogy feels like one Herculean book chopped into thirds to warrant the twenty dollar price tag per book. However, I was missing the engagement I felt in a trilogy such as the Lord of the Rings. Maybe my lukewarm applause comes from protagonist Alek and his Rosalind-esque mate, Deryn, only drifting from one part of the world to another more than engage in a definitive quest. There is no ring...no Mordor...even though those nasty Germans threaten to wreak havoc on the earth.

Actually the most interesting piece of all 1500 pages of the trilogy concerns the friendship between Alek and Deryn. More than the bombs, beasts, war machines, and cameos by Pancho Villa, Nikolai Tesla, et al...the trilogy works because it is about friendship and loyalty. The early stages of World War I is only a canvas...or a sneaky way to get a boy to read a book about relationships.

More of an indication of my age than anything else, I have to add that I struggled to finish the trilogy. But I did finish. Full disclosure will also reveal that I am that guy who read the first Harry Potter book and when I picked up the second I'd had enough after the first few pages. The freshness was gone for me...I needed more and read other things.

Remember all of those lines (queues) outside of bookstores?  Fans dressed in character waiting for the next Harry Potter book...that wasn't me.

All of this brings to light that sometimes YA novels do attract adult readers. I just can't imagine many adults reading this trilogy for any other reason than their kids and their classroom.

That said, The Leviathan trilogy will definitely be on my classroom library shelf because kids will like it. And kids are clearly the audience.

(Jeez, rereading what I read sounds so vile. I don't mean to bash and if it comes across that way I apologize to Westerfeld.) I'm such a Muggle.

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YA Book Review: Behemoth

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Among the books in the Leviathan Trilogy, I see more positive reviews for Scott Westerfeld's Behemoth...and, for me, I don't understand the differences. Not that I mean anything negative at all--I like the trilogy. I especially like the series for young adults.

It is safe, and clean, and a fun adventure. Worthy of your classroom library or your house if you have young kids who like fantasy and sci-fi.








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YA Book Review: Leviathan

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I learned a few things about reading and 8th grade students in the last month, and my brain is reprocessing it as I begin to move through Scott Westerfeld books:

a) adolescents read and enjoy a good series
b) many series that my students have liked are built from the sci-fi or fantasy genres
c) steampunk is a sub-genre designed for adolescents...particularly boys

One of my commitments in my burgeoning summer book pile is to read several series that my students are reading. Among those are two by Scott Westerfeld: The Leviathan Trilogy and The Uglies series--both earned the critical and finicky Kirkus Star.

Book One of the Leviathan Trilogy, Leviathan, reminds me of The Golden Compass--an fantastical adventure. And lots of snow and ice.

I read Leviathan in under 24 hours and many disparate thoughts are jostling for space-time on the blog, so I'm going to list the thoughts in no particular order:

a) the Rosalind-esque device of girl disguised as boy (having budding feelings for a boy) has always been popular and is done well in this book...the whisper of a romantic element is very faint but present.

b) alternate history needs as open (young?) mind...so much is built on the actual events of 1914 that Leviathan serves as good exposure to people, places, and ideas for young readers
i. the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by Serbian revolutionaries
ii. the assassinations led to war between Austria and Serbia
iii. the war between Austria and Serbia led to World War I
iv. the conspiracy theory that Germany coaxed Serbia into the assassinations to kick-start the war
v. Charles Darwin's discoveries and modern biology
vi. the development of fabricating new life through DNA
vii. Nora Darwin Barlow
viii. the now extinct thylacine (or Tasmanian Tiger)

Again, the novel is a good way for young people to hear the names and the basic ideas behind them, but it is not an exhaustive lesson in biology or the vagaries of the diplomacy between England, France, Germany and friends during the summer of 1914.  (We wouldn't want all of the facts to get in the way of a good story).

c) some of the magic in the book is the message that eco-systems are fragile, but can work together to improve our life and plant--the importance placed on bees, pollen, and birds cannot be denied, and given the current dangers for bees in our natural world it is nice to see them get some positive press in a novel.

d) unfamililar with "steampunk" it took a little getting used to, but I can understand why adolescent boys can enjoy it...a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy that includes social or technological aspects of the 19th century (the steam) usually with some deconstruction of, reimagining of, or rebellion against parts of it. In Leviathan the world seems to be divided between the Darwinist and the Clankers--Darwinists have fabricated new life forms (an enormous dirigible which is a cross between a whale, bees, bats, cilia, and many other species)--Clankers build machines resembling those from the early twentieth century, but with a bit of a twist.

e) I appreciate that human virtues are at the core of problem-solving in this novel: trust, friendship, loyalty to name a few.

A very likable novel, and one worthy of a place on your classroom library shelf, that may grow into a book you really like or love because it may inspire your boys to read...a series.

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YA Book Review: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When you go to bed thinking about the novel you haven't finished reading yet, when you wake up several times thinking about the novel you haven't finished reading yet, when go over in your head what you want to write on your blog before you finishing reading the novel...you are reading a good book.

I read Wonderstruck first, a few months back, and heard my 8th grade students mutter that The Invention of Hugo Cabret was better.

While I won't weigh one against the other, I will say that I loved this novel. And I have become a fan of Brian Selznick's voice.

I like the charm and nostalgic atmosphere around his characters. Both Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck takes the reader back towards the silent film era, the early parts of the twentieth century. He brings actors and buildings and real moments from history to life. Ultimately, he weaves a stories together that send me running to Google--I want to see the connections; I want to see the faces.

In the Caldecott-winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the reader follows the journey of Hugo, an orphaned twelve year-old. Hugo steals to eat, and he steals mechanical toys to bring an automaton to life--he believes it belonged to his father, and if he can make it work again, perhaps it would write him a message...a message from his father.

In the process, readers come to know the name Georges Melies (magician, inventor, filmmaker, dreamer)--Selznick has a great knack of resurrecting important and influential history. I love how he uses museums, celestial mythology, and friendship in each.

Museums are places of magic, imagination, and wonder.

The mythology--the lightning in Wonderstruck; the legend of Promethus and the stars on Melies' cape (Hugo) are the centers of that familiar rustling we feel and hear--the ancient bonds we have with the natural world--awestruck, our very core still regards the stars, the moon, the lightning as the forces romanticized by Shakespeare. Humans star at them in the same manner as dogs will stare off towards the woods--a thread of ancestral memory tweaked--feeling more than remembering the days when they roamed free, undomesticated.

The magic in the friendships--boy to girl--and child to adult--distinguishes itself from much of the conflict written today. A year or so ago, I asked YA author Christina Gonzalez if she could think of any YA novels featuring a male adult with a positive influence and connection to the teen protagonist. I had recently read Jacqueline Kelly's The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and connected with grandfather--and respected the relationship Kelly managed to forge between male adult and child. Selznick does that here to a certain degree. While Hugo and Melies' relationship begins with theft, the reader understands (long before we learn who Melies is from history) that the old man feels a developing bond, sees something in the kid, and we can feel that they are destined to come together at the end of the story.

A wholesome adventure--imagine fresh milk and homemade apple pie from your great grandparents--and imagine sitting with them and enjoying it with them for the first time.

Read the book, and then put it in your classroom library. When a kid asks for something to read--you can hand them this book with confidence.

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YA Book Review: The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My 8th grade students speak of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book in a different key. Reverential, they utter the word "weird"...and then from that deepest pit of their bellies they almost always agree, "soooo good."

And then they say nothing else. The memory of the book makes them silent--as if they travel back into the experience for a moment.

Obviously, I'm processing my own thoughts about The Graveyard Book by recalling snippets of the reactions of my students--these were my first encounters with the novel. After the fifth or sixth similar reaction, I finally bought the book and read it over the course of a few days.

Gaiman builds the story around a prophecy--a child will be born who will end the reign of a magical, dark, organization. This group's power and influence has infiltrated all walks of society for thousands of years--and they very much would like to see this child dead.

They murder his family, but the infant escapes and finds itself protected and raised by phantasms of the graveyard--the dead rise, those neither living nor dead appear, and witches, ghouls, demons, and shape-shifters round out the rest of the cast.

And as Gaiman notes in his Newberry acceptance speech, he didn't write a book about childhood...he wrote a book about parenting. "It takes a village to raise a child" is deconstructed and reimagined as a graveyard.

I really liked the story--I too have that same visceral respect that I hear in my students' voices. You read this for the same reasons that you read Mary Shelley or watch a Tim Burton film--there are story tellers and there are artists who tell stories. Gaiman's work is art--and like so many museum-goers standing before Van Gogh's color and stroke or a larger-than-life Rothko, silence and awe speaks volumes.





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YA Book Review: An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like clever--and clever books...even better. John Green's An Abundance of Katherines strikes me as the kind of clever young adult readers like. Beyond the clever, An Abundance of Katherines is a fun coming-of-age story.

We following protagonist Colin Singleton on his summer journey with best friend Hassan Harbish. They climb into a car and begin another very American tale: the hero lighting out for the territory. Modern tongue knows it as "the road trip."

Their road trip bears the weight and expectation of helping Colin heal from a recent dumping. Over the course of his life, he has dated (1) nineteen consecutive girls named Katherine...and only ever remembers being the Dumpee, and not the Dumper.

Colin's defining characteristics drive his teen angst: intelligence and promise. Most recently, math consumes his attention as he works on a Theorem to help explain himself, or at the very least, explain his story. He intends to create a Theorem that explains the arc of failed romantic relationships--and he hopes to be able to predict the ending of any one relationship in the future. To test his math, he continues to plug in the circumstances of each and every Katherine who ever dumped him.

John Green writes in an Afterword that he has never been good at math, yet has always been interested by it. He recruited the assistance of a friend and math genius to compose accurate and real formulas as they pertain to Colin's machinations (2). Throughout the graphs, charts, and rough drafts of formulas, the reader is kept apprised of the progress of the Theorem.

As someone who generally found his own teenage relationship with math a mutually conceded anathema, I loved the use of math in this novel. I barely understood the forumlas, but I did not have the to--I understood the story. And that is a lesson that Colin learns.

Math can connect some dots, as can story telling--which is just as prevalent a tool for Green as math.

Colin and Hassan agree to a summer job where they record the stories of the citizens of an old Tennessee town only years from being snuffed out by the economy. The numbers just won't work anymore. The only remaining industry in town is failing and can only keep the town afloat for a few more years. The citizens don't know it--Colin and Hassan don't know it--but the recording of the memories serves to preserve the town and they way things once were...all while Colin struggles to come to terms with his own memories of nineteen doomed relationships.

Colin's developing formula is in a way a record of the memories of his failed relationships--something which seems impossible to calculate. It would appear to be much easier to write a formula that predicts the end of the town's relationship with its citizens. (3)

An additional treat, Green uses footnotes as way of adding author commentary (and humor)...as I've imitated here. I found this another way that Green embedded numbers into the fabric of story telling...as I said earlier, clever.

And I liked clever.

An Abundance of Katherines is clever and entertaining in its use of numbers and story telling--that much is true. Yet, like relationships, An Abundance of Katherines stands strong because it is more than math. As Colin learns, relationships are about much more than numbers--they are about people.

And people, unlike numbers, are very unpredictable.





1. "dated" is a loose term as we are counting girls all the way back into elementary school

2. His friend explains the math at the end of the book. None of it made sense to me even though I read his explanations and enjoyed them.

3. This doesn't happen. I'm just saying...

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YA Book Review: Jasper Jones

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Printz Honor winner Jasper Jones begins fast--the title character (the town teen pariah) knocks on the bedroom window of a boy he barely knows and leads the protagonist, Charlie, to the dead body of teen female dangling from a noose.

The novel strikes me as a bit of a homage to Mark Twain. While the protagonist reads Puddin' Head Wilson and discusses Twain with his father, much of the novel smacks of the memorable components from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Puddin' Head Wilson.

Jasper Jones himself is cut from the cloth of Twain--part Injun Joe and part Huck, Jasper appears and disappears. He has dragged Charlie into a crime that no one can solve...and by doing so drags the reader into the tension as well. The piecing together of clues and the reasoning he occurs between Jasper and Charlie draws on the litigious merits of Puddin' Head in addition to Atticus Finch (who Charlie also mentions and regales in the novel).

For page upon page, we wait for the other shoe to drop. We wait for someone in charge to discover the body, to find A clue, to approach Jasper or Charlie and bring them in for questioning. We look over our shoulder for the spotter planes, the detectives, the search parties to find the body of adolescent Laura Wishart.

As the tension grows palpable, and as Jasper and Charlie uncover truths even more horrible than the body of the dead girl, author Craig Silvey develops some wonderful complexities of plot among side characters: Jeffrey, Charlie's parents, Jeffrey's parents, and Mad Jack Lionel (the murderous man the town hates and fears). Charlie's own Becky Thatcher, Eliza Wishart, evokes the spirit of Audrey Hepburn, or rather Holly GoLightly, and continues the very vivid resonance of Twain's influence and inspiration on Silvey...not to mention the fact that the hateful, racist, and judgmental town mirrors the hypocrites of St Petersburg, Missouri.

There's even a body of water--although this one resonates more with Marilyn Robinson's wonderful lake of the damp and eerie fictional town of Fingerbone in Housekeeping. Robinson's cold lake swallowed secrets...as does Silvey's.

I really like Jasper Jones--mainly because I loved being yanked into adventure immediately, and I thoroughly enjoyed the characters. I felt compassion for Mad Jack; I laughed at and with Jeffrey; bitterness for the townspeople just to name a few emotions.

"By Jingo!" to inoke The Adventures of Tom Sawyer...this is an entertaining coming-of-age adventure combining coming-of-age, crime, and the passage from innocence to experience.

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YA Book Review: Marcelo in the Real World

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
My rating: 4 of 5 starsWalk the Walk

The balance of ugly and beautiful, truth and deceit, innocence and experience carries Francisco X. Stork's Marcelo in the Real World.

Marcelo's journey takes the reader through a considerable number of encounters and moral confrontations that would test anyone, let alone someone on the autism spectrum. And I admire the fact that Stork created a journey where it doesn't matter that Marcelo has a form of Aspergers--it both is and is not the story.

The morally bankrupt decisions made by others would occur whether Marcelo was there or not--true, Wendell does try to take advantage of Marcelo, but once the reader gets to know Wendell he'll realize that Wendell would try to take advantage of anyone. And does.

The language, unapologetic and raw, compliments some of the realities we all encounter at some point in the real world. I liked that Stork gave Marcelo a trusted spiritual advisor in the rabbi as well as budding, and patient,friend in Jasmine. Women are victimized and marginalized in this "real world" and it takes young men like Marcelo, the fired Robert Steeley, Jasmine's childhood friend Jonah, or attorney Geronimo Garcia, to balance the assault on men on could perceive in the novel.

Without a deft hand, Stork's novel could have simply fallen into the theme of "Men can be cruel in the real world" and left it at that--but it remains much more than that.

While the implied inevitable romance with Jasmine does feel a little forced or disjointed to me (taking it any further would have marred the book), I enjoyed Marcelo's journey and certainly give the highest recommendations to this novel.

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YA Book Review: Godless

Godless by Pete Hautman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Only introduced to Pete Hautman's writing this past week after diving into two reading books by Nanci Atwell and Donalyn Miller. The prevailing opinion is that Hautman rates high with adolescent male readers--well, after flying through Godless, I have to admit that he rates pretty high with me too.

Godless completely entertained me.

On the surface the idea seems silly enough--a small group of adolescents decide to worship the town's water tower as its god...its almighty deity. The ensuing mess they find themselves in with their parents and the law reads true and believable.

What starts out as something tongue-in-cheek and in good humor quickly unravels into a brush with death for one boy, and a potentially psychological nightmare for another. Questions of faith, self-image, and friendship buoy the fast-paced plot through any sense of heaviness or ideological debate.

As the protagonist states, after his father attempts to force feed him theological texts during his grounding:

"I read as much as I could. They're all pretty much the same."


"Oh? You're telling me that Teen Jesus is indistinguishable from Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain?"


"They all require a belief in a supreme being. If you don't believe in God, then the books don't mean much."

And this is where Hautman handles the polarizing topic of religion magically. He allows the teenage protagonist to envy those with faith even though he has no idea what he believes in himself:


"I'm not sure what I am."

This is about as deep as it gets. Hautman offers the opportunity for some interesting discussion, but in terms of bang for your buck, you're getting this book for your classroom library for the sheer fact that it is an entertaining book for adolescents--who wouldn't love to read about their climb up onto, and then in, the monolithic water tower for a midnight swim? Outlandish, daring, and stupid pretty much sums up some of the chances I took as a teenager...and Hautman doesn't ever forget that that magic is part of the privilege of being young.

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YA Book Review: Where Things Come Back

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

John Corey Whaley's (Where Things Come Back) antagonist Cabot Searcy steals the show. He reminds me of Hazel Motes from Flannery O'Conner's Wise Blood. Searcy learns about a secret writing called "The Book of Enoch" and can only be found in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible--upon reading its story of the archangel Gabriel being sent to Earth by God to destroy the children of the fallen angels, Cabot Searcy becomes consumed with it.

Searcy's plot line plays second fiddle to the protagonist Cullen Witter for much of the novel--and for much of the novel I felt in limbo. Nothing seemed to happen...even though I was intrigued and had bought in to the lives of the small town people of Lily, Arkansas.

Consumed by the possible return of a thought-to-be-extinct woodpecker, the townspeople of Lily embrace the hope that elusive Lazarus woodpecker has resurrected itself in their humble town. Led by college professor John Barling, the townspeople believe because they want to believe--they need to believe--that something special could happen for them. Upon this backdrop that we join in the ten-week wait, the patient and painful ten-week wait, for any word or sign of their youngest son, fifteen-year-old Gabriel Witter. Gabriel vanished one day without a trace just a week or so after attending the funeral of their cousin Oslo Foukes--a local junkie who succumbed to demons he could never defeat.

And as a reader, you wait, and wait, and wait for any sign of hope...for any tangible proof that this woodpecker has returned, and for any shred of evidence for a lead into what happened to Gabriel Witter. You hold it together with Cullen, yet like Cullen, you have no idea what to believe...or how Gabriel's story will end. Whaley's narrator processes this for the reader, and for me, serves as the heart of the story:

"We can be comforted in the fact that life will always be a struggle. There will always be false hopes. Lazarus woodpeckers. There will be John Barlings to lead us astray and Oslo Foukes to remind us that maybe we are doing things right after all."

I can imagine my stronger and mature student readers caught up in this book and definitely recommend it for a classroom library anywhere from 8th grade and up.



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YA Book Review: The Running Dream

Positive.  Uplifting.  Inspirational.

Unlike any book I've read recently, positive energy radiates from Wendelin Van Draanen's YA novel The Running Dream.  I'd added the book to my "to read" pile at some point this summer and over the course of a few months several books have shouldered their way past it and into my hands.

It took my overhearing a conversation in my 8th grade classroom a couple of weeks ago for me to anchor the book solidly into my upcoming (current) reading blitz during the holiday break.  A student saw the book on a cart near my desk and told her friend that The Running Dream is a favorite of hers, that she loves the book, and loves the author--and she talked about the book with the widest eyes and biggest smile.  She didn't a lot, it was just the way she said it that grabbed my attention.

And now I understand why.

High school junior Jessica Carlisle runs.  And runs.  And runs.  She is the best runner for her high school and among the best in her county--The Running Dream takes us on her inspiring journey to learn how to run again after suffering an awful accident which claims one of her legs.  However, the novel is bigger than that as Jessica forms a new friendship with a girl, Rosa, who was born with cerebral palsy...and the novel takes on a patina which is more than just about one girl overcoming an awful blow and challenge, it is an upbeat and positive call to see people for who they are, not for what they have or can do.

Jessica grows sensitive to all that Rosa does not experience in life, and becomes especially sensitive as to how she presents Jessica to others.  Her mother asks her at one point why she didn't tell her that Rosa has cerebral palsy.  We know as a reader that it isn't because Jessica is embarrassed by any of it.  As she says to newswoman interviewing her later in the novel when speaking about a goal she and Rosa are working on together, "Don't sum up the person based on what you see, or what you don't understand; get to know them."

Many of the characters in this novel remind of some of the best young people I've ever had the privilege to know and work with as a teacher and coach.  And by best I mean positive, generous, and thoughtful to the nth degree--if you are a teacher you see this in your students.  Some young people just get it and make you feel blessed to know them as you marvel at their passion, kindness, and positive influence.

The positive energy of young people radiates and fills rooms.  When others catch on, it radiates and fills a community--however, what you learn about this positive energy is that when it is planted inside someone, it roots itself.  It isn't temporary.

It is catching and pervasive much in the same way I imagine negative energy anchors people down and destroys them.

Take the best elements of the films Soul Surfer, Patch Adams, Pay It Forward,  and you have The Running Dream-- a book that carries that same positive radiance that roots itself in people and helps mold them into the people we hope they can be--for all of the challenging obstacles in this novel there isn't one heartbeat of negative energy in it.  As I imagine we all want our kids to be exposed to as many positive and uplifting experiences as possible, this is a book you must include in your classroom or in your home.

Book Review: Hold Still

Recently, I bought the entire collection of novels from Penguin's publishing wing entitled "Point of View" --these are novels dealing head-on with topics many people find difficult to discuss.  Having just read and reviewed Thirteen Reasons Why, I picked up Nina La Cour's Hold Still yesterday and could not put it down (I finished it in two sittings)--both of the novels I read in the last 48 hours explore teen suicide.  I am working my way through these novels a few at a time, but I need a break every now and then from the prickly texture and weight of the subjects...but I am finding this is a beautiful stretch of novels.

In Hold Still, La Cour builds characters and relationships brilliantly--every character in this book resonates with life.  Even the protagonist's brief encounter with demolition expert near the end of the novel rings true.

While there is a lot to love in this novel (especially Caitlin's new friend, the "new girl in town" Dylan), I found myself admiring and moved by the subtle (and some not so subtle) layers of art and sensitivity.  If you read the novel, you'll enjoy the significant role photography plays in the lives of several characters.  It is used as a template for relationships, self-discovery, and self-expression.  The writer obviously cares a hell of a lot about art, and does great justice to the soul of the artist.

There is the art of writing (and a nod to beauty in song writing) and the art of theater and acting along with the art of photography...and the fact that La Cour writes the photography teachers as one who is exploring herself through her own imperfect art is a welcome touch.  Aside from the obvious arts, the writer also presents the art of friendship, the art of family, the art of love, and the art of forgiveness just to list a few of the big ideas.

One of the hallmarks of a great novel is that it gives me things to talk about, think about, and it asks great questions.  Just today, I could probably write a half dozen reviews of Hold Still and focus on something different each time.  My mind is swirling around all of the ideas that I want to express here, but in its simplest form what impresses me the most is that while Hold Still is built on a very difficult issue, it strikes me as brilliant that there are so many rich topics to discuss here beyond the very heavy and conspicuous iron post driven through each page of the novel--the intrusive and cruel iron post of teen suicide.

Yet, I've settled that I want focus on the writer's artful use of the tree house and the old theater as one example of the complexity of the novel's many layers: 

Caitlin, the protagonist, eventually sets to building a tree house one piece of wood at a time much in the same way that she is rebuilding herself one piece at a time after losing her closest friend.  This is not something she is fired up to do right from the outset of the story--actually, she is reluctant to the idea.  Her parents have a large pile of wood dropped off in their back yard because they know their daughter likes building things, likes projects--but in the current state of anger and depression she is inno mood to build.  So, the wood sits in a pile on the property...a parallel to Caitlin who can't sleep in her own bed.  She sleeps in the backseat of her car in the the driveway.

Slowly, she warms to the idea and begins by building a ladder.  As the novel grows and Caitin's rocky relationships are steadied and righted, the tree house comes together more and more.  At the same time, the date is finally announced for the demolition of a town landmark, a movie theater that Caitlin and her friend Ingrid secretly loved and shared together.

The demolition date was never set for a long time, just as the rebuilding of a life (Caitlin's life) could not have been predicted or planned.

This wonderful juxtaposition of rebuilding and demolition cross paths at the end of the novel in a beautiful final image of Caitlin taking a self-portrait of herself in front of the pile of rubble which was once the theater.

I want to write more about this novel--I want to tell you about the epiphany Caitlin has where she discovers and defines what friendship is...I want to write about the brave and ballsy pen of La Cour...I want to write about the theme of curiosity...I want to write about self-mutilation...I want to write about a teen's self-image...there is much to say and discuss here.

However...

If I say too much here then I reveal too much here--I want to keep this review brief but sharp and plain.  I want you to read this book because this a great book.

Beyond all else, it is an artist's book written by an artist ready for recommendation to any high school student in your life.

photograher - Sarah Moon (one of the artists mentions in "Hold Still")

Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

Jay Asher's YA novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, provides an opportunity to open the discussion of suicide, with ourselves...our friends...our families.  As a reader and teacher I appreciate the recurring concept that so many moments of our lives are connected to the lives of others--and we never know what others carry with them when they come into contact with us.

The novel plays much like a guided tour in an art museum--Clay Jensen is our guide through a recounting of events leading to the end of Hannah Baker's life.  We hear her unsettling journey through a set of cassettes created to be mailed to thirteen people who played a part in Hannah's suicide.

Clay is number 9 on the list--his suspense is our suspense.  His angst is our angst.  And, as the novel concludes, Clay's journey forward leaves us to take our own journeys forward--hopefully having learned something about being more aware of ourselves and those around us.  We, in a sense, held onto Clay as we moved through the novel and as he literally hustles up the hallway to take a positive step forward in his life, we can feel ourselves let go, or being let go.  If a million people read the book then we are all letting go to move forward on a million separate paths...which ultimately will cross and affect (a million?) others as soon as today.

After reading a book like this you can't help but ask yourself what you will do with your path--no matter how old you are.

I am especially struck by the fact that the safest havens in Hannah's life were taken from her incrementally.  Admittedly, this didn't dawn on me at all until 1/2 way through the novel--Asher does a great job of making sure his themes and big ideas come out clearly--he respects the reader, but finds a way to make certain his messages are not missed.

Another element worthy of discussion is Asher's decision to exclude Hannah's parents from her life just when she could have used them the most.  Oh, they are present (barely)--she has parents--but Asher lays this story out with a reality any parent has to come to grips with--they can not be present at all times in their child's life.  Asher keeps Hannah's parents well on the outskirts of her private life dealing with their own business, their recent move, and their own private lives.

Similarly, as Clay takes us on his journey, his mother checks in with him (warily) from time to time throughout the novel and gives him the space and trust to continue on his path...even though we are fairly confident as readers that she is aware that he is lying to her.  Suspecting something is up, she too remains on the outskirts of this moment in his private life.  Clay is wearing his emotions on his sleeve--even the male working at a diner sees it on his face and doesn't charge Clay for his milkshake.

As an adult, the roles adults play in the novel is compelling--because as much as I'd like to say otherwise, Asher's inclusion of adults is fair and honest.

Asher's homework is evident--the characters make choices that feel like those made by real teens--not romanticized versions of a sixteen year-old.  Their world feels real--the adults almost feel like the furniture in the room--they are there when you need it, they just kind of came with the house, the school, their life.

And I'm not so sure this isn't really what adults are at moments of high stress and anxiety in a teen's life.  Sometimes we are the last person they turn to (as is the case in the novel) and even at that the novel makes me question the job we do as adults to establish those connections of trust and comfort without forcing ourselves over into that other plane of reality, the plane teens ride through life on.

From what we are given in the novel, Mr. Porter had as much of a chance to save Hannah as Clay--even though he is the adult, his connections are very different.  I don't pity him nor do I blame him, but his character makes me disappointed because I know he is real...and so, the question I walk away with as a teacher, is how do we go from being the furniture in the room, who the Hannahs in the world turn to last, to someone who can maybe be a positive influence from the beginning?

Are we no more than the diner owner who offers to waive the charge for a milkshake, a mother who has to trust and let her son go on his own journey, a dad helping a son with an engine, the teacher who sets up well-intentioned structures in her class yet they are abused by individuals...are these connections meaningful...are we on the surface no matter what we do?  Do we ever dig deeper with young people--or are they set on digging alone, or only with their own kind?

The real connections in Thirteen Reasons Why, the meaningful connections, are made between the teens--the book is their world, and their world is on a very different plane from the world of the adults in their lives, even though many of us (youth and adult) extend our hands to each other and cling to each other. 

I know many young people have read and will continue to read this book--I can only hope that more adults also pick it up in the hopes that it allows us to extend one more hand to the other plane...the plane we once stood on in our lives when we were teenagers.  At some point we made that leap out of that world into this one: the one with mortgages and loans; the one where we come face to face with our adolescent dreams; the one where our failures grow heavier with age; and the one where the love shared with our children, our talents, and our accomplishments makes it all worth it...it is incumbent on us to help everyone realize their hopes and dreams...to help everyone edge closer towards their happiness and the beauty in the world...and it is incumbent on us to play our part with as much passion, selflessness, and awareness as is humanly possible.

We may not all always be a part of the solution, but at the very least we can all make sure that we are never a part of the problem.

Well done, Jay.

The Lens of Strong Nouns & Verbs

My 8th grade creative writing classes are studying the use of strong nouns and verbs, and I asked YA author Mitali Perkins to build our recent author chat on that topic.

A concern I have is that many students assume that using a strong noun or verb simply means extracting a weak one and easily inserting a better one.  Many worksheets seem to be built this way, but that exercise doesn't properly translate to the reality of a writer's experience.

I wanted to avoid treating the topic as if we were about to exercise our steady hand with the board game Operation.

Perkins framed her opening remarks around the concept that a writer shares power with their reader.  Strong verbs, for instance, can change the plot and set the reader free to own the action.  Don't be afraid to let your reader figure things out through your verbs; we don't have to be bossy as a writer and over explain every moment and fill in the space between each breath with backstory.

For instance, a writer can tell a reader how to feel by writing, "Jeff was sad."  The alternative is to use place and strong verbs to feed our reader's imaginations.

When building place in a revision, try to add a lot of strong nouns while capturing as many of the senses as much you can.  Our imagination engages good, strong nouns.  When you are doing a good job writing you are trying to engage all five senses.  Writing is always about that weave of people, place, and plot.

Mitali posed the following example:

Weak:
As I walked through the hot marketplace, I saw many colorful things.

Strong:
I wandered through the stuffy alleys, shaking my head as vendors sang the praises of their wares, trying to lure me closer. There were piles of orange and yellow lentils in hanging baskets, narrow bottles of golden oil, copper pots in a range of sizes, and strings of blue rubber sandals. Naked lightbulbs hung from low ceilings, glowing on the faces of the men and women sitting cross-legged in the center of each narrow stall.

By the time I reached the enclosed fruit and vegetable market, sweat was pouring down my back. I sniffed the fresh ripe fruit and fingered piles of glossy zucchini, red tomatoes, green bell peppers, and purple onion.

I like that my students saw and heard that you have to be willing to add, expand, change, stretch, and engage the senses.  The above example allowed me to provide a new lens for my students--write with patience.  Don't extract and replace single words--dig deeper.

The only difference between you and a Mozart is that he took the time to run his fingers up and down the strings, up and down the strings--take your time to run your fingers up and down the strings.

While some students haven't quite understood the concept yet ("What is another word for 'closet?'") the best we can do is provide examples, mentor texts, and mentor experiences such as an author chat if it is available to you.

I found another (more detailed) blog about a similar lesson with Mitali which is worth reading if you are interested in helping your young writers understand the concept of place: Creating the Magic Carpet of Place on the blog Spilling Ink which is designed specifically for the teachers of young writers.

M. F. Hussain - artist

Interesting YA Writing Contest

Interesting writing contest hosted at http://shelleywatters.blogspot.com/ where you basically just submit a first page

This contest is only open to YA, Middle Grade, memoir, pop-culture non-fiction, and women’s commercial fiction.

So here's how the contest will work:

1. Be sure your work fits into one of the following genres: YA, Middle Grade, memoir, pop-culture non-fiction, and women’s commercial fiction.
2. Sign up on the link below.
3. On June 25th, post your title, genre, word count and the first 250 words on your blog for critique.
4. From June 25th through June 26th, hop around to the other contestant's blogs and critique their first 250 words.
5. On June 27th, come back to my blog and post your final entry on my dedicated contest entry blog post. Be sure to include:
1. Your email address
2. Title, genre, wordcount
3. Your polished first page (250 words) Don't stop in the middle of a sentence.
4. Where you follow me
5. Where you spread the word

That's it!


The literary agent judging the contest will read all of the first pages and select one for a full request (which will include at least a partial critique). She will also request partial for the runners up that she selects!

Contest rules:

1. You must be a follower of my blog and/or Twitter
2. You must spread the word, via twitter, fb, blog post, whatever.
3. Your work must be complete.
4. Your work must fall into one of the following genres: YA, Middle Grade, memoir, pop-culture non-fiction, and women’s commercial fiction.
5. You do not have to participate in the critique portion of the contest, but why would you miss the opportunity to polish that baby until it shines before Victoria reads it?