Helping Students Find "The Cover That Fits"

Please view my final project at http://kkpike.tripod.com/

This website is dedicated to helping students find the right books for them. Eventually (once I have read more adolescent literature), I would envision dividing the pages into genres or categories, particularly for high school. Also, the attached blogs are intended to be open forums, but in the long run, I am not entirely sure that is the best format for the discussions; perhaps something more along the lines of a chatroom would work better.

Book Talk : Acceleration

Craft Lesson - Perspective/Point of View in Persepolis

Materials:
· History Textbook or Text on the Islamic Revolution
· Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Purpose: To help students understand the impact of using different perspectives. Help students analyze perspectives and bias when reading historical and other texts.

Lesson:
Completely discussion based lesson. Read both texts.

Teacher: Class, can you help me understand what point of view or perspective is?
Prompts – a way of seeing things, reflection on events, an opinion
Definition:
Point of View
1. a specified or stated manner of consideration or appraisal; standpoint

2. an opinion, attitude, or judgment

3. the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters.

Perspective
1. the state of one's ideas, the facts known to one, etc., in having a meaningful interrelationship

**Definitions retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com

Now let’s take a look at the texts:
HISTORICAL TEXT or TEXTBOOK
Leading Discussion Questions:
What perspective is this text written from?
o Prompts: historical perspective, very factual (“Just the facts ma’am. Just the facts.”), no emotion or feeling at all, no detailed descriptions, limited visual representation
How does that perspective help you understand the time period and events?
o Prompts: helps us understand the technical details of the events and time period, provides an overview to work from
Why is this type of text important?
o It does provide us with the factual information from which to work and gives a broad overview of the things that occurred.
Is there any bias in this type of text?
o There can be – think of Persepolis pages 44 & 73 where they are tearing pages out of the history book and closing universities so that students are not “led astray”.
o How does bias get into this type of text? You would think the facts are generally pretty unbiased…
§ Government influence, writer bias, editorial bias
§ Think of other events where this might have occurred - Holocaust, Indian relocation, discovery of the Americas, establishment of the United States of America, etc.

PERSEPOLIS
Leading Discussion Questions
What perspective is this book told from?
o Prompts: 1st person, child/teenager, female, clinical; Is it also historical, factual??
How does this perspective add to your understanding of the events?
o Prompts: provides emotion, feelings, first-hand account of the events
Why is this type of text important?
What does it provide that the other does not? What does the other provide that this perspective does not?
o Prompts: a link to the emotional humanity of the events, a deeper understanding than simple facts can provide, an in-depth look
What bias is there in this type of text?
o Quite a lot, because you are only seeing one side of the story.
o A child’s point of view could be skewed due to parental protection, misunderstanding of events, misinterpretation of words, events, expressions, etc.
o Removed because this is being written by a woman who is looking back at her childhood growing up in this era instead of being written at that exact time, like Diary of Anne Frank. Therefore, she has had time to interpret the events in a mature way

Wrap-Up: What is the importance of reading multiple perspectives on a topic? How does looking at things from several perspectives help us make more informed decisions and take thoughtful stances?

TEKS: Social Studies: High School: World History: Standard 25; English III: Standard 7, 8, & 11

Book Review: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

This book provides an interesting look at a relatively dark and largely misunderstood period of time. Told from an interesting point-of-view – that of a child – and in a unique way – as a graphic novel, this book brings new insight to this time in history.

As the story begins, the young girls are being forced to wear head coverings, yet the young ones do not understand why. As the story progresses, the reader begins to understand the vast difference between what is portrayed in popular media and what actually occurs. The reader also begins to understand that the thoughts and beliefs of the people are not always reflected in their government. The book tells the story of the rebellion of the Iranian people against their government. What makes it more interesting is that the book is told from the perspective of the child of revolutionaries. We see her parents participate in protests, her parents’ friends arrested and tortured, the vast class differences that exist in that culture and their real implications on the people who live in that society, and finally, we watch as her parents send her away to receive a better education and “better life” in France.

The other aspect of this book that makes it so intriguing is that it is a graphic novel. The drawings are all black and white two dimensional drawings with short dialogue, much like you would find in a comic book only without the color. These drawings actually help the author treat the violence very clinically. The drawings evoke a lot of emotion and convey a lot of information and feelings without any of the gore or graphic images.

This book would be well suited for a history classroom, especially side-by-side with a true historical text or textbook. Using this book this way helps provide students with multiple perspectives on a series of historical events. It could also be used as a primary source, because the woman writing this book is doing so from her first-hand account of the events.

A word of caution…this book should be used with high school students or older. Younger students may not be mature enough to fully understand the content.

This review can also be viewed on Amazon.com

Red Hot Salsa

What a beautiful collection of poems!!  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  The poems are beautifully written and poignant.

I especially enjoyed the variety of poetry.  There were some poems that made me laugh (Taco Bell is NOT Mexican food) and others that deeply touched my heart (Invisible Boundaries).  Each poem held a depth of meaning beyond the words of poetry and touched an inner part of me.  Though the collection is geared toward young Latinos, the themes are universal - a desperate need for love, acceptance, freedom, freedom to be yourself, searching for your own unique identity, the fear of being invisible and insignificant.  These themes can be understood and related to regardless of the reader's background or ethnicity.  

I also really enjoyed reading the Spanish translations.  This gives the book an extra dimension, especially in light of the proposed audience.  The Spanish language is such a beautiful and romantic language and it was a wonderful experience to read the two side-by-side.

I can see this book being used in multiple ways in the classroom - everything from being used as part of learning poetry to discussions on culture and use of language.  Overall, this was a wonderful book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Poet Slave of Cuba

This book was very interesting to me. I was not sure what to expect between the genre and the subject matter. I have never experienced a novel told through poetry the way this one is. The poetry is absolutely beautiful in this novel. Margarita Engle does such a wonderful job of weaving this haunting biography together through the use of multiple voices/perspectives to create a tapestry. The characters are developed so well through the poetic vignettes that we truly feel as though these characters are sitting in front of us telling their story.

I found myself rushing through the portions where Juan Manzano tells about the punishment and torture he received, thanking Don Nicholas for his kindness, hating La Marquesa De Prado Ameno for her cruelty, and feeling the anguish of a mother watching her child suffer with Maria Del Pilar. Each voice tells a different story; portrays a unique yet equally important aspect of the slavery. This novel provides the reader with perspectives not often explored in a slavery discussion. It also provides a different background setting instead of the Deep South/Cotton backdrop, and yet it still gives us insight into the history of this country as well as Cuba.

I think this would be a good book to use with the entire class in some form or fashion. It is very emotional and graphic in places, that I think it would be difficult to leave students alone with it, particularly middle school students.

Up Before Daybreak

This book was very interesting to me. Having grown up in cotton country, I realized just how little I know about this part of the world and our history. I also did not realize what an integral part cotton played in the Industrial Revolution and what an instrument of change it really was. I have always known that cotton played an integral role in our nation's history and obviously still affects our lives in significant ways even now, since many fabrics are based from cotton. I have a good friend who farms cotton and struggles to make ends meet now; I cannot even imagine what it would have been like for him to have been farming at that point in history.

What I really like about this book is that it puts historical facts side-by-side with primary sources; first-hand accounts of the time, whether it was the testimony of a former slave or a mill worker. These sources help bring this time period alive. It helps us understand the times on a more personal level. We can relate and to some degree try to put ourselves in their shoes. I also thought the photographs in this book were fantastic and very well placed. The photos helped me understand more about the text. Visual images can be so powerful in improving our comprehension and helped give me a deeper understanding and I think they did exactly that in this book.

I would most definitely use this book in a history classroom, especially in the classes that talk about "King Cotton" and slavery. I would also use this book when discussing the Industrial Revolution and the changes in the rights of women and children.

Book Review: Daisy Kutter and The Last Train

Daisy Kutter is an action packed story that gives the reader a little bit of the Old West combined with a flare for the futuristic/sci-fi. This graphic novel does a wonderful job combining dialogue and art to create a very well-rounded story.

Daisy Kutter is the story of a strong female personality "saving the day" against robots in the Old West. Daisy, a former gunfighter, gives up that life for the slower scene - owning a general store. One day, a mysterious card shark comes to town and beats her in a poker shoot out. After he takes her for everything she has, he offers her an enticing deal. He needs her to rob a train. The catch - it's his train!! She takes the deal and embarks on a great action-packed adventure with classic gunfights and plenty of drama!

The drawings in this book really make the story. The dialogue is intriguing, but the reader must "read" the pictures in order to grasp the full story. The drawings are so compelling and tell so much of the story that the dialogue is lost without them.

Overall, a compelling story with an interesting backdrop (Old West and Sci-Fi) complemented by wonderful pictures.

Uploaded to Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0975419323/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1)

Book Talk: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Craft Lesson 2: Inferencing - Learning to Read More than Words

Materials:

Daisy Kutter by Kazu Kibuishi

Photos - Historical, Fun, Nature, People

Purpose: Many authors, particularly in new YA literature, often use more than just words to tell stories. In the world outside of the classroom, students are bombarded with advertisements and media that often has very little words to go with it. Pictures, drawings, photos, advertisements are powerful mediums to communicate ideas, values, thoughts, etc. It is imperative that students begin to learn to "read" more than the words on the page; learn inferencing; learn to dig deeper. These also become powerful modes of communication for students themselves as they begin to learn to effectively communicate their own ideas and beliefs.

How to Teach It: In the graphic novel, Daisy Kutter and the Last Train by Kazu Kibuishi uses a combination of words and drawings to communicate the story. The words tell only half the story; the pictures tell the rest. The pictures often help us make sense of the story and piece together the dialogue to make better sense of the story. This process is that of making an inference. To infer is "to derive by reasoning; conclude or judge from premises or evidence" (www.dictionary.reference.com). To help us understand the importance of this process and the importance of visual mediums in this process, let's take a look at these photographs.

Take one of the photos and show it to the class. Ask them to tell you about the photo. Probe them with questions as to what emotions/memories/thoughts it evokes. Ask them to help you piece together the "story" behind the photo.

"Now it's your turn" (Pass out the photos now).

"What I would like for you all to do now is take a few minutes to study your photograph. After you have studied it for a few minutes, I want you to write about it - no specified length or requirements, just your thoughts. What story does this photo tell? What emotions does it arouse in you? What part of your life or memories does it bring to mind?"

(Give them appropriate time to study and write)

Come back together as a class and ask the students to discuss their photos and discuss the ideas they came up with.

Now do the same with Daisy Kutter. Look at page... What do these pictures tell you about the story? How do these photos help you better understand Daisy's emotions? How do they help you piece the dialogue together?

Bibliography: Kibuishi, Kazu. Daisy Kutter: The Last Train. Irving, TX: Viper Comics, 2006.

TEKS:

• English II Standard 19: The student understands and interprets visual representations
• English II Standard 20: The student analyzes and critiques the significance of visual representations
  

Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case

This book was very difficult for me to get through.  It truly brought that portion of the nation's history, horrific as it may be, to life.  As a person who grew up in this country after the Civil Rights Movement, it is difficult for me to fathom this horrific event occurring.  

I have never known a segregated society...I have never known what it is like to be anything but free to go about my life and do as I please...I have always had friends from multiple races and ethnicity.  

Reading this book was almost surreal for me as I tried to imagine that this event took place only 53 years ago in my own country.  This book helped me see just how far we have come and yet, I realized just how far we have to go to overcome ideals of inequality in our country.  Who are we to judge in this manner?

This is a book that I would only use in a high school setting with students mature enough to truly understand and handle the content.  The subject matter is so very important for students to understand that it deserves the utmost respect.  For so many of our students, the Civil Rights Movement began with Rosa Parks' bold stand on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama, but the truth is that the roots go far deeper than a seat on a bus.  As a nation, we tend to gloss over that part of history.  We would like to be able to forget that dark side of our past; yet it is always there.  

I would probably use this book in a unit about the Civil Rights Movement, where it most definitely has a rightful place.   I might also consider using it in an English class on non-fiction.  This book, unlike other history books, told a story instead of reading in a very clinical way with just the facts.  Crowe helped paint a picture for us as readers of a Deep South we have only heard rumored.  I really liked that he set the stage for the time and did not just give the facts.  A story like this is difficult to imagine in the times we live where we like to think that justice is done. In many cases, the reader needs more information about the social and political climate of the times in order to understand the significance of this terrible event.  He helped me understand a time in our history that I have previously only been able to picture from an extremely clinical perspective.

Persepolis

As I began reading this book, I was struck by how little I know about the Middle East. I know, quite simply, what I have heard on the news over the years. I do not remember studying the recent history of that part of the world in school at all - ancient history, yes, but not recent history. For that reason, I had no background knowledge to refer to. As she talked about events, I often found myself lost as to exactly what was going on and I ended up re-reading quite a bit.

I was particularly struck by this author's choice of the graphic novel to tell this story. I believe it was an amazing format for this type of story, but it surprised me. When I think of graphic novels, I think of comic strips (yes I said it!), and I think of fun fictional stories. I do not think of a country's history through the eyes of one of its own children. I do not think of displaying wars and their costs. As I said earlier, I believe this was an amazing format for this story, primarily because it allows the author to convey emotion in ways other than words. We get to see people's facial expressions and their joy and fear. This format helps us better understand the components other than just the facts.

The illustrations made this book for me. The black and white/2-dimensional illustrations were vivid and poignant in telling the story. I felt like it helped convey a sort of distance from the story and helped show that these were memories. The illustrations conveyed so much emotion in a very emotionless way (if that makes sense). So often we depend on color to help express emotion (ie. red for anger, blue for calm, etc.) With only black and white illustrations, we were left to feel for ourselves. It was very interesting to me.

As I read this book, I could not help but compare it to Diary of Anne Frank, possibly because it is about a girl growing up in a war ravaged country telling her story. But aside from that, there is an honesty in this story that you only find in stories told from this point of view. We see that children from other countries grow up just like we do though our experiences vary greatly.

As many of my classmates have said, if this book were to be used in the classroom, it would need to be accompanied by some historical information. I also believe that it is appropriate primarily for older students.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

This book cracked me up!! I laughed from the very first "this is not a diary" to the very last "Class Clown" picture. Junior high school is one of those times in my life (as I am sure it is for many of you) that I never wish to relive...in fact my daughter is only 3 months old and I already dread that time in her life. BUT...this book made all of those experiences more humorous. What this book does is put those dreaded experiences into a new perspective - one that can be laughed through. Middle school is hard for just about everyone because you go through so many changes at different speeds and it is difficult to cope with. I think boys and girls alike would be drawn to this book. What I like so much about the book is that just about everyone can identify with something in it. We recognize ourselves in the pages. For adults, it helps us gain insight into our students' lives by helping us remember what we went through. For students, they recognize their current situation and find someone to identify with.

Though I doubt Jeff Kinney is currently a middle school student, he truly captures the words, thoughts, and mindset of students at that age. He portrays many of the fears of embarassment, humiliation, self-centeredness, "girl cooties" and any other kind of cooties with amazing accuracy. The voice and perspective are masterfully written. The illustrations are also tremendous. I found myself looking forward to the illustrations of the events, because they were so detailed and added more understanding of the text (and, of course, they were hilarious!).

I believe this book could be used in any classroom from 5th grade on up. In fact, my copy is headed to my husband's 5th grade classroom tomorrow.

Daisy Kutter: The Last Train

I loved this book!! Which surprised me a little. Though my husband loves them, I have never really gotten into the comic book genre. Like Amy says in her blog, I generally have my own picture in my head of the characters and the story. I was so pleasantly surprised with this book though. I loved that the illustrations told just as much of the story as the dialogue did. "Reading" the illustrations took a little bit of getting used to at the beginning of the book. I think we are so used to just reading dialogue and skipping over the pictures, because normally they are just reitterating what is being written about, that taking time to actually pay attention to the illustrations was difficult at first, but well worth it as the story went on. This book was also remarkably good at developing the characters with very few words. I was able to really get into the story and felt like I knew Daisy personally by the end of the book.

It was interesting, because my husband (who is a 5th grade math teacher) read this book with me and we had a great discussion about ways it could be used in the classroom. Obviously you can teach all of the same conceptual ideas about stories with this book (ie. plot, story/character development, etc.). One thing that he mentioned though was that this format of book would be wonderful to use with struggling readers. My husband is severely Dyslexic (to the point that he was told by his teachers that he would never graduate from high school) and yet he loved and would actually read comic books. One of the reasons he loves comic books so much is because of the fact that you get to "read" the illustrations. With other books, my husband would easily give up, becuase he spent all of his time trying to decipher the words instead of comprehending the story, A person does not necessarily have to be a great reader to read and comprehend a book like this one, because the story is told jointly with words and pictures. It is not 153 pages of deciphering words. This type of book would probably attract students like my husband who struggle with reading and would be a phenomenal tool for developing those reading skills.

I also believe that this story appeals to both boys and girls, but might attract more boys than other more traditional books would, even with a strong, independent female as the main character. However, I think there was some language in the story that would make it inappropriate for younger readers.

Acceleration

I, like so many others in our class, was very suprised by this book. I am a huge fan of mystery novels, but I do not like the really scary mystery novels and judging by the cover, that is exactly what I expected. For that reason, I put off reading it until the weekend, when I could read it during the day (I know, I'm goofy!). Once I started reading, I could not put the book down! I was so drawn into the story.

The author expertly uses all kinds of comparisons and imagery to help us see and feel what is being described in the story. I could visualize the "dungeon" with its rows and rows of dusty unclaimed items as if I was staring at it with my own eyes. I could feel the terror as the water turned black as night in the middle of the day. I used this book for my craft lesson for that very reason. This would be an incredible resource when teaching literary comparisons like metaphor and simile.

I was a little disappointed in the ending. It felt like everything happened very quickly and I was very suprised that "Roach" died so quickly. I felt like the time between discovering who he was and his death could have been a little longer in order to learn more about what had happened in the time since the diary left off and allow further exploration of that character. It just seemed to end entirely too quickly. I expected something more explosive (that sounds funny to say since he was hit by a train), but it was not what I expected.

I would definitely recommend this book to older students (high school); although, I would be careful due to some of the more adult content found in places. All in all a wonderful book!!

Book Talk: A Step from Heaven

Craft Lesson: Simile & Metaphor

Materials: Acceleration by Graham McNamee

Purpose: Authors use simile and metaphor to develop images and convey messages to readers. These are powerful literary tools and it is imperative that students learn to recognize them and understand their significance in reading and writing. The images created in this way allow students to literally see what is going on in the story, because they are able to equate what the author is discussing with something familiar and tangible.

How to Teach It:
In the book Acceleration, the author uses simile and metaphor to help us create comparisons and images in order to better understand the meaning of the words. To help us understand the difference between these two let’s define simile (a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, as in “she is like a rose.”) and metaphor (a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.”). ( www.dictionary.reference.com ) (Allow class to discuss and define the terms) Can anyone point out a simile in the first chapter? (Pg. 1 – “a political prisoner of the capitalist overlord otherwise known as Dad”) What about a metaphor? (Pg. 2 – “If you think of a half-deflated soccer ball with two of the hairiest ears you’ve ever seen attached to it”) How do these descriptions add to our understanding of this part of the story?

Now that we know what we are looking for, Let’s take a deeper look at the book. In groups of three find some examples in the book and explain how the comparison helps you understand what the author is trying to convey to the reader.

After the students have had time to find a few examples, come back together as a large group and ask the students to share some of the examples they have found and ask them to explain how those examples helped give them a clearer picture of the book.  

Bibliography: McNamee, Graham. Acceleration.  New York: Random House Children's Books, 2003.

TEKS: Subject chapter 110: English Language Arts and Reading
Subchapter: High School
Grade 110.42: English I (one Credit)
Standard 11: Reading/literary concepts. The student analyzes literary elements for their contributions to meaning in literary texts.

Book Review for Miracle's Boys

Miracle’s Boys is the powerful story of three brothers attempting to deal with the death of their parents. The story begins after the middle brother, Charlie, has returned from Rahway, a juvenile detention center. He has changed so much in the time he was there, that his younger brother, Lafayette, refers to him as Newcharlie. The oldest brother, Ty’ree, struggles to take the place of both parents and provide for his family. As the story unfolds, we discover that Lafayette was the first to find his mother on the morning she passed away and blames himself for her death, because he froze and could only scream. We also discover that Ty’ree blames himself for their father’s death, because he told his dad to save the woman and her dog. Newcharlie has difficulty dealing with their mother’s death, simply because he was not there when she died and attempts to comfort himself by believing that he could have saved her had he been there. As the story progresses, we watch the brothers grow closer together and begin to deal with their grief in their own separate ways, Ty’ree and Lafayette holding to the hope that one day Newcharlie will become Charlie once more.

This story is very well written and draws the reader in so that we feel the emotions of the readers as if they were our own. The author expertly uses flashbacks to help the reader “get to know” the characters and understand them on a personal level. This novel grabs the reader and draws them and we find ourselves living the struggles these boys face along with them – their hopes, their dreams, and their pain. As the book closes, we realize that only two days have passed, but we feel as if we have known the boys for a lifetime. This book deals with the pain of loss, raw grief, and some teenage violence; each of these issues adds to the power of the book and the relationships described. I would definitely recommend this book, though not to someone whose grief is new.

Submitted to Barnes & Noble (still awaiting confirmation) and Amazon http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0142406023/ref=cm_cr_pr_recent?%5Fencoding=UTF8&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Miracle's Boys

As I read Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson, I went through an entire gamut of emotions along with the characters. Anger and disbelief when Newcharlie calls Lafayette "Milagro killer" (p. 15); grief and anguish as Lafayette describes the morning he found his mother; comfort when he talks about seeing and feeling her near him; fear that Newcharlie has messed up again and that Lafayette will have to go live with Aunt Cecile; anguish and pride as Ty'ree describes the manner in which their father died; and relief as Newcharlie becomes Charlie again. Very well written, the author invites the reader to feel the emotions of the characters. We feel their pain and connect with them. Though only two days pass, we seem to understand the boys and their lives intimately. The memories are well written and well placed to facilitate this closeness with the characters. These memories also allow us to understand the transformation in Charlie that warrants the change in his name to "Newcharlie." We watch Lafayette seek to understand this change in his brother and the longing that one day he will return to them.

One aspect of this book that was extremely important for me was that both Lafayette and Ty'ree felt responsible for their respective parent's death. They shared a kinship over that guilt. As the book unfolds, you begin to understand why they feel the way they do and how the events of those days have been skewed in their minds to support that reality for them. I love how they begin to unravel those memories and understand that they both did everything they could. I think this is all too often the reality of loss - someone is always to blame or at least it seems that way during grief. We constantly "could have, should have, would have" ourselves until the loss makes sense. Grief is a process we must work through. We are never immediately at peace with a loss; peace takes time.

This book is one of such grief and loss that it was difficult to read. I would be very careful who I recommended this book to (as far as students are concerned). It gives insight into the grief process and reflects the change in entire families when this loss occurs. This book also provides understanding into the effect one person can have on all members of the family (ie. Newcharlie's effect on both his brothers and their lives), but I am not sure that some adolescents would be able to read and appreciate this book for anything more than a "sad story."

A Step from Heaven

What struck me most about this book was Young Ju's struggle to find her identity...an identitiy that is uniquely her's. From the moment her hair was permed to the final vignette when she mentions that she never learned to read or write Korean and needs to go to her mother for translation, we watch her struggle to find her place...Her place in the world, her school, and her family. Her identity remains rooted in her Korean background, but she begins to find an identity somewhere between being Korean and being American. When she first has her hair curled, she says that she looks in the mirror and does not even recognize herself, but her mother thinks she looks beautiful, because now she looks like a "Mi Gook" girl. Later in the book, her father tells her that she is no longer a good Korean girl, because she does not respect him the way he believes she should; she has become "too American". In the end, she pushes her straight black hair behind her ear...She has found her identity.

What makes this identity development so compelling is that it could be any one of us. No, we have not all immigrated to the US from another country, but every person goes through a time in their life where they are searching to define themselves. The audience for this book is in that particular stage of life where students are beginning to search to find out who they are apart from their family. I really like that the book follows Young Ju's development from a child through college. So often, I think that we want to try to define who we are overnight and in a few words. The truth is that our identity, like Young Ju's, is multi-layered and very complex. We cannot be defined by one particular aspect of our lives. Young Ju was not just a Korean or an American; she was somewhere in between. She was not just a student or a daughter or a sister or a friend, she was all of the above and more. No one aspect was more important than the other. As Young Ju did, we must all find ourselves...an identity that is uniquely our's.

The other part of this book that struck me was the vivid abuse. I realize that many more people than I know suffer from some type of abuse. Abuse is one ugly aspect of society that crosses all cultural boundaries. It knows no limits...no boundaries. And it is just as ugly in every culture.

Standing Against the Wind

Well deserving of its accolades, Standing Against the Wind by Traci L. Jones is truly a “flower amongst garbage and filth.” This book is inspiring, engaging and allows students of all ages to relate to the thoughts and experiences found in its pages.

An overriding theme in this book is a deep sense of hope. Patrice seems to always find the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. Whether she is contrasting the warmth of the Deep South with the frigid air of Chicago or her current school situation with the one she hopes to be in next year, we see her hope that she can achieve her dreams with a little hard work and determination. I love that we watch her rise above her situation to be the young woman she is and that she is not afraid to show that person to the world. She is unwillingly to compromise herself to be the person that others want her to be.

For me, it truly spoke to my personal school experiences. Though I cannot relate to her difficult home situation, I can relate to being the shy, studious student who was often set apart from others. Especially in middle school, I was the girl who was made fun of for being “too smart.” I also found myself in the poofy-haired insecurity. I have naturally curly hair and at that age, neither my mother nor I truly knew how to care for it. As I grew older, I finally found myself, my voice and my confidence, just as Patrice does in this story. With Monty’s help, Patrice begins to gain the courage to stand up for herself and find her voice. She also begins to realize that she truly is beautiful as her self-image and confidence grow.

I would most definitely recommend this book to students. One of few stories with strong female protagonists, Jones develops strong young characters who grow as the pages unfold. This book is a true examination of relationships and the personal growth of confidence and voice. This novel also helps young readers understand that there can be hope in every situation and they have the opportunity to achieve their dreams no matter what their immediate circumstances are. I enjoyed this book immensely.