Feed
13 Jul 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: future, science fiction, The Way it Could Be
Feed by M.T. Anderson
Published by Candlewick Press, Cambrides: 2002
298 pgs.
Recommended reading age: 13 and up
VOYA Rating: 3P, 3Q, S
This is a futuristic tale about teens that has a lot of clever underlying social commentary going on within a story of teen rebellion. So what is a feed? A feed is something that gets implanted into a person’s brain and is like having online chat and Internet on in your brain 24/7. There is no need for an actual computer. You just simply need to use your feed for anything that you need. The feed is aware of the person’s searches and Interests. It can pick up on other trends or things that might interest the individual based on their previous purchases or searches. (In fact it isn’t all that far away from what happens now on your Facebook or MySpace accounts when you allow access to various applications on your profile…)
Titus and his friends are going to the moon for a fun vacation. They are doing what all teens do: Relishing in self-gratification, partying and enjoying their privileged lives and using their feeds to communicate and keep up with modern trends. Well, they are doing what MOST teens do. Some teens that maybe have a little less money or with parents who aren’t as accepting of the technological advances that are the latest rage aren’t so lucky. Some teens, based on their income level and their parents, have older feeds that are maybe unreliable. Violet is one of these less privileged teens using a slightly older model. Violet has a father who also is a bit resistant to the present day technological use and you can see this resistance show up in Violet a bit too. In an attempt to see how the “normal” teens live, Violet decides go to the moon too where she starts out merely observing Titus and his friends but quickly the group winds up connected. While all attending the same club, a hacker hacks into the group’s feeds and they are all confined to a hospital for days while the government, medical and technical professionals monitor and repair their individual feeds.
Eventually they leave and everyone thinks their feeds will be fine. Titus and Violet slowly start up a relationship and begin dating. Violet begins to play games with the feed and tries to trick it by going crazy and busying all different types of goods as way of messing with the system. She begins to “resist the feed”. You later find out that Violet’s feed was never quite the same after the hack and slowly, bit by bit, her feed starts to “die” and malfunction. Soon Titus and Violet are left knowing that eventually she will die and try to live their teen lives using what time they have left together.
This is very interesting because it touches on things in society today that sometimes doesn’t feel all that far away in the near future. Teens can relate to this super-cool open line of constant communication but the story then shows consequences to being constantly hooked into the feed. Some characters start to form these lesions on their bodies over the course of the book. When more of them start popping up on people then the feed starts to broadcast that these lesions are actually “in” and “hip” as way of covering the fact up that they may actually be side effects to having the feed implanted in your brain. At one point, in a desperate attempt to get noticed, one character gets these totally ridiculous and ugly lesions artificially made so that she is the hippest of them all. It reminds me of other fads and trends that teens embrace today such as tattoos, piercings, hair cuts and fashion. How far would teens today go to stay fresh, cool and fit in? What price would teens today pay for not following the fold and for resisting this conformity? All these questions make this a very relatable story for teens. It has a little romance, a little teen angst and a lot of political and social commentary for the above average teen reader.
It is a very smart book with subtleties that might be picked up by the right teen reader. It isn’t a sci-fi thriller with lots of action. The dialog is very intriguing and interesting and uses lots of futuristic made up words. You can tell that as the characters are speaking to each other in real life they are also using the same abbreviated language that they would be using if they were chatting online. The characters gradually seem to get “dumber” with their words as the novel develops. Sometimes the meanings for certain words even seem to change over the course of the book, indicating that words and trends are almost arbitrary in actual meaning and really just depend mostly on the feed. The story is extremely dependent on the relationships between the teens and their dialog rather than action and adventure. I loved the language and conversations that were presented by M.T. Anderson and felt they would ring true to teen language and would be very relatable. I think this would be more for the serious reader who is a little older. Anyone under 13 might be too bored and have trouble with the language and all the nuiances to the vocabualry.
The cover was interesting and effective. By showing a bald head with a nondescript face to it, the person could be any male teen living during that time. The words of the novel are faintly plastered across the cover which is reminiscient of the way the feed is always on, and always reacting.
The Off Season
13 Jul 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: football, Wisconsin, YALSA Amazing Audio Book for Young Adults 2008
The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Narrated by Natalie Moore
Published by Random House Inc., New York: 2007
5 discs
Recommended reading age: 13 and up
2Q, 2P, JS
I can really get into an audio book or I can really, really hate it. It all depends on the narrator. I really enjoyed listening to this story even though, admittedly, I probably would have been bored just reading it.
The narrator was fantastic. She did a great job as the voice of the main character and offered variations in her voice when different characters, male or female, were speaking throughout the story. The narrator’s slightly altered inflections, accents all came through beautifully. It was also great that she was either from Midwestern Wisconsin or she was able to subtly recreate that slightly noticeable dialect rather well. It was nice to listen to. It was also only 5 discs long so it didn’t take very long to listen to, just a few trips back and forth commuting to school and it was done.
As far as the story goes, it was a very “safe” read. Compared to so much of the realistic teen angst literature I have been reading lately that covers sex, violence, drugs and other dicey topics (ones that I prefer to read honestly) this book is very “safe”. It would be a good one for the “Books that won’t make you blush” list we discussed in class which might appeal to that niche of teens. It is a family epic that follows jock D.J., a very tall girl with a massive crush on one of the cool guys from her rival school, and the events that occur to her family over one school year. Oh yeah, and D.J. isn’t just great at track and basketball. She just happens to be the only girl player on the high school football team too. She comes from a strong family that loves each other immensely although the members do have their imperfections.
This book covers all types of teen relationships: The relationship between girl and her best friend; the relationships between siblings; the relationships between parents and the relationships between teachers and the community. The book is very “girl power” oriented with a very strong character in D.J. She learns to deal with her feelings for a boy whom doesn’t truly appreciate her and learns to stick up for herself instead of getting walked all over. (She eventually kicks Brian to the curb.) She steps up to the plate when family tragedy strikes and her brother Winn is partially paralyzed playing their family’s favorite pastime: football. D.J. has a strong work ethic and really tries hard in her sports and working on her family’s dairy farm, but at the same time, struggles to find balance between her personal life and home.
It was a very real story but at times a little too “after school special” for my own personal taste. I have to remember to read this book and think about what teens would be drawn to instead of what I am personally drawn to. I feel like for those teens that like safer reads with less blushing and don’t necessarily like reading a ton about sex and drugs that this would be a good read. It also leaves a very positive message for the reader about doing what’s right and taking responsibility for your actions and making good decisions. It kind of reminded me of Joyce Caroll Oates’s “We Were the Mulvaney’s”.
On the other hand, I didn’t read Dairy Queen yet, and I kind of got the feeling like I might have appreciated this book more if I had. I don’t know the entire back story between D.J. and Brian, or the entire back story of the family and the brothers. I wasn’t lost, but I would have enjoyed some more development. I also felt like the plot was a little weird. The story just goes off in different directions without coming back around full-circle. For awhile you think D.J.’s arm injury will be the main turning point in the novel but then it gets into the storyline with Winn. Also, I didn’t quite like the title the author chose. I also didn’t understand the cover which depicts a girl looking at road getting ready to take a jog. When the book is centered around football and a little basketball, why does it show someone who is probably D.J. getting read to take a jog on a country road?
The First Part Last
13 Jul 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: 2004 Michael L. Printz Award Winner, teenage pregnancy
The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
Published by Simon Pulse, New York: 2003
132 pgs.
Recommended reading age: 13 and up
VOYA Rating: 3Q, 3P, JS
“the first part last” was a quick and heartbreaking little read that packed some very serious subject matter into its tightly and smartly relayed story. The story is told in a series vignettes and jumps back and forth in time alternating between “then” and “now” for each chapter and ending in the chapter of “heaven”.
This short book opens up right away and the reader finds out that 16-year-old Bobby, who lives in Brooklyn, is the single parent of a beautiful baby girl. The rest of the story unfolds as we learn the events leading up to how Bobby and his girlfriend Nia wind up with a baby. Nia and Bobby are dating and although they know better and are aware of safe sex practices the two wind up getting pregnant through their own irresponsible actions. Nia and Bobby are in love, like teenagers will be but Bobby also has the support of his closer than blood friends on his side. Nia, Bobby and his loyal friends all are a tight knit crew even though Bobby and Nia are a couple. Even when Bobby tells his friend’s of Nia’s pregnancy the young group of teens try their best to remain as supportive as possible.
As the story bounces back and forth the reader slowly starts to see how much Nia and Bobby really are in love, and how supportive both their families manage to be. You get inside of Bobby’s head and are able to really sense his fears and apprehension as he and Nia go through this pregnancy together. They question what to do with the baby and decide, with the support of their families, that adoption will be the best and most responsible option. All through their ordeal you get a sense that Bobby only grows more attached to Nia and you really feel like the young couple is truly in love. Due to complications however, Nia is rendered unconscious and ends up in a coma from which she will never wake up. Bobby is left with the heavy descision: Should he go through with he and Nia’s plan and give their newborn baby to the adoptive parents or should he take the baby home and raise her himself?
Bobby, though a mere 16, in a heartbeat makes the decision to keep the baby, naming her Feather, and feeling like it is a piece of Nia he will get to hold on to. Not only is he grief-stricken having lost the love of his life. Bobby now has to impending duty of raising this small child.
I think teens would enjoy this book because, on one hand it reads very dramatically like an after-school special. It has that bit of a “Juno” feel to it and you get to really feel the internal struggle that Bobby has. In contrast to many of the realistic fiction books about teens I have read lately, many of the characters here leave a positive message for the reader. Bobby moves out of his beloved Brooklyn to the safer home of his father in order to raise Feather in a safer environment. He chooses to keep the baby rather than give her up. Bobby’s friends understandingly wish him well and offer him support even though they will be sad to lose him. Even the parents of both Nia and Bobby are incredibly supportive although at times offer tough love. I also feel the manner in which the story is told in a non-linear fashion would appeal to teens because it is a bit more interesting than a long and over-developed drama. Reluctant readers might appreciate the quick story but may be slightly off-set by the non-linear lapses in time.
The cover art of the book shows a photograph of a young African American male, presumably Bobby, holding a beautiful baby girl. Bobby looks completely and deeply into his thoughts and even a little lost. I don’t know that it was an incredibly compelling cover, but it was appropriate for the story. Some teens, especially African American teens, might also be drawn to the cover and more likely to pick this up because it shows main characters that are more like them and easier to relate to, then oh say, Harry Potter or Edward Cullen. By showing an actual picture, of an actual teen the cover makes it a little bit more real and relatable.
