Pre-Blog Reads: YA Lit Class Edition

Read in: February 2008
Read for: YA lit class ... duh

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Rating: 4.4
I don't know why, but I really enjoy solo survival stories. I found Hatchet to be very suspenseful. I immediately liked Brian, the main character and narrator. I think that reluctant readers, particularly males, would enjoy this book. It isn't difficult to read, but Paulsen's writing is still intelligent. I was cheering for Brian the whole time, celebrating his victories and mourning his failures when trying to survive in the wilderness on his own after a plane crash. It's the mark of a good book when I hold my breath, which I did during this one.

Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Rating: 4
The screenplay format of this book is very different from other young adult novels. The fact that there is a lot of space on the page might draw in young readers. Steve is a good narrator/screenplay writer, and the nights when he is alone in jail are the heart of the story. I think this would be a good book to teach, especially because there are a lot of different themes that could provoke discussion. Also, the fact that the reader is left not knowing whether or not Steve committed the crime that he is on trial for would make a good classroom activity: I imagine some sort of mock trial, where students act as prosecutor, defense attorney, witnesses, etc. to come to a class consensus on whether or not Steve was innocent or guilty.

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
Rating 3.5
I have read one other Francesca Lia Black book, Missing Angel Juan, which is actually a part of the Weetzie Bat series. Weetzie Bat is the first in the series, and I wish that I had read it first in order to become accustomed to Block's style of writing as well as the unique chracters. Block is infamous for fantastical imagery and creating settings that are set in reality but are on the verge of being mythical. At first this was hard to get used to, but after a few chapters I really appreciated the unique style of writing. I thought Weetzie Bat was more exciting than Missing Angel Juan, and I enjoyed the characters a lot more, as well. Even though I appreciated Block's style of writing, it just wasn't for me. I can see, however, why young adults would really enjoy it and would therefore recommend it.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Rating: 4
I saw the movie version with Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe long before I ever read the book, but I was surprised to find that the movie was actually pretty faithful to the plot of the book, which is hard to find these days. I really enjoyed reading The Outsiders. I was drawn into the life of the Greasers and was cheering for them against the Socs, even though I would probably be placed in the Soc category if I was a character in the book. I think that this book would be a good one to teach for that very reason: teaching students how to empathize with characters and that just because a character is not similar to you does not mean that you don't have anything in common with him or her.