Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower Author: Steven Chbosky
Publisher: MTV (1999)


Media Format: Book
Genre: Coming of Age
Selection Source: YALSA Popular Paberbacks for YAs
Reading Audience: High School
Reading Recommendation: 4 ****
Curriculum Connection: none


Summary
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming of age story inspired by The Catcher in the Rye. It deals with issues such as homosexuality, sexual abuse, drug abuse, and friendship. The main character, Charlie has a relatively typical family life and caring parents. In school he's not really disliked, he just kind of blends in. This story is about him meeting his first real friends, and how having friends brought both love and pain into his life. He struggles to overcome his passivity, so he can participate in life and friendship. He also develops an apprentice-like relationship with his English teacher Bill, who gives Charlie books to read, so Charlie can write reports on them, including of course, The Catcher in the Rye.


Evaluation
This is a very engaging novel, and although I'm not a sensitive emo type like Charlie, so I didn't necessarily identify with him, I found him very endearing, and I got a lot of vicarious pleasure out of reading about him establishing very real connections with his friends. This book deals with mature issues, but is meant to be read by young high schoolers (the protagonist is a freshman). It's an enjoyable read for anyone, but it's a perfect read for adolescents who feel alienated, and it has an added bonus of suggesting many great works of literature and music to young readers.

The Giver: Lois Lowry

Title: The Giver

Author: Lois Lowry

Publisher: Laurel Leaf (2002)

Media Format: Book

Genre: Dystopian

Selection Source: Text p.24

Reading Audience: 12+

Reading Recommendation: 4 ****

Curriculum Connection: Social Studies

Summary

The Giver is a Dystopian novel for children and young adults. We are introduced to Jonas who lives in a seemingly idyllic society. Everyone gets along. There is no crime. People don't hurt each others' feelings. Families talk about their day at dinner, and discuss their dreams in the morning when they wake up. The reader always has the nagging feeling that the society is too good to be true. The society has many rules, and though the characters in the book don't mind obeying them, they seem silly, if not ominous to the modern, freedom loving, enlightened American. We slowly learn that the characters are not living in an overzealous country club society, but a bio-geo-engineered Dystopia. We find this out, because will has been selected as the receiver. This means that he is honored and burdened by being the one person in the society who holds the memories of the way society was before the "sameness." Will then discovers the horrors that lurk beneath the surface of his idyllic city. He can no longer live with his knowledge, and he is left with only one option.

Evaluation

Great book, easy read, and thought provoking, that's why The Giver is on all sorts of reading lists for young adults. I've reviewed two other Dystopian novels (I know, I'm pushing it), like Feed and unlike A Handmaid's Tale, The Giver does the most important thing a Dystopian novel needs to do, it shows us a terrible society, that we recognize as our own.

The Handmaid's Tale: Margaret Atwood

Title: The Handmaid's Tale
Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: Random House

Media Format: Book
Genre: Speculative Fiction, Banned Book, Dystopian
Selection Source: ALA 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books: 1990-1999
Reading Audience: High School +
Reading Recommendation: 3 ***
Curriculum Connections: Social Sciences

Summary
The Handmaid's Tale was the 37th most challenged book of the 90s. Mostly it was challenged for being required/suggested reading in high school classrooms Common allegations against it are that it contains multiple sexual situations that are described in some detail. Various references to suicide being a legitimate alternative to life, and that it is a thinly veiled attack on the Christian Faith.

It's setting is America in the not too distant future. America is a country on lock down, and women have become second class citizens. For some unexplained reason, less children are being born, and some that are being born are deformed or stillborn. The upper class in this society have a harem of concubines that undergo physical evaluations to determine when they are most fertile, so they can lay with the man of the house in a bizarre ceremony that includes the husband, the wife, and the concubine. Women are no longer allowed to read, and are forced to dress in form concealing habits, complete with horse-like blinders to keep their eyes from wandering. This is a story about one woman who has the fading memory of her family life before, and is quickly understanding that there is more than meets the eye to her current oppressive society.

Evaluation
This 320 page book could be read in conjunction with any class that deals with women's studies, or utopian/dystopian societies. There are a lot of mature themes, and has been challenged as a result of that. Although I never condone censorship, I would only recommend this book for mature readers. This is a good story with some beautiful prose, but it didn't speak to me in the way Orwell's dystopian classics did. I think if I lived in Saudi Arabia it would probably have a bigger impact on me, but I tend to disagree with the author's major point that Christianity taken to extremes would lead to this society. Don't get me wrong, there is a Christian Dystopia novel that could be written to scare me, but it's not this one. Although, female readers are oftentimes more touched by the story.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Author: J. K. Rowling
Director: Alfonso Cuaròn
Publisher: Warner Home Video


Media Format: Movie
Genre: Fantasy
Selection Source: It's Harry Potter!
Recommended Audience: All YAs
Recommendation: 4 ****


Summary
I arrived at the Harry Potter universe quite late. Most people had read the last book before I had read the first one. I finally read the first two, and enjoyed them. Like most people, I didn't want to set them down. Unfortunately (not really) I have so many things to read that I cannot justify spending a month (probably more) reading nothing but Harry Potter, so I thought I would cheat a little bit, and watch HPATPOA rather than read it.


This movie is often cited as the best of the Harry Potter movies, and I can see why. As most people who are readers know, recreating a novel on the big screen is a serious challenge. It's so often a poor facsimile of the novel. This is not the case with HPATPOA.


In this movie, Harry runs away from home after a fight with the Dursley's and he's picked up by a magical bus for stranded witches and wizards. He soon finds out that an escaped convict is on the loose, and that convict is in all likelihood trying to find and kill Harry. After learning some new spells from Hogwarts' new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher, Harry along with his two friends figure out that the convict isn't the person people think he is, and he can shed some light on the death of Harry's parents.


Evaluation
The best thing this movie does is create a great atmosphere. It's often said that movies cannot compete with the imagination, but I'll be the first to say that the Hogwarts of this movie kicks my imagination's ass. It also works as a workable replacement to the novel. I feel confident moving onto the fourth novel without reading the third (some other time we can debate whether or not that is a good thing). I think the most important thing about the Harry Potter books is that they make being an elite student a cool thing. It's not going to inspire everyone who watches it to dedicate themselves to scholarship, but there is something to be said about a movie that can make knowledge look powerful, and Harry Potter does indeed do that.