The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This book I read because of the all of the crazy acclaim it received. Everyone I talked to said that it absolutely changed their lives, so obviously I had to read it. I think the basic idea can be summed up in this quote:

"It's called the principle of favorability. Beginner's luck. Because life wants you to achieve your Personal Legend."

This book is most assuredly teachable, although I think that with its abstract ideas it may be better suited for a senior class, even AP. I believe that all students could have the potential to understand it, but that to have true class discussions where no one is left behind I would have to feel out the class before I assigned the book. It is designed in the manner of a fable or bedtime story with its magic and out-there personifications, like the capitalization in the above quote of 'personal legend'.

The book did change me, in a way. It is one of those books that I feel I will need to read again to pick up on things I missed the first time around. The idea in the book about the universe being on our side as individuals is a comfortable one, and I think that is what I struggle with. It's too comfortable. It would be so nice to assume that, so nice to think that something much greater than myself was pulling strings for me. I have even had events in my life that make me wonder if it is true, like when I discuss a scheduling conflict with someone only to have a nearby professor do all she can to help me. :) Despite this I think I am simply too jaded to appreciate this book in the way so many have appreciated it, and I feel that with a second reading (where I will know what I'm getting in to) I will be able to drink in the lessons a little deeper.

One quote that stuck out to me in the book was a bit of something said to the young boy hero by an elderly shopkeeper:

"You are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons I have never known. Now that I've seen them, and now that I've seen how immense my possibilities are, I'm going to feel worse than before you arrived."

I think the reason that this struck me is that I was watching a T.V. special once a long, long time ago in which a woman's voice narrated an old letter written by a mother some time in the 18th century or thereabouts. To my memory she said:

"I have told my daughters never to read for pleasure. I want them to grow up happy and contentedly settle down and get married and have children. Books will only show them possibilities that they will never achieve, love that they will never find. No, I would rather my girls be ignorant and happy."

When I heard this I was struck, dismayed, and I never forgot it. I must have been in the third or fourth grade. I thought she was a terrible mother, but I thought to myself then, as I did when I saw the quote in "The Alchemist", I wonder how happy we would all be if we never knew of other ways of life? My 9 year old mind was boggled. And I realize now that my thoughts sounded like the beliefs of the Nazis in "The Book Thief"...

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Hmmm. I really am unsure about this book on so many levels that I don't really know where to begin. I'm sure you've read it, but in case you haven't a girl gets brutally raped and murdered and the book is from her point of view from a frighteningly bizzare version of a Heavenly waiting room. I would seriously not do a thing with this book based solely on that. Teenagers have enough to worry about without worrying that when they day they are going to be in a ghostly limbo town for an unspecified amount of time where they can stumble across lethargic ghost-people. Heaven really doesn't sound a whole lot better.

I wouldn't teach it. It's got sex, penises, graphic murder, rape, a crappy Heaven, and just a whole myriad of stuff that would get me fired and make me flare into violent blushes whenever the class mentioned them. There is a sad beauty to the book though, despite the fact that I didn't like it. Like being in just the right place at the right time to watch the last leaf fall off a tree just before winter. I wouldn't re-read it and I am hurriedly trying to delete everything the book said about Heaven and the Afterlife from my mental Heaven and Afterlife data banks. But in a twisted, kind of sickly sad way, I'm glad I read it.

I guess that is all I have to say. I'm oddly at a loss for words on this one. I'm also oddly petrified that I will be unsuspectingly possessed by some chick who wants to get physical with my boyfriend. Best to just stop thinking about it.

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

I absolutely love the book "The Giver" and believe that everyone on the face of the Earth should read it. I had heard about "Gathering Blue" and was told that it is a companion book to "The Giver", but I had never actually picked it up and read it. I was totally wowed. Though I wouldn't rank it quite as high as "The Giver" I must admit that I am drawn to utopic and post-apocalyptic literature. Something about the idea of a complete societal overhaul appeals to me when I am looking for a book to escape into for a while. While "The Giver" was more utopic book, "Gathering Blue" is a post-apocalyptic, dystopic world. There are clues about the distruction of the world in the book that suggest that the book takes place in our universe, and on our own Earth. A song sung in the book that none of the characters understands has lyrics with clues:

Ravaged all
Bogo tabal
Timore toron
Totoo now gone...

It took me forever to decipher this and I was mildly disappointed by the the clues. Not to mention the fact that they completely mess up the rhyme scheme when decoded, which doesn't make any damn sense at all considering at one time when the song was created they must have known how to properly say the names, or at least spell them. The song says really:

Ravaged all
Bogota, Baltimore
Toronto too now gone...

What an absolutely random collection of cities to mention in the only surviving song about the old world before the devastation. C'mon. It makes me want to get a sticky note over it in the book that says:

Ravaged all
To Kyol
Ondon Wash
Ington now gone...

Now that makes some sense. Major world powers. Probably had hands in the devastation. Is Lowry trying to imply that Canada or Columbia is going to rise up and destroy the world? Or have the most missed capitals after the fact? Really? Annoying. I guess I could argue in my head that maybe these capitals were the only ones with survivors since they are so far away from major areas and (sorry if you are from Baltimore or anything) but have absolutely no reason to be a target of any kind. I actually had to Google Bagota. Fun fact.


The heroine was born crippled and remained alive only due to her mother's love as their society looked down upon her as unmarriageable and unable to work. She does however have an amazing gift for embroidery. There are so many teachable and amazing things to take away from this book that it is appropriate for all ages, although it may not appeal as much to boys what with both the female heroine and the sewing element. If I taught it hand in hand with "The Giver" it might generate more interest from my male students.

I have also discovered that there is a third book which completes the trilogy from the point of view of a character from "Gathering Blue". Rumor has it (I have good friends that don't give away books) that it ties all the books together. I am both hesitant and excited to read the third book now, because I would love to continue thinking of "The Giver" and "Gathering Blue" as separate entities if "Messenger" (the title of the third book) doesn't bring them together in a way that I feel they deserve. I'm very squeamish about ruining the point of view I have on books that I love, one of the reasons I have to read a thousand reviews before I see a movie about a book. I will have to overcome this!!

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

Just in case you weren't already aware, I want to be British when I grow up. I want the accent, the English-isms, the whole shebang!! A co-worker of mine had bought this book for me last Christmas knowing of my desire to be English, and for this class I finally picked it up and read it. It is a little confusing at times with the British-isms, but there is a glossary in the back of the book for we folks from across the pond. I adored the peek into another culture similar to ours yet different in so many ways.

The book takes place in England (obviously) and is centered around a 14 year old girl named Georgia who is your typical 14 year old girl in many ways. Unfortunately she is absolutely obsessive (to the point of delusion) over boys. This isn't presented as a problem book dealing with delusions and brain problems, that is my own personal review of the book. I would not use this book in the classroom as it has just about nothing teachable in it besides its set up as collections of diary entries. I might recommend it to reluctant readers, but I feel that the British-isms might be overwhelming to students who have a difficult time reading even with the glossary and I would probably be a little embarrassed to admit that I had read the book myself. So the bottom line is I'm torn.

I feel that this book has genuine appeal for students ages 14-16, but it is purely youth smut. Lots of kissing, lots of mentions of sex without any actual sex, lots of make-up and popularity issues, but no real meat and potatoes. Strictly for entertainment purposes. I would also be concerned to recommend it due to the fact that the sequel to the book (there are ten books total) is called "On the Bright Side, Now I'm Dating a Sex God". Although Georgia calls the boy she is mooning over Sex God more often then she says his name, I worry that there may be actual sex in later books, which is hard for me to reconcile with Georgia being only 14 years old. I'm not saying all 14 year olds are innocent, but I am saying I wish they were and I wouldn't want to suggest otherwise with my book recommendations.
Despite these problems I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was like a dose of mental vallium for my over-worked brain.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

This book is quickly becoming one of my new favorites. Even with all of the demands I've had on my reading time, I have actually read it twice!! It is one of the fastest reads I've had this semester, and the story is absolutely breathtaking in both beauty and engagement. It is set in a fairy tale land where giants have cows as big as houses and fairies grant boons both for good and for bad. Despite the fairy tale aspects of the story the actual story line is amazing and gripping, and I know that had I discovered it when I was younger I would have been just as in love with it as I am today.

I love when I stumble upon books that I could use as part of a unit (as I've said before) and this book actually gave me an idea for a whole NEW unit that I hadn't even thought about before: One on fairy tales both old and new. I think that such books are engaging for reluctant readers due to their supernatural and scifi appeal and also engaging for more advanced students for the lessons and underlying motifs that are inherent in any fairy tale.

I would absolutely teach this book and recommend it. I feel that male students may not be as engaged by the book, but I feel that if it were part of a unit in which I also included male heroes than male students may not be so reluctant to read it. I would also probably try to select an edition of the book that doesn't have a huge picture of Ella on the front, if that would be possible, to further engage male students. This is another issue that I had never thought of before, and I am glad that it came up with the reading of this book. I will have to look into whether or not it is possible to get back-prints of a novel or even to special order books with simpler covers. If this IS possible I would also make students aware of the actual cover of the book and have one on hand so that they could look at it and appreciate it.

I heard that the movie for this book was terrible when I asked around, and I will not see it, nor will I include it in my lesson plans. Although the concept of watching bits of a bad book movie could make for an intriguing lesson, this book is too magical and incredible to me for me to throw it under the bus by exposing students to a crappy movie based on it.

Knight on Horseback by Ann Rabinowitz

In addition to World War II, I would say that the Kings and Queens of antiquated England is my other main point of interest. This book, focused around a young boy named Edward on a trip to England with his family, is completely saturated with English royal history. Richard III, one of Shakespeare's most famous villains, is the centerpiece for this novel that takes place in many places in England but mostly around historical places that were influential to Richard's life. Edward meets the ghost of Richard and gets to know him in an entirely different way then history paints him.

I adored this book for the history, but I was also pleased with it because I don't feel that I read enough books with male main characters. Edward is, as all young adults are, struggling with his identity and the contrasting visions he has for who he is and who he wants to be. He longs to be a part of something great, and he tastes greatness in his encounters with Richard. Although the story is sometimes hard to follow when Edward has visions that meld with his everyday life, the story is gripping and keeps you wondering what the mystery of Edward's relationship with Richard III means, how it will develop and how Edward will sort out his own relationship with Richard from the terrible things that Richard had supposedly done.

I would absolutely recommend this book to boys and to girls who love horses and/or history. This book is one that I would most definitely teach, and it would be perfect to teach after reading Shakespeare's Richard III, as it gives a different view of the man that history has painted evil.

I am really loving how many books I have discovered this semester that compliment Shakespeare so well!!! I think that Shakespeare is wonderful to teach, and that it will reach my students so much better if after reading it we can read young adult fiction in which the plays are relevant and resonant.

Margaux With An X by Ron Koertge

I read this book. Am I glad I read this book? For the purposes of this project, yes. However, this book did not make me feel much of anything other an outrage that it was even written, although it was a fast read. The main character, Margaux, is beautiful to a fault. It is alluded to early in the novel that she has some serious daddy issues, although we do not know until the end what those are. I would absolutely not recommend this book, in fact, I would not even keep a copy of it in my classroom. The issues of abuse are very real and valid, but what really got the blood boiling for me about this short novel were the relationships in it.

Margaux is on a path of self discovery and along the way she finds a surprising friend in a boy named Danny. Danny was abused by his father, and lives with his aunt who has MS. Although their friendship starts out truly genuine and kind, Margaux quickly discovers that Danny is not unscarred by his violent childhood, and he brings the violence into their friendship. Despite this, Margaux goes back to him. I do not feel that this is a message that should be sent to anyone, male or female. Abuse is a sad, terrible reality of the world we live in, but it is not an excuse for violence and is not a 'get out of jail free card' when violence does pop up.

I did however find myself routing for Margaux when she stood up to her father and called him out for their little 'incident' that happened when she was ten years old. She was strong and stood her ground, and had she not turned around and moved in with Danny and his aunt, I would even say that Margaux had made great personal leaps. As the story is, I feel that Margaux is simply moving from one form of past abuse to another form of potential abuse, a cycle that sadly many young women get trapped into. No. Just no.

Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Green Angel was one of those books that after I read it I had to go out and buy it. I am not entirely sure the time or place in which it is set, it is the air of a Utopic fantasy novel but it could also potentially be linked to real life events, such as the bombing of Dresden as discussed in Slaughterhouse Five. The bottom line of the story is that a young girl named Green is left behind when her family goes into the town/city/more-populated-area to sell their fruits and vegetables while Green is trusted to tend the garden, which is her gift. When the town (or whatever it is) goes up in flames and her family doesn't return, Green is left by herself in a ruined version of a life she had loved so much. Green passes through the stages of grief with beauty and grace, and her evolution from a slightly awkward girl into a self-assured and strong woman is like watching a beautiful portrait being painted.

The book not only deals with different ways to deal with grief, but it also has many pointed examples of symbolism. Although some of the symbolism, like the stones that Green selects to represent members of her lost family, are more obvious some other examples like her own physical transformation are more subtle and harder to unpack.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, although it's short length and poetic nature would make it ideal for reluctant readers. I feel that this book is pretty strongly female, as it focuses on the main character being an outcast and feeling out of place in her world and age. I do not know if I would teach this book in class unless we did a unit on grief and dying... I simply do not feel that the book would have mass appeal for a whole classroom. Despite this, absolutely one of my new favorite books. :)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This was a long book, and not an easy read. The language flowed and the story was compelling, but the nature of the book itself and the subject matter forced me to slow down and appreciate every page, even re-reading whole passages. World War II has always been an interest of mine, and this book tackled the whole subject from a very unique point of view. The narrator, Death, tells us the story of a German girl Liesel, who is displaced with foster parents in Germany during WWII to protect her. She learns how to read and discovers the power of books from the raw power of Hitler's Mien Kampf, to the beauty of a well told fairy tale, to the beauty of flames as grown soldiers burn piles of books for the 'dangerous' messages they might be carrying.

The suffering and the fear are palpable throughout this book, and one cannot help but agonize with Leisel and her foster family even as they do their best to stay out of the way of the Nazis. In a WWII unit, I feel that it is important to get many different perspectives on a war, lest students walk away thinking 'Jews suffered.... All Germans are evil". This is not the message I would want students to walk away with, and I feel that unfortunately for most well-constructed Holocaust centered unit plans students do not see the German side of the story, or hear of the Germans who helped or were killed for their disagreements with the Nazi regime. The point of a Holocaust unit is to discourage hate and misunderstanding, not redirect it.

This book had some very interesting devices within it. When Liesel's foster family begins hiding the Jew named Max, Max and Liesel form a fast friendship that leads to Max creating books for Liesel. These books are made from pages of Mien Kampf, which Max painted white and drew on. I found that it broke up the book nicely to have these pages actually within the novel rather than simply described.

I would recommend this book to students, and would most likely also do a unit on this book as well. I feel that this book, despite its young characters, would be better suited for an older class.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

This was one of those books that I felt like was a cheat because it was both about a teacher and from the students perspective. I love books like this because they appeal to me as a teacher but also as a reader of young adult fiction that will apply to my students' lives.

One of the main things that I loved about this book was that it dealt with a war that was going on in Vietnam at the time, and it could be used in present day to refer to the war in Iraq. I feel that students who have a parent or relative overseas have a lot to deal with emotionally, and it isn't always what they need to discuss the actual war in Iraq and Afghanistan. By reading a book about another war in another time, students can make connections to themselves and their troubles through the book. This would both encourage the process of making self connections with ALL books but also keep them engaged.

This book was also full of some of the most spectacular quotes I have ever seen in a young adult novel. Some of my favorite quotes were quotes that can be plugged in for any like experiences, like when the main character Holling Hoodhood meets his hero Micky Mantle, who is mean to him...

"When gods die, they die hard. It's not like they fade away, or grow old, or fall asleep. They die in fire and pain, and when they come out of you, they leave your guts burned. It hurts more than anything you can talk about. And maybe worst of all is, you're not sure if there will ever be another god to fill their place. Or if you'd ever want another god to fill their place. You don't want the fire to go out inside you twice."

Another quote is describing a character in the book's reaction when they find out that their loved one who was in Vietnam (and had been missing in action for months) was alive after all...

"Think of the sound you make when you let go after holding your breath for a very, very long time. Think of the gladdest sound you know: the sound of dawn on the first day of spring break, the sound of a bottle of Coke opening, the sound of a crowd cheering in your ears because you're coming down to the last part of a race--and you're ahead. Think of the sound of water over stones in a cold stream, and the sound of wind through green trees on a late May afternoon in Central Park. Think of the sound of a bus coming into the station carrying someone you love.
Then put all those together."

I would definitely recommend this book to any student, and I would probably even teach it. This book would be amazing to read before reading Shakespeare's The Tempest and Hamlet, as the main character reads those plays and discusses them throughout the book, comparing them to his life.