Module 15: The Grooming of Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Summary
Alice and her friends struggle through the summer before their freshman year of high school. Instead of having the time of her life, we see our heroine faced with a new set of challenges. Alice’s father is on the verge of becoming engaged, her friend Elizabeth is struggling with an eating disorder while her friend Pamela is facing major issues at home. Alice must also learn to cope as a dear friend and mentor struggles with health issues. The Grooming of Alice spends a great deal of time focusing on body image and the idea of finding your own “normal” as Alice and Pamela contend with Elizabeth and her struggle with weight.

Impressions
Overall I think Naylor does a fantastic job addressing some tough issues teens face while refraining from becoming moralistic or preachy. The reader is allowed to process difficult issues like weight, sexuality, and relationships along with Alice. Though part of a series, Naylor creates relationships in this book in a way that makes a newcomer feel like a veteran. I quickly felt like I knew Alice, her friends and her family. As a general note, this book does express sexuality and the female anatomy in a very upfront and honest way. I would feel comfortable recommending this book to older middle schoolers (8th grade) and high school students. In my opinion, all references are made in decent taste that empowers and educates the reader.

Review: Booklist
In the "Story behind the Story" about the Alice books [BKL My 1 99], Naylor talks about how she keeps up with the contemporary teen scene. This twelfth book in the series is as relevant, candid, and touching as ever, both funny and reassuring about what it means to be "normal." It's the summer before high school. One of Alice's friends seems headed for anorexia, her older brother has a superficial girlfriend, and another friend, Pamela, is having trouble at home. When Pamela runs away and asks Alice to hide her overnight, Alice must decide if loyalty to her friend comes before being honest with her dad. Alice is a bit too wise and therapeutic (she says she wants to become a psychiatrist), but fans of the series will grab this for the poignant friendship, family, and dating stories, as well as for the facts about their bodies and insights into themselves. In a great climactic episode, the friends attend a "For Girls Only" seminar at the YMCA, where they learn about grooming and nutrition and also about male and female private parts. They gasp and giggle and cover their faces when the nurse tells them to go home and examine themselves with a hand mirror, but, of course, they do what she says, Then Alice tries to tell her father and brother about it.

Suggested Activities
I would include this book in a library display that focuses on series targeted toward older teen readers, primarily female. The display would include a sign that reads “Books Girls LUV.” I would also include the Twilight series and the Gossip Girl series among others.

Bibliography
Naylor, P.R. (2000). The Grooming of Alice. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0689826338.

Rochman, H. (2000, June). [Review for the book The Grooming of Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor] Booklist, 96, 1880-1880.

Module 14: Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Summary
In simple verse, Virginia Euwer Wolff tells the story of LaVaughn, a young teen charged with babysitting for a teen mother while maintaining good grades and potential for a good future. LaVaughn gets a job caring for Jolly’s children. Jolly, while fiercely attached to her children, is ill-equipped to care for them. With the help of LaVaughn and LaVaughn’s mother Jolly is able to get an education and learn to care for and support her children. During this process, LaVaughn gets an education into the real world, inspiring her to succeed in school to secure a place for herself in college.

Impressions
I was struck by the simple, yet powerful truth conveyed in this book. The characters in Make Lemonade are faced with enormous struggle that is understated in many cases. Wolff brings the facts to the reader and gives the reader an opportunity to meet half way with empathy and concern for the characters. LaVaughn is naive about Jolly’s challenges in many cases, which likely matches the naivety of the reader. The reader discovers the books’ heartbreaks and triumphs with LaVaughn. This book is written in verse, making it simple and void of fluff. Make Lemonade is a great read for older teens and adults. This book leaved the reader empowered and inspired to create change but person and in others.

Review: Publishers Weekly
Poetry is everywhere, as Wolff (The Mozart Season) proves by fashioning her novel with meltingly lyric blank verse in the voice of an inner-city 14-year-old. As LaVaughn tells it, "This word COLLEGE is in my house, / and you have to walk around it in the rooms / like furniture." A paying job will be her ticket out of the housing projects, so she agrees to baby-sit the two children of unwed Jolly, 17, in an apartment so wretched "even the roaches are driven up the wall." Jolly is fired from her factory job and her already dire situation gets worse. Through her "Steam" (aka self-esteem) class, LaVaughn decides that it isn't honorable to use Jolly's money to prevent herself becoming like Jolly, so she watches the kids for free while Jolly looks for work. But there are few opportunities for a nearly illiterate dropout, and LaVaughn sees that her unpaid baby-sitting is a form of welfare. Heeding her mother, LaVaughn decides that the older girl has to "take hold." She prods Jolly to go back to school, where the skills she learns not only change her life but save that of her baby. Radiant with hope, this keenly observed and poignant novel is a stellar addition to YA literature.

Suggested Activities
I would use Make Lemonade as resource for child development students, teen mothers and crisis center volunteers. While no book or person can predict each challenge a care giver or volunteer might encounter, this book opens up the realm of possibilities for the uninformed while still creating a sense of hope.

Bibliography
Wolff, V.E. (1993) Make Lemonade. New York: H. Holt. ISBN: 080502228.

[Review of the book Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff]. Publishers Weekly, 240(22), 56-56.

Module 8: The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Summary
Ember, unbeknownst to its residents, is a city underneath the surface of the earth. The city is powered by a failing hydroelectric generator charged by a river that runs underneath the city. Citizens begin to panic as blackouts become more and more frequent. With no natural or portable lights, citizens are trapped in a doomed city. Lina finds partially damaged instructions to escape the city. Her new found knowledge threatens the establishment and threatens her life. Lina and her friend Doon decipher the instructions and escape to the surface of the Earth.

Impressions
The City of Ember is a very well written and rewarding read. The book starts a bit slow in the way of plot. DuPrau takes her time letting us get to know the characters and daily life in Ember. As blackouts become more frequent the plot speeds up and we find Lina and Doon in the thick of things. This book is an excellent example of young people using knowledge and determination to solve a problem. In addition, it’s a great example of team work. Neither Lina nor Doon could escape the city without the knowledge and talent held by the other. I think The City of Ember is also a great lesson in conservation. The citizens of Ember are running out of everything, the must conserve and reuse. A perceptive reader might stop to think, “Why not conserve before stores are low?” This book also educates the reader on political corruption. The city’s mayor hoards goods from citizens for his own benefit. He will stop at nothing to keep his wealth and control, even if it means the demise of the city. Lina and Doon fight this corruption and work to save the city.

Review: Kirkus Reviews
This promising debut is set in a dying underground city. Ember, which was founded and stocked with supplies centuries ago by "The Builders," is now desperately short of food, clothes, and electricity to keep the town illuminated. Lina and Doon find long-hidden, undecipherable instructions that send them on a perilous mission to find what they believe must exist: an exit door from their disintegrating town. In the process, they uncover secret governmental corruption and a route to the world above. Well-paced, this contains a satisfying mystery, a breathtaking escape over rooftops in darkness, a harrowing journey into the unknown and cryptic messages for readers to decipher. The setting is well-realized with the constraints of life in the city intriguingly detailed. The likable protagonists are not only courageous but also believably flawed by human pride, their weaknesses often complementing each other in interesting ways. The cliffhanger ending will leave readers clamoring for the next installment.

Suggested Activities
DuPrau does an excellent job establishing setting. I would have readers choose a scene from the book to illustrate it according to DuPrau’s descriptions in the text.

Bibliography
DuPrau, J. (2003) The City of Ember. New York: Random House. ISBN: 0375822739.

[Review for the book The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau]. Kirkus Reviews, 71(10), 749-749.

Module 7: The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg

Summary
The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place details one summer in the life of Margaret Rose. Margaret’s parents leave for Peru for four weeks and place her in sleep away camp. At camp Margaret is bullied by campers and staff she responds with peaceful protest. Her refusal to participate in camp activities leads to her rescue by her Hungarian Great-uncle. For the remainder of the four weeks Margaret stays with her Uncles Alex and Maurice. Her uncles have spent four decades building decorative towers in their garden. Some consider the towers to be outsider art, others see them as eyesores. When the towers are condemned Margaret puts a plan into action that saves the towers from destruction.

Impressions
The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place is a really great problem novel that wraps lots of issues neatly into one book. Margaret deals with bullying, her parents divorce, and a crush all while saving her uncles’ towers. Margaret is a brave character who does some pretty amazing and adult things while Konigsburg shows us her inner vulnerability. This book is extremely well written and falls in line with empowering children’s classics like A Wrinkle in Time.

Review: Kirkus Reviews
Master novelist Konigsburg hones her sense of irony to a razor edge in this exploration of the back story behind one of Silent to the Bone's secondary characters: Connor's older half-sister Margaret. Margaret, 12, has just been rescued from her authoritarian summer camp by her eccentric great-uncles. She is delighted to leave the tender offices of her vicious bunk-mates and the camp director's insistence on lockstep enjoyment of all camp activities; she is monumentally alarmed to discover that her beloved uncles' backyard Tower Garden, a fantasy of steel and glass, is slated for demolition, a victim of historical zoning. Determined to save the towers, Margaret begins a campaign informed by civil disobedience (in which camp has made her proficient: "I prefer not to," says she) and civic involvement. This story condescends not one whit to its audience, passionately confronting readers with the critical importance of history, art, beauty, community, love, and, above all, the necessity to invest oneself in meaningful action. This it does with every word in place, occasionally indulging in dizzying linguistic riffs, always conscious of the ironies inherent in the acts of living and growing up.

Suggested Activities
I would include The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place in a display with books about protest and social justice. Other titles would include Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice and Esperanza Rising.

Bibliography
Konigsburg, E.L. (2004) The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place. New York: Simon Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0689866364.

[Review of the book The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg]. Kirkus Reviews, 71(24), 1451-1451.

Module 7: Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Summary
Anything But Typical, is a story told from the point of view of Jason, an adolescent boy with autism. Jason’s disability hinders his ability to verbally communicate with most people. The book details the challenges of his everyday life. Jason shares how sensory experiences most people can easily ignore affect him in ways that totally disrupt his way of life. He explains his difficulty recognizing people by their faces. Most important, Jason explains the frustration of dealing with people who do not comprehend the implications of his disorder. Despite his limitations, Jason is a brilliant writer. Through Storyboard, an online writing community, Jason makes a friend who is a fan of his work. This friend is a girl, and Jason interprets this to mean he has a girl friend. This girl friend is a great source for anxiety for Jason as he prepares to go to a Storyboard convention where he is likely to cross paths with her. Jason’s worst fears about meeting his friend are put to ease and his love of writing is reinforced at the conference.

Impressions
Nora Raleigh Baskin has done an amazing job personalizing Jason and a great job writing this book. I think that disabled individuals and people with autism are often labeled and forgotten by the rest of the population. In truth, people with disabilities are valid members of society who have contributions to make. In Anything But Typical Jason is undervalued by many because he is autistic. His Storyboard friend, who does not know of his disability, values his talent so much that she asks Jason for writing help. This book gives the reader a glimpse into the life of a person with autism with the aim at teaching instead of creating pity.

Jason is extremely knowledgeable on the ins and outs of the English language. He describes literary devices and parts of speech in this book in a way that seems natural but is education for an uninformed reader. Because of this, I think Anything But Typical would make an excellent read for an English class. The book reinforces grammar while offering the class a great read.

Review: Publishers Weekly
Baskin. (All We Know of Love) steps into the mind of an autistic boy who, while struggling to deal with the "neurotypical" world, finds his voice through his writing ability. Though Jason initially seemed a prodigy, by third grade he had fallen behind academically, and his parents reluctantly had him tested CA year later the only letters anybody cared about were ASD, NVLD, and maybe ADD or ADHD, which I think my mom would have liked better. BLNT. Better luck next time"). Now in sixth grade, Jason still has behavioral difficulties, but is passionate about his writing and actively posts stories in an online forum. There he strikes up a friendship with (and develops a crush on) a fellow writer, though he becomes distraught when he discovers they will both be attending the same writing conference. The first-person narration gives dramatic voice to Jason's inner thoughts about his family and his own insecurities, even as he withholds details (usually about incidents at school) from readers. Jason's powerful and perceptive viewpoint should readily captivate readers and open eyes.

Suggested Activities
I would organize a group of young library patrons to read Anything But Typical. We would discuss the book and its implications about people with disabilities. I would then organize a “mixer” for these children and children with disabilities like Jason.

Bibliography
Baskin, N.R. (2009) Anything But Typical. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN: 1416963782.

[Review for the book Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin]. Publishers Weekly. 256(6), 48-50.

Module 4: The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Summary
The Midwife’s Apprentice details the story of Alyce (also called Beetle), a medieval teen aged orphan who finds herself in the service of the village midwife Jane Sharp. Jane loads Alyce with chores in exchange for food scraps and a place to sleep on her floor. Alyce, who is supposed to be learning midwifery from Jane, sees a great deal of the auxiliary work involved in the trade, but no actual births. Eventually, Jane must tend to two births at once, which give Alyce a chance to prove her worth. After a successful delivery, Alyce is excited and confident in her skills as a midwife, but is crushed when she fails to successfully deliver her second baby. Alyce runs away from the village and works, for a time, as an inn keeper’s assistant. After delivering a baby at the inn, Alyce realizes that she is meant to be a midwife. Though she doesn’t know everything about delivering babies, Alyce knows that she knows more than most. She returns to Jane Sharp’s home and demands back her place as the midwife’s apprentice.

Impressions
The Midwife’s Apprentice was an easy read that simultaneously delivered a huge amount of entertainment as well as historical information. Alyce is a well developed character who is right on the brink of womanhood. Cushman gives Alyce a complex range of emotions that come across as true and honest to the reader. I was most struck by Alyce’s reaction to failure and the way Cushman narrated her emerging from failure to a place of triumph and determination in the end. Having researched women’s health in medieval and renaissance times, I am struck with the amount of detail Cushman uses to describe the methods of midwives in that time period. At the same time, the medical details of the trade never come across as boring to the reader. I think this book is an amazing resource for history classes in addition to being a great read.

Review: Horn Book Magazine
In a sharply realistic novel of medieval England by the author of Catherine, Called Birdy (Clarion), a homeless, hungry orphan girl called Beetle is discovered trying to keep warm in a pile of dung by the village midwife. The midwife, Jane Sharp, takes Beetle in to work as a servant for little food, barely adequate shelter, and cutting words. To Beetle, however, it is a step upward. The midwife is far from compassionate, but she is, for her times, a good midwife. Beetle becomes interested in the work and watches Jane covertly as she goes about her business. Beetle also adopts a scraggly cat that she has saved from the village boys' cruel mistreatment, and she feeds it from her own inadequate meals. As Beetle grows and learns, she begins to gain some hard-won self-esteem, and renames herself Alyce. She becomes more accepted by the villagers and is sometimes asked for advice. On one occasion she employs her common sense and compassion to successfully manage a difficult delivery when Jane Sharp is called away. Jane is far from pleased; she wants no rivals and is angered when a woman in labor asks specifically for Alyce. But Alyce finds she knows less than she thought, and Jane must be called in to save the mother. Alyce, in despair and humiliation, takes her cat and runs away. She spends some time working at an inn, where she learns a good deal more about herself and the world. At last she admits to herself that what she wants most is to become a midwife, and she returns to Jane. The brisk and satisfying conclusion conveys the hope that the self-reliant and finally self-respecting Alyce will find her place in life. The graphic and convincing portrayals of medieval life and especially the villagers given to superstition, casual cruelty, and duplicity — afford a fascinating view of a far distant time.

Suggested Activities
In a school setting, I would visit history classes and read excerpts from The Midwife’s Apprentice aloud to promote the book. Chapters in this book are short and easy to follow which would allow the book to “speak for itself” while not taking up too much class time.

Bibliography
Cushman, K. (1995) The Midwife’s Apprentice. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN: 0395699296.
Flowers, A. (1995, August). [Review of the book The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman] Horn Book Magazine, 71(4), 465-466.

Module 4: Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond

Summary
Kit’s Wilderness begins as Kit, a teenage boy, moves to the town of Stonygate to care for his Grandfather after his Grandmother’s death. Stonygate is a mining town where is ancestors have worked for generations. Though the mine has shutdown, a small group of teens becomes fascinated with the history of the mine and begin traveling into the tunnels under the leadership of John Askew. Askew engages the other kids in a game called “Death.” In this game, one person enters a sleep state where they “become nothing.” “Death” leads Kit to a deeper understanding of the mine’s history, and the history of child laborers who died in the mine. Kit’s Wilderness also shows Kit as he grows into a deeper relationship with his Grandfather. Kit’s Grandfather passes down Stonygate history as he enters into a demented state and eventually approaches the end of his life. During the story, Askew, an outcast, runs away from his troubled home. The fate of Kit’s Grandfather and Askew come to parallel a story within the story that Kit is writing for school. As Kit resolves the narrative he is writing, Askew returns safely home and Kit’s Grandfather finds peace before his death.

Impressions
Kit’s Wilderness is an innovative story that circumvents expectations for a young adult novel. David Almond tells three stories at once: the story of Stonygate today, the story of Stonygate’s past, and Kit’s narrative about Lak. Each story is told with a great amount of maturity and honesty that I think young adult readers will appreciate. In terms of style, I thought the story within a story device was very clever. Instead having Kit resolve the issues of the story in a realistic linear way, Almond allows him to resolve the conflicts through a fantastic creative device. Overall, I loved this book for its content and style and I would recommend it to young adult readers and adults.

Review: Children’s Literature Review: January Magazine
Whitbread-winning author David Almond's most recent book is about the place where magic, dreams and everyday life collide. Almond's prose is elegant, sparse and powerful. He manages to speak volumes with the things he doesn't say, while entrancing his readers with what he does. Kit's Wilderness is a tautly rendered story filled with equal portions of suspense, mystery and wonder. His characters are real, his situations plausible even if somewhat fantastical and his conclusions satisfying. In fact, Kit's Wilderness satisfies on every level.
In Kit's Wilderness, 13-year-old Christopher Watson -- that's Kit -- has moved back to the town that is his ancestral home of Stoneygate, an old mining town in England. His grandmother has died and Kit's parents want his grandfather's remaining years to be happy. Grandfather Watson worked in the town's nearby coal mines as did his father and his father before him. In fact, most of the town's children are descended from men who spent most of their lives below ground level. As his grandfather tells him, "As a lad I'd wake up trembling, knowing that as a Watson born in Stoneygate I'd soon be following my ancestors into the pit."
Though the coal mine has long been closed, it holds an understandable fascination for the town's children. For a group of early teen misfits, led by 13-year-old John Askew, the pit holds a special allure. As the new kid, it doesn't take long for Kit to fall in with them. Every so often, the small bunch of adolescents troop down into the pit. There in candlelight, with knives and illicit cigarettes, they play the game of Death.
The water came to me and I sipped it. The cigarette came to me and I drew on it.... I stared down at the knife as Askew laid it on the glass.
"Whose turn is it to die?" he whispered.
"Death," we all chanted. "Death Death Death Death..."
The knife shimmered, spinning. It spun on and on.
Me, I thought, as it spun to me and then away again.
Me, not me, me, not me, me, not me...
And then it slowed and came to rest.
Me.
While it sounds like this snippet gives away a lot -- perhaps even a conclusion -- this scene plays out very near the beginning of the book. And if it sounds genuinely frightening, it is. Almond's mastery is such that he takes his young readers on a haunting journey that manages to hang in some positive messages in a very subtle way. That is to say that, while Kit is the first 13-year-old protagonist of a book aimed at that age group I've ever encountered taking a drag on a smoke, Almond successfully uses the incident as a sort of sharp punctuation. The drawing on the cigarette seems like a physical manifestation of the peer pressure he's become vulnerable to since the relocation of his family. But there's more here. So much more.
Almond weaves in enough threads for three kids' books, with some left over to do justice to a novel aimed at a more adult readership. Kit's strong and growing relationship with his grandfather is threatened by the latter's ill health. So the family elements in Kit's Wilderness are very strong. Kit's growing friendship with a girl named Allie provides some wonderful dialog between these two likable and vivacious characters. Kit's dreams are rich and connected, it seems, with the fantastical events that begin to unfold around John Askew in the depths of the pit.
As with all truly successful novels aimed at this age group, moral maturation happens in the time we spend with Kit. He learns several important life lessons and grows as a person as, it seems, do those around him. Almond's virtuosity here is awesome, however. The reader never feels led or fooled. Rather Almond tells his story honestly. With integrity. And the reader is left the richer for it.
David Almond's first children's book, Skellig, was the winner of the 1998 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award. With the storytelling mastery that Almond displays here, it's not difficult to see why.

Suggested Activities
Kit accomplishes a great deal through his writing in Kit’s Wilderness. I would have a library reading group read this book and follow the reading with writing exercises. With permission, completed stories written by teens would be posted on my libraries website.

Bibliography
Almond, D. (2000) Kit’s Wilderness. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN: 0385326653.

Stark, M. (2000, July) Soul Wilderness [Review of the book Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond]. January Magazine. Retrieved from: http://januarymagazine.com/kidsbooks/kitswilderness.html

Module 3: Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Summary
Esperanza Rising begins over a decade after the Mexican Revolution. Esperanza is the daughter of a wealthy Mexican land owner. As the book begins, Esperanza’s father is killed by bandits leaving Esperanza and her mother destitute. Following the lead of their former servants, Esperanza and her mother travel to California to work on a company farm. In her new life Esperanza is awakened to the differences between wealth and responsibility. In the beginning, she struggles with her life of labor and poverty. Eventually she grows to be a good worker, and is content with her simple life because she is surrounded by people she loves.

Impressions
Esperanza Rising is a great read for young adults and not so young adults. This book expresses some really valuable themes. We learn that money isn’t everything, and there is a limit to what a person should do for money. Poverty comes with great struggle, but the poor can still live blessed and fulfilled lives. Esperanza Rising also does a really great job illustrating the struggle of manual laborers, particularly in the depression era. The book is not an overt history lesson, but the reader gets a great sense of the era.

Review: Books R4 Teens
In Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan tells the story of Esperanza Ortega, only daughter of a wealthy Mexican landowner and his wife. The story begins in 1924 in Aguascalientes, Mexico, on El Rancho de las Rosas, the ranch where Esperanza's father cultivates grapes and raises cattle. The day before Esperanza turns twelve, her beloved Papi is killed by bandits, and the girl's life of wealth, privilege, and security is shattered. Esperanza and her mother leave Aguascalientes with the people who were previously their servants and travel by train to California. There, they find work on a company farm, picking and packing produce. Esperanza and her extended family struggle through the hardships of the Depression- and Dust Bowl-era United States, and they even begin to flourish in the land of opportunity.
As the plight of immigrants and migrant workers continues to be of concern for many of us living in the Southwestern United States, this book speaks to adolescents from a variety of backgrounds. The occasional Spanish phrase increases the level of authenticity in the story, and Ryan is always careful to translate the phrases so that even someone who does not speak Spanish may easily comprehend. This book is an excellent choice for anyone interested in the Depression-era United States, the change in fortunes of immigrants from Mexico to the U.S., or the life of migrant workers in the past and present.

Suggested Activities
In a library book club, I would read Grapes of Wrath along with Esperanza Rising. Readers can discuss the similarities and differences between both groups of central characters setting out for farm work in California.

Bibliography
Ryan, P. M. (2000). Esperanza Rising. New York: Scholastic Press, 2000. ISBN: 0439120411.

Harris, J.M. (2005). [Review of the book Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan]. Books R4 Teens. Retrieved from: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/resources/booksR4teens/book_reviews/book_reviews.php?book_id=29