American Born Chinese

Title: American Born Chinese

Author: Gene Luen Yang

Publication date: 2006

Number of pages: 240

Genre: graphic novel
Geographical Setting: San Francisco’s Chinatown, an American middle class town, China of ancient folktales

Time Preiod: 1980s-90s

Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Jin Wang is a Chinese American middle school student who only wants to fit in with the rest of his white classmates. Rumors about his culture spread quickly amongst the other students making it difficult to pursue his first crush. He also resists being friends with the only other Asian boy in school who is a reminder of how different Jin is his classmates. Jin’s story of growing up as an outsider is intertwined with the Chinese folk tale of the Monkey King and the ethnic stereotype of a character named Chin-Kee.

Subject Headings: racism, assimilation, Chinese-American culture, first love, cultural stereotypes, puberty

Appeal: first graphic novel recognized by the National Book Foundation, first generation American story, colored by cartoonist Lark Pien, ethnic stereotypes, learning to be comfortable in your own skin, young boy’s experiencing the embarrassing effects of puberty

If you liked American Born Chinese, you might enjoy: Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Marjane’s Satrapi’s Persepolis.

The Chocolate War

Title: The Chocolate War
Author: Robert Cormier
Publication date: 1974
Number of pages: 272
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: New England (fictional Monument, Massachusetts)
Time Period: early 197os
Series: sequel Beyond the Chocolate War

Plot Summary: Jerry Renault is a high school freshman at the all-boys Trinity Catholic and has recently lost his mother to cancer. The secret society of The Vigils, made up of students, rule the school. The Vigils assign tasks of cruel pranks to students with no option to disobey. The acting headmaster, Brother Leon, has decided to secretly recruit them to help with the annual school chocolate sale. Brother Leon expects the students to sell much more than they had in the past in order to protect his overspending of the school budget for the sale. The Vigils assign Jerry to boycott the chocolate sale for ten days. After the ten days, Jerry decides to defy The Vigils, Brother Leon and the school by continuing his refusal to sell the chocolates. His defiance is not accepted lightly.

Subject Headings: bullying, hazing, Catholic school, defiance of authority, pessimism, individuality, peer pressure

Appeal: all-boys Catholic school setting, struggle to be an individual in the face of power structure of an institution, lack of parental involvement, often on banned books list, winner of several awards including ALA Best Books for Young Adults and a New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year, 1988 movie adaptation, book for boys, standing up to bullies, death of a parent to cancer

If you liked The Chocolate War, you might enjoy: William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. Walter Dean Myer’s Shooter.

Seventeenth Summer

Title: Seventeenth Summer
Author: Maureen Daly
Publication date: 1942
Number of pages: 285
Genre: Young Adult fiction/romance

Geographical Setting: Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Time Period: early 1940s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: After the summer, Angie Morrow is going off to college in Chicago. Her mother has never really allowed her to go out much but then Angie meets the handsome Jack Duluth. They start dating and the feelings of falling in love begin to stir in Angie for the first time. But she only has three months until college and along with the excitement of romance the tears of the end of her seventeenth summer may also come.

Subject Headings: romance, first love, summer, girl meets boy, the 1940s

Appeal: author credited with launching young adult literature, written when author was 2o and in college, young people’s experience in the 1940s, young woman’s life during the summer before college, Midwest experience in the 1940s, writing is diary-like, coming of age

If you liked Seventeenth Summer, you might enjoy:
Judy Blume’s Forever. Dandi Daly Mackall’s Eva Underground. Sarah Dessen’s Just Listen. Madeleine L’Engle’s And Both Were Young and Camilla.

The Catcher in the Rye

Title: The Catcher in the Rye
Author: J.D. Salinger
Publication date: 1951
Number of pages: 288
Genre: fiction

Geographical Setting: New York City, Agerstown, PA, a sanatorium in California

Time Period: shortly after WWII, late 1940s/early 1950s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Holden Caulfield narrates his experiences in New York City following his expulsion from a prep school. Holden tells his story a year later from a mental facility in Hollywood. He criticizes the other students and faculty of his school as “phony” and describes leaving in the middle of the night to take a train to New York. Instead of returning to his family right away, he checks into a derelict hotel. His days in the city involve loneliness and drunkenness and beatings. He loathes the hypocrisy of the world around him but idealizes the innocence and purity of children like his sister.

Subject Headings: conformity, growing up, cynicism, idealism, brother/sister relationships, individualism, mental breakdown, prostitute

Appeal: often on banned books lists, coming of age, first person narrative, slang and obscene language, self-reflection after mental breakdown, sexual experiences

If you liked The Catcher in the Rye, you might enjoy: Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The Outsiders

Title: The Outsiders
Author: S.E. Hinton
Publication date: 1967
Number of pages: 192
Genre: teen fiction

Geographical Setting: Oklahoma City

Time Period: late 1960s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Recently orphaned Pony Boy Curtis is 14 years old and growing up on the East Side of town with his brothers and friends. They are in the poor class known as the Greasers and are very different from the other kids from the wealthy West Side who are known as Socs (short for Socials). One terrible night changes Pony Boy and his best friend Johnnys’ lives forever. Now Pony Boy questions everything about his life as a Greaser and his place in a world amongst other people like the Socs.

Subject Headings: friendship, loyalty, cliques, orphans, poverty, outsiders, gangs, 1960s

Appeal: author wrote novel when she was 16, coming of age, gang rivalries, violence and abuse in families, young adult heroes, older brother as head of household, have and havenots, ALA’s top 100 “Frequently Challenged Books,” film version from 1983

If you liked The Outsiders, you might enjoy: other S.E. Hinton novels like Tex, Rumble Fish, That Was Then, This is Now. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Walter Dean Myers’ The Scorpions.

The Complete Maus

Title: The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale
Author: Art Spiegelman
Publication date: 1973, 1986
Number of pages: 296
Genre: graphic novel

Geographical Setting: Poland, Auschwitz concentration camp, upstate New York

Time Period: late 1930s, the Second World War, 1970s, 1980s
Series: two books in this collection, “My Father Bleeds History” & “And Here My Troubles Began”

Plot Summary: Spiegelman, born after WWII, interviews his father about his experiences as a Jew living in Nazi-occupied Poland. In the first book, Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, recounts his life in pre-war Poland and marriage to Art’s mother and his enlistment in the army. Tales of life in the ghetto and their hidings as the Final Solution is put into effect by the Nazis are depicted in Spiegelman’s drawings. The second book depicts his father’s experiences in a concentration camp and his survival and new life in America. Spiegelman uses animal as characters with the Jews depicted as mice and the Germans as cats.

Subject Headings: the Holocaust, survival, Hitler, Nazis, the Jews, concentration camps, biography, memoir

Appeal: biographical, father and son relationship, historical fiction, Holocaust literature, effects of war on families, graphic novel, comic book, Young Adult Literature, suicide by a parent, winner of Pulitzer Prize, survivor guilt, anthropomorphic characters

If you liked the Maus books, you might enjoy: Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis- graphic novel about a young Iranian girl’s life during the Islamic Revolution through the Iran-Iraq war. E. Tina Tito’s Teen Witnesses to the Holocaust, Liberation: Teens in the Concentration Camps and the Teen Soldiers Who Liberated Them.

Weetzie Bat

Title: Weetzie Bat

Author: Francesca Lia Block

Publication date: 1989

Number of pages: 109

Genre: fiction, Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: L.A., Hollywood
Time Period: 1980s

Series: yes, first in the Weetzie Bat series

Plot Summary: Weetzie is an offbeat individual living in Hollywood. A child of divorce, nobody understands Weetzie. She has a bleached-blond flattop and wears vintage clothes. She meets her best friend Dirk in high school who takes her slam-dancing at clubs in L.A. Dirk reveals to her that he is gay and this is just fine with her. They go “duck-hunting” together and dream about their true loves. Dirk’s grandmother gives Weetzie a gift that grants her three wishes. Both Weetzie and Dirk meet their true loves and live in a fairytale-like cottage together. They make underground films that are successful and have a baby they raise together. Their lives are not completely a fairy tale but their love for each other is allows them close to happily ever after.

Subject Headings: love, individuality, blended families, homosexuality, filmmaking, punk-style, death, suicide, nontraditional families, children out of wedlock, L.A., Hollywood, alcoholism, three wishes, “duck-hunting”

Appeal: fairy tale-like, love story, 1950s style and film references, punk fashion, beginning of AIDS epidemic, minimalist-style of writing, poetic-style of writing, Charlotte Zolotow Book, lonely teenage girls could identify with Weetzie, characters’ own vernacular, rape incident, 1980s Hollywood club scene, loss of parent by suicide, alcoholic parent

If you liked the Weetzie Bat series, you might enjoy: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Clara Vidal's Like a Thorn, Nadine Monem’s Riot Grrrl: Revolution girl Style Now!

Gossip Girl

Title: Gossip Girl #1: A Novel

Author: Cecily Von Ziegesar – Narrator: Gossip Girl

Publication date: 2002

Number of pages: 208

Genre: teen fiction
Geographical Setting: New York City
Time Period: 2000s

Series: yes, first in the Gossip Girl series

Plot Summary: The narrator remains anonymous as the reader wonders if she too is part of the privileged world of the NYC teens attending the prestigious private schools, partying and buying expensive designer clothes. Selena is surrounded by controversy as rumors fly about whether or not she is a sex fiend and a drug addict. Blair is bulimic and in love with Nate. But Nate has hooked up with her former best friend Selena. Dan is in love with Serena and his younger sister Jenny idolizes her. Rumors and gossip about boys, sex, parties and clothes fill this book.

Subject Headings: teens, private school, NYC, drinking, partying, drugs, eating disorders, gossip, rich kids, mean girls

Appeal: designer clothes, shopping, privileged lifestyles, website reveals more exploits of the characters, superficial/fluff reading, omnipresent narrator , TV series, sex without consequences

Similar Authors and Works (Fiction): Zoey Dean- The A-List Series. Melissa de la Cruz- The Au Pairs series.

Hatchet

Title: Hatchet
Author: Gary Paulsen
Publication date: 1987
Number of pages: 195
Genre: Children’s /Young Adult Fiction (ages 9-13)
Geographical Setting: Canadian wilderness
Time Period: 1980s/present
Series: yes, first in the “Brian” books

Plot Summary: Brian Robeson is a fairly ordinary thirteen year old boy from the city. His parents have recently divorced and he is on his way to visit his father in the Canadian wilderness, taking with him a secret about his mother’s reasons for the split. For this trip he must travel in a single engine plane with only the pilot as his company. The plane goes down after the pilot suffers a massive heart attack and lands well off the flight’s original course in the isolated Canadian wilderness. With only his mother’s gift of a hatchet and a desire to live, he must survive alone on the resources he discovers and tools he devises.

Subject Headings: survival, divorce, wilderness, plane crash, Canadian wilderness, hatchet, nature, adventure, boyhood

Appeal: Newberry Honor Book, exciting first novel in a series, literature for boys, one main character, close third person point of view, triumph of individual, realistic fiction

Similar Authors and Works (Fiction): Scott O’Dell- Island of the Blue Dolphins, a young Indian girl is the sole survivor of an isolated island of the coast of California for eighteen years. Jean Craighead George- My Side of the Mountain, a young boy survives alone in the Catskill Mountains.

Similar Authors and Works (Nonfiction): Gary Paulsen- Guts: The True Stories behind “Hatchet” and the Brian Books.

A Northern Light

Title: A Northern Light
Author: Jennifer Donnelly- Narrator: Mattie Gokey
Publication date: 2003
Number of pages: 396
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Geographical Setting: Adirondack Mountains (New York State), North Woods
Time Period: 1906
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: A talented and budding writer, Mattie Gokey has promised her dying mother that she will always take care of her father and younger siblings on the failing family farm. This entails her missing school often and possibly giving up her dreams of moving to New York City and studying to be a writer. She has the chance to save up money for her enrollment at Barnard College when she gets a summer job at a fancy hotel in the Adirondacks. Here she enjoys freedoms to live the life of a young woman but feels the pull from her family responsibilities and her new romance with the handsome Royal Loomis. Royal is not interested in her books and words but he has awakened feelings in Mattie which she has never experienced. When the body of hotel guest Grace Brown is found in the lake and her male companion missing, Mattie discovers the truth about Grace’s life and death in the letters she left with her.

Subject Headings: young adult, Adirondack Mountains, abortion, murder, first love, farm life, young motherhood, feminism, poverty, racism, family

Appeal: Named a Printz Honor Book by the ALA, author’s first young adult novel, historical details, struggle/suffering, hopeful

Similar Authors and Works (Fiction): Theodore Dreiser- An American Tragedy, novel was inspired by the Chester Gillette murder case.

Similar Authors and Works (Nonfiction): Grace Brown- Grace Brown’s Love Letters, the victim’s letters to her murderer (currently out of print).