Lillian is Poet X

Children of Blood and Bone vs.  Poet X
LOHS

Last round was beyond easy to vote.   A remake of Arnold movie vs. Far From the Tree.  Too easy.  But this round was altogether different.

We had two new authors, both with such voice and compelling stories to tell.  Tomi Adeyemi even commented on Elizabeth Acevedo's book saying that the book will touch so many lives and make people who feel hidden away, feel seen.  This is what made us vote for Poet X.

Children of Blood and Bone was such an adventure.  We all loved reading it...maybe a zombie pick?  We were able to get into the head of each character because of how Adeyemi set up each character's story separately.  So we could get to know each character and understanding their motivations before plunging them into chaos where their paths would intersect.  This book has all the qualities you want from a YA fantasy.  It has your villain, heroes and heroines.  The alternating perspectives is a risky move, but Adeyemi pulls it off.  Nothing negative to say here.

Poet X is just different.  Yes, there have been stories before about coming of age. But X's voice is unlike anyone we’ve heard before.   She is compelling.  What she spoke of resonates.   She reminded us of what it's like to be a young woman in a world crowded with complicated rules.  This poem is just heartbreaking.  There is no cliche ending here.

Train I Ride vs Long Way Down

Train I Ride by Paul Mosier
OH this book!  I laughed, I cried, I cried again.  What a beautifully written story!  I appreciated the way the secondary characters were developed over the story and how it is the small moments in life that have the biggest impact.
This was a great book and I would highly recommend it for my grade 5 class.  It was a touching story that many kids could relate to.  Ryder’s courage was inspiring and her story brought me to tears.  It was an easy read and kids would enjoy it.  The ending left the reader wanting more and wondering what her life would be like after the train ride.   The endless possibilities of what her life will be like could lead to great open discussions or further writing assignments. After I finished reading the book, I was hoping that a sequel would be made.
 The book would appeal to both Division 2 and Division 3 students. 


Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
How can these books be paired together?  I love the way Jason Reynolds writes about tough issues accessibly and will appeal to all types of readers.  What happened at the end??  Did he finish what he started to do? 
We all enjoyed this book, however all felt it is aimed for Div 3 and higher.  The hidden messages may be a little advanced for most readers in Div 2 and possibly Div 3.  I feel students would miss some of the important parts in the story.  That being said it was a great book, with a great message.  The unanswered ending was also a very engaging way to end the story.  This would be a great book for advanced readers.  The circle of life and consequences of death was an excellent message in the book.  I also enjoyed the skillful way the book took place in an  elevator ride which happened within a couple minutes of time passing.

Such a hard decision, but Ellerslie votes for Train I Ride

2 Votes Long Way Down, 1 Vote Train I Ride

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Train I Ride by Paul Mosier

Cristina and Jeff:
I feel very glad that I picked up Long Way Down to read without having any prior information about the book beforehand. It was a surprise to find the unique and blunt format, and found myself re-reading pages aloud to my unsuspecting husband, and even in those short lines, he was very intrigued and read it cover to cover once I was finished. Kids need something to make them stop in their tracks every so often. It is not an ambitious read, so it is accessible to any of my students, which I appreciate. Jeff and I spoke at length about Train I Ride, and came to the conclusion that although it is an excellent book, and I’d be up for reviving it later as a Zombie Pick, Long Way Down deserves to be pushed forward as an important and engaging text and a must-have in any middle school classroom.

DLFS Picks Long Way Down by a long, long mile.


Stacie: I enjoyed reading both of these books this round. Long Way Down made me stop and think afterwards. It took me a few minutes to fully understand the ending and its significance. I really liked the message the author was trying to get across to the reader. It was a very quick read due to the format the book was written in. I would recommend this book to adults and high school students but likely not to junior high students. My vote this round goes to Train I Ride. I would recommend this book to junior high students. I think grade 8 girls would especially enjoy this read. This book introduces us to Rydr, a 13 year old girl who is traveling from California to Chicago to live with a new relative. We slowly learn more about Rydr and the difficult experiences she has endured. I think she is a very relatable character for many teenagers.

The Poet X

I have to admit that I’ve never read a book of poetry other than what I’ve used with my Grade Fives. For this reason I was a little hesitant about the book and wasn’t sure if I’d like it. I actually loved The Poet X and read it within the day. After a “heavy” read with Children of Blood and Bone I was hoping for something a bit lighter. I wouldn’t say this was a light read (it addresses some important issues such as gender stereotypes, questioning one’s faith, homophobia and finding your voice) but it was an engaging read. It took a bit of time, and some page skimming, but The Poet X captivated my interest in a way that I was not expecting. I loved reading how Xiomara found her voice by writing and then eventually performing her own poetry. I found myself connecting with the main character and actually cried at the end (I won’t say why for those who haven’t read it). I was not a fan of the romance between Xiomara and Aman but I enjoyed that X had someone in her corner other than Twin. Our team votes for The Poet X.

At first I did not enjoy the format of this book, but soon realized how this could be used with some of my struggling readers. I have found it difficult to find low-vocab/high-interest books for my jr high students, and feel this novel is something my struggling readers might enjoy. Even though some text was written in a foreign language (Spanish?), the story was interesting and kept my attention. Coming from a family of immigrants, I found I could relate to the overly-restrictive nature of the main character's upbringing. (Karen)

Children of Blood and Bone

Feeling rather embarrassed that I didn’t love this!

After various raves and reviews about this novel, I was excited to read it. The title, the novel cover and the reviews all appeal to the excitement that one would hope for in the plot. The summary leads you to think it’ll be a great read, but yet, I only made it to page 30. I’m relieved I didn’t make it any further after hearing my team and their reviews!

Nellie Carlson voted against this one and quoting the email I received “ Blood and Bone was dark and generally not a genre that we enjoyed.”

I agree as does Rachel, as the length is the first deterrent, although I’d teach students not to judge a book this way, I found very little in the first few pages that made me want to persevere. The main character (can’t even recall her name) might have won me over by her rebellious ways but it just didn’t hook me. I’m going to put it down to the genre, I have a hard time with the fantasy genre!

This book was not at all what I thought it would be. The main character's over use of sarcasm left me feeling less than sympathetic. I found the whole book to be dark and not enjoyable to read. (Karen)

Darius is not Great, But Pretty OK

Yeah, so there was not a lot of drama in coming to a conclusion about what should move on for our little West side group, and from what I’m hearing from the most connected man in the world (Hello, Mr. Smilanich!) all of our larger group also felt that Darius The Great Is Not Okay is the book to go forward into the next round. And I’m Ok with that, but here’s the thing: I’m just OK with that. I didn’t love this book and I didn’t really dislike Saints and Misfits, so I’m having a little trouble working up the necessary pique or passion that I usually try to channel in these things.

They were both generally interesting novels with narrators who I wanted to learn more about, even as they - sometimes subtly and sometimes didactically- taught me some interesting things about their complex social and cultural lives. The teen angst runs pretty deep in both novels and there are times when both characters can grate a bit, not only because of their heartfelt expressions of anguish (and what self-respecting teen novel doesn’t have a bit of that?) but also through their failure to see the other people in their lives as fully functioning entities, rather than just role players in their dramas. I know, that’s probably asking a lot as we’re not typically operating at peak empathy in those challenging teen years, but one of the reasons that I think Khorram’s novel emerges as the victor here is that Darius actually ultimately moves past this kind of insular world view, prompted, yes, by a literal trip abroad. He doesn’t just gain self understanding, he does so by ultimately embracing a more fully realized vision of those around him, most notably, his dad, but also the other members of his family, and even relatively peripheral characters like Chip.

In contrast, I’m not sure Janna - who undoubtedly learns some important things about herself and finds her voice in the face of trauma - really sees the other people in her life - including some interesting characters (I’m thinking a novel narrated by Sausan would be highly entertaining) - as little more than functionaries in service of her journey to self-discovery. Again, maybe that asking a lot from a book that - while it deals with a range of challenging and important topics - is ultimately a pretty breezy read, and I mean that in a positive way: I think there are a lot of kids who would enjoy the story arc and the ongoing multi-faceted “drama” of it all. Darius The Great is Not Okay is not without some teen drama as well, but ultimately, it has a little more depth and nuance. I think they are both solid novels,from young writers with something to say, with not insubstantial (if not overwhelming) writing chops that would be good additions to your school library. If you had to pick one, though, we’d recommend Darius The Great is Not Okay.

Darius the Great is better than okay

 Darius is a tea and Klingon loving teenager who makes his first trip to Iran with his family to visit his grandparents.  Darius meets Sohrab who instantly makes Darius feel welcome.  Through kindness and respect the two boys build a strong friendship.  This book reminds us that connecting with our past can help us gain confidence for the future.

In this novel, Janna categorizes people into three groups: 
Saints - people who are shifting the world to a better place
Misfits - those who do not seem to belong
Monsters - people who appear to be saints but are definitely not

As Janna struggles to navigate her teen world she continues to realize that saints can disappear before you are ready for them to go and that monsters are hard to battle.





Although, S.K. Ali allows readers to empathize and cheer for Janna, it is the compelling writing of Adib Chorram that captures the reader's attention.  My vote to continue for the next round is Darius The Great Is Not Okay.

Submitted by Maureen

Sweet and Simple versus Deep and Dark

                                         
The Goat
The Goat is a cute story about people coming together to help each other. It's sweet and simple. It seems like there might have been deep symbolism at play with a goat named Goat. a child named Kid, and a dog named Cat, but we didn't figure it out. It was the holidays though.

Though the story is nice, we didn't love it. In fact, Dianne "kind of thought it was the stupidest book ever". There are too many issues for such a short book; it touched on them and moved on. Though the two main characters are children, much of it seems to be from an adult perspective. Many of the issues are adult too: a survivor of a stroke, angry and defeated by a lack of recovery, an adult mourning the loss of his father and his marriage, a playwright and actress paralyzed by self-doubt, a grandmother being obsessively protective of her grandchild following his parents' death in the World Trade Centre. 9-11 itself is hard for our students to grasp. They weren't alive when it happened.

On the other hand, we liked the focus on anxiety and extreme shyness. We thought many kids would identify and benefit from seeing themselves in a story. We had some fun seeing things from the goat's point of view. Unfortunately, we don't think many students will make it past a slow starting first chapter with a lot of characters to keep track of.

The Marrow Thieves
The Marrow Thieves  was a little slow to start, but the second half definitely made up for that. We got to know characters as they shared their back stories from their own perspectives. We were impressed with how the author blended  love stories with an action based plot.

In addition to the portrayal of strong Indigenous characters who are not stuck in history, we have positive portrayals of the LGBTQ, not as a plot point, but as a natural presence. The mentor's partner just happens to be same sex.

The story made us question and reflect on Canada's history. It also has us thinking about the future: the direction we're going, how we're going wrong, and where we might end up. So much potential for discussion with students.

Hurray for Canadian Metis and Indigenous authors!

Alisha, Dianne, Megan and Renee, Ottewell School

The History of Jane Doe

Life as an adolescent in a small town - once labelled, it’s permanent. If you don’t get
invited to lunch with the cool crowd, you never will. But then the new girl - Jane Doe -
arrives and changes all that for two nerdy teen boys. Although it is hats off to the
history-teaching author for touching on teen mental health problems, this plot plods along
somewhat predictably.
The main character and his sidekick are cute and quirky and there is some suspense
as the author does a “slow reveal” about Jane. However, the overall read is neither
compelling enough to have me wanting more nor to win this round.
We recommend teachers walk through and discuss with students the issues t
hat the author presents. It is still worth the read.

Some members of our group thought this book should move forward, but we opted to
go with the majority.

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow   -

“Readers will feel as though Harry Potter is meeting Alice in Wonderland in this first of a new series.”  - Kirkus Review -

This whimsical, fun-to-read story has an almost Mary Poppins feel to it. The reader is immediately drawn into Morrigan’s plight and cheers her on from the start. There are enough minor plot twists to keep the reader guessing and cheering on Morrigan. Many of the other characters in Nevermoor are endearing - even Fen, the Magnificat - and bring life to the story. Junior high students, maybe even grade 9 boys(?), will have fun with this 400+ page tale.

Some of our team were disappointed it did not live up to the magnitude and comparison of Harry Potter.

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow moves on for this round.

The Poet X vs Children of Blood and Bone

Most teachers at Nellie Carlson agree that the Poet X should move on in the competition.   The novel is unique, and the compelling story line makes the poetic format comfortable in a short time.  Children of Blood and Bone was dark, and the fantasy format was not a winner with our team.   Poet X moves on.

The Forgotten Half - Or How Efficiency Kills!

Annabel, if you've read the post below, is very organized. She can even get Lisa, also an organizer, to blog. What organization can't do is give a voice to the rest of us - the passionate but disorganized readers who need constant reminders so this blog is for the rest of us.  We also read the books but probably while we ate something with crumbs and maybe after we lost one of the books under a bed for a while. Luckily, we come together in our unanimous support for The 57 Bus. Lill felt this was an important book to read and that as classroom teachers the message of being able to move on from poor decisions is one we live in with students every day. Andrew felt this was the book to move on and like in the earlier post thought Spill Zone barely got started before it finished. With a high cost associated with colour graphic novels this makes it a very expensive choice to ensure you have the whole series. I enjoyed Spill Zone and thought some of my students would too but there are plenty of F-bombs that would keep it out of many elementary libraries. Holly said it is outstanding but with an asterisk. I asked her why and she said she felt most people would feel Sasha's story was most important but she kept coming back to Richard's. I completely agree with her. The 57 Bus was a 5/5 read for me last year. You absolutely learn about the agender world and an old brain like me struggled past the pronoun they to learn so much. It was Richard's story, however, that spoke to me the most. The quintessential parent/teacher question is: What were you thinking? From experience we know the answer to this varies but never satisfies. The consequences for Richard are staggering and has repercussions for justice systems, for race relations and for empathy - a heavy load but a book that begs to be discussed by classrooms from grade eight and up. If you feel like Holly and I do I strongly recommend the third season of the Serial podcast.

Comparing Apples to Oranges

This book competition seems almost unfair, as the genres, intended audiences, and content are so vastly different, but we gave it a go. For all of us at Westminster (5 teachers and 1 student), the clear winner was FAR FROM THE TREE, but Spiderman: Miles Morales got some unexpected love too.

As a rule, I don't care for comic books and would never readily pick one up. However, Spiderman: Miles Morales, had interesting and relatable (to an extent) characters, a unique plot and great artistry. I have definitely passed this on to some of my reluctant readers and it has been very well received. Overall though, I found it too hard to follow without knowing the backstory, and some of the layout made it difficult to digest too. I also really disliked the ending, or lack thereof, as I don't want to have to wait for the next one to see the story resolved.

From From the Tree was full of all the aspects that seem to permeate YA literature...multiple narrators, a love story (or two), and a slightly implausible, but highly engaging plot. The premise of the story, that three biological siblings separated at an early age meet up in their teens and deal with the hardships that life is throwing at them, was heartwarming and engaging. The story was well crafted, with characters who were both likeable and fallible, which added a nice dose of realism to a story that could otherwise be too unrealistic to be believed. Overall, I think the novel story idea paired with the relatable characters makes this story the obvious victor.  

We look forward to reading the post of others who have read this one to see if it's going to move forward!

Spill Zone vs The 57 Bus

               Led by the Mighty Annabel Preece, we have devised a new and improved way to have everyone contribute to our blog. A doc has been created where we can all record our thoughts about the books we are reading, and then viola!, instant comments for our blog. So what you are about to read is a compilation of many people's different thoughts on these two books.

Spill Zone

The Spill Zone, to my surprise, was a pretty good read. I think that junior high kids will love it - meat puppets, monsters, lots of cussing. What’s not to enjoy?
Oh, the marketing. Scott Westerfeld obviously signed a multi-book contract.
I am certain that the sequel is already written. Unfortunately, it left this installment of the book feeling incomplete. I got to the end and felt like I was introduced to intriguing characters, an imaginative setting and conflict and then…. well nothing.

I just found this book so strange. The story was too bizarre for me, plus the creepy Raggedy-Ann doll was over the top.

Why are so many graphic novels so… weird. I’m not really sure what to say about this book. Sure, the whole environmental spill/cover-up was interesting (big, bad government… again!), but not interesting enough to make up for the flat characterization. Nope. This book was not for me.

The graphic novel is visually jarring, as if someone had put to pen and ink their jagged and off-centre nightmares. It attempts to adopt the requisite grit and toughness of the dystopia genre, and I appreciated that the most heroic and “tough-as-nails” characters are females--both human and human-made.There’s a lot of good things going on with this book, and I would be interested to pick up the sequel and see where the author takes this tale.

The 57 Bus

This book is an excellent reminder that public incidents/crimes are never singular

moments but rather an outcome of larger and more important stories.

LOVED THIS BOOK!

Having just finished 57 Bus, all I can say is WOW! Truthfully I was not aware of the

story of Sasha and Richard prior to reading the book. The style of Slater’s nonfiction

narrative, made the book so compelling. It allowed me to develop compassion and

empathy for both people, which under the circumstances of the type of crime that was

committed, I normally would not have had. With the world we live in today, I think this

book should be a mandatory read for all high school students.

I know I haven’t gotten into the heart of the book yet after reading 100 pages or so,

but the one thing that has been sticking in my mind has been “security.” And not the

gun-toting, wall-building, “boots-on-the-ground” version we’ve come to be familiar with,

but those socio-economic intangibles like accessible education, family stability,

opportunities for youth to engage in meaningful and life-building activities gainful

employment for all. The kind of security that not only allows you to develop into the

person you were meant to become, but to dream about and work on the person you

could become…

...even though I read 57 Bus back in April, the story has stayed with me; it is not

something one soon forgets

It shows the reader that most true stories are very multidimensional and should never

be judged solely by what you read in the newspaper. My heart broke for both of these

characters. To be a victim of such a random crime was agonizing for both Sasha and

their parents. But the book showed that to be the perpetrator in a crime can also be

agonizing - a fact that many of us often forget. The disparity between these two families

was also front and center. Sasha had so many opportunities simply because of who they

belonged to in life. Richard, although loved, was not so lucky. I also appreciated the

impartiality of the author as she didn’t seem to favour one side over the other. Lord

knows we need more balanced stories in our lives.

There you have it. Many of our opinions on both of these books. Perhaps Ben sums up most people's feelings when he writes, I feel 57 Bus hits on such relevant topics. I’m not sure if 57 Bus, craft-wise, takes the reader anywhere they haven’t been before, but in my opinion, and in this case, provocative and pressing subject matter trumps stylistic risk.

Marrow Thieves vs Goat

Debbie Piasetsky - Alberta Ed, Norma Johnson - Sweet Grass, Vanessa LeCaine - Sweet Grass

Marrow Thieves - Cherie Dimaline The Goat -Anne Fleming

     vs

Vanessa - I listened to the Marrow Thieves earlier this year and I loved it.  The

narrator had a slow, melodic cadence and I really got a feel for the book.  I did

struggle at the beginning to figure out that it was not set in the now but the

not-too-distant future.  The idea of “harvesting” from specific populations is not

old but this was definitely a new take. Loved the tie in to Indigenous culture and

the way this story was told.  And then I read GOAT. A short book, cutesy cover,

was sure it would be a nice light snack. But it was a lovely surprise...a series

of intertwined stories that revolved around a goat living on the roof of a high rise

in New York City.  The stories are short but there is still strong character

development and you get a attached to the folks in these stories quickly. Here is

the dilemma....there are incredibly different books for very different audiences.

I loved them both for different reasons.  

Ok - this was a hard one but I am going to go with Goat.  After a couple of

weeks of sitting on it, Goat it the one that is sticking with me best.

Norma - Enjoyed both books.  Found it easier to get into The Goat.  My choice

for this round is The Goat.

Debbie - I too listened to “Marrow Thieves” and loved it. I thought for sure it
would be the book I chose to move forward. But then I hunkered down with
“The Goat” over the break and loved it too...equally...but for different reasons.
To make this quick, I am choosing “The Goat” to move forward because I think
students from grades 4-12 could enjoy it and learn from it. I will definitely be
nominating “Marrow Thieves” for my zombie pick later on though.