Current Reads & Reviews: A 2015 Challenged Book

Levithan, David. Two Boys Kissing. New York: Ember, 2013. Print. ISBN: 0307931900 

Summary: Meet Harry and Craig, Ryan and Avery, Neil and Peter, Tariq, and Cooper, all young men dealing with homosexuality in their very own ways. Follow each of their stories, their sorrows and triumphs as we see them struggle with society’s views.

Analysis: Two Boys Kissing is a great novel for the young lad trying to come to terms with his sexuality. Meant for grades 7^th through 9^th, Levithan does a great job at showing the parallels of society back in the 1990s versus today. The story is told in short snippets where the reader is introduced to several different lives of young men all dealing with their homosexuality. We meet eight gentlemen, each with their very own story, their own inner struggles, as they confront their homosexuality in today’s society. Some deal with the acceptance from their parents – some are completely accepting while others shun their own children. “Some of our parents were always on our side. Some of our parents chose to banish us rather than see us for who we were. And some of our parents, when they found out we were sick, stopped being dragons and became dragonslayers instead. Sometimes that’s what it takes – the final battle. But it should take much, much less than that.” (Levithan 84). While others are dealing with accepting themselves, or finding acceptance from their peers.

            The reader also hears from the generation of homosexuals that come before them. A generation of solitude, a generation that had to hide their true selves, a generation of death – whether by suicide or HIV. Told in first person plural where the “we” and “us” of the 1990s is conveyed. “Two boys kissing. You know what this means. For us, it was a secret gesture. Secret because we were afraid. Secret because we were ashamed. Secret because it was a story no one was telling.” (Levithan 61). Levithan is brilliant in showing these parallels. How society has grown since then and also how far we still have to go for complete acceptance from parents, peers, even one’s own self. How, no matter the year, their wants and needs are still the same.

            A story of acceptance. A story of survival. A story we should all read, no matter your age, so we can begin to understand homosexuals and their inner struggles. Told from each of the character’s perspective, Levithan reels you into the lives of his characters, leaving the reader with a complete picture of their struggles and their rightful place in society. This is a book that all libraries should display as a must read!

Activity: Before reading, students could research and explore Guinness World Records for a record they would be passionate about beating. Then the students will write a detailed outline of their plan to break that record. Then the students will share their plans in a gallery walk. Some students just might go and try to break some records.

Related Resources:  Below are two books that deal with being a homosexual in today’s society.

Levithan, David. Boy Meets Boy. Westminster, MD: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Print.

Boy Meets Boy is a story about relationships, the good times along with the bad times, and somethings losing the one you love.

Trumble, J. H. Just Between Us. E Rutherford, NJ: Kensington Pub Corp, 2013. Print.

Just between us is story of a young man dealing with being diagnosed HIV positive, and how he will confront this being in a newfound relationship. Secluding himself from that love and close relationships, this is a story of coming to terms with the hand you’ve been dealt and the people who will stick by you.

Scholarly Reviews:

School Library Journal 09/01/2013; Booklist 08/01/2013; Publisher’s Weekly 06/03/2013

Levithan, David. Two Boys Kissing. Random House Children’s Books, 2013. EBSCOhost,

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Current YA Reads & Reviews: Michael L. Printz Award Winner

Bray, Libba. Going Bovine. New York: Delacorte, 2009. Print. ISBN: 0385733976

Summary: Cameron, a 16 year-old who seems to exist but isn’t actually doing any living, is contracted with a disease that will ultimately be his doom. Embark on his adventure along with a dwarf and a garden gnome. This is an entertaining story of learning how to live no matter the circumstances, even if they are dire.

Analysis: Libba Bray does an excellent job painting the picture for her reader. It is as if she wants to show the reader how the story would play out if it was on the movie screen. Each scene has an angle, showing she is the director in her own created story. “The camera angle goes wider and wider till it’s so out of focus we’re nothing but a blob of color on the screen” (Bray 59). The reader visualizes this as it happens, projecting the movie experience. Once Cameron is emitted to the hospital, the rest of the story plays metaphorically as if he is finally living, but through a dream.

            Bray’s style is hilarious, laugh out loud funny. She does a fantastic job conveying the culture as their adventure starts off in Texas then traveling through many different states, leaving readers hearing the different dialects/accents in their mind. New Orleans was portrayed quite well you feel as if you actually just visited there. The addition of Norse mythology provided by the gnome, Balder, was way cool. Boldface headings start each chapter, adding an element of foreshadowing. These headings are quirky and funny, leading the reader wondering what Cameron and his entourage will get themselves into next. Cameron fights for his life by fighting the disease within him, showing the reader he just might actually have a passion for life after all. His dreams during his comatose state represent this fight within him as he learns some life lessons along the way.

            A serendipitous story through and through. There were “signs” for Cameron about life and choices before looking for signs was even mentioned in the story. Characters the reader meets early on will play into Cameron’s fate later, leaving the reader with the message that everything is connected. A fight between life and death is presented by Bray in such a cool way. Listed for high school age students, however, the middle school students would enjoy it at well. There is some foul language, and sexual innuendos, but ultimately pretty clean. Bray’s writing, with her quirkiness and sly tie-ins, leaves the reader constantly entertained with a great message that to exist is one thing, but learning to love is to have actually lived. This is a story about finding one’s passion in life.

Activity: As Cameron embarks on his journey of survival and saving the world, students will create a digital photo story or video that represents the key points as well as the main themes that symbolize Cameron’s fight for his life as his adventure progresses throughout the story.

Related Resources: 

Andrews, Jesse. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: A Novel. New York: Amulet, 2015. Print.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a story about Greg Gaines, a young lad that avoids anything in life, skirting by, lacking passion for anything. Quite similar to Cameron in Going Bovine. Like Cameron, Greg embarks on a journey that just may help open his eyes and his heart to finding their meaning in this life dealing with the approach of death along the way.

Bray, Libba. Beauty Queens. Jefferson City, MO: Scholastic Press, 2011. Print.

Beauty Queens is a crazy fun quirky story where a plane full of beauty pageant contests crashes on a remote island. The young ladies all have to figure out how to survive, sometimes fighting for their lives. Bray’s writing is so entertaining you feel like you are watching a television show along with the commercials.  Laugh out loud funny, much like her writing style in Going Bovine.

Scholarly Reviews:

School Library Journal, 09/01/2009; Kirkus Review, 08/15/2009; Publisher’s Weekly, 08/03/2009; Booklist, 08/01/2009

Bray, Libba. Going Bovine. Delacorte Press, 2009. EBSCOhost,

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Current Young Adult Reads & Reviews: Classics

Guest, Judith. Ordinary People. NY, NY: Penguin, 2015. Print. ISBN: 978-0-14-006517-6

Summary: Ordinary people living ordinary lives enduring life's ordinary issues and tragedies but struggling along the way to learn to heal. A father who cares too much, a mother that doesn't care enough, and son just trying to figure out how to exist between the two.

Analysis: Ordinary People takes place during the 1970s in the Chicago area, Judith Guests starts the reader off right in the middle of a family crisis. A son has died in a tragic accident, another has recently attempted suicide as he is racked with the guilt of that tragic night. The main character Conrad is a junior in high school and seems to be at a total loss as to how he is going to survive each day. He starts off his days with minute tasks to get through the basic needs and demands of the day. He is living but not living. Guest does a great job painting the picture of despair for the reader, “The small seed of despair cracks open and sends experimental tendrils upward to the fragile skin of calm holding him together” (Guest 2). Conrad’s mother seems aloof and uncaring of her son’s needs while his father is trying but comes off too overbearing. Both parents are struggling with their own personal grief. “They are ordinary people, after all. For a time they had entered the world of the newspaper statistic; a world where any measure you took to feel better was temporary, at best, but that is over. This is permanent. It must be” (Guest 94).

            The story is told in different perspectives leading the reader in closer to that character at that moment in time giving the reader a more in depth look into that character’s thought processes. “It was like falling into a hole and it keeps getting bigger and bigger, you can’t get out. And then all of a sudden it’s inside you, it is you, and you’re trapped, and it’s all over.” (Guest 250). This is a story of ordinary people living ordinary lives and how life’s tribulations reverberate through each person involved differently as well as how differently each person deals with them. An overwhelming theme in the story is that life happens, no matter what it is, it’s just the way things are. “Over and over this same lesson to be learned; it is the way things are.” (Guest 258).

            Guest does an excellent job reeling us into this family and their issues. Written in 1976, this novel is classic because no matter what year it is the issues the characters are dealing with… loss, grief, depression, therapy, healing… will always be current issues. The reader feels connected to Conrad, hoping for him to find his way out of his struggles. This is a book for young adults and adults alike. Recommended more for the high school age group as it does deal with some darker more mature issues like teenage suicide and intercourse. Ordinary People is a great look into the different ways people are and can be affected by the same issues. No matter who you are, life’s trials will visit us all. This story has and will continue to stand against the test of time. “You’re all right kid. Ordinary.” (Guest 216).

Activity: After the completion of reading the novel, Ordinary People, students will create an infographic or a pamphlet using the digital tool Canva for folks dealing with the loss of someone close to them with ways to get help. Students must include signs of depression that Conrad, his father, and his mother exhibited from the novel. Students must also include three different ways to seek help.

Related Resources: Below are 2 related book titles that deal with similar themes to Ordinary People, losing a family member, the grief that brings, and how to come to terms with it.

Asher, Jay. 13 Reasons Why. London: Penguin, 2017. Print.
Thirteen Reasons Why is a modern story about a girl that commits suicide and the thirteen reasons she' says why and how the people who knew her struggle to understand and cope.

Wesselhoeft, Conrad. Adios, Nirvana. Boston: Graphia/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print.
Adios, Nirvana is a story about Jonathan, a sixteen year-old dealing with the loss of his twin brother as he helps an older man deal with own loses during the war.

Scholarly Review:

Kirkus Reviews, 07/01/1976

Guest, Judith. Ordinary People. Viking Press, 1976. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=kdh&AN=BK0000283149&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Current Reads & Reviews: Graphic Novel EL DEAFO

Bell, Cece, and David Lasky. El Deafo. New York, NY: Amulet Books, 2014. ISBN: 1419710206

Summary: Jump into these colorful cute little illustrations that go along beautifully with the story of a courageous little girl who has lost her hearing and feels out of place pretty much everywhere, sometimes even in her own home.

Analysis: Finding a good friend is hard to do and being different is a challenge a lot of young kids have to face. Cece Bell's personal experience is a perfect example of this. Everyone can relate to Cece and her struggle to fit in. This story takes you on Cece's journey from the beginning when she loses her hearing to her triumphs along the way, by dealing with not really knowing what is going on around you and the alienation that comes with that. Every child goes through the insecurities of fitting in somewhere with someone at school. This memoir is a great example of how to overcome these insecurities and be brave.
                Bell's inner thoughts are played out in the vibrant bold colors of this graphic novel. The reader sees how Cece had do learn to use visual clues to understand context, feels her struggle with self-confidence and how she feels like she is on her own planet. All she wants is a commonality with those around her. She feels at odds especially in PE, where a lot of students feels at odd whether they have a disability or not.
                Cece does not seem to accept herself as she is until the time when her microphone is broken ands she truly sees the importance of it and how not having it is even worse. After this obstacle, the reader sees a transformation within Cece. With her mic in working order again, she has more confidence, so much so that she starts letting her classmates in on her little secret... that "El Deafo" can hear things others cannot. This gives her "superhero" status in the eyes of her peers. She even hears their exclamations about wanting and wishing for their very own hearing aid devices.
               A great story about acceptance, acceptance of your self and of others, and how being different can and should be embraced. Cece Bell sharing her experience will help young students in similar situations learn to cope with their own. "I was a deaf kid surrounded by kids who could hear. I felt different, and in my mind, being different was not a good thing." A Note from the Author is worth reading as Bell shares her thoughts about writing and sharing this memoir as well as gives the reader more insight to the Deaf Community. "And being different? That turned out to be the best part of all. I found that with a little creativity, and a lot of dedication, any difference can be turned into something amazing. Our differences are our superpowers."

Accolades/Scholarly Reviews: Newbery Honor (2015); Pennsylvania Young Readers' Chopice Award for Grades 3-6 (2016); Dorthoy Confield Fisher Children's Book Award (2016); Will Eisner Comic Indusrty Awards for Best Publication for Kids (ages 8-12) and nominated for Best Reality-Based Work (2015); Bluestem Book Award Nominee (2017); Kirkus Prize Nominee for Young Readers' Literature (2014 Finalist); Charlotte Huch Honor Book (2015) and many more.

From Publisher's Weekly 07/07/2014: "Bell’s earnest rabbit/human characters, her ability to capture her own sonic universe (“eh sounz lah yur unnah wawah!”), and her invention of an alter ego—the cape-wearing El Deafo, who gets her through stressful encounters (“How can El Deafo free herself from the shackles of this weekly humiliation?” she asks as her mother drags her to another excruciating sign language class)—all combine to make this a standout autobiography. Cece’s predilection for bursting into tears at the wrong time belies a gift for resilience that makes her someone readers will enjoy getting to know."

Connections: When teaching about autobiographies, this is an excellent book to use for the younger grades. Pair it with Raina Telgemeier's Smile and Liz Prince's Tomboy. After students read these, have them write their own illustrated memoir about a time in their life they felt out of place or not accepted.

Current Reads & Reviews: Michael L. Printz Award Winner I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN

Nelson, Jandy. I'll Give You the Sun. Bergenfield, NJ: Penguin Group USA, 2014. ISBN: 0803734964

Summary: Told from two different perspectives, siblings, twins, brother and sister, seeking and failing to find themselves within each other, and then on their own. Noah and Jude are always competing for the love and acceptance they seek from others and their parents, but the secrets they carry bury their true selves down deep where they are struggling to survive and find their way to who they really are. Tragic yet hopeful, ugly yet beautiful, this story is a piece art. Colorfully written, you see two young adults portrayed in a different light with every page you turn.

Analysis: This story of transformation will have young adults relating to the two complex and flawed protagonists, Noah and Jude, and their struggles to find who they are while dealing with the obstacles that life throws at them along the way. Noah and Jude are so relatable the reader feels like they know them and wants them to finds themselves so they can feel whole yet once again. "In every set of twins, there is one angel, one devil." Noah is a young man trying to come to terms with being gay in a world that is not ready to embrace this. "I can unzip the air and disappear inside it, and that's what I do until I'm far away from them and what happened." "It was so much easier just to blend in than to be me." Jude is a young lady trying to live up to her mother's standards yet struggling to find and be who she is. She hears the ghost of her grandmother and cherishes her grandmother's "Bible" that has all sorts of tidbits to deal with the hard-balls life throws at you.
                Nelson does a beautiful job interweaving two perspectives, Noah telling his story from the age of thirteen, Jude telling hers at the age of sixteen. The plot keeps you turning the pages hoping these two will soon find each other again. It is awesome the way it weaves through their lives unraveling here and there then coming together to make a beautiful story as one. Nelson writes like she is painting her characters lives. Noah and Jude are at the age when each decision can change the course of their lives transforming from adolescents to adulthood, freedoms to responsibilities. These two learn there are consequences to their actions, but they also learn from their mistakes and work to redeem those.
                Nelson has her very own unique style. She incorporates color throughout the story along with tons of imagery, similes, and metaphors that "paint the picture" for the reader. "... his eyes have turned cloudy and dim. And it's like he's melting into a puddle of himself." Nelson's words are lyrical at times... "Reality is crushing. The world is a wrong-sized shoe. How can anyone stand it?" The colors change with the emotions the characters feel affecting the mood of the story as it progresses. The reader learns a lot about art and the different techniques and how one can express themselves through it. Noah's character is always painting in his mind and throughout the novel he gives titles to these paintings... "This time because I am sad. And scared. And because my skin has never fit this badly before. (SELF-PORTRAIT: Boy in a Blender)." Nelson is an expert in incorporating the arts, even poetry..."The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. -William Blake" and "Winston Churchill: 'If you're going through hell, keep going."
                This is a story about connecting... the twins connection, connecting with other people when they feel so different, so unconnected. A story of finding one's own self and place in this harsh world. "Or maybe a person is just made up of a lot of people. Maybe we're accumulating these new selves all the time." So true!

Accolades/Scholarly Reviews: Michael L. Printz Award (2015); Georgia Peach Book Award Nominee for Honor Book (2015); Josette Frank Award for Younger Readers (2015); Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Nominee for Young Adults (2016) and many more accolades.

From School Library Journal 09/01/2014: "Vibrant imagery and lyrical prose propel readers forward as the twins experience first love, loss, betrayal, acceptance, and forgiveness. Art and wonder fill each page, and threads of magical realism lend whimsy to the narrative. Readers will forgive convenient coincidences because of the characters' in-depth development and the swoon-worthy romances. The novel's evocative exploration of sexuality, grief, and sibling relationships will ring true with teens."

From Booklist 11/01/2014: "Nelson structures her sophomore novel brilliantly, alternating between Noah’s first-person narrative in the years before the accident and Jude’s in the years following, slowly revealing the secrets the siblings hide from each other and the ways they each throw their hearts into their artwork. In an electric style evoking the highly visual imaginations of the young narrators, Nelson captures the fraught, antagonistic, yet deeply loving relationship Jude and Noah share."

Connections: This would be a great opportunity for students to learn about different artists and their different techniques. The students could view and research Jackson Pollock, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Freda Kahlo, and Diego Riveria. They could also pull the poems that were mentioned from William Blake, Winston Churchill to Elizabeth B. Browning.