Since this is the last blog . . .

I will go all out and (gasp) answer both questions. Maybe someone, someday will find this obscure blog and realize how special children's and young adult literature is. To all those nonbelievers out there, you can't have read the books we did this semester. I already discussed the idea of children's and young adult literature as being lesser in my first posting, but one can never praise amazing authors enough. While I never completely abandoned young adult literatue, for the past couple of years I have been reading mostly British and American literature from way back when. Maybe that's why I tend to talk about works of literature in the past tense. The novels we read took me back to my past as well as bring me to the present. Some of the authors we read -Avi, Lois Lowry- were reminders of books I enjoyed as a child. However, the books we read this semester were completely new to me. I found myself enjoying them not as light reads but works of literature that are revealing and often revolutionary.

There are two books we read this semester that I won't forget. How can I, after I actually went out and spent the money to buy them after I read borrowed copies from the library? The first one is Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret. When I first saw the book on library displays after it won the Caldecott Medal, I looked at the cover and thought, "I'll pass." It looked like it would be a bright, crazy story about a boy who made things, perhaps things that got him in trouble. I ended up having to read it for class anyways. And am I glad I did. This is one of the most amazing books I have laid eyes on. The story itself is full of interesting facts that most people wouldn't know, yet it is made accessible through the story of a young boy. The book, though, is ingenius. The way Selznick picked up the story in pictures like movie slides then swtiched to text was seamless and unique.

The other book I can't get over is Lois Lowry's The Giver. I don't know how I missed it as a child, but I don't think it lost any of its effect when I read it as an adult. I was absorebed into Jonas's world. The story provoked so many thoughts and questions that I will probably still be thinking about many years from now. The distopia of the utopia was done in a way that, while we have to agree that Jonas's world is no utopia, it turns our world upside down and makes us question those same values that make the "community" so horrifying.

These are only two examples of a long list of young adult books that we read in class and I read outside of class that show the greatness of their writers. Hugo Cabret is truly a great piece of work that required a lot of skill and talent. I don't even think that "skill" and "talent" completely describe what Selznick had to have had in able to think of, let alone create, this book. There have to be better words somewhere, but I can't think of a fitting one right now. The same goes for Lowry, an incredible writer whose books, especially The Giver, continue to provoke and affect readers today. I would love to know what she was thinking when she wrote The Giver. People who create such works cannot be "inferior" writers. They just chose a different and equally important medium to let out their genius. Granted, there are some books I think young people could do without (*cough* Twilight saga), but works like the ones we read in class flood the gateway of literature and beyond with rich ideas. Just imagine how much thought has to go into books like the ones mentioned if we are able take so much from them. If people like us consider the authors of children's and young adult books as inferior writers, what do we call ourselves?

We Are All Connected

Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a novel that represents intersections between texts and literary concepts, but also between cultures. The diary format of the novel joins a long tradition of books written as diaries which deal with issues regarding culture. Such books, due to the very personal nature of diaries, allow readers to experience the issues raised in the novels from a more personal perspective. There is much in the novel that all readers can relate to by drawing on their own experiences. Alexi deals with issues very sepcific to a part-time Indian, but the conflicts behind those issues are experienced by everyone.
The hero archetype/coming of age story is also present in Alexie's novel. Junior/Arnold leaves everything he is familiar with to enter a whole new culture, and is taken back into the fold (by Rowdy) after many growing experiences. Alexie portrays the hero archetype on so many different levels. Physically, Junior travels out of the reservation he grew up on to reach a better life. Culturally, he is forced to leave his native culture behind (becuase leaving the reservation meant that you were turning your back on your tribe) and enters the White world. Internally, he goes from being Junior to Arnold. He must resolve the conflicts on all of these levels.

The Giver: A Glimpse into the Future

The Giver as a whole is an unforgettable book. For me, it was both disturbing, not in an I don't approve way, but in an I never would have thought of something like that way, and powerful. I don' think I'll stop thinking about it any time soon. As a coming of age novel, the way it goes about with the idea of loss of innocence is powerful. Five years from now, I know that I will remember the scene where Jonas learns that "release" isn't being let out of the community to find a different, and, to Jonas, better life. It was devastating, with the whole set up of him beginning to care about Gabriel, who might be released. Watching anyone kill a baby for any reason is an experience that would turn one's world upside down, watching your "father" do it all smiley and for what you know is a very shallow reason, well, I don't know how the Giver was able to watch Jonas experience it, let alone imagine what Jonas must have felt. I think that learning that the release meant death was the biggest blow, or maybe I can call it "pain," Jonas could have faced, even bigger than the war scene.

Some more scenes I will probably remember are the scene where Jonas realizes the childhood game he used to play is actually a war game, the scene where he tries to get Asher to see the colors in the flowers, and the discussion Jonas has with his parents about love. As you can see, the whole book is memorable.

The ending will always stick with me wondering what really happened. However, I also find myself wondering if what "really" happened even matters. Jonas broke free of the community and took his and Gabriel's lives into his own hands. I think that he still ended up with much more than those in the community did. He also believed that he experienced whatever it was that happened. Could that be enough?

I can't say that the book was a happy book, but it will always have its place in my most recommended books list. I have already gotten eleven young teens to read it, and they came back wanting to talk about it. That is a feat not all authors manage, even if they do get published.