Marcelo in the Real World - Francisco X. Stork

Stork, Francisco X. Marcelo in the Real World. Arthur A.Levine, 2009. 978-0545054744 (hardcover)

I have heard a few of my classmates saying how much they struggled to get this book read because they didn’t enjoy it. I was really surprised, because I felt like I was sucked into the mind of Marcello and lost myself while reading this book because I was so caught up in seeing the world from his point of view. It was a very easy read once I let go of my world and joined his…

I must admit that I was hesitant when I first began this book and realized that the author was attempting to write as a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome, because it is a fine line between it being an earnest attempt at portraying the life and challenges faced by a group of people through a character and creating an offensive caricature of that same group. However, I think Stork was very successful in creating Marcello to reflect both the unique worldview and thought process he had and show the ignorance of many people in society of the exact nature of his “differences.”

I was amazed by the duality that was presented by the incredible simplicity in which he approached (and sometime just ignored) some of society’s system of complex social interactions, while creating the most intricately organized systems for accomplishing his daily scheduled tasks and his ability to deeply analyze comments for any unclear implied meanings in such an elaborate, yet methodical, manner. Many of the things in life that are natural to me, would require a lot of hard work and practiced preparation for him to achieve an appearance of normalcy to those around him. However, the book also leaves you wondering how many of the things that he found success through would be areas that the reader wouldn’t be capable of handling.

I think that high school students would benefit greatly from reading this book and realizing that “different” in no way is equal to “stupid.” Each of us have our strengths and weaknesses, and it would be a smart idea to look for the strengths in each other instead of assuming the worst based on any weaknesses (or merely differences) that we might see in others.

American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang

Yang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. First Second, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-0312384487 (Square Fish reprint)

I had a hard time shaking the feeling that I would find this book very offensive if it weren't written by a cultural insider. My "warning alarms" kept sounding at points where racial issues were addressed. The cousin was clearly a caricature, but I would cringe as he acted them out (and not just out of empathy with Danny embarrassment at being associated with him.) I also fear that some "less enlightened" students might use this as a tutorial for new stereotypes to use while ridiculing any Asian students...

I was able to slowly let go of that (possibly because I was struggling to figure out which direction the 3-way story was going), and I found that I really enjoyed reading this format of book. Graphic novels are not available in my media center, so I was surprised at the depth of the complex internal and external conflicts this medium was able to portray. I would be very interested in finding more of these for my library.

The kissing scene was a point of confusion for me. There may be a cultural or Manga-related significance that I just wouldn’t get, but I was able to work out at least a potential theory as to why things happened like they did… I think that following his dismissal by the white culture as they pointed out his fate of being “forever the outsider”, he abruptly tries to run away and return to the only Asian culture he knows. However, due to the emotional (as well as hormonal) turmoil he's just gone through, he makes a rather stupidly impulsive choice which leaves him abandoned by everyone.

I also wonder if the cousin’s role wasn't meant to be a metaphor for Danny’s own disgust with his heritage (that he might see as having left him isolated) and to highlight his total avoidance of anything that seemed Asian, especially if he thought it might cause him to be ridiculed by his "new friends."

Crossing Stones - Helen Frost

Frost, Helen. Crossing Stones. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.

I got the feeling that the message Frost was wanting to get portray with Crossing Stones was a lot more about the sufferings of those in the Women’s Suffrage movement than that of the men at war. As I finished the book my experience from taking multiple women’s studies classes at Appalachian was in the forefront of my mind. It would be easy for me to slip back into the mindset of focusing on how women having been oppressed and silenced throughout history and start praising Muriel as the real star in the book for stepping up and breaking the mold. However, I think that the entire book comes together and does a good job showing all sides of the horrors of war and oppression. Each character responded to events based on their own personal views and made deliberate decisions that reflected those views. I don’t think that any of them were downplayed or ridiculed in the text due to those choices either, which reflects a very open and accepting mindset by the author. She clearly liked Muriel the best, and possibly influences some readers to do the same, but I don’t think she demands the reader to agree with her views at any point.

Regardless of the political and social implications within this book, I think that it is an amazing work of poetic art. The hidden rhyme schemes of the poetry were like a buried gem in an already powerful story. It was amazing how natural the story was able to flow as if it were prose merely restricted by the shapes formed by the variations in the margins for each line depending on the voice speaking. The effort that must have gone into balancing the rhyming words without affecting the readability of the final piece, must have been enormous. It almost seems like a shame that it wasn’t mentioned at the beginning so that the reader could admire this lyrical feat throughout the book. Sure, it would have likely gotten in the way of the initial message and story that I took from the book, but I feel like I was made to stare at an elegant painting to attempt to decipher the author’s intent in their work only to be later told that I’d been staring at it upside down the whole time…

Elephant Run - Roland Smith

Smith, Roland. Elephant Run. Hyperion, 2009. 978-1423104018

I think this book had all the right ingredients to make it a favorite of young boys. There are secret passageways, elephant attacks, bombings, faked deaths, and war prisoners. I was completely immersed in the Burmese culture and discovering a new appreciation for the history of World War II in Southeast Asia. I guess all that allowed me to give Roland Smith freedom with his literary license to fill in this historical setting with his fiction.

I didn’t notice how both the two main characters were white men. I didn’t notice that the story was resolved by another powerful white man riding in to save the day. I didn’t notice the whole last part was essentially “and they lived happily ever after.” I just enjoyed the massive amount of information that I distilled from this novel, and the subsequent curiosity it left in me for more information about this part of the world during that period of history.

I think that my individual response (before the class discussion) is important to remember when considering whether this tale is too Anglo-centric to be authentic or even plausible considering the knowledge that they would have in making the decision for him to move into a remote foreign land that was already being invaded by Japan. This book opens a door to a whole range of topics that move away from the typical Anglo-centric view of WWII being about Germany vs. Europe (with a surprise appearance of the USA at the end!) Maybe this is a way to approach topics that would otherwise seem distant and unfamiliar, and help an Anglo-centric audience make a connection with that time and culture. Maybe that takes something away from experiencing the effects of the war on the Burmese people, but I think the amount of interest it could spark in a YA reader for more knowledge would eventually tilt the scales in the book’s favor.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic. 2008. 978-0-439-02348-1

Hunger Games is a story about survival. No matter how far Katniss is pushed, she can’t let go of that basic instinct to stay alive. I love watching a character that not only perseveres, but even while she openly struggles emotionally at times when the odds seem impossibly stacked against her, but refuses to give up that last bit of hope. Sometimes she seemed motivated by self-preservation and at other times she was working to protect others, but through it all her actions always seemed to have a purpose when anything important was at stake. She demonstrates almost every normal human weakness throughout the book series, but still manages to come out seeming almost super-human!

I’m not generally a fan of reality television shows, but I think this series feeds off of our national obsession with them while simultaneously ridiculing that same audience for gaining pleasure from watching others struggle against each other. Survivor episodes seem pretty simplistic when you consider how they would be different if there were weapons involved. All of the same deception, betrayal, fleeting loyalties, and interpersonal drama would still be there, but it only seems to be acceptable if you limit the ambushes and competitions to passive-aggressive actions, dirty politics, and indirect demonstrations of power, intelligence, and strength. It’s not hard to see how thin that line is between what we subject people to currently, and the games in the book. I wonder if people wouldn’t willingly volunteer (like the careers in the book) if the game was not required as punishment for an ancient rebellion. The prize would have to be significant, but I wonder how close the format could remain before people would be willing to risk everything for the reward and glory that comes with winning The Hunger Games?

Would the game be the same without the unwilling participants being thrust into the mix? How far could the Gamemakers go with their twists to influence the audience’s interest level and build toward a semblance of plot and storyline? Who would be willing to risk their lives to enter in a savage and dangerous arena to fight to the last true survivor is crowned? Or more likely, how much would it take? And which network would be brazen enough to offer it?

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. Little Brown, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-0316015844

“Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people… The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”
~ Stephen King

I thought about splitting this discussion into two answers since there were two questions, but I realized that perhaps the main reason I dislike this series is that I have a strong distaste for Bella as the central character for exactly the reasons that compared to Frankie, she falls flat. Bella seems privileged, like the girl who pouts over not being able to decide if she should pick the Mercedes or the BMW for her daddy to buy her for her sweet 16. She's spoiled, shallow, and weak. She's in a world where she is easily outmatched and powerless unless she gets her way by throwing a tantrum. I see the correlations between her and Frankie (and Katniss) in their internal conflicts about love, but her stupidity that requires constant protection makes her a joke to me as a protagonist. I don't respect her, and I feel like the story was built around me feeling pity for her. If you are going to make a shallow love triangle, then you'd better get creative in its placement. The supernatural elements are novel, but they play out in such a predictable and worn-out pattern that I feel like Meyer stumbled ignorantly into a money pit that hit our popular culture with the right shallow and meaningless drivel at the right time. I really enjoy reading vampire books, so my distaste for the Disney-esque level of these undead creatures of the night (as they WERE before Twilight) is something I tried to suspend for the sake of the novel. However, she completely tears down the tradition of vampire lore and then doesn’t seem to have the writing ability needed to rebuild her own mythology with any more depth than what is required to push the plot forward.

However, as a continuation on the initial quote I lead off with by Stephen King from a later part of the interview he gave, he made some good points as to why these books have hit the popularity level that they did. I felt obligated to include this as well as a bit of a counterweight to my dismissal of the series as junk.
“People are attracted by the stories, by the pace, and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it’s not particularly threatening because it’s not overtly sexual.”
He further explains, “A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like, the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet.”

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart

Lockhart, E. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Hyperion. 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0786838196

As a teacher, I cringe a little bit when I think of the potential this book has for inciting a prank-war at your school. Not only does this book glorify these elaborate pranks because of their insightful nature, but it adds to the mystique of adolescents joining an exclusive gang for prestige and power. By the point at the end of the book where they discuss Frankie getting expelled, I felt like I was back in high-school and bitching about the principal breaking up our impromptu whiffle-ball tournaments at lunch or cracking down so heavily on the idea of a single senior prank day, that the few that did do something were prevented from walking on stage at graduation. Now, as an adult I see myself trying to keep students out of mischief to avoid any potential harm to themselves, their classmates, or the school facility. I think this book laughs in the face of the authorities in the school setting, and builds up administrators as being no-nonsense sticklers for rules to maximize the academic output of their institutions. It really made me laugh at myself for taking things so seriously at my school. I’m not sure if that proves my other point as absurdly disconnected or very “surdly connected”…

Regardless of the possible upheaval of the school power structure, I think this book is a great resource for kids that feel like they struggle to fit into a social group where everyone is naturally cool and accepted except them. It shows that even one of the coolest, smartest, and most creative protagonists in YA Literature still struggles with the concept of whether she really fits in or not. Everyone in this book seems to live some sort of double or triple life to nurture and balance their standings in different social, academic, and personal relationships. The point seems to be that everyone struggles with their own identity at that age, and most of what you think you know about people is only them acting certain ways to impress you (and everyone else) right back. It is ok to search for your place in society, because even though you rarely find an exact fit, you almost always end up understanding yourself better through the process.