Make Lemonade

Virginia Euwer Wolff

1993

Henry Holt and Company

New York

ISBN: 0805080708

Plot Summary:
Jolly is 17 with 2 kids, LaVaughn is 14 and already planning for college. For college she needs money though, so when she spots Jolly's babysitting ad she's immediately hooked. After a few weeks with Jolly's children, she's even more entrenched.
What follows is LaVaughn's daily balancing act with her own life and her speedy immersion into Jolly's life and family. Jolly is a stubborn and tenacious woman, who has obviously never been given anything, and so refuses to expect or to give.
LaVaughn becomes an enormous part of Jolly and her children's world, while Jolly refuses to acknowledge such while still expecting LaVaughn to come on over and babysit every day. LaVaughn's stubbornness matches Jolly's however (she gets it from her mom), and with her persistent help, Jolly begins to get her life together.

Critical Evaluation:

Euwer Wolff employs a distinct style in the narration of LaVaughn, her voice written almost in a kind of informal verse. LaVaughn's poor grammar, her poetic way of re-thinking the stifling world around her, and her acute eye--which can discover the tiniest stain behind the couch even though it's nestled in a sea of others, produces a story that is utterly unique and poignant in its telling.
LaVaughn (and Jolly) shine through, their emotions and reactions always described in a way that manages to authentically convey what it's like to be a 17 year-old single mother and her 14 year-old babysitter.
Euwer Wolff's focus on the daily accidents, weekly homework assignments, and developing emotions effectively describe the fullness of the girls' lives as if the writer and the reader were right there with them.

Reader's Annotation:
LaVaughn's life changes forever after she meets Jilly, Jeremy, and Jolly. But will Jolly accept LaVaugn's help in changing her own life?
Author Information:
Virginia Euwer Wolff was a high school English teacher for years before she turned to writing children's literature at the age of 50. Her novels have won numerous awards (particularly Make Lemonade.) After its success and a stalwart reader base demanding more of LaVaughn and Jolly, Euwer Wolff wrote True Believer and This Full House, transforming Make Lemonade into the first of a trilogy.
Genre:
girl's coming-of-age/ urban culture/ YA fiction
Booktalking Ideas:
*How does knowing Jolly provide LaVaughn with both joy and pain?
*Can Jolly's progression be attributed to the intrusion of LaVaughn into her life?
*Does LaVaughn's mother know best?
Reader Level/Interest Age:
Adolescent (middle school) and Up/ appealing and identifiable to readers of every age.
Challenges:
Though the book's themes are serious and mature, there is no explicit content and it is relentlessly hopeful.
Why include?:
Upon recommendation from a local YA librarian, and the discovery of the book's numerous awards.

What I Saw and How I Lied
Judy Blundell
2008
Scholastic Press
New York City
ISBN: 0439903467

Plot Summary:
Evie Spooner knows what it's like to have to scrape to survive. She and her mother were living the hardscrabble life until Joe Spooner came in and swept them both off to the suburbs. However, when Joe returns from military service at the end of the Second World War, things begin to change rapidly. Suggesting a Florida vacation, the trio leave New York for sunnier skies and sundresses.
Once in Florida, a man from Joe's military past shows up, romancing both Evie and her mother.
Peter is adored by Evie and hated by Joe, while Bev's feelings remain far too ambiguous. Narrated throughout by Evie, What I Saw and How I Lied maintains a breakneck pace up to its tragic conclusion.
Critical evaluation:
Evie's narration is maintained relentlessly throughout the novel, producing a strong, vigorously felt heroine. Evie's perspective is never broken--the reader does not see or hear information she does not. This steadfastness heightens the tension and suspense of the central conflict, revealing clues and signs to emerge and be experienced simultaneously with Evie.
Though the novel's themes of greed, honesty, lust, and goodness are complex, mature issues, Blundell sticks to Evie and her adolescent perspective, revealing a complicated, yet accessible story.
Reader's Annotation:
Evie Spooner has big dreams; in this regard she's a lot like her mother and stepfather. However, the mystery that unfolds in the autumn of Evie's fifteenth year is darker and more fascinating than even she could have ever dreamed.
Author Information:
Judy Blundell is the author of countless books under a variety of pen names. She has written novels for children, young adults, and adults, within a diversity of genres. Under the pen name Jude Watson, Blundell has written several books in the Star Wars prequel series.
Genre:
Girl's coming-of-age/ mystery thriller/ YA fiction
Booktalking Ideas:
*How does Evie's perspective develop over the course of the novel?
*To what experiences might any changes be attributed to?
*Can it be said that Evie possesses a stronger moral character than either of her parents?
*Is Peter a good person?
Reading Level/ Interest Age:
A young adult book, yet its deeper themes will resonant with adult readers.
Challenge Issues:
Challenges: The adult themes of murder, greed and lust are central to the book, yet their disclosure remains discreet. The larger historical issues surrounding the treatment of Jews in Europe and the United States are sensitively detailed. Challenges unlikely.
Answer to challenges: The book's status as National Book Award winner provide a legitimate defense to any potential challenges. Its popularity and widespread acclaim provide further support.
Why Include?:
On recommendation from in-the-know friend, and in keeping with greater interest in books which possess national critic awards.

Speak

Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson
1999
Peguin Group
New York
ISBN: 0439903467

Plot Summary:
Because of a phone call to the police during a high-school kegger, Melinda Sordino has become an outcast--friendless, mocked, alienated, and bullied. Melinda's confusion regarding her plight leads her to become increasingly withdrawn; building a safe haven in a janitor closet, she recedes further and further within herself.
Seemingly going days without uttering a word, she develops a strong affinity for art-- drawing, sculpting, and attempting to build the perfect tree. Melinda's art teacher encourages her artistic inclinations, and to express herself, both verbally and aesthetically.
Critical Evaluation:
A wonderfully written character study of a very, very sad girl; Anderson pulls no punches in her explication of a depression felt through Melinda's skin, eyes, ears, heart, and soul. Melinda's experiences are spoken through a clear, articulate teenage voice, a voice that attempts to break through the bullshit and the lies and the expectations that she already knows will haunt her throughout her life.
Anderson's views concerning adolescence and depression and loneliness are never told or editorialized; instead they are felt through Melinda's pain and the acuity through which she narrates it.
Reader's Annotation:
Melinda's first year of high school is recounted in snippets of daily classes, emotions, and miscommunications. Will she rise above or sink into the mire?
Author Information:
Laurie Halse Anderson's first book was Speak, which rose to widespread popularity, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and named one of the top ten first books of 1999 by Booklist. In 2004, Speak was made into a film starring an as yet unknown Kristin Stewart.
Anderson's bibliography has only grown since, and the acclaimed Wintergirls is her most recent book.
Genre:
Girl's coming-of-age/ YA fiction
Booktalking Ideas:
*Can Melinda overcome her recent tragedy and re-discover her self?
*Is Melinda's increasing silence itself a visceral roar?
*Why are Melinda's parents so blind to her pain?
*Or, can it be said they are blind to her muteness, rendering the book itself a story of the struggle to master and express one's senses?
Reading Level/ Interest Age
Appropriate for teens 13 and up; emotionally satisfying at any age.
Challenge Issues?:
Challenges: Sexual assault themes; depression; extreme self-hatred.
Answer to challenges: Reviews of the book, along with its countless awards and popularity amongst teens will be demonstrated. The book's place within a YA collection will be demonstrated through the relevance of its themes, the sensitivity of their portrayal, and the necessity of its particular voice.
Why Include Speak?:
Its inclusion in numerous "best-of" lists was reason enough.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
by Anne Brashares
2001
Delacorte Press
New York
ISBN: 0385729332
Plot Summary:
Bridget, Carmen, Tibby, and Lena are spending their first summer apart since they met as babies. With the magical pants as instrument, the quartet vow to stay in touch, keep abreast, and experience life to the fullest.
However, none of the girls' experiences evolve as they hope, and their estrangement forces each girl to attempt to discover her own desires, feelings, and optimum choices. Mistakes are made by each of the girls, and loves lost and found; their exchanges of letters and their fierce commitment to the group provide a kind of emotional embrace, each one for the other.
Critical Evaluation:
Brashares weaves the girls separate experiences together fluidly, allowing each girl's moments to be understood both through her, and refracted through the three others. This is accomplished through the use of short letters, and a fast-paced interchange of girl, place, and emotion. This structure is lively, preventing any slowdown within the constant switch of characters; and because Brashares utilizes a seemingly random movement between the girls spontaneity remains constant.
Reader's Annotation:
A magical pair of pants that fit all four friends provides a journey to self and sisterhood for a group of teenage girls. Apart for the summer, the friends experience love, loss, anger, and death--together and separate.
Author Information:
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was Ann Brashares first novel; she parlayed it into a 4-part series, and a popular duet of films. Since the series' completion, she has written two other books, the latest reflects a movement out of YA and into adult fiction.
Genre:
coming-of-age/ romance/ "chick-lit"/ YA fiction
Booktalking Ideas:
*In what ways do the pants serve as magical forces? What effect do they have on the girls?
Are these effects positive or negative?
*How might Bridget's strong-willed impetuousness relate to the death of her mother?
*Does Carmen's anger towards her father produce a change in their relationship?
*How does Bailey's death alter Tibby's world view?
Reading Level/ Interest Age:
Early teen and up.
Challenge Issues:
Challenges: hints of sexual activity, but none of it graphic; death of a young girl.
Answer to challenges: Though the themes are mature, the material is handled subtly, and without graphic overtones. Therefore, challenges will most likely be absent, or easily demurred when put into the context of the larger YA fiction universe.
Why its inclusion?:
I saw the film adaptation several years ago, and it was so wonderful and moving, that I've had a tremendous soft spot in my heart ever since.

Luna: A Novel
by Julie Anne Peters
2004
Little, Brown and Company
New York
ISBN: 0316733695
Plot Summary:
Regan and Liam are the daughter and son of a troubled and dysfunctional suburban family. Regan narrates the story of her brother Liam's long and painful transformation from boy to woman.
Liam has known since he was a small boy that he was a girl deep down inside, and rather than repressing or refusing this instinctive knowledge, he confides relentlessly to Regan. Providing a space in her closet for his feminine clothing, a table and mirror for his make-up and trinkets, and a stalwart ear, shoulder and heart for his confidences of troubles and dreams, she remains the only person for whom Liam can become Luna.
This relationship weighs heavily upon Regan however, and Luna builds into a series of climactic encounters forcing Regan to learn how to become her own woman and not just her sister's support system.
Critical Evaluation:
Regan and Liam's complicated emotional struggles are described in an unassuming and sympathetic way, the daily traumas of high school rendered acutely and sensitively. Liam's absolute reliance on Regan is three-dimensionally portrayed, allowing the reader to see both Liam's pain and its emotional toll on Regan.
Luna's complex themes are exquisitely drawn; however the simplicity of its writing often conversely works to simplify the tale, producing a feeling of starkness and aridity. Though Regan's newfound love interest provokes relief, it provides a kind of cliched romanticism at the same time. Why must a boyfriend be the cure for what ails?
Reader's Annotation:
As a cocoon hides the beauty of the butterfly that lies inside, so too does Liam's physical boyness disguise his true inner girl. Through the help of his sister and his own inherent belief in himself, Liam struggles to actualize his transformation into Luna.
Author Information:
Julie Anne Peters is a prolific writer of YA fiction, her books largely concerned with teens grappling with their sexuality. Her novels have won numerous awards, and she has helped develop a literary support system for transsexual and homosexual teens.
Genre:
Transsexualism/ Coming-of-age/ YA fiction
Booktalking Ideas:
*How do the numerous flashbacks provided help to illuminate Liam's lifelong struggle?
*Are Liam's and Regan's parents truly as clueless and selfish as they seem?
*Is the figure of Chris too good to be true?
*Is the reader left with the impression that Luna's struggles will be over when her transformation is complete?
Reading Level/ Interest Age: Categorized as 12 and up, Luna's serious concerns and themes make it pertinent for any age, challenging for both children and adults.
Challenge Issues:
Challenges: Transgenderism, transsexuality, drug abuse.
Answer to challenges: Be familiar with book and its contents, providing personal answers to any challenges. Refer to library's policy regarding challenges. Provide reviews from local teen readers and those posted on reading sites. Provide local LGBT resources and support for book and its themes.
Why include?
Luna is assigned book topic for graduate class. Luna is also emblematic of teen books that both challenge morality police and status quo, and provide support for those real-life teens with struggles comparable to Luna's.

Marked

Marked:
The House of Night
Book 1
by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
2007
St. Martin's Griffin
New York
ISBN: 0312360266Plot Summary: Zoey Redbird is a seemingly average high school girl, living in the suburbs of Tulsa. Happy at school, while unhappy at home, Zoey's life is suddenly and dramatically changed when she is "marked" by a vampyre Tracker. Though she lives in a world where vampyres are common and nearly impossible to avoid, Zoey herself is unprepared for what lies ahead of her.
Taken to the House of Night, a vampyre training and boarding school, Zoey's hopes of a smooth adjustment are dashed by her highly uncommon mark, its color and shape connoting a vampyre much more evolved and talented than Zoey (and many of the other students) believe her to be. The first of a four-part series, Marked follows Zoey's initial weeks of submersion in a new vampyre world: her budding friendships, her attraction to an older student, her troubles with the elite club The Dark Daughters, and her struggle to realize her new destiny.
Critical Evaluation:
Marked is an engaging and fast-paced story of a special girl's struggle to discover exactly where it is she belongs. Her confusion regarding her talents, her family, and her ambitions are rendered in a thoughtful and sensitive way, in turn encouraging the reader to both empathize with Zoey and look inwards in search of her own desires and potential places of belonging.
Zoey's story is told in a disarmingly confidential format--as she explains her recent upheavals and transformations, her voice enables strong feelings of solidarity to emerge between the character and the reader.
Reader's Annotation:
Marked invites the reader to follow the super-talented Zoey and her foray into the unknown world of vampires and goddess worship. Immerse yourself in a boarding school where vampire sociology, myths, and fencing are the curricula!
Author Information:
P.C. Cast and her daughter Kristin wrote the 4-novel series together. The senior Cast is a veteran writer of fantasy, the younger Cast is a budding writer with an affinity for teenage vernacular. P.C. Cast has won numerous awards for her Goddess Summoning and Partholon book series.
Genre:
Paranormal romance/ YA fiction
Booktalking Ideas:
*How might Zoey's "specialness" help to reconsider her family's inability to understand and "see" her for what she is?
*Are Zoey's aptitudes attributable to her Native American heritage (as her grandmother seems to believe)?
*Does Marked's emphasis on the matrifocal elements of vampire mythology seriously differ other novels' use of standard vampire myths?
Reading Level/ Interest Age
Categorized as Young Adult, but of interest to teens and beyond into any age of adulthood.
Challenge Issues
Challenges: sexual situations; magic.
Answer to challenges: Be familiar with book and its contents, providing personal answers to any challenges. Refer to library's policy regarding challenges. Provide reviews from local teen readers and those posted on reading sites.
Why include?
P.C. Cast is subject of upcoming author research paper....and a vampire boarding school seemed like a great place to start!

Lonely Werewolf Girl

Lonely Werewolf Girl
by Martin Miller
2007
Soft Skull Press
Berkeley: California
ISBN:0979663660
[Crossover]
Plot Summary
Lonely Werewolf Girl spins the tale of a troubled teenage werewolf named Kalix; daughter of the royal family clan the MacRinnalchs, sister to a budding fashion designer and sorceress, and lost love of the banished Gawain. Kalix lives in parks and abandoned warehouses on the outskirts and skid-rows of London, kept alive from her murderous pursuers (and brothers) by an ancient and unique talisman garnered by her sorceress sister the Werewolf Enchantress and her best friend the Fire Elemental Malveria.
Kalix is a depressed and laudanum-addicted cutter--violence provides the only relief from the anxieties, fears, and demons roiling within herself. Until she meets Moonglow and Daniel that is...The two "normal" college students befriend the lonely animal, providing her with a bedroom, a bathtub, and a kitchen stocked with raw meat and pizza. The trio is then embroiled in the largest clan feud the Scottish highlands (and all of the United Kingdom and probably the European continent) has faced in hundreds of years.
Critical Evaluation
Lonely Werewolf Girl is an engaging, charming, and labyrinthine tale following a tormented girl struggling to find a balance between the needs and woes of both her lycanthropic and human selves. Kalix's overwhelming anxieties are sensitively described, her idiosyncrasies depicted with a subtle touch allowing for an authentic vacillation of identification, annoyance, love, and hate for the character.
The multiple intrigues and melodramas rife between the MacRinnalch family members and all those who cross their paths provide for a fast-paced and enjoyable read. However, at 500+ pages, the events begin to show wear, particularly some of the subplots involving peripheral figures.
Reader's Annotation
A rollicking ride through several months in the life of Kalix, the teenage werewolf. Suffering from a severe case of anxiety and battle madness, involve yourself with her if you dare!
Author Information
Martin Millar is a Scottsman and a writer of 16 novels. Under the alias name of Martin Scott he won the World Fantasy Award for Thraxas; other novels include The Good Fairies of New York and Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me. Millar has committed to a sequel to The Lonely Werewolf Girl and is most likely writing it right now!
Genre
Paranormal Romance/ YA Fiction
Book-talking Ideas
*To what might Kalix's self-esteem problems be attributed?
*How might Kalix's violent acts be interpreted as catharsis for her emotional pain?
*Can Kalix's loneliness be fixed? How do the other characters (both werewolf and human) serve to help or hinder her search to end her own pain?
Reading Level/ Interest Age
Categorized as Young Adult, but of interest to teens and beyond into any age of adulthood.
Challenge Issues
Challenges: violence to others; self-inflicted violence; magic.
Answer to challenges: Be familiar with book and its contents, providing personal answers to any challenges. Refer to library's policy regarding challenges. Provide reviews from local teen readers and those posted on reading sites.
Why its Inclusion?
A recent birthday present, and a continuance of reader's current obsession with all things vampire and werewolf.