No Shame, No Fear

No Shame, No Fear by Ann Turnbull

Published in 2004 by Candlewick Press

293 Pages

Warning: This novel contains some sensuality and mild mention of sex. The novel also includes language and physical abuse towards children. The novel also contains violence and religious persecution.

Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Religion

This is the story of two young people, Susanna and William, in love. But, there is conflict because of the stirring contention against the Quaker people. Susanna and the people she is boarding with are faithful Quakers. William's father is very anti Quakers, and wants his son to have nothing to do with them. In the beginning, William secretly goes to see Susanna. His father eventually finds out, and begins to threaten and beat his son so he will not see Susanna any more. As their love grows, the two cannot stay apart.

I loved this novel. I never knew that historical fiction could be so enjoyable. William and Susanna had such devotion for one another and lived pure lives. I enjoyed reading about them, and could not help but think of the persecution which they endured being similar to the persecution of the LDS people. I found the language and wit in this novel delightful. Following are my favorite quotes:

From Susanna, "I copied out his name and mine. I thought of this face, his eyes, the sound of his voice. At work around the house, and especially in my bed at night, I imagined being kissed by him, imagined his arms around me. I tried to stop these thoughts remembering Mary's warning, and mother's, too, but could not. It was like being swept away in a fast river" (87).

From Susanna while she is in the stocks, "I closed my eyes and shut out the faces and with it my shame; I tried also to shut out the physical pain. Thoughts crowded in and clamored to be heard: thought of Will, of out marriage, of London, of what my parents would say, or what dangers might be to come. But I knew I should not dwell on them now. I let them go. I turned toward the inward light and withdrew into it. A long way off, it seemed, there was mocking laughter. Someone spat in my face; a woman's voice hissed, "You people should be hanged!" I kept my eyes closed and imagined the light expanding within me. And at last I reached a state of peace; I knew that I could overcome all things and that nothing devised by man could hurt or shame me while I was held in the love of God" (277).

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
Published in 2007 by Square Fish
271 pages
Warning: This novel contains sensuality, language and drinking involving teens.
Genre: Love, Friends and Society

Naomi has fallen on the steps outside of her school; she does not remember why she fell or the reason she was going back to the school. Upon waking, everything and everyone is new to her. As she returns to school, she does not know who to trust and sees new faces everywhere. As Naomi discovers who she was in the past, she begins to redefine herself. Forgetting her previous boyfriend Ace, Naomi dedicates herself to yearbook and drama activities; she discovers love in a place she did not expect and becomes the person she wants to be.

I enjoyed this novel. It explores the idea of one single event changing the course of a life; Naomi opens the book talking about the various possibilities of how her life may have turned out:

"If things had been different, I'd be called Nataliya or Natasha, and I'd have a Russian accent and chapped lips year round. Maybe I'd even be a street kid who'd trade you just about anything for a pair of blue jeans. But I am not Nataliya or Natasha, because at six months old I was delivered from Kratovo, Moscow Oblast, to Brooklyn, New York. I don't remember the trip or ever having lived in Russia at all. What I know about my orphanhood is limited to what I've been told by my parents and then by what they were told, which was sketch at best: a week-old baby girl was found in an empty typewriter case in the second-to-last pew of an Eastern Orthodox Church" (7).

It is interesting that Naomi does not remember her time in Russia, as she does not remember her life before she fell down the stairs. While Naomi is told be people what she was like before her accident, she questions if she really did like those things. I found this novel to be a breath of fresh air, as Naomi is given the chance to redefine herself and question what her interests and morals were based on, if anything.

For deleted scenes from the novel that did not make the book, click here.

I also included the trailer for a movie that was made. But, the movie is Japanese....and there are three additional characters which were not from the book. Disappointing :(

The Friends

The Friends by Rosa Guy
Published in 1973 by Bantam Books
Warning: This novel does contain sensual material, alcohol use, shoplifting, and language.
Genre: Family, Friends and Society, Multicultural, Death

This novel is the story about Phyllisia Cathy, a young girl growing up in deteriorating Harlem in the 1960s. Phyllisia and her family have moved to New York from the West Indies. Phyllisia faces various obstacles as she attempts to overcome being beat up at school, her mothers death and her fathers abusive temper. Phyllisia develops an unlikely friendship with a poor girl Edith, and the two teach each other valuable lessons. Edith is raising her siblings with little help after the death of her mother. Alice Walker from the New York Times has explained the learning process which these girls go through as, "the grim struggle for self-knowledge."

This book is powerful and has a strong message for teens about where to find friends. I also enjoyed this book because of the multicultural element. The teens in this book experience different struggles I (growing up LDS and White in a very conservative are) have never encountered. I learned a lot about culture and how family is universally important to so many different people of various cultures.

Wintergirls

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Published in 2009 by Viking Juvenile
288 pages (7 hours audio)
Warning: This novel is NOT for the faint of heart. It contains extremely disturbing images and explicit narration throughout of self harm and negative feelings. Anderson does not hide anything. There is also explicit language in the novel.
Genre: Body Image, Friends and Society, Family, Death

Wintergirls tells the chilling details of Leah, a teenage girl dealing with the death of her friend. After her friend's death, Leah claims she is being visited by her ghostly friend who just died. The two shared one thing in common. Both had eating disorders.

Cassie called Leah over 30 times the night she died, and Leah never picked up the telephone. Full of regret, Leah leads a life of destruction and harms herself, as well as those around her.

Rather then reading the novel, I listened to it. The novel, which is already shocking, was even more intense to listen to. For those who can handle the detailed and descriptive narrated scenes, I highly recommend it. I would not have gotten the same reading if I had simply read the novel.

How Joe Succeeded

How Joe Succeeded by Mary Morrison
Published in 1905 by David C. Cook publishing Company
64 pages
Warning: mild language and a cross dressing lumber jack
Genre: Time period novel, Friends and Society

This is the story of a young boy named Joe and his adventure to make his family proud as a lumber jack. Joe has a special secret. He wears his grandma's gold beaded necklace around his neck; the necklace is his prized possession. While the novel is very well written and I enjoyed the various dynamics, the generational gap which exists for a person reading this novel having been born in 1990 makes this novel hilarious. Joe is very successful when he attempts to pull a number of logs out of the forest using a team of horses. No other lumber jack has been successful, but Joe is convinced he can do it. He does. Upon completing the task, the other lumberjacks ask him how he did it:

"It wasn't any trick," Joe persisted. "I just used [the horses] as I'd like to be used myself if I was a horse, that's all," he added empatheticaly (41).

The novel is also entertaining when it discusses gambling, and tells an experience Joe had while gambling.

"His eyes were fastened on the monster which was steadily devouring his hard earnings, which he still fed to it desperately, coin by coin, with a gambler's fierce persistence" (46).

Over one hundred years later, gambling still persists as a trap to many. I love this novel. It is strange, entertaining and short with a good lesson to tell. If you have a sense of humor willing to work, you will love this little novel.

MAUS: A Survivor's Tale

MAUS: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman
Published by Pantheon Books in 1986
159 pages
Warning: MAUS contains graphic images, gruesome language, graphic language, nudity, violence and suicide.
Genre: Holocaust, War, Family


MAUS: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman has been reviewed as "a remarkable work, awesome in its conception and execution...at one and the same time a novel, a documentary, a memoir, and a comic book. Brilliant, just brilliant." -Jules Feiffer

I picked up this book to read it with great expectations. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The book, a graphic novel, did not deliver like I had hoped. The plot involves a man hearing his father's survival story through the Holocaust. While the illustrations are chilling and some details are gruesome and hard to forget, I was not able to emotionally connect with the characters or the text of the novel. While there is fascinating symbolism and interesting cultural elements, I simply was unable to connect with the characters.

What I did enjoy is the symbolism as the different groups of people were represented by different animals. For instance, the Nazi's were cats, the Jews were mice and the Polish were pigs. A person may read into this symbolism how ever they choose.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
Published by Henry Holt and Company in 2008
265 pages
Warning: This novel contains violence, mild gory images, language and drinking involving teens.
Genre: Family, Science Fiction

This is a fascinating novel which deals which challenging and thought provoking issues. The novel begins with a teenage girl, Jenna, who has just woken up from a comma. She has no memory of what has happened to her and she has been in a coma for a year. Her parents tell her she was in an accident. To help jog her memory, they tell her to watch video after video from her ballet recitals, beach trips and birthday parties as a child. Jenna begins to notice that her body now is different then her body from the videos. Curious, she looks for the truth behind what happened when she realizes her parents, and others, are lying to her.

Readers, throughout this novel, can expect to question what is the essence of a person that makes them a distinguishable human. After reading this novel, we begin to look at others differently and we question what is the essence of ourselves.

It is also interesting to look at the different covers which have been printed for this novel. Both provide readers with a different insight into this ground breaking novel.

Watch the following video for an enticing introduction.

Looking for Red

Looking for Red by Angela Johnson
Published by Simon Pulse in 2003.
116 pages
Warning: smoking teens, language and death
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Magical Realism, Death

Looking for Red is the story of a young girl, Mike, whose brother has recently disappeared, and assumed to be dead. Not aware of how he died, the novel portrays the last moments Mike saw her brother and the healing process which takes place afterward. Mike truly "grows up" in the final two chapters of the novel, truly coming to grips with her brother's death.

Here is an excerpt from the novel:

"I stand on the beach sometimes and holler across the waves. And I don't think anyone even pays attention anymore. I've been doing it for so long that I can't remember when I didn't. So it came to me a while back that if I scream enough, he'll come back."

While Red, her brother, never returns as a mortal, be does visit Mike and other family members and friends as a spirit. His visits teach valuable lessons.

Girl Coming in for a Landing

Girl Coming in for a Landing written by April Halprin Wayland
This novel was published in 2004 by Yearling.
128 pages
Warning: This book contains mild sensual content and language, as well as one nude photo of a woman from the waist up.
Genre: Poetry, Friends and Society, Family, Body Image

This is a novel told in poems. This book of poems is narrated by a budding teen girl during her freshman year of high school. She talks about love, kissing games, dating, her period and even having her own poetry published.

My favorite poem is the final poem of the book:

COMING IN FOR A LANDING

My heart

is coming in

for a landing

Carrying a suitcase

packed with hope.

I stuffed it,

sat on it to snap the clasps.

And as my heart dips from the cloud high

and slowly descends,

finally taxiing to the gate,

someone will unload my suitcase.

I am holding its tag tightly.

I have come to reclaim it.

Taking care...

taking it

home.

It is easy to assume the poetry is written from the perspective of a young 14-15 year old girl discovering the world. Wayland captures the spirit and mood of teenage frustration and triumph in day to day life. I also enjoyed the illustrations accompanying the poems. They were captivating and relative to the subjects of the poetry.

Hole in My Life

Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2004
208 pages
Warning: This novel does contain explicit language, homosexual and sexual content, drugs and details on escaping prison and committing various crimes worthy of being placed in prison.
Genre: Non-fiction, autobiography, journey, drugs, self-discovery.

This is the self discovery story of young adult author Jack Gantos and his journey from St. Croix to New York in a small ship with 2,000 pounds of hashish. Gantos successfully makes the journey, only to be caught. He concludes his story with the harsh details of prison life, unromantic and raw. Gantos tells how he escaped, and the change which happened within him.

Here is an excerpt from the novel:

"The prisoner in the photograph is me. The ID number is mine. The photo was taken in 1972 at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky. I was twenty-one years old and had been locked up for a year already -- the bleakest year of my life -- and I had more time ahead of me.

At the time this picture was taken I weighed 125 pounds. When I look at my face in the photo I see nothing but the pocked mask I was hiding behind. I parted my hair down the middle and grew a mustache in order to look older and tougher, and with the greasy prison diet (salted chicken gizzards in a larded gravy, chicken wings with oily cheese sauce, deep-fried chicken necks), and the stress, and the troubled dreams of capture and release, there was no controlling the acne. I was overmatched."

I also found the following activity helpful for teaching this book:

"I have learned this: it is not what one does that is wrong, but what one becomes as a consequence of it.” How does this quote from Oscar Wilde (found on the epigraph page) reflect the major theme of this book? How does Gantos change as a result of what he has done wrong? What does he “become” that might not have happened without his experiences in prison?

This is my response to this activity. Gantos, in the book, buried a stash of drugs in central park before he goes to his sentencing. He plans to dig the drugs back up once he is out of prison and returns to his normal life. After Gantos is let out of prison, he goes to the water fountain in central park, near the burial spot. He knows the exact number of steps he must take from that water fountain to retrieve the drugs. But, he does not go toward the drugs, deciding, "My heart wasn't in it. I would not let myself make that kind of mistake again...what remains of the rotted hash is hidden in the hole I dug for it" (200).

In the Middle of the Night

In the Middle of the Night by Robert Cormier
Published by Delacorte Press in 1995
182 pages
Warning: This book contains mild language, and mild scenes involving kidnapping and violence.
Genre: Mystery, Suspense

A suspenseful novel, this book opens with the story of two orphan siblings going to see a magician on a field trip with other school children. At the theater, a terrible accident happens. The balcony falls, killing 22 children. Haunted by the past, the Colbert family must deal with what happened that day because the father of the family may have contributed to the accident.

With twists at every corner, readers are left wondering and craving more information about mysterious phone calls-only mom or dad can answer-in the middle of the night. The end teaches readers a valuable lesson about becoming caught up in false vices, and sacrificing the good for these worthless fancies to pass time. I also love this novel because the family learns to face the truth of what happened, rather then composing a lie to tell themselves to lessen the grief of their involvement in the accident.

Silent to the Bone

Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg
published by Speak publishing in 2004
260 pages
Warning: This novel does contain mild sexual references, mild description of nudity, some language, and traumatizing events causing injury to a baby.
Genre: Mystery, Family

Branwell's little sister, Nikki, lies in the hospital in a comma. Branwell knows why; he was there when it happened. But he's not speaking about the event. Branwell sits in the juvenile detention center, not breaking his silence to anyone. Branwell's friend Connor has figured out a way to communicate with Branwell, through note cards and blinking. Feeling responsible to find out what happened, Connor visits Branwell every day until he speaks. Eventually, Branwell opens his mouth to tell the truth about what happened, but not without sending Connor on a hunt first.

This novel is fun to read because of the ingenious communication method Connor comes up with to talk to Branwell. Connor writes words on note cards which are related to his family and the crime under investigation. Connor points to a note card, and Branwell makes some type of physical reaction or movement indicating to Connor if he should or should not further investigate the subject of that note card relating to the crime. In the end, Connor is able to help solve what happened and break the silence of Branwell.

Branwell is an interesting character throughout the novel, and I loved reading and learning more about him. A young boy, he has witnessed something that shocks him and I loved reading about how he copes.

American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Published by First Second Books in 2006
233 pages of amusing and delightful animations
Warning: mild violent images, mild references to sex, and labels to various ethnic groups some people might find offensive.
Genre: Graphic novel, Comedy, Multicultural

This is a brilliant graphic novel. The novel tells the story of a young Chinese boy who wishes to be like the white boys at school. When students of the similar Asian background move to his school and try to be friends with him, Jin is very reluctant to talk to these students. All he can focus on his the American girl he has fallen in love with. Unfortunately, he constantly is embarrassing himself in front of her. The novel also includes the refreshing and delightful stories of a popular white boy, Danny, whose life is ruined by his obnoxious native Chinese cousin. The epic tale of the Monkey King also fills this novel with hilarious one liners and Kung-Fu fighting moments. How will the three tales intertwine? The answer to this question is the most thrilling part of the novel, but you will have to read to find out.

This book was so funny! I loved every minute. There is a dose of culture that intrigued me to find out more about the Chinese culture, and particularly think more about the Chinese culture in America, and how the Chinese may or may not have adapted their ways of life. I enjoyed reading the three different stories and seeing them magically connect and intertwine in a delightful turn of events. Yang has written another graphic novel that I anticipate reading which also involves Chinese culture. I love his work and enjoy his blend of culture and humor.

Looking For Alaska

Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Published by Speak Publishing
256 pages
Warning: This book is extremely explicit. I would not recommend it to readers any younger then 18. It contains very mature sexual content as well as drinking and drug use.

Looking for Alaska is by far the edgiest book I have read in my 20 years of life. Edgy, yet fabulous. Provocative, yet with important lessons to teach. This novel will expose readers to young adult difficulties and issues which some readers may never be exposed to otherwise.

The book revolves around the happenings of Miles, aka Pudge, and his new friends at a boarding school for high school students. Every conflict which enters the lives of young adults is in this book. Sex, drugs, smoking, drinking, love, friendship, pranks and death. I don't want to say too much, because one must simply experience the power of this book, not knowing what to expect. The format of the book is also interesting, as each "chapter" heads with "156 days before." Then, an event happens, and the rest of the novel "chapters" begin, "6 days after" and so on. It is a fascinating read, and these characters are real.

Because this book is so explicit, it brought up the issue of censorship for me. After reading this book, I have found that it is appropriate for me to say that a book is personally not appropriate for me. But, to say that a book is inappropriate for anyone to read is wrong; and for me, as a future teacher, to keep any students from reading this book simply because it went to far for me is wrong. The same thing applies to parents; parents can say that a book is too edgy for their child. But, to say that a book is too edgy for any child or for anyone, that is crossing the line with censorship and I believe that is wrong. But I think that a person censoring what they read personally is perfectly acceptable, especially when it comes to books like this one.

I think that John Green addresses this same issues in the following video. It is important for all students, parents and teachers to watch.

The Moves Make the Man

The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks
Published in 1984 by Trophy Newbery
280 pages
Warning: This book contains language and lots of sports. If you don't like sports, I would not suggest this book.
Genre: Sports, Multicultural

Jerome decides, over the summer, to write the story of his friend Bix. Jerome is black and Bix is white. Jerome finds out he is chosen to be integrated into a white school, where he is desperate to try out for the basketball team. Unfortunately, he is not allowed to play on the team because of the prejudice from the coach. Jerome discovers Bix playing basketball one night, and starts to teach him the game. Bix is a baseball player, and learns how different baseball and basketball can be.


This book was interesting at one part when the coach of the basketball team does not want a Black player on the team, despite his incredible talent. But, the boys on the team beg and persuade the coach to accept a Black student on the team because they recognize the team needs his exceptional talent. I love the students and what an example they are to the coach, to put aside prejudice and racism and pay attention to the core and goodness of a person rather then the color of their skin. Young people are a powerful force in the world, and they can be a powerful example to adults when adults are unwilling to open their eyes to what really matters.

This book was a little difficult for me because I am not a sports fan. I often felt lost amidst the dialog because of the sports terms, they did not interest me or catch my attention as they would the attention of a sports fan.