Fiction
Vanderpool, C. (2010). Moon over manifest. New York, NY: Random House.
Abilene Tucker has just been dropped off by railcar for the summer into Manifest, Kansas by her father who must go work on the railroad as jobs are hard to come by in the Depression. Abilene stays with an old friend of her father's named Shady who acts as the town's "interim" (14 years) Baptist preacher. Feeling somewhat abandoned and wanting to feel closer to her father, she discovers an old cigar box filled with mysterious artifacts and works to uncover the hidden history of the town that her father came from and the significance of the artifacts.
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What I loved about this book personally, and what I think makes it more YA than for younger audiences, is the way the author chose to reveal the story. There are many instances when the time shifts back to World War I and several shifts in the story perspective. Sometimes the story is told through old newspaper articles, sometimes through the memories of the local Hungarian "gypsy" woman, sometimes through letters written from the war front, and at other times through the words, thoughts, and experiences of Abilene. The historical topics covered is also far reaching. This book addresses the hardships of the Great Depression, the devastation of World War I, Prohibition, the presence of the KKK, and even touches on the influx of immigrants through Ellis Island. I saw it as a great vehicle for discussing any of these topics with students and giving these elements of history more context.
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Myracle, L. (2004). Ttyl. New York, NY: Amulet Books.
Angela, Maddie, and Zoe are three best friends who just started their sophomore year. High school is an exciting and tumultuous time for anyone. There are increased academic pressures, the thrill of getting a driver's license, dating and falling in love, and the trials and tribulations of trying to feel accepted. These three friends try to take the changes as they come and help each other along the way.
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When I heard this story was going to be told through texts messages, I had some preconceived notions about this book. I thought the messages exchanged would be shallow and cutesy at best. How the author set up and demonstrated each character's personality through not only the content of their messages but each person's messaging "style" was so very well done, I actually forgot I was reading a series of messages at times and started following the texts like standard dialog. As for shallow and cutesy? The topics the girls touch on are serious and real. This book addresses inappropriate student/teacher contact, the dangers of drinking, and sexual harassment and bullying via social media. These messages could easily have come from the screens of anyone in middle school or high school today. My one issue with this book is that it didn't show the girls seeking or getting help from trusted adults. Instead, they tended to handle the problems themselves which I worry could send the wrong message.
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Draper, S. (2010). Out of my mind. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
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Melody is an eleven year old girl with cerebral palsy. She can’t speak, she can’t walk, and she needs help with her personal hygiene and feeding. Except for her parents and her neighbor Mrs. V., very few people understand is that there is nothing wrong with her brain. In fact, Melody is the smartest person in her grade, but she has been put in the same classroom since kindergarten learning the alphabet every single year. Melody’s whole life, her brain has been absorbing every song, every story, every new fact, every event on the History Channel, EVERYTHING. The cool thing is, once she learns something, her brain holds onto it forever. The only problem is- no one knows it. Melody has a rudimentary communication board that allows for some basic responses but doesn’t come anywhere near close enough to tell everyone what she thinks and knows. Finally, one day, after learning about a biography assignment in one of her fifth grade inclusion classes, Melody thinks about Stephen Hawkins and decides she wants to know all about how he is able to communicate so effectively and be considered one of the smartest people on the planet. She asks her one on one assistant (by pointing to her communication board) about a “Computer for me?”. After a lot of paperwork, and a whole lot of waiting, Melody gets her Medi-Talker and is finally able to talk. She is not only able to tell her parents she loves them, she is able to answer and participate more in class. Melody does so well, she becomes a member of the school’s quiz team and competes alongside her team mates (on television!) for a trip to Washington, D.C. The problem is, even though Melody is at long last ready and able to communicate with the world, the world isn’t quite ready to hear what she has to say. Some of Melody’s classmates are still not ready to be fully accepting of Melody.
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Having worked with many different students over the 20 years I was a classroom teacher, I have had the opportunity to work with children with a vast array of medical issues and diagnoses. I have worked with kids who had physical limitations, cognitive limitations, and some students who had a combination, in varying degrees, of both cognitive and physical issues. These students, as a group, have taught me the most about being a compassionate human being and have helped me help their “typical” classmates see beyond anything that ANYONE may struggle with to the person underneath who just wants to make a friend and feel accepted. What drives me crazy when reading this book is the lack of inclusion in Melody’s school which I have not witnessed firsthand for some time. I have taken for granted the level of inclusion that was developed, and fought for, in the schools in my area.
Hesse, M. (2016). Girl in the blue coat. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.
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It's 1943 and seventeen year old Hanneke lives in Amsterdam. She's a girl who knows how to get things: black market goods. She spends her days delivering highly sought after items to people who are willing to pay. Hanneke's parents think she supports them through her work for the local undertaker as she really works to bring coffee, meat, and sweets, among other items to people who are willing and able to afford such luxuries and the risk of obtaining them. Hanneke deals in secrets and she's very good at what she does. After all, there's no telling who might be listening and be willing to turn their neighbors in to curry favor with the Nazis. In addition, she carries the burden of the loss of her boyfriend, Bas, who was killed during the Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation and the loss of her childhood best friend to a romance with a German soldier. Hanneke has worked so hard to insulate herself against the pain she bears, building up her walls in the hopes of feeling less. Then one day, one of her regular customers, Mrs. Janssen, asks for Hanneke's help in finding a missing Jewish teenager she was hiding in a secret cabinet at the back of her pantry. Hanneke doesn't want to anything to do with taking on such a dangerous task but as she researches the identity and life of the missing girl, she is drawn into so much more than the story of Mirjam, the girl in the blue coat. She becomes a bigger part of the underground resistance in the city she loves and comes to terms with her own mistakes and losses.
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As a huge fan of historical fiction and World War II fiction in particular, I loved this book. I loved that it was told through the eyes of a teen and not through an adult but not only that, I loved that the character was a smart, savvy, teenage girl. I loved the powerful progression she makes from her desire to not want to feel anything to risking it all to find a perfect stranger. I found myself holding my breath as Hanneke unraveled the mystery of the missing girl in the blue coat and loved the unexpected twist in the end.
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McManus, K. M. (2017). One of us is lying. New York, NY: Delacorte Press
What happens when 5 high school students end up together in detention and before it's over, one ends up dead? Everyone in the room becomes a suspect. When it is further discovered that they all had motive- you've got yourself an amazing mystery. The characters in this book are a tribute to the types of characters seen in The Breakfast Club: The Brain, The Beauty, The Outcast, The Criminal, and The Athlete but the transformation they undergo as each is suspect in the death of Simon (The Outcast), is something far more. Told from the perspectives of the four suspected students, this mystery is filled with red herrings that keep the reader guessing.
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I loved this book. Great story telling, great characters. The characters were both believable and likeable and I found myself rooting for each one as the story progressed. A well structured mystery, this book also touched on many topics that YA readers may face: academic cheating, drugs, sexual orientation, and dying to fit in so much that you actually lose sight of who you really are.