Between Mom and Jo

     Written by:  Julie Anne Peters

New York:  Little, Brown and Company, 2006;  232 pages.

Nick is a very lucky 14 year old.  He has grown up with two parents that have given him the best of both worlds.  His one parent is level-headed, works a steady job, goes back to school in the legal profession, and even wins the battle over cancer.  Her other parent fixes the car when it breaks down, takes him paint-balling, and gives him “the sex talk”.  Nick’s mom’s name is Erin, and his other mom’s name is Jo; there is no dad.  Nick is quite content with this relationship and sees nothing wrong with having two moms.  He begins to realize that society is not quite so accepting.  His third grade teacher is one of the first people to show Nick how cruel society can be; she “forgot” to hang his family portrait on the school’s walls on family night.  She “found” the picture in her bottom drawer under a stack of papers and gave it to Nick who lovingly kept it in his family’s scrapbook.  Julie Anne Peters devotes the first half of the story to Nick’s memories of his moms before their separation and then the second half is given to Nick’s current stories about how he is dealing with life during the turmoil.  Nick’s mom doesn’t see Jo as a person who Nick should be hanging out with and since there was never any legal adoption, Jo has no rights to Nick.  Erin uses this to keep Nick away from Jo and severely punishes him whenever he wants to spend time with her.  Nick and Jo have such a strong and profound understanding of one another that nothing can keep them separated.  When Kerri, Erin’s new girlfriend, moves in, Nick can’t handle it at all.  Peters does a fantastic job of following Nick down his path of depression without minimizing his true pain.  Kerri ends up being a silent crusader for Nick and convinces Erin to allow Jo to have shared custody of Nick.  Erin battled cancer and won.  Jo battled alcoholism and won.  Nick battled depression and loneliness and won.  Everyone is a winner.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the author made Nick a relatable character.  Peters did not focus on the lesbian aspect of this story as much as she focused on the grittiness of true life.  Having your dog die, finding out your mom has cancer, watching the nastiness of alcoholism, knowing your mom is having an affair, and watching your parents split up are all issues that many teenagers will unfortunately see every day.  I kept thinking that this kid was going to snap at any minute.  How much more can a kid take?  Between Mom and Jo is a story about how a fourteen year old boy deals with and overcomes these many challenges.  It is also a book that quietly addresses the issues dealing with gay marriage and homophobia.  I really did wonder how much more this boy could take and thought the onslaught of emotional issues was a bit much.  All in all, this was a good book to read to gain a little insight into the world of how a child sees life living with gay parents.   

3Q – 2P

The recommended ages are 13 – 16.

The cover art seems a bit dated and would probably turn teenagers off.  The nylon-webbed folding chairs remind me of the seventies.  This may lead a teenager to believe that this book is too dated.

Make Lemonade

     Written by:  Virginia Euwer Wolff

New York:  Henry Holt and Company, 1993;  200 pages.

Raising babies when you are just a child yourself is hard.  But you don’t have to tell that to Jolly.  She’s only 17 and she not only has a two year old boy named Jeremy, but she also has a baby girl named Jilly.  Jolly doesn’t have a husband.  She just has two babies from two different boys.  She warns that if ”You go smoking that drug,/it goes straight down inside your underwear,/ it makes no stops in between./ You end up pregnant because some guy has some nice high for you.”  Jolly calls this drug an “Afro Deez”.  This is how a seventeen year old single mother looks at how she got pregnant two times and got ditched two times.  Jolly advertises for a babysitter so she can go to work in the evenings; Jolly refuses to go on Welfare because she is afraid they will take away her babies.  LaVaughn is only 14 when she calls Jolly about the babysitting job.  Even though she’s earning money for college, LaVaughn’s mom doesn’t think it’s such a good idea.  LaVaughn convinces her mom, and sets off to fill her bank account.  LaVaughn enters into an apartment that looks and smells like the bathrooms at a subway station.  Filth, dirt, and cockroaches have taken control of Jolly’s tiny apartment.  Jeremy and Jilly make that all that seem insignificant when they steal LaVaughn’s heart.  LaVaughn wasn’t expecting to care so much for the children; nor was she expecting to have so much empathy for Jolly.  Jolly has no one; no mom, no dad, no grandparents, just Jeremy and Jolly.  LaVaughn helps Jolly out by working for free while she job hunts.  When that doesn’t pan out, LaVaughn convinces Jolly to go back to school so she can get a real job and make some real money.  Jolly slowly learns the value of an education and before long, she no longer needs LaVaughn.  LaVaughn feels sad that she no longer has Jeremy and Jilly to care for every day, but she is proud of herself for helping Jolly to be a better mom than she could have ever hoped to be without an education.  Jolly and LaVaughn learn many valuable life lessons throughout this book, the most important are friendship and self-respect.  Both girls have learned that when life gives you lemons; you just have to make lemonade. 

Make Lemonade is written in prose-style writing.  Each line is a thought running through the mind of the main character, LaVaughn.  Each line flows into the next as another thought pops into LaVaughn’s head.  Many sentences just start and stop where LaVaughn’s thoughts start and stop which makes it a little difficult to read at times.  Both girls are trying to make their lives better, but LaVaughn is the only one that has a role model to help guide her.  Luckily for Jolly, LaVaughn’s mom–Big Mama– has enough advice and guidance for both girls.  This strong influence is felt throughout the book as LaVaughn shares her ramblings about doing the right thing; knowing just what her mom would recommend.  It was also very satisfying to read about a young, single mother of two that did not want Welfare, but to make it on her own.  I was sad for LaVaughn in the end of the book because Jolly had grown up and felt she no longer needed LaVaughn.  LaVaughn had grown up too, but that just made her feel more connected to Jolly and her children.  The best part about this book is that no matter how bad you think you have it, someone else has it worse; BUT they aren’t giving up!

3Q – 3P

The recommended ages are 12 – 17.

The cover of the book that I read was rather boring.  It’s collection of story mementos was cute, but not very appealing.  I have seen other covers for this book that would be more eye-catching; for example the cover featuring a brilliant blue background and a bright yellow lemon slice.

Dairy Queen

     Written by:  Sarah Gilbert Murdock

New York:  Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006;  288 pages.

D.J. Schwenk from Wisconsin learns that not talking can be as dangerous as talking.  A fifteen year old should not be single-handedly running a family dairy farm…but she is, ever since her father got hurt and has to have hip surgery.  D.J. is so humble that she does not even realize that if it were not for her, the family farm would have folded.  She milks the family’s herd of dairy cows before and after school every day.  She mows the grass on the farm whenever it needs done.  She has even given up her spot on the basketball team because she could not do both; school sports and the farm.  D.J. only mildly complains when her younger brother is always awol from the farm so he can go to baseball practice and his endless line up of games.  She has two older brothers that would have been a great help, but they have left for college to be star football players, and they don’t call any more.  The sad part is that D.J.’s family does not discuss the big fight that left their family torn in two.   She just plods through each day, trying to pass English and tending the farm.  D.J. does have a good friend Amber, who she finds out later is a lesbian and has the hots for her; which by the way, D.J. had absolutely no idea.  Amber quits being D.J.’s friend when D.J. has a crush on the new farmhand.  The new farmhand is the star quarterback from a rival high school.  His name is Brian Nelson, and he is way, way out of D.J.’s league…or so she thought.  D.J. ends up being a private trainer-the emphasis is on private- for Brian.  His coach wants him to have some intense off-season training; and since D.J. grew up being a star receiver for her two older brothers when they practiced on the farm, she was an obvious pick.  No one is supposed to know since they are from rival schools so they spend their summer taking care of the farm and training in the upper pasture.  D.J. is insulted when Brian compares her to a cow; she just goes where she is told and doesn’t complain.  She decides to take control of her life and do something that is not an aimless-do-as-you-are-told existence.  After a summer of conditioning, D.J. decides to try out for her high school football team, and she makes it!  Since Brian did not know of her intentions, he was hurt to find out she was on his rival’s football team.  The season-opener scrimmage was a game played between D.J.’s high school and Brian’s high school.  D.J. got an interception from Brian and ran it all the way for a touchdown.  Brian was quietly impressed.  The end of the story leaves a lot left unsaid.  Brian stops by the Schwenk farm to offer his appreciation for D.J. and the reader is left hanging as to whether or not Brian and D.J. will become a couple off the football field.

Living on a farm in a football community, I found this book wonderfully enlightening.  I appreciated that D.J. did not go into too much detail to bore the reader about dairy farming, but just enough so we could understand what she was talking about.  I liked the way she talked about herself.  She was self-deprecating, but not in a mean way.  She was not a size zero, but after working on a farm her whole life and being involved in sports; she understands that she has to have some meat on her bones.  I loved that she found her inner strength and became a star football player.  She was accepted by her teammates, especially since she had two older brothers that were hometown football stars.  I’ve been around a lot of fifteen year old girls who like to complain about taking out the trash; it was awesome to hear about a girl who works so hard and rarely complains.  This book is great to share with a girl who is hiding a secret talent. 

5Q – 4P

The recommended ages are 14 – 17.

The picture of a cow with a tiara is too cute!  I think the first impression of this book would be about a small town beauty pageant.  The cow looks like she could be auditioning for the “happy cheese comes from happy cows” commercial!

The Boy Who Couldn’t Die

     Written by:  William Sleator

New York:  Amulet Books, 2004; 162 pages.

Roger Kelly is killed in a plane crash.  He leaves behind his best friend, Ken Pritchard.  Ken is sixteen years old, and he is devastated by the untimely death of his best friend.  He makes a silent vow to himself to figure out how to become invincible.  He finds a woman’s small classified ad promising him just what he wants.  Cheri Buttercup’s apartment is a long way away from Ken’s posh Greenwich Village apartment, but he makes the journey.  After convincing the woman that he wants to have his soul taken from his body in order to become physically invulnerable, she performs a ritual on Ken.  Cheri Buttercup seals his soul and hides it where she hopes he will never find it.  Ken realizes his invulnerability as soon as he arrives home and touches a 450 degree pan and he feels no pain.  Ken wants to further prove his new abilities to himself and convinces his family to fly down to the Caribbean and scuba dive with the sharks.  After being bitten by a shark and showing no signs of the attack, he is convinced that he is invincible.  While on the island, he has disturbing dreams of digging up his dead friend’s corpse.  He meets a girl on the island named Sabine.  She witnesses the shark attack and immediately recognizes Ken as the zombie he has become.  She is very knowledgeable on zombies and gives Ken a quick lesson.  Cheri Buttercup is a Bokor which is a bad witch doctor.  There are good voodoo priests called Houngans who try to combat the evil Bokors.  Ken shares his dreams with Sabine who explains they are all clues to where his soul will be hidden.  Because Ken has become a zombie through a Bokor, he must reunite with his soul as quickly as possible.  Bokors take control of their zombies and force them to commit horrible crimes.  Ken flies home with his parents to New York where he continues to have haunting dreams.  Sabine and Ken communicate through e-mails and he tells her all of his dreams until they figure out where his soul is hidden.  Ken asks Cheri Buttercup for his soul back but instead of the $50 he paid her to take his soul; she now wants $50,000 to give it back.  Ken decides to find his soul for himself using the clues from his dreams.  Sabine flies to New York in order to go to Lake Wannamaka with Ken in the dead of winter to scuba dive for his soul.  They find his soul guarded by a cadaver zombie of Roger’s body.  Luckily, they fight off the cadaver zombie and rescue his soul.  Ken is reunited with his soul under the direction of Sabine.  Cheri Buttercup tries to blackmail Ken’s parents into giving her $100,000 for his safe return.  She is eventually arrested after the police officer sees Ken’s alterself reunite with his realself when Ken’s parents attempt to pay Cheri Buttercup the ransom.  Ken is eternally grateful for all of Sabine’s help.  Ken discovers that Sabine is a zombie. He decides that it is okay to be a girlfriend that is a zombie.

The entire story was one unrealistic plot line after another.  Of course, zombies themselves are unrealistic.  However, the author did not even try to be sly about how things came to pass.  Roger Kelly dies, and mysteriously Ken wants to become invincible and wasn’t it lucky for him that he found a personal ad that promised just that!?  After having his soul taken, one of the first things he wants to do is get bitten by a shark in the Caribbean.  Lucky for him, he meets a zombie expert when he learns how to scuba dive.  Then, this new zombie expert is a cute girl whom Ken wants to have as a girlfriend.  She miraculously wants to help Ken dive for his soul, even though she is a poor island girl who helps teach scuba diving to tourists.  Ken is from a rich family, but he can only put his hands on $1000.  Lucky for him–again–he has just enough money to get to Lake Wannamaka where a ”closet” zombie couple put them up for free in their bed and breakfast.  The whole story was forced and predictable.  The only surprise was that Sabine was a zombie.  Really–a zombie girlfriend??  

2Q – 2P

 The recommended ages are 13 – 16.

The eerie picture of a skull is a good draw for teenagers.  The dark shadows and cryptic font plays right into the zombie theme.  Teenagers interested in thriller mysteries will pick this book up based on its cover.

Feed

     Written by:  M. T. Anderson

Cambridge:  Candlewick, 2004;  320 pages.

We yield a power when we hold the remote control in our hands.  We can change the channel as soon as the commercials start rolling.  Imagine living in a world where you have relinquished all control for advertisements and impending corporate control.  Titus appears to be an ordinary teenager living a middle-class life with his friends.  M. T. Anderson gives the power of the narration to Titus where we quickly learn how illiterate he is when he shares his story.  Titus lives in futuristic society where nearly every human being is implanted with a micro-chip as soon as they are born.  This computer chip is called The Feed.  Through this Feed is a back and forth flow of information.  The Feed analyzes life styles and buying patterns and replaces free thought with a constant barrage of advertising jargon.  No one has silence or privacy.  The Feed is omnipotent.  The School is also a corporation owned entity.  Instead of learning math, English, science, and social studies; the students are taught how to be good consumers.  Titus and his friends leave earth for the moon or Mars for something to do.  They are often out partying where their lack of intelligence is always evident.  While partying at a nightclub, a terrorist attack renders their Feeds useless.  The unusual opportunity for free thought is not welcomed by the teenagers.  They are not used to being allowed to think for themselves.  While waiting for their Feeds to be fixed, Titus spends a lot of time with a poor girl named Violet.  Her Feed was not installed until she was seven because her family could not afford it.  She knows what silence is like.  She has even used a pen and paper, something that Titus and his friends find absurd.  Titus and his friends communicate through their Feeds through e-chatting which does not involve audible speech from their mouths, but Violet often prefers to communicate through speaking out loud.  Her oddness draws Titus closer to her.  She shares her concerns about The Feed with Titus who is not mentally capable of understanding her concerns.  When her Feed begins to malfunction and her family cannot afford to fix it, she contacts the helpline associated with The Feed.  They express that she cannot be helped because they do not understand her spending habits quite thoroughly enough.  Violet’s attempt to revolt is dismissed as a technical glitch.  The story ends on a sad note as the reader understands that as long as The Feed is connected to Titus and the others, Violet will remain an outcast.  The masses do not have apathy towards The Feed eventhough their hair falls out and disgusting lesions begin covering their bodies.  The trees are replaced with oxygen factories and the planet’s fish are nearly all dead.  But the community does not care, they just continue to shop.  Their lack of social concern leaves the reader lacking concern for them.

This outlandish world under total technological control is the most extreme length that consumerism can take.  M. T. Anderson has taken the notion of a Bluetooth and expounded on it.  The reader is overwhelmed with the constant barrage of advertising and obvious lack of education possessed by the majority of the population.  Titus’ foul mouth and the constant use of F*** U is annoying.  It was difficult to follow his strings of illiterate sentences sprinkled with “like” and curse words.  The acceptance by the masses of the gruesome lesions all over their bodies was a bit far-fetched.  I found it to be a depressing book.  The community as a whole has accepted total mind control and they do not even realize what has happened to them.  Feed is an attempt to be a window into our future if we continue to allow other people to make decisions for us.  Thankfully for us, we are not all idiots!

2Q – 2P

The recommended ages are 14 – 17.

The cover art is very appealing.  It even looks futuristic with the computer jargon faded on the front.  The bald head with a kind of large fingerprint on it looks eerie.  I think a teenager would pick this up to check it out.

The Boy Who Dared

     Written by:  Susan Campbell Bertoletti

New York:  Scholastic Press, 2008;  202 pages.

Seventeen year old Helmuth Hubener find himself on death row in Plotzensee Prison in Berlin, Germany.  The story begins on October 27, 1942 and Helmuth is lying near naked on boards for a bed and relieving himself in a slop bucket in the corner of his cell.  He has been in prison now for 264 days.  He is waiting for Tuesdays to come and more poignantly when Tuesday have gone.  You see, the executioner works on Tuesdays and whenever he hears him pass by his cell door, he is relieved yet saddened as he opens a nearby cell.  Susan Campbell Bertoletti does not break her book into chapters, but merely strings the entire book into flashbacks of Helmuth Hubener’s life that have brought him to this awful place and intertwines his daily life in his prison cell.  The story’s first flashback occurs when he is a boy of seven and is being raised by a single mother and living right next door to his grandparents, Oma and Opa.  Life seems simple for Helmuth and he is naively a follower of Hitler.  His family openly discusses Hitler’s rise to power.  When Helmuth gets older, he realizes how torturous and corrupt their leader has become.  His mother’s new husband is a devout follower of the Third Reich and without a doubt, expects Helmuth to follow in his footsteps.  He goes as far as to send him to school to become part of Hitler Youth.   fter Helmuth runs into an old family friend on the streets his heart is hardened towards Hitler and all he represents.  The old man is toothless and describes how he was stripped naked, forced to stand in a snow drift, and how guards poured cold water over his hands until they froze solid.  The guards then beat his hands with a board.  The atrocities that were inflicted on this 60 plus year old man were the catalyst for Helmuth’s new stand.  He began listening to a contraband radio, noting the news from places other than Germany, and he pieced together the truth for himself.  He began writing pamphlets to spread the truth and left them all over the place.  He wanted others to learn the truth about Hitler and the tragedies of war that were occurring all around them.  Helmuth was eventually arrested and sentenced to death.  His bravery and tenacity to tell the truth will resound for eternity.  Helmuth Hubener was the boy who dared – to take on the almighty Hitler – and lost his life.

I had never thought about World War II from a German boy’s point of view before.  The story is so eloquently told yet very sickening as we learn about the horrid actions taken by soldiers on Hitler’s behalf.  The story that his own brother was fighting in the war while Helmuth was condemning it had to have been heart breaking to Helmuth and his family.  As an outsider, I can see how right the young boy was, but living the war as Helmuth’s mom, step-dad and brother were doing, I’m sure they could not see the forest for the trees.  Helmuth had thought that as a young boy, Hitler would not condemn him to death.  The sad truth surely underlines the lengths that a mad man will go to in order to maintain power.  The Boy Who Dared is an inspirational tale that would be a benefit to any young adult.  I unfortunately do not think that a teenager would willingly pick this book to read, but given the opportunity perhaps at school, would prove to be a good thing.

4Q – 3P

The recommended ages are 11 – 16.

The book cover is a perfect replication of a scared boy’s eyes peering out from a prison cell.  The darkness may appeal to a young reader.  The industrialized look of the metal work on an old cell door is also something I think would grab their attention.

Spanking Shakespeare

     Written by: Jake Wizner

New York:  Random House Children’s Books, 2007;  287 pages.

Shakespeare Shapiro is being raised the polar opposite of how his parents were raised.  They were given perfectly boring, average names – so they gave Shakespeare the most exotic name to endure. Shakespeare’s parents were given more rules than they could remember to follow – so they gave Shakespeare no rules and, thus, little stability.  Because of the unconventionality of the way Shakespeare’s parents’ decided to raise him, Shakespeare has been exposed to many mature topics. Shakespeare had already been threatened with learning about his parents’ sex life after a few embarrassing moments masturbating – which his father thought was humorous.  His parents condone smoking marijuana (as long as Shakespeare and his brother experiment at home).  On a family trip to Europe, Shakespeare finds himself taking care of his drunken and belligerent father while his mother would rather pack her suitcase.  Shakespeare has two good friends:  Katie, who has the mouth of a trucker; and Neil, who obsessively discusses his bowel movements.  Shakespeare, Katie, and Neil are not much on being trouble-makers - although they do relish in an anonymous prank:  They set out questions around the school, asking fellow students if they would rather “blank” or “blank”.  For example, “Would you rather live a life without music or eat vomit every year for your birthday?”  Their warped sense of humor is enjoyed amongst themselves.  When Neil and Katie “hook up” (but only when Katie is drunk), Shakespeare feels a sense of doom that he will be alone forever.  At Shakespeare’s school, he is required to write a senior memoir in order to graduate. He begins writing his senior memoir in an embarrassing self-revealing style.  Spanking Shakespeare is written in alternating chapters.  Chapters about the actual narrative are followed by a memoir experience that Shakespeare wrote for his senior writing requirement, which often deal with an unsettling event from his early- to late- childhood years.  A reoccurring element in this novel is that Shakespeare has made it through high school without a girlfriend, but that he would like desperately to have one. So, when his memoir project ends up gaining notoriety, he finds this to work in his favor. As a consequence of his writing and memoir, he gains a new friend, a quiet girl named Celeste, and she becomes the focus of Shakespeare’s adoration.  The book ends “happily ever” after as Shakespeare and Celeste start to date.

The tone of vulgarity carried throughout this book was unsettling.  The disgusting talk of bowel movements, getting drunk to have sex, and the blatant disrespect for religion made me uncomfortable.  Teenagers would probably leap at the chance of having parents like Shakespeare’s; but as a parent, I would like to revoke their parenting license.  Shakespeare does seem to find his way while writing his memoirs and his confidence is on the up-swing.  The knowledge that Celeste’s father is a negligent alcoholic father who cannot care for his children seems to be the only endearing story in this book.  This book will probably be enjoyed by teenagers because of its off-beat and dark humor.

2Q – 3P

The recommended ages are 15 – 18.

The cover art is a whimsical and off-colored sketch of William Shakespeare grabbing his butt.  The back cover is still more of William Shakespeare, except it’s only his big butt flashing disrespectfully.  The cover resembling a journal and the picture of a pen being tossed down would probably appeal to teenagers because of its appearance of defacing someone else’s work.

Stuck in Neutral

     Written by:  Terry Trueman;  Narrated by:  Johnny Heller

Frederick:  Recorded Books, 2001; 2 hours and 30 minutes.

New York:  HarperTeen, 2001; 128 pages.

Shawn McDaniel is a fourteen year old boy who suffers from cerebral palsy.  He tells the reader a firsthand account of what his life is like, trapped in a body that is not under his control.  He is unable to communicate meaningfully to anyone.  Shawn gives detailed descriptions of how he is ushered through a life which he cannot control.  He tells of an incident when two bullies try to burn his chin with a lighter.  Then he proudly tells of his brother coming in to attack the bullies.  Shawn has a phenomenal memory which he demonstrates throughout the book.  He shares how he feels when an aid at school bends down in front of him with a low-cut top on and he just stares at her breasts.  His mom talks to him like he’s a newborn baby.  His dad is no longer living with them because he couldn’t handle the stresses of living with a child that needed so much attention.  When Shawn does see his dad, he is sure he wants to kill him to end the misery he is sure his son is enduring.  His dad wrote a poem about life with a cerebral palsy child and he won the Pulitzer Prize.  He uses his fame to pursue a story about a man who killed his own two year old child because of an incurable disease and is now facing life in prison.  Shawn feels that his own father wants to euthanize him as well.  Shawn describes what a seizure feels like when it courses through his body.  The author masterfully describes a seizure but from the inside out and it is very compelling.  Shawn’s seizures always begin with what he calls a “crackle crackle” then it races through his body leaving him in a state of euphoria.  The story ends with Shawn and his father at home alone.  His father is gripping a pillow on his lap as he talks to Shawn about how tragic his life must be trapped inside a destroyed body.  The reader is wondering if the father is going to suffocate Shawn…and then “crackle crackle”.  And the story ends. 

This story is short but not sweet.  The picture of a monstrous father is told, only the child, Shawn does not understand what his father truly is.  He is like most fourteen year old boys in that he idolizes his father.  He tells of a father that only wants to do what is best for his son.  Children that are strapped into a wheelchair and flailing around aimlessly are thought to be retarded.  But what if they are truly as intelligent as Shawn McDaniel with his amazing memory?  This book would be an insightful story to read in a school that houses a special education unit.  Not everyone would appreciate this book but if the teenager has any contact with someone with cerebral palsy, this may be a soothing read.  I listened to this instead of reading and I would not recommend this version.  The narrator had an awful habit of drinking in between sentences and swallowing at inopportune times in the story line.  His older New York accent did not fit the narration of a fourteen year old boy.

3Q – 3P   

The recommended ages are 11 – 14.

The spooky cover of the book would cause a teen to stop and look at this book.  It is hard to tell from the cover if this is a ghost story or not.  After finding out that it is about a boy with cerebral palsy, it may turn some teens off.

Three Little Words

     Written by:  Ashley Rhodes-Courter

New York:  Atheneum, 2008;  304 pages.

“It’s not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable”.  Ashley Rhodes-Courter shared this quote from Moliere in front of a crowded room on Capitol Hill when she was only in the ninth grade.  Ashley had survived the foster care world and was admonishing the government into taking accountability for what they have done to innocent and unprotected children.  Ashley was taken from her mother when she was just two years old and her brother was even younger.  They survived unspeakable abuses in what the government had deemed safe foster homes.  Ashley had been forced to live and sleep in conditions that most people would not subject their dogs to.  She was told so many lies and had endured so many hardships that when she was shown love, she mistook it for lies.  Mary Miller was her Guardian ad Litem who found it in her heart to pioneer an effort and get Ashley into a permanent placement.  She worked for over a year to find a home for Ashley and never received a penny because she was a volunteer.  Phil and Gay Courter adopted Ashley when she was in sixth grade.  She had little trust that this would work out, so Ashley treated them horribly.  They offered her world-wide travel, her own bedroom, private bathroom’; catered to her every need, yet still Ashley truly believed that at any moment, they would send her back to the children’s home.  It wasn’t until after Ashley laced their after-dinner drinks with Advil that she finally believed that they loved her-unconditionally.  They still loved her and that was something Ashley had finally realized.  Ashley counted the number of people that she had been associated with throughout her foster care and the number was a staggering 195.  She slipped through the cracks of the system for over nine years.  Her life of turmoil had finally turned around when she uttered those “three little words”.  What were they?  “I guess so,” as she was asked if she would like to sign the adoption papers.

The category of this book is “Too Good to be True Nonfiction” but I wish this story weren’t true.  A very close family relative endured the foster hell for almost as long as Ashley had and she sadly admitted that the stories in this book are true to life.  The monsters that are in this world are real.  One of Ashley’s foster parents admitted to taking in over a quarter of a million dollars during their time as foster parents.  This same family forced hot sauce down children’s throats and forced fourteen children to bathe in the same four inches of bathwater, regardless of the floating excrements.  Ashley is a fine role model to anyone whether or not they have ever been adopted or not.  I appreciated that she did not paint herself as a pitiful child, but as a true to life child reacting to the world one day at a time.  She even shares how hurtful she was towards her adoptive parents.  I believe that this book should be read by every young adult in order to shine a spotlight on the true injustices there are in the world and the opportunities to overcome them.

5Q – 4P

The recommended ages are 14 – 18.

The cover portraying the author in an innocent angel costume captures the irony of this book.  Her angelic costume and her sweet smile beg the onlooker to find out what those three little words may be.  I believe that a teenager may overlook this book at first glance, but should be encouraged to read it anyway.

Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe, and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska

     Written by:  Michael D’Orso

New York:  Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006;  323 pages.

A remote arctic village in Alaska is the home of a remarkable high school basketball team who, above all odds manages to win and win a lot.  The name of the village is Fort Yukon and the majority of the village’s inhabitants are members of the Gwich’in Natives.  The author takes us into the homes of nearly a dozen villagers and portrays their lives riddled with alcoholism, suicide, desperation, and isolation.  D’Orso explains the many daily obstacles there are in living in almost total isolation from the “lower 48″.  The teachers and coaches are often not with the school for very long before the hard tundra life sends them packing home.  The high school has been fortunate enough to have Dave Bridges coach them through six consecutive regional championships.  The sub-standard basketball court is the only place the community can gather and compete with each other for bragging rights on the court.  Young and old villagers all feel the unspoken force from the game of basketball that somehow binds them together.  The young players on Dave’s Fort Yukon Eagles basketball team begin each practice with the ritualistic laps of the court with basketballs stuffed under their shirts to warm them up so they will bounce.  Games are always a journey either by airplane or by van.  Accommodations are classroom floors or spare rooms in the gyms.  The Eagles have only a small amount of money from the government, but they somehow rally as a village and raise money so the boys can compete in far away towns.  The boys struggle on a daily basis to maintain their grades, maintain their pride, and maintain their athleticism in order to be successful on the court.  The Fort Yukon Eagles overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and progress through the tournaments until they find themselves in competition for the title of state champions.  They end up settling for state semi-finalist but the sheer joy of accomplishing this heroic feat is enough to take them back to Fort Yukon with their heads held high.  Basketball is the only thing a lot of these boys have going for them and in return for the opportunity, they give it their all. The village unites behind the team proving that it does take a village to raise a child. 

Michael D’Orso tells of the Fort Yukon Eagles path to victory as if he spent the whole time with them.  In actuality, he did.  The author moved into the Fort Yukon village and immersed himself into their world for five full months prior to the first practice.  During this time, he must have taken a lot of notes about the villagers.  He gives pages and pages and pages of personal information and backgrounds of so many people that you lose track who he is even referring to in a story.  His endless stories detracted immensely from the story of the boys.  I understand the importance of setting the stage, but the information became cumbersome.  He reported each game as if he were a reporter; using terms like traps, cutters, finding a seam, and taking your man to the hole which were very confusing for someone who does not follow basketball.  I understand that the majority of the teenagers who would read this book would bring a firm knowledge base of basketball.  However, if a teenager only wanted to read about the winning season they would give up before the season even started.  The basketball games do not start until page 126.  The first 125 pages are relegated to giving the reader the history of the village of Fort Yukon.  This book would probably be appreciated by an older young adult that has retired from their basketball career and would like to relive a little of the glory days while getting a socioeconomic lesson on rural Alaska.

3Q – 2P

The recommended ages are 17 and up.

 The cover art is a perfect depiction of the contents of the book.  A ‘nothin’ but net’ basketball shot and a dog sled adequately portray what this book is about.  If a teenager was heavily involved in the sport of basketball, then the cover would appeal to him or her.