500 Words or Less by Juleah del Rosario

500 WORDS OR LESS by Juleah del Rosario is absolutely a new favorite young adult novel of mine.  I am looking forward to introducing students, other librarians, and even parents to this novel which is written in verse.  Del Rosario’s debut is a relatively quick and engaging read and I sincerely hope that it is nominated for state awards because I think that students will relate to the characters. Big themes have to do with loneliness, forgiveness, and especially with identity and discovering who we are, particularly when in high school. There is plenty of drama and shunning after a hook-up between biracial Nic Chen and her boyfriend’s best friend, Jordan.  Del Rosario explores the double standard:  “Was there even a male equivalent / to the word ‘whore’?  …. He didn’t have to wear/ Ra-Bans or Chuck Taylors, / or fluorescent-colored anything, / because the way he wore / his arrogance / was enough / to attract / his admirers.”

And when an unrelated video is edited and posted online, another female classmate says, “For a month, / every time I saw / a guy staring as his phone / for more than two minutes, / I thought he was watching / my video, watching / me.”  In response, Nic asks, “How many of us / had walked through these halls / and felt / exactly the same / as Miranda?”

500 WORDS OR LESS could be used as a One Room One Read book for advisees (homeroom students) and their parents, especially given some of the trauma related to issues of abandonment, of sexual relationships, and of alcohol abuse by both students and a parent. Overall, Del Rosario exhibits a fantastic ability to manipulate words, as shown by both the main text and the inclusion of college application essays which Nic writes for a variety of classmates. In addition to the quotes above, I highlighted many sections to discuss, like: “Why didn’t anyone tell me / how difficult / senior year would be? / How difficult it was to / sit in AP class after AP class, / swallowing facts / by the handful / until you just wanted to vomit / up your entire education.”   OR  “I should have known / a boy’s shrug / meant apathy, / not answers.  / But I wanted so badly / to be / all his answers.”  Look for 500 WORDS OR LESS in the library; del Rosario's acknowledgments include one more key quote: “let’s keep making the world a place where stories can thrive, knowledge is created, and everyone has access to both.”

The War Outside and Washington Black

Here are some comments about two very well-written, but very sad historical novels. The first, THE WAR OUTSIDE by Monica Hesse, is a young adult novel about life during WWII for two you teenage girls, Haruko and Margot. They are a Japanese American and a German American whose fathers are suspected of being “enemy aliens” and are therefore sent to the Crystal City internment camp, a topic addressed previously on this blog. Many of our students already read and discuss Otsuka’s When the Emperor was Divine for English classes, but Hesse’s story goes in a slightly different direction by probing the experiences of both German and Japanese detainees and their families, by exploring the prejudices and misunderstandings between those two groups, and by layering on the emotional drama of a friendship and attraction gone awry between these two young teens. As the question on the cover asks, “They can’t trust their country, can they trust each other?”

Hesse’s writing evokes numerous emotions, especially the loneliness, tension, boredom, and lack of control for the internees, and this is not a “feel good” book although it is very powerful. THE WAR OUTSIDE received starred reviews from Booklist, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. Given ongoing headlines about xenophobia and deportation, this is a timely and ultimately haunting read which will be on our shelves soon.   

 

WASHINGTON BLACK by Esi Edugyan is a historical novel written primarily for adults which deals with questions of slavery and race. The main character, George Washington Black (called “Wash”) was a slave in Barbados on a sugar plantation when (around 1830) his owner’s brother, “Titch” selected him as an assistant of sorts. Together, Wash and Titch experience numerous adventures associated with inventions (like hot air balloons) and inter-continental travel (to the Arctic and elsewhere). This book is a dark read, dealing as it does with the face of evil and brutality and cruelty involved with violence perpetuated against Blacks.

Esi Edugyan’s WASHINGTON BLACK was recently named to the short list for the Man Booker Prize (winner to be announced on October 16) and this title received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.  Read an excerpt and see a reading guide here.

Heartland by Sarah Smarsh

HEARTLAND by Sarah Smarsh is a text I have been looking forward to reading, particularly because several teachers are requesting that we look for a text which could update Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed.  Smarsh subtitles her work “A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in The Richest Country on Earth” and explores “what it means to be a poor child in a rich country founded on the promise of equality.”  She addresses the concept of ‘white working class,’ saying “the experience it describes contains both racial privilege and economic disadvantage, which can exist simultaneously. … Wealthy white people, in particular, seemed to want to distance themselves from our place and our truth. … [Yet,] if a person could go to work every day and still not be able to pay the bills and the reason wasn’t racism, what less articulated problem was afoot?”

Smarsh’s work is emotional and heartfelt.  She writes eloquently of different Americas and different understandings, but it did not have the immediate impact of Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, portions of which some classes have successfully incorporated into recent projects. Others have tried Desmond’s Evicted or Moore’s The South Side due to their respective Midwest and Chicago connections. I am still looking for something at a slightly lower reading level and welcome any suggestions. 

HEARTLAND, too, deserves an audience and could possibly work as a Junior Theme text. It is longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction and received starred reviews from both Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly.