Spring Break Reading

On spring break, my son is madly reading The Hunger Games trilogy before going to see the movie. He finished the first book in a day, and is now chugging through the second. The third is waiting on his nightstand.

I've got a few things picked out for spring break reading, as well.

Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese has been on my radar screen for awhile now, and I finally picked up a copy.

My cousin recommended the memoir Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, about a 30-something woman with no direction who hikes part of the Pacific Crest Trail. I've always been intrigued by the Pacific Crest Trail, ever since visiting Yosemite as a child and learning about John Muir and his hiking the Sierras. The 211-mile John Muir Trail overlaps the Pacific Crest Trail for most of its length, but the Pacific Crest Trail stretches 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada, along the mountainous crest of the Cascade mountain range and the Sierra Nevada range, and then through the Mojave Desert. Someday I'd like to take on at least a portion of the trail!

And the lovely Ti at Book Chatter reviewed a novel called Heft, by Liz Moore, that I'm now dying to read. It's about an unlikely family formed by an overweight professor, his past female student, and her troubled son. Ti mentioned that it might be a good follow-up to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, which my son and I both enjoyed. It's just about to come out in paperback, fortunately. Ti, I'm on it!

YA for A

I've always felt that the best young adult fiction is worth reading again and again, no matter what age you are. The Los Angeles Times recently published an article about how adults are reading more and more young adult fiction, and that young adult fiction sales are up 30.7%, in an otherwise sluggish book market.

It doesn't surprise me a bit, considering the obvious success of crossover hits like the Twilight
and Harry Potter series, and the perennial appeal of books like The Witch of Blackbird Pond

After the LA Times article came out, cultural website Flavorwire published its list of top 10 Young Adult novels, and I liked the list--it has a few of my favorites on it, including The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, as well as two of my husband's favorites, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, which was also a sweet independent movie. Also on their list are a couple of books I've been wanting to read for quite some time, The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin, and The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.

The list didn't include some YA books I've heard a lot about lately, The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins, What I Saw And How I Lied, by Judy Blundell, and Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief series.

And then there are those books out there, like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, and Black Swan Green: A Novel, by David Mitchell, that have young adult protagonists but aren't necessarily categorized in young adult fiction...

What are your favorite Young Adult titles? Do you feel they have crossover appeal? If so, why?

A Surprise Encounter

After posting about my encounter with Sir Ken Robinson in the airport, I remembered that I had another surprise encounter with an author recently.

I went to a charity lunch to benefit a wonderful women's shelter where I occasionally volunteer, and one of the speakers was a very charming author I didn't know was going to be speaking.

Her name is Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, and she is the author most recently of Ms. Hempel Chronicles, a young adult novel about a young middle school teacher in Brooklyn. I had never heard of the book, but after hearing Ms. Bynum speak, I'm going to get myself a copy.

Hearing Ms. Bynum speak was such a pleasant surprise. She talked of how this novel grew out of her own experiences as a middle school English teacher in Brooklyn, and she told some very entertaining anecdotes about the mistakes she made as a teacher, and funny things her students did. It was clear that she had been very enthusiastic about teaching English, and that her students probably loved her.

She also talked about the transformative power of reading--for her students and for everyone. She said that in her experience both writing and reading give one the unique opportunity of becoming deeply immersed in someone else's consciousness, and this teaches empathy.

Ms. Bynum also talked about the writing process, and studying writing with Michael Cunningham (whose writing I also admire). She talked about figuring out what story you want to tell. She quoted Cunningham, who said that you should be able to imagine that the last sentence of your (or anyone's) book could be, "And after that nothing was ever the same again." I thought that was a great point. In screenwriting, they often talk about how the two hours that comprise a movie should tell a story about the pivotal point in the main character's life. You should be able to say the same thing, that nothing was ever the same afterward, at the end of a movie, too--at the end of any good story.

It was nice to hear Ms. Bynum talk about writing about one's experiences, good storytelling, and the power of reading.

I have also been reading the Fairacre Series of novels by Miss Read, about a teacher in a village school in rural England in the middle of the last century, and have been enjoying reading about teaching and marveling that I recognize so many of the issues that Miss Read writes about, even though she wrote about them something like 69 years ago. So perhaps after finishing my reading about English country schools, I'll move ahead in time and across the ocean, and read about teaching in Brooklyn a few years ago, in Ms. Hempel Chronicles.

I'd love to hear about everyone else's favorite books about teachers and teaching--do you have any titles to share with me?

Coraline, the movie

Thanks to my fabulous friend Jen, who won some sort of contest, I got to take my 9-year-old son to a private screening of the movie "Coraline" this morning. We had a great time together, and there was swag! Here's one of the t-shirts we got--it's cute so I might actually wear it.

The movie was a visual feast, and my son and I both enjoyed it. It was perfect for a 9-year-old, but I think too scary for my 4-year-old girl, and not scary enough for my 12-year-old boy. I have not read the book, so I can't compare them, but the movie was beautifully executed. It is billed as "the first stop-motion, feature film shot in stereoscopic 3D", and you have to wear 3D glasses to watch it. According to the press materials, it was an extremely laborious process. That labor shows, as the detail is pretty spectacular. I especially enjoyed the scene of the Jumping Mouse circus and the scene of the garden coming alive.

My older son is reading Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book now, and I'm waiting for a Bookmooch copy of Stardust. So I'm being introduced, a little late, to Neil Gaiman's world. Does anyone have any thoughts about Coraline the book, on its own, or vs. the movie?

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie--a review.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a semi-autobiographical young adult novel by prolific poet/novelist/short story writer Sherman Alexie. The novel's plucky protagonist is Arnold Spirit, a geeky 14-year-old Spokane Indian who lives on the reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. Arnold tells us that he was born with water on the brain, and barely survived his infancy, only to have seizures as a kid, and have to endure endless teasing from his peers. But Arnold is very smart, funny, and draws cartoons as a way to make sense of his life, and after a teacher begs him to go to school off the reservation, Arnold starts to attend the white school in Reardon. An outcast at home, and an outcast at his new school, Arnold joins the basketball team, where he eventually finds a measure of acceptance. But he also faces tragedy after tragedy in his family life, where alcoholism takes an ugly toll on the reservation Indians. That Arnold retains his sense of humor, and learns lessons from his extreme difficulties in life, is nearly miraculous.

I think Arnold Spirit is a wonderful character for young adult readers to identify with. He makes difficult choices, he struggles with guilt for leaving his community to try to make himself a better life, he's a fighter, and he tells it like it is. Alexie tells it like it is, too, never sugar-coating the effects of crushing poverty on the Indians on the reservation, yet leaving hope and the possibility of the triumph of the human spirit on the table.

I liked Alexie's movie Smoke Signals, and found it to be a fascinating portrait of Native American culture. I feel the same way about this book, and it makes me want to read his writing for adults.

Sherman Alexie's website is also pretty cool--check it out here.

I need your advice...

I'm committed to buying books for the holidays, as I've mentioned before, and I'm rarely at a loss for books to buy for any occasion. But I need a little help from you creative reader/blogger friends--I need suggestions for books for my son. He's 12 years old, and a good reader (thank goodness), but he has already read or outgrown many of the YA books I know.

He really loved the Harry Potter series, and Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider books. He also read all of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. He likes fantasy, and adventure, though I've had a hard time getting him to read the classics that I loved, like Treasure Island, White Fang, and the like.

I think he's ready for something a little more mature, but I'm not sure exactly what to get for him. My husband thinks he's ready for Stephen King, and he did read and get creeped out by The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

So, wise ones, what do you suggest?