JJones, Lloyd (2006). New York: Dial Press. ISBN: 978-0-385-34107-3
Plot
In the 1990’s during a regional conflict, the island of Bougainville in the New Guinea area is invaded by opposing forces—called by the island people the Rambos, or rebels, and the redskins, government soldiers. All the white people on the island evacuate except Mr. Watts, a New Zealand native the islanders call ‘Popeye’ because of his appearance, a who is married to a now demented island woman. Mr. Watts reopens the abandoned school house and begins to teach the island children, reading to them from Great Expectations. The story provides the children with an escape from the horrors of everyday existence during the violent civil war. Matilda, the narrator of the story, is entranced ith Pip and his Victorian world, but Matilda’s mother, who is very religious, opposes the story, which has no religious moral. She opposes Mr. Watts and hides the book. When the redskins mistake Pip for a real person, and Mr. Watts can not produce proof that Pip is a fictional character, the results are horrific. Matilda recalls the story from her adult vantage as an educated woman.
Reader’s Annotation
The power of literature to sustain humanity in hard times is examined in this story of Civil War in Bougainville, in the New Guineregion. Matilda recalls Mr. Watts, the white man who began to teach the island children from Great Expectations,and the tragic outcomes of that decision.
Critique
This book is under consideration as a curriculum addition in our freshman English classes—I grabbed it from the pile to review because the curriculum suggestion list showed it on the YALSA list so I knew I could use it! Usually our student readers lack background and context that educated adults bring to the reading experience, but I am ashamed to say that I had never heard of this conflict. I did not know Bougainville was a real island and assumed it was a fable creation; I was not even picturing the “black” inhabitants correctly. My only advantages were that I had a strong background in the Dickens novel, and that I had the habits of mind which led to recognizing and rectifying my ignorance. It was actually a perfect way to experience a challenging novel from an inexperienced student’s point of view, and I found that the human emotions of the story transcended the specific setting. I also found that the book eloquently communicated the role of Art in lifting humans out of misery and fear, and this message was clear even without knowing Great Expectations. This book enlarges the reader’s world view. The writing was beautiful—clear and plain, and the characters, especially Matilda and her mother, were vivdly brought to uncompromising life.
About the author
Lloyd Jones was born in 1955 and is from New Zealand. Wikipedia says he didn’t graduate from Victoria university because he had too many library fines.
Genre
Contemporary Fiction
Curriculum Ties
English
Booktalking Ideas
Who is Pip?
Bougainville?
Matilda’s journey
Reading Level/Interest Age
13-adult
Challenge Issues
Rape threat; violence
Be knowledgeable about the book and prepared to discuss it calmly. Provide complaint form per board policy;
Gather student responses; Share awards and reviews excerpted on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0385341067/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
Why Included?
YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2008
Selection Tools
2008 ALEX Award Winner (Young Adult Library Services Association)
2008 Best Books for Young Adults (Young Adult Library Services Association)
Commonwealth Writer's Prize Winner
Booker Prize Finalist
Son of the Mob
Korman, Gordon. (2002). New York: Hyperion. ISBN: 0786807695.
Plot
Vince Luca is a nice New York high school kid. His dad is in what Amazon.com calls “the, uh, vending machine business”. Vince wants no part of the mobster life, but it always seems to want a part of him, as when he goes out on a date and finds an unconscious Italian guy in his trunk. Then he meets Kendra Bightly so very romantically when she accidentally infects him with headlice at a frat party, and soon they are in love. That’s nice, except Kendra’s dad is an FBI agent who’s bugging Vince’s house. A complicated plot involving a kitty cat website, a Karaoke machine, and Mafia double-crossing ensures that the course of true love ain’t gonna run smooth. There’s a surprise twist solution to an old mob murder investigation at the end.
Reader’s Annotation
Vince Luca just wants to be a regular teen, but when your dad is the biggest mobster in the New York area, that isn’t easy. Just to complicate the situation, Vince has just fallen in love with Kendra, whose dad, known to Vince’s dad as Agent “Bite Me”.
is an FBI agent who’s bugging the Luca House. Hey, remember what happened to Romeo and Juliet? They were Italian too!
Critique
This book is witty, fun, fast-paced and smart. It manages to walk a tiny line between acknowledging the violence of the Mob life and keeping the story in the realm of comedy. Vince’s first-person narration is a great mixture of real emotion and comic effect; the crime subplot, though a little confusing in places, has clever twists and turns.
About the author
Gordon Korman has written more than 50 YA books. He lives on Long Island, like the Corleones.
Genre
YA Romance (Genreflecting)
Curriculum Ties
Recreational
Booktalking Ideas
Is Alex’s behavior realistic?
Discuss Mrs. Luca’ personality
Will Vince stay out of the vending machine business?
Reading Level/Interest Age
Middle school-high school (Genreflecting)
Challenge Issues
Very mild sexual discussion and drinking
Best to gather teen reviews
Be knowledgeable about the book and prepared to discuss it calmly. Provide complaint form per board policy; Other positve reviews available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Son-Mob-Gordon-Korman/dp/0786807695
Why Included?
I was looking for a high interest book for my reluctant-reader boys, and though the dialogue and narrative are seem too complex for many intermediate language-learners, some have enjoyed persevering for the humor and excitement of the plot.
Selection Tools
Best Books Young Adults, YALSA
Plot
Vince Luca is a nice New York high school kid. His dad is in what Amazon.com calls “the, uh, vending machine business”. Vince wants no part of the mobster life, but it always seems to want a part of him, as when he goes out on a date and finds an unconscious Italian guy in his trunk. Then he meets Kendra Bightly so very romantically when she accidentally infects him with headlice at a frat party, and soon they are in love. That’s nice, except Kendra’s dad is an FBI agent who’s bugging Vince’s house. A complicated plot involving a kitty cat website, a Karaoke machine, and Mafia double-crossing ensures that the course of true love ain’t gonna run smooth. There’s a surprise twist solution to an old mob murder investigation at the end.
Reader’s Annotation
Vince Luca just wants to be a regular teen, but when your dad is the biggest mobster in the New York area, that isn’t easy. Just to complicate the situation, Vince has just fallen in love with Kendra, whose dad, known to Vince’s dad as Agent “Bite Me”.
is an FBI agent who’s bugging the Luca House. Hey, remember what happened to Romeo and Juliet? They were Italian too!
Critique
This book is witty, fun, fast-paced and smart. It manages to walk a tiny line between acknowledging the violence of the Mob life and keeping the story in the realm of comedy. Vince’s first-person narration is a great mixture of real emotion and comic effect; the crime subplot, though a little confusing in places, has clever twists and turns.
About the author
Gordon Korman has written more than 50 YA books. He lives on Long Island, like the Corleones.
Genre
YA Romance (Genreflecting)
Curriculum Ties
Recreational
Booktalking Ideas
Is Alex’s behavior realistic?
Discuss Mrs. Luca’ personality
Will Vince stay out of the vending machine business?
Reading Level/Interest Age
Middle school-high school (Genreflecting)
Challenge Issues
Very mild sexual discussion and drinking
Best to gather teen reviews
Be knowledgeable about the book and prepared to discuss it calmly. Provide complaint form per board policy; Other positve reviews available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Son-Mob-Gordon-Korman/dp/0786807695
Why Included?
I was looking for a high interest book for my reluctant-reader boys, and though the dialogue and narrative are seem too complex for many intermediate language-learners, some have enjoyed persevering for the humor and excitement of the plot.
Selection Tools
Best Books Young Adults, YALSA
Superbad
Superbad
Columbia Pictures (Producers), & Mottola, Greg (Director). (2007)[DVD]. USA: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Plot
Overweight motormouth Seth (Jonah Hill), rejected from Dartmouth, on his way to the State University, and his quieter and more academic Dartmouth-bound friend, Evan (Michael Cera) set out to buy alcohol for a party hosted and attended by the girls they each like. They must unwillingly enlist the help of their uberdork classmate Fogel, since he is the proud possessor of a new fake ID bearing the name McLovin’. As Seth and Evan wait outside for Fogel to some out with the liquor, the store is robbed, which sets the long night’s journey into day in motion. The journey back to the party with the alcohol involves a demented driver who hits Jonah Hill with his car,two insane policemen, and scary drug dealers who want to hear Michael Cera sing. When the two friends finally reach the party things grow even more complicated, as Seth is too drunk to express his feelings to the abstemious red-haired, independent Jules, and Becca is too drunk for Evan to lose his virginity. Fogel/McLovin’, in a triumph for geeks everywhere, gains the most prestige. Ultimately the film focuses on the deep friendship between the two main characters and recognizes the difficulty of maintaining such intimacy in the adult world.
About the author
Seth Rogen, who plays one of the cops, and big Judd Apatow collaborator Evan Goldberg, wrote this script when they were 13-15.
Reader’s Annotation
American audiences love those stories of long summer night odysseys at the end of high school, and this is the raunchy but hilarious updated offering. Overweight Seth and studious Evan must grudgingly associate themselves with superdork Fogel to secure alcohol for a party hosted by the girls they have crushes on.
Critique
The enthusiastic would say an archetypal, the more critical might say a plagiarized tale of a big night for teen friends at the end of their high school experience. Reminiscent of Can’t Hardly Wait, Better Off Dead, and of course, American Graffiti, the big change awaiting these boys, who are still children at the end of high school, is not sexual awakening but the looming loss of the intimacy of their friendship, a theme which seems to resonate with many young men today. The characters, though exaggerated for comic effect, were so recognizable to a high school teacher that I ended up confusing Seth with a real boy who had been in my class. The plot was a loosely assembled picaresque at best, but the movie was both hilarious and, ultimately, sweet.
Genre
Humor
Curriculum Ties
Fun to imagine, but no.
Booktalking Ideas
Confidential: let’s match the characters with kids at your school!
Talk about how the boys are so much more clearly characterized than the girls.
Does the movie give the impression that men are actually afraid of women, on the whole? Is the movie right?
Reading Level/Interest Age
12-18 (YALSA List)
Challenge Issues
Numerous—sexual activity and explicit discussion; drug and alcohol use; incessant profanity
Gather student responses. Share reviews and awards listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superbad_(film)
Why Included?
Major student recommendation; reviews
Selection Tools
YALSA 2009 Fabulous Films List
Columbia Pictures (Producers), & Mottola, Greg (Director). (2007)[DVD]. USA: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Plot
Overweight motormouth Seth (Jonah Hill), rejected from Dartmouth, on his way to the State University, and his quieter and more academic Dartmouth-bound friend, Evan (Michael Cera) set out to buy alcohol for a party hosted and attended by the girls they each like. They must unwillingly enlist the help of their uberdork classmate Fogel, since he is the proud possessor of a new fake ID bearing the name McLovin’. As Seth and Evan wait outside for Fogel to some out with the liquor, the store is robbed, which sets the long night’s journey into day in motion. The journey back to the party with the alcohol involves a demented driver who hits Jonah Hill with his car,two insane policemen, and scary drug dealers who want to hear Michael Cera sing. When the two friends finally reach the party things grow even more complicated, as Seth is too drunk to express his feelings to the abstemious red-haired, independent Jules, and Becca is too drunk for Evan to lose his virginity. Fogel/McLovin’, in a triumph for geeks everywhere, gains the most prestige. Ultimately the film focuses on the deep friendship between the two main characters and recognizes the difficulty of maintaining such intimacy in the adult world.
About the author
Seth Rogen, who plays one of the cops, and big Judd Apatow collaborator Evan Goldberg, wrote this script when they were 13-15.
Reader’s Annotation
American audiences love those stories of long summer night odysseys at the end of high school, and this is the raunchy but hilarious updated offering. Overweight Seth and studious Evan must grudgingly associate themselves with superdork Fogel to secure alcohol for a party hosted by the girls they have crushes on.
Critique
The enthusiastic would say an archetypal, the more critical might say a plagiarized tale of a big night for teen friends at the end of their high school experience. Reminiscent of Can’t Hardly Wait, Better Off Dead, and of course, American Graffiti, the big change awaiting these boys, who are still children at the end of high school, is not sexual awakening but the looming loss of the intimacy of their friendship, a theme which seems to resonate with many young men today. The characters, though exaggerated for comic effect, were so recognizable to a high school teacher that I ended up confusing Seth with a real boy who had been in my class. The plot was a loosely assembled picaresque at best, but the movie was both hilarious and, ultimately, sweet.
Genre
Humor
Curriculum Ties
Fun to imagine, but no.
Booktalking Ideas
Confidential: let’s match the characters with kids at your school!
Talk about how the boys are so much more clearly characterized than the girls.
Does the movie give the impression that men are actually afraid of women, on the whole? Is the movie right?
Reading Level/Interest Age
12-18 (YALSA List)
Challenge Issues
Numerous—sexual activity and explicit discussion; drug and alcohol use; incessant profanity
Gather student responses. Share reviews and awards listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superbad_(film)
Why Included?
Major student recommendation; reviews
Selection Tools
YALSA 2009 Fabulous Films List
Acceptance
Coll, Susan (2007). New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux. ISBN-10: 0374237190/ ISBN-13: 978-0374237196
Plot
Like Hacking Harvard, more App Lit. AP Harry takes every possible class and activity that will help him get into Harvard, even though he already has a full scholarship to the University of Maryland. His Indian neighbor Maya, a champion swimmer from an overachieving family, is fading under the pressure, and their weird classmate Taylor is stealing people’s mail while she searches for a college which meets her primary criteria: possessing a private bathroom. The students visit colleges, take high-stakes exams, and exhaust themselves with academics and activities. Harry’s tired single biologist mom, Grace, tries to mitigate Harry’s natural-born ambition, while Taylor’s crazy ‘helicopter parent’, Nina, whose marriage is falling apart, adds to Taylor’s pressure to excel. Meanwhile the narrative settles in on Yates College in Upstate New York, which is benefiting from the admissions hysteria, and its unsavory staff of administrators and academics, among them Olivia, a disgruntled admissions officer who is having an affair with an egotistical married professor. The book follows the students till the envelopes come in the mail (which now, of course, is replaced with a mouse click), but not all the situations are resolved, and predictably, things don’t go quite as predicted.
Reader’s Annotation
Kids going through the process might be comforted by the fact that the adults come off much worse that the kids in this satire on the brutal college admissions process. Three kids from the same neighborhood—“AP Harry”(because he’s taken every AP class available at his school), Maya, a champion swimmer, and Taylor, who, under the admissions pressure has begun to steal the neighborhood mail, make their way through Senior year.
Critique
For those about to endure it ,or those who have children involved in this process, this book has an interest not necessarily created by its disjointed plot. Many of the adult characters seem to be crazy, and while that may be an accurate reflection of college guidance counselors, admissions officers, and parents, it doesn’t make the characters real enough to care about. The younger characters are drawn with more detail and dimension, though some of their behavior never really becomes understandable. The prose and dialogue are sharp, and the conventions and responses of the whole college application grind—the tour guides, the anxious visitors, the desperate parents, are very accurate reflections of familiar recent experiences.
About the author
Susan Coll is the mother of three college age children. Acceptance was her third novel.
Genre
YA
Curriculum Ties
Counselors should have an App Lit shelf!
Booktalking Ideas
Contrast the two mothers, Grace and Nina
Would Taylor be happy at Yates?
Yashequana woman and her real-life counterparts
Reading Level/Interest Age
High school-adult (SLJ)
Challenge Issues
Mild sexual situations
Reviews excerpted on http://us.macmillan.com/acceptance
Why Included?
Powell’s recommendation
Plot
Like Hacking Harvard, more App Lit. AP Harry takes every possible class and activity that will help him get into Harvard, even though he already has a full scholarship to the University of Maryland. His Indian neighbor Maya, a champion swimmer from an overachieving family, is fading under the pressure, and their weird classmate Taylor is stealing people’s mail while she searches for a college which meets her primary criteria: possessing a private bathroom. The students visit colleges, take high-stakes exams, and exhaust themselves with academics and activities. Harry’s tired single biologist mom, Grace, tries to mitigate Harry’s natural-born ambition, while Taylor’s crazy ‘helicopter parent’, Nina, whose marriage is falling apart, adds to Taylor’s pressure to excel. Meanwhile the narrative settles in on Yates College in Upstate New York, which is benefiting from the admissions hysteria, and its unsavory staff of administrators and academics, among them Olivia, a disgruntled admissions officer who is having an affair with an egotistical married professor. The book follows the students till the envelopes come in the mail (which now, of course, is replaced with a mouse click), but not all the situations are resolved, and predictably, things don’t go quite as predicted.
Reader’s Annotation
Kids going through the process might be comforted by the fact that the adults come off much worse that the kids in this satire on the brutal college admissions process. Three kids from the same neighborhood—“AP Harry”(because he’s taken every AP class available at his school), Maya, a champion swimmer, and Taylor, who, under the admissions pressure has begun to steal the neighborhood mail, make their way through Senior year.
Critique
For those about to endure it ,or those who have children involved in this process, this book has an interest not necessarily created by its disjointed plot. Many of the adult characters seem to be crazy, and while that may be an accurate reflection of college guidance counselors, admissions officers, and parents, it doesn’t make the characters real enough to care about. The younger characters are drawn with more detail and dimension, though some of their behavior never really becomes understandable. The prose and dialogue are sharp, and the conventions and responses of the whole college application grind—the tour guides, the anxious visitors, the desperate parents, are very accurate reflections of familiar recent experiences.
About the author
Susan Coll is the mother of three college age children. Acceptance was her third novel.
Genre
YA
Curriculum Ties
Counselors should have an App Lit shelf!
Booktalking Ideas
Contrast the two mothers, Grace and Nina
Would Taylor be happy at Yates?
Yashequana woman and her real-life counterparts
Reading Level/Interest Age
High school-adult (SLJ)
Challenge Issues
Mild sexual situations
Reviews excerpted on http://us.macmillan.com/acceptance
Why Included?
Powell’s recommendation
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Chabon, Michael (2000). New York: Random House. ISBN-10: 0312282990/ISBN-13: 978-0312282998
Plot
This extraordinary book tells the story of two Jewish cousins, Sam Klayman and Josef Kavalier. Josef flees wartime Prague hidden in the coffin with a golem, and makes his way to New York where he moves in with the Klaymans. Through Sam’s job at a novelty company, Josef, a skilled artist, and Sam, a glib storyteller, get involved with the comic book movement in its earliest years, just after Superman is introduced. They create a successful character, The Escapist, who battles fascism. Josef meets Rosa, a Greenwich vllage artist, and works to help his family escape from Prague, while Sam confronts his homosexuality and both realize their work is being exploited. They have an amazing office in the Empire State Building, which enriches the comic book milieu with deco significance. Heartrending tragedy befalls Josef, and he joins the Navy to fight fascism. The narrative carries on into the postwar years, when Josef returns from war and obscurity and must repair his life.
Reader’s Annotation
The early days of the comic book industry, anchored in the deco Empire State building, are the setting for this story of two Jewish cousins, one a Czech refugee who has left his whole family behind, the other a New York novelty salesman. The great events of the era, and some of the real people, are entangled with their lives.
Critique
Teachers made a list at school for possible new additions to the curriculum; I recently re-read this book for that consideration. Michael Chabon is an artist.
The language and the story are both rich and nimble. The characters are so vividly drawn it’s as if we know them. The descriptions of the Empire State Building gave mythic status not only to the monument but to the entire deco era of the comic book’s beginnings. Though the book is rich and multi-layered, its devices—the golem, the Escapist, New York —are accessible and fascinating. Sadly, there are concerns that the gay story line will make the book too controversial to use in our classrooms, but for a library, this is a perfect crossover book for the sophisticated teen reader.
About the author
Michael Chabon grew up in one of the earliest manufactured communities, in Maryland. He was obsessed with comics, mythology, and popular culture. He nows lives with his family in Berkeley, CA. His wife is not popular with the clerks in nearby businesses.
Genre
Literary fiction
Curriculum Ties
Private schools are using it in English; public schools fear the gay content.
Booktalking Ideas
All the characters who are The Escapist
The Legend of the Golem
Early Comics
Reading Level/Interest Age
Crossover
Challenge Issues
Gay content; occasional profanity
Be knowledgeable about the book and prepared to discuss it calmly. Provide complaint form per board policy; Share reviews listed on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0312282990/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
Pulitzer Prize
Why Included?
Curriculum Selction Committee list for high school
Selection Tools
Pulitzer Prize list / National Book Critics Circle Award list , Pen/Faulkner Award
Chabon, Michael (2000). New York: Random House. ISBN-10: 0312282990/ISBN-13: 978-0312282998
Plot
This extraordinary book tells the story of two Jewish cousins, Sam Klayman and Josef Kavalier. Josef flees wartime Prague hidden in the coffin with a golem, and makes his way to New York where he moves in with the Klaymans. Through Sam’s job at a novelty company, Josef, a skilled artist, and Sam, a glib storyteller, get involved with the comic book movement in its earliest years, just after Superman is introduced. They create a successful character, The Escapist, who battles fascism. Josef meets Rosa, a Greenwich vllage artist, and works to help his family escape from Prague, while Sam confronts his homosexuality and both realize their work is being exploited. They have an amazing office in the Empire State Building, which enriches the comic book milieu with deco significance. Heartrending tragedy befalls Josef, and he joins the Navy to fight fascism. The narrative carries on into the postwar years, when Josef returns from war and obscurity and must repair his life.
Reader’s Annotation
The early days of the comic book industry, anchored in the deco Empire State building, are the setting for this story of two Jewish cousins, one a Czech refugee who has left his whole family behind, the other a New York novelty salesman. The great events of the era, and some of the real people, are entangled with their lives.
Critique
Teachers made a list at school for possible new additions to the curriculum; I recently re-read this book for that consideration. Michael Chabon is an artist.
The language and the story are both rich and nimble. The characters are so vividly drawn it’s as if we know them. The descriptions of the Empire State Building gave mythic status not only to the monument but to the entire deco era of the comic book’s beginnings. Though the book is rich and multi-layered, its devices—the golem, the Escapist, New York —are accessible and fascinating. Sadly, there are concerns that the gay story line will make the book too controversial to use in our classrooms, but for a library, this is a perfect crossover book for the sophisticated teen reader.
About the author
Michael Chabon grew up in one of the earliest manufactured communities, in Maryland. He was obsessed with comics, mythology, and popular culture. He nows lives with his family in Berkeley, CA. His wife is not popular with the clerks in nearby businesses.
Genre
Literary fiction
Curriculum Ties
Private schools are using it in English; public schools fear the gay content.
Booktalking Ideas
All the characters who are The Escapist
The Legend of the Golem
Early Comics
Reading Level/Interest Age
Crossover
Challenge Issues
Gay content; occasional profanity
Be knowledgeable about the book and prepared to discuss it calmly. Provide complaint form per board policy; Share reviews listed on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0312282990/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
Pulitzer Prize
Why Included?
Curriculum Selction Committee list for high school
Selection Tools
Pulitzer Prize list / National Book Critics Circle Award list , Pen/Faulkner Award
The Golden Compass
Pullman, Phillip (1995). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 0-679-87924-2
Plot
In a world similar to our own, 11 year-old Lyra Belaqua runs wild all over Jordan College, part of this world’s Oxford University.She is friends with a raggedy group of unsupervised children, offspring of college servants, townspeople, and of the Gyptians, traveling people whose bats are moored in the nearby canal. Lyra has a daemon—a familiar, a soulmate which usually takes the form of a small animal—everyone in this world has one. Lord Asriel, her uncle, who eventually is revealed to be her father, has an important meeting scheduled in a special chamber at the college—while hiding there with Pantalaimon, her daemon, Lyra sees the Master of Jordan dropping poison into Asriel’s drink. She tells Ariel, who has her stay in the closet and keep an eye on the proceedings. Lord Asriel’s lecture is about ‘dust’, cosmic particles full of power and significance. He then heads north on a scientific exploration. Meanwhile, Lyra worries about the Gobblers, who seem to be stealing children, especially the children of the less powerful, such as her friend Roger, a servant boy, and also the children of the Gyptians. Two things then happen—the Master of the college gives Lyra the alethiometer, similar in shape to a golden compass or pockrtwatch. It has special symbols on its faces, and is supposed to be able to answer questions for the skilled user. At the same time, the terrifying Mrs. Coulter appears in town. Sweet, beautiful, and obviously extremely dangerous, she is soon revealed to be connected to the Gobblers and on the prowl with her horrid golden monkey daemon for the alethiometer. Lyra flees north in connection with the Gyptians. She meets Iorek Byrnison, fighter stripped of his powerful armor, and former king of the bears. Lyra’s journey eventually takes her to a place where she discovers the horrible truth—through a process called ‘intercision’, the stolen children are being separated from their daemons—a fate worse than amputation, worse than death, which follows soon after. The Gyptians and Lyra must try to rescue the children and make their way to the imprisoned Lord Asriel, who holds the key to the myseries of dust and intercision.
Reader’s Annotation
Every person in this parallel world has a daemon, a familiar who is tied to the individual’s soul. When the evil Mrs. Coulter comes to Jordan College and children start to disappear, Lyra Belaqua must use the mysterious alethiometer to aid Lord Asriel against this threat to the order of the universe.
Critique:
Having read these 3 books in early September but not written about them till early December, this writing was instructive. I was extremely enthusiastic and impressed by the books upon reading. I still am, but looking at what I still retain and what has drifted away forms a ready-made critique of the elements of the book. I now find that many of the details of the convoluted plot did not stick with me, but all the major characters are vivid in my mind—the unreadable Asriel, the sublimely alarming Mrs. Coulter, and the Nordic warrior polar bear. The amazing visual of the book—the amalgamation of medieval scholarship, Victorian technology, and the powerful images of frozen northern geography—prove indelible. The strongest impression by far which lingers is of the humans and their daemons—the unspeakable pain at the thought of losing them, and the realization that everyone in our world had endured some sort of intercision.
About the author
Phillip Pullman is a graduate of Oxford College, although he always mentions that he received a poor degree. Now he has an honorary PHD from there, and lectures in Exeter College. As a young boy Pullman was fascinated by American comics.
Genre
Fantasy YA
Curriculum Ties
English
Booktalking Ideas
Where’s my daemon?
Nicole Kidman in the film: why she IS Mrs. Coulter
Victorian Technology/ Fantasy World
Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 7 and up (SLJ, Booklist)
Challenge Issues
I’d say not till Books 2 and 3.
Why Included?
My youngest son who is now away at college picked this book up on a bookstore shelf, attracted by the beautiful cover of the young girl and the polar bear in front of a wintry sky. We didn’t know anything about it. For all these years my son has been telling me to READ THESE BOOKS, but I never made time. So now I have!
Selection Tools
ALA Best Books for Young Adults 1997
Plot
In a world similar to our own, 11 year-old Lyra Belaqua runs wild all over Jordan College, part of this world’s Oxford University.She is friends with a raggedy group of unsupervised children, offspring of college servants, townspeople, and of the Gyptians, traveling people whose bats are moored in the nearby canal. Lyra has a daemon—a familiar, a soulmate which usually takes the form of a small animal—everyone in this world has one. Lord Asriel, her uncle, who eventually is revealed to be her father, has an important meeting scheduled in a special chamber at the college—while hiding there with Pantalaimon, her daemon, Lyra sees the Master of Jordan dropping poison into Asriel’s drink. She tells Ariel, who has her stay in the closet and keep an eye on the proceedings. Lord Asriel’s lecture is about ‘dust’, cosmic particles full of power and significance. He then heads north on a scientific exploration. Meanwhile, Lyra worries about the Gobblers, who seem to be stealing children, especially the children of the less powerful, such as her friend Roger, a servant boy, and also the children of the Gyptians. Two things then happen—the Master of the college gives Lyra the alethiometer, similar in shape to a golden compass or pockrtwatch. It has special symbols on its faces, and is supposed to be able to answer questions for the skilled user. At the same time, the terrifying Mrs. Coulter appears in town. Sweet, beautiful, and obviously extremely dangerous, she is soon revealed to be connected to the Gobblers and on the prowl with her horrid golden monkey daemon for the alethiometer. Lyra flees north in connection with the Gyptians. She meets Iorek Byrnison, fighter stripped of his powerful armor, and former king of the bears. Lyra’s journey eventually takes her to a place where she discovers the horrible truth—through a process called ‘intercision’, the stolen children are being separated from their daemons—a fate worse than amputation, worse than death, which follows soon after. The Gyptians and Lyra must try to rescue the children and make their way to the imprisoned Lord Asriel, who holds the key to the myseries of dust and intercision.
Reader’s Annotation
Every person in this parallel world has a daemon, a familiar who is tied to the individual’s soul. When the evil Mrs. Coulter comes to Jordan College and children start to disappear, Lyra Belaqua must use the mysterious alethiometer to aid Lord Asriel against this threat to the order of the universe.
Critique:
Having read these 3 books in early September but not written about them till early December, this writing was instructive. I was extremely enthusiastic and impressed by the books upon reading. I still am, but looking at what I still retain and what has drifted away forms a ready-made critique of the elements of the book. I now find that many of the details of the convoluted plot did not stick with me, but all the major characters are vivid in my mind—the unreadable Asriel, the sublimely alarming Mrs. Coulter, and the Nordic warrior polar bear. The amazing visual of the book—the amalgamation of medieval scholarship, Victorian technology, and the powerful images of frozen northern geography—prove indelible. The strongest impression by far which lingers is of the humans and their daemons—the unspeakable pain at the thought of losing them, and the realization that everyone in our world had endured some sort of intercision.
About the author
Phillip Pullman is a graduate of Oxford College, although he always mentions that he received a poor degree. Now he has an honorary PHD from there, and lectures in Exeter College. As a young boy Pullman was fascinated by American comics.
Genre
Fantasy YA
Curriculum Ties
English
Booktalking Ideas
Where’s my daemon?
Nicole Kidman in the film: why she IS Mrs. Coulter
Victorian Technology/ Fantasy World
Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 7 and up (SLJ, Booklist)
Challenge Issues
I’d say not till Books 2 and 3.
Why Included?
My youngest son who is now away at college picked this book up on a bookstore shelf, attracted by the beautiful cover of the young girl and the polar bear in front of a wintry sky. We didn’t know anything about it. For all these years my son has been telling me to READ THESE BOOKS, but I never made time. So now I have!
Selection Tools
ALA Best Books for Young Adults 1997
The Lovely Bones
Little Brother
Doctorow, Cory (2008). New York,:Tor. ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-1985-2
Plot
Reader’s Annotation
Critique
About the author
Genre
Curriculum Ties
Booktalking Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
Challenge Issues
Why Included?
Selection Tools
Doctorow, Cory (2008). New York,:Tor. ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-1985-2
Plot
Reader’s Annotation
Critique
About the author
Genre
Curriculum Ties
Booktalking Ideas
Reading Level/Interest Age
Challenge Issues
Why Included?
Selection Tools
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