Every Last Word - Tamara Ireland Stone

Tamara Ireland Stone. Every Last Word. New York: Hyperion, 2015.

I believe in the power of poetry to heal.

I am so pleased to read another honest and hopeful book in YA that explores mental illness in a positive way.

I love this girl Sam, and her journey is an inspiring one that I can't wait for my girls to read.

Real life inspiration leads to this powerful coming of age story.

True love has the power to help heal.

We are all broken, says shrink Sue.

I can't decide what I want my hook to be, so I am taking the lazy way out and just leaving them all. I have read and enjoyed Stone's time travel work, but she has gone to an altogether different place with this new title.

Sam has OCD, a kind that primarily manifests itself in compulsive thinking, sometimes she just can't shut her brain off. She has to chemically shut it down to get a good night's sleep. Sam dreads the start of the school year. She likes Summer Sam so much better than Samantha of the school year who has to deal with all of the pressures of trying to fit in. Her friend group, the crazy 8s can be brutal. She has to say the right things and look the right way, all the while hiding her OCD. Her psychiatrist, with whom she meets once a week, encourages her to let go of the toxic people, but Sam fears being alone. Enter Caroline, she can confide everything to her. And Caroline introduces her to a secret group that meets to share poetry and music with each other. Here she finds support and the courage to find her words and her poetry.  She finds AJ, who makes her feel normal in a way no one ever has before. This book is her journey.

I respect so many things about this book. I am truly excited by the number of YA books that  deal with mental illness in positive ways. So many kids are dealing with so many mental health issues in their lives. This books offers them hope in the form of support, treatment and the genuine understanding of others . Kids who are not directly dealing with these issues need to see positive representations of these issues in order to grow more compassion and empathy. It is a gift to be able  to offer books to my readers. I respect that one of the vehicles for healing is writing and sharing poetry. I am passionate about poetry, reading it and teaching it. I remember crying in front of a classroom full students the first time I read "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" because my grandfather was losing a battle with cancer. I remember being tickled the first time I read "I'm Nobody Who Are You" and realized Dickinson sometimes felt like me. I love the poetry room created in this book, where students grow through the writing, sharing, and performing of poetry. I kind of want to find a deserted room in my school and create such a space. At the very least find a wall in my library! I respect Stone's careful attention to character development. She created folks that my readers can absolutely recognize as their own. She wrote a love story that will resonate with my readers. While this old lady didn't love all of the decisions made by the couple , it was written beautifully and in a way that all of my readers can appreciate. Real situations were handled tenderly and respectfully. I respect the amazingly artful twist at the end, that I don't want to spoil at all except to say that I was resistant to the idea at first, but Stone worked it in perfectly. So good. I respect the epilogue where the author shares her relationship with a girl just like Sam that inspired this work. My writers get a brief glimpse into the detailed process that can go into creating as well.

I can't wait to purchase this title. I will have it ready for my students in the fall. I can talk it from so many perspectives, but I may just go all over the map like I did with my opening sentence.

NetGalley provided me with an ARC of Every Last Word in exchange for an honest review.

Are You Experienced - Jordan Sonnenblick

Sonnenblick, Jordan. Are You Experienced? New York, Feiwel and Friends, 2013.

Time travel, Woodstock, family dysfunction, and a likable narrator combine to create a fascinating new read from one of my favorites - Jordan Sonnennblick. The story belongs to Rich. He loves music. He kind of loves his girlfriend. He does not love the extremely overprotective environment that his parents have created for him. After a particularly difficult encounter with his dad that results from him sneaking out to play at a protest rally, Rich attempts to bridge the gap between them at his mother's urging, but his dad simply refuses to talk about his anger or the loss of his older brother Michael from years ago. A frustrated Rich breaches his dangers privacy, discovers a guitar that may have belonged to Jimi Hendrix, and plays a chord that lands him smack in the middle of Woodstock, with his dad as a teenage boy and the uncle he's never met.

What ensues is a kind of a romp through Woodstock. The drugs and the free spirit of the attendees are fairly honestly explored, making this more appropriate for the mature reader, but Sonnenblick deftly avoids anything overtly graphic; one of the reasons I respect and appreciate him so much as. 7-12 librarian. Rich is a likable kid and the reader is fascinated as he begins to get to know his dad as a teenage boy and learns first hand ,any of the reasons why his dad is the way he is. This parent child dynamic is rarely explored in YA, a genre in which the parents are seldom present in a big way throughout a book. I love the insight for both parents and kids. Historically, the book provides a wealth of information about Woodstock and e culture and music of the 60s. Honestly, at times I was a little overwhelmed at the "instruction" provided by the narrator, but for many of my readers this will go largely unnoticed. Also the "coincidences" felt a bit awkward in the plot for me, but will not to many of my readers.

I love to talk to my kids about Sonnenblick's work, and this one is no exception. Interesting, readable, junior high appropriate male protagonists are easy to sell.  Rich is real. Students will relate to his frustrates and struggles, and I hope inspired by the things he learns. Sonnenblick graciously Skyped into an event we were holding in our school, and I loved what he told our boys. In order to be happy, he said, you must find what makes you happy and then figure out how to use that thing to make others happy. I always give that advice when I talk his books, and I love how his books support this message.

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