Checking In...

If you're reading this blog then you may have stumbled across it by accident. Or you may be my professor checking to make sure I've blogged about my 15 books. Either way I would just like to say that there are so many books I still want to read, so hopefully I can consider this a work in progress!

I am by no means a professional at reviewing books but I want to continue to add to this and build a collection of texts that I would like to use in my future classroom!

~Katie Rose

Breathing Underwater by

Here is the book on Amazon.

This book was defiantly intense. Told from the point of view of an abusive boyfriend in a teenage romance, it was at times difficult to read. Nick and Caitlin seemed like a perfect couple until an altercation brings the truth forward in a quick and devastating way. A restraining order is brought against Nick by Caitlin's family and as the story progresses we can see how the two got to this point.

Nick is an angry young man, but throughout the text he is often unaware of the psychology behind his actions. The reader can see it, but Nick remains unphased for a while. As a reader, I found this frustrating at points, but as an educator I tried to see the greater good in the text. I think it's an excellent story and I think it could really be used as a teaching tool.

In an English classroom I would love to use this as an example of the power of point of view. If this story was told by from the point of view of Caitlin I think the impact would be different. I don't think it would have provided me with as much unique insight. If students can see that and discuss those implications, then I think it's great.

I also think this book would be really good for small book groups. It has a lot of heady issues and I would need to pick my groups carefully, but I think students could generate some great discussion.

This book would also be an excellent pick for a health classroom. Breathing Underwater handles domestic abuse by taking an interesting approach and may help some students cope with demons in their own lives. It is common knowledge that relationships in high school are often less than healthy and this book would be a good way to broach that subject.

Skinny by Ibi Kaslik

Here is the book on Amazon.

First of all, I would like to say that I don't really think this book should be a young adult novel. It's listed as one but I'm not so sure that's really the greatest category for this...

In all respect, Skinny is a realistic view on anorexia. Not only for the one afflicted but for the family as well. Other than that, I didn't really like this book. It is told from two points of view: Giselle, a young med student suffering from anorexia and Holly, her 8th-grade sister. This book is intricately woven, using excerpts from medical textbooks, and the voices of both girls. It's well-written and poignant, but it leaves me feeling empty. This book doesn't offer hope, and as an educator, I want to do that for my students.

Anorexia is real and it does effect a large population, both adolescent and older, but this book does not illustrate to students the aspects of recovery that are also as real as the disease. I think it's great that Kaslik is able to give a voice to anyone who has a sibling struggling with addiction, but this isn't the kind of encouragement I would want to leave my students with. I don't think I will use this book in the classroom, and it won't be part of my classroom library.

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Here is the book on Amazon.

How I Live Now may be the book I'm the most excited about right now. In my mind, it's brilliant. Meg Rosoff has found a way to weave together many common themes of adolescent novels into a new and fascinating way.

I would love to teach this book because I feel like it's applicable to an adolescent audience and an adult audience, as well. This book has the potential to be used on an interdisciplinary level, and can be applied to social studies and English alike.

The book centers around a 15-year-old woman named Daisy who lives in England with her aunt. Modern day London is in war and Daisy is quickly swept along with her cousins on a series of adventures and will eventually changer he life drastically.

Daisy begins the book as a rather self-absorbed woman and as the story continues she begins to change. Now I won't tell you if she changes for the better, that's for you to find out, but I will say that the books is incredibly powerful and creates a sense of depth that is somehow contained in only 224 pages.

I think this book is great and it will definitely be part of my classroom library.

You Remind Me of You by Eireann Corrigan

Here's the book on Amazon.

You Remind Me of You really fascinated me. For one, it is a collection of poetry that also functions as a memoir. It is also a non-fiction account of a woman who has survived an eating disorder and gone on to be a successful author. She has been in and out of treatment facilities and is not expected to have a long life. She has been to the brink of death and back and has been through mental and emotional hell. Her boyfriend has attempted suicide and she needs to learn to cope with his pain as well as her own.

Normally, a story line so dramatic might cause me to put the book down, but the way the poetry cleverly and artistically strings together Corrigan's story makes it a worthwhile read. It is written with a raw honesty and candor that I really appreciate and I think students will too. I will certainly recommend this book to students in my classroom for a free read and, if appropriate, I use the text in the classroom curriculum.

I like that this book can have many applications. It connects to adolescents because of it's incredibly strong voice, but it is also a good example of different literary styles. Combining poetry and memoir is interesting and seems like a good concept to introduce to the class. This book gets my seal of approval for both casual reading and classroom use.

Life on the Refrigerator Door: A Novel by Alice Kuipers

Here is the book on Amazon.

Claire is a teenage girl who lives with her mother. This book chronicles the way they communicate with each other in the midst of their busy lives. Claire is a young, caught up in the world of friends, school and boys. Her mother is a doctor with a tight schedule and a single parent. The two aren’t able to spend as much time with each other as they would like so they write each other little notes. They tape these notes to the fridge for one another to discover. The notes range from single sentences about the day, to grocery lists, to small quarrels between mother and daughter, but as the book progresses, there is more and more to write about as the women face hardship. In the end, it is these notes that keep the women communicating with one another when things become almost too difficult to discuss. In the end, the notes bring them together and grant Claire a sense of peace that is greatly needed in her life.

While it sounds a little sappy, I really liked this book. I felt it would be appropriate for students to read in the classroom and out. It teaches them about making inferences, the genre of the epistolary novel, and dialogue. The book encompasses the themes of family dynamics, grief, loss, communication and adolescence. It's poignant, but it's not too drawn out or dramatic. I think it would be a great book to use in the classroom and I think students would learn a lot through an easy read.

We Need To Talk About Kevin: A Novel by Lionel Shriver

Here is the book on Amazon.

I picked up this book because it was highly recommended by my hometown library and was listed as a "young adult pick". I liked the book but I will say it right now: I don't feel that this book is appropriate for young adults in a school setting. Not even a little bit.

We Need To Talk About Kevin is a very introspective read. It stayed with me long after putting the book down. It is disturbing and still manages to avoid unnecessary gore. It is an intellectual read that really tackles some intense moral issues, including the question of who is responsible for the actions of a young killer?

The story centers around a young man named Kevin, but we learn about him through letters his mother sends to his father. We learn about the family dynamic through the letters and the history spans Kevin's entire life, from conception to prison, where we find him at the end of the novel.

As an adult, I appreciated this book but in no way do I feel that it is appropriate for students to read in a classroom setting. A primary focus of the novel is school violence and the effects it has on students, staff, parents and the one committing the crime. While I feel students should be educated about violence like this, I don't think this book is the right way to do that. As a teacher, I wouldn't recommend this book to my students because I wouldn't feel comfortable with that.

This book was in the young adult section of the library I was in, but it is not listed as a young adult book according to the Library of Congress. Because of these reasons I wouldn't read this book in class, but I think it's a book worth reading.