Elsewhere Review

Fifteen-year-old Liz is the victim of a fatal hit and run, and this is the novel's beginning. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is not the typical author's declaration of “this is what my version of heaven looks like.” It is something completely different, insofar as the afterlife goes. After waking up on the SS Nile, Liz is taken to the island of Elsewhere, where she lives with her grandmother Betty, who died before Liz was born. Here she will age backwards until she becomes a baby again and she will be reborn on Earth. This sounds appealing to those who die in their old age, but to Liz, she will never become a woman. And now she will never get her proper driver's license, go to prom, have children, or even see her sweet-sixteen. While she can see her family from Observation Decks, she can never be with them again. 

Elsewhere is written in the third person with an omniscient narrator that follows mostly Liz, but also other characters as well. Liz is a well-written character; her actions and feelings are believable for her age and circumstances, and she is the not over-the-top “stubborn teen” or unrealistically perfect. The secondary characters are all detailed and have secure places in the narrative. This book isn't about heaven, though some reviews refuse to see beyond these terms. This novel creates an imaginative world that is interesting to read about because it uniquely belongs to Zevin. The world of Elsewhere simply operates, whether Liz likes it or not, and she has to try to find herself in this “life,” when she never really got to experience her first life on Earth. The book is written with a clear simplicity and will interest readers who appreciate an imaginative setting that they can also recognize. 5/5 

 Zevin, Gabrielle. Elsewhere. Harrisonburg: Square Fish, 2005. Print.

$6.95 US/$8.95 Can. (Square Fish is an imprint of Macmillan.)  

Gabrielle Zevin writes young adult fiction as well as adult fiction, and her website is here, with the Elsewhere section here (this page also has the international covers, which is interesting to compare).   

Links

A link on facebook was recently shared by a friend (Thank you!) and I thought I would share it here:
100 young adult books for the feminist reader
There are some interesting titles here that I would love to check out.

However, I wonder how accessible this list is to teens with overly sensitive parents who might object to their child visiting a website called "Bitch Media"/"Bitch Magazine."  On their about page they explain their name, but I still wonder because it is aimed at young people who are still under the thumb of their parents/schools.

Another place is the Amelia Bloomer Project Recommended Feminist Literature for Birth through 18
It has a list of recommended titles, but you have to find the ones for young adult ages because there have elementary school level books in there as well.

Digital Booktalk Need by Carrie Jones

My digital booktalk of Need by Carrie Jones.

Digital Booktalk of Need by Carrie Jones on Youtube!
 
I recommend this book, and her website is here: www.carriejonesbooks.com  

John Green "Paper Towns"

Just to start off, I should say that while I am a huge fan of the vlogbrothers on youtube, I hadn't actually read a John Green novel. It was on my to read list for ages. Now I have. And I'm going to do my best to create a pure and unbiased review.


It was awesome. Go read it NOW. End of review.

What I liked most about this novel was the pacing of the story. It pretty consistently stayed at a fast pace that kept everything rolling. The story never stops going forward, and I think that this will be appreciated by a lot of young readers. Except for a bit around the first chapter that I found pretty boring- but I know why, because I'm not a guy and I couldn't care less about prom, even when I was a teenager I didn't care and didn't even go to mine. Maybe because I'm not a boy? Maybe because I hate reading words like "honey bunny over and over again. But then the plot goes on and doesn't stop. It is interesting and hilarious at points-it's so hilarious just in case someone is reading this and hasn't finished it or will one day read it, I wont even mention the epic hilarity. Towards the end of the book, something made me laugh for about 10 minutes, and I'm getting a little giggly thinking about it now. Lately books just haven't been that funny to me. The novel also has a lot of discussions about human nature, personalities, and the like. And expectations of the future and other people. I think it hit me deeply because since high school I "upped and left" a few times and just stopped talking to people I once knew. I liked how the novel reveals people's perceptions about other people and their actions-Margo's parents change the locks, Q's parents are willing to guide her and help her out, some people just think she simply ran away and leave her be. People made these assumptions without asking her, which I think young people can identify with, because aren't people always making assumptions for you on your behalf? Your parents certainly do, but so do your friends, don't they? They see you as a snippet in time, and you cannot evolve as a person past that or else you're not the same in their eyes.

To sum up, I really enjoyed this book. I hope in a few years I can give a copy to my little brother.  

"Weetzie Bat" by Francesca Lia Block

I honestly really enjoyed this book. I particularly enjoyed the way that the book rolls with quick descriptors of what the characters are doing, what's they're eating, the colours of the sky, their car, their clothes. Yet it doesn't go into extreme details about anything in particular and it keeps the pace up. I easily read this book and I know that some teens will appreciate how quickly it can be read and without much difficulty, I suspect. It gives a vivid stamp of a scene that gives the book a dreamy atmosphere.

As for the content and censorship issues, I personally don't understand why people in general really get riled up about content that they don't like. I think today I'll leave it at that. I personally like how this book portrayed how families meld together and become blended. Though probably not so magically and dramatically, families do exist that are not the typical nuclear family. These types of families exist to some extent and it does not stop the family from being full of love. The book also hints that someone has AIDS, and homosexuality is largely accepted, and characters discuss that the world is too damaged to bring children into, yet the world is beautiful and love exists, and it is an urban fairytale, so it's going to be ok in the end.

Feb. 16th 2011 Readings

Library materials and services for teen girls By Katie O'Dell
We had to read the first 6 pages and I found the section interesting. I was never into Nancy Drew books when I was younger, no matter how much this girl in my class was obsessed with them. Later on, my grandmother was the one who bought me my books. For awhile though, she keep buying me teen magazines, which never interested me beyond "oh, look what I can't afford or even buy in this town..." I had to say that if she's going to buy me a 12ish dollar magazine every week or so, could she please buy me a paperback Anne Rice, or Margaret Atwood, or etc. ?

Fifty ways to promote teen reading in your school library.

12. Use the lure of the forbidden. Tell them a book is banned or controversial, or just give them some of the crazy details (for example, boyfriend is on crack and parents are abusive) and a questioning "Are you up to the challenge?" look.
(One summer when I was a teenager I went to Maine beach and I found a copy of Lord of the Flies in a bookstore, and, no kidding, there was a bookmark that had "banned" on it with a circle with a slash through it sticking out of it. I had heard of the book before, but that "banned" bookmark, which I kept, sold me. Why? Because I was rebellious, and had to get my grandma to tell the store clerk that I could have it and that made me feel cool, yo.)
I am particularly interested in the points that discuss how to promote books in libraries, such as putting graphic novels in the front and having books near the computer stations. I also think that having your students pick books and run a blog (43 and 44) is much more effective than only you selecting books, unless you are really knowledgeable about teen reading trends. But even then, tastes are diverse and subjective so I think you'd be surprised anyway.   

Judy Blume's "Forever..." (spoilers)

What I really liked was that the novel wasn't preachy about sex, in the way that some novels are. The issue of sex isn't a moral one, and as it was written in 1975 I feel that the moral issue surrounding sex is still (largely) gone. I read some criticism that the book has, and it's fairly interesting. I never read this book as a young adult, but I read Chuck Palahniuk and I see some of his novels as much "worse," though his books don't deal with Young Adults. Is that supposed to be the difference here?


Anyway, I particularly liked the character Erica, and she had Kath present an interesting notion about sex: is it a physical act or a romantic one? I think it is a good thing to make young readers think about. Especially because one character becomes pregnant and becomes almost a warning not that you shouldn't have sex, but that you should use protection, and actually know who the father is. The character who actually gets pregnant also has the desire to deliver the baby, despite not being able to take care of the baby. She wanted the "experience" of having a child. Personally, I feel like this was an unrealistic romantic idea she had, yet I feel that she herself believes that the act is a physical experience because she has intercourse with so many men that she doesn't know who the father is.  From the beginning I felt that this character had a stigma about her, and I knew that something weird was going to happen.

Other than that, I found the book to be a very quick read, and that says a lot because I am a very slow reader. The book took me perhaps two hours to read. Maybe two and a half? But there is a lot to consider in the novel, though the pace moves fairly quickly. How to explain it? Thought provoking issues were raised, we listened to the characters talk it out a bit, mostly summarized by the narrator, we read her thoughts, etc. but the plot and the pace doesn't stop. It's not like a Jane Austen novel where there are epically boring parts (sorry Austen fans). It really reminded me of high school where you just "keep going," day in, day out, and new stuff happened and developed everyday. Big decisions were made on a whim by some people, but if you're really trying to make a decision and you're thinking about it, you're still swept away by the everyday tide.

On a side note of Judy Blume and Chuck Palahniuk, I found this on Wikipedia: "Damned is an upcoming novel by Chuck Palahniuk, which is scheduled to be published on October 18, 2011. The plot concerns Madison, an eleven year old girl who finds herself in Hell, unsure of why she will be there for all eternity, but tries to make the best of it. It is based on the structure of Judy Blume novels, particularly Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." Epic, or, epic, right?