Title: WONDER
Author: R.J. Palacio
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (a Random House imprint)
Release Date: February 14, 2012
Number of Pages: 313 pages
Source of Book: Bought a hardcover & got a signed copy from publisher at ALA

I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.

August
(Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him
from going to a mainstream school—until now. He’s about to start 5th
grade at Beecher Prep, and if you’ve ever been the new kid then you know
how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie’s just an ordinary kid, with
an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he’s
just like them, despite appearances?

R. J. Palacio has written a
spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute
and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family
interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short
chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.

There’s just something so powerful about what R.J. Palacio has created with WONDER. The world of upper elementary and middle school teachers and librarians has been all abuzz about this book since February, and I knew it was a book I would have to read, but I also knew it would be a book that I would likely want to use for a read aloud with my students, so I held off until close to going back to school so it would be fresh in my mind. If you still haven’t gotten to it yet, I urge you to do so as soon as you can because this is one of those books that must be read and shared with children and teens. Even if you don’t have or work with kids, read it, and share it with someone who does. This is one of those titles that exemplified for me the power of Twitter – I may not have known about it if it wasn’t for my Personal Learning Network out there, and I am so thankful that I have.

WONDER is a book that makes you think. It brings up the hidden parts of all of us that you may be ashamed of, brings it to light, and helps you to know how to do it better. It’s about acceptance and understanding. It’s about being…no…choosing kind. It’s about relationships. It’s about family and parents and siblings and friendships and school and teachers and students and principals and how all of those people interact to create someone’s experience. It highlights the importance of adult interactions with children. It highlights the importance of both verbal and non-verbal behaviors and how those can impact someone’s view of others and one’s self. It highlights our fears and our hopes and our dreams. It makes you think and leaves you a better person than when you entered this story. It’s the wonder of WONDER (#wonderofwonder).

I could get into some of the specifics of this book. The way Palacio chose to write so splendidly and honestly in Auggie’s voice. The way Auggie helps us to see inside the mind of someone we may have known or seen in the past, and what our actions may have meant to them. The way the various voices that get to tell this story enhance the reader’s experience so much. The way the use of emails and letters in certain parts highlights important moments in the story. The way Palacio flawlessly interweaves the multiple storylines and characters’ experiences to create this complete book. The way that this realistic story can appeal to upper elementary students, middle school students, high school students, and adults. The way it opens a readers’ eyes to actions and thoughts that may be hard to be honest about. The way it creates precepts for life that could make all the difference. But the experience of this book is about so much more than that. It’s about the human experience, and how we can all be better at it.

I can only be thankful that so many students will be experiencing WONDER in their classrooms this year. I can only be thankful that R.J. Palacio’s story may make those children take a second to think differently about bullying, and even more than that, their simpler interactions with others. I can only be thankful that the message to Choose Kind is permeating the world of education this year. We can only hope that more people get this message and pass it on, and the way to start is by sharing this book with others. So I encourage you to read WONDER, to pass it along to others, and to always choose kind.

Title: SEND
Author: Patty Blount
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: August 1, 2012
Number of Pages: 291
Source of Book: Bought the paperback

It’s been five years since I clicked Send. Four years since I got out of juvie. Three months since I changed my name. Two minutes since I met Julie. A second to change my life. To keep his secrets, all he has to do is listen to the voice in his head and just walk away…
On
his first day at his new high school, Dan stops a bully from beating up
a kid half his size. He didn’t want to get involved. All he wants out
of his senior year is to fly under the radar. But Dan knows what it’s
like to be terrorized by a bully-he used to be one. Now the whole school
thinks he’s some kind of hero, except Julie Murphy, the prettiest girl
on campus. She looks at him like she knows he has a secret. Like she
knows his name isn’t really Daniel.

I was intrigued by the cover and summary of SEND when I saw it on a New Releases table at the bookstore, and as I’m always on the lookout for quality books related to bullying that will possibly engage my students, I decided I definitely wanted to read it. I was unprepared for the intensity of the story I would enter and the perspective that I would be seeing. From the first page, I was drawn into the story through the voice of the main character. Patty Blount uses an interesting tactic with an internal voice battling Dan throughout the book, and it added a much-needed depth to the story that allowed for the reader to feel a better understanding of what Dan’s internal conflict is and how he grows in accepting his own circumstances.

Unfortunately, we all too often hear the stories of bullycides and hear about a final straw event or attack that happens right before. In this case, Dan caused the final straw event, and a young boy is dead. We don’t often hear from the standpoint of the bully in these cases, and it isn’t one we often sympathize with, but I think it’s imperative as we try to send messages to students about bullying, that they see the perspective of the other side. In this case, Dan is that other side, but he’s on the other side of spending time in juvie for his actions, and his life has been irrevocably changed. He thinks of himself as a murderer, even though he was a good kid before that, and his inner demons lead him to step in when he sees another kid being bullied so he can stop it. He doesn’t want others to make the mistakes he has and he doesn’t want anyone else to suffer in the way his victim did. It’s an intense story, and as Dan starts to realize how much he likes
Julie, and as he tries to befriend Brandon who is constantly being
bullied, he has to come to accept some of the choices he has made and
how to get past them so he can have a life. He made some big mistakes,
but he’s learned from them, and his focus is on not allowing those
things to happen again. He doesn’t think he deserves to be happy and
have a girlfriend, but he is alive, so what’s the use of that if he
doesn’t live? One of the strongest parts of this story for me were the interactions of Dan with his parents and grandfather. The family unit is strong in his life and it seems honest in the way that they fight for him and try to help him to be able to live a life beyond the mistakes he made.

This is a story of mistakes, honesty, survival, acceptance, and forgiveness. How can one forgive someone who led a kid to bullycide? How can the family forgive those actions? Can the person forgive himself? These are all questions that come up in this book. Dan’s story helps us to think about all of that and possibly understand it in some small way. The repercussions of these actions are something that students and teens need to see and talk about and understand and realize. I hope SEND might be the book to lead to those important discussions about perspective and choices and actions and repercussions and doing the right thing in the face of wrong. Note: This story has a couple of mature scenes and there are many uses of mature language. I definitely think SEND is a book that should be shared with high school students. It’s the first book that I’ve read that I think could be a good companion/ladder to 13 REASONS WHY, which is something I’ve been hoping to find for awhile.

Title: FROM WHAT I REMEMBER…
Author: Stacy Kramer & Valerie Thomas
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Release Date: May 15, 2012
Number of Pages: 462
Source of Book: Bought the hardcover on the recommendation of Jen (@mentortexts)

KYLIE: Tijuana WHAT? I
should be putting the finishing touches on my valedictorian speech.
Graduation is TODAY, and is this a wedding band on my finger.

MAX:
It all started with Kylie’s laptop and a truck full of stolen
electronics. Okay, it was kind of hot, the way she broke us out like
some chick in an action movie. But now we’re stranded in Tijuana. With
less than twenty-four hours before graduation. Awesome.

WILL:
Saving Kylie Flores from herself is kind of a full-time occupation.
Luckily, I, Will Bixby, was born for the job. And when I found out she
was stuck in Mexico with dreamy Max Langston, sure, I agreed to bring
their passports across the border — but there’s no reason to rush back
home right away. This party is just getting started.

LILY: I
just walked in on my boyfriend, Max Langston, canoodling with Kylie
Flores, freak of the century. Still, I can’t completely hold it against
him. He NEEDS me. It’s even clearer now. And I’m not giving him up
without a fight.

FROM WHAT I REMEMBER… is a mash-up of a John Hughes movie and The Hangover. I really enjoyed it, and I’m sure pretty much everyone of my generation that grew up with these types of high school drama movies will too; I’m just not sure how it will connect with this generation of teen readers.

I liked so much about this book, and really enjoyed reading the story told from multiple perspectives, but there one quirk that made it a little tough for me to get into right away was all the pop culture references which could date it too quickly, but after about 100 pages, that changed and then I was so hooked that I didn’t want to stop reading. The characters I was supposed to dislike, I did. The characters I was supposed to like, I did. The characters I was supposed to change my mind about, I did. The characters I was supposed to cheer on, I did. The characters who were supposed to surprise me…well, that’s where things didn’t go quite that way for me with all of them. I did feel that it was a little predictable in some ways, but in other ways was unpredictable. However, it could just be that I’m getting really good at reading those foreshadowing clues, or they were pretty obvious because of the idea and style of the story, but either way, it was still fun to read. Basically, FROM WHAT I REMEMBER… is pretty much a takeoff on teen movies, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. I mean, any book that begins each chapter with a quote from a movie, which proceeds to be the lesson for that chapter, is pretty open about telling you that it’s going to follow a pretty standard movie-like story arc.

The multiple voices telling the story made it that much more interesting and entertaining, and for the most part, each voice was pretty distinct in its tone. Max and Kylie are the big stars of this book, though, and I felt for them and enjoyed their discoveries. Their one night in Mexico was so sweet with all of their conversations and opening up that it made me root for them to figure it all out and be there for each other. That being said, there were a few secondary storylines that I’ve not seen so often and were a pleasant surprise to me. Namely, Will as the out gay best friend, who is still working through some issues and actually trying to find himself (which may not be as he appears to show it in the beginning), and Jake, the little brother with Asperger’s. I actually felt that Jake’s few chapters, when we saw into his mind and thinking, were some of the strongest of the whole book.

I cheered for Kylie’s graduation speech at the end (and wanted to snag some takeaway quotes for my classroom walls), and rooted for everything to turn out as it did. FROM WHAT I REMEMBER… is an enjoyable ride of a story. It has some mature scenes that make it not so much a younger middle school book, but I’d be interested to hear what some older teen readers think of it. I would pair it with DITCHED: A LOVE STORY by Robin Mellom, which it, in fact, reminded me of quite a bit, and at the end found a sneak peek for in this book, so I’m not the only one thinking they’d be a good fit!

FROM WHAT I REMEMBER… would make a great beach/summer read. I’d love to hear your thoughts if you read/have read this one!

Title: KEEP HOLDING ON
Author: Susane Colasanti
Publisher: Viking Juvenile (a Penguin imprint)
Release Date: May 31, 2012
Number of Pages: 224
Source of Book: NetGalley electronic ARC

A romantic and empowering book about bullying

Noelle’s
life is all about survival. Even her best friend doesn’t know how much
she gets bullied, or the ways her mom neglects her. Noelle’s kept so
much about her life a secret for so long that when her longtime crush
Julian Porter starts paying attention to her, she’s terrified. Surely
it’s safer to stay hidden than to risk the pain of a broken heart. But
when the antagonism of her classmates takes a dramatic turn, Noelle
realizes it’s time to stand up for herself–and for the love that keeps
her holding on.

Susane Colasanti consistently writes contemporary romance novels that are engaging for teens while still dealing with the ins and outs of high school drama and difficulties. With KEEP HOLDING ON, she’s gone one step further. This book introduces us to Noelle who does not have a good home life and does not have a good school life. Noelle is bullied and it makes her day-to-day life in high school a hope-to-get-through-it experience. She seriously lacks self-esteem because of the neglect of her mother and the bullying of her classmates, so even if one is reaching out to her, she can’t see it. She lets herself get into toxic relationships because she doesn’t think enough of herself, and she avoids other relationships and situations that could be good for her because of her fear that it will increase what she has to deal with on a daily basis.

As a teacher, it is heart-breaking to read the things she has to put up with. As a former teen, it seems all too familiar. Things may be different now with the extent of what kids will do to each other and the age at which it starts, but it still resonates with me having been there myself. My own (or any reader’s) situations may not be exactly like Noelle’s, but too much of it seems hauntingly familiar. Susane Colasanti has written the story of what too many girls have to go through on a daily basis in high school in a real and honest voice. What they have to be afraid of, what they hope to avoid, how they deal with it. But Noelle’s discovery of her own voice and value leaves the reader with a sense of hope.

I appreciated how this book was written as a countdown. Each chapter starts with the date and how many days are left in the school year. It gives it a sense of urgency and nervousness as to whether we will get to the end or not. Also, the way in which it sometimes jumps from one scene to the next makes it feel almost as if we’re watching snapshots of the life that Noelle is having to live. It’s a short-ish book and written in an easily accessible way, which is what it needs to be for this topic. One of the strongest parts of this book are the cast of supporting characters who actually do help make things better for Noelle. There are individuals out there who are looking out for these kids: teachers, social workers, friends, guys, and girls who want to help them through it. We need to start celebrating these people more in the lives of those who are subjected to the bullying that happens to them in school.

The book ends with a message from Noelle to all of those who have felt like they are outsiders or have no hope. It leaves with a message of hope. Then, Susane tells her story and provides the reader with names and information on many organizations that are out there to help them through. A powerful note to include in a book such as this that may open a teen’s eyes to something they didn’t realize before – that they can reach out and ask for help, and that they should.

Although it does contain a few mature scenes, I would share it with older middle schoolers, and I definitely think it should be in every high school classroom for teens to read.