The Leaving

Altebrando, Tara. The Leaving. New York: Bloomsbury, 2016.

What a suspenseful read that I can’t wait to share with my kids.  I love how the book starts right in the middle of the story.  5 kids, returning home after years of being gone.  They are confused and remember very little. One has a tattoo. One has a foreign object in her stomach. One tries hypnosis. The mystery remains.  As does the mystery of the boy who doesn’t return. His sister Avery, whose own life is largely broken, seeks answers.  

Altebrando masterfully weaves together the stories of Avery, Lucas, Scarlett, and the others.  She writes initially from their complete confusion, filling in the history, and carefully revealing the mystery one small detail at a time.  She expertly develops individual personalities and relationships.  My readers will be fully engaged with each kid and with the mystery as a whole.  Altebrando plays with words...through Scarlett’s story most particularly.  My poetry book readers will especially enjoy this element within the overall scope of the book. In a world of dystopia, this book is different enough to excite and intrigue. Oh...and romance, just enough to keep my romantic souls happy.

I will be sharing The Leaving very soon with my 11th grade readers.  I really like that these kids don’t allow themselves to become victims of their circumstances. These circumstances are certainly extenuating - but our students can relate to the idea of being victims at a variety of levels.  The main characters here work hard, independently and as a team, to solve the mystery of their leaving and find a way to move forward with full and productive lives. I also like that the answers weren’t easy and that at the end questions remained about how well the future might go. Such is life and such are the books I love to have my kids read!

 

 

The Summer of Letting Go - Gae Polisner

Polisner, Gae. The Summer of Letting Go. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin, 2014.

Frankie Schnell’s burdens can seem overwhelming for a 15 almost 16 year old.  She blames herself for the death of her brother Simon 4 years ago.  She is certain that her mother blames her as well.  At 11, she wasn’t watching him closely enough at the beach where he drowned.  Her dad, who seems to hold the family together, might be having an affair with the neighbor.  And she is oddly and awkwardly attracted to her best friend Lisette’s boyfriend Bradley. Enter Frankie Skye. He is 4 and seems inexplicably attached to Frankie though he barely knows her.  His hurting mother hires Frankie to be a mother’s helper and a unique relationship is formed.

In spite of the burdens she bears, Frankie will be infinitely relatable to my readers as she experiences so much of what the typical teenager experiences.  She longs for a boyfriend and a first kiss.  She feels some distance from her best friends who is often occupied with her new boyfriend. Her parents don’t seem to get her.  She is at many levels just like my readers.

Frankie sure takes some wrong turns.  Easy answers don’t populate this book’s honest look at the struggles she faces. I appreciated very much the honest look at broken people. Some of my readers will also be fascinated with the look at reincarnation...is Frankie Skye drawn to her because he has Simon’s soul?  I can’t decide if I am frustrated with the lack of a definitive answer here or impressed with the author’s willingness to even entertain such an issue.  If you are looking for some solid consideration of reincarnation, though, you won’t find it here.

As much of the book centers around the pool and the beach, I could book talk it with other summer beachy reads - Sarah Dessen and the like.  I have lately been thinking about young protagonists who are dealing with broken parents in their lives, and at a more serious level, this book fits here as well.  It could work well with Linda Vigen Phillips’ Crazy and Laurie Halse Anderson’s The Impossible Knife of Memory. One certainty is that I will be talking about this title with my students very soon.

Con Academy - Joe Schreiber

Schreiber, Joe. Con Academy. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, 2015.
I don’t necessarily want to like Will Shea.  He is after all a con man - of the traditional kind, from a great big family of cons.  He has lied his way into the Connaughton Academy - a very elite private boarding school as a scholarship student.  His con doesn’t hold up for long, though.  Enter Andrea, a con artist herself, who recognizes the tell tale signs and, quite frankly, doesn’t welcome the competition. Who goes a who stays? They craft a bet to see who can con the most money out of the very self serving, very wealthy Brandt Rush. And so the games begin.  Along the way, Will has to deal with his rather unsavory father, figure out how to relate to the mysterious and attractive Gatsby, and of course, work his way into the Sigils...the necessary secret society.  What he finds out about himself, win or lose, makes his ride worth it.
I sure do love me a boarding school book.  This title has a nice spin or two.  I appreciate a male protagonist, my boarding school  canon is mostly populated by females.  I will enjoy having a boarding school boy to offer in my book talk. The con artist twist will be engaging for the students.  I’m not sure they have a true appreciation for the art of the con. Maybe some have seen the Oceans movies. A certain level of suspense exists, and students may be rooting for Will or for Andrea.  Engagement will certainly be encouraged because of these. Finally, I love a book that sends the message to our kids that it is never too late to reinvent themselves.  Crazy as it seems to we, the older and wiser, kids often feel trapped in the lives they’ve created or those that were created for them, at such young ages.  The ending here gently suggests that a way out certainly can still exist. I love that suggestion, unexpected and lovely, subtle yet impactful.

This Is How I Find Her - Sarah Polsky

Polsky, Sarah. This Is How I Find Her. Chicago, Illinois: Albert Whitman and Company, 2013.

Sophia’s story is a precious one to me. She has felt primarily responsible for caring for her bipolar mother since she was 11 years old. At 16 she finds her nearly gone from an intentional overdose. She is nearly, understandably, destroyed. She must move in with her Aunt and Uncle and her cousin Leila - who used to be her best friend until inexplicably at 11 she is cut out from her life. Everything is painful and awkward in their home and at school. She worries about her mom, feeling a huge burden of guilt for not seeing that her mom had stopped taking the Meds that keep her stable. Sophia can't really see a way out.

But little glimmers of hope appear. She finds some satisfaction in working with her uncle after school and on Saturdays. There she meets Natalie, who seems to want to be her friend. She finds peace in her art class with a lovely teacher who seems to intuit just what Sophia needs. An English project forces her to confront her cousin Leila and her former best friend James, breaking down the walls between them. Her mother seems to be improving slowly in the hospital.

Sophia is a beautifully rendered character. Readers will be drawn to her sorrow while being frustrated with her stubbornness. They will feel her loneliness and root for her as she forges new relationships, however tenuously. The supporting cast is carefully developed as well. The exploration of family and family relationships is painfully honest and will resonate with readers. The adult relationships are astonishingly developed in this young adult offering. The revelations shared by Leila and James are painful, the lost time and hurt, stunning. But many of my readers will be drawn to these folks. The ending, without spoilers, just lovingly rendered with the help of a poetry project - be still my English teacher’s heart!

I will be talking this book that is a part of my e book collection very soon. I can see it pairing in a lovely way with Linda Vigen Phillips’ Crazy. Two young protagonists struggle with their mothers’ mental illness. I can also include in the discussion Laurie Halse Anderson’s The Impossible Knife of Memory. I think we can barely just begin to know the struggles of many of our students. Any book that I can offer to help them along in their journeys is a gift to me. This is How I Find Her is one such gift.

 

image.jpg

Finding Hope - Colleen Nelson

Nelson, Colleen. Finding Hope. Canada: Dundern, 2016.

 

Sometimes a book will just break my heart, perhaps mend it, and break it again.  Finding Hope is one such title.  Nelson tells, in alternating voices, the stories of Hope and her brother Eric.  These stories are difficult ones. Hope is off to boarding school. Such a move is not her choice, but her mother is driven to get her out of the small town in which they live, so that she does not suffer the same fate as her brother.  Eric is addicted to meth; because of tough love, he is homeless and helpless, were it not for the money and supplies that Hope sneaks to him when her father is not around.  Boarding school does not work out so well for Hope.  She becomes the victim of mean girls and bullying.  Eric’s life becomes uglier and uglier as secret causes for his behavior are revealed. Together, will they have the strength to overcome the horror of the worlds around them.

This book is not an easy one to read.  The gritty reality took my breath away.  And what seemed too difficult for me to believe is sadly the likely reality for too many young people in our schools and our neighborhoods.  I’d like to say the events are unbelievable.  I’d like to say Nelson tackles too many big issues in one book. I’d like to say our kids should be protected from the story of Hope and Eric.  What I must say is that Nelson creates genuine characters, fully realized, flaws, strengths and all. The conflicts are powerful and fully fleshed out. When I wanted to say, “Too much,” I said, “of course; oh no!”

My older students need to read this book.  They need to understand the paths down which they can walk, ones nearly impossible to reverse. This title is instructive without being didactic and contains the kind of honesty to which many of my kids are drawn.  Honestly, though, I still would not be comfortable with my tweens taking this one on.  Certainly some of their lives can also be reflected in these pages. Others are still largely innocent, and I feel duty bound to protect that innocence even for just a bit longer. While this novel will not likely be in my library, it will certainly be in my arsenal, for the kids who need to see the other side of the dark, to see that they can, in fact, find hope.