2. Extra Credit- A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Home: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Sarah Crichton Books, 2007.

Annotation:

Little boys shouldn't have to defend their country. They shouldn't be taking drugs or shooting off AK-47s or using RPGs, but that is whats happening. Twelve year old Ishmael Beah lives in Sierra Leon a country in which he and other children are soldiers defending their country from rebels. This is a real account of what happened to Ismael during the war that ravished his country.

Justification for Nomination:

I like that this book is based on a real person and real life events. It is important that young adults learn about the terrors that young adults their age face in other countries. It is important that they learn not from textbooks, but from a person who was their age and had been through war. It was nice that Ishmael mixed the negative memories of war with the positive memories of his family and friends. This made it a lot better for me to read because it wasn't just focused on the negative aspects of war. Beah's life as a child during the war in Sierra Leon is heart wrenching. I can't imagine children shooting guns and taking people from their villages against their will. This makes me think about how much influence war has on children. In Beah's mind, it was killed or be killed. Only an adult should have that thought in times of war and not children. The deepest part of Ishmael's story for me was his account of the violence that he saw and took a part in. He shot people and didn't care that he did it. He writes about how he only killed out of hate and anger for the rebels who killed his family and friends. Only later in the story does he show any kind of remorse for the things he did. Ishmael's words flow together like poetry. There is just so much emotion in this novel that I could literally feel it with Ishmael. He had anger for his enemies, sadness for the loss of his family, and happiness when he was around his friends. All I could feel was sadness because even though he felt all of these different kinds of feelings, I just felt sad for him and his country. It was hard to read this novel because of the negative impact on the children and the adults in Sierra Leon. No one could trust anyone in a country where villages used to trust each other. As I have mentioned I enjoyed this novel, but there was so much violence in it that I could picture it in my head and the thought of children shooting people in the head and babies being killed is enough to give me nightmares. I think that this is an important part of the story. This shows the reality of war and we need to be given all of the details in order to fully understand the war that the people of Sierra Leon are facing. I felt that the sentence structure was slow, but not boring. Ishmael's vocabulary brings a lot of emotions to its readers and although I felt just sadness, I think that other readers will find other emotions within themselves when they read this novel. I loved the happy ending. Any child, especially a child that was a soldier, who goes through war and escapes from it deserves nothing but happiness. Putting a timeline in the novel was brilliant. This way readers can fully understand the actual details and events of the war. 'A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier' is a beautifully told story of war. This novel teaches us to love our families and friends and to hold them close, it teaches us to stay strong in horrible situations, and most importantly it teaches readers to never forget that there are children out there that are going through the same thing that Ishmael Beah went through. This was my justification for the heart wrenching novel 'A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.'

Category Genre: Alex Award Winner, Biography

1. Extra Credit Mock Printz Nomination: The Giver

Lois, Lowry. The Giver. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf, 1993.

Annotation:

Being the next receiver is an important role in which 12 year old Jonas must learn. It is a huge responsibility to keep the memories of true pain and pleasure in a community where law breaking receives sever punishment, where families share their dreams after breakfast and their feelings after dinner, and where everything is structured and under complete control. Through Jonas's journey of coming of age in his community, he begins to see the world as it truly is.

Justification for Nomination

Lois Lowry is a wonderful author who has a creativity that no one can match. I remember how happy I was when I first read The Giver in junior high. The plot is amazing and entertaining. I like that the community has no conflict and little emotion, but then main character Jonas trains to be The Giver (the receiver) and the conflict in the plot comes to life. Although The Giver has themes that focus on science fiction and fantasy, Jonas and the current receiver have such realistic feelings and curiosity. It is wonderful that Lowry can create two characters who have to hold every single emotion and memory of everybody in the community, while the community continues to be unaware of how the world really is. Jonas and the current receiver are humans among robots. Lowry gives us a world in which free choice is taken away and people aren't allowed to truly live their lives, but in reality some countries are going through this same problem. The Giver teaches its readers that not everyone gets freedom and that freedom is a gift not to be taken for granted. Many people may say that some of the characters in The Giver lack emotion. While this is true, Lowry gives her characters emotion through descriptive words that don't quite say what the emotion is, but allows us to figure it out on our own. For example, in the beginning when the family is sharing feelings and Jonas's sister Lily makes a fist, she is showing anger. Another example is when their father talks about his job as nurturer, he talks about his feelings of sadness for a baby he works with that might get "released" because he isn't growing, but their father doesn't say "I'm sad." I think that would be to boring. Jonas's ignorance about how the world truly is adds a wonderful and exciting coming of age theme to The Giver. He doesn't know what released means which shows readers that he is as unknowing about how backwards his community is and what the world is like outside of his community as much as the other children, but then he is thrown into a role where he finds out that everything isn't as perfect as it seems. A great twist to the plot, is that many of the adults in the community don't know whats going on either. Lowry's take on the family unit is far beyond creative. Her mind created a world where a man and a women are chosen to be together and a family can only have one boy and one girl. Although love is taken out of the making of a family (their choosing of a husband or wife), they learn to love each other because that's the way it is. She really knows how to take reality and twist it around to make something totally different and surprising. Lowry is again being creative by separating the groups of twelves into roles that they will have in the community. Some friends will have different roles and won't be able to see each other, but they don't care. These children are immediately thrust into this adult world with their childhood completely taken away from them and their totally oblivious to it. Reading Lowry's words is like being in a totally different world. I liked how she used her words to describe objects that we would use in reality. For example, calling a stuffed animal a "comfort object," "stirrings" instead of hormones, or saying "released" instead of a more negative word such as killed or death. Lois Lowry has a brilliance and a very creative imagination that can only be shown by the magical world that she creates in her books. This was my justification for the remarkable novel The Giver.

Genre Category: Nomination, Science Fiction, Fantasy

9. Stardust

Gaiman, Neil. Stardust. New York: Harper, 1999.

Annotation:

Pirates with flying ships, evil witches, dark and conniving princes, and beautiful falling stars. Tristan Thorn doesn't know what adventures await him beyond The Wall.

Justification for Nomination:

Everyone has heard about Stardust the movie, but the idea of the movie had to come from somewhere. As I read I tried not to compare the novel to the movie, but I had to on some subjects. The movie was fantastic, but the novel pulled its own weight and was equally fantastic. The opening of the book is very informing and educational so that people who read Stardust could fully understand what the novel would be about. Readers learn about the characters, the town of Wall, and the magical land of Faerie which is beyond The Wall. Gaiman gives his readers a mesmerizing and adventerous plot with interesting and wonderful characters. Tristion Thorn is a fun and fresh character. He is like any young man in our reality who would do anything for the woman he loves. Triston is very passionate and smart with an adventorous nature. The Fallen Star (Yvaine) brings mystery, beauty, and humor to the plot.

When some directors do a movie based on a book every detail seems to be the same, but in this case the novel is a lot longer and has a lot more detail than the movie. For example, the beginning of the story in the novel starts out by having Triston's father Dunston attend the market in Faerie where he meets Triston's mother. In the movie there isn't a market. He jumps the wall that seperates Wall from Faerie without permission. There are little examples like this one that makes the novel a lot more interesting than the movie. I think that if the movie was to be the same as the novel, it would take away some of the imagination, creativity, and joy that the novel allows readers to feel. I loved how he used the point of view of all of his characters. Every chapter was a different point of view so that there wasn't just one main character. One chapter would be about Triston, the next about Triston and the Star and so on and so on. The plot was exciting, adventorous, romantic, and dark and I enjoyed every single moment of it. I think that Gaiman has a very creative and brilliant mind. He takes his readers on a magical and unforgettable journey. His vocabulary is both captivating and beautiful. Gaiman puts careful thought into his characters, plot, and words. I loved Stardust so much I am now reading Coraline (which also is a movie). Its wonderful that other people can recognize that Neil Gaiman's work is so fantastic that it is worth making movies about. This was my justification for nomination of the novel Stardust.

Genre Category: Alex Award Winner, Fiction, Fantasy

8. The Perks of Being A Wallflower

Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: MTV Books/Pocket Books, 1999.

Annotation:

Coming of age is a hard process and no one understands you. This is exactly how Charlie feels. With his journals he shares with the world his most precious feelings about his family, dating, friends, and high school. No one understands him, but now they will.

Nomination for Rejection:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was the tenth book challenged in 2007. I had high expectations because it was a challenged book. I thought that it would be one of those novels that I would want to read again, but I was wrong. For me, much of the novel was just a huge waste of well spent time that I could have been using to read something good. The main character's name is Charlie. His words are confusing and sometimes even meaningless. He would talk about a subject and then immediately switch to a subject that had nothing to do with what he was originally talking about. Its like he got distracted and forgot what he was talking about so he just switched to another subject. The only part of his words that weren't confusing was when he would repeat the words of the other characters in the novel. Chbosky's vocabulary usage is beautiful. He knows how to use very descriptive words to describe people and places. However, his sentence structure lacked a sort of control. It is almost like the sentences were running together. As I read I could actually picture Charlie talking really fast. I didn't enjoy this because when I read a book, I want to be able to take my time and enjoy the words and the characters. Even if The Perks of Being a Wallflower did slow down it still wouldn't change my opinion about the novel.

I think that Charlie has emotion, but he is stuck only on happy and sad. For example, when he sees Sam (the girl he likes) with another guy, he feels sad instead of anger. Chbosky gives his main character these conflicts, but he doesn't give his character the means to solve them. For example, Charlie wants to be with Sam, but he doesn't make an actual move to be with her. He kisses her, but even the kiss lacks any emotion or passion. Charlie is a total clueless and empty character who is more of a child than a teenager. He is a freshman in high school and yet lacks any knowledge of any subjects that explores the coming of age topic. In a novel where of the main focuses is coming of age, I think there should be some sort of excitement. In any other novel, the coming of age theme would be explored by the characters in an a very in-depth way. For me Chbosky failed to grip the meaning of coming of age. Its not all about sex, drugs, and crying. Charlie's true feelings came toward the end of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. He transitioned from being like a child to being a teenager. He didn't ask stupid questions and cry as much (which annoyed me from the beginning). I thought it was weird that Charlie kissed one of his male friends was his duty as a friend, but it was defiantly a step up from boring emotions, a boring plot, and flat characters that I thought The Perks of Being a Wallflower had at the beginning. I couldn't put the book down when it got close to the end. I'm not sure if it was because the beginning and the middle dragged on for what seemed like a life time and I wanted to be finished with the novel because it was very boring or if it was because the end was the only part of The Perks of Being a Wallflower that was really good. Truthfully I have to say that I did cry and I did laugh, but The Perks of Being a Wallflower still gets my nomination for rejection.

Genre Category: Banned/Challenged