Dancing on the Edge

Bibliography:

Nolan, H. (1997). Dancing on the edge. New York: Penguin Group, 214 pp.

Genre and Awards:

Fiction

National Book Award, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, Booklist Editors’ Choice, A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Dancing on the Edge opens bizarrely, Miracle McCloy is invited by her highly spiritual (CRAZY) grandmother Gigi to participate in a séance to contact Miracle’s dead mother. Miracle received her name because she was pulled from her dead mother’s womb after a tragic accident. During the séance, Miracle’s mother’s spirit notifies the family that Dane, Miracle’s depressive writer father, is gone. Gigi claims that Dane has melted when the family finds his bathrobe and other clothing heaped in a pile in his room full of burning candles.

Miracle accepts this explanation for his absence and takes to wearing her father’s bathrobe to school because she misses him so much. Miracle and Gigi’s wacky claim that Dane melted does not go over well in their small Alabama town and they relocate to Atlanta to live with Miracle’s grandfather Opal.

Gigi resumes her odd spiritual activities in their new hometown: conducting séances, reading auras, and placing great emphasis on colors and energy fields. Opal realizes that Miracle is lonely and bored and helps her sign up for dance lessons, which Gigi strictly forbids. Miracle attempts to use her spiritual knowledge learned from Gigi to make friends, but the “normal” kids view her as a freak.

When Opal’s home is destroyed in a tornado, Miracle looses her grasp on reality. She badly burns herself attempting to melt, as she believes her father did.

Miracle is taken to an institution and finally begins to get the help she needs to establish her own sense of identity thanks to her Aunt Casey and a physician named Dr. DeAngelis. Gigi comes to the institution and kidnaps Miracle, but in a strong statement of independence Miracle asks Gigi to take her back. Gigi refuses to take her back to the hospital, but eventually drops Miracle off at a train station.

This bizarre novel conveys a strong account of healing from the damage caused by a dysfunctional family crippled by mental illness. Miracle has to reject her Grandmother’s brainwashing to see the truth regarding her past so that she can grow up and function in normal society.

I recommend this novel for literature circles and individual reading. I think females age 13 and older would enjoy reading this book.

Deadline

Bibliography:

Crutcher, C. (2007). Deadline. New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 316 pp.

Genre:

Fiction

Chris Crutcher’s novel Deadline follows Ben, a high school senior, through the last year of his life. Ben learns of his terminal illness through his cross-country physical and decides to decline treatment and keep his disease a secret.

In clichéd fashion, Ben decides to make the most of his last year living. In his 18-year-old world that includes playing football (instead of running cross country) and pursuing Dallas Suzuki. Ben also devotes himself to learning as much as possible, ostensibly for the sole purpose of giving his teachers a hard time. He eventually reveals his illness to those around him.

Ben seems to think of Dallas as his unattainable dream girl, but after what seems to be their first real discussion, they go to homecoming and end up sleeping together. Later we find out that Dallas is an incest victim and teen mother. After this quick shock, we learn that Rudy, the town’s alcoholic mechanic, is a former priest and child molester. Ben works with Rudy on his Malcolm X project and tries to help Rudy stay sober. Rudy eventually commits suicide. Crutcher must have included Ben’s time with Rudy to build understanding of the awful cycle of sexual abuse for young readers of this novel.

This book also addresses the lingering racism in Trout, Idaho, where the story is set. Ben attempts a social studies project to gather signatures to rename a street Malcolm X Avenue. He is unable to get anyone to sign his petition.

Sooner Cowans, a bully on the football team, is beaten by his father. Sooner’s father eventually breaks his collarbone, ending his football season. Sooner ends up dying before Ben in a car crash.

This depressing chain of events is intended to stir up emotions and lead readers to attempt to live more meaningful lives, but my reaction to the book was very flat. I was unimpressed with the way women were presented in this book. Ben’s inept therapist Marla resigns because she can’t handle the sadness he causes her. And Ben’s mentally ill mother cannot manage the ups and downs of her life. She is his main reason for not sharing his fatal diagnosis with his family. He was worried that he would have to spend his last year alive attempting to help her deal with the trauma.

While I did not enjoy reading this book, I believe adolescents will, particularly boys. They will appreciate the sports references and high school social setting. They will also be comfortable with Crutcher’s choice to just brush the surface of these intense topics. I recommend this book for ages 14 and up for the following purposes: read aloud, individual choice, or small group.

Go Ask Alice

Bibliography:

Anonymous. (1971). Go ask Alice. New York: Simon & Schuster, 213 pp.

Genre and Awards:

Fiction- Drug Abuse

ALA Best Books For Young Adults, ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults,

Before beginning this blog, I must record my ignorance to the controversy regarding the authorship of Go Ask Alice. I assumed the anonymous author, who I will refer to as Alice, was an actual person.

In the diary, Alice, a relatively normal middle class girl, inadvertently tries LSD by drinking a Coke laced with it at a party. She experiences an incredible trip, but vows to never use drugs again. In her next few diary entries, which occur in less than a week’s time, she progresses from being horrified by the “low-class” and “despicable” nature of drug use to allowing her new friend Bill to inject her with speed.

Alice’s accelerated progression from accidentally ingesting LSD to intravenous drug use was the cause of my skepticism. I didn’t find the timeframe or description of events realistic at all, so I Googled the book. The “diary” is reported to have been written by Beatrice Sparks, a psychologist and Mormon youth counselor, who claimed to be the book’s editor.

I finished the book (even though I hate being intentionally mislead) and it was relatively entertaining, but continually unrealistic. Particularly troubling is the way addiction is dismissively presented. Alice goes through several promising periods of sobriety even after trying such addictive drugs as heroine. During these periods of abstinence from drug use Alice documents almost no cravings.

The most disturbing relapse occurs after Alice and her friend Chris return home from San Francisco. They fled to San Francisco after turning in their ex-boyfriend drug dealers to the police. At first, Alice is happy to be welcomed back into the comfort and safety of her family home. But shortly after returning home, she gets some drugs at school and runs away. On the road, she loses complete track of reality and prostitutes herself in exchange for drugs. The diary continues in this up and down fashion. The ending, as you might expect from a manipulative fake diary about drug abuse, is down.

This book does not address multi-cultural issues beyond selecting a white, middle-class family to confront this topic, suggesting drug abuse can affect any home.

I would not recommend this book to students because the language is outdated and the writing is contrived and poorly developed. I believe even unsophisticated readers will determine that the diary is a fraud. If I had to select an age range, I would select ages 14 and older.

Selecting Books

Selecting Books for our Adolescent Literature Project was more difficult than I anticipated. I spent the majority of Tuesday afternoon on the internet and in book stores researching books.

Four Award Winners:

• Dancing on the Edge, Han Nolan. National Book Award Winner (1997)
• Fallen Angels,* Walter Dean Myers. A Coretta Scott King Award Winner (1989), ALA Best Book for Young Adults, Booklist Editors' Choice, A School Library Journal Best Book
• Godless, Pete Hautman. National Book Award Winner (2004)
• Twilight, Stephenie Meyer. ChristianGoering MAT Award for Acceptance (2008)

Non-Fiction:

• Little Rock Nine,** Marshall Poe, Illustrated by Ellen Linder
• Go Ask Alice, Anonymous

Graphic Novel:

• **Little Rock Nine

Representative Latino & African American Authors:

• The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
• *Fallen Angels

Required Class Reading:

• Deadline, Chris Crutcher
• Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, National Book Award Winner (2007)