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