Freaks and Revelations

Jason is a 13 year old kid who ends up homeless after his mom finds out he's gay and refuses to allow him to live in her house. The story is based on a true story about two boys from different worlds who's lives collided in a very real and tragic way. The worst part is how real this story feels.

Parents can do really messed up stuff. Even though its been 6 months since I read this book, it's stuck in my head. That's when I know I have to tell other people about it. Being in a profession like teaching, the thing that is hardest about reading a book like this is that you have actually met people that could treat their kids like the mom in this book did. I have also met many a kid who could treat another human being with the disrespect that we see in this book. I have also met kids that embraced others in spite of their differences. This book has both of these types of people and it is their raw interactions with eachother that will stick with you long after the book is gone. This is another story that won't make you feel good, but it will make you think.

Ender's Game rated E for Everyone.

Ender Wiggin is just 5 when he leaves home, but Ender is a kid like none other, or so they believe. Some see him as the only hope for humanity (yeah I know, I work with kids and I would seriously be depressed if a 5 year old was the hope for all humanity even if he is a freakin' genius). Ender (like most 5 year olds) doesn't want to play the game but to everyone else it's Ender's Game.


It's so hard to talk about books like this because everything I say is just going to ruin the story. This is a great book and pretty heartbreaking at times. The small things are important because this is a story about a kid forced to do adult things because adults are unfit or unable to do them for themselves. Every event brings depth to the character of Ender. I got upset a number of times as I watched this kid struggle to battle all that is good and evil about himself (hefty stuff for an elementary school kid)while having adults pile on the problems to see if he will break. Great story telling, but then again all the awards this book has won have already said this. This book was recommended (indirectly of course)by John Green. Being a huge John Green fan (Looking For Alaska, Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, Will Grayson Will Grayson), all it took for me was for him to say this was one of his favorite books and I put it on my to-read list. This book is another one for anyone's to-read list. Ender is a character you will find yourself rooting for and at times wondering why you still are. Ender's Game will challenge us to remember that after all, its never just a game.

I Am the Messenger. No, really, I am.

19 year old Ed Kennedy cracks me up. He's not going anywhere and doesn't think much about it until the cards start showing up in the mail. He even manages to stop a bank robbery without even really meaning to. He does it while proving a point that his friends cab is a piece of crap car. The cards start out with addresses and problems to solve but each ride takes him further away from the Ed he has become.

This book was the perfect blend of funny, emotional, and thought provoking. I can't say that everyone will love it, but I have to put it in my top books because it made me laugh and think and those are two things I can't ever get enough of. How many of us are floating through life making little difference to ourselves let alone others. This is the kind of book that will cause you to ask yourself, what difference do I make. And when its all said and done, at least you'll be thinking about what it all means. Just remember, I'm just the messenger.

Nothing leaves me feeling...messed up.

Wow. I haven't written a review in a while but this book deserves a response. I had no idea what to expect. When a 7th grade student stands up and walks out of class shouting about the meaninglessness of life, the shock of it all leaves the other students stunned. Each day after, he sits in a tree in front of his house shouting out to passers by about the futility of all they do. Things go crazy when the other students try to show him just how wrong he is.

This book left me as stunned as it leaves most readers. I like the book a lot. I don't like it because it made me laugh, or cry, or feel happy or anything remotely so. I liked it because it made me feel. It made me think and feel and twist my face and squint my eyes as I helplessly watched this whole thing play out. I wanted it to stop but it wouldn't and so neither could I. The best art won't leave you even after you leave it behind. This book needs to be on the read list for all YA readers. It is a book that is definitely not about nothing and will most likely leave you feeling something.

The Outsiders, are not outsiders anymore.

Gangs and guys named Ponyboy. I know, sounds tough doesn’t it. Okay, names aside, this book is really about growing up in the hood. It seriously brought back some of the tension of growing up around gang stuff and the great social divide (at my school those were two separate issues but both present). The economic divisions and the tension that results are still there in just about every urban city in the nation. This book made me feel the anxiety of going to school and holding down the stress that results from a regular barrage of violence that you see in the halls and then doing everything you can to avoid being part of it. Ponyboy and his buddies are trying to live life, for the most part, without all the trouble that surrounds them. Unable to just change their surroundings, they stick it out in their neighborhood and deal with all that comes with that. In the end, violence gets what it wants and they live with what it brings.

The Outsiders, was written by a 16 year old S.E. Hinton. That blows me away. I read stuff written by some of the brightest public school kids in Oklahoma City and nothing is ever like this. The book stirred up all of those fight our flight feelings that I often went to school with throughout middle school and high school. As a middle school teacher in an urban school district, it dredges up deep issues that are at the root of many of the problems that affect our schools. It reminds me of a conversation I had with a student who always seemed to be in a fight. When I sat down with him he said, “Mr. C., the thing you don’t realize is that this doesn’t end here at school. If I don’t do this at school where there is someone to stop it, then it happens out there where there is no one to. I would rather do it here where I know it will end.” What do you say to that? This book is a look into the lives of the kids for whom it never ends and there is rarely anyone to stop it before it goes too far. This book is a classic by my standards, and a book that should make it on every to-read list.  Not everyone is going to love it but I think it has enough in there for most if you stick with it all the way through. 

The Monstrumologist so good you might throw up in your mouth.

Body chomping, wide eyed, cadaver shrapnel and much more in this story that’s less about monsters and more about people. The Monstumologist is told through writings left by an elderly man named Will Henry when he died. Will Henry is left orphan when his parents die and is taken into the care of Dr. Warthrop. Dr. Warthrop has quite an unusual profession even for Victorian times, he is a monstrumologist (a scientist who studies monsters, at least in this book). Now, before you get all mushy about how sentimental this guy must be to take in a little orphan boy and raise him all by himself, let me just let you know that neither him nor Will Henry see it this way. Will Henry is at the beck and call of this insecure, needy, and demanding individual. This man is devoted to his work to the point of obsession and little else matters when he is in the thick of it, or so it seems. A late night knock on their door throws us full on into the hunt and introduces us to the life of the little orphan monstrumologist apprentice. Things are deeper than they appear and through the ups and downs and disgusting turns you find that not everything is what is seems.

Books don’t receive a Printz Medal Honor without having depth. There are times when your stomach will turn at the scenes that emerge from your imagination as you read this story, but behind all the action and gore is a story about people and the complicated relationships that we have. Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop have a relationship built out of necessity and yet in the midst of it is this realistically complicated mutual parent-child relationship. There’s something about orphans that can make you want to root for them and defend them and Will Henry is no exception. When you add an ensemble of supporting cast which are all equally intriguing to these two already incredible characters, you have a story worth reading more than once. It’s one of those stories that has gotten better after it has settled for a while. This is a book for those who love great stories that can give you that taste of horror without all the pointless slashing, screaming, and tripping on roots in the middle of the woods while running from the terrible ugly monster thing trying to cut you up to use in its sushi rolls. Be sure to dig into this one when you get a chance, but make sure you don’t overindulge yourself before you pick it up just in case you get one of the particularly “touching” scenes. 

Red Moon Rising(Advance Reading Copy) now not rising until Feb. 2011

Attending school at Carpathia Night means that if you are not Vamp then you are less than nothing. Being a wulf (yep, that’s how it’s spelled in this book) makes you the social outcasts. Danny Gray’s little problem is that he’s half wulf and half vamp and up until now the incomplete genetic treatments he received has gotten him by leaving people to believe that his other half is human. The vamps are now socially acceptable upper crust, since they don’t have to munch on humans anymore because SynHeme (synthetic blood) was developed. The wulves, on the other hand, can’t control their changing with the moon and are seen as ugly and the lowest level of social standing. Every month they are locked up for their change in government compounds. So, if you can avoid being a wulf, then you do. Danny’s treatments were never finished and his body may not be able to hold off the change the rest of his life, but will it hold off long enough to get out of high school or will it begin and change his life forever?

I wasn’t expecting this book to roll out the way it did. I guess I was expecting it to take itself as serious as the other vampire type books out there, so, when it went more the direction of Fat Vampire (that would be tongue in cheek, for those who have not read it) it took me a while to stagger back up to an upright position and settle in. A few little things bugged me off and on, like using made up names for products and celebrities that closely parallel real life names but are twice as corny (you’ll know them when you see them, I would hate to ruin the fun for you). The book was entertaining. It deals a lot with racism, and social class struggles and those always make me think about all that we still face in our “modern” society. I came to appreciate the humor that was in the book and the right level of intensity throughout to keep you going. There are lots of good relationships in story for both genders to get their minds around, and both will have fun reading this book. It’s not going to make you howl with laughter but it will feed your thirst for good reading throughout (little taste of the corny to get you started). Lock yourself up and give yourself a moonlit night of reading. Pre-Order it now so you won't forget to read it in February. 

The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening (UUUUUGGHHH!)

Elena, “Oh I’m so cool and popular why doesn’t this new guy see it. I mean he’s not that hot and all, I just want him to think I am as awesome as I think I am. Did I mention that I get what I want whenever I want it?” blah blah blah High school girl romance reads like middle school girl letters blah blah blah. Stefan has some blood issues (like he’s afraid he wants to drink Elena’s) Elena has control issues, drama, drama. Did I mention that vampire stuff happens.

So, in the end the book wasn’t terrible but it was hardly memorable. I am a closet Vampire Diaries TV show watching freak (I guess it’s out now) and my wife and I have watched the whole series from day one so it took me forever to think of these characters any different than the TV show. So, when they didn’t match up to the characters that I have come to know, it through me off. I happen to like the TV characters better than the book. The romance stuff in the book was so corny that I almost stopped a number of times but out of respect for authors and the hard work they put into their books I felt the necessity to push it to the end. I was definitely not inspired to dig into any more of the books but that’s just me. If you like reading old middle school romance notes and you find that stuff interesting then dig in. If you are a middle school teacher (me for example) you probably get enough of this kind of drama in one hour of teaching. Sorry L.J. Smith but I don’t see many guys digging in and loving it, but like I tell my students, don’t just take my word for it (unless I tell you that you will probably die doing it, speaking of, there is a few people that do this in the book. Maybe that makes it interesting to some people.) I think I am going to stick to the show.