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
Switch

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Furia Wins The Day

 

Well, this was not a particularly close call for us. We did not have one person go to bat for The Intruder in this one. I will say that The Intruder struck me as a good, somewhat old fashioned narrative, that our kids maybe don’t get exposed to enough in their formative years these days. Even Disney kids shows can spend more time raising an ironic eyebrow than actually engaging an audience in the plot. So, I think there are kids that will definitely find this to be a compelling read and I think they will like young Margot. She’s dealing with unimaginable trauma, but we still see the person she is shining through, even if the very insular nature of her circumstances throughout the novel maybe limits the depth of her character. I think a lot of kids would keep reading through this just to find out exactly what is going on, even if all of them might not be satisfied with the ending.

 

Camila (Furia) is another character that kids will be drawn to. Her life, too, is complex and she is another strong character who will inspire both empathy and admiration. I have played and coached soccer my entire life and I certainly think that any kid who is “futbol-obsessed” (as our author is described on the book jacket) would find both the descriptions of play and the rags to riches rise to Serie A for Diego to be a compelling backdrop for Furia’s complex narrative. I don’t think, however, (much like Dragon Hoops in the first round) a reader would need to have much, if any, background in sport to still find this an engaging read, While the storyline is interesting in itself and kids will legitimately keep reading to find out where everything is going, at the heart of the narrative is a social justice warrior. This is a story rooted in time and place, and I suspect  that an interview with the author would provide us with stories from her youth in Argentina that would be every bit as gripping as this novel. Soccer may be the driving force for Camila to claim her own identity, but this is also a powerful exploration of female agency and the forces - historical, cultural etc. - that have kept young women just like Camila fixed in place. There are elements of this story that read like any teen drama -real or fictional): familial conflict, disagreements between friends, barriers to love - to name just three - but there are also very profound ideas at work here and these ideas are explored in a sometimes nuanced manner. Ultimately, it is a story of struggle and hope, not just for our young protagonist, but for something better for us all as we move forward. I think this would be an engaging read for young people to not only see themselves as they are, but also see themselves as agents of change. Furia is our pick to move forward into the next round.

"Endless Kitten Videos"


    Once again, the opinionated, polemic, and verbose literary giants of A. Blair McPherson convened virtually over the break to determine the fates of two very different yet compelling novels: Echo Mountain (penned by Lauren Wolk of Wolf Hollow and Beyond the Bright Sea fame) and Land of the Cranes (written by Aida Salzar who also authored The Moon Within). Several interesting themes emerged from this spirited discussion, all of which struck at the heart of both the power and the frustration of the Smackdown: what are the best criteria upon which to rely to determine the superior book?

In-Your-Face Realism vs. Escapism

    It was during this phase of the discussion where the titular inspiration came about; a number of contributors have been yearning for literature that isn't about COVID or racism or some other hopeless and fractious theme: how about a book that, for example, relies on the beauty of the prose, or does delve into idyllic descriptions unironically? Where the plot might have its share of hardship and struggle, but each of the characters offers redeeming qualities, and things are tied up in a nice little bow in the end?  This was the thrust of appeal that captured a sizeable amount of our participants: Wolk is known and has been lauded for her elegant and detailed historical fiction style, and the lessons learned in her stories are valuable and applicable but don't come attached with that soul-crushing energy that a lot of recent books seem to pack.

    On the other hand, many ABMers felt that "Cranes" was a book that "needed to be out in the world." With its focus on the main Latinx character Betita and her family's harrowing experience in a US detention centre, many felt the themes and topics in this book are too important to ignore. Rather than shy away from hard realities, Salazar swoops into the heart of the hurt, much like her literary motif the crane would. Almost all acknowledged that escapist literature has its place, but the fact that this story, fictionalized but based on true events and experiences, cannot and should not be ignored.

Audience Considerations

    This criterion is an important one: can the books I encounter during Smackdown be read by my students? Using my own class and grade as an example (such is the privilege exercised by the blogger, haha), Grade 6, "Echo", with its complex and mature writing style and its length (350+ pages), might prove to be a struggle for my emerging and struggling reader. Further, because the book does not offer a traditional antagonist (as it did so wonderfully and frighteningly with Betty Glengarry in Wolf Hollow), even read as a read-aloud this novel may not capture the imagination or the relevancy of an upper elementary audience.

    "Cranes" has its share of difficulties as well. Its hard-boiled dedication to realistic themes and situations may put this in the "inappropriate" column for even the most astute and aware junior-highers, let alone my sixth graders. With depictions of sexual assault and abhorrent restroom conditions, as an example, this novel, as presently zeitgeist-y as it might be, could prove to inspire anxiety and squeamishness that many educators may use to declare the book out of bounds. 

"Prose Pose"

    Someone aptly quipped that "novels in verse are IN right now." How very true. Relying on the power of poetry gives the author a sense of freedom, artistic expression, and a sort of 'breeziness' while relinquishing none of the story's topical strength. As is the case with Salzar and "Cranes", the reader will certainly feel the pain, terror, and anxiety of the characters, while enjoying the unique enjambment choices of the author. "Echo", while relying on a more, dare I say it, traditional, conventional approach, loses nothing by way of style, thematic power, or artistry. Wolk paints the main character, Ellie, with a masterful brush, elegantly and poignantly taking us through her joys and struggles as she aptly embraces Depression-era rural life, while desperately and almost fervently searching for a cure for her comatose father. The other characters are well fleshed-out and sympathetic, and the descriptions of life on an unforgiving mountain are expertly depicted. Both writers are at the top of their game, as disparate as their approaches may be.

"Que?"

    Another interesting point that came up with the use of Spanish in Land of the Cranes. Some readers felt the inclusion of Spanish or Spanglish elements made it difficult to comprehend without needing a dictionary or online reference tool. While this did not seem to deter most from enjoying the book or denying the relevancy or power of the inclusion of Spanish, it was an obvious roadblock. One participant said it made them empathize with the struggle of our ELL student population, while others compared it to similar difficulties found in the previous round when reading American As Paneer Pie. Others, however, armed with prior knowledge of the Romance languages, and, to a more limited degree, exposure to Spanish-language visual media, found the bilingualism either a non-issue or enjoyable. (I for one, gave myself a high-five when I remembered that dulzura (Spanish) means dolce (Italian- thanks, childhood piano lessons!) which means sweet in English. 


Miscellaneous Tidbits...and the Conclusion

Finally, would Smackdown be Smackdown without the requisite:

- accusations of gaslighting?

- declarations of surprise and shame and disappointment in one's reading peers?

- (unwittingly) muted rants?

- dreams of post-Covid, in-person jabs?

Of course it wouldn't! And it all served to drive our conversation to its inevitable (yet still debatable) conclusion: Land of the Cranes flies off to the next round, as Echo Mountain remains, solid and steady as its story may be, relegated to the dustbin of histor(ical fiction). For some die-hard fans who would consider themselves "Wolk" or "Laurenites" to the extreme, Echo Mountain may be a candidate for the Zombie pick, but perhaps it's still too early to tell. :)




Its Banksy for us!

 Me and Banksy by Tanya Lloyd Kyi vs. The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm 


Me and Banksy is our pick for this round. It features Dominica, a relatable and likeable protagonist, who is forced to confront her pseudo-dictator of a principal and the inner struggle to do what is right in the face of danger. The Lion of Mars tells the story of Bell, a boy who has grown up on Mars his whole life. The book dives into themes of belonging, family, and redemption. 
Me and Banksy is definitely the more relatable story for junior high/high school students. It also connects to themes of current societal issues regarding technology vs. surveillance, the proliferation of cyber-bullying, and of standing up for one's beliefs against those in power.

Friday, January 7, 2022

Entrapment Abounds!

Two great reads: one about Japanese-American teenagers forced into incarceration camps after Pearl Harbor, the other about the Thai boys' soccer team trapped in an underground cave in 2018.

We Are Not Free - Traci Chee

Historical fiction that successfully incorporates true events as the backdrop to a colourful fictional story… This is what I needed after The Radium Girls! The telling of We Are Not Free is broken up into eleven (??) convincing first-person narratives, which gives the story depth and breadth, and emphasizes the interwoven nature of our lives. Ever changing, also, as we grow older and make different choices. My one complaint is that at times, the narrative came off as a little “tell” rather than “show,” particularly during some of the discussions or internal monologues about racism and discrimination. I’m trying to decide if, for the age group this book is designed for, being “on the nose” is perhaps not a bad thing, or if it narrows the opportunity for discussion in the classroom… 


Although focused on the trials and tribulations of adolescents through the adolescent eye, mind, and language, this novel did surprise me at times with insight that resonated with my own experiences as an adult. For example, the description of life as people coming together and drifting apart, repeatedly, until no one is left.. And the deep and emotional attachment a person has to their “home” place, or any place that has temporarily been “home.” The characters soak in the small moments, the small joys and beauties and in-betweens of a life that is full of hardship, with a maturity that I would be thrilled to see reflected by today’s adolescents. These characters have a knack for seeing the richness of life, and it is written beautifully by Chee. I would love to dwell on some of these passages with students and have them draw insight into their own lives.



All Thirteen - Christina Soontornvat


This was a blistering read, as in, I didn’t move from my spot from cover to cover. The true story of survival from a nightmare situation was told concisely, but with enough detail to keep me enthralled in every moment.
Soontornvat organized and delivered an astonishing number of perspectives and pieces of the event, and wove them together into a coherent narrative that continuously emphasized the complexity and enormity of the task at hand. Even though I knew what the final result would be (from watching the news and… the title), the unfolding of the weeks-long story provided so many details that I hadn’t heard before, but will now never forget. Thematically, human resilience, teamwork, hope against overwhelming odds, and the power of the human spirit are very accessible to students, and I think the vast majority would be captured by the action-packed intensity of the story itself to remain engaged. Of course, I immediately dove into a google rabbit hole looking for pictures and video footage (especially of the famous moment that the rescuers found the team), which is always a good sign. 


The additional information interspersed throughout the story itself did come off as a bit school-textbook- “Did You Know?”-y and, I confess, I did skip some of them. But only because I couldn’t tear my attention away from the action! I can see most of them as being well-intentioned and useful blurbs to add cultural background for readers who are not familiar with Thailand, but some of them seemed like page fillers. Particularly the entire page dedicated to explaining the phrase, “Practice Makes Perfect.” At the height of the rescue, I did not have time for this!!


Actually.. I could totally see this book having a place in a Science classroom, during a unit that deals with weather/rainfall/erosion.. Perhaps even more so than the ELA classroom.


In conclusion… I found both of these to be engaging and historically-informative, but I am ultimately voting for We Are Not Free to move forward. The writing itself is richer and, IMO, offers more opportunities in the ELA classroom. 


All Thirteen Are Free!

Well, that’s more like it.

After a pretty m’eh first round, we have a finalist for last year’s (2020) National Book Award versus this year’s (2021) Kirkus winner.

I had a few qualms about both if I’m entirely honest.  But nothing that would stand in the way of giving both a hearty YAAAAHHHHS.

Sidebar: HBO’s Station Eleven is currently giving me a lens through which to view our world right now, a way of generating hope and optimism, focussing on the truly kind and empathetic during times of crisis.   In the spirit of this, I’m just going to say a few things that I love about both of these texts. That’s it. Just things I love.

Traci Chee’s We Are Not Free

I love the way that many characters get their chance to narrate a part of the text, each voice convincingly authentic and revealing.  I love the way the organization of who “tells” the next piece allows the form of the novel to generate content: so many interesting parallels and juxtapositions; so many interesting ways in which characters and contexts and ideologies buffet against each other; so many Rashomon-ish moments of different people’s perspectives on the same incident. The seamless integration of both individual character voice and the voice of authorless authority.

I love the way that this, stealthily, reveals itself as a multimodal text…and each of those forms reveals something about theme and character.  And history.  And story.

I love how time works in this text. STICK AROUND FOR MY TED TALK ON HOW TIME WORKS IN THE SAME MANNER IN WE ARE NOT FREE AND THE THIRD SEASON OF SUCCESSION (I am not joking about this).

I really think there is a place for this book as a whole class novel, and would heartily recommend a class set or two (already purchased—bless you, Book Warehouse Christmas Season sales). I agree that engagement may be an issue if one just dropped it into students’ hands, but as a Teaching Text—pretty incredible, I think.  Even the ways that the structure of the novel asks the reader to analyze initially at a micro- level, but eventually at a macro- level…man, give me a grade 10 class STAT.

Christina Soontornvat’s All Thirteen

Sidebar 2: see...this is non-fiction for Young Adults done right. No one needed to "fictionify" the account and to insert themselves first-person-style into the narrative to make this gripping and engaging.  Just be well-written and researched and structured.

I loved (though…I see others sure didn’t--looking RIGHT. AT. YOU. HRYCUN.) the interstitial breaks in the narrative to elucidate on “Meditation” or tell me more about “Human Responses to Levels of Oxygen Concentration.” Maybe I’m a dummy, but I found them really interesting and illuminating.  Like…perfectly spaced out.  Timely (and…metaphoric and clever?  “Rules To Dive By”?  NOICE). I felt they proactively gave me the requisite “expertise” to sagely nod when experts were talking about ketamine.  This personal expertise also appears after watching three hours of, say, Bobsledding during the Winter Olympics. Illusory sense of expertise, but just what I need!

I loved how invested I was. I love how many times I cried (like, really crying. Those notes on page 152? Saman Gunan? OOF. A full-blown mess, I was)). I loved that there were times, as I turned the page or came to the end of a chapter, I had a huge exhalation—because I had been holding my breath for way longer than I should have been.

I loved the precise craft of the thing.  Not just the chapters (so cleverly considered!) and the look (the interaction between text and image!) and the feel (the physical weight of it in my hands!) of it—but there were sentences that truly made me gasp.  Passages that I tagged for use as Mentor Texts.

I feel bad for the book in that The Rescue is such a hit right now, and documentaries are so widely available on streaming services that…I think lots will watch the movie rather than read the book (and the eventual [and pretty-much-inevitable] Oscar-nomination will cement this prediction). But…there’s lots the book does MUCH. BETTER. than the (pretty good, much-lauded) movie does, specifically the ways in which the boys and their families remain the focus— Soontornvat’s very personal interviews and research (THOSE SOURCE NOTES THO) speak to the story that she was committed to tell.  And HOLY TOOT, does she ever.

Both are worth reading.

But my vote goes to We Are Not Free.

                        

Team Sweet Grass

Tune it Out vs    The Gilded Ones

 


Vanessa: I'm gonna keep this short-ish.  These books have very different audiences.  If I was picking the best book for my kids, my library - then it’s Tune it Out.  But if I am just picking the best book, regardless of audience, just based on writing and story..it Gilded Ones all the way.


Tune it Out was a Costco hot dog: digestible, easy to carry around, good with just a little ketchup and mustard, reliable.  The Gilded Ones is a full course meal with two kinds of forks and a rich demi-glaze sauce.  As much as I love a good hot dog, I’ll pick the other meal 90% of the time.  My vote is for Gilded Ones.


Norma:  I loved both these books and the dilemma is how to choose.  I weighed them based on the criteria Vanessa mentioned, elementary audience or best book.  I spoke to Steph and had my mind set on Tune it Out; then I spoke to Vanessa and thought maybe Gilded Ones.  As I loved them both and agreed with both of them, I thought about which I would read again in a heartbeat, which one I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next as I was reading and which one I would read a sequel to today as I want to know more about the characters…so I flip flopped Steph and will move Gilded Ones forward.  Steph, it took a lot of effort and a hot chocolate.  It wasn't  so easy to sway me!


Mel: My vote isn’t even fair since I completely abandoned one of these books (which is unlike me)!  My vote is for “Tune it Out” since I couldn’t get past Chapter 5 in “The Gilded Ones”.  They lost me at trying to kill the demon over and over. Mel out.  “Tune it Out” was the winner for me while I tuned out it’s rival.


Stephanie: I also loved both of these books and truly wish we could just say that it’s a tie and let them both go through. After firstly reading Gilded Ones, I recommended it to numerous of my friends. I have never been one to enjoy fantasy, but honestly found myself completely engrossed in the story and the characters. As Vanessa mentioned in her comments, it is definitely rich and a four course meal. I was planning on voting for it, but  despite how wonderful it is, I still choose Tune It Out , as I am not so easily swayed Norma:) True Tune it Out is shorter, easier to digest, and a novel targeted to younger audiences; however, this does not take away from the fact that it’s a great story with many clever parts. I really loved how the protagonist was labeled as having one type of condition, but then it was later revealed that it was something different. She was involved in some complex relationships and was processing so many things at once. I loved being witness to this process. I also loved that she made friends with the drama nerds and was able to find herself and set some boundaries in her life:) I’m a sucker for a happy ending!! I vote for Tune it Out but won’t be sad if Gilded Ones goes through…



Rushmi: 

For me, there was no swaying needed. I am Gilded Ones all the way! I loved the diversity of the characters, the movement of the plot, and it would have been nice if some of the story lines were more developed, but I was not sure how it would end, so I just had to keep reading! I found Tune it Out to pale in comparison because the plot is fairly simplistic and the pace didn’t hold me. I felt for the character but she seemed to wax and wane in her complexity which I found inconsistent. It would make a good addition to the library due to addressing her emotional and societal issues, but I would rather wait to pick up Namina Forna’s next book, or hope to cheer on the powerful female character Deka in a sequel. 


Emily:

I was immediately sucked in by Tune It Out, and after our last round, I was just happy to have a book with a cohesive narrative that I was interested in. I loved the story of friendship, and how Louise came to understand more about herself and how to set healthy boundaries. The story resolved a bit too quickly for me, but this is absolutely a book that I could put in my classroom library. 


I really enjoy fantasy stories so I was predisposed to liking The Gilded Ones from the start. While it was a bit of a slow burn at the beginning, I loved how you got a sense of the world the author was creating. I ended up reading the last half of the book in one sitting - I could not put it down. I loved that Deka was a strong female character that I could root for, and I’m incredibly curious to see how her story continues to unfold in the sequel. 


My vote is for The Gilded Ones.



Jon:

Transitioning from teaching High School in the United States to Middle School/Junior High abroad, and now to Elementary School in Canada, one of the major differences has been the books that I read.  I had never given the time of day to YA novels, but since teaching grade 5/6 I would like to think I have read my fair share. 


One common theme has been a constant throughout, and this is important because this is what sets one book apart from the other.  


Nearly every YA novels premise is the same.


“I’m dull and boring, there is nothing exciting about who I am…BUT WAIT, I am a wizard/witch/mermaid/third in line to the throne but fell off of the carriage one day and was raised by commoners?!


“I’m not special, there is nothing unique about me… BUT WAIT, I am literally the fabric holding the entire universe together?!


“I am as normal as can be :(, BUT WAIT, I am the spawn of some ancient deity and have magical powers that somehow don’t activate until I am about 13 years old?!”


And now in The Gilded Ones, “I am just going about my own day wearing my mask as usual, BUT WAIT, I can’t ever die and my blood is gold, and I can get beheaded a million times. And I’m sad about it :( but I will join this army?”


I’m over it.  I am all for empowering children, I am all for helping them realize their own potential, but there has to be a better way than the barrage of novels with this same common theme.  


The Gilded Ones is just another book.  It did very little to distinguish itself from its peers.  I think the author even knew there was little separating itself, too.  So much lore was given in the book that deep down in my heart of hearts I believe the author wasn’t expecting to be given a chance at a sequel that she scrambled to get as much of it into the first one as possible. (Not to mention the book is clearly a critique on something… but the reach of things it could be satirizing is so big that after a while I stopped looking that far into the message).  


Tune It Out is my vote. 



Too bad, Jon.....the votes decide and Gilded Ones is moving on...


The Lion of Mars eclipses Me and Banksy (Team 5)


It's my responsibility to, somewhat begrudgingly, announce that The Lion of Mars has rocketed into round 3 (4 votes to 1) 

The Lion of Mars: 

  • The Lion of Mars would make an excellent read aloud for Grades 4, 5 and 6. While I enjoyed the story it left me wanting more. I wasn’t satisfied with the sci-fi elements, especially for a story that takes place on Mars. Overall, the Lion of Mars was an enjoyable read that has left me feeling optimistic and hopeful for the future of space colonization. 
  • My vote goes to The Lion of Mars. I  felt there was a natural progression as the story unfolded. However, it was somewhat disappointing when a major conflict was resolved with one or two sentences. This left me thinking, “That’s it?!”

Me and Banksy: 

  • I absolutely loved Me and Banksy! I know a common critique of the novel is that Dom and her friends plan this street art protest rather than telling a trusted adult and getting their help to deal with all of the cyberbullying. What’s important to note is that Dom and Saavni tried to tell the principal about the cyberbullying, but Principal Plante did nothing to prevent future incidents. While I have some concern that some students may be inspired to commit similar acts of street art vengeance after reading Me and Banksy, I think the message is far more important than the potential student led protests. Ps. This novel would make a great read aloud or novel study companion to the movie, Moxie (2021).  
  • Me and Banksy was quite a boring read for me. I found the plot dragged on, and was left beyond underwhelmed with the principal’s storyline. Boring. Boring. Boring.

 

Team Eight: "The Electric Kingdom" Shows "Show Me a Sign" The Door
I have to admit I am writing this post as a dissenting voice in a large majority victory for "The Electric Kingdom". However, while I placed the book in the "not for me" category, I did feel as I was reading it that it could really resonate with the right audience. That audience seems to have been my colleagues, and hopefully will also include students, as it does already have a pretty ardent fan base online. Since I am writing impartially, I am going to include primarily the impressions of my colleagues we collected below. Overall, we felt that neither was an absolute home run, and both had a lot to recommend. 

 "I read The Electric Kingdom first and initially thought I wasn't going to be voting for it because it was too slow to get into. I thought (and still think) that it would be hard to get kids engaged in because of the slow start. However, by the end, I was invested in the characters and actually really liked how the Deliverer storyline played out." 

 "I love a great Dystopian book and can get my head around a little time travelling twist! I actually thought the book was very masterful in circling back through each character and understanding the role of the Deliverer. I liked the analogy that was used in the book about nesting dolls, as that is how I saw the story unfolding - there was the big outline of the story, and every chapter brought in a narrower view of what was happening."

 "At first, I thought Electric Kingdom was slow going, as it took me a while to invest in the characters. But then I got quite attached to the characters - especially (spoiler redacted). While I don’t think every young adult reader will get into it to stick with it, I do know some more patient readers who will probably like this dystopian world and the idea of time loops." 

 With respect to "Show Me a Sign", we did appreciate the own voices story with a deaf protagonist, and clear narrative compared to "The Electric Kingdom" however, we thought that some of the plotting was a little weak, and the impactful topics it addresses (colonialism, racism, stigma of disability) were not as meaningfully engaged with as we might have hoped. 

 TLDR: "The Electric Kingdom" advances! We hope that it finds an audience, overcoming pandemic fatigue and a slow start, to allow readers to find a juicy middle and (mostly) satisfying conclusion!

Team Eight: Ben Severson; with input from Laura Johnson, Kerri Boyle, Maureen Roszell, Carla Gust, Chelsey McPherson, April Aitken, Shelley Gosse, Noelle Goudreau, Lisa Landry-Jones, and Krystal Eliuk

Thursday, January 6, 2022

We are Not Free vs All Thirteen (Team 3)

 

We immediately gravitated towards favoring We are Not Free.  We enjoyed the intersecting stories of characters, though sometimes we only hear from cetain characters in a limited capacity.  The way each character stands out in some way (ie Yum Yum's blond wig) was nice to read and allowed a way to remind orselves of which narrative we were following. With so many characters, it would have been nice to have had some of the small characters flushed out (side note: the audiobook has unique narration for each character which was great), but it as nice to stay connected to Minnow, a wonderfully human character.  We also appreciated how elements from regular life (crushes, school, dances) was infused into the story of internment, and how the excitement about more "fluffy" things (like Betty), lent the book a certain verisimilitude (especially for teens) that one doesn't always encounter in these types of stories.  Throughout, hope was very present, and the author balances this with the bleak injustice of the internment. The direct moralisitic elements closer to the end didn't seem to be needed, but it would help students nail down themes. 

In HS, we would likely not buy a class set of We Are Not Free but instead use the novel as an option in a lit circles situation. Alternatively, excerpts from this novel would work well as mentor texts. For instance, we really enjoyed Minnow drawing his neighbors and separating people from different origins, as well as the scene early in the text where Japanese citizens are having to sell off their posessions (lots of chances for amazing conversation and symbolic dicussions).  Plus, Minnow being gay acts as a reminder that this part of our population is represented in all aspects of history, including this terrible time.  


And now, onto All Thirteen. While the heroic rescue was certainly a fascinating time in our modern history, one of our team put it well when it was stated that this felt like more of a type of book you'd find in a doctor's office waiting rooom.  "Yup they got...yup they got rescued; I remember when that happened."  The map that was included about the cave system gave some wonderful perspective of the sheer size of the challenge.  Still, we felt that some of the charts (like what happens when you have hypothermia) seemed inserted in a clunky way.  This was more of a niche interest  - how many of our students have been in a cave - for a library.  Though we enjoyed the cultural elements that were present, the undelrying culture didn't seem to be as much at the forefront as it could have been. We felt that perhaps more of a memoir format would have been a bit more impactful. SThere was a nice balance of the hope.  A reversal of narration, with the majority focused on how these athletes survived emotionally and kept hope alive (with pershaps the informational charts being used to talk about the logistics of the rescue) would have made for a more compelling, authentic narrative.
Thus, overall, our vote is for We Are Not Free in this round of smackdown.