Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

When I was younger my life's goal was to go to/live in London, England.

This goal was so prominent in my mind that during my Home-Ec class when other girls were making those big wedding plans (a project I'm soooooo glad has been deemed sexist and inappropriate) I planned my trip to London--no, really, I told my teacher I wasn't planning on getting married and that if I did I would do so in Vegas. She told me I should plan my honeymoon instead and my trip (not honeymoon) was a go.

My friends used to help me dream about my life in England.

I'd meet a boy named Nigel "Something"(I don't remember his last name)worth the Third and he'd be handsome and rich and have lovely gardens we'd stroll around. I'd meet the Queen (or is it The Queen?) and she'd be so taken with how polite I was that I'd be offered a job and a place in the palace. I'd own a dog. I'd go to pubs. I'd become an archaeologist and figure out what happened to those boys in the Tower. I'd eat lots of fish and chips. I wish I would have kept all the papers on which we doodled my life plan.

And, then it happened. Everything worked out so I could go to London, England...not just a week or a month, but a whole semester...sigh.

I became a part of the Missouri London Program.

I became an exchange student.

It was awesome.

I'd forgotten how much so until I read Anna and the French Kiss, a wonderfully written, light, but in no way breezy, young adult novel by Stephanie Perkins.

This book would just be another typical teen fish out of water tale if it wasn't for the amazing dialogue. I fell in love with Anna the first moment she was introduced. Actually, Perkins has quite a lovely grasp on dialogue and characters and I fell in love with and related to them all. Each character exhibited traits of people I know and cherish. There's the boy who everyone knows is in the wrong relationship, but he doesn't have the backbone to end it. There's the girl who has had a major crush on said boy, but understands that she is not the one. There's the jealous, over-the-top girlfriend. The boy, who is this case happens to be named Etienne (sigh), has his own wonderful set of quirky guy friends. And, there's all the romance of being in a foreign country sans adults. Something about the way these seniors acting seemed totally believable. This may be the first time I've read a book where a girl or two cries alone or accidentally in front of someone and I didn't want to bash my head, or hers, into a brick wall. I even had some of the same culture shock moments ("What the world I left went on without me while I was having a life overseas?"). This book was soooo good that I couldn't put it down and had to finish it, while my friends waited, sitting on a bed in a lovely Los Angeles hotel an amazing view of the Hollywood sign behind me.

So study abroad. If you're lucky you'll meet people half as cool as these people and you'll have wonderful adventures with or without all the romance. If you can't study abroad right away at least read this book and remember your first love, your first time away from home and live overseas vicariously through them.

Reading this book made me get out the 'ole scrapbooks. Memory lane never felt so good.


5 Stars

The only thing that would have made this book better is if it would have been set in London, no really, I mean that...maybe Stephanie Perkins will do that someday.

Teacher Advisories 

Sex 2/5

There's some kissing...OK, there's lots of kissing there for a minute, whew! A boy alludes to sleeping with a girl, although we never read about it. It is also alluded to the fact the Etienne and his girlfriend sleep together. Anna and Etienne spend a week spooning on a dorm room bed nightly.

Language 4/5

I don't remember there being any cussing in English or in French...gonna go look that up right now...ah, the power of the eReader...OK, so I lied BIG TIME...this book says the F-word like 5, literally, 5 times! Shit also gets thrown around a bit carelessly. I feel bad I have to give this book a 4 on this, but 5 times is a bit much for a teen romance novel!

Substance Abuses 2/5

Um, these are 18 year-old American students in a foreign country that allows you to drink at 18...totally believable situations and frankly, these kids don't act like typical American teens drunk, they act like college students.

Violence 1/5

Drinking and jealous never end up well.


Touchy Subjects

Social Class
Anna goes to school in France because her father has made it big as an author and he wants to impress people. Yeah, you read that right, Anna intially goes to go in France because her father thinks it will look good on his resume.

Love
I love, love, love, love first love books. Be prepared for broken hearts, misunderstandings, lead-ons and the other things that come with it.

The Mores and Folkways of a Foreign Country

Students may want to talk about foreign customs, traditions, home life et cetera.

Couples who are separated
Etienne's parents are separated, but his father still controls much of their lives. For instance, he isn't allowed to see his mother, who has cancer and may be dying, until a scheduled break in the school year.

When it's OK to stand up to your parents
Etienne and his father have a huge fight in which Etienne says some pretty harsh things that further alienate his relationship with his father. When, if ever, is it OK to talk to your parents in this manner? I think that Perkins would have you believe that sometimes this kind of frankness must happen, especially when the parent is verbally, emotionally or physically abusive.

Parents living their lives vicariously through their children
Definitely some lessons to be learned here, as all these kids seem to be privileged in some manner... 

How this book is used in the classroom

1] Independent Read option

Fins Are Forever by Tera Lynn Childs

I'm not sure how I feel about Fins Are Forever by Tera Lynn Childs. On the one hand I love the continuation of the story from the first book, I love the character Quince and I love the Lily is learning more and more how to be herself. On the other hand, I felt that new  characters were added just to add meat to the very thin story, I thought that the story was predictable to the point of boredom and, well, there's a whole lot of Dosinia and Doe (as she is called) is the character we spent the whole entire first book disliking--frankly, I disliked her soooo much that, even at the end of this book and we find out a few things about her, I still wanted her to get eaten by a shark.

Although the bond has been severed, at the end of the first book, Lily and Quince decided that they should be together. This means that Lily must give up her kingdom...for a boy. I was willing to accept this fate for Lily as she spent the whole book crying and not listening to her heart and needed to be shown that her true happiness really does matter. In this book she jeopardizes (although by the end we all see why) her future and her happiness, and I still can't decide if it's because she was too stubborn to get it or if Doe is a bigger b-word than I thought.

Which brings me to the fact that I don't like Doe. I suppose that I should be grateful that Childs has written her character so well that I want to vomit every time she's around, which in this book is often, as she's been banished from the kingdom and forced to live with humans. Of course, Brody is back and there's another boy who is heir to a throne in dire straits. Because of this fact, there's more relationship tension between Quince and Lily...tension caused by Lily and her inability to trust people...ugh.

Part of the problem I may have with this book is that I felt that the first one ended so nicely. Actually, this book has a pretty sweetastic ending also, it just took me about 45 pages to understand that there could, in fact, be more to the story.

It may not sound like I enjoyed this book, I did like it, I just know I would have liked it more had it been a stand alone and not a sequel.

3 Stars
 

I'm looking forward to the third book, Just For Fins, and I still love myself some Tera Lynn Childs, however, this particular book didn't totally live up to my expectations. 

Teacher Advisories 

Sex 1/5

There's some kissing...um, that's all, probably like three kisses total.

Language 1/5

The only reason why I say 1 is because my mother always says that people know what you are saying when you replace a cuss word with another word. Childs is excellent at using sea-words for cuss words. I love it, some may not.

Substance Abuses 0/5

Unless you count chlorine, which is toxic to mermaids.

Violence 1/5

There are some intense arguments used with harsh language.


Touchy Subjects

Family
What happens when a family member you hate has to move in with you?

Love
What is love? Does it mean that you have to give up being yourself and your goals to be with someone? How old do you have to be to know you have met 'the one'?

How this book is used in the classroom

1] Independent Read option
2] There's an excellent character project that Childs uses to flesh out her characters. It can be found at Books, Boys, Buzz

Kissing Kate by Lauren Myracle

I remember one day when I was about 11 years old. I was sitting on the floor of my friends living room and she and I were just bashing the dickens out of gay people and her mother, who is still one of the wisest women I know, said, "Would God really want us to harm any of his children or treat them the way that you've been talking?" Of course, we answered very meekly, "No." And, thus began my struggle, balancing the blindly conservative Christian in me with what I knew must be true.

During this same time period and for the next fifteen years I re-educated myself using the media and literature to do it. Rock Hudson came 'out of the closet' when he found out he had AIDS (people my mom's age and older were just mind-blown) and when he died the world mourned, Ryan White (who was just a few years older than me) got AIDS from a blood transfusion, Magic Johnson got HIV and still played basketball, and Matthew Shepard, who was my age, got beaten to death in Wyoming for being gay. I watched and read And, The Band Played On and all those series on HBO like If These Walls Could Talk and Queer As Folk. I read all sorts of young adult fiction about boys who were gay (there really didn't seem to be a lot about girls) like Night Kites, one I especially remember is The Drowning of Stephan Jones. I remember so identifying with the girl in that book because she too had a hard time saying what she knew to be true and what she believed as defending Stephen and his boyfriend meant going against how she was raised. I suppose I was looking for answers and trying to figure out what it all meant...did I mention that's hard to do in a small town in the Midwest?

In my high school there was only one boy who actually told everyone he was gay and he was also my neighbor. I didn't care that he was gay, I just liked that he taught us how to dance (he went to real dance classes in the city) and dressed cool because he was from fashion forward California. I felt that he and I weren't so different; as a person of color and a gay person we were treated badly by some because of something that we could not and did not want to control.

All this background knowledge really did come in handy when I started teaching and it seemed that my quiet open-mindedness attracted and still attracts those students who know that I will listen without judgment. This has made me quite the connoisseur of controversial young adult novels. (Isn't it strange that books that actually help students deal with loss or pain or being themselves are always controversial?)

Anyway, I say all of this so you understand the foundation of being I had when reading Kissing Kate by Lauren Myracle.

This seriously is one of the best books that I have ever read about teen confusion concerning sexual orientation. One night at a party Kate kisses, Lissa, her best friend and although Kate wants to pretend it never happened Lissa can't. This, of course, means that they are no longer best friends and as Lissa branches out she wonders if Kate was ever truly her friend at all. Through other friendships and several confrontations with Kate, Lissa learns to be her powerful self. This is a great coming-of-age novel and anyone who has had a hard time reconciling with the core of who they are will identify with Lissa as she totally turns her world upside in the search for her self.

I like that in the end Lissa has friends she can trust and she's confronted Kate, but she is still thinking about and learning about who she is. I could see how this book might help several teenagers realize that they are not alone and that their struggles don't have to be completed in silence.

4 Stars   

This book is a little disjointed in parts and the ending kind of drags on. In some ways there's so much going on in such a small book. 

Teacher Advisories 

Sex 2/5

The kiss between Kate and Lissa happens before the book begins and there's one encounter with Lissa and Kate again, it's sexy, but not over the top, and there isn't another kiss.

Language 1/5

There may have been a word or two. Kate calls Lissa a dyke.

Substance Abuses 1/5

Kate and Lissa kiss at a party while Kate is intoxicated, there's another party with alcohol.

Violence 1/5

There are some intense arguments used with harsh language.


Touchy Subjects

Family
Lissa lives with her uncle and little brother. They don't really know a lot about her.

GLBT
What does it mean to come out to others? What does it mean to be gay? Lissa has a wonderful conversation with a lesbian couple about the hardships and truths about being gay.

Misfits

Lissa is learning to be herself. Her friend at work, Ariel, is a spunky go-getter who doesn't fit in. Ariel's friend has a handicap, but he is a positive and strong male character. Kate doesn't even know how to be herself and doesn't mind lying to herself or others.

How this book is used in the classroom

1] Independent Read option

The Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking

Switched is about a girl, Wendy, whose mother tried to kill her on her sixth birthday because she believed Wendy was not really her child. Eleven years later, with her mother in a mental hospital and under the care of her older brother and aunt, Wendy finds out she was right.

Wendy is a troll, and I think her reaction to finding out is pretty priceless: "Nothing about me resembled a pink-haired doll with a crystal in its stomach or a creepy little monster that lived under a bridge. Admittedly, I was kind of short, but Finn was at least six feet tall." She is taken to the Trylle kingdom, where she discovers she is actually next in line for the throne, and she is none too happy about it. She spends the rest of the three books trying to find her way in her new life (and often fighting to get out of it entirely!).

I have to say, this trilogy got better and better the further I read. Wendy, the heroine, gets stronger and more independent. The obvious choice is rarely the one that writer, Amanda Hocking, makes, which is delightful in any fiction, but especially in girls' YA fiction. She doesn't spend the books mooning over the same boy, and very often pushes love out of her mind for the betterment of the Trylle kingdom and her own independence.

I hesitate to give details because I don't want to ruin the wonderful surprises for future readers, but this whole trilogy was a 5 star absolute must-read! That's as much as I'm giving away. It falls somewhere on the drama-o-meter beneath The Twilight Saga, and I can't quite think of a book to go below it at the moment. It's a lot of fun, drama, and romance, and it was good enough for me to immediately buy the second book and third books in the trilogy after I read the first.

P.S. Amanda Hocking also has a blog! Check it out here.

5 Stars

This book has now become part of my foundation and is an extension of the very essence of me...I laughed, I cried [or some other emotion] and am sad this reading is over...gush, gush, gush...

Teacher Advisories **CAUTION: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!**

Sex 2/5

There is some kissing/making out between Wendy and a male lead, but nothing too detailed or heavy. Sex is alluded to on a few occasions, but it's actually because Wendy gets married to a guy she doesn't love/isn't attracted to and wants to avoid it.

Language 1/5

There may have been a word or two, but nothing I remembered.

Substance Abuses 0/5

Nothing at all!

Violence 3/5

There's some violence, mostly in the third book as a war rages between two kingdoms of trolls. It may be great in volume in a couple of spots, but it's mostly magic based, and it's not really graphic. I've seen worse than what was described on tv!

Touchy Subjects

Family
Wendy's relationship with her mother is rocky because her mother has never believed Wendy was her child. Wendy's supposed brother loves her very much but has a lot of trouble accepting her new place in the world.

Inter-class Relationships
Wendy is in love with a troll who is low on the social totem pole compared to her royal status. She and her troll mother get into it on more than one occasion over this matter.

Arranged Marriages

Wendy is the victim of an arranged marriage (though she eventually gets out of it). It's not really "touchy" in the traditional sense, but kids might have questions about whether this ever happens in the real world.

How this book is used in the classroom

1] Independent Read option

Adam by Ted Dekker (Guest Post by Kate Sutter)

While Ted Dekker’s fiction horror/thriller Adam may be classified as “YA fiction,” it is definitely not for the immature. Written in a similar vein as popular shows like Criminal Minds, it will appeal to readers who like a good crime/suspense thriller. The story is based on an FBI behavioral pathologist Daniel Clark (who is so obsessed with the case that it brought about his divorce) teaming up with a forensic pathologist Laura Ames to catch a serial killer (Eve) with a background in kidnapping and child abuse. Clark's ex-wife is also investigating the case in an attempt to help bring peace. They use some techniques that will be familiar to crime show watchers and some that are not Standard Operating Procedure. Adults should be aware that Clark has his heart stopped twice as an attempt to relive his "near death experience" with the killer from the time Clark saw and almost Eve. The end of the book contains an exorcism when it is determined that the killer is driven by generational demonic possession. Even though Dekker repeatedly portrays the main characters as not religious, they put up very little resistance to the action. 

I liked how Dekker split up the story into sections, beginning each with a magazine article installment about the crime written after the killer is caught. The final segment seemed less developed than the rest of the book and seems to assume the reader has committed to the story long enough to overlook missing details that made the rest of the book hard to put down. It does not take away from the story too badly but left me with questions I did not expect to have when I came to the end. I felt like I needed a sequel just to find out what happened with all the characters.

The book is technically Christian fiction, but like other books I have read from this genre by authors like Dekker, Frank Peretti, and sometimes Randy Alcorn, they tend to be light on being “preachy.” These authors do shy away from the foul language and sex found any much contemporary fiction, but do not avoid it completely. A non-religious reader might not notice much “Christian” in some of these author's books at all, though most reference Christian views of themes such as redemption and good versus evil, and the supernatural world more overtly than secular novels. 


3 Stars

Teacher Advisories

Sex 0/5 

There’s some sexual tension between the two FBI agents, and at one point the pathologist tells Clark’s ex-wife that they haven’t been together. Definitely nothing a teenager will be concerned with, and probably not their parents either.

Language 0/5

I don’t remember seeing anything….

Substance Abuses 0/5

Unless you count getting totally intoxicated on someone's soul...than I bump it up to a 1/5.

Violence 4/5

This is a horror book about a serial killer, ya know. ☺ There are details without being overly gory especially in the final scene. It's also on the creepy side.

Touchy Subjects

Supernatural/Spiritual Concerns
The killer’s relationship with the Catholic church, unbelief in God, and demon possession are all prominent in the story and become more so as the story progresses. As a Protestant, I was not offended by anything until the very end where I saw parts of the exorcism as gimmicky, mostly due to lack of detail. The book is not trying to convert any readers to a belief, but religious elements are an overarching part of the story.
Final analysis – this book should be read by mature readers who are prepared to confront beliefs (or possibly, suspend them completely) about the supernatural and religion. Even if they do not believe in such matters, a hostile opinion or inability to maintain an open mind to these themes will make if difficult finish the book.

Motivation (and consequences)
For both Daniel Clark (FBI Agent) and Eve/Alex Trane/Alex Price (serial killer)
Medical Ethics
Good vs. Evil

Obsession
Clark’s obsession with the case, his ex-wife’s obsession with winning him back, the consequences of being obsessed

How this book is used in the classroom

1] Independent Read option

Use as a choice book. Know who is reading it.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

It's been a while since I've read this book, but I feel the need to review it because it seems that so many people just love it. I'm not sure why. This book made me angry. If you don't know the premise, it is about a girl who, before her suicide, has put together 13 tapes, one each for the people she believes contributed to her death. After her suicide, she has them sent to the first person and instructs that person to send them to the next, and so on.

I'm not an expert on suicide and I haven't lost anyone very close to me to suicide, so maybe I'm not the best person to write about this. But I'm going to anyway. I'll try to be as sensitive as possible. My goal here is not to offend anyone.

To me, this book condones blaming others for suicide. I don't think that's the right message. Instead of dealing with her issues, the girl looks for reasons to be upset with people. Even when she talks to her counselor, he says one wrong thing that she doesn't like, and checks that off as another reason for her to kill herself. I think in a way this book glorifies suicide and focuses on blaming others for our problems.

I think what this book was trying to do was to show that we should treat everyone with respect and we should reach out to people who seem like they may be having trouble because we never know what is going on in that person's life. I do agree with that message. However, in today's world I think we focus too much on stopping the bullying and do not focus enough on teaching people who are bullied how to deal with it. Yes, I think bullying is wrong and should be stopped. I think we should never treat people badly and should always be aware that something might be going on in their life which we can never begin to understand. As a teacher, I will always do my best to be vigilant about looking out for bullying and trying to stop it if I can. But bullying will ALWAYS exist. In school, in the workplace- everywhere. It's the sad truth. In addition to trying to spread awareness of bullying and prevention, we need to teach those victims of bullying how to deal with it in ways that aren't self-destructive.

Ultimately, I don't like the idea this book presents that others should be blamed for someone's suicide. People handle things differently, and I think focusing on the victim and helping them find positive ways to deal with things is the answer. What scares me most about this book is that so many young adults are reading it and may not be seeing the message they are meant to see. I can see that what Asher is trying to say is that people should treat each other with kindness and respect. However, what I'm afraid teenagers will see is that if they are having problems, they should quietly blame others for those problems and act out by doing something irreversible.

2 Stars

As much as I wanted to give this one star, I do recognize its merit. It can be used as a gateway for many important conversations between parents and teens regarding suicide, sex, bullying, depression, and other topics.


Teacher Advisories
Sex 3/5
Sex is mentioned and is a catalyst for what the protagonist does to herself. There is one scene that is slightly explicit.
Language 1/5
The names the girl is called are a bit explicit and I believe she uses some language herself (again, it's been a while)
Substance Abuse 1/5
Teenage drinking occurs.

Touchy Subjects
Suicide
This is the whole premise for the book. It's from the point of view of a girl who commits suicide and explores why she does it.
Bullying
A huge catalyst for why she commits suicide. The bullying comes in all forms and is done by many different types of people.
Sexual abuse
There is a scene of blatant sexual abuse, and one in which it is a bit vague whether it is abuse- regardless, sexual abuse is present in this novel.

The Maze Runner Trilogy James Dashner

Readers, meet The Maze Runner Trilogy, another book series you won't be able to put down. Be sure to allot a couple hours a day of couch time for this one. And be prepared to have some strange dreams if you are one who reads before bed.

The Maze Runner is a wonderful science-fiction, mystery, dystopic/post-apocalyptic roller coaster. Right up my alley (maze?). The first book, The Maze Runner, opens with the protagonist, Thomas, inside a box, with no memory of anything other than his name. The box rises like an elevator and a group of boys pulls him out and lifts him to The Glade, where the colony of boys has been living for the past two years After asking numerous questions and getting answers to few, Thomas discovers that the boys don't know much more about their predicament than he does and their memories are just as absent. The only thing these boys know is how to survive The Glade- and that they have to find a way out- a feat that would be easy considering it's all they have to do. But it's not that easy. Outside The Glade lays a maze with moving walls which harbor strange, part-blubber, part-mechanical and fully deadly creatures. As far as they can tell, there is no hope for escape.

If anyone has watched LOST, you know of feeling of being completely in the dark about what is going on, yet getting just enough details to keep you wanting to turn the pages to find out more. The Maze Runner does just that. When Dashner does shed light on all of the seemingly impossible things that are happening, he does so in such a wonderfully scientific way that it all seems just a bit plausible.

Though the protagonist is a 16 year-old boy, the books are actually much darker than some young adult books I've read. They get rather gruesome at times, and there are a lot of implications about how far a group of people should go in making individuals suffer for the good of society. Dashner is clearly trying to convey a message that we can't do whatever we want to people even if it will help us in the long run. It seems that he is saying that in some cases, the ends don't necessarily justify the means.

One of the things I really love about this series is that it is SO opposite of The Lord of the Flies (not that I didn't love that). Dashner must have a lot of faith in teenagers, and I'm glad he does. When these kids are left to their own devices, instead of becoming corrupt and killing each other, they create a full-functioning society with order and justice and diplomacy and a system for doing things. They're smart. They think things through and problem solve. They're kids you could be proud of.

I would recommend- no- HAVE recommended- this series to high school students (and they've loved it!). There is enough action to keep them interested, and I would hope that they could see the layers of this series and consider the message it may be giving. It has something for girls and boys. Action, love, friendship, loyalty, fighting, technology, you name it.

The rating I'm giving this series reflects my feelings on it as a whole. It was riveting. I couldn't put it down. But now that I've stepped back, there are some things that bothered me about the third book and the way it ended- but I won't get too much into that. Overall, I think these books are great for young adults- especially anyone who has read The Hunger Games. Instead of a Katniss, we have a Thomas, and the message is quite different- but it's just as dark and enthralling.

5 Stars


Teacher Advisories
Violence 3/5
There is a lot of it, and the killing seems so unnecessary, especially since kids are the ones being killed. The kids themselves, though, are the ones who are admirable and NOT doing the killing. The adults are the ones to blame for everything here.
Sex 0/5
Flirting, relationships, love: yes. Sex: no. It may be implied at the very end, but not enough that it would affect the rating.
Language 0/5
One of the things I loved about this book was the inventiveness of the kids. They have invented their whole language of slang and curse words, but they are words that don't mean anything to us. i.e "What the klunk," and "You shanker"
Substance Abuse 0/5
There is ONE scene where people drink quite a bit. And there is a drug that doesn't exist to us now that people are abusing. Not enough for me to give it a 1.

Touchy Subjects

Self-sacrifice
A big question with these books is whether people should sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Even while reading the book, it's difficult to decide what is right and what the main characters should do.
Mercy Killing
This issue comes up once and it's not a major part of the book, but still a touchy subject for many
Family
These kids all have lost their families for one reason or another.

How I would use it in the classroom:
1. Independent Read Option