Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin

Touching Snow is the story of Karina and her Haitian immigrant family during the summer between her 7th and 8th grade years. I was completely caught up in the story from page one and devoured the book in one sitting. Karina's extended family, including a stepfather, work very hard to live in "New York Country," but they hang on to a lot of what they were trying to escape in Haiti. The stepfather is the biggest problem. He beats Karina and all her sisters severely. The oldest sister, Enid, is beaten near death at one point. The police are eventually called, but much to the mother's dismay and no one is allowed to tell the truth because how would they survive without the stepfather there? To finally end it all, the girls "accidentally" kill their stepfather and set it up to look like an accident. Issues such as complex family relations, acclimation to a new country/culture and the pains of growing up anywhere are dealt with eloquently. The reader becomes a part of the story.

A lot of times, as teachers, we encounter student with families and home lives that we don't understand. We think of people as "bad" when judging them by our own standards. Reading this book gave me a new appreciation for what may be going on behind the scenes and the subtle cries for help that often go unnoticed.

Let it Shine: Three favorite spirituals by Ashley Bryan

This is a little embarrassing, but I have to be honest. I teared up a little reading through this book. I'm not sure if it is the pregnancy hormones, or what, but I was signing "He's Got the Whole World" and looking at the beautiful illustrations and I was just overcome with emotion. I can't tell you how excited I was to see "This Little Light of Mine" as the very first song too! I started singing and doing the hand movements we learned in Bible school when I was little. It's funny how those things come back to you, even if you haven't thought about them in 20 years! I started flipping through the book while talking to my sister on the phone and I actually squealed and said, "Oh! I have to get this for Alison! (my niece)." It's wonderful to have these songs written down and accompanied with vivid, beautiful illustrations for children to learn from. I especially liked the note from the author at the end when he points out the origin of these songs; there's a little history lesson here too.

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Elijah of Buxton is a wonderfully well-written compilation of lessons that readers can learn from because they are worth learning and, yet, not preachy. In the first half of the book, the reader is introduced to Elijah and the settlement of Buxton. Neighbors and friends are described including the Right Reverend Deacon Doctor Zephariah Connerly III. Elijah ultimately learns a lot from this character. He learns people are not always what they seem and they are not always as good as you would like to think. When Connerly absconds with Mr. Leroy's money to buy his family out of slavery, Elijah finds himself alone and hunting down the Preacher and wanting to rescue some slaves he encounters. This is an eye-opening experience for Elijah who has never known slavery. In this experience, Elijah also learns a hard lesson about growing up which is you can't save everyone, but he does the best that he can and saves who he can.

My favorite lesson in the story is one that Mr. Leroy teaches Elijah early on about using the "N- word." He impresses upon Elijah how the word is filled with hate when white people use it and filled with ignorance when black people use it. That is a lesson our young people can definitely use today. That horrible word is flung around quite a bit.

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

I did not like this book. Not because it wasn't well written. It was. Not because there wasn't an intriguing story. There was. Not because the characters didn't come alive. They did. That is exactly the reason I didn't like this book. I spent all 300+ pages frustrated. Frustrated that Sym blindly followed "Uncle" Victor when she knew, deep down, that he was a scoundrel. Frustrated because she kept acting so clueless, even though she wasn't. Frustrated that Victor could con and hurt so many people, including Sym, her father and everyone else unfortunate enough to be a part of his con or on his expedition to the Antarctic, in pursuit of his obsession. No one was what they initially seemed. The book certainly did take some twists and turns. For that, I applaud the book, but it also made me angry. That's what a good book is supposed to do, isn't it? Make you feel.

Sym's story certainly does make you feel from the beginning and her belief that her late father hated her to her ill-fated trip to Paris with Victor where she first learns of his treachery, but refuses to believe it. Once the journey makes its way to Antarctica, things are downhill from there. Everyone falls in Victor's pursuit of Symme's Hole and an underground world. Even Sym herself was going to be a victim of him plan. Ultimately, Sym survives and it is Victor who destroys himself.

Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Glass is the continuing story of Kristina, a girl who suffers from meth addiction she obtained while visiting her father (also a meth addict) for the summer. Due to her lifestyle the previous summer, Kristina now finds herself a seventeen year-old mother. She had, thankfully, given up her addiction during her pregnancy, but four months after her son's birth, she starts up again. Kristina's life quickly goes down the toilet. She gives up her son to her mother, gets kicked out of her house, lives with two different drug dealers and becomes a dealer herself. With her "boyfriend", Trey, she gets herself arrested for felony transport of drugs across state lines and, while in jail, learns she is pregnant yet again. Her statement is, "I'll change, hopefully."

This book was seriously dark, pathetic, depressing and yucky (for lack of a better word). I just went through the death of my mother-in-law due to alcoholism and have a cousin who is messed up in the whole meth world. I don't ever want to get close to any kind of addiction and get drawn into this kind of existence, but I guess we don't always have control over that. I think middle-school kids through high school need to be exposed to this book and the real realities of drug abuse. I know a lot of the kids I teach have seen this first hand, but many of the other kids think getting high is "cool." They need to see it is, in no way, a cool way to live.

Your Own, Sylvia: a verse portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephen Hemphill

Of course I have heard of Sylvia Plath, but that's about as far as my knowledge went-that and the fact that she had a tragic life and death. I've never been much of a poetry fan. I read what I had to in school and that was about it. To me, all poets are really old and from the 1800s. I know that's silly, but that's where my mind goes when I think poetry. So, this biography of Sylvia Plath was an eye-opener for me. It wasn't that long ago that she was writing her poetry.

The author chose to write this biography in poems that reflect Plath's own style. Her life from birth to her death is told through the voices of her family, friends and acquaintances. Additional biographical information is written as footnotes at the bottom of each page. I would never have picked up a biography on Plath. I would have never been aware of her poetry. This book changed my view and I'm all ready looking up Plath's own work.

Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins

I wasn't looking forward to reading this book. I had had my fill of depressing stories about drugs, suicide, death and deviance. I reluctantly cracked the book and began to read. I was pleasantly surprised. It was the opposite of what I expected. The book was hopeful. The main message I picked up was we should appreciate our lives while we have them and take advantage of the wonderful creation that we are and that is around us.

This story of hope is told through the eyes of a disgruntled peon from Hell who decides to take a break and experience what life is like as a human. He hijacks a teenage body to do this. The body had belonged to a boy named Shaun, but Shaun had been hit by a truck and killed while crossing the road. Kiriel, the demon, takes over his body before anyone can notice Shaun has died. Living as Shaun, Kiriel begins to appreciate Earth, humanity and all God created; something he was never able to do before.

There is so much going on in this book: criticism of the education system, a study of human emotions (guilt, shame), a discussion of the Seven Deadly Sins, sex, our insecurities in relationships with others, and the question most humans have at one point or another, does anyone care? Does God care? I can definitely see this book spurring some great discussion in a psychology/sociology class in high school. Of course, if this book would even be "allowed" in most schools...