Sunrise Over Fallujah

Myers, Walter Dean. (2008). Sunrise Over Fallujah. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Chapter Book: Yes Genre: Non Western 

Sunrise Over Fallujah is a story about a new army recruit named Robin "Birdy" Perry and his account of his time spent in Iraq right after one of the most difficult times in American history, 9/11.
I remember I had been working for Continental Airlines for eight years and in those eight years you develop friendships with other airline employees and you become a family. In the airline industry we have what’s called an interline agreement whereby crew members can jump seat in the cockpit with other crew members if the flight is not full with crew members from that particular carrier, so you get to know each other very well. Some of what I tell you will be information learned after 9/11.

Two weeks before that very dreadful day two of the highjackers flew on our aircraft Baltimore, Newark – Newark, Boston. We would later learn that they were testing the security on all American carriers. It is believed that they wanted to make a statement with The CONTINENTAL UNITED States of AMERICA(N). I remember very vividly getting dressed on my way to work when I received a phone call from my brother in-law, telling me to be careful and to turn on the news. For those of you who do not know one of the aircrafts had hit the Twin Towers in New York City. It was awful. And as the day progressed it only got worst. We learned that some of our crew member family was high jacked and murdered. In addition, some of our regular customers that were on the aircraft that was diverted from hitting the White House was murdered. Americans were outraged and afraid, and as quiet as it is kept it had a devastating effect on our economy. Overnight Continental had to lay off 11,000 employees. Other carriers had to let go even more. The numbers were unbelievable. So when President Bush Jr. told Americans that the people who attacked us was in Iraq, and that he was declaring war on them we were 100% behind him. Which brings me back to Sunrise Over Fallujah.The story Sunrise Over Fallujah starts out with Private Robin Perry, from Harlem New York writing a letter to his uncle telling him about how he feels about going to war in Iraq. He did not understand why his father did not want him to go and why his uncle Richie who had served in Vietnam never wanted to talk about his experience until he had an experience of his own. It was all exciting at first the mission was to get Saddam Hussein find his weapons of mass destruction destroy them, and pay them back for bombing us. However, he would later learn that there were no WMDs and Saddam Hussein did not bomb the Twin Towers. In addition, the mission changed and finding out who the real enemy was would not be as easy as it seemed.

Private Perry was a part of a special detachnment created for Medical, Construction, and Intelligence. Their inital responsibility was to help secure and stabilize the country and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. As the story progress we find out that Perry AKA Birdy's excitement would turn to disillusionment when he starts to see that the people he has come to know as family are dying all around him and now he is in a war that seems to have no end. I wish I could say that this story had a happy ending and that everybody lived happily ever after. But you will have to read the story to find out for yourself and find out if the Sunrise Over Fallujah was a bright one. Although this story reminded me of a time in my life that I had buried in my mind to never resurface I believe it's a story that must be told. I recommend this story for students between the ages of 14 and above. There were no illustrations but Walter Dean Myer's story telling was very vivid. I thought the story was very well written. Below is an interview with the author.
http://aalbc.com/authors/walter1.htm

 

Thirteen Reasons Why

Asher, Jay. (2007). Thirteen Reasons Why. New York: Penguin Group

Chapter book: Yes        Genre: Realistic Fiction

When I was younger and people would argue and bully each other and call each other names we would say, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.” Oh if only that were true. Who knew that today not only will words hurt you but in some instances cause young people to do the unthinkable. Commit suicide! No longer do young people fuss today and make up tomorrow now there’s Facebook, MySpace and twitter. Today it’s called cyber bullying and it never stops. As in the case with Hannah Baker who gives us Thirteen Reasons Why.

In the story Thirteen Reasons Why it takes place in small town where everyone knows everyone’s business. A few days after Hannah Baker commits suicide her friend Clay Hansen receives a strange package on his doorsteps. It was a shoebox with seven cassette tapes inside detailing her reasons why. After hearing the first tape Clay is perplexed should he continue to listen or throw the shoebox away. But what if there are more? What if he is the very reason she is gone? And what if the wrong person should find out? His wanting to know outweighed his fear of what he would do if he was. As he continued to listen so many thoughts ran through his mind so many emotions began to surface. Was this the reason she left them? For some twisted kind of revenge? No she left them because she knew Clay would tell her story the way she intended for it to be heard.

Clay, honey, your name does not belong on this list. You don’t belong in the same way as the others. It’s like that song: One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong. And that’s you, Clay. But you need to be here if I’m going to tell my story. To tell it more completely. (P.200)

What I enjoyed most about this story was the intensity of the two way dialogue between Clay and Hannah. Moreover, when Hannah went to talk with Mr. Porter for the last time you could just imagine Clay’s feeling of helplessness. I thought this story was very well written. In addition, I highly recommend this story to students 14 and above. Below is a website for the book.

http://www.thirteenreasonswhy.com/

The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Pearson, Mary E. (2008). The Adoration of Jenna Fox. New York: Square Fish.

Chapter book: Yes             Genre: Science Fiction

Identity – the fact of being the same person or thing as claimed.   What if you were asleep in a coma after a near death experience and wake up after some time to realize that you have lost your memory and your identity, think you could cope?

In the story The Adoration of Jenna fox that is exactly what happened to Jenna Angeline Fox. The young lady and her two best friends Kara and Locke, decide to do the unthinkable which was to drive her new car without license or permission. Because of that one wrong decision it would cost her and her friends dearly. The teens went to a party and while at the party a fight broke out. Frightened and out of their environment they leave in a hurry. In their haste they speed away. Being inexperienced drivers they hit a curve. When Kara tried to break it was too late over the cliff they went. After some time Jenna wakes up from the coma. Through her new found friend Mr. Bender, she discovers Kara and Locke both died a few days after the crash. But that is only the beginning.

What I found most intriguing about The Adoration of Jenna Fox was that the story took so many different turns from cloning to bionics from bionics to mystery from mystery to true friendship and love. I thought the story was very well written. It takes place between Boston where she was born and California where she was reborn. Although there were no illustrations Mary E. Pearson’s descriptions were so vivid that you could picture every scene from the Cotswold cottage, Mr. Bender’s property the old Catholic Church, the school, and Allys parents’ property.

In addition, The Adoration of Jenna Fox reminds me of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Jenna has discovered that she is not all human anymore and is confronting her mother and father. I stare at them both. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, it does. " I have a life expectancy between two and two hundred years. What's next? I back toward the door. How could you do this to me?" " We did what any parent would do. We saved you." "Save what? I'm a freak! You saved an uploaded artificial freak!" p.128 Likewise, Victor Frankenstein is confronted by his creation. "I expected this reception," said the daemon. "all men hate the wretched; Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature. You propose to kill me. Do your duty towards me, and I will do mind towards you and the rest of mankind." p. 65 The monster goes on to make Victor an offer he should not have refused.

Moreover, The Adoration of Jenna Fox causes one to wonder, how well do we really know each other? Could someone actually live for two hundred years? Have you ever gone to a museum and look at someone in a picture dated maybe one hundred years old, then to walk downtown and see someone who looks just like the person in the picture who was one hundred years old? Could that even be possible? It is definitely something to consider.

This book is very thought provoking. I would recommend it to students 14 years of age and above. Below is a website about the story. http://www.whoisjennafox.com/

How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity

Block, Francesca Lia, Levithan, David, Maguire, Gregory, Lanagan, Margo, Woodson, Jacqueline, Donoghue, Emma, Sleator, William, Shanower, Eric, Koertge, Ron, Boylan, Jennifer Finney, Schrag, Ariel, Peters, Julie Anne. (2009). How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Chapter Book: Yes Genre: Short Stories

Everyone has a story good bad or indifferent. Everyone has to deal with the issues of life. The choices you make will determine if you win, lose or draw, and that will determine "How Beautiful the Ordinary."

How Beautiful the Ordinary,is a book of short stories by twelve different authors. Each author sharing a different story about what he or she believes are some of the challenges young people face in dealing with who they believe they really are. The book begins with a story about someone who is dead watching over two boys trying to fit in with a society that is changing towards excepting their relationship but not fully. In the end they are admonished not to give up but to keep on loving each and in time maybe things will change for the better for them.  

Moreover, as I read further there were some stories written using graphic art. The colors were black and white however; the illustrator was able to capture the idea of what the author was trying to say. Some of the stories were very graphic in content and I would be very careful of the audience I would refer this book to. I think this book is suitable for students between the ages of 17 and above. One thing in particular I noticed was that in all of the stories there was an ever present shadow of sadness. For example: the story Dear Lang. I heard a friend of mine once say that in any relationship male female, male male, female female, when comes to breaking up for the most part it is never pretty. In this story two women live together as a family, they have a child, they break up and YaYa one of the women is not allowed to see the child anymore so she writes this heartbreaking letter to the child on her sixteenth birthday.

Most of these stories appear to take place in rural areas.  The story that grabbed my attention the most was The Silk Road Runs Through Tupperneck, N.H. I thought that story was very well written and it has good substance to it. However, as stated earlier I would be very careful about whom I introduced this book to only because of the graphic content and nature. 

Walter Dean Myers

 I had the pleasure of going to Goucher College for an evening with Walter Dean Myers on Thursday, March 24. Maggie Meacham, author and lecturer in the Goucher Teachers Institute writes. As one of the first writers to address urban and minority teens – and the challenges they face – Walter Dean Myers is a pioneer of young adult literature. With more than 80 titles to his credit, including Monster; Scorpions; fallen Angels; and a memoir of his own youth, Bad Boy, his books have won him both a devoted readership and dozens of book awards.
Myers was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1937. At age 3, he was adopted by foster parents Florence and Herbert Dean and was raised by them in Harlem. Florence had taught herself to read, and she trained Walter by letting him read the True Romance magazine stories she liked. He preferred reading comic books, and when a teacher discovered him with one in class at P.S. 125, "she grabbed my comic book and tore it up," Myers recalled. "I was really upset, but then she brought a pile of books from her own library. That was the best thing that ever happened to me."
Myers was a bright student, but during his teen years, he became disillusioned by poverty and the lack of opportunities and resources for African Americans. In 1954, he dropped out of Stuyvesant High School, and on his 17th birthday,he enlisted in the Army. He served three years and returned to New York City, where he took a series of low-paying jobs. Myers wrote short stories throughout this time, and in the 1960s, he began submitting his work to magazines.
Here are just a few highlights of what he said about himself. He's written 100 books one of which Phyllicia Rhashad wants to buy and make a movie. He grew up with a speech impairment whereby he lived in his head. All of his brothers and sisters had speech impairments. They had no social skills. He was teased as a child and he loved to fight, set fires and throw books in the fourth grade. His 4th grade teacher's name was Mrs. Parker.
In the 5th grade under the influence of Mrs. Conway, Walter began writing poetry. 1st year of high school he would not be black anymore, he would be smart. That changed because his mother was an alcoholic and his father was a manic depressive. He dropped out of school at 15 and joined a gang at 16. at age 17, he joined the army. When he returned home he started writing for the Enquire. "After all everyone has to work somewhere."
What he began to realize was that because of the era he grew up in, he started to question his life, what it means to be devalued. After reading books written by James Baldwin he realized that there may be other young people who had a story to tell so he began to write for them. In his remaining time he told us that there are 90,000 children in prison with no support system and he had to give them a voice. He would tell their story.
I am very happy that I got to spend time with Walter Dean Myers, I thought he was delightful with a great sense of humor and very kind.