Clockwork, by Phillip Pullman

Annotation:

Stories tend to take on a life of their own. The local story teller soon finds out how true and fearsome this can be when characters from his story start appearing, and death comes with them.

Justification for Nomination:

On the verge of entering adulthood, and ending his apprenticeship with the local clock maker, Karl and his mentor go to the local tavern to celebrate. Karl though, is in poor spirits because he has not completed his final task to create a new figure for the local clock tower. By failing to do so, he has broken hundreds of years of tradition. The tavern crowd soon learns that the local story teller, Fritz, has completed his new story, and they goad him into telling it.

He does. He tells a grotesque tale, what would now be an urban legend, by asking if they all knew about the business at the palace not long ago. He then proceeds to regale them with the tale of how the king, drove his sleigh and his son home to the palace whipping his horses wildly. The only problem was that the king was stone dead. The Royal Physician finds out that the king’s arm is being driven by mechanical clockwork. The Physician then sought the help of clockwork genius Dr. Kalmenius. Fritz describes him in great detail, only to be dumbstruck when this same Doctor enters the bar.

The bar quickly vacates, except the miserable Karl who confides in Dr. Kalmenius that he has not completed his clockwork figure. Dr. Kalmenius, of course has an answer. That answer is the clockwork figure “Ironsoul.” Ironsoul, of course has a secret that sends him on a murderous rampage under the right conditions. Further characters from Fritz’s story keep popping up, notably a mechanical boy named Florian. The story ends with Karl dead, everyone else in the story is transformed. Florian becomes a real boy, and Fritz writes for politicians.

I support the nomination for this story. I would have to say this book is for the early end of YA; any younger, the reader may be terrified, any older the reader will probably be bored. That said, I think this is a pretty decent entry for YA. Although it doesn’t hit all of the developmental areas, nor is there really one central character, I think some good points are made.

The biggest thing going for it is that it is a developmental marker by itself. It’s a horror novel. Someone just entering into YA territory may feel more grown up just to be reading a taboo genre, such as horror. My wife doesn’t even like me reading horror, and I’m almost thirty. It also brings up an idea of adulthood, and responsibility for one’s actions, or lack of actions. Karl’s duty to achieve manhood was to finish a clockwork figure. He didn’t, and it not only cost him his career and future, but his life as well. Fritz also had a responsibility to finish his story, and he didn’t. His failure to act and finish his story cost someone’s life. In short it addresses who someone is in society, and shows that not performing you role can have tragic results.

This book also stands out because it shows young adults solving the problem of Dr. Kalmenius and Ironsoul after all of the adults have cowardly fled to safety. The landlord’s daughter, in her teens presumably, lets her quick thinking save the day by trying to get Fritz to end his story. He refuses out of fear. Left with no other choice, she does her best to risk her life getting Florian to safety once Ironsoul goes berserk. The book also captures uncertainty, even once she and Florian have fled, she may be in danger of falling from the clock tower. It’s not until the end that we realize she is safe. With a little bit of consideration, and after thought it becomes clear how this novel could have been nominated.

Suggestions for improvement: This book is really short, I also feel that the audience is very narrow. It is well written, and by use of symbolism, and implications I support a nomination. I think though this is tough to convince others of this because the book does not address developmental issues directly. Right now I support the nomination, and it has my vote, but if a better title comes up I could easily leave this one behind. Good book, but not really great.

Genre: Horror

Sky Burial by Xinran

Annotation:

The heart-rending tale of lost love, and the grand adventure to reclaim it. Wen’s journey demonstrates that true love can make the longest journey endurable.

Justification for Nomination:

Wen, a newly wed in 1950’s China, begins to worry when her husband, Kejun, does not return from his unit’s trip to subdue Tibet. She is a doctor, like her husband, and so joins the army and volunteers for duty in Tibet to reclaim him. Upon entering Tibet, her unit comes under attack nightly from locals. Despite this, Wen befriends a Tibetan woman named Zhuoma. Wen finds that her and Zhuoma have much in common, as Zhuoma’s true love has disappeared as well. To sue for peace with the Tibetans, Wen and others from her unit (and Zhuoma) decide to stay in Tibet. From here she continues to search for her husband.

And search she does. She and Zhuoma are taken in by a nomadic Tibetan family, and cared for. Soon Wen has adopted Tibetan dress, and begins to learn their culture. She finds that there are many differences between her culture, and Tibetan cultural and spiritual beliefs. After Zhuoma is kidnapped her hope of finding Kejun is destroyed, as she doesn’t speak Tibetan. Wen writes letters to Kejun in her book, hoping one day to be reunited with him. Years pass, she learns Tibetan, and begins her journey anew. She finds Zhuoma’s love, now a Buddhist monk, and later Zhuoma. After further traveling, she finds information about what happened to Kejun, and learns his ultimate fate. She returns to China more than 30 years after she left, presumably tells the author enough of her story to write this book, is overwhelmed by the societal changes, then disappears, presumably to Tibet.

I almost didn’t nominate this book. The book is quite interesting, and on the surface seems to be nothing but a cultural study of nomadic life in Tibet. Although it’s marketed as a love story, first glance identifies it as detailed culture book. This is all interesting even on its own, but it didn’t seem to necessarily fit as a YA work, except as a “trying on” situation. The book’s pacing is also very steady. It’s not too fast, or too slow, it just is. Almost as if it is an avatar of Buddhism. That was until I gave the book some thought for several days.

What changed my mind is that Wen, though an adult, and eventually far older, is incredibly idealistic, on a quest, and she is out of place in her environment. Her love for Kejun is so strong, and so pure. Though they were only married for weeks before his disappearance, what besides a naïve worldview would cause someone to defy all odds to search for someone literally (from a non-Tibetan’s viewpoint) in the middle of nowhere? If this isn’t a teenage style romance, and extreme idealism, I don’t know what is. Wen is also on a quest in lands unknown. Young adults identify with quests, because in a way being a teenager is the quest to adulthood. Her quest for Kejun is decades long, much like the path to maturity.

This story is also a quest for identity, in that Wen is out of place in Tibet, but after living there long enough, loses her Chinese identity. She questions who she is as a Chinese in Tibet, and later as Chinese (by way of decades in Tibet) in China. She can’t quite fit in anywhere. Wen cultivates a relationship with her host family and Zhuoma, and she goes from being an outsider to practically one of the family. Although the ending, and what happens to Wen is ambiguous, one could assume that the one thing she does find is her identity. It may not be the identity she wanted, and it is definitely not what she set out to find, but she found something on he quest. The author says that she disappeared after their interview, I would like to think that after all her time in Tibet, she found that her identity was now as a Tibetan, and she went back there to live. In this way, I think that Wen’s journey for love, her hope and enthusiasm for finding Kejun, and her ultimate realization of her identity make this a great book for young adults to read.

Suggestions for Improvement:

This book’s pacing needs to be kicked up a notch, as do the feelings of romance. I also think that the feelings in the story could have been presented better. A love story should really touch the heart, and irk some deep feelings out. Sky Burial didn’t do that a lot. I also found it hard to believe that not speaking Tibetan would hinder this brave woman’s search for Kejun for several years or decades. I would have liked to see her make her journey far sooner in life, rather than waste most of her whole life wandering the plains of Tibet. It seems to me that she kind of forgot about looking for her husband while she did chores around the campsite.


Genre: Romance/Love story, Multicultural, Epic Journey

"Jumper" by Steven Gould

Annotation:

While being abused by his father, Davy Rice discovers that he can jump. That is, he can teleport. He discovers that even with the ability to jump, the world is still a dangerous place. Even more so once the Government discovers him.


Justification For Nomination:

Davy Rice discovers that he can jump to anyplace he’s ever been, and uses this ability at first to escape his father’s abuse, and later to escape being raped by a truck driver. He moves to New York, to make it on his own, but due to his status as a minor, finds it difficult to make a living honestly. So he uses his ability to rob a bank, and gets away with it, though he is plagued by guilt and fear afterwards.

Davy at first uses the ability to jump to get ahead financially, for petty revenge, to play tricks on his father, and as a cheap alternative to airfare. He tests his abilities numerous times, and discovers that his powers do have limits. During his stay in New York, he eventually meets a girlfriend, Millie, a few years older than he, and they fall in love, but as his life progresses, he seems to be attracted to individuals intent on harming him. Davy jumps his neighbor to stop a domestic abuse, which gets the NYPD on his trail. While people at parties randomly pick fights with him.

He uses his ability to jump to find, and meet his mother, but after she dies in a terrorist bombing, Davy slumps into depression, and uses his gifts to track down the terrorists. He soon becomes the hunted though as the NSA discover that he can teleport and they hunt him down, popping up in unexpected places with tranquilizers. As they pursue him, he jumps his hunters all over the globe as revenge of sorts. Davy turns the tables by capturing his mother’s murderer, kidnapping a high ranking NSA official and negotiating the release of his girlfriend, and reaches an accord with the NSA. All while still a teenager.

Jumper gets a nomination because this book grabbed, me pulled me in, and jumped me all around the world with Davy. Written in first person perspective, the reader gets to see and feel everything that Davy does. The author crafted these internal events well. This is a character novel, not a superhero novel. In fact the author made Davy so real; I almost believed that I could teleport too. In this respect, it is a great vehicle for a teen to experience independence, as well as what it may be like for someone like them to have super powers.

The book is not only a great thrill ride, but it hits upon some developmental points, and puts Davy, a teen, into a position where he is in power. Davy gains independence from his father at 17, moving to New York. He does steal food, and messes with his father, but realizes that he’s on his own now, and should be more self sufficient. Davy resolves to take nothing else from his father’s house, unless it’s from his own room. He establishes his independence. He even paid his father back for money he took from him.

Davy also enters into a relationship with a woman a few years older than he, defying the sexist opinion of society that the man should be older. He convinces her that if he were older than her, it would be acceptable to society, but since she is older it’s not. His feelings of attraction are normal for a teenager, and his emotional reaction is believable when he reveals to Millie that he is a virgin. They have sex, and later on the relationship grows into something real. They break up briefly, which is complicated by his mother’s death, but in a very adult like fashion, he eventually makes up with her, and they continue the relationship.

He doesn’t seem to be terribly idealistic, except in his morality about killing, and in trying to avoid becoming his father. Early in the book, he had a chance to kill his father, but didn’t. He also could have killed many terrorists, but subdued them instead, and in fact felt guilty when one terrorist committed suicide by bomb. He also was tempted to jump his enemies into rough neighborhoods, but had mercy enough to merely inconvenience them. In fact, he seemed to take some pleasure at just irritating his enemies rather than harming them. One great moment of one-upmanship by Davy: he is surrounded by 5 NSA agents, they want to know who he is, and how he’s doing what he does, he says “We mean no harm to your planet.” I have never laughed so hard in my life.

The power of jumping is also kind of an allegory for the development process, whether done willingly by the author or not. Physically teens are testing out their bodies, Davy tests out his powers. Davy at first doesn’t know the limit of his powers, so throughout the book, he tests their limits, much like a teen tests the limits of what is possible for them to get away with. Once he has mastered one aspect of his ability, he comes up with another way to pioneer a new use for it. He also searches periodically for others like him; much like a teen would search out others like themselves for a sense of identity.

I would classify this more as thriller than Sci-Fi mainly because a Sci-Fi novel, would have delved deeper into the how’s and why’s of jumping. The book spends more time describing Davy’s feelings about things he has done, or considers doing, and he also is incredibly paranoid of people watching and catching him. From robbers and police, in the beginning and middle, to the NSA and terrorists at the end, someone is always after Davy.

One additional note about the book, though published in 92-93, it is incredibly relevant today, with mentions of Shiite and Sunni Muslims, terrorist hijackings and Davy’s personal war on terror, and Government officials illegally wiretapping citizens. I was surprised this book was written in 92 after reading it, because 15 or so years later, these issues have only grown in importance.

Suggestions for Improvement: none. a practically flawless novel.


Genre: Thriller, Science fiction, adventure

"Red Scarf Girl" by Ji Li Jiang

Annotation:

Caught up in a tempest of conflicting political, familial loyalties, and moral ambiguity Ji Li Jiang must decide right from wrong during China’s Cultural Revolution. Will she choose loyalty to her family, or loyalty to her country?


Justification for Nomination:

12-year-old Ji Li Jiang wants to help her country’s revolution against capitalism by joining the Junior Red Guard, and helping them rid their community of “The Four Olds.” The Four Olds are: “Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas.” She is quite zealous at first, suggesting ways to rename “Old” store names, with new revolutionary names. She has good reason to, she and her family had supported previous edicts given by their “Beloved Chairman Mao,” And she feels that his most recent revolutionary idea, getting rid of the Four Olds, is by far the most relevant. Until she realizes that her family’s class status is looked down upon in the new order of things.

To back up a bit, for those who don’t know, in the early days of Chinese Communism, Chairman Mao was practically deified by the people, especially so during the Cultural Revolution. Much of the populace followed him and his orders more or less blindly. Many read his famous quotations the “Red Book” as though it were a religious scripture. This is the dangerous power that he held. His goal, as stated in Red Scarf Girl was to elevate the working class, to an equal, or even higher status than those of the upper class. In particular disdain was capitalists, “rightists,” and landlords. Ji Li’s grandfather (who died when her father was 7) was a landlord, which makes her unfit in the eyes of many to participate in the new regime, much to her dismay.

As Ji Li finds out, the class status of her long dead grandfather impacts their family’s status during this reign of terror. Her Grandmother is labeled as a “landlord’s wife,” and her father as a “rightist.” Her class-mates chastise her class status as well, and exclude her from many activities. Ji Li begins to hate her family and class status, but she soon grows to disagree with the Red Guards and Communist system as it begins to impact the people she cares about. Her family’s friends are detained for political reasons; her neighbor’s houses are searched. She soon despises, and fears just about everything going around her, once her house is searched, and her father is eventually jailed as a rightist. Her longing for a normal life has been thwarted by the government and people around her. She is utterly powerless. Taking care of her family makes her a landlord, following the government means she must break ties with her family.

This book has been nominated because it shows the idealism of the young people, but more particularly what happens when that idealism has been corrupted by a absolute power given by the government. Students rebel against teachers, and their parents all in the name of a “higher purpose,” the revolution. All curriculums in the schools have been replaced with subjects of use to the government. It’s also great because Ji Li is caught up in it in the beginning, but even as she participates in the revolution, she feels something is wrong. She does things she doesn’t necessarily agree with to fit in, and support the “crusade,” but as the revolution strikes closer to home she makes a stand of sorts to stand with her family, who truly need her.

Her quest throughout the story is to support the revolution, but as the world around her spirals out of control, and her class status comes into question, her desire is to escape everyone’s notice and to be normal. Her enthusiasm is evident when she sees a “wicked landlord’s” house searched, and the occupant degraded, but this enthusiasm changes to fear, anger, and resentment as the searches target those close to her and eventually her own family. Her identity, and quest to find who she is, is called into question and changed at every step in the story. She ultimately decides that her class status will always be a barrier to being accepted in society, and chooses to remain identified with her family.

Ji Li further takes on adult responsibilities, she takes her grandmother to the doctor, she cares for her younger siblings, she shops for the family’s food, and when her mother falls ill and her father is arrested, she further takes on a more adult introspective process, along with the responsibilities. She also perseveres through uncertainty, solves many problems on her own, and she always attempts to be socially responsible until it conflicts with her family.

This book not only hits many of the teen development areas, but the author does it well. She also shows also shows clearly what happens when a society is turned upside down, when rights are infringed upon, and shows how that can affect a developing person’s decision process. A very well written book, which I cannot find any faults with. The closest thing to a perfect 10 young adult book that I have seen yet.

Suggestions for Improvement:

The ending is a little bit abrupt, but the author makes up for it with a great epilogue. It's the author's first book, so this is hardly a matter to pick apart.

Genre: Historical Fact, Autobiography, Multicultural

“If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor” By Bruce Campbell

Annotation:

B-Movie Actor, Bruce Campbell reveals “the man behind the curtain,” the dark side of the film industry, and shows that making it even as a B-actor is not as easy as you might think.

Justification for Nomination:

Bruce starts his autobiography with his childhood in Michigan, and the many adventures he had alone and with his brothers. He and his brothers burned, flooded, and other wise destroyed plastic green army men, they built forts, and shot bottle-rockets at their alcoholic neighbor. The coup-de-grace of their pranks, in my opinion, was the fake UFO they created from balsa wood, candles, and laundry bags which actually alarmed several locals. Adolescence comes not long afterwards, and he not only deals with the normal awkward teen issues, but falls in with a group of friends who have an affinity for making homemade movies.

Bruce gets bit by the acting bug while making movies with his friends that are well received by the community, and while doing local theater. His big coming of age moment is when he and friend Sam Raimi (Director of Spider-Man) procure funds, and actually make their first movie, Evil Dead. Much time is spent describing the whole Evil Dead experience. Thanks to word of mouth, and some lip service from Stephen King, the movie recoups the debt they owed. Bruce gives great details about his difficulties finding work as an actor, how difficult that really is, and the affects that this had on his marriage and personal life. After the success of Evil Dead, he had a life filled with uncertainty for several years. Despite the uncertainty of income, and livelihood, he gained roles in commercials, Coen brothers films, and films such as Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, Maniac Cop, Congo, Mchale’s Navy, and other movies. He also describes his meetings with various actors, such as Charlton Heston, David Carradine, Tom Arnold, French Stewart, and Liam Neeson. He wraps up the book with his experiences doing TV shows, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., and Xena: Warrior Princess, as well as a summary of what it means to be an actor in that crazy pseudo-world. It’s his behind the scenes tales of movies and the people who make them.

Teens will love this book, because he starts where they have been, childhood, and then moves through his adolescence, and his change in interests. He also embarks on a quest, to be an actor and make his living by this craft. He is joined by some friends who are able to help him in this quest to become an actor. He has a coming of age moment on the quest, which is to successfully make and market his first film with his friends, and they succeed. He has failures after this, but successes too. The book is really about his ongoing quest to be an actor that can make a living, while at the same time staying sane, in an insane business. He doesn’t pull any punches, and shows that making it as an actor is incredibly tough, but rewarding in its own way. His book portrays how one man found himself, and achieved his own identity.

Bruce also depends on adults early on into his twenties to finance Evil Dead, but then later removes himself from that need. He and his friends also solve the problem of financing, making, and selling a film against steep odds anddo it successfully. The importance of his relationships with his friends is emphasized throughout his story, mainly because they usually make movies together. Finally, teens may think that becoming an actor is an easy way to make a life; sadly this is rarely the case. By reading Bruce Campbell’s autobiography teens can “try on” this life style, and see if it’s right for them, or at the very least learn more about it.

Suggestions for improvement:

In some spots his writing is confusing. At the start of one paragraph he’s doing odd jobs in Michigan, but at the end he’s a security guard in California with no real clarification as to how he had arrived there.

Genre: Auto-Biography, Film, Acting