We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (Booktalk)

[Start by showing the map of Beechwood Island found on the opening pages.] Imagine your relatives had their own private island. This is Beechwood Island, where the wealthy and beautiful Sinclair clan go on vacation each summer. Cadence, also called Cadie, lives in Windemere [show on map] with her mom and their dogs. Her cousin Mirren lives in Cuddledown; her cousin Johnny and friend Gat live in Red Gate.

Cadie's family's island, Beechwood, off coast of Massachusetts

Their grandfather lives in the big house, Clairmont. They have multiple beaches, a family dock, boats, and paid staff. The four older kids - Cadie, Mirren, Johnny, and Gat - are about the same age, older teens. They're called the Liars. You'll find out why. They're nice kids.

But something is really wrong. When the story opens, Cadie tells us she is almost 18. Let me quote her. "I own a well-used library card and not much else...I used to be blonde, but now my hair is black. I used to be strong, but now I am weak. I used to be pretty, but now I look sick. It is true I suffer migraines since my accident"(4). What accident? And if she's one of the liars, is she lying now?

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Delacorte Press: 2014. 225 p. Booktalk to high school. Also has crossover appeal for adults.

El Deafo by Cece Bell (Newbery Honor 2015) Booktalk

When Cece was four years old, she got very sick with meningitis. Although she recovered from it, her hearing did not. She was deaf. At first her own family and doctor missed the signs, but once they figured it out, she got tested. She would have to wear hearing aids [show kids the Phonic Ear picture].

Problem solved - right? Wrong. Hearing is complicated - it's not just a question of making things louder. Hearing aids don't solve every problem for the deaf: there still may be sounds which a deaf person cannot hear. Some words sound muffled, even if they're "loud" enough. Cece would have to learn new strategies: how to lip read and how to guess from context what people might be saying to her.

But her Phonic Ear made her feel self-conscious and different. Imagine feeling as if people were always staring at you. Imagine that your teacher has to wear a microphone which sends sound to your hearing device. It's both a blessing and a curse.

And you know what Cece can do that no other student in her class can do? She can hear the teacher outside of class - away from the students - because the teacher keeps forgetting to turn her microphone of. She can hear her teacher in the restroom, in the teacher's lounge, you name it.

Being deaf can make friendships tricky, too. One of Cece's friends treats her like a slow-witted person. And the cute boy (on whom Cece has a crush) wants Cece to "spy" on her teacher and share that information. Read the Newbery Honor winner titled El Deafo by Cece Bell.

El Deafo by Cece Bell. 233 pages. Newbery Honor 2015. Amulet Books, 2014. Booktalk to grades 3-8. 

Book talk: A Game for Swallows by Zeina Abirachad

Most of you have been at home alone while you waited for your parents to return home, right? It’s a fairly typical teen experience. But what if you had no way of contacting your parents when they were gone? What if you worried they’d get hit by sniper fire when returning home? In this graphic novel, Zeina drew us a map of how tricky it was to avoid the sniper near their apartment. 

Avoiding the sniper in A Game for Swallows

And what if the block and the area you lived in got bombed so regularly that all your neighbors would come join you in the foyer of your apartment because it was considered the safest spot? Imagine living with all your neighbors in a tiny room for hours and hours and even days. It’s a hard way to live, but Zeina and her little brother have grown up with this. They live in Beirut, Lebanon, during a time of civil war, a civil war which dragged on from 1975-1990. They know of people who have disappeared and were never seen again. But there’s humor in this novel: her neighbors – virtually family since they live in close quarters – are protective, loving, and quirky. If your world shrank to one room, would you be able to laugh?

A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return by Zeina Abirached. Graphic novel. 188 p. Booktalk to middle school, high school.

Book talk: Wonder by R.J. Palacio (Newbery 2013 contender)

[For this book talk, you are going to be the main character, Auggie, but you’ll wear a bag – any bag as long as you can see/breathe – over your head for the entire book talk.]

Hi, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is August, or Auggie for short. I’m the main character in the book you’re gonna read, called Wonder. Yeah, I can hear you murmuring about the bag on my head. No, I am not going to take it off. I repeat: no, I am not going to take this bag off. Why? I’m glad you asked.

Because the second I take this bag off my head, some of you will gasp. Some of you will snicker. Some of you may even call me names and point. I’m used to seeing kids put their hands over their mouths when they see me. Heck, I’m even used to their parents doing that, and yes, it is extremely rude and cruel. I’m not giving you the satisfaction of that.

I get judged on my face all the time, every second of every day. People forget what they’re doing or saying when they see me, and not in a good way. Would I like a chance to escape my fate/face? Haha: did you get the pun? Okay, I’ll repeat it, so listen carefully. Would I like a chance to escape my fate/face? Get it: my face is my fate? Oh, never mind. Actually, mind. Because of the way I look, I’ve been homeschooled my whole life. And now my parents are going to send me to a real school, where my face will be subjected to your judgments, comments, and criticism all the time. My parents are nervous about it. Very, very nervous.

You think you could be me? Even for one day? I bet you wouldn’t last one hour.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio. 2012: Knopf. 315 pages. Booktalk to middle grades (intermediate) and middle school. Newbery contender, 2013.

Wonder

Booktalk: Marcelo in the Real World (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2011-2012)

If you were to see Marcelo just walking down the street, you wouldn’t think there was anything different or special about him. He’s tall, healthy, dresses normally, and has a summer job working for his dad’s law firm. Normal, right? Well, yes, he is normal. However, he also can hear musically internally in his head (no ipod required), can memorize long passages of scriptures from different traditions, can bond with animals (especially ponies), and has a very hard time figuring out human beings and their motives. Marcelo really wanted to spend his summer working with animals – and he would have – except that his dad, a big shot lawyer, wants Marcelo to experience what life in the “real world” is like. Uh oh, the real world. We know what that’s like, right?

Marcelo has Asperger’s syndrome, which is on the autism spectrum, and he can function pretty well in society, but he’s not as good at reading people. For example, there’s a guy at work, Wendell, who’s a real jerk. Wendell has an agenda, and Marcelo is about to fall victim to it. There’s also a girl at work, Jasmine, who can be pretty tough and blunt but seems to understand and like Marcelo. Wendell has the hots for Jasmine, by the way. Yeah. And perhaps Marcelo does, too, but he’s at a real disadvantage here. You know how it’s hard for Marcelo to figure people out? That means that they can take advantage him: manipulate him, use him, con him. And it’s unfair, because he’s such a cool person, and innocent, too. Will Marcelo be able to figure out people in the “real world” before he gets burned? Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork.

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork. 2009: Scholastic. 312 p. Booktalk to high school. Virginia Readers’ Choice: 2011-2012.

Booktalk: Because I Am Furniture (Virginia Readers' Choice)

Anke is a normal 9^th grade girl who plays volleyball, writes poetry, resents the popular kids, and has a crush on a senior boy. But her home life is far from normal. Her father is verbally abusive, physically abusive, and sexually abusive. Anke has an older brother and an older sister, both of whom seem to bear the brunt of her father’s abuse. Anke’s mother is mostly silent and powerless. The children never have people over to the house: it’s almost unthinkable. So Anke does what she can in order to stay emotionally and physically alive in a house which feels like a prison. Even the title – Because I Am Furniture – gives you a view into her mental state. Anke doesn’t feel human at home: she feels like an object, taken for granted, hardly noticed, like furniture. Yet Anke dares to be hopeful. She made a list of things she could live without, and here are some of the things she listed: cars, cell phones, whitening toothpaste, Polo cologne, choosing sides … a father. Because I am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas.

Because I am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas. 352 p. Viking: 2009. Virginia Readers’ Choice for 2011-2012: high school. Due to subject matter, know both the text and your audience when booktalking this title.

Book talk: The Underneath by Kathi Appelt (Newbery Honor, 2009)

Our theme so far has been ‘hang in there.’ As you know, it’s another way of saying ‘survive’ or ‘endure.’ This novel, The Underneath, shows us the embodiment of survival and endurance. When you look at the cover of The Underneath [display cover], you see three animals cowering, probably in fear: Ranger, a hound dog chained to the house, and two cats. An unlikely trio. They’re living beneath a beat-up shack in the middle of an obscure forest in far east Texas, with bayous, creeks, wilderness, snakes, turtles, frogs, and alligators. The owner of the shack is a terribly cruel man who lives alone, and his only name is Gar-Face. Gar-Face hates other people and animals, too. He’s abused Ranger, who lives alone under the house in fear and hunger and solitude. But Ranger’s life starts to show a little hope and love when a pregnant cat shows up. She’s literally been thrown away by her owners. When she gives birth to two kittens, she and her kittens live with Ranger in the underneath and love him completely. They’re their own little family, as odd as it may seem. The cat and her kittens make Ranger’s life worth living. Yet there is such danger in the forest. There is a snake who is over 1,000 years old, plotting revenge. There’s an enormous alligator whom Gar-Face wants to catch and kill. And there’s a mysterious, beautiful hummingbird whose appearance to a creature or person announces that person’s impending death. Who will die? Who will survive? The Underneath by Kathi Appelt is a truly amazing novel, beautifully written and brilliantly imagined.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. 313 p. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008. Booktalk to advanced intermediate readers, middle school, high school, adult. Newbery Honor, 2009.

The Underneath

Hang in There: Booktalk 2

Have you ever driven your parents crazy with your whining, especially over summer vacation? That is exactly what eleven-year-old Megan is doing to her parents during their summer break in Vermont. Megan’s parents are both artists, and between nine a.m. and noon, Megan is supposed to be engaged in “creative pursuits,” which means art or writing, and no cell phone, no Internet, no television: you get the picture. Poor Megan: she starts to doodle, and then she rips it up. She’s bored. So her mother, one of those “back to nature” types, suggests that Megan go on a hike. Only problem is: Megan gets lost, and she’s got her innocent little dog Arp [not Arf, it’s Arp] with her. Megan actually managed to get lost on the Appalachian trail, too, which stretches on for miles and miles and miles. During my favorite part, she keeps fantasizing about Oreo cookies which are supposedly in a bag hanging from a nail in one of the trail shelters. Only, there’s an animal much larger than Megan that wants those Oreos, too. Can Nature Girl make it on her own? Nature Girl by Jane Kelley.

Nature Girl by Jane Kelley. 236 p. Random House, 2010. Booktalk to elementary [3^rd-5th] and middle school.

Hang in There: Booktalk 1

Most of you have tripped and fallen at some point, right? When our author, Raina Telgemeier, was in sixth grade, she fell and tripped, knocking out her two front teeth. Only, it wasn’t that simple. She hurt the bone above her teeth, and did some pretty serious damage which required multiple surgeries. This caused her to miss a fair amount of school, and she spent a lot of time in pain and unable to eat. But notice the title and the cover: it’s Smile.

In spite of its painful subject matter, Smile is a funny and thoughtful book. Raina has the normal problems of a pre-teenager: at one point, she’s writing a note to her friend about a boy she likes, and her teacher intercepts it, and the whole class finds out who she has a crush on. But there are also times when she’s so worried about her surgeries that she can’t focus on school, and her grades suffer. She gets teased more than most kids do because of her teeth. Yet Raina is a cool, kind-hearted, brave girl, and Smile tells a great story. Smile by Raina Telgemeier.

Smile by Raina Telgemeier. Graphic novel: 213 p. Scholastic, 2010. Booktalk to elementary [3^rd-5^th] and middle school.