YA Novel Review

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Precious (fabulous blogger over at Fragment of Life) wrote a lovely review of my new novella The Liberation of Max McTrue:
http://shusky20.blogspot.com/2012/01/review-liberation-of-max-mctrue-by-kim.html
and in that review, she compared MAX to Smith’s beautiful little novel.  I’m so grateful for that connection (because life, after all, is simply made up of connections).  It’s not just the premise that makes me think of MAX: a day in the life of a teenage girl who misses a flight, meets a boy, and has her life altered.  It’s also the sensibility of this book that I responded to – the sweet optimism of this novel that made me fall in love at first read.  Hadley’s had some pain in her life (a divorce) and she’s dreading her trip to London for her dad’s wedding to a woman she’s never met, has never wanted to meet, after her dad abruptly left Hadley and her mother for a teaching job and new life in Oxford.  However, Hadley misses her flight (a mere four minutes late) and winds up on a later flight where she meets Oliver, a boy who will change her.  This novel acts as a reminder that love changes shape and it’s our responses to those changes that dictate our futures. It’s our attitude and view of things that paint the picture of our lives.  There is a simplicity in this novel, and I mean that in a wholly positive way, because it argues for the sheer importance, the power, of optimism in our lives.  And that’s a view I can fall in love with over and over again.

Writing Exercise

I’m gearing up for the Flash Fiction contest I’m hosting with Figment.com.  So, as this is the perfect writing assignment for Smith’s book too – I encourage you to participate in the Max McTrue Flash Fiction contest with Figment.  Once again here’s Precious and her blog with the details.

Outside Reading School Project

What chance meeting in your life changed you life?  Recreate that scene through a poem, short story or personal essay.

YA Novel Review

The holiday season is upon us.  Yes it gets busy, yes it gets stressful, but I love the holiday season because it reminds me to believe.  Whether that belief is religious, magical, or just your common love-based variety, belief moves all around us during this time of year and it fills me.  One of my central beliefs is the power of stories to move us, change us, shape us.  So I’d like to share a few of the YA novels I’ll be giving people for the holidays in the hope that they’ll read them and remember to believe:

1. Moonglass by Jessi Kirby
2. Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe
3. Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle
4. Bunheads by Sophie Flack
5. Amplified by Tara Kelly

With these, I like to give a copy of The Polar Express because believing is the heart of that book – for kids or grown-ups.

Happy Holidays, all!

Writing Exercise

What is belief?  What power does it have over us?  Write about it:  a poem, a story, a song.  Title it, Believe.

Outside Reading School Project

Chose one of the novels listed above and write about what the main character believes.  Include quotes from the book to support your argument.

YA Novel Review

Moonglass by Jessi Kirby

In this lovely and  atmospheric novel, Kirby tells the story of Anna, a beach girl with a lifeguard dad who lost her mother to drowning when she was a child.  The novel opens with a return to where they once lived – the beach where she lost her mom – and in this sweet love story, Anna begins to uncover the truth about her mom’s death.  There were a couple of main things I loved about this novel.  First, the love story was very subtle and extended out beyond just the teenage romantic interest.  This was very much a story about how love changes shape depending on the relationship.  Her dad’s love, her mom’s love – and simply the love of place, this ocean that  helped raise her – all matter in the long run in a deeply hopeful way.  Second, I loved the beach world Kirby created as the backdrop for this novel.  The mermaid imagery, the deep “blue” and changing shape of that wild ocean, and the people who live on this edge of the world all became an integral part of the novel’s feel – it was a water novel, always shifting on me, but also making me feel like I was floating while reading.  Several of my students have now read this too  and they felt like I did – that this was a beautiful novel about a girl learning how place and history can inform her future.

Writing Exercise

One of the central symbols Kirby uses throughout the novel is a single piece of red sea glass that Anna wears around her neck.  She and her mom used to take moonlight walks together and they called the glass they found at night  Moonglass.  This piece of glass becomes an emotional symbol throughout the novel and a key piece to an important scene at the end.  For your writing exercise, create a short piece of writing that centers around an object one might find in nature – a shell, a rock, a leaf – and give it emotional weight.

Outside Reading School Project

The myth of the mermaid is an important thread in the novel Moonglass.  First, write a paragraph where you explore why the mermaid myth is so essential to understanding the character of Anna’s mother.  Next, choose a mythical creature that interests you and write up a short discussion of this creature.  What drew you to this creature?  Explain and also include a picture of your creature.

YA Novel Review

Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe

Stasia Ward Kehoe has written a beautiful novel.  Told in the form of a series of poems, she documents the growth of a young dancer who wins a prestigious dance scholarship to the Jersey Ballet.  During her time there, she begins to learn to differentiate the dreams she has for herself and the ones other people want for her.  It’s a beautifully formed coming of age novel.

But that’s not why I’m featuring it here.

I’m featuring it here because Stasia’s doing something really special with this book.  She has formed a group called Stages on Pages where she invited eleven other authors (myself included) to share how the arts have inspired our writing.  She is touring the country with Stages on Pages to showcase why it’s so important for young people to have a creative spark in their lives.  I am honored to work with her on this project, and dazzled by her commitment to its intent.  So this is a special Sept./Oct. edition of my newsletter that thanks Stasia and hopes to bring attention to this dynamic program she has created.

Writing Exercise

Using a series of poems, Audition is told through Sara’s eyes as she navigates the world of the Jersey Ballet. Choose one other character in the novel and through his or her POV, write a series of 4-5 poems using Kehoe’s sense of style, attention to detail, and voice. Bind these poems as a small book and include a cover with a title.

Outside Reading School Project

In addition to the Audition project mentioned above, Stasia and I have created eleven other school projects to partner with all of the novels in the Stages on Pages program.  Please check out the Stages on Pages website for details on these individual school projects (including a new project for Instructions for a Broken Heart!).

YA Novel Review

Accomplice by Eireann Corrigan

After hearing a college advisor tell them they need to stand out from the crowd, two high-achieving girls in a small East Coast town decide that their hard work and good grades simply won’t be enough to get them into a “good” school.  So they stage a “kidnapping” that they hope they’ll eventually be able to parlay into gripping college essays.  Needless to say, it doesn’t go as they planned.  In addition to being a terrific YA author, Corrigan is also a high school teacher, and in Accomplice she has written not only a gripping story of friendship and betrayal but also a truly relevant look at how pressured our young achievers feel regarding the college admissions process (and their futures in general).  This novel (just out in paperback) is not only a must read for high school students but their parents and teachers as well.

Writing Exercise

Think of a scenario where you believe you could justify doing something you would otherwise think was morally wrong.  Put a main character in this scenario and write the scene where he or she makes a moral choice that changes his or her future forever.

Outside Reading School Project

I am really excited about this book because I just got approval to use it as part of an American Lit class I’m teaching this school year.  I plan on teaching Accomplice alongside of The Great Gatsby and The Scarlet Letter.  There are so many parallel characters in all three of the books but mostly I plan to focus on the books as a “thematic trilogy” – looking at the idea of morality, judgment, reinvention of the self as well as exploring the role of scapegoats and social class breakdowns. I think my students will devour Accomplice and I think partnering it with Gatsby and SL will just make for some really dynamic classroom discussions.  I will also encourage my students to see “echoes” of characters in other characters – Daisy and Chloe (from Accomplice), Hester and Dean (from Accomplice)…it’s going to be a good semester!

YA Novel Review

Are You Going to Kiss Me Now? by Sloane Tanen

Our culture spends an awful lot of time following the lives of celebrities.  Couple that with the social networking world and you have a truckload of teenagers who tilt their sunglassed gaze toward the public playground.  In Sloane Tanen’s hysterical first YA novel, red-headed Francesca finds out the hard way that her beloved celebs aren’t all they’re airbrushed to be.  She wins a contest to jet to Africa with a group of celebrities but finds herself marooned on an island with this pack of ne’er do wells who prove that without their assistants and prescription drugs, they don’t have quite as much to offer as Francesca had hoped.  The novel addresses the deeper issue of celeb-worship while making sure the focus is always on laughing out loud.  Makes it a perfect beach read.

Writing Exercise

You are stranded on a deserted island with five celebrities.  Who would you choose and why?
Come on, play – it’s fun.

Outside Reading School Project

I think this would be a really fun book for students to use as an outside reading project.  I would start by having them choose five celebrities to be marooned with on a desert island and explain why they chose each one.  Next, I would have them write a chapter of a book with themselves in Francesca’s role and their celebrities behaving badly.  Finally, I would have them write a short paper exploring our modern obsession with celebrity and why they think people are so interested in the lives of celebrities.

YA Novel Review

I’m Not Her by Janet Gurtler

Tess has always been in her sister’s shadow: Kristina’s perfect – volleyball star, beautiful, popular and, perhaps most difficult, she’s simply older.  But when Kristina gets diagnosed with cancer, Tess is forced to explore her relationship with her sister and, more importantly, the way she’s allowed her view of her sister to determine her own worth.  Gurtler’s debut has been called the My Sister’s Keeper for the YA set and that’s fair, but I think what makes it such a strong YA read is the clear voice of Tess lighting its way.  This is a great read for anyone wanting to watch a young girl search for herself in the most painful of circumstances.

Writing Exercise

I’m Not Her.  The title is its own writing exercise.
Why do we live in constant comparison?  My friend, a therapist, says humans naturally trend towards downward comparison to make us feel better (I’m smarter, richer, younger than that person) or we exist in envy (he’s smarter, richer, younger…etc).  Why the constant need for comparison? In a culture that loves to idealize the rebel, the individual, we don’t always do well with differences. They aren’t comfortable. I love writing “I Am” poems with my students because it forces them to focus in on the specifics of what makes them unique.  I thought this book was a perfect companion to write an “I Am” Poem.  There are a lot of versions of them around but I really like to just have my students make lists.  Finish this sentence:  “I am….”  and then finish it 14 more times…try to be as specific as possible.  Here’s an example.  “I am the color green, wrapping myself in the solitude of trees.”

Outside Reading School Project

One of the great strengths of this story is that cancer becomes such a central character – it is the hot, horrible sun that these characters revolve around.  I would have students draw a diagram of the solar system with cancer as the Sun.  Then I would have them assign each of the characters to one of the planets and have them explain why they became Mars, Earth, Neptune, etc., including quotes from the book to support their analysis.

YA Novel Review

It’s May.  And May means INSTRUCTIONS FOR A BROKEN HEART gets released into the world!!  I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to the book. Book, meet newsletter readers; readers, meet book.  There, I knew you’d get along!! 🙂
But I also wanted to thank all of you for your support thus far and for any good cheer you spread around this new book of mine.  You, dear readers, are the reason I write and it’s been your wonderful word of mouth that has allowed my writing to have a life in this world.  I am so grateful.
So, please excuse the shameless self-promotion in this newsletter.  I’ll get back to reviewing other fabulous books in June, but I wanted to use this month to introduce you to INSTRUCTIONS.  I loved wandering through Italy with Jessa – as she worked to heal her shattered heart, as she learned more about herself as an artist, and as she ate lots and lots of gelato!  I hope you enjoy the trip too.

Writing Exercise

Check out the collage poem exercise on my website!!  And if you feel inspired – send them to me.  I’d love to see them.

Outside Reading School Project

Create five additional envelopes for Jessa that you feel like Carissa missed.  In each, include a reason Jessa shouldn’t be with Sean (and he’s not worth the dirt on her shoes!) and an Instruction for getting over him.  Happy Instructing!

YA Novel Review

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

This is a great book – funny, heartbreaking, genuine.  But that’s not why I’m writing about it.  I’m writing about it because the writing is, simply put, beautiful.  This newsletter is called Point of View, so obviously I’m really interested in books with a fresh voice, with luscious writing.  For me, this book just floats because of the language. Yes, this is a book about grief.  I was talking it up the other day and brought up the loss of her sister (we know this in the first paragraph) and my friend said, “Another dead sister book?”  No, no, no – I had to explain to her.  This was not another dead sister book.  This book was, well, luminous.  The way Nelson tells this story through the lens of sweet, awkward Lennie is fresh and new  and I just felt like I was so present in her story.  I was right there with her and that’s what a really arresting point of view will do – hug you tight and make you feel everything she’s feeling, see everything she’s seeing.  The true beauty of this book, though, is in the details – the “lunches” her grandmother packs, the little slips of poems Lennie writes and leaves places – Nelson’s world is so specific and real.  And lastly, I just have to mention the title!  That’s just the best title I’ve seen all year.

Writing Exercise

Take a piece of paper and rip it into five slips.  Now tuck these away in something you carry around with you: your purse, your bag, your guitar case.  Over the next couple of weeks, take ten minutes to pull out a slip of paper and just write a poem on it. Have these poems capture the surrounding you’re in when you write them:  the smells, the tastes, the light, the sounds.  Then tuck it back into your case (I would suggest just leaving it somewhere for the wind to catch it like in the book but I can’t in good faith encourage littering :).)  And this way, in a few months, you might find them, pull them out, read them…remember.

Outside Reading School Project

Make a list.  Think of all the things in your life that make you who you are.  Not just that you like to write or that you like pizza but really make an ongoing list of the little details of your life that make you who you are: you like pickles on tuna sandwiches but nowhere else, you always pack a sticker in your lunch and then leave it somewhere, you sing the same song over and over, you like the way the cement smells outside your house when it rains…keep this list over the course of reading this book…see how long it gets.

YA Novel Review

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

I am really drawn to novels about small towns, especially when they are so realistically drawn and I thought Meg’s voice was so sharp and clear in this novel.  Meg is a “bad girl” but she gets caught crossing a line and ends up spending her spring break serving some community service time.  I won’t give away too much as part of what makes this such an intricate and successful novel is Echols has no need to give away too much information too soon; she unwraps this present slowly, so the reader learns piece by piece what’s going on with these characters, especially Meg.  I loved this element perhaps the most because I kept feeling surprised throughout it when I learned another little piece of the puzzle; Echols just keeps sharpening the lens.  There is some mature content in the book; it’s a sexy read and I applaud Echols beause it’s never gratuitious. It’s always real and I felt pressed close to the face of this main character, watching through her eyes as her life unfolds, as her choices have consequences.  It’s just a really well crafted read.

Writing Exercise

This book made me think so much about boundaries and consequences.  So often, I hear people say things like, “Well, she’s a teenager, she needs boundaries.”  I would submit that we all need boundaries, no matter our age, but when I read a book like this or hear people say things like the above statement, it always gets me thinking about how fuzzy boundaries actually are, how different people learn different things from the same incident or, sometimes, really don’t learn anything at all, no matter how many boundaries are drawn around them.

For this exercise, think about what a boundary is.  What does it mean to put up boundaries, to lay them out for other people, to create them or take them away, and then write a poem or short story that focuses on the idea of a boundary, perhaps even looks at a situation from the perspective of the boundary itself.

Outside Reading School Project

For this outside reading project, I would ask students to write about a time in their lives they felt like they either went too far with something or almost went too far.  I would ask them to discuss what happened as a result of walking this tricky line:  Did they learn anything?  Did they find they were uncomfortable, upset, hurt, frustrated?  How did this specific incident then inform later choices?

(And I wouldn’t tell them this part, but many of these writings could lead to a really solid college essay).