Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

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"The first ten lies they tell you in high school

1. We are here to help you.

2.You will have enough time to get to your class before the bell rings.

3. The dress code will be enforced.

4. No smoking is allowed on school grounds.

5. Our football team will win the championship this year.

6. We expect more of you here.

7. Guidance counselors are always available to listen.

8. Your schedule was created with your needs in mind.

9. Your locker combination is private.

10. These will be the years you look back on fondly. (Speak, pgs. 5-6)"

Mel's first day of high school is terrible. On her way to school, none of her old friends talk to her. All of the other students eye her like she is a freak. She wants to explain it to them all, but something stops her. She can't speak about it. Everytime she tries, her throat closes up and she chokes on her words.

After school she goes home, eats pizza, and runs upstairs to hide from her parents. They don't want to hear from her. They don't even want to see her. Things aren't looking good for her first year of high school.

Things get worse when IT keeps popping up in her life. He talks to her, tries to get her attention. Why is she being punished? Will she ever be able to tell her secret? Will she ever get her old life back?

Anderson created an awesome character that deals with extremely hard topics. One of the major themes is identity and finding your place in the world. It also deals with growth and communication. Laurie Halse Anderson pulled the most difficult struggles a teen faces and then explores them with sarcasm, wit and sincerity.

For more of my thoughts check out my Reading Log.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

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The Monkey King is just that, a monkey that is a king of monkeys. However, this monkey knows different forms of kung fu and considers himself to be a deity. One night, he smells food from a heavenly dinner party and decides that he wants to attend, even without an invitation. Once he arrives in heaven and tries to enter the party, the other gods mock him. They call him a simple monkey and say that he will never be anything more than that. The Monkey King's reaction? He pummels them all and sets out to prove himself as a deity equal of all of those in heaven.


Jin was born in the United States to Asian parents, but he still faces the difficulty of stereotypes and the sting of racial discrimination. It is clear that the color of his skin and the slant of his eyes is enough to separate him from the rest of the class. When Jin meets another boy named Wei-Chen Sun, he struggles to "fix" the other boy's broken English so that he will not be embarrassed. And, as you see him grow up, Jin struggles with his heritage limiting not only his friends, but also the girls that he is interested in.


Danny is a normal teen with a terrifying secret: his cousin Chin-kee. Danny is embarrassed by his cousin's broken English and odd mannerisms. Danny has to take Chin-kee to school with him and it is devastating. Danny says it messes with his life and claims that he has to switch schools after every visit his cousin makes. This time Danny refuses to let his cousin mess up his life. But how will he stop his strange cousin?


These three tales are woven together to create a strange and unique tale. It's full of hilarious inuendos and hidden meanings and the art is amazing. Yang uses this story to explore the problems of racism and stereotypes. His characters express his feelings and thoughts about growing up. His book begs the question of: what would you do to fit in?

For more of my thoughts check out my Reading Log

The Scarlet Letter (Graphic Novel) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hester Prynne, after being found out of adultry, must wear the scarlet letter "A" upon her chest. She must suffer the insults and attacks of her Puritan neighbors. The judges plead with her to name the man that she committed adultry with, but she refuses them. There is nothing left for her except to take care of her baby girl, Pearl, and to hide the identity of her lover (even from her husband).


I know that there is much more to this story than what this thin graphic novel version is telling us. I am really wanting to read the whole thing now.


There are a few things that I didn't understand. Did her she marry her husband because it was arranged? Or was she, at one time, in love with him? I think that is a critical piece of information that was left out! Were there any other stipulations placed on her by the judges? Or was wearing the A punishment enough? And why did she embroider her letter in that way? It really didn't answer these questions.


It did deal with some interesting issues and this book might spark some religious questions. I think I would really like the full version and, at my earliest convenience, I plan to buy it.


I can't rate this higher because it left so much unsaid, but I can't give it lower because it did a great job getting some of the major themes across. So, I will give it a temporary three, until I can better judge it.

By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters

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Daelyn has been ridiculed and mocked her entire life. She's been made fun of for her weight, for her looks and she's nearly been raped. She tried to kill herself, but she had timed it wrong; her parents had found her and managed to get her to a hospital. Now, she wears a neckbrace and can no longer speak. She suffers in silence.


However, she hasn't given up her plans to kill herself. The story picks up with Daelyn as she is planning her next attempt at killing herself. She realizes that now she has to plan more carefully, she has to make things just right. She also realizes that she would have left a large mess for her parents to clean up. So, this time, she is going to do it right. She gets on a website that sets up a twenty-three day program for her. All she has to do is wait twenty three days and she can kill herself. She's suffered for 15 years; what's another few days?


What she doesn't plan on is Santana. He is a boy that tries to talk to her after school. She refuses to acknowledge his existence, but he cannot be dissuaded. Nor does she consider Emily. Emily is a "fat" girl at school that tries to open up to her. Daelyn is going crazy! She has finally found a way to kill herself, and everyone decides to start paying attention to her.


When the final day comes will she be prepared to die or will she second guess herself.


This novel deals with the touchy subject of bullycide or suicide because someone has bullied you to the point where you break. In class, this book brought up amazing conversations and opinions. This book does have some very dangerous material and must be presented in the right ways.

For more of my thoughts check out my Reading Log

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Clary Fray walked into a backroom of a club to find a boy with blue hair tied up to a post surrounded by three shadowhunters. The shadowhunters, better known as the half-humans half-angels or Nephilim, claim the boy is a demon, but Clary knows that demons aren't real. So, when the boy breaks loose of his bindings, attacks one of the Nephilim with taloned hands, ends up with a knife in his heart, and then disappears as if he had never existed, Clary finds herself doubting everything she ever knew about the world; especially when no one else can see the shadowhunters.


The next day, Clary ends up in an argument with her mom. She storms out of the house with her best friend Simon and go to a poetry reading. There, she sees Jace, one of the Nephilim from the night before. Apparently, he had been following her because she intrigued him. Then, Clary recieves a disturbing call from her mom. She races home to find the house trashed and empty, or almost empty. She comes face to face with a demon. She manages to kill the little beast, but not before getting poisoned by it. Jace, who followed her again, saves her by taking her to the Institute.


Clary, then, begins the hunt for her mother. Along the way, she learns amazing secrets about herself and about her mom.


Clare did a fantastic job on this novel. It left me wanting to go directly out and get the next part in the series. Once more she goes along the theme of finding one's self and learning to be comfortable with who you are. The cast is set up amazingly. Each character, in their own way, makes the scenes they are in. Jace, Simon, Alec and Isabelle help create complex social issues that Clary has to go through.


However, once more, Clary seems to be underdeveloped. At times you like, at other times she's your worst enemy. You can never tell exactly how you feel. Maybe, as the series goes on, you can learn to like her.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Tessa Gray took a boat to London to be with her brother, Nate, after her Aunt Harriet's sudden death. On her arrival, she finds herself kidnapped by two strange women, named the "Black sisters," that tell her that her brother is imprisoned until Tessa can prove her worth. While the older women hold her captive, Tessa is taught how to use a strange talent that she never suspected she had. When the Black sisters are satisfied with her training, they tell Miss Gray that she is to be married to the mysterious "Magister". Then, on the night before her wedding, she is freed by a blond haired boy with strange tattoo-like marks all over his body.


Tessa finds herself in a new world. Warlocks, Vampires, Werewolves and Demons are real. The Nephilim, half-angels half-men, hunt demons and keep the human populace ignorant of their "Downworlder" neighbors, and Tessa is staying in the Nephilim's Institute. Here she gets to know Will and Jem, a pair of shadowhunters (a more familiar name for the Nephilim) and together they start the search for Nate, Tess' brother. This search leads them ever closer to the dangerous "Magister" and his clockwork army.


This book is extremely entertaining! It took me three days to read this book, only because I had to stop myself to read for my classes. She uses a ton of sarcasm and witty comments to make her characters more enjoyable and familiar to us, the reader. Though Tessa is the main character, she isn't the character that you fall in love with. Will and Jem, the shadowhunters, are the ones that steal the show. Will is the sarcastic character that never lets you more than skin deep. He uses his wit to hide away his true thoughts and emotions. Jem is the opposite. He is all accepting. He doesn't judge, he doesn't turn away. I can't wait to find out more about these two in the next installment of the trilogy.


Clare takes an interesting look at stereotypes and racism. She uses the shadowhunters, the downworlders, the mundanes and the demons and shows the hatred and prejudices that each group holds for the other. She uses Tessa to question the views of the Nephilim and through this, show the folly of our views against others that are not like us. There are also themes such as identity and good and evil that are prevalant throughout the novel.