Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson

This is probably my favorite novel so far. I found Melinda very relate-able and her high school to be very realistic (at least compared to mine...). I remember many of our teachers just clocking in their hours, avoiding real discussion, avoiding controversial topics that are actually of interest to us, and sometimes even crushing our opinions if we spoke up. Sometimes there was an illusion of students having a voice, but too much disagreement revealed the truth.

I think Melinda's experiences with isolation, identity, fear of speaking up, and just trying to survive high school are all things that students can relate to. I'm sure even those kids who seem to have it all together wrestle with some of these things. Also, the topic of rape and what constitutes rape is so relevant to teens and so non-discussed. At one point, Melinda says that the student's aren't scheduled to learn about sex until 11th grade, and that sounds totally ridiculous. Adolescents learn about sex on their own long before that, from TV or friends or wherever, and waiting until 11th grade to talk about it (and then probably only in terms of science and anatomy) is way too late. Especially for Melinda. This is such a sad commentary on "sex education" in schools now. It's so anatomical while avoiding the serious realities. Speaking of reality, that seemed to be a major theme of this book - the lies of school compared to reality.

I really enjoyed the symbolism of the tree throughout the novel. I like how it tied into her working out her identity and realizing that she doesn't have to make (or "be") a perfect tree, a perfect person. She doesn't have to pretend things are fine, and she can confront the damaged parts of herself and start to grow again. The fact that her English teacher beat symbolism to death in The Scarlett Letter in class is kind of ironic: in this book chock full of symbolism, the students were sick to death of analyzing symbolism. I thought that was funny. =P I also like how this story was written in little chunks. I wish I knew what to call them - not vignettes. Anyhoo, I think the little sections keep the reader's attention better, and curiosity about what IT is and what IT did definitely keeps interest high during the story.

Since I talked above about the need to discuss issues surrounding sex and rape, I guess now I have to follow my own advice and think about how to do that with my own class. One website I found talked about discussing myths surrounding rape, like "women ask for it by wearing short skirts/what they wear" and "women enjoy rape." This last one appears to be one Andy Beast believed in the book or tried to use in his defense. With discussions of rape I'm thinking it might be best to bring in a guest who knows what they're doing and leads discussion like this all the time. I'm not sure where to start in finding an expert, but that's next on my search list...! Also, not to copy "Hairwoman," but I'd like to get into the symbolism in Speak.

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

I guess I tend to comment first on how the book was written, and Monster is no exception. It's definitely a different style of book - it was difficult at first to get into the rhythm of reading in screenplay format, maybe because some of the abbreviations were unfamiliar and I didn't think the commit them to memory until they came up again and I was confused. Also, sometimes the scene would cut after only a brief image, and I had to make sure I slowed down and visualized it before moving on. Still, after awhile I got into it, and found the mix of flashback and journal entries all really added to the story.

As far as the story itself, I noticed that I start out completely believing Steve's innocence, but as the story progresses, constant doubt is brought against him. There's the prosecutor, then his defense attorney, even his parents seem to doubt his innocence. While he's in jail, he notices some people manage to convince themselves that they're innocent and justify their actions. He wonders if he's done the same thing, convincing himself that he's innocent - this whole experience makes even him doubt himself. Then in the second half or so, he starts flashing back to conversations with Osvaldo and the other guys who already are up for jail time for involvement in the crime. Even these little snippets of conversations cast doubt, and the fact that they are never explained or concluded casts even more doubt. It almost seems like the author wants us to never know for sure whether Steve is guilty of helping with the drug-store crime. He's found not guilty by the jury, but the doubt still lingers. Now I get what was meant by the quote on the book's back cover: "An insightful look at a teenage suspect's lost innocence." I think that definitely sums it up. He isn't in jail for life, but it's like the jury will always be out on who he his: guilty or not guilty, human or criminal, boy or monster.

In teaching, I think it would be cool for students to experiment with screenwriting and/or making their own movie. I think it should be related to the book somehow - a topic, question, reaction to or alteration of the story in some way. There are also so many discussions that could come out of discussing the legal system and the flip-flop to "guilty until proven innocent," loss of innocence, identity, and predictions of how Steve's life will be post-trial. He's innocent, but his innocence is completely shadowed with doubt from all directions. Will he ever recover from that? Will his family and relationships ever recover from that?

Holes, by Louis Sachar

My favorite thing about Holes is that there are at least three different main stories all woven together: Stanley, Zero, and Kissin' Kate Barlow. At the start of the story, they only seem related by geography; they all were a part of Green Lake. Later on, their histories are revealed as intertwining, and so their present intertwining seems even more meaningful - like destiny has brought them together. The magical fable of the curse's history and the grim present reality collide in this story. I love the fairy-tale feel of the story.

Another thing I really liked were the images used consistently throughout, like common threads through the whole story. The peaches showed up everywhere, in Barlow's canned goods, on the lake, in the smell of the Sploosh. The same is true of the onions. Maybe this was to reinforce the sense of destiny in the story. The various pieces of the story were very intentionally linked with these images and with similar themes. However, other parts didn't seem so obviously related to the rest of the story, and I was puzzling over where the connection was, if there was one, between the pieces. One of these puzzling pieces was the racism in old-time Green Lake, in Kate and Sam's story. As in Toning the Sweep, the racism was not the main focus...it seemed to hang in the background. A discussion question I found online quoted Stanley talking about how the dirt made everyone at camp the same color, and it asked for a discussion of the significance of race in the novel. I definitely want to go back to the book and look through Stanley's story for any bits about race that I missed - I feel like I must have missed something huge, like I missed many of the messages woven into the overall story. I'd like to explore each piece alone, and see what the author seems to be saying about racism through them as a whole.

In teaching, I definitely want to explore the above question about the significance of race throughout the novel. I would love to hear what my classmates and hypothetical future students think. I know they all have seen things in the story that I've missed. Also, I found some projects/discussions for Holes that I really like, talking about destiny, friendship, the significance of nicknames, writing a letter from Elya Yelnats to Madame Zeroni, explaining why he didn't keep his promise to her, creating a recipe for frienship, and creating a print ad for Sploosh.