Love Notes

Late last night, I received the following email:

Hi Ms. Abarbanel,

I just finished The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. You gave it to me to read for DEAR Day...

I'm crying and I LOVE this book!! Just wanted to let you know...I couldn't wait until Tuesday to talk about it.

Literally indebted to you,


And there is the power combination of Drop Everything and Read, John Green, and individualized attention from a librarian.  I love approaching kids individually with a favorite book. The books I hand to kids one at a time tend to get checked out more often than booktalked books.  And they usually come back to tell me how they liked it.


I got this email about another John Green book, Will Grayson, Will Grayson:


I just wanted to let you know that I finished Will Grayson Will Grayson.  It was such a good book!!!  I was wondering if you could possibly recommend some other gay-themed books that I should read.  I would really appreciate it!!


I love when the kids send me love notes about the books that spoke to them. They are the most powerful feedback I get. Do you have any favorite notes from students about books? Share them here!

Book Review: Last Night I Sang to the Monster

"Some people have dogs. Not me. I have a therapist. His name is Adam.
     I'd rather have a dog."

Each year before spring break the 9th grade human development class comes to the library to check out fiction books on serious topics they cover in human development class. I set aside books about addiction, divorce, sexual identity, racial identity, eating disorders, etc, and the students can choose whatever they want to read about. This year the kids will make book trailers for their choices.

I try to read some new books for this project each year, and I just finished a fabulous one: Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Saenz. Zach is 18, an alcoholic,  and in rehab.  He slowly remembers what brought him to this place - his family. Each of his family members has a part to play in his abusive childhood, but it takes him the whole book to remember the incident that actually brought him to rehab.


With the help of kind Adam, his therapist, Rafael, a father-like figure to him who is also a patient, and the other "clients" at the facility, Zach finds his voice and his will to live. A sad novel with hope at the end, readers will admire Zach's will to get better.
 
Zach believes that God predicts your temperament in life. He says, “I have it in my head that when we’re born, God writes things down on our hearts. See, on some people’s hearts he writes happy and on some people’s hearts he writes sad and on some people’s hearts he writes crazy and on some people’s hearts he writes genius and on some people’s hearts he writes angry and on some people’s hearts he writes winner and on some people’s hearts he writes loser… And it’s all pretty much random. He takes out his pen and starts writing on our blank hearts. And when it came to my turn, he wrote sad.” (pg. 11)
Zach is a great main character, full of warmth and insight, and I recommend getting to know him.

Manga - Children of the Sea

I loved reading this manga and I found the first chapter for you online so you can try it at home (it even includes how to read manga - it can be confusing at first).



This is the story of Ruka, who vividly remembers seeing a strange sight at the Aquarium where her father works.  As the Aquarium workers research why fish are disappearing, Ruka meets two friends who are called to the sea, like her. She discovers that Umi and Sora were actually brought up in the sea, although they are human. What are these sights and sounds coming from the sea? What is happening to the sea creatures, and why is it so compelling for Ruka? Read this gorgeous first volume of Children of the Sea and be ready to be transported into the mysterious beauty of Ruka's world.

Book Review: For Keeps by Natasha Friend

Although the story is somewhat predictable, I couldn't put this book down! I wanted to know how Josie and her mom were going to work out the news that Josie's paternal grandparents, who don't know of her existence, moved back into town. I wanted to know if Josie was going to let the gorgeous Riggs be her boyfriend, and I really wanted to see what trouble her best friend Liv might have. The warm and realistic characters and exciting connections between them kept me up late reading. This realistic young adult novel is great for 9th-11th grade girls.

Book Review - I'm Down: A Memoir by Mishna Wolff

I read this book to laugh out loud. Recently caught in a slump of serious books, I needed a comedy. Although I did laugh out loud at parts, this memoir mostly made me empathetic to the many trials and triumphs of growing up different and trying to please. I'm Down is actually quite serious. Mishna is white, as are her father, mother, and sister. However, her father grew up in an African American neighborhood, and he identifies with that culture, wanting his children to do so too. Mishna's sister seems to have no problem fitting in, but Mishna is self conscious of her extreme whiteness. Just as she finds a way to fit in at school, she is sent to the much more white private school, where she is too black in culture and too far down on the economic scale to fit in right away. The memoir explores race, identity, class and privilege. Many of the moments about Mishna's wealthy and yet unfulfilled friends stand out to me, and make me think again about the variety of experiences of our student body. Mishna is overjoyed to go to a friend's house and play Nintendo and eat Hotpockets all day undisturbed by adults, while her friend just wants her parents to pay attention to her. Mishna is embarrassed as she tries not to inhale the warm cafeteria lunches that her wealthy friends look at with disdain. And the section about skiing is enough provoke me to feel what is must be like to be a child on scholarship at one of our independent schools. Mishna's family doesn't understand the responsibilities her school places on her, nor how important these responsibilities are to her. She straddles two cultures and it doesn't always work to her benefit. Mishna is worried, angry, sensitive, scared, but above all, she is hopeful. I highly recommend this quick memoir to everyone in high school through adulthood, but especially to those of us who work with teenagers, many of whom struggle to fit in at home and at school every day.

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

Will Kanye West's reputation ever recover from his antics at the VMA's? Does he regret his behavior?

Have you ever regretted something, wondering if your community will ever be able to forget it so you can move past it?

In the 2009-10 California Young Reader Medal nominee Story of a Girl , Deanna is wondering the same thing. When she was 13, her father caught her having sex with 17-year-old Tommy. Rumors spread, and now, 3 years later, people are still gossiping about her. Wort of all, Deanna's father hasn't had a real conversation with her since that day. As her family life falls apart, she relies on her brother and her 2 best friends, who are a couple. Deanna feels lonely and is trying to figure out an escape. As I read this book, I found myself caring about her, rooting for her, and hoping she would figure it all out. She is a girl who made a mistake which took over her life. Will she (and the people she cares about) get past it?

Book Review: Methland

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding

I keep reading books about meth, and I keep finding myself engrossed in the stories. Methland starts where Beautiful Boy and Tweak leave off. Those books are excruciating personal family stories, one written by the father (David Sheff), one by the son (Nic Sheff), about the son's addiction and the repercussions on the lives of the family members as well as the addict. Set mostly in the Bay Area of northern California, they chronicle Nic's descent from healthy, successful college-bound high school student to the life of an addict in and out of rehab.

Methland is an investigation into what meth is doing to rural America, who the culprits are, and who the heroes are. Methland addresses the problem of what the culture of the drug is doing to small towns and also to America as a whole. Reding investigates how meth infiltrated one small town in Iowa (and across the nation), what the government is and isn't doing about it, Mexico's role, the food industry's role, and the local people who are giving their careers and lives to try to stop this controversial epidemic. He develops relationships with addicts, politicians, and cops over a few years (2005-8) and lets readers meet these people and learn how their issues came to be. An engaging book, this should be read by politicians and citizens interested in the ramifications of addiction to meth on the American Dream.

My only complaint is that Methland doesn't have an index. That would have made it more helpful for future researchers. Otherwise I highly recommend Methland, as well as the books by David and Nic Sheff. David Sheff was an author and journalist before writing Beautiful Boy, which is evident by the writing, and I recommend it to adults. Tweak, written by the son Nic, isn't as well-written, but it is exciting to read the tale told by the addict. I would recommend Tweak to high school juniors and seniors (it is sexually explicit, so it would depend upon your community). Methland is good for 11th grade and up.