Boy Proof

Boy Proof

Author: Cecil Castelluci

Page Length: 203

Reading Level: 3

Genre: Fiction

PLOT SUMMARY: Victoria, known to all her friends as Egg, is a senior at a Hollywood High School. She is a cineophile who loves movies; her knickname, Egg, comes from her favorite movie – Terminal Earth. Egg’s become an expert at keeping people at bay – her friends, her mother, and even the new guy. Egg soon discovers that pushing everyone away may not be what she wants after all. Egg thought she was boyproof, but she’s jealous of Nelly and the attention she gets from Max. Egg begins to discover that she can’t do everything all by herself. She really does need love and friendship from both her family and friends. How can she undo the damage she’s already done?

REVIEW: Teen readers will be able to relate to Victoria’s (Egg’s) self conscious attitudes and her feelings that she must keep everyone at bay. Readers will also identify with her need to belong and her deep desire to want to be beautiful and feel comfortable with herself. Egg discovers that she does need people. That she’s talented and must learn to believe in herself. It’s interesting that her choice after being in the running for Valedictorian at school is to not go to college right away and instead work as an apprentice in costuming with her father. Some cautions – typical teen behaviors in one sense but point of discussion about acceptable behavior toward parents and friends – Egg pretty much walks all over her mother and comes and goes whenever she wants. Overall, the message is the book sends is a good one—Victoria had to find herself, throw off her cloak, and become comfortable with who she was before she could find love and happiness.

AREAS FOR TEACHING: connecting text to self, sequence of events, cause and effect, making predictions

TOUCHY AREAS-PAGES: references to sexuality, language (2-3 times)

RELATED BOOKS: Plain Janes, Janes in Love, Beige, The Queen of Cool

MOVIE, MUSIC, ART CONNECTIONS: The Breakfast Club, Can’t Buy Me Love

RELATED WEBSITES:

http://www.misscecil.com/

http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/book.php?id=269

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make-up_artist

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/13188-skills-for-healthy-living-learning-to-like-yourself-video.htm

REVIEWED BY:  Dayna Taylor

Born Confused

Born Confused

Author: Tanuga Desai Hidier

Page Length: 500

Reading Level: 7

Genre: Fiction        

PLOT SUMMARY: Dimple Lala, an American of Indian decent, is turning 17.  She has tried to deny her roots of being Indian, although her greatest attachment in life is to her now deceased grandfather who lived in India. As Dimple tries to find her place in life, she finds herself caught between her parent’s ideals and values and the lifestyle of blonde hair blue-eyed, Gwyn, her best friend since grade school.

Dimple’s parents try to set up a marriage with their long-time friend’s son, Karsh. Refusing to be a part of the set up, Dimple releases all claims to Karsh to Gwyn who is totally intrigued with “Indian” culture, which is posh in the New York setting.  As Dimple sees Karsh in his D. J. mode, she realizes she does have feelings for him, but thinks he is attracted to Gwyn. 

Dimple becomes aware of not only her Indian culture and its importance, but begins to discover herself through her experiences with her parents, her cousin, Kavita, Gwyn and her romances, Karsh, and her own photography.

REVIEW: Tanuja Desai Hidier does an excellent job of writing a great book about a teen of Southeast Asian Indian decent coming of age in America. The book addresses several touchy areas such as the use of underage drinking, marijuana use, a lesbian affair and a character that is a transvestite that the teacher should be aware of before a student reads.

Her descriptive writing is some of the best I have read in young adult novels and the pages noted could be used as examples for a class lesson, even if the book is not being read as a class novel. 

At a seventh grade reading level, the book is quite lengthy and I would suggest for the advanced, mature female reader. However, I enjoyed it immensely.

AREAS FOR TEACHING: Descriptive writing (through out the book but noted on p. 18, 57, 163, 212, 217, 337, 436-440) Cause and Effect, and Compare and Contrast (different cultures)

TOUCHY AREAS-PAGES: Underage drinking, Drug use (p. 251-265), lesbian relationship (p. 310), transvestite (p.314).

RELATED BOOKS: Time Out, New York Asian New York Special, Desilicious Anthology, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, The Border, Imaginary Men, A Step from Heaven

MOVIE, MUSIC, ART CONNECTIONS: Short Films by the same author: “The Test” (1996) and “The Assimilation Alphabet”

Author is also a member of “Angels and Whips” (band)

RELATED WEBSITES:

www.thisistanuja.com/index.html

www.amazon.com/Born-Confused-Tanuja-Desai-Hidier/dp/0439510112

www.desijournal.com/book.asp?articleId=26

www.allreaders.com/Topics/info_35479.asp

www.asu.edu/clas/english/englished/yalit/bornconfused/index.htm.

www.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=2731

REVIEWED BY: Shirley Wagner

Journey

Journey

Author: Patricia MacLachlan

Page Length: 83

Reading Level: 5

Genre: Fiction

PLOT SUMMARY: Journey and his sister Cat live with their grandparents because their father has left them and their mother has abandoned them. The siblings do hear from their mother periodically but only in the form of envelopes with money. Journey is eleven years old and begins to search for answers to his mother’s disappearance. His grandparents however are hesitant to provide any clues. In the meantime, Journey’s grandfather, a lover of photography, uses his camera as a means to showcase life and the hidden meanings behind it. He is a man of few words and lets his photographs do the talking.

One day, Journey discovers a box of old photographs of he and his mother that are torn up. Journey is told that his mother was the one who tore up the pictures. When his mother unexpectedly calls and is confronted by Journey on this discovery, she states that “they were only pictures”. Journey’s grandfather tries to tell his grandson that his mother never appreciated anything that showcased the past (photographs) and always felt compelled to move forward on new journeys – a woman always on the move.

Later in the story, Cat tells Journey that the reason why their grandfather takes so many photographs is that he wants to give back everything their mother took away from them or denied them – memories of family life.

Towards the end of the story, Journey realizes that after searching through so many pictures of his past, his grandfather was actually the one who took care of him when he was young. His grandparents are his family. They are his love. They are his answers.

REVIEW: This story starts off with a bang! It is fast-paced. However, I was disappointed in that I did not find out what happened to the mother. Perhaps that was intended – leaving the reader to answer the questions for themselves. I believe students who enjoy photography would be interested in this book on the surface level, however I feel the story is shrouded in too much mystery for most students.

AREAS FOR TEACHING: similes (pages 14 & 26), internal dialogue (page 31), symbolism (mama tearing up pictures)

TOUCHY AREAS-PAGES: issue of parental abandonment

MOVIE, MUSIC, ART CONNECTIONS: see first website below

RELATED WEBSITES:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ParentalAbandonment (website about parental abandonment in TV, movies, and other media)

http://www.multcolib.org/talk/guides-journey.html (discussion questions & simple activity)

http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Pubs/0300-14.pdf (questions & activities divided by chapter)

REVIEWED BY: Kevin Stratton