The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2003. Print.
Annotation:

Everything around the life of fifteen year old, Virginia Shreves seems to be perfect...except for her. Virginia is just a little bit bigger than others, just not as prettier as her sister and hides behind baggy clothes.

Justification:

This is a book that talks about female beauty and identity. Females all over the world can read this book and make connections right away. And, not just women, but anyone who struggle with appearance and identity. Virginia Shreves seems to have a lot to live up to. Her mother is a psychologist, her father salivates over skinny women and her siblings are great in every aspect...except her. Readers will find a little part of themselves fitting right into this book. The stand that Virginia has for herself and the strength she pulls through with is amazing. This is a story that shows how society look at the female body and one cannot miss this read!

Genre: Printz, Coming of Age, Realistic/Edgy

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown and Company. 2007. Print.

Annotation:

Arnold Spirit Junior is a young kid who lives on an Indian reservation. He is from a poor family and realizes that "it sucks to be poor." Junior transfers out to go to a high school 22 miles outside his reservation and struggle emotionally and physically.

Justification:

This is a must read! Sherman Alexie is one of the best known Native writers and in reality, the man is just naturally funny. Alexie's personality shines through his work effortlessly and that is what makes his books and novels so great.

Junior is from a poor family, a poor community, and it really sucks when everybody around you thinks alcohol is more important than education and money. He makes a decision to attend a white school outside of the "rez"and is now labeled as a "traitor" and an "apple, red on the outside, white on the inside." If anyone has read or heard of Sherman Alexie, there are many stereotypes and past experience from his own personal life he includes in his books. This is one reason why I love his work so much because he writes with truth and honesty. In this book, readers will find the constant battle Junior has to live with be the only Indian at his school besides the mascot and trying to keep it real with his best friend who is still back at the rez. This is a very powerful book that shows the issues of identity in young adults' lives. Moreover, readers will find great humor, stereotypes, relationship, social and political issues and trust in this book.

Genre: Humor, Identity, Multicultural



Speak

Anderson, Laurie H. Speak. New York: Penguin Group. 2001. Print.


Annotation:

"We fall into clans: Jocks, Country Clubbers, Idiot Savants, Cheerleaders, Human Waste, Eurotrash, Future Fascists of America, Big Hair Chix, The Marthas, Suffering Artists, Thespians, Goths, Shredders. I am clanless... I am outcast." Melinda Sordino enters high school and essentially becomes voiceless because of a summer incident she was blamed for.

Justification for Nomination:

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a young fourteen year old girl named Melinda Sordino. Friends and peers come to celebrate an-end-of-the-summer party and Melinda is put into a situation that leaves her no choice, but to call the cops. Everyone finds out that Melinda was the person who "ruined" their party and is shunned from her friends and social group. As high school starts, Melinda becomes traumatized by this fearful event and eventually fades away. She stops talking and finds comfort in art. Readers will get an opportunity to get inside Melinda's head and feel her emotions. This is a story that speaks about depression, abuse, identity, trauma and overcoming it all.

Anderson is such a genius! What a great debut for this author. She has a way of creating a story through Melinda's mind that is beautifully done. Anderson integrates symbolism in the narrative and incorporates imagery that would leave her readers breathless. Speak is such a powerful book that would relate to many young adults involving trust, relationship, and confession, especially trauma and recovery. This is a must read for everyone to realize the power of words and moving on after a turning point in life.

Genre: Printz; Realistic; Edgy

9. The Lover's Dictionary: A Novel

Levithan, David. The Lover's Dictionary: A Novel. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2011. Print.


Annotation:

breathtaking, adj.

Those mornings when we kiss and surrender for an hour before we say a single word... How does someone express their love? How does a person tell their significant other how they feel? Feel the power of words through this novel where the leading protagonist shares his story being in a relationship.


Justification for Nomination:

There is a nameless male who shares his love story. How could one really describe what love is? How could one really tell another person what love means to him or her? Through this novel, David Levithan has built a great way for his protagonist to speak to a wide range of audience. The protagonist opens up a window that allow people to read about love and relationship in our day and age. He expresses his thoughts and emotions, and shares his love life through each given word that is both bittersweet and heartfelt at the same time.

Levithan is a young adult author who took a different turn this time. The Lover's Dictionary: A Novel is written for an older audience, but young adults will fall in love with this book as well. It is written in dictionary entries and Levithan is a genius at creating a nameless protagonist which we come to find out early on is a male. However, this could be read by anyone whose ever been in love or hurt. Each word, put in alphabetical order, is given a definition anywhere from a word to a descriptive event that allow readers to put the pieces together. Although the protagonist is a male, anyone could relate to this and that is why this novel is worth your time.

Genre: Love; Romance; Multicultural; Adult Readings for YA

8. The Jungle

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: Pocket Books, 2004. Kindle ebook file.

Annotation:

The Rise of American Industrial Revolution concludes the 19th century. Just like many other families across the world, the Rudkus family emigrated to America in search of a new life. They decide to settle in Packingtown, Chicago and realize the life they dreamed about was never going to happen.


Justification for Nomination:

This is a story of an honest, hardworking Lithuanian man named Jurgis Rudkus who comes to America with his family in search of a better life. Instead, he is faced with challenges and battles to keep his family from starvation. Jurgis works in Packingtown, near Chicago, which is a meat-packing industry that is filthy, dangerous, and hard to work in. However, when it is hard to find a job anywhere, Jurgis is forced to work in this threatening and unhealthy place. Jurgis encounters the death of his wife and unborn child in labor and his life goes downhill from there. He is confronted with the misfortunes of life and eventually abandons the rest of his family. Will Jurgis come to his senses and return to his family? Read on because this is a story with truth and honesty in itself of early America!

Banned in various countries across the world and burned in Germany by the Nazis, this is a book that cannot be missed. The truth and reality that Upton Sinclair so expertly sneaked into this story and structured a plot with characters so well created to play out those roles is just unbelievable. One of the best books to be written in early twentieth century with truth and honesty of the earliest immigration to happen in America. Moreover, Sinclair's work in this book had to be one of the earliest books written to be so influential. It is a book with values, beliefs, social-politics, family, relationships, survival, money and everything else that comes into play when thinking about "the American dream". This is a fictional book inspired by accurate situations that took place and Sinclair made his mark by creating such an intelligent work of art through the power of written language.

Genre: Political Fiction; Social Criticism; Multicultural; Religious 

7. If You Come Softly

Woodson, Jacqueline. If You Come Softly. New York: Penguin Group. 1998. Print.


Annotation:

At first sight, Ellie, who is white and Miah (Jeremiah), who is black bump into each other in the hallway of their private high school and fall in love. Being together does not make things any better while both of them have to deal with the reality of an inter-racial relationship.



Justification for Nomination:

This is a story that sticks with a reader even after it ends. Jaqueline Woodson has created a love story between Ellie and Miah so heartbreakingly painful that one cannot help, but to fall in love with their story. Ellie struggles with telling her family the truth about Miah and when she decides to tell her sister, Anne, who is in a same-sex relationship, she brings up the issue of race. No matter what other people say or how they react to Ellie and Miah, the both of them know that they love each other and will seek this through together.

Woodson has structured a plot so beautifully written. Her descriptive writing of Ellie and Miah's emotions are so profound and clear that readers will find themselves feeling these very same emotions. They will feel the love that Ellie and Miah had for each other and readers will hurt the way they hurt for each other. This is a story with love, pain, race, culture, social-class, family, identity, friendship and trust. It is a calling for a movement in itself. Woodson has carved a masterpiece that every young adult can relate to. Moreover, this is a novel that is recommended for everyone to read to understand that no matter how different the world has changed, historical issues are timeless and sometimes, the world that we live in is just not so different from the past.


Genre: Multicultural; Identity; Romance

"If you come softly 
as the wind within the trees
You may hear what I hear
See what sorrow sees"

6. Shadowed Summer

Mitchell, Saundra. Shadowed Summer. New York: Delacorte Books. 2009. Print.

Annotation:

"A creamy flashed passed in front of me, leaving the shadow of a face made up mostly of dark eyes... I heard a voice. 'Where y'at, Iris?'" In the middle of summer vacation, best friends Iris and Collette decide to spend their day in a graveyard casting make belief spells and pretending to speak to the dead. Only for Iris, she meets a real ghost that leads to a local unsolved mystery case.


Justification for Nomination:

Iris is a fourteen year old girl living in small town, boring Ondine, Louisiana. Without anything to do for summer vacation, Iris and her best friend Collette decide to head down to the town's graveyard and play psychic. As Iris was casting a make belief spell, she hears a voice asking for her. With the voice stuck in her mind and a visual of the young man who spoke to her, Iris is determined to find out who he was and what happened to him. With the help of Collette and another friend, Ben, they run into many walls and barriers for answers. However, that will not stop Iris until she finds the truth about the missing of Elijah Landry.

This novel was full of suspense. Saundra Mitchell does a great job at creating descriptive settings to go along with the story plot. The dialogues between the main protagonist and supporting characters are specially crafted to fit the age of young adults, but the novel itself is written well enough for adults to read. Reading this novel gave me chills down the spine and had me turning my head around a few times. The plot is structured well and fast paced that leave readers at the edge of their seat wanting to read pages after pages to find out what comes next. Finally, to read what Iris discovers at the end is just shocking and unpredictable; and that is what makes this novel so worth your time to delve into.

Genre: Thriller; Suspense; Mystery

5. Sing Down the Moon

4. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time (Young Reader's Edition)

Mortenson, Greg, and David Oliver Relin. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time. New York: Puffin, 2009. Print.

Annotation:

"He had barely enough money left to travel by jeep and bus to Pakistan's capital, where he would catch an airplane to fly home. Still, there had to be something... 'I would build a school,' he said. 'I promise.'"

Justification for Nomination:

After being lost in the mountains for the second time trying to climb one of the world's most dangerous peaks, Greg Mortenson found help from the people of a small village called Korphe. While Greg stayed with the Korphe villagers, he began to see the world through their lives. Even in a tiny, secluded village located in the mountains of freezing temperature, the people of Korphe had their own ways of life. However, they were very far from anything Greg was used to in the United States. What struck him with a heartaching pain was when he saw young children using sticks as a writing utensil and dirt as their ink as they were learning how to do mathematics. After Greg gained back to health, upon his leave, Greg vowed to return and build a school for the children of Korphe.

This is a very inspirational story authored by the very man who stepped this journey himself, Greg Mortenson. He shares his complications, barriers, and drawbacks to a goal Greg knew was impossible for him to achieve. However, Greg's story tells us the power of voice and community and how one person can make a difference in many people's lives. Greg's experience would inspire every reader out there to take on a challenge and do something about it. This version has been edited to fit young readers and includes images of his process. Also, Greg has included the voice of his 12 year old daughter and her experience as a child growing up working with her father. There is a foreword by none other than Dr. Jane Goodall that cannot be missed.

Genre: Autobiography; Biography; Memoir; Non-Fiction

3. The Bluest Eye

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Vintage International, 2007. Print.

Annotation:

Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl, believes that for everybody to accept her, she must have blue eyes and blond hair. This belief leads Pecola to desire the appearance that society has idealized as "beautiful".

Justification for Nomination:

Set in Loraine, Ohio, 1941, a time where race, class, and gender was still in its movement, The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison writes the hard truth of how ideologies in main society affect certain individuals, certain social groups. These ideologies are created so universally, that even those who are illiterate could still understand them; images so powerful that still exists among us today. Morrison presents the issue of racial beauty and how society and community, both, have a role in demonizing "the most delicate member of society: a child; the most vulnerable member: a female." (p. xi)   

Pecola Breedlove comes from a poor, dysfunctional family. She is put into shelter and comes to stay with Claudia MacTeer's family. Claudia becomes the narrator and shares the story of Pecola through her perspective. Pecola was born ugly; or so she believed to be born ugly. From her dark skin to her curly hair and brown eyes, Pecola battles with how to make others accept her. When she comes to the realization that "beauty" to the world means to have blue eyes, blond hair, and light skin, Pecola becomes obsess with a desire to have blue eyes. If she had blue eyes, then everyone would like her; everyone would accept her family.

Pecola is a young girl struggling with identity, self-esteem, worth, and acceptance in a time and place where she was in need of help the most. Through her story, readers are able to feel Pecola's sadness and loneliness in the beginning. As the story progresses, Morrison is able to build the intensity so beautifully that readers can't help, but feel Pecola's desperation through her difficult family dynamics and identity-seeking. Young adults are urged to read this book as it presents the social issues that we are faced with daily and reflect on them. Morrison has gifted us with this novel to learn from the problems Pecola faced, the decisions she chose and the consequences that followed.  

 "Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspaper, window signs--all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink skinned doll was what every girl treasured." (p. 20)

Genre: Realistic/Edgy Fiction; Problem Novel

2. The Realm of Possibility

Levithan, David. The Realm of Possibility. New York: Knopf, 2006. Print.

Annotation:

"What's lonelier than being on a team where you no longer belong? Even though I was catching passes, I was losing the bigger game... She said, Don't make me your everything. I knew she was right." From the perspective of one of the characters presented, Pete describes about his struggle between sports, friends, identity, and the love and care he has for his girlfriend who is battling with anorexia.

Justification for Nomination:

The Realm of Possibility written by David Levithan is a verse novel that captivates readers by the poetry expressed from twenty students in the same high school. The emotions poured out by each character's voice expresses the daily struggles of a teenager and high school student that creates a dynamic novel that everyone needs to read. Issues about sexuality, relationships, friends, love, social groups, faith, trust, and other topics that come along with high school teenagers are presented in this novel to convey what these young people are going through in today's society. Levithan writes this novel so well in that he is able to use the right amount of vocabulary, tone, figurative language, setting, and themes to match the voice of each high school student; and that brings out the beauty of this novel.

The students are interrelated and interconnected with each other. Each character from the beginning tells his or her story through poetry introducing other characters who later, get their chance to share their point of view. Levithan is brilliant at closing this novel at a full circle giving readers the opportunity to read and paint images about the pain, happiness, struggles and battles that each character is able to describe. This is a novel that every adult and young adult should make an effort to read to further understand about the the differences around us and embrace it. So, take a step into The Realm of Possibility.

Genre: Poetry; Verse Novel

1. A Wreath for Emmett Till

Nelson, Marilyn. A Wreath for Emmett Till. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. Print.

Annotation:

During the time period of racism and equal rights in America, young Emmett Till, a fourteen year old African American male visiting relatives during the summer of 1955 in Mississippi was murdered the night after he was caught whistling at a white female in a local convenient store. The lynching of Emmett Till sparked many controversies. It became one of the many cases that encouraged advocators and countless African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement that took place from the 1950s to the 1960s to speak out about racism and for their rights.

Justification for Nomination:

Marilyn Nelson’s A Wreath for Emmett Till is a set of sonnet poems that speaks of a movement. With simple, emotional words, her poetry portrays the viciousness of the lynching of Emmett Till. It inspires readers to place themselves in that moment and recreate such images that they too, feel and see the experience that took place during this time period. These are poems written for Emmett Till and what he might have felt and experienced before his death. However, Nelson writes so beautifully with such powerful, poignant details to her work that a reader cannot help but realize this pain that everyone had to endure. In addition to this, Nelson includes plentiful issues regarding race, culture, and equality during the late 1950s to the 1960s, leading to the Civil Rights Movement.

This is a set of 15 sonnet poems that Nelson has created in remembrance of Emmett Till. In her poems, Nelson’s descriptions are structured in a way to paint images in your mind. It builds meanings to her work and the symbols presented in her poems. Although this was a written work aimed for young adults, I recommend it to everyone of all ages. A Wreath for Emmett Till gives voice to the voiceless, and it portrays an experience everyone should know about.

Genre Category: Nonfiction, Sonnet Poetry, and 2006 Young Adult (YA) Honor Book