Pick-Up Game

Aronson, Marc and Charles Smith.  Pick Up Game; A Full Day of Full Court.  2011.  Candlewick Press, Somerville, Mass

Annotation:
A short story anthology about a basketball court in Harlem.  Authors in this anthology include Walter Dean Myers, Bruce Brooks, Willie Perdomo, Sharon G. Flake, Robert Burleigh, Rita Williams-Garcia, Joseph Bruchac, Adam Rapp and Robert Lispsyte.

Book Talk:
There is a basket ball court in Harlem that is famous.  Court #4 is known as "the" court.  It's a public court, but not just anyone can play there.  You must first earn the right to play on this court by playing in other courts around the city.  The best of the best have played on this court.  On a hot summer day, you will find dozens of young men, waiting for their turn to play against the best the city has to offer.  College Scouts and Pro Basketball scouts make frequent stops at the cage, watching the young men, looking for the best players.  Scholarships are handed out frequently to the best players on the court.

Follow the adventures of Court #4 on a hot summer day.  In this short story collection, we look through the eyes of nine different people on and around the basketball court that day. Players, who are waiting their turn to take on the best that the city has to offer, and see how they measure up.  Young women, watching the game, and the boys playing on the court.  A young film-maker who wants to be the next Spike Lee, looking for the perfect film for his admission packet for Columbia.  Each story picks up where the previous one left off, but the characters weave in and out of all the stories.

Do you have what it takes to join the pick up game?

Website of the compilers of the anthology:
Marc Aronson: http://www.marcaronson.com/young_adult_books.html
Charles R. Smith Jr: http://www.charlesrsmithjr.com/

Disclosure Notice: This post contains links to my Amazon Affiliates account.  By purchasing through this link, you support this blog.  Thank You!

My Name is Mary Sutter

Oliveira, Robin.  My Name is Mary Sutter.  2010.  Penguin Books, New York, New York.

Annotation:
Mary Sutter is a young woman living during the time of the Civil War.  She is a midwife who wants to be nothing less than a doctor.  Follow Mary through her journey across the battlefields of the Civil War.

Book Talk:
Mary Sutter is a young woman who is one of the most gifted midwives in all of Massachusetts.  Her mother was a good midwife, but Mary is better.  Whenever anyone is having trouble giving birth, Mary is called in to help save the life of the mother and child.

But, Mary wants more.  So much more.  She wants to be a doctor.  Specifically, she wants to be a surgeon.  She has read every anatomy book she can lay her hands on, but no medical school will admit her because she is a woman.

When the Civil War begins, a call is issued by Dorothea Dix for young women to serve as nurses during the unrest.   Mary runs away from her family and travels to Washington in order to become a nurse and receive more medical training.

As Mary serves in the nursing wards, she finds herself caught in the middle of two powerful surgeons, both of whom fall in love with her. 

As she travels from battlefield to battlefield, Mary finds that the line between nurse and doctor is blurred, and she learns even more about medicine than she ever imagined possible.

Will Mary survive the terrors of working in Civil War hospitals?  Will she ever realize her dream of becoming a recognized doctor?  What of her family, left behind in Massachusetts? 

Step back in time with Mary Sutter in her book... "My Name is Mary Sutter"

Author's website: http://www.robinoliveira.com/

Reviewer's Note:
I debated with myself over whether or not to post this book at all. It is an amazing book.  It is the best book I've read so far this summer.  It's also an adult book, not strictly a YA book.  Since this blog is a YA Blog, I did debate long and hard about whether or not to post.   I finally decided that when I was in High School, I would have read this book.  And I would have loved it just as much then as I do now.

The book is full of insightful writing into a time of utter chaos in our national history. 

Many forget that there was a time when an educated woman was an embarrassment to the family.  Higher education was not encouraged among young women, either by the families or by the institutions of higher learning.  A woman in the classroom was taking away a seat from a man who would need the spot in order to furthur his education in order to feed his family.

When I was reading this book, I kept thinking "Finally - a smart woman's Gone With the Wind".  No one lusting after Ashley Wilkes.  No one playing stupid mind games in order to get the attention of a man.   Instead, the book has a smart, intelligent woman who is more about garnering more education.  OH, there is romance in the book.  There is heartbreak in the book.  But, this book keeps everything in balance.  It is a beautifully well written piece of work.

I'd recommend this book to anyone in high school or above.

Disclosure Notice: This post contains links to my Amazon Affiliates account.  By purchasing through this link, you support this blog.  Thank You!

Eat Fresh Food, Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs

Eat Fresh Food: Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs. Gold, Rozanne.  Eat Fresh Food: Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs.   Bloomsbury, New York, 2009.

Book Talk:
Just about everyone loves food.  Eating it is wonderful.  This book shares some amazing recipes that are easy to make and stress the use of fresh produce.

Spring Rolls, Tabouleh, Chick-Pea Burgers with Mango Salsa, and Eggless Ceasar Salad are just a few of the yummy recipes waiting to be tried.

(While you are talking, hold open the book and show the beautiful full-color pictures of the completed dishes.)

The directions are clear, concise and easy to follow.  The author also includes helpful information, such as how to pick the best produce, and how to slice a mango.  The recipes all require the use of a sharp knife and cutting board, so if you want to try them, make certain that you know how to safely handle a knife before you start!

Bon Appetit!

Author's Web Site:
http://www.rozannegold.com/

Reviewer's Note:
We now own this book.  We cooked our way through the book.  I tried tabouleh for the first time in my life, and it was amazing!  I have many new favorite recipes from this book.  Many of her recipes are healthier recipes than the more traditional recipes (my Mom's) that I have been using for a while now. (The meatloaf and Ceasar Salad recipes pop to mind.)

I think most anyone could follow the recipes, but you do need to make certain that whoever is doing the slicing and dicing is familiar with a knife.  Many school districts have now cut their Home Economics programs, and we have a generation of kids who aren't familiar with how to safely slice produce without slicing off a finger.  If you're going to use this book with your kids, invest some time in working on knife handling skills before you set them loose. 

I also think this would be a great book for anyone who is moving out on their own for the first time and needs some easy to follow, healthy recipes to get started with.

Disclosure Notice: This post contains links to my Amazon Affiliates account.  By purchasing through this link, you support this blog.  Thank You!

The Darwin Awards, Next Evolution

Northcut, Wendy.  The Darwin Awards, Next Evolution.  Chlorinating the Gene Pool.  Dutton Press, New York, New York.  2008.

Annotation:
A compilation of the stories of people who have won, or received an honorable mention by the Darwin Awards.

Book Talk:
The Darwin Awards are handed out annually to a handful of people.  These people are those who have fearlessly dived headfirst into the shallow end of the gene pool.  In order to qualify for a Darwin Award, you have to have done something so stupid, so insanely dumb, that you have removed yourself from the gene pool.  These stories serve as cautionary tales.... many of the stories end in the death of the persons involved.

Let's take a look at one of the winners in this compiliation:  
One spring morning when a bug crawled across his desk, and adult education teacher gave twenty-five students an improptu and involuntary lesson in safety- during his safety class.  You see, Teach had an unusual paperweight, a 40 mm shell he had found on a hunting trip.  It made a unique conversation piece.  Using opaque reasoning, he assumed that the ordnance must be inert.  But, this particular ordnance ws the teacher's ticking ticket to fame.

Back to the spring morning when a bug crawled across his desk.  Should he squash it with a tissue?  Sweep it out the door?  Leave it to pursue its happy existence and continue with his lesson?  No, the teacher picked another alternative.  He hefted the "inert" artillery shell and slammed it ont the short-lived insect.

The impact set off the primer, and the resulting explosion caused burns and shrapnel lacerations on his hand, forearm, and torso.  No one else in the classroom was hurt.  To the teacher's further consolation his actions did succeed in one respect.  the bug was eliminated.

(page 175, At Risk Survivor, Flyswatter, Confirmed True by Darwin.)

Read more incredible tales of stupidity in "Chlorinating the Gene Pool".

Author's Web site:
www.darwinawards.com

Disclosure Notice: This post contains links to my Amazon Affiliates account.  By purchasing through this link, you support this blog.  Thank You!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2

This is not a book review, I know...

I did go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows over the weekend.

Awesome movie. 

I have thought for a while now that the first Deathly Hallows movie was one of the best out of that franchise in a while.  The second Deathly Hallows movie lived up to the promise of the first.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, I'm not going to ruin it for you here.  I will say that you might want to watch Part 1 again before you see Part 2.  Part 2 picks up exactly where Part 1 ended.  And, if it's been a year since you saw Part 1, you are going to have a moment of "What?" before you remember what is going on.

I thought that the director did a great job of keeping the movie close to the story.  It's not exactly true to the story.  It does deviate in places.  That does have to happen in the interest of storytelling when you are making a written story into a visual story.

One word of note - there is violence in this movie.  There is death in this movie.  There are some disturbing images in this movie.  This is NOT a movie for young children.  If you have a child easily scared,  this isn't for them.  If you want to see the movie, but think you'd like to drag your young child along so you don't look like an idiot going to see a child's movie by yourself- hire a babysitter, and look like an idiot.  I can honestly say that we saw no young children in our showing.  (We were at a matinee.)  The youngest kids I saw in the audience were older teenagers.

Mischief Managed.

Wicked Girls

Hemphill, Stephanie.  Wicked Girls.  Harper Collins, New York.  2010. 

Annotation:
A fictional account of the Salem Witch Trials, told from the point of view of the real girls involved in the story.

Book Talk: 
The Salem Witch Trials are one of the most infamous periods in Colonial American History.  In 1692, more than 220 people were accused of being witches by a group of 7 girls, ranging in age from 8 to 17.  In total, 144 people had legal action brought against them.  19 people were hanged, and one man was pressed to death.  3 women and several infants died in jail.

To this day, no one knows what sparked the accusations.  The girls would fall into fits on the floor during the trials, and claim that witches were poking them, cutting them, or otherwise hurting them.  They would then name the names of people in the town.  Many of those accused of witch craft went ahead and confessed to being a witch.  For those who did not confess, they were sent to trial.  If they were found guilty, they were hanged.

Journey back in time and join Salem Village at the height of the Salem Witch Hunts.  Follow along from the perspective of each of the girls who were the "seers" of the village.

Here, we join Ann Putnam, Jr (age 12) as she is in the middle of a seizure and sees the witches tormenting her:

I AM AFFLICTED

Someone makes my legs
whip about like sheets in the wind.
Someone curls and bends
my arms behind my neck.
All turns black and cold.
"who goes there?" I cry.

I scream until the room comes lit,
and then I see witches
the same as the Minister's girls-
Tituba, the Parrises' slave, and Goody Good.
I swear to Father 'tis the witches
who twist my limbs and cause me ache.
I blink my eyes and the witches disappear,
but I saw them stand bfore me,
felt them pinch my arm,
I know that I did.

(Wicked Girls, page 58)

Find out more in "Wicked Girls" by Stephanie Hemphill.

Author's Website: http://www.harperteen.com/author/microsite/about.aspx?authorid=35978

Reviewer's Note:
I was enchanted by the set up of this book.  Each girl has a say in this story. 
Here is the thing: the story of each child is told in a beautifully written, succinct free verse poem.  Each poem is titled, and the person who is telling the story is listed below the title of the poem, along with their age.
The story moves, almost dances through the ugly accusations and trials of Salem.
It did take me a few minutes to adjust to the poetry set up of the story, as it is not what I would consider a "traditional" story. 
This book is well worth your time!

Disclosure Notice: This post contains links to my Amazon Affiliates account.  By purchasing through this link, you support this blog.  Thank You!

Bad Boy

Bad Boy, A Memoir.  Walter Dean Myers.  Harper Collins Publishers, New York.  2001.


Annotation:
Walter Dean Myers writes about the challenges of growing up in Harlem in the 1940's and 50's.  He was what we would now call ADD/HD.  His teachers called him simply a "Bad Boy".  His stories lovingly recall his adoptive parents, his teachers, and his journey through school.  Funny and poignant, these stories tell the tale of a young man trying to find his way in a hostile world.

Book Talk:
Walter Dean Myers was adopted by his father's first wife, Florence Dean, after the death of his own mother.  Walter was taken to live with the people he would come to know as his family, and moved to Harlem, in New York City.

Walter grew up surrounded by the love of his adopted family in a neighborhood rich with color and history. 

Unfortunately, trouble seemed to follow Walter around.  From breaking his heels when he jumped off the church roof, to standing up to a gang when they were picking on someone, Walter frequently found himself at the wrong end of a problem.

Walter began to find his only escape from the world around him in the books he read.  Afraid to let anyone know that he loved reading, he would hide his books, skip school, and hide out in trees to read the books he loved so much.  He would write in his journals, attempting to emulate the styles of the authors he was reading.

Join Walter as he tells the tale of his long, twisted journey from "Bad Boy" to Award-Winning Young Adult Author in Bad Boy.

Author's Web Site:
http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/

Reviewer's Note:
When I first began teaching 20-odd years ago, I taught in the inner-city.  I was a solid middle class kid with the thought that I could change the world.  I learned far more from those kids in the years I taught there than I had in the 22 years of living I'd had before then. 

I no longer teach in the inner-city, but the hopelessness, the sense of entrapment, and of despair that the residents have is something I will never forget.

Walter Dean Myers is one of the authors out there who I feel comes from a place of understanding.  He has walked the walk.  He knows the subject about which he writes, and he is powerful and masterful in speaking to his reader about the situations in which his characters find themselves.

This book is a stark look at growing up in Harlem.  The choices that he had facing him at the time.  How he personally triumphed against the odds.  He is very frank about violence, and drinking.  At the time when he grew up, street drug dealers were not the norm... and the street violence that we writes about is different than the street violence that our cities see today. 

I was fortunate enough to find a cache of "new"  Walter Dean Myers' books on the shelves the last time I went into the library.  This was one of them, as was Lockdown.  So glad I found them!  I have one more of his books to review, I hope to finish it in the next couple of days.

Disclosure Notice: This post contains links to my Amazon Affiliates account.  By purchasing through this link, you support this blog.  Thank You!