Smackdown Books 2021

Ordinary Hazards
We Dream of Space
If These Wings Could Fly
We Are Not Free
The King of Jam Sandwiches
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team
The Companion
Punching the Air
Show Me a Sign
Land of the Cranes
Furia
Dragon Hoops
When Stars Are Scattered
Snapdragon
The Radium Girls: The Scary But True Story of the Poison That Made People Glow in the Dark
American as Paneer Pie
Tune It Out
The Gilded Ones
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
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Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Image result for holding up the universe Libby reads Image result for the hate u give

A couple of us had a hard time deciding which book to vote for and came in willing to
go with themajority. It turned out there wasn’t a strong majority, we really enjoyed both
books. They both feature brave, empowered, flawed, female leads. They were both hard
to put down (Dianne protests that she could have put Hate down at many points in the
middle).


Holding up the Universe was especially compelling. The main characters, Libby and Jack,
have problems we’d never have - fattest teen in America and profound face blindness -
but we could relate to them. Most of us hide parts of ourselves and work to adapt to cover
our weaknesses. We felt their struggles and had empathy for them. Not only do we not
have prosopagnosia, we didn’t even know what it was. Curiosity about that was one of
things that kept us reading. The novel inspired us to want to learn more about
prosopagnosia and the book Libby was obsessed with. But let’s face it, we’re busy
teachers, none of us actually got around to doing the research. Still, we’d like to know
more (some day, when we have spare time - stop laughing!). We wonder about the title
and its reference. Can some LA teacher explain it to us?

The Hate U Give brought an issue that’s often in the news to life and personalized it. We
have a better appreciation for the realities this culture faces. On the other hand, the
situations were so far out of our realm of our experience, it was hard for most of us to
relate. A typical Canadian teen will not identify with the characters’ experiences. Some
will have experienced subtle forms of racism and may see this as an affirmation of their
struggles though. Angie Thomas also presents two strong, black, male role models at
different extremes - the rebel and the rule follower. This novel is important, it’s topical,
and timely, and shines a spotlight on a world we should learn more about it, but there
were slow spots. As a result, our scales tipped in favour of Holding Up the Universe.

Ottewell - Renee, Deb, Dianne and Alisha
Richard Secord - Jill
Shauna May Seneca - Linda and Bernadette

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