Module 3: Dairy Queen

Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. 2006. DAIRY QUEEN. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 978-0-618-86335-8.

Darlene Joyce Schwenk, known simply as D.J., narrates this contemporary coming-of-age romance novel. Her summer in the small town of Red Bend, Wisconsin looks to be complicated, to say the least, and she is not happy. The oldest child on the family dairy farm, she took over all of the chores after her father’s hip replacement surgery the previous January. Due to her new responsibilities, D.J. quit the school basketball team and failed her sophomore English class. She then learns that her father and a family friend, the longtime football coach at Red Bend’s archrival, Hawley, want her to spend her summer training Brian Nelson until training camp begins in early August. Handsome, spoiled Brian, the popular quarterback, is everything she is not. She resents the responsibilities given to her but lacks confidence to speak out about her situation.

The rural Wisconsin setting, typified by the Schwenk family dairy farm, plays a major role in D.J.’s story. She must awaken at five in the morning to milk the cows and run the farm. If it is her home, it is also her prison. Through all of the chores, there runs a lack of family communication. Her father cooks (but no one tells him how terrible his burnt meals are), her older brothers are estranged from her father due to some undiscussed event from last Christmas, her younger brother Curtis does not say much, and her mother is rarely around the house. Throughout the early part of the novel, D.J. is alone with her thoughts and her endless work, and neither is positive.

Football is the other important aspect of setting in this story. The Schwenks are a football family. The father played for the Minnesota Vikings when the team began, and her brothers were both legends in high school. Raised in this environment with that set of genes, D.J. is the natural choice to train Brian. Due to D.J.’s resentment and lack of confidence, and Brian’s unwillingness to do farm chores, their relationship begins poorly. However, after training and doing chores together, they become closer and even create their own football field on an isolated part of the farm. This is their secret, a symbol of their budding friendship.

Is it a relationship? D.J. hopes so but still lacks confidence, as shown in her “tongue-tied nature and self-deprecating inner monologues” (Pickett). She and Brian play together, talk, and warm up to each other in what seems to verge on a relationship. In one critical scene, D.J.’s best friend Amber interrupts them and reminds D.J. that “Guys like that don’t go out with girls like you” (158). D.J. understands that, but it is still a blow to her. She does not stand up for herself and understands what Brian means when he refers to her as a cow. Others lead life; she follows.

When D.J. decides to try out for the Red Bend football team, she begins taking control of her life and moving beyond the setting confining her. Fittingly, she leaves the farm for Madison, the state capital and more liberal university town, to have her hair cut so that it will fit inside her football helmet. When she arrives there, she sees herself as a “farm hick” (187) in the city and is afraid to tell the woman at the salon about football. The response she gets heartens her and bolsters her confidence to return to Red Bend and begin changing her life.

The football scenes are mainly serious, as D.J. tries to be accepted by her coach, teammates and opponents, and as she keeps her participation secret from her family. Lighter moments arise with the complications of locker rooms and cheerleaders. The main complication, though, is with Brian, who tells her, “When you don’t talk, you know, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up getting not said” (225).

By learning to like herself and speak honestly and openly (referred to as “Oprah moments” throughout the book), D.J. comes to understand that her lack of self-confidence stifled her, not Red Bend or the rest of the Schwenks. With her newfound understanding and confidence, she can empathize with and relate more equally to her family, her best friend Amber, and Brian. In D.J., Murdock has created a powerful character capable of reaching a wide range of readers able to understand her shortcomings and smile as she comments on them.

Reference List:
Pickett, Amy. 2006. Review of Dairy Queen, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. School Library Journal 52(4): 145. Library, Information Science & Technology (LISTA) database, TWU Library. Accessed 3 October 2011.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (Grade 8 and up)

Review Excerpts:
At the end, though, it is the protagonist's heart that will win readers over. (School Library Journal, April 1, 2006)

A painfully funny novel takes readers into the head of D.J. Schwenk, frustrated dairy farmer-cum-football trainer-cum-star linebacker…A fresh teen voice, great football action and cows—this novel rocks. (Kirkus Reviews)

This humorous, romantic romp excels at revealing a situation seldom explored in YA novels, and it will quickly find its place alongside equally well-written stories set in rural areas, such as Weaver's Full Service (2005), Richard Peck's The Teacher's Funeral (2004), and Kimberly Fusco's Tending to Grace (2004). (Booklist, April 1, 2006)

D.J.'s voice is funny, frank, and intelligent, and her story is not easily pigeonholed. Readers will learn a lot about sports and farming but more about taking charge of oneself. (Voice of Youth Advocates, June 1, 2006)

Awards & Recognition:
Great Lakes Book Awards, 2007
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award, 2007-2008
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2006

Module 3: I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You

Carter, Ally. 2006. I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU. New York: Hyperion Press. ISBN: 978-14231-0004-1.

The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women looks like any other prep school for elite girls, but looks are deceiving. Though its students are all high schoolers, their school is a CIA training facility, and they are the most gifted of its recruits in training. “Gallagher Girls” have a long pedigree dating from Gillian Gallagher, who killed “the guy who was going to kill Abraham Lincoln—the first guy, that is. The one you never hear about” (3). She used a sword that the school still proudly displays, even if it is booby-trapped.

Cameron (Cammie) Morgan, the narrator of this romantic, adventure (sort of) novel, is a normal 15-year-old. “Normal” at Gallagher is a relative term, however. As part of their school curriculum, Gallagher Girls learn and use 14 different languages, study martial arts, engage in covert operations, and know enough chemistry to receive a Ph D. Even though they live in a privileged world, with a five-star chef, secret passageways, and an overall sense of uniqueness, Cammie realizes that Gallagher Girls—herself included—lack knowledge about the one topic most important to a 15-year-old girl: boys. This is a (highly) comic novel where appearances and reality collide. Though the girls learn how to be great spies in school, living in the real world means they must also be girls.

Two events signal that this school year at Gallagher will be different. First, a “hot” new Covert Operations (CoveOps) teacher, Joe Solomon, arrives. He knew Cammie’s father and is one of the few who knows of the exact circumstances of his death. To Cammie, this knowledge reveals her vulnerability and contrasts her ignorance with her desire to know what happened to her father. She never learns the truth, but her questions about his fate serve to make her a more rounded character able to empathize with her mother and her friend, Bex, whose own father misses a “call-in” while on an operation. Solomon, an operative just out of the field, understands what awaits the Gallagher Girls in the real world and tells them to “notice things” after they fail a class exercise. They have been living in a bubble, and he attempts to help them break out of it.

The second event to jolt the complacency of Cammie, Liz and Bex (best friends and roommates) occurs when the campus goes into “Code Red” (unannounced visitor) and the McHenry family visits. Macey McHenry is rich and spoiled and has been expelled from other schools. Gallagher is her last chance. The girls do not see her as Gallagher material, but they are overruled by the headmistress (Cammie’s mother) who has seen her test scores and knows that the McHenry family is related to Gillian Gallagher. Macey is disliked, but she is an expert on boys and fashion. If Joe Solomon introduces the girls to the hard realities of espionage for their future careers, Macey ensures that they get being teenage girls right first.

Appearance and reality also drive the setting and plot development. With its gadgetry and resources, Gallagher is truly “exceptional” to readers, while to the townspeople of Rossville, Virginia, it is just another snooty private school for wealthy girls. (If only they knew!) When Cammie meets Josh during a CoveOps field exercise, she must create a believable “legend” for her identity to hide who she is and where she studies. Their secret meetings in town involve espionage techniques and become part of Cammie’s “surveillance report,” wherein she documents how she and her roommates tail Josh, tap into his computer, sift through his family’s garbage, and break into his house. Is he a honeypot (appearance for her roommates) or a regular guy interested in Cammie (reality)?

The complications of the plot are never that serious, not even in the climactic scene. Carter splashes laugh-out-loud humor onto nearly every page of this enjoyable novel, if not in the action, then at least in Cammie’s view of it. Things turn “serious” only when Cammie thinks about fathers (her own and Bex’s) and when Josh believes he has learned the truth about her after only having heard her legend. (He hasn’t.) Carter captures the voice of a teenage girl, even if she overuses “totally” a bit. Her sarcastic and very teenaged italicized and capitalized mini-commentaries allow Cammie to explain Gallagher’s history, the finer points of being a spy, and her own confusion as she falls deeper and deeper for Josh. Even if “the stakes never seem very high since there are no real villains” (Doyle), Cammie still learns important lessons about love, friendship and truth.

Reference List:
Doyle, Miranda. 2006. Review of I’d Tell You I Love You, but Then I’d Have to Kill You, by Ally Carter. School Library Journal 52(7): 98. Library, Information Science & Technology (LISTA) database, TWU Library. Accessed 3 October 2011.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (Grade 7 and up)

Review Excerpts:
Though the plot takes a while to unfold, fun details and characters will keep readers engaged. Publishers Weekly, May 15, 2006)

The teen's double life leads to some amusing one-liners, and the invented history of the Gallagher Girls is also entertaining, but the story is short on suspense. (School Library Journal, July 1, 2006)

The characters and their relationships, including Cammie's mother—Headmistress of the Gallagher Academy—propel this story beyond just being an action-packed novel into something special. (Voice of Youth Advocates, October 1, 2006)

Reviews retrieved from Bowker’s Books in Print database, October 3, 2011.

Awards & Recognition:
Black-Eyed Susan Book Award, 2008-2009 (Maryland Association of School Librarians)
Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award, 2009-2010 (Minnesota Youth Reading Awards)

Module 3: Sunrise over Fallujah

Myers, Walter Dean. 2008. SUNRISE OVER FALLUJAH. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN: 978-0-439-91624-0.

A contemporary realistic novel, Sunrise over Fallujah tells the story of Robin Perry, an 18-year-old African American from Harlem in New York City, who has enlisted in the army and been deployed to Iraq. His father had hoped Robin would go to college, but, like many young men and women his age, he joined the military after the events of September 11, 2001 because he wanted to serve his country. The complexities of war, the clash between ideals and reality, and the theme of lost innocence all feature in this novel.

The novel begins with Robin and the members of his Civil Affairs unit on the ground in Kuwait prior to entering Iraq. Their job is to build relationships with Iraqi civilians while others fight the Iraqi military as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Robin’s unit enters Iraq after receiving unclear and often contradictory orders from their superiors. Their experiences with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), sniper fire, weapons searches, and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) will probably be familiar to readers who have followed the news about the war. The setting for these events, Iraq, is not depicted in graphic detail nor is it a place of many colors. It is brown, the color of the desert, a bland backdrop to the daily, almost “matter-of-fact” violence.

Most of the plot revolves around the growing confusion Robin and the members of his unit are experiencing. The Rules of Engagement (RoEs) change daily, and the novel is filled with questions about the purpose of the war and fighting an enemy that can melt into the civilian population. In his own words, Robin says, “I didn’t know which of the figures in robes down to their ankles were praying for peace and which were planting bombs on the side of the road” (144). To underscore the uncertainty, Myers includes an allusion to the anti-war novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. One of the characters in this story receives a stuffed monkey (nicknamed “Sergeant Yossarian”) that becomes the unit’s mascot. Their bitter humor clearly demonstrates their growing loss of naivete and their awareness of the incompetence and even insanity that exists in wartime.

Myers uses Robin and the two main female characters, Marla and Captain Mills, to humanize the soldiers involved in the war. Marla is there after bouncing around foster homes and having unspeakable experiences, while Captain Mills wants to empathize with and truly help Iraqis. Mills is bound to fail (and does), while Marla joins the guys in joking about and questioning the war until the climactic scene in the tribal lands. Then, she crumbles. Even though she is tough and tries to be a good soldier to escape from her earlier experiences, Marla seems to symbolize a recurring idea that escaping from injustice is impossible. War is neither for idealists (Mills) nor those wishing to escape (Marla). However, it is an Iraqi woman, Halima who reinforces the basic message of the novel. When she says, “Treat our lives as if they are as precious as your own” (148), Myers is reminding his readers of the complex, multi-tiered nature of war. Fighting for a cause is noble but unrealistic.

Robin’s letters to his mother and uncle are interspersed throughout the novel. In the letters to his parents, he tries to calm his mother and make amends with his father. When he writes to his uncle, a veteran of the war in Vietnam, readers gradually realize how difficult this conflict is for Robin and also how he develops an understanding of his uncle’s unwillingness to discuss his own wartime experiences. Robin’s early letters question why his uncle is incapable of discussing Vietnam and seem almost defiant in tone. Throughout his final letter, his tone suggests that he has become his uncle and will be unable to discuss what he has seen in Iraq. If understanding is part of maturing, Robin has matured by the end of this story. “Robin is only eighteen, and it is difficult to watch his innocence erased as war leaves its mark on him, but it is the reality for many young men and women” (Petruso 2008).

Reference List:
Petruso, Stephanie. 2008. Review of Sunrise over Fallujah, by Walter Dean Myers. Voice of Youth Advocates 31(1). Library Literature database, TWU Library. Accessed October 16, 2011.

Highly Recommended (Grade 8 and up)

Review Excerpts:
Through precise, believable dialogue as the catalyst, tame compared to that warranted in Fallen Angels, Myers's expert portrayal of a soldier's feelings and perspectives at the onset of this controversial war allows the circumstances to speak for themselves. (School Library Journal, April 1, 2008)

Given the paucity of works on this war, this is an important volume, covering much ground and offering much insight. (Kirkus Reviews)

Readers will get a sense of the complexities of the war, and of the ways the rank-and-file, as represented by Robin, are slowly drawn into covert or morally dubious engagement. (Publishers Weekly, April 21, 2008)

Reviews retrieved from Bowker’s Books in Print database, October 3, 2011.

Awards & Recognition:
Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, 2008
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2008

Module 2: Annie on My Mind

Garden, Nancy. 1982. ANNIE ON MY MIND. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN: 978-0-374-40011-8.

You love architecture, and you go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to look at the Temple of Dendur. Seeing the crowds around the temples in the late 1970s or early 1980s, you decide on a quick detour into the American Wing. There, you hear a beautiful voice, and you are attracted to it. That voice belongs to a girl named Annie. Like you, she’s 17 and a senior in high school. You get to know her and have feelings for her. Those feelings are reciprocated. You are falling in love.

The only difficulty is that you are a girl named Eliza, who attends the prestigious Foster Academy that must preserve its reputation in a time of financial crisis. This contemporary realistic novel tells the story of Annie and Eliza and is an honest look at the growth of their feelings for each other, feelings they must keep a secret from their families. Eliza has the added complication of having to maintain a public persona as the president of the Foster student council while focused on her feelings for Annie. The two explore New York and their own hearts and lives in this contemporary problem novel.

Analysis:
In an untitled prologue, Garden uses a letter from Eliza to Annie to set the stage of the plot. As was the case with her other letters, Eliza wonders how Annie is doing. Toward the end of this letter, Eliza mentions two things: that she has written and not sent other letters to Annie, and that before she does, she has to “work through it all again—everything—the bad parts, but the good ones too…” (5). At this point, readers may wonder what has happened between Eliza and Annie. Have they caused their estrangement? Have others? Can they see each other? Is Annie even in California, or has something else happened to her? While readers learn that Eliza is from Brooklyn and now attends MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they do not learn specifics of Annie, creating a mystery to be resolved.

The story, narrated by Eliza, thickens somewhat on the first page of the first chapter, when Eliza quotes her English teacher about the correct way to tell a story. Readers learn that the letter is in the present and that the meat of the novel is a flashback. Ms. Widmer from the private Foster Academy taught Eliza to “start with the first important or exciting incident and then fill in the background” (6), and she does just that, opening with meeting Annie at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For a story about a first love, the plot seems fairly predictable. The girls meet, they have feelings for each other they cannot explain, they meet again, they’re still not sure, they begin spending as much time as possible together, they meet each others’ families, they seem confused, they touch shyly, they begin to realize they’re falling in love and become more overtly physical, they question their feelings, they have inevitable arguments, they make up, and, finally, they find a way to spend some time alone. All along their feelings are secret, but in the anonymity of New York, they find a setting that allows them to grow together.

The "problem" reaches its peak when their relationship becomes public, when they are found out by the school secretary and one of Eliza’s classmates. The rest of the story becomes a case of dealing with the fallout. Eliza’s education is jeopardized, her family must come to grips with her sexuality, and, when Eliza does return to school, she must deal with a variety of reactions from her classmates. At this point in the novel, Annie has disappeared from the action, except as the intended recipient of Eliza’s letters. Garden's decision to focus on how Eliza handles her emerging sexual awareness suggests that in order to participate in a relationship, people must understand themselves first.

Excellent plots need believable complications. In addition to the ones (and there are enough to make the book compelling) between the girls as they develop their relationship, the complications center on the Foster Academy, a private school in economic straits. While the minor characters not connected with the school seem to be drawn with a bit more than one dimension, Mrs. Poindexter, Ms. Baxter and even the student Sara, are little more than predictable cardboard cutouts. Mrs. Poindexter wants to preserve Foster, Ms. Baxter is pretty much her toady, and Sara just cannot begin to understand how a girl her age can have feelings for another girl.

Perhaps Garden uses these minor characters to portray a sector of society and how it views homosexuality. She seems to be reminding her audience that some people cannot accept others and are even diminished in their lack of acceptance. To make this point more believable, she could have had these three characters interact with Eliza or others in a more empathetic manner. They do not. Societal acceptance has to wait until the “trial” scene at the Board of Trustees. Though Mrs. Poindexter makes her case, she is cast as a belligerent and misguided person when other adults—the trustees and Eliza’s parents—support Eliza.

A final feature of the plot is the inevitable witch hunt occurring at Foster once the girls’ secret is revealed. In this case, Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson, two lesbian teachers at Foster whose house provided the safe place for Annie and Eliza, are fired. Gardner reminds readers that someone must take responsibility for influencing Eliza, and these two women, about whom there were always rumors at school, seem to accept their fate. In a meeting just after their dismissal, they remind Eliza of the importance of love and also express their disappointment at society’s treatment of gay people. Eliza heeds the first of these messages, and all readers would do well to heed the second message.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (High School and up): Note that some people may find the homosexual content objectionable.

Review Excerpts:
As a YA problem novel (the problem being social attitudes, not the relationship), it's par for the times, an ideological step beyond those reassurances that one such experience doesn't seal your destiny. The old bats at school, stereotypes that they are, at least provide some action. (Kirkus Reviews)

Garden’s novel, first published in 1982, has become a classic of young-adult literature: the first lesbian love story. Pre-Annie, YA novels with GLBTQ content had treated homosexuality as little more than a problematic form of sexual expression…Though, in retrospect, parts of the novel may seem melodramatic and the treatment of its antagonists a bit one-dimensional, the emotional content remains vividly realized, authentic, and relevant to the questioning hearts of today’s teens. (Booklist, July 1, 2007)

Garden's exceptionally well-rendered tale concerns two teenage girls who fall in love with each other. (Publishers Weekly, September 14, 1992)

Awards & Recognition:
Nancy Garden, 2003 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner
Booklist Reviewer's Choice, 1982
American Library Association (ALA) Best Books, 1982
American Library Association (ALA) Best of the Best lists, 1970-83

Module 2: Story of a Girl

Zarr, Sara. 2007. STORY OF A GIRL. New York: Little Brown and Company. ISBN: 978-0-316-01453-3.


The Lambert family needs an intervention quickly. Deanna Lambert, the narrator of this contemporary realistic novel, has just finished her sophomore year at Terra Nova High School in the small town of Pacifica, just outside of San Francisco. (The young people have nicknamed it “Pathetica.”) Her classmates refer to her as a “slut” or a “nympho,” and on a good day, her father ignores her. On a bad day, he is hostile. Three years before, he caught her in engaging in a sexual act in Tommy Webber’s Buick. To complicate life in the Lambert household even further, Deanna’s brother, Darren, lives in the basement with Stacy and their daughter, April. Darren and Stacy work at the local Safeway, and Stacy, like Deanna, does not get along with Mr. Lambert.

As if the family dynamics are not enough, Deanna needs a summer job. She gets one at Picasso’s, a local pizza parlor. Unfortunately, Tommy works there, but she takes the job anyway, since her goal is to save enough money so that she, Darren, Stacy and April can escape from the house and find their own place to live. As for her friends, Lee is the person she trusts, but she has feelings for Lee’s boyfriend, Jason. This is a novel about forgiveness, understanding and family, not only for Deanna but for those around her.

Analysis:
Human relationships drive the plot and characterization in this novel about the power of forgiveness. Deanna’s physical relationship with Tommy has caused her father to cut her off completely. While this causes understandable turmoil in Deanna’s life, along the way readers learn more about the father as Zarr is very sympathetic toward his character. He has never been much of a talker. According to Deanna, he has not spoken with her since finding her and Tommy barely clothed in the car, and one of her mother’s favorite phrases is “Your father just isn’t very expressive” (12).

Zarr could have stopped there, and readers would have seen only one dimension of the father, but she later shows his resentment for getting laid off from his job at National Paper and his disappointment in his children. Neither Deanna nor Darren has fulfilled his expectations. This sympathetic portrait becomes more complete when the father watches Deanna play with April and says, “I used to do that with you” (106). He is not a terrible person. Instead, he seems to be emotionally stifled, and this drives the plot until the resolution of the novel.

Tommy is an additional antagonist for Deanna. The coincidence of their working together and the inevitable scenes involving overt animosity and the gradual thaw in their interactions are all plot elements. Before Deanna explains what had happened with Tommy three years before, readers were left guessing about her character. Why had she done it? What kind of young woman is she? When she met him, she remembers a curiosity and a feeling of belonging, as if “someone else thought about me for more than one second” (65). At this latter point in her life, he repulses her, even if they do almost get together once again in his car. After all, he was the one who blabbed about their relationship to his friends who broadcast it to the school. He betrayed her, making her school life as miserable as her life at home.

Until their confrontation in the car, Tommy wanted sex, preferably with Deanna. He even attempted to get Lee’s phone number after seeing her in Picasso’s. Michael, the middle-aged manager of the restaurant, is the counterpoint for Tommy. He infuses a sense of calm into a tumultuous story and gives Deanna someone who will listen. In the scene where Tommy gets her into the car again, it is only fitting that Michael could not have given her a ride home. Deanna has to confront Tommy, and when she does, she seems to have learned from Michael. She asks him why he had to tell everyone and later tells him she forgives him. From him, the forgiveness means “I don’t have to feel like a piece of s*** every time you look at me” (181).

Deanna’s list of “What ifs?” and her personal story she tells throughout (in bold italic type in short segments interspersed in the narrative, complete with editing at times) tell the story of a girl in difficulty. Her last “What if?” is really the theme of her story: What if everyone got another chance after making a big mistake? (71)” She makes a mistake with Lee and gets another chance at friendship, she gets another chance with her father, and, in what could be considered the climax of the story, convinces Darren to give Stacy another chance after she has disappeared. Deanna has felt the sting of her father’s inability to forgive and doesn’t want her brother to fall into the same pattern. In her own writing, she speaks a lot of remembering and forgetting, in addition to confronting the truth. She does so, and ends up better for it.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (High School and up)

Review Excerpts:
Although the loose ends are tied up at the end, readers may find Deanna's character somewhat contradictory. But Zarr convincingly creates a teen trapped by small-minded people in a small town. (Publishers Weekly, January 29, 2007)

Zarr's story ends on a hopeful but realistic note with everyone taking baby steps toward something approaching normalcy. This involving, touching first novel will resonate with those who have made mistakes and those who have not. (Kirkus Reviews)

This is a heartbreaking look at how a teenager can be defined by one mistake, and how it shapes her sense of self-worth. This is realistic fiction at its best. Zarr's storytelling is excellent; Deanna's reactions to the painful things said to her will resonate with any reader who has felt like an outsider. It is an emotionally charged story, with language appropriate to the intensity of the feelings. Story of a Girl is recommended for both teens and the adults who live and work with them. (School Library Journal, January 1, 2007)

Characters are well drawn, especially Deanna, whose complicated, deeply felt emotions turn the story… Though nothing is miraculously fixed by the close, everyone's perspective has changed for the better. (Booklist, March 1, 2007)

This first-person narrative is unusually sensitive and perceptive. Zarr explores Deanna's emotional life convincingly, and her portrait of young parents working opposite shifts and living with parents to make ends meet is realistic…This highly recommended novel will find a niche with older, more mature readers because of frank references to sex and some x-rated language. (Voice of Youth Advocates, February 1, 2007)

Awards & Recognition:
National Book Award Finalist, 2007

Module 2: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Rennison, Louise. 1999. ANGUS, THONGS AND FULL-FRONTAL SNOGGING. London: HarperTempest. New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2001. ISBN: 0-06-028871-X.


Written as a diary, this comic novel chronicles a year in Georgia Nicholson’s life, from just before the beginning of a school year until the next summer vacation. Her father leaves the family in England and goes to New Zealand to find work, and her mother begins spending what Georgia thinks is too much time with Jem, the contractor working on the house. Her young sister Libby is embarrassing and uses the word “poo” a lot while snuggling for comfort in Georgia’s bed. Uncle Eddie makes silly remarks to and about her, and her cousin James gets a little too close when he comes to sleep over. Her cat, Angus, terrorizes the next door neighbors while Georgia spies on them.

When school finally begins, Georgia immerses herself in life with her friends and teachers. All of the teachers are female, except for Mr. Kamyer, the German physics teacher. She and her friends talk of guys and becoming lesbians, and one of Georgia’s recurring fears seems to be about the type of lesbian she’ll end up becoming. All of this is, of course, a backdrop to the hijinks of Georgia and her friends, as they spend a lot of quality time thinking of their physical appearance and pursuing males. For Georgia, her goal is Robbie, the Sex God, but someone has already beaten her to the mark. Or has she?

Analysis:
This is an entertaining novel. Teenagers and anyone with a sense of humor will enjoy Georgia’s voice, from her private worries about her eyebrows to her more public escapades with her friends. The diaristic style of the novel allows readers the chance to get inside of Georgia’s head and to read her unexpurgated thoughts about her world. She mixes longer and shorter entries with no recognizable pattern, suggesting that on some days Georgia is just a bit more verbose. Often, though, when there are many rapid-fire entries minutes or even hours apart, Georgia tends to comment on events that just occurred or to prepare herself for what is to come.

Cataloging the humor in this novel is difficult: it is splashed on every page, in Georgia’s voice and in all of the bizarre situations in which she writes about herself, her family and her friends. Inside all of the humor, however, there lies a bit of insecurity that, of course gets masked with even more humor. An example of this is when her father (“Vati,” as she has taken to calling him, based on her boredom in German class) leaves for New Zealand just after Christmas. This is only serious in that it creates a distance in the family, but Georgia is concerned. After all, she isn’t quite sure where New Zealand is—she thinks that where the TV show “Neighbors” was set. (That was Australia, as her father reminds her.)

After her father leaves, her mother begins spending time with Jem. In true Georgia fashion, she says she “will have to have a word with Mum in order to save the family.” Her entry an hour later, at 12:05 pm, is simple and hilarious: “Can’t be bothered” (162). Her family may be splintering—it isn’t—but Georgia is set on pursuing what is important to Georgia: her looks, her friends, and, of course, boys. Anything "larger" seems too complicated. Through Georgia, Rennison seems to be hinting that although teenage girls might know what they want, they may not be too sure how to get there.

To end up with Robbie (the SG), she will first have to get around Lindsay, the girl at school who wears his ring. Lindsay is as close to an antagonist as this novel gets, but the audience only sees her mooning around and over Robbie. Georgia and Jas spy on her in her room. (It is here the audience learns about the “thong” in the title.) In the end, Lindsay drops out of the running for Robbie, and Georgia gets in. They have a bit of “number six kissing” (see table on page 198), and she is “nearly” his girlfriend (234). That seems to be enough for Georgia, "a wonderful character whose misadventures are not only hysterically funny but universally recognizable" (Cart 2000).

For readers in the U.S., the amount of British slang could be troublesome, but Rennison has included a glossary to give readers quick definitions. As with the rest of the novel, the language here is fresh and hip, not in least bit “naff.” (Look it up if you're not sure what it means.)

Cart, Michael. 2000. "Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging." Booklist 96: 2033. Accessed October 4, 2011, from the BookReview Digest Plus database.


HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (Grade 8 & up)

Review Excerpts:
Teens will discover that nothing is sacred here (e.g., "Talking of breasts, I'm worried that I may end up like the rest of the women in my family, with just the one bust, like a sort of shelf affair"). Rennison exquisitely captures the fine art of the adolescent ability to turn chaos into stand-up comedy. (Publishers Weekly, March 20, 2000)

It will take a sophisticated reader to enjoy the wit and wisdom of this charming British import, but those who relish humor will be satisfied. Fresh, lively, and engaging. (School Library Journal, July 1, 2000)

Georgia Nicholson, the intrepid heroine of this hysterically funny coming-of-age novel, faces the usual traumas of teendom: pimple outbreaks, chest development (or lack thereof), and embarrassing parents. How she deals with each of these and myriad other problems, though, is what sets this novel apart from the typical and predictable. (Voice of Youth Advocates, June 1, 2000)

This "fabbity, fab, fab" novel will leave readers cheering, "Long live the teen!" and anxiously awaiting the promised sequel. (Booklist, July 27, 2000)


Awards & Recognition:
Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book, 2001

Module 1: A Step from Heaven

Na, An. 2001. A STEP FROM HEAVEN. New York: Speak. ISBN: 0-14-250027-5.

Mi Gook. To four-year-old Young Ju Park, the Korean name for America is “a magic word” (11). In this short novel about family and finding a new home as immigrants, America is everything. Young Ju and her family must leave her grandparents and venture into the unknown. Sure, her father’s sister is already in the U.S. and paves the way for the family’s trip, but they must leave everything and everyone they know for an uncertain future. Before leaving, the focus is on appearances and questions about the certainty of a better future. Young Ju must get her hair curled to look like an American girl, imagining that America is a sort of heaven where she can find a new friend.

The reality of the immigrant experience is different from its dreams, however. In a series of chapters that read almost like vignettes, Young Ju grows up, beginning school, trying to learn the language, and attempting to understand her new home. Her family grows with the birth of her brother, Joon, but the true struggle is with her parents. As with most immigrants, they gave up lives they knew for new lives. In this case, those new lives mean the pressure of working long hours, of not understanding the language, and of feeling inferior to those who live in the dominant culture or who have already immigrated and adjusted to it. Her father feels this pressure the most. His actions drive the story of this family and make it possible for Young Ju, Joon Ho and their mother to find stability and new lives on their own.

Analysis:
This is a short but intense novel. An Na tells the story through Young Ju’s eyes in a series of chapters with a very spare, poetic writing style. Indeed, with different line breaks, the author could have written the visual chapters as a verse novel. She is spare but descriptive, as in the scene when the family dreams of winning Lotto and paying for their better life the fast way: “One dollar for afternoon dreams is expensive and cheap” (81). Similar to most of the situations in the book, the members of the Park family conceive of ways to improve their lives, but those ways do not pay off.

In addition to a novel about a family, this is a novel about a young girl growing up and attempting to make the best of things. Young Ju begins the novel as a naïve four-year-old and finishes it as a young woman preparing to leave for university. Early in the book, she does not want her hair curled and is shocked during the flight over the Pacific. When she reaches her relatives’ house in the U.S., Coke is an alien taste to her, and her first day of school is a nightmare, given her lack of language skills. Still, though, she is optimistic that someday she will fit in, as when she describes her language ability: “I know only little Mi Gook words now. But someday I will know all of them. In the future” (31). She dreams of friends, of being president and, as things worsen, of being far away.

Acting as a foil to her maturation is her father’s growing inadequacy. He has given up everything in an attempt to create a new life for himself and his family, but he is also short-tempered and relegated to working long hours at menial jobs. When Joon Ho arrives, he realizes he has another mouth to feed. In one critical scene laced with irony, he tells Joon Ho, “In this world, only the strong survive. Only the strong can make their future” (68).

From this moment onward, the reality of his inadequacy intrudes into the Park family, leading to Young Ju’s continued growth and also to the dissolution of the family, at least of the family with him in charge. He gets arrested for drunken driving and continues to drive after drinking. He beats his wife for asking a question, and he beats his daughter for finding an American friend. He cannot give a voice to his rage, and through him the author reminds her audience that new lives involve new attitudes. A person cannot remain selfish is he is to change.

In the climactic scene, the father again expresses his emotion through violence, beating Young Ju first and then the mother. This time, however, Young Ju, the perceptive and dutiful daughter, phones 911. Her actions evoke words her mother had said to her previously: “Your life can be different, Young Ju. Study and be strong. In America, women have choices” (129).

Unlike the father, Apa, her mother is able to view and remember the family’s larger goal, that of forging a better life. He is caught in his own selfishness and poorly expressed emotion and abandons the family to return to Korea. Her mother, Uhmma, through her bruises and hands gnarled from restaurant work, understands that sacrifice and strength are the keys to a better life, and by the end of the novel, she and her family have a place of their own, a home in a new country.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (Grade 7 and up)

Awards & Recognition:
Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, 2001-2003
Michael L. Printz Award Winner, 2002
National Book Award Finalist, 2001
Children’s Book Award in YA Fiction, 2002