What else could you ever need?
I've read quite a few books lately that deal with rather difficult issues for teens, and this week's book is no exception. I read Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess, which deals with a fifteen-year-old girl named Meredith who was sexually abused by her father. She testified against him and he was sent to prison, but he is being released early for "good behavior," and her mother wants him home. This is where the book begins.
The book certainly confronts the horror of incest and pedophilia head on. Weiss does a good job of detailing the terror and helplessness victims feel when confronted by their attacker. She has two characters who have suffered at the hands of the same man, and each one deals with the trauma in different ways. It is entirely possible that this book might appeal to a student either affected by such a traumatic event or interested in studying the effects of trauma on adolescents. However, I can't say that I would use it for my classroom or recommend that anyone else use it either. In some ways, this reminded me of the book Scars which I talked about a few weeks ago, but between the two, I believe that Scars would be the better option. Honestly, Wiess' book is not very well-written, and I feel very strongly that if we are going to introduce Young Adult literature to our classrooms, we should only use books of at least fairly high quality. We want students to be immersed in what they're reading and see it as a model of how they should write. If we show them stories that are not up to a certain standard, we're not doing much to expand their minds. There is so much YA lit that deals with difficult issues well and is also well-written, and we should be directing our students toward these types of books rather than showing them ones that don't meet a certain standard.
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This week's topic is more serious than many of the other things I've discussed. Today, I want to share a book that has opened my eyes to the realities of self-harm, especially among teenagers and survivors of abuse. This week, I want to introduce Scars, by Cheryl Rainfield. Rainfield's book focuses on a sixteen-year-old girl named Kendra. The cover of the book as well as its title make it clear that Kendra cuts herself, and within the first few pages, this book makes the reader aware that Kendra is a survivor of sexual abuse. Kendra has suppressed her memory of her abuser's identity, but the trauma of the abuse and her continued terror that her abuser will come back and kill her if she tells continually haunt her. She tries to get rid of this fear and anguish through her artwork, but at times art isn't enough. In moments of extreme panic or anger, Kendra's only source of relief is the weight of the utility blade in her hand, the sharp pain as it slices through her skin, and the trickles of warm blood that immediately appear on her arm. This has been her coping mechanism for months, and it genuinely helps her let out emotion before she explodes. She needs it to survive. When Kendra finally tells her therapist, Carolyn, even Carolyn understands that for the time being, Kendra needs to be able to cut herself in order to bear her agony. Carolyn helps her (again, for the time being) cut herself in a safer way: using disinfectant on both her arm and the blade, carefully bandaging her up, and making it clear that she doesn't want Kendra to hurt herself and intends to help Kendra move to safer, healthier ways of expressing her emotion. She also informs Kendra's parents (as she is legally and morally bound to do). Eventually this strategy works, and Kendra's self-harm is drastically reduced through her therapist's careful work and patience. There's much more to the story than this, particularly in the way of Kendra's struggle to identify and face her abuser. However, I wanted to focus on the self-abuse aspect because I felt that this perspective might speak to middle and high schoolers that I would teach in the future. Even if they have not been abused, they might hurt themselves or be tempted to do so, so I thought it would be important to introduce a work those students could identify with and feel comforted by. I also think that the way Kendra's therapist handled her self-abuse added to my own understanding of the subject, and it could certainly be useful for students with friends who cut to see how the issue can be dealt with and how much love and support those who cut themselves need. There are several reasons to introduce Rainfield's Scars to a classroom, but the ones above are, I feel, the most pertinent. It offers teachers a chance to educate their class on resources and alternatives available to them if they need someone. At this point, I want to provide some of those resources in this blog so that anyone who wants to read this book or is struggling with any of the issues I mentioned knows what help is out there. One of the biggest organizations dedicated to helping those who self-harm is To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA). I have provided the link to their blog below so that anyone interested in what they do can easily access it and learn as much as I have. Below that link are a few links to other websites dedicated to helping those in need. I encourage you to visit all these sites and know what they have to offer in case (heaven forbid) you or someone you know ever needs to see it. Help is out there, and those who feel cutting themselves provides the only relief they can get need this help more than anyone else. Please visit these links and pass them along. http://twloha.com/ http://selfinjury.com/ http://hopeline.com/ http://www.selfinjuryfoundation.org/ http://www.sioutreach.org/ I know when I was in high school, I always preferred fiction books to nonfiction books. I thought fiction books were better, more interesting, and more fun to read than nonfiction, and sometimes that's the case. However, that mistakenly led me to dismiss the entire category of nonfiction. Yes, I still prefer fiction, but my college experience (this book in particular) has changed my negative view toward nonfiction in general.
The book I read was Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, and it documented the experience Melba had as part of the "Little Rock Nine," or the first nine African American students to integrate schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. Now, I've always been familiar with the times and dates and court cases associated with integration, but until I read this book, it remained simply a part of history. I never gave much thought to the real experience those first integrated students faced. I never considered the details of the humiliation, agony, disappointment, and pain they were put through on a daily basis just to get the kind of education they deserved all along. This nonfiction book opened my eyes to the reality of history. It made history personal. Too often students face the risk of learning history as something in the distant past that has no relevance, or as something that's important, but not personal. Reading nonfiction books can change this for students of all ages, and I believe it's a necessary part of their education. This week, we're talking about individualism. This raises some questions: what does it mean to be an individual? Is being an individual worth it? I don't believe there's really a single "right" answer to these questions, but it's certainly one that students ought to explore and define on their own terms, and one of the best ways for them to consider this is through reading books that struggle with these questions in different ways. A perfect example is the book I read this week: The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. Bartoletti took a real (though relatively unknown) historical figure named Helmuth Hübener and told his story from what she imagined his perspective to be. The story takes place during Hitler's rise to power in the early 20th century. Helmuth is a young German boy who slowly begins to realize that the government is lying to manipulate the German people, but Hitler's regime has created an environment where speaking out against the law is unimaginable, for it would surely bring harsh punishment or even death. There are many people who dislike the strict laws the Nazi Party has made, but the threat of punishment keeps almost everyone silent. Finally, however, Helmuth decides to take a stand. He uses his writing skills to make and distribute anonymous pamphlets to raise awareness of all the wrong Hitler is doing in Germany, even though each passing day increases the likelihood that he will be caught and perhaps executed. Helmuth's story is absolutely inspiring. I feel it would be a good choice for middle or high school students to read because it will show them that one person, even a teenager, can make a difference in the world if they stand up for their beliefs. The Boy Who Dared can teach students to find what it is they believe in and support and cling to it, no matter what the world may tell them. Students need to know that their thoughts, beliefs, and actions matter. They need to know that they don't have to simply accept what higher powers tell them. In fact, they should never just accept it! They should be encouraged to question and explore and seek the truth. Bartoletti's novel would provide students with a real-life example of how one teenager's courage made a world of difference, and that is such a necessary lesson to learn. The given theme for this week was "Good and Evil," which is a fantastic choice because it opens up a broad range of stories. My choice for this week was a book called Trafficked by Kim Purcell. I was intrigued by the description on the inside cover; this book is about a girl from Moldova who comes to America for a promise of a better life as a nanny. However, both the way she comes to this country and her experience here are horrifyingly real representations of the evil that people can do to those without power.
Hannah is placed with a family that lives in American but comes from Russia. She is meant to be the nanny of two children while the father works and the mother studies to become a doctor. The more time she spends, the more she learns about what's expected of her. For instance, she must keep the house immaculate according to the mother (Lillian)'s extremely neurotic standards. Any minor flaw results in even more work. Lillian hates to be disturbed in any way, so Hannah must add childcare in to her expected duties. Additionally, Lillian is obsessively jealous of he husband, Serge. She forbids Hannah from having any interaction with Sergey whatsoever, and scrutinizes her every move continuously. That turns into a problem once it becomes clear that Sergey has a special interest in Hannah. No matter what she does, Lillian finds a reason to hate her. On top of juggling all this, Hannah has not been paid, has been unable to communicate with her family in any way, and has ultimately been forbidden to leave the house, leaving her completely dependent upon Lillian and Sergey for everything. I don't want to give too much away, but I think this book (while certainly a difficult read) would be a good chance for high school students to confront the hard truths about our world. Human trafficking is a real problem today, and students need to know about real problems. It might be a hard sell because there are some sexual and violent elements to the book, but any book addressing this topic in a realistic fashion has to include those themes. At some point, we have to trust that our students can handle things, and I think the overall lesson on human trafficking and why it needs to be stopped is more important than coddling high school students with easier reads. For this week, we were given the theme of "love." One of the most interesting things about this theme is how broadly it can be interpreted. We can discuss it from the perspective of romantic love, friendly love, familial love, true love, or even twisted love! So, for something different, I decided to focus on the last one: twisted love. I read Stolen by Lucy Christopher, and this book was written by a sixteen-year-old girl documenting her experience with a kidnapper.
While waiting for a flight, Gemma leaves her parents in the terminal and goes to get a cup of coffee. A really cute stranger offers to doctor her coffee for her, and--unbeknownst to her--slips some sort of drug in with the sugar. He whisks her away and changes her appearance enough to get her out of the airport without being stopped. The next thing she knows, she's in the middle of nowhere in the Australian desert with the man who captured her, Ty. As the story goes on, Ty slowly reveals that he has been watching Gemma since she was 10. He truly believes that by kidnapping her, he is rescuing her from her disinterested parents and the boy who has taken an unhealthy interest in her. Ty wants to keep her with him so she's safe, and he thinks that eventually she will grow to love both the desert and him. After Gemma tries to escape and almost dies in the process, Ty finally agrees that if nothing has changed in four months, he will take her back to civilization. Not long after this, Gemma is bitten by a snake, and Ty's treatments are ineffective. So, desperate, he drives her to civilization and turns himself in at the hospital so that Gemma can get treatment. After Gemma recovers, her parents and the general public pressure her to tell them how much of a monster Ty was, but Gemma finds herself missing Ty and thinking that maybe he wasn't as bad as she first thought. The take on love that Christopher's book showed is incredibly unique. First of all, Ty was abandoned by both parents at a fairly young age, and shortly thereafter, he latched onto Gemma because he identified with her. He followed her for six years, watching over her, protecting her. At one point, Ty tackled and beat up a boy who was chasing Gemma through the woods. Ty's devotion to Gemma is formed from childhood abandonment and leads him to wholeheartedly believe that she will be better off with him, and that she will grow to love him. Additionally, Gemma's attitude toward Ty at the end of the book is fascinating. She holds onto a ring he gave her even while police are pressuring her to give a statement against him. A therapist speaks to her about Stockholm Syndrome, and encourages her to write out her experience and her thoughts throughout the entire thing, so in the last few pages, Gemma reveals that this was her impetus to write this entire story. After finishing, she looks back on all of it, and reconciles her feelings for Ty with his actions. She realizes that what he did was wrong, but she is determined to tell the courts that he is not a bad person, that he treated her well, and that he deserves to be treated fairly. What this story shows is how love can be twisted and stretched until it cannot be recognized. Is it still love? Is that how it ought to be defined? New book that's an absolutely must-read: Nancy Garden's Endgame. I don't know if you've heard of it, but if you haven't done it yet, pick it up and read it today! I have to warn you though, it's difficult to get through.
From the back cover, it becomes apparent before the book is even opened that the main character, fourteen-year-old Gray Wilton, is in serious trouble. He's been harassed and bullied and intimidated within an inch of losing his life. As the book goes on, the incidents keep piling up. The varsity football team corners Gray and his only friend on a regular basis, calling them derogatory names, shoving them around, getting increasingly more aggressive. Gray feels there is no one he can turn to, and even the reader has to agree. His father is angry, demanding, and unwilling to listen, and his mother is too weak to stand up to his father. His teachers either see nothing or pretend to see nothing. Gray is already an angry teen, and as things keep getting worse, so does Gray. He's backed into a corner. So, one day, he brings a gun to school. There are several things that make this book remarkable. First of all, even from the beginning, the reader knows that Gray is in jail, and it's strongly implied that he has killed some of his fellow students. Usually knowing this would turn us against the character. However, the way Garden writes makes us sympathize and even identify with Gray. As I was reading, I felt just as boxed in as Gray did. He had so few bright spots left in his life that even I couldn't find any. He's clearly a boy who needs some counseling and therapy, but first and foremost he's a boy who needs a friend. I genuinely felt for him; I was emotionally affected by his situation. In fact, Garden's writing was so powerful that it made me vow never to allow one of my future students to face such an issue alone. Bullying is still a real issue facing teens today. Physical, verbal, social, and cyber abuse happen on a regular basis, and Endgame brings this issue to life. Anyone who is either currently working with students or plans to work with them in the future should read this book. I promise you that you will never again look away when someone is "just getting teased a little." Reading this book is the first step toward ending bullying and protecting kids everywhere. I'm pretty sure that at some point or another, everyone has had to read Hamlet at some point or another. The storyline is familiar, at least. Prince Hamlet of Denmark is visited from the World Beyond by the ghost of his father, who demands vengeance. As Hamlet's father tells him, he was murdered by Claudius, his own brother. Shortly thereafter, Claudius took the throne (and the queen). This revelation begins the play, and it also begins Hamlet's slow descent into madness as he pursues revenge further and further, leaving his love, Ophelia, by the wayside. In fact, he tells her to go to a nunnery, and this rejection leads to her apparent suicide by drowning. However, authoress Lisa Klein decided to take poor Ophelia and push her from the margins of the story to its center. In Klein's novel, Ophelia, Ophelia tells the story from her point of view. She and Hamlet practically grew up together, and she impressed him with her wit and wisdom. They fell in love. Before Hamlet's madness began, Ophelia and Hamlet were secretly wed against the wishes of almost everyone. However, their idyllic bliss is shortly spoiled by the announcement the deceased king makes. Ophelia has a front-row seat to Hamlet's downward spiral, and ultimately must fake her own death (with the help of Hamlet's best friend, Horatio) to escape the wrath Hamlet's "play within a play" has enflamed in Claudius. Hamlet (in his madness) has openly rejected her, and Ophelia has nowhere left to go but to a convent. She takes a sleeping draught that makes her appear to be dead, then escapes disguised as a boy after Horatio frees her from the tomb in which she was laid. Ophelia gives birth to a son Hamlet never knew he had, and spends the rest of the story in the convent, working as a healer and physician for the sisters. While I applaud the decision to take a minor female character and put her in the center of the story, I think Klein might have been overly ambitious in her choice. Hamlet is so well known and so widely studied that it is difficult to reimagine it from a different standpoint. Also, since so much of the play's action follows Hamlet without Ophelia present, Klein had to create a lot of the story on her own. The storyline was good, and it certainly fit in with the original, but it still seemed like a bit of a stretch. However, it was definitely good to see what happened to Ophelia when the play left her for dead. Klein painted Ophelia as a strong, independent woman who just happened to receive a poor end of the deal. The subject matter was tough to reconcile with the original, Klein still told a wonderful story. Have you ever heard of a book called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? I hadn't before it was assigned for a class. It's a young adult novel written by Sherman Alexie, and although I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting when I first opened the book, that wasn't what I found. Honestly, it's not often that one finds a book for adolescents that's written from the perspective of a peer, much less a book with such a blunt, honest portrayal of one boy's experience. Modern society is so preoccupied with political correctness and protection of innocence that a book that confronts the problems of Native Americans and adolescents is both refreshing and necessary.
One of the best things about this book is that it actually is written in the fashion of a diary, as the title implies. That was definitely the right choice for this subject matter; I really believe it would have lost something if the format were different, like if it been done with a third-person narrator or if it hadn't stayed true to the thought process of a teenage boy. The way it was written, the reader has a chance to see all the seemingly impossible odds Arnold is up against. This is powerful in and of itself, but the brilliance of Alexie's writing lies in the fact that these impossible odds are not always placed front and center. The fact that they can, at appropriate times, take a backseat to more cross-cultural teenage problems (like having a crush on a girl) makes Arnold relatable. If we were always forced to confront issues that most of us cannot relate to, the book would not have as much of an impact. However, Arnold DOES confide in the reader these relatable issues, and because we can find that common ground with Arnold, we have even more empathy for the problems he has with which we cannot identify. |
AngelicaLaughter and literature are two of my favorite things, and I consider them to be crucial parts of my life. This blog is designed to spread life, laughter, and literature to anyone and everyone who needs them most. Photo by Tim Geers
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