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