“Fat Kid Rules the World” by K.L. Going

Annotation:

Super-self conscious “Fat Kid,” meets apathetic skinny street-rat. Skinny Kid saves Fat Kid and hi-jinks, near beatings, illness(s), and punk music ensue.

Justification for Nomination:

Troy Billings, New York “Fat Kid” extraordinaire is tired of people laughing at him for being fat, so he decides to do something about it. He contemplates suicide by jumping into the path of a subway, but is rescued by quasi-homeless Punk Rock genius, and fellow student, Curt McCrae. The two discuss things over dinner, and before long, a friendship has grown. Troy’s father at first doesn’t approve, but decides to give Curt a second chance. Soon, Curt decides he wants Troy as a drummer.

Curt smooth-talks Troy into skipping school on Mondays to go practice, their first session takes them to the home of Curt’s mother. They listen to old albums until it begins to get dark. Curt bolts out of the house leaving Troy alone in a strangers house. Troy barely escapes without being caught. Throughout the next few weeks, Curt is somewhat unreliable nearly getting Troy into trouble. Eventually real practice starts, and Troy must balance doing the right thing by going to school, and meeting Curt’s random schedule for practice. They eventually play a gig, with not-so-good results.

Troy sinks into depression and refuses to have anything to do with music, until he finds out that Curt has been sleeping on the streets near him. He finds Curt, and agrees to get back together for the band, but Curt soon falls seriously ill. Troy helps Curt to get well, and overcome his drug addiction, leaving only time to tell if Curt truly recovers, and they go on to become punk rock legends.

Nearly everything in this book is Troy’s narration, or observation, and he is incredibly honest. Troy has a self deprecating wit, and seems to have come to terms with who he is as “Fat Kid.” He even has come to a point where he can laugh at himself, and is not afraid to describe himself when he huffs, and sweats. He is very real, and as such it is easy to relate to him, and empathize with him.

Troy’s father deserves some credit, being an ex-marine, and into athletics, especially with his active son Dayle. He decides to support Troy’s decision to get into music, despite not approving at first. He eventually caves in and even buys Troy a drum set.

This book is nomination worthy because it hits many of the developmental YA areas. Troy is aware of who he is, but at the same time is discovering things about himself that never dreamed of, such as his ability to play drums. Troy also has an idea of who he is in relation to everyone else; to other kids, he is a joke; to his dad, a disappointment; to girls, a repulsive sight; to his younger brother, an embarrassment. Despite this, he also discover something new about himself like his ability to play drums, to “live” the unpretentious punk life, to actually be popular to others because of his talents.

“Fat Kid” also hits the point of a quest, in that Troy has a quest to become a sufficient drummer. Troy doesn’t seem idealistic, at least in the sense that he can “do anything,” quite the opposite in fact, he is convinced that he has no redeeming points. He does however stick to what he believes in. He stops skipping school for practice, and desires to at least respect his father. To me, that is pretty idealistic in our day.

Troy also has incredibly high awareness of his sexual development, noticing just about every hot girl, which shows that he is developing. Troy is also extremely self conscious, and introspective. Troy also tries to solve Curt’s problem of homelessness and illness, is uncertain about his musical ability, and eventually overcomes the odds to become a decent drum player. In short, Troy is a very realistic teen character that I found easy to empathize with.

Suggestions for improvement:

This book is pretty good, but the amount of swearing was pretty high, in addition Curt’s possible drug use was kind of alarming. In a sense though, this is art imitating life, and Going definitely uses these two points to make believable characters. Descriptions of things could have also been better, but since it’s the observations of a teen, who is preoccupied with a lot of other stuff I think it’s excusable. In this case, I name Troy an unreliable narrator, and cannot place the fault on the author.

"Monster" by Walter Dean Myers

Annotation:

Steve Harmon, 16 year old, black, male. On trial for his alleged role in a robbery which resulted in the murder of the store owner. Did Steve do it, and is he a man, or a monster?

Justification for Nomination:

Scared for his life, teenage Steve Harmon is on trial for a murder he may or may not have helped perpetrate. Once behind bars and in the courtroom he is struck by how unreal everything seems. To cope, he documents the trial as a movie script. Although the experience is new and shocking for him, he records that it is not so for others. His life is on the line, but notes that the stenographer hopes for a long case because he/she needs the money.

The trial begins, and witnesses come forth and give testimony about him and King, the other on trial. Some of these witnesses are suspect because they are seeking a deal to lessen their own sentences by turning in someone else. One of the least convincing testimonies is one from a man trying to avoid being raped in prison, so he rats out either King, or Steve. Although some witnesses imply that Steve was the lookout man for their “getover,” no one can say with any certainty what his actual role, if any, was.

As more witnesses testify, Steve records the drama. In between trial scenes while in jail, Steve reflects upon his feelings, and his fears about his life. The brutality and stupidity of prison life get to him, and the fear is quite evident in his reflections. Eventually defense witnesses come forth, most cannot even confirm he was at the crime scene. Those that can, cannot say for certain that he actually was a look out for their getover. The drama builds, and the verdict is reached. Guilty or innocent, the verdict that is reached forever impacts Steve’s life and choices. Whether or not he is truly guilty or not is never revealed, regardless his life choices will forever be affected by this trial.

“Monster” takes a teenager, someone too young to even be in the visiting are, and thrusts him into jail, and the criminal justice system. So, this book has earned my nomination because Steve is in a completely adult situation, far beyond anything anyone his age should have to face. At this point, he is completely free from any adult influence, save for the agents of the law, which we are all subject to.

This story also should let teens know that no matter how hard their life is because they had a zit on prom night, or their dad won’t let them borrow the car, they are at least living a normal teen life. Steve at this point cannot even remember what normal is. The story also captures uncertainty in Steve’s life. All of the witnesses give testimony that either damns or saves him. The damning evidence is unfortunately very compelling in Steve’s mind, and causes him a great deal of uncertainty to his fate.

Steve also can serve as a good role model for teens because we get such a great look at the fear in Steve’s mind, and the cruelty in the prison system. Any teen reading this book will see how uncool it is to be on trial for a crime, and may think twice before committing a crime. Even should they by some miracle escape jail, the road to find that answer is gut wrenching, and wildly uncertain. Steve in this respect is a good rolemodel.

>SPOILER ALERT<

Other developmental markers Steve reaches are that he deals with his situation using creative energy to write a script. Steve also reaches some great points of introspection regarding his situation. Whether or not he actually did the crime is never overtly stated, but if he did, he was found not guilty. I sincerely believe, that if he did it, he will think twice about doing it again. In this way, this trial serves as a great learning experience for him.

One last note, since by reading this book, I am unwittingly a jury member, I find Steve Harmon not guilty. Based on the right we all have to be innocent until proven guilty (except Louisiana where it’s opposite). Due to this, I feel that the prosecution did not provide evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Steve Harmon did anything to aid the robbers. Although the exchange on page 50, which was not presented as evidence seems pretty questionable regarding Steve. Based on what we hear, this is nothing more than some folks sitting around talking trash. It could be that later on King decided to actually hookup with a crew and do something about it.

Suggestions for Improvement:

Really none, except did Steve really do it or not?

Genre: Thriller, Edgy, Mystery

“Agnus Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging” By Louise Rennison

Annotation:

Obnoxious, superficial, British teenager writes an irritating, vapid diary detailing the following: “I think I’m ugly, I want to die, this guy is really cute, I hate my best friend, my parents are stupid, I hate school because I would rather think about boys, am I a lesbian, and my sister is gross.” Repeat as necessary for 200+ pages in varying order, and this is Georgia’s life.

Justification for Rejection:

Georgia, teenage British girl keeps a diary of just about every detail of her life, and I do mean every detail. She writes her feelings about her friends, guys she likes and wants to date, guys she doesn’t like but ends up dating, and how horrible her life is. Except her life isn’t really that horrible, she’s just an average girl who worries far too much about things that are not terribly important in the grand scheme of things. These things are normal for some teens to worry about, but Georgia does so to the extreme. But the second something else comes along, her emotions can either go up or further down. She’s an emotional roller coaster, and a pretty convincing example of a teen taken to extremes.

Georgia helps her friend scout out local produce boy, Tom, only to discover he has a much hotter older brother whom she has dubbed “Sex God.” When her friend Jas and Tom hit it off, she becomes bitter and jealous and works hard to destroy Tom and Jas’ relationship. Throughout her conflicting feelings for Jas, and Sex God Georgia has to be bothered with going to school, finding out her dad may be a transvestite, and other overly dramatized common occurrences. Of course these things ruin her life beyond repair, and she writes things like “I could kill myself,” or “I could kill Jas.”

Georgia proceeds to go on dates with a couple of guys, though she doesn’t like them, she is just holding out for SG. I have to presume she is just dating them to waste time until her plan to get SG comes to fruition. As relationships between her and her circle of acquaintances change rapidly, her dad moves to New Zealand, she thinks her mom is having an affair, and she conspires to get SG broken up with his current girlfriend so she can have a crack at him. A difficult story to summarize, as there is not a huge amount of story to relate, just “this person did this, I did that, and I hate so and so.” The book becomes merely her overly charged emotional reactions to events, and criticisms of other characters. It is however, a somewhat realistic look into the sick mind of a superficial teenager.

Let’s start off with what the book does well. For starters, the author really gets into the mind of a teen girl, and really seems to hit a lot of developmental themes by doing this. The use of British slang was also fun. OK, that’s about the only redeeming quality of the book in my opinion, because Georgia’s character is such a tosser, that all of these things only served to make the book more painful to read. I don’t think the book was written poorly, it’s just that I cannot tolerate the character doing what I mentioned in my annotation for 200 pages. Georgia is a vapid, superficial, whiny prat, which in my mind disqualifies this book for a nomination. If this book had a story, instead of just internal thoughts, and more than a formulaic girl meets boy, boy is with someone already, suffer-suffer-connive-and-suffer, end up with boy at the end story I could have nominated it. I think the author did a great job making a despicable character, but I certainly don’t think the book qualifies as excellent YA lit. In fact, this should be an instruction manual of how not to be a teenager.

The book started out funny at first, but after 20 pages of hyper-charged hormone harping, it began to get repetitive. I thought that once she had covered this ground, she would move on with her life, but no she stayed there for 200 pages. Quite frankly, I despised Georgia and had to force myself to read this thing from cover to cover. Once I started to despise Georgia, I tried to rethink my mindset, by changing my view to who I was at fourteen or so. No dice. Even as a teen, I would not have liked this book or character. In high school, I avoided girls, and other people like Georgia.

My last thought, (Spoiler alert) this story could have been better if SG, and Georgia actually had some common reason to “fall in love” with each other, but they don’t. They just both think the other is hot, and so have no solid basis for any sort of relationship. If they had anything in common, such as polo, or chess, or even music/movies anything, getting together would make sense. The whole relationship thing with these two comes off as very stilted. She notices him, they hate each other for a while, then just magically end up together. This kind of sends the wrong message to teens, as it shows the only basis you need for a relationship is physical attraction. If the book continued another 50 – 100 pages, I would guess that Gerogia would either A) lose her virginity, or B) break up with SG within a month due to lack of anything in common.

Genre: Humor

“Cycle of the Werewolf” By Stephen king

Annotation:

A werewolf plagues town, only wheelchair bound ten-year-old, Marty Coslaw knows the truth. Alone against a vicious hellbeast, can Marty stop it before it’s too late? Read it next full moon, and find out.

Justification for Nomination:

Beginning in the full moon of January, a werewolf begins his murderous rampage in Tarker’s Mills. Month by month, the werewolf kills a new victim who is introduced in each chapter. The terror builds within the town, while police search for a serial killer, the werewolf massacres women and children indiscriminately, that is until the July 4th. With the town too afraid to do anything on Independence Day (a full moon conveniently!), wheelchair bound Marty Coslaw celebrates by himself with a bang. The werewolf pays an unexpected visit, and not to watch Marty’s fireworks. Marty, hurls some dangerous firecrackers right at the beast’s face, causing the creature to lose an eye. Needless to say, Marty’s parents are not happy, and of course nobody believes he saw a werewolf.

Months pass, the killings of people and livestock continue, so the townspeople organize a lynch mob. While some are there just to tell bad jokes, pee in the woods and drink beers, many of them are serious enough to cause the werewolf to leave town on the night of the full moon. In the neighboring town, the werewolf encounters a resident of Tarker’s Mills who was out of town on “business” with a local prostitute. The wolf proceeds to do the obvious.

Towards the end of the book, it has been revealed that Marty has been sending anonymous letters to the werewolf. Marty used some quality deductive reasoning (more than any of the adults in the story can manage) to determine that the werewolf’s human form would be missing an eye. On Halloween, he discovered who it was while trick or treating, and has been appealing to the wolf to move, or kill himself. Eventually, Marty reveals that he knows who the werewolf is. On the night of the full moon the werewolf attacks Marty’s home, crashing through the window. Hopefully his parents’ insurance covers that. Not to be taken unawares, Marty is armed with two silver bullets, courtesy of his cool uncle. After a brief struggle, the werewolf dies revealing to the rest of Tarker’s Mills who has been terrorizing them.

Teens would love this novel, for several reasons. It’s short, it has pictures, and the one who figures everything out, thus saving the town, is the unlikeliest person. A teenage boy in a wheel chair. The book is also non-stop gore from cover to cover, and should greatly appeal to the teen’s desire for horror stories. It’s also appealing that none of the adults have clue one what they are dealing with, despite the wolf tracks and eviscerated corpses, they’re searching for a run-of-the-mill serial killer. Even after a witness, Marty, identifies the killer as a werewolf, the sheriff doesn’t believe him. Which is too bad, because he dies a month or so later. Due to this, it’s up to Marty to solve the ongoing mystery, and save the day.

Although the book doesn’t showcase developmental areas, it is a great choice because it shows a young person succeeding against the odds, and the ill-place rules to save the adults from their own stupidity. It shows that even the least likely person can stop an unstoppable hell beast with a little brain power, and some effort. In short, Marty succeeded when no one else could have.

It also explores humanity at some point, getting into the werewolf’s mind as to how (it’s human form) feels about the murders being committed. The story further explores Marty’s relationship with his parents, compared with that of his uncle. Marty is basically independent solving the problem, the story catches uncertainty, and allows Marty to overcome impossible odds.

Suggestions for improvement:

I would have to say, Marty is not really a main character. He isn’t properly introduced until halfway through the story, then he disappears from the story for a time. The book also does not deal with any teen developmental things, unless you want to be really symbolic, and say that the werewolf is a metaphor for being a teenager. They’re both going through changes, they both become monsters every once in a while, and they both feel invincible. The book could also use more character development, but I think it serves its purpose as a horror story.


Genre: Stephen King, Horror

“Good-bye, Chunky Rice” by Craig Thompson

Annotation: The sense of loss when your best friend moves away can be heart-rending. Chunky Rice is a bitter sweet look at what happens when friends go their separate ways.

Justification for Nomination:

Before we begin, let’s identify the characters so what follows is slightly more clear.

Dramatis Persona:

Chunky Rice – Titular Turtle character who is moving away for reasons unknown
Dandel – Mouse like creature, Chunky’s best friend (or is it lover?)
Solomon – Human, weird roommate/landlord
Charles – Human, weird racist boat captain.
Livonia/Ruth – Weird conjoined twins traveling on the boat with Chunky

Chunky Rice and Dandel spend a lot of time together and have a great friendship/love for each other. Sadly all good things must come to an end, and Chunky must leave the town for greener pastures somewhere far away. Chunk offers Dandel the opportunity to come with, but Dandel declines for reasons unknown.

Solomon brings Chunky to the docks to charter passage across the sea on Charles’ ship. Though Charles and Solomon are brothers, Charles seems to hold ill feelings toward his younger brother, for reasons revealed later. While boarding, Charles expresses his disdain for Chunky’s Motown music by chucking it into the sea, and steals anything else of value. They begin traveling into the sea, where Chunky meets the other passengers, conjoined twins Livonia/Ruth.

During the voyage, we see that Dandel longs to be with Chunky as evidenced by the stream of “bottle letters” Dandel throws out to sea. We also get to see where Solomon and Charles had their falling out. Their cruel father forced Solomon to kill their dog’s puppies, which causes Charles to hate his brother. Later on, their father sends the dog out to sea, never to return. Charles naively believes his father’s story about how the sea took her. Solomon tries to make amends for killing the puppies later in life by befriending an injured bird, while Charles becomes devoted to the sea.

Chunky Continues his journey, forced by Charles to be free labor on their journey. Charles later opens up to Chunky, basically revealing that the sea is now his only friend.

I wavered on this one, because at first I couldn’t see how this work related to YA. But as I reflected further, this story tugged at my heart incessantly, nearly brining me to tears with each successive reading. This is a story about loss of friendship. It’s melancholy, and bitter-sweet. I noticed deep down, a few YA themes after several readings. Firstly, the characters are all pretty idealistic in their own way. Chunky Rice thinking that moving will be the answer(s) he/she is seeking. Solomon thinks that he can keep the ill bird, Merle, as his friend. Charles thinks the sea is the only friend he needs.

The story also explores a variety of relationships between friends and family, and delves into how all of those relationships are different. The story also captures uncertainty, in the sense that friendships are usually fleeting, and shows that even the best of friends may have to part ways some day. This element really hit home for me, having been on the Dandel side of things, with many of my friends moving away. I have also been on the Chunky side, being the one moving away and ending the friendship for my own growth.

This story really focuses on the value, and finite-ness of both friendship, and family relationships, and it’s a sad story that any teen who has had to move, or had their best friend move away would relate to, and that’s why I agree with the nomination of this story. It’s an intense, yet subtle emotional piece of work focusing on relationships, and loss.

Suggestions for improvement: The only thing I would suggest is clarifying the characters and relationships. I think some of these though, may have been left vague on purpose.

Genre: Graphic Novel, Journey

"Go Ask Alice" by Anonymous

Annotation:

A horrifying, yet captivating look at the world of drug addiction. Witness the fall and quasi-redemption of a middle-American girl who suffered with drugs.

Justification for Nomination:

“Anonymous” author of an alleged “diary” talks about some of the commonplace things in her life after starting a journal. She is an average middle class girl, in an average middle class town. This soon changes once she unwittingly takes LSD at a party, and has an interesting, and elaborately described drug-trip. After this first experience, she doesn’t seem to be addicted until she expresses her desire to smoke pot, and justifies trying other drugs by thinking “I haven’t tried that yet.” She soon becomes depressed after sampling several different drugs, and talks her doctor into giving her tranquilizers. She grows more depressed though, until “by chance” a sort of friend at a nearby store gives her (what I presume to be) an upper. Why this other girl is carrying them on her person at work, I cannot say, but it only serves to send “Anonymous” further down the slope into drugs.

“Anonymous” soon gets involved with an older man, sells drugs for him, and becomes disgusted and enraged when she finds out A) that he wants her to deal to elementary school kids, and B) he is really gay/bi-sexual, and uses sex to manipulate her (and probably other young girls) into selling drugs. She and her friend sort of try to “clean up” and move to San Fran, but just one whiff of pot, and they’re back into the scene. “Anonymous” soon gets deeper into the underworld, loses some time, prostitutes herself for drugs, eventually makes her way home, and somehow decides to clean up for real.

Her efforts to clean up put her at odds with her old “friends,” the druggies, and she tells the cops on one of them which only makes things worse for her. Despite her cleanup efforts, she is secretly drugged with acid, has a bad trip, and ends up in a mental hospital. After leaving there, she stays clean, stops her diary and mysteriously dies three weeks later.

So, why did I agree with the nomination? It shows an average teen girl in the beginning worrying about being fat, etc. She is a character that teens can relate too. Since this is the case, it’s easy to see how easily “you or I” can fall pray to drugs as well. “Alice” also shows a lot of YA markers, that teens can relate to. “Anonymous” is idealistic, thinking that she can leave the world of drugs anytime, and that she would still like to have a normal life despite the depths she has sunk to. This also becomes her quest, to get “clean.” The book is also quite intense, it’s an unbelievable glimpse into hell on Earth.

Reading this book can also show teen reader that their life is better than it could be, and that they are in fact “normal.” “Anonymous” can also serve as a role model of what not to do. Alice also captures a huge element of uncertainty, and intense descriptions of the horrors of the drug life-style. Long story short, Alice can serve to show teens that drugs mess up your life, but it is done with a(n almost) believable character.


Suggestions for Improvement:


The first and most obvious thing, STOP MARKETING THIS AS A “REAL DIARY!” It probably isn’t. Snopes.com says it is not, other evidence indicates that at worst, it’s a complete fabrication on “the editor’s” part. At best it’s a composite of several girls’ lives, with elements lifted from someone’s diary. In addition, if this is a teen’s diary, the language doesn’t “feel right” in several places.

I also find it hard to believe some of the circumstances she gets into, or some of the feelings she feels. Such as, after she’s clean for a while, she smells pot, and right away she goes and smokes it., and gets into drugs again. I can’t say for sure if it’s realistic, it could be but in this “diary” it feels contrived. I have never suffered from drug addiction, but I had a friend who had, and some things he told me make this almost sound legit.

I also have come to feel that several parts of the book are preachy, and that “Anonymous’” “feelings” are just anti-drug propaganda. If these are someone’s actual thoughts, then great but some of what is said seems contrived, and feels like propaganda.

Although I tend to agree that reading can be vicarious so that something can be safely “tried on,” I can’t help but wonder how many people this book turned on to using drugs.



Genre: Edgy, Banned/Challenged