Historical Fiction

The two books we read this book are both historical fiction and I enjoyed reading both of them.  I couldn't help thinking that they were both about a time in our American History that many people may or should feel embarrassed about. 

In Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Isabel is a slave during the start of the Revolutionary War.  She is a young girl that has lost both parents and then her caring master dies.  Isabel believes she will be freed but instead her and her sister are sold quickly to a mean couple that intend to work her hard in New York City.  They leave Rhode Island quickly and even more cruelty is endured on the ship.  They sleep in poor conditions, eat only what is  left-over, and have little time to themselves.  Isabel is lucky that she can read.  New York City seems to be in the middle of the Revolution and the colonies and the colonists are split by Loyalists (to King George) and the Rebels (those wanting to break away from England).  The family Isabel now finds herself with are Loyalists.  Isabel is unsure who she should side with.  She wants her own freedom and wonders which side is more likely to give it to her.  I get so mad at the stupidity of our country's forefathers and those that thought slavery was acceptable.  How horrible for young boys and girls to be taken away from mothers and fathers and for no one to take care of them.

In Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers, young boys just out of high school are drafted to the Vietnam War.  It's a war between the South Vietnamese and the North Vietnamese.  The US gets involved when the North cross over the border and start to conduct themselves in unethical ways.  The US wants to be protectors of the innocent and gets involved when many believe we shouldn't have been there.  Richard Perry didn't think he should be there either.  In fact he had a medical profile which should have kept him out of combat but a mess up in paperwork puts him right in the middle of it.  It's not until he has been there several months and been injured that his profile papers catch up to him.  Many of the soldiers that were there were young and not properly trained for what was needed for them to do.  The book tells of an episode of friendly fire.  Another horrific scene details a fire storm that ends with several American soldiers dead.  The Leuintant insists on taking tags and personal items off the fallen but then these items are left behind in the hut they set on fire.  The soldiers saw many things that were haunting.  Many lost their lives and many were permanently damaged.  Perry sees many horrific sights and loses several friends and fellow serviceman. Again, another book that makes me sad to see how people treat other people.

Science Fiction (Set 3)

I've been trying to think of some way these three books are connected besides just simply being science fiction.  The best I have come up with is the fact that in all three books, the main characters' parents have been killed in a terrible way.  The Forest of Hands and Teeth along with The Knife of Never Letting Go have many similiarities; Leviathan is the odd story from this set.  All of these books are also the first books of a series.

In the book The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan, Mary is the main character.  Her father has already been taken into the forest, we as a reader are not told how.  Her mother sits at the fence looking for her husband.  The fence separates the village from the unconsecrated that linger there searching out live human flesh.  A virus has spread across the world and once bitten by an unconsecrated, it means death or you become this terrible zombie like creature.  Her mother is soon bitten and Mary blames herself for leaving her mother by herself.  Her brother Jed also blames her and sends her to live with the Sisters at the Cathedral.  The Sisters have many secrets.  Mary longs to see the ocean.  Her mother once told her stories of the ocean.  The Sisters tell her not to dream of leaving but that she should marry and have children with her childhood friend Harry.  She wishes that it was Travis, Harry's brother, that would come to take her into marriage.  The fence becomes broken and a newly unconsecrated named Gabriel, also known as the fast one,  is too much for the Guardians of the fence.  Soon the entire village is in danger and Mary, Travis, Harry, Cass, Jed, Jed's wife Beth and a young orphan, Jacob are cut off from the village to wander the path.  The fenced in path winds through the forest and provides some safety and provisions as this group tries to find another village or as Mary hopes, the ocean.  Death is a certain thing as this group travels.

In a similiar book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness, Todd has been raised by two men on a farm in Prentisstown.  His parents died when he was very young and he barely remembers them.  As in The Forest of Hands and Teeth, it is the future and a virus has spread across the world.  The virus in this case has made it possible for men to read each other's thoughts.  Women can also read these thoughts but men can not read their's.  Todd was told that the virus is the reason that there are no women left in Prentisstown.  Todd is almost 13 and then he will be a man.  Prentisstown has been waiting for this day as Todd is the last boy left in town to be turned to a man.  But one day as Todd is walking through the swamp outside his farm, he hears a quiet, there is no noise like what he usually hears from all the men.  When his noise tells Prentisstown about the quiet, the men come to talk to Todd about this.  He is forced to run but he is given a good knife and a journal that his mother wrote before she died.  Inside this book there is also a map and Todd is told where he should go.  He takes along his faithful dog Manchee and head towards the swamp.  There they meet the first girl Todd has ever seen, Viola.  She is the cause of the quiet.  She herself is quiet and will not answer Todd's questions.  They travel together slowly becoming more than just travel companions.  Soon there is a Prentisstown army after them.  Todd tries to figure out why these men are so intent on capturing him or is it Viola that they want.  And what does this have to do with him becoming a man in just a few days?

Leviathan is a little different from these other two books.  It starts out again with Aleksander's parents being poisoned and killed.  His parents are the Duke and Princess of Austro-Hungarian.  The time period is set during World War I.  There has been an emergency plan in place in case this was to happen.  Alek is swept away in the middle of the night to save his life.  He along with two tutors and two guard's in his father's army are sent running from the Germans in an effort to protect the throne.  They escape in what is called a Stormwalker.  This is a futuristic invention much like a tank but it walks or runs on two legs.  This is the side of the Clankers.  On the other side of the war, the Darwinists have strange futuristic inventions as well.  The Darwinists have fabricated animals such as talking lizards and flying whales.  Deryn is a young girl that dreams of flying but only boys (men) are allowed to join.  She pretends to be a boy and soon finds herself on the Leviathan,a flying airship made up of a whale.  The Leviathan must make it to the Ottoman Empire where it's precious cargo can be unloaded.

I guess these three books have something else in common.  In all three books, the main characters are being chased,

Science Fiction (Set 2)

This week's science fiction books contain two of the most popular books in junior high right now and in the past.  The Giver by Lois Lowry won the Newbery Award in the 1990's.  It is still a popular choice for teachers when selecting novels for class discussion.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the first book in a trilogy of books.  Both books will make the reader think about government control and when it is too much.  In The Giver, the Elders choose everything for the community.  Everything from names, jobs (assignments) and even memories of history are decided by the Elders.  In The Hunger Games, after a civil war has left the country divided into twelve districts, the government has complete control over all aspects of life.  Food is rationed, people are restricted from moving from distict to district and in the ultimate show of control, each district must "sacrifice" a boy and girl to the Hunger Games which is basically an entertainment show for the people in the capitol.  Both of these books would be great recommendations for older children, young adults and adults. The language is safe and there are no sexual scenes.

Science Fiction

 

This week's reading involved three science fiction books.  All three are set in the future and deal with medical procedures and the ethics that go along with those procedures.

In Unwind by Neal Shusterman, abortions have been outlawed after the Heartland war that pitted pro-lifers and pro-choicers against each other.  A treaty was made that allows for parents to unwind their children after the age of 13 up unto the age of 18.  Medical advances have increased to allow entire body part transplants such as a new limb, new lungs, new brain.  Now the population can buy new hearts instead of living with an old one.  Three children have been selected to be unwound but each for different reasons.  Connor, has been a troubled teen with poor grades and a short temper.  His parents have signed the papers but Connor finds out and runs away.  Risa has been a ward of the state and now due to budget cuts has been sent to a harvest camp on a bus.  Lev (Levi) is a tithe which means he has always known that his life, his body is his parents way of giving 10% to the church, community I suppose.  They meet all together, all of Connor's fault, on the highway as Connor is trying to run-away from the juvey-cops.  He causes a massive pile-up and a huge distraction for the other two to run.  They continue running together for some time only to get separated and then reunited and then separated again.

In The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson, Jenna has been in a coma for over a year and has just woken up.  She remembers very little about her life before the accident.  She doesn't remember the accident.  Her mother keeps her away from other people but finally agrees to allow Jenna to attend a small school with other seemingly freaks.  Jenna learns more about these other students and even learns some about herself and her parents.  Her father is a well known medical doctor that has invented bio-gel.  Bio-gel can be used to regenerate body parts.  Each person is allowed 100 points and depending on the procedure that is performed, points are taken away.  Having an entire leg or arm can cost lots of points as so can brains and other organs.  Jenna starts to slowly remember bits of her life, parts that she shouldn't remember.  She learns that her parents have broken many medical laws in relation to bio-gel.

In Bumped by Megan McCafferty, a virus has spread that makes men and women infertile over the age of 18.  Teens are now paid by couples who can no longer have their own children to conceive and carry a child for them.  Teens are rated by looks, IQ, activities that belong to and are paid as such.  Some teens can go Pro and have a representative to find a match to "bump" with.  Teen girls are proud of their baby bumps so much that they even buy fake bumps to be in the in-crowd.  Two twin girls that were separated at birth have found each other and meet.  They were raised very differently.  Melody is now a pro but has yet to be matched with anyone.  She wishes that her friend Zen could be her match but he is too short for the couple that has paid her to bump.  Harmony was raised on the farm on Goodside, a church community that believes still in marriage before bumping.  Many girls get married at the age of 13.  Harmony was set to marry but then was told to wait.  Now she is 17, one day into marriage, and has run away to find her sister.  A wonderful set up for a switch in identities.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction (GLBT)

The three books we read for this week deal with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transvestite issues.  The three books are similiar but also very different in their own ways.

ANNIE ON MY MIND was written in 1983 and was a ground breaking novel that no one knew what to do with.  This book was typically banned from schools.  The story deals with two young girls, in high school, whose friendship develops into real love.  They find away to have some alone time at the home of a couple of Eliza's teachers'  While there they learn that the two women that live there are lesbians.  The two girls get caught and in the  middle of it, the two teachers also get punished.  The story takes place in New York and I think it would be fascinating to do more research on the marriage laws that have recently been passed in numerous states, including New York.  How would this story/book be different if it was written now?  The writing is very smooth and gentle.

Jump now to LUNA, which starts with what seems two girls discussing makeup and beauty tips.  We soon learn that this is our introduction to Luna, Reagan's brother who believes he is a girl, stuck in a boy's body.  During the day he is Liam, a smart, popular senior in high school but inside he is miserable trying to make his father proud but not letting his true self be known.  This story is told from Regan's point of view and her anger shows through.  Her life seems to be on hold while she tries to help her brother/sister slowly let the world know how he really feels on the inside.  He is becoming more and more bold about the when and where of wearing his woman's clothes.  We learn additional information as we read Reagan's memories from birthday parties and other family events.  She doesn't understand how her parents couldn't already know the truth.  Her family seems to be falling apart.

The last book in this group is FREAK SHOW by James St. James.  (Yes, that is really his name!) The author is actually a well known drag queen.  The main character, Billy Bloom, is new in school.  He has moved from Conneicut to Florida.  Florida is a red state and the other students in his school don't look to kindly on Billy's choice to wear woman's clothes to school.  The story is written in a first person narrative. The reader is brought along to the new school that Billy is constantly making fiun of along with it's cliques of students.  Billy is very comfortable in his body and is not afraid to let everyone know.