The American Dream

Over the past few months I have read a multitude of different YA titles. And most of them I have really enjoyed and some not so much. But one idea that really stuck out to me was this notion of the American Dream. According the Dictionary.com, the American Dream is the ideals of freedom, equaility, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to ever American.

I'm sure that in high school you'll hear of this term somewhere along the way. Maybe the term popped up when you are reading The Great Gatsby or Death a Salesman, or another book published in the earlier part of the twentieth century. But maybe you haven't really thought about how it still relates to novels written now, especially YA novels.

I have read three books where I feel that this theme of the American Dream was prevalent.

This first is We Were Here by Matt de la Pena. It is about an American boy of Mexican descent who was sent to a group home after committing a crime. He and two other boys run away from their group home in hopes to make it Mexico. But along the way the boys have to figure out what it is they are really running from….the group home or their problems?

The second book is The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. It is about a young Indian boy from the Spokane Indian Reservation who leaves the rez to attend and all white rural high school where he has the ability to receive a proper education. Initially, the people of the rez see him as abandoning his Indian culture. And the people at his new school think he is the weird Indian boy at first.

The final book is If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson. Is about a Black boy and a white girl who go to school in New York City where they meet and fall in love. However, they are faced of overcoming the stereotypes that go along with a bi-racial relationship. Is their love for each other enough to carry each other through this?

So you may be asking, what does this have to do with the American Dream? Well each novel portrays to life of a person or a couple who have to prove other people wrong and beat the odds, while still trying to identify with the part of them that is "American."

Miguel's, from We Were Here, American Dream is for other people to see him as a person who deserves to be recognized for not for what he did but for who he is. He did not want to only be known as some screw up who did something terrible. He was a real person who just made a mistake. He was looking for the same opportunity and equality that everybody else in this country has.

Junior, from The Absolutuely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, was also looking for the same opportunity. Where he was living on the rez was a dead end. If he stayed there for the rest of his life he would have probably turned out like most other Indians there, drunk with no money. However, he wanted something different for his life. He wanted a chance to actually become someone or something. But as he tried to achieve this he struggled with overcoming the stereotypical images of being Indian.

Ellie and Jeremiah, from If You Come Softly, have a much different situation but still they are fighting for opportunity and equality in their story. Being a part of a bi-racial relationship they are constantly looked at and judged. Even some members of their own families do not accept their relationship, just because one is white and one is black. Their American Dream would be able to live together without the prejudice that constantly surrounds them.

In each of these books the idea of the American Dream is present. Even though the stories are much different than those written in the earlier part of the twentieth century the ideals are still the same. Freedom, opportunity, and equality.

Up For A Few Laughs?

After reading a lot of heavy material over the past few weeks, I was delighted to read the upbeat and cheerful novel, My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger.

The novel follows the lives of three completely different teens, who are writing in a diary to a person of their choice. T.C. Keller is a boy who is completely obsessed with the Boston Red Sox, his relationship with his dad, and the new girl at school Ale. He is writing his journal for class to his dead mom.

Augie is T.C.'s best friend or "brother" as they like to call each other. He writes his journal to famous women of theater like Liza Minnelli, because he is absolutely obsessed with all things drama related. He also finds himself questioning his sexuality when he starts to get feelings for Andy Wexler, a boy in his class.

Ale is the new girl at school. Her parents recently moved to America from Mexico when her father resigned from being the Mexican ambassador. Her dream in life includes becoming a dancer, however her parents want her to pursue a life of politics. Ale writes her journal to Jacqueline Kennedy, well at least at first.

The story follows the lives of the three characters throughout one crucial year of high school.

I really liked the format of this story. There were a lot of different types of formats involved in this book that added to its character. There were journal entries, memos, and even text message correspondence. I liked this a lot because you saw how the different charcters interacted with each other.

As fun and funny this book was it had an underlying depth to it. It told the story of a boy trying to get over his mom's death, a teen boy trying to find his sexual identity, and a girl figuring out what is more important, pleasing her parents or herself.

This funny, light hearted, novel is a gem in the "Ya Litosphere." So check it out!!

Remember Me: We Were Here

People want to be remembered. Nobody wants to be forgotten after they are gone. They want someone to recall that they were here.

Miguel, Rondell, and Mong all want to be remembered in the novel We Were Here by Matt De La Peña. The novel is told from the perspective of Miguel, a teenage boy who was sentenced to one year in a group home for committing a crime, that he won't tell the reader. Along with his sentence in the group home, Miguel was ordered to write down his thoughts in a journal for that year. One night, a fellow kid from the group home, Mong, invites Miguel to leave the home with him and run away from Mexico. Miguel thinks that it would be easier for his family if he just disappeared. So Miguel, Mong, and another group home boy, Rondell, run away without really a true plan to get to Mexico. Along the way they are faced with many challenges, but the worst one of all is figuring out where they belong in this world.

As a teenager this is a question you may ask yourself every single day.....WHERE DO I BELONG IN THIS WORLD? All three boys, Miguel, Mong, and Rondell, grew up on the rough sides of the track. And yes, all three boys made mistakes in their life that wound them up in this predicament. But none of this means that they should be forgotten in this world. They all want to be remembered whether its by their parents, or God, or just the world in general.

I would definitely recommend checking out the book We Were Here. The voice of Miguel is truly amazing and I think that any teen could relate to what he is saying. Even though you may have not grown up on the wrong side of the tracks or are running away from home, everybody feels alone in the world sometimes. This book will offer those readers a boost of hope.

The Power of Graceling

What if you had a certain power in your life that allowed you to have an upper hand over everybody? How would you use it? To help people or to hurt people?

In the book Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Katsa had one of these special powers called a grace. She was one of the most powerful fighters in all of the the seven kingdoms. She is even able to kill someone with her own two hands. Katsa works as an enforcer in her Uncle Randa's kingdom, making sure that people obey the rules or she will punish them. However, Katsa and a group of others form the Council that willingly help those people who are most in need. Prince Tealeaf, the father of the King of Leineid, is captured Katsa and group of members of the council go and rescue him. During the rescue Katsa encounters a fellow graced fighter, Po, who dramatically changes her life and makes her questions the things she once believed. When an important secret is revealed to Katsa that threatens the security of the Seven Kingdoms, she must carefully evaluate her life, her grace, and plan her next move.

Now I know what you are thinking, fantasy novels are for the weird kid in school. You know the one who dresses up on the weekend as some fantasy character and practices sword fighting. Ya well as stupid and naive as that may sound I actually used to stay as far away from fantasy as possible. But by reading Graceling, these assumptions have changed. I would recommend that if you tend to fear fantasy to check out Graceling. You won't be disappointed. It is also more of a mild fantasy that can get you hooked on the whole genre.

Now back to the book. What I really enjoyed about this book was the powerful female protagonist, Katsa. I usually associate fantasy as novels with a male protagonist. Katsa, however, was a strong, independent person, however she did have inner struggles. One of which was the fact that she did not believe in marriage, until one unexpected man enters her life.

There is a large struggle between good vs. evil in this book. It portrays how some with exceptional powers use those powers corruptly. However, it also shows the opposite of this; how people with exceptional powers use them in a way to create a good for others. The book examines that even though one has power, is it right to use that power unjustly? So like I stated in the opening questions of this blog entry, this book makes you think how would you act if you had the potential to create great changes using your power?

Even though this book is based off of a fantasy world, there are still themes and situations to which the reader can feel apart of and relate to (if this is what you are looking for in a novel). However, the simple fact of the novel Graceling, is that it will completely capture your attention and you will not want to put it down.

Awww! Teenage Romance

Have you ever felt the way that you would do anything for one person in particular to notice you? Especially the one person who you are deeply, madly in love with.

This was the case for Frankie Landau-Banks, in The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. Frankie spent her entire Freshman year of high school living in the shadow of her older sister Zada. It doesn't help either that the high school that she attends is a snobby boarding school where everyone is concerned with how things were run there years ago. But anyways, I digress.

Suddenly, it is her Sophomore year of high school and many things have changed for Frankie. She went from being an awkward looking preteen to a beautiful young women. But best of all is that her secret crush, Matthew Livingston, has now become her boyfriend. However, when Matthew starts spending more time with the fellow members of a secret society, The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, and will not till Frankie what it is all about; she comes up with a way to sneak herself into this secret society.

I really enjoyed reading The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and I think that many teens, like you, will be able to enjoy it as well. It's a fun and pretty easy read that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

It also looks at love and dating in the teenage perspective. This novel shows how sometimes you will do anything to be in a relationship with another person. Sometimes even by losing who you are to please them. Frankie so badly wants to be apart of the secret society that Matt is in that she almost loses her mind to scheme her way into it.

If you are looking for an enjoyable read, I would definitely recommend The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation

I know that when I was in middle school and high school I hated when teachers picked books that it took forever to get into. And back then I would think to myself, "Why did they chose this? Just to torture us?"


Well they choose these books for a reason. The reason is that there is something that they believe in the novel that is worthwhile for the students. Whether it is an important theme or just a good story.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation is a good book when someone gives it a chance. It is about a black boy who grows up in house full of philosophers and his mother, an African princess, in Pre-Revolutionary War Boston. Octavian has relieved a classical education from the philosophers with which he lives. But little does he know this was all a plan. The philosophers really wanted to see if Black people could learn as well as white people. When Octavian finds out about this, he questions everything in his life. This book looks at the concepts of power, enslavement, and what it really means to be free.

I'm not going to lie to you. This book was not riveting or page turning. Sometimes it was very hard to get through. But once you give it a chance it has a lot to offer and will definitely get you thinking.

I also really enjoyed the history element of this book as well. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing gives you a new and different perspective of American slavery. The way that M.T. Anderson frames the context of slavery gets you thinking on what it really means to be enslaved, both mentally and physically. For you history buffs out there I would check this one out!

My advice to you give The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing a chance. You will not regret it.

Hungry for A Good Book?

Dystopian Literature. When I heard that I was going to be reading a book classified under dystopian literature I was completely thrown off. Dystopian literature is where the vision of society is miserable and conditions are poor. Usually it takes place in the future and includes some kind of technology. I thought, this is something so totally unlike what I would pick up at a bookstore. I usually head for romance titles or just books about normal life situations. So this new genre that I had not heard a lot about completely threw me for a loop. But I guess this was a loop in the right direction.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a novel of dystopian literature about a teenage girl who is thrown into the Hunger Games to save her young sister's life and honor her family. The Hunger Games is an event led by the government where two participants from each district competes against each other. The last one living is the winner. The Hunger Games includes elements of suspense, humor, and romance to keep the reader engaged.

One element that I really liked about The Hunger Games is the satire on governmental policies. It shows how sometimes governments manipulate their power and the effects it has on the citizens who live there. I know as a teen sometimes you can feel powerless compared to mightiness of the government. This would be a good book to check out if you feel that way. It shows how sometimes you can outsmart them.

I really enjoyed reading The Hunger Games. Even though the writing is pretty basic and not so "beautiful" the story is exciting and riveting. You can really get into how the main characters are feeling. If you have a free chance check out Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games.