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Weekend Pick for July 29, 2022

7/29/2022

Weekend Pick for July 29, 2022

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Dr. Shelly Shaffer presents her final weekend pick for July 29, 2022. She suggests to spend time reading The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline. Enjoy your favorite time with a book.

Dr. Shelly Shaffer

Cherie Dimalin e’s The Marrow Thieves duology tells the regrettable, familiar story of the abuse and exploitation of Native Peoples by White colonialists, yet Dimaline adds a new twist—one of environmental disaster and fighting back.

In The Marrow Thieves (2017), Dimaline introduces readers to Frenchie, who lives in a futuristic world where pollution, plagues, and natural disasters are rampant. Global warming has ravaged the earth and taken away people’s ability to dream. Only North America’s Indigenous Peoples can still dream. Their marrow can cure others, but the catch is that the Native People cannot share their marrow without dying. Not surprisingly, White folks decide to capture Native Peoples and harvest marrow from them unwillingly, reopening residential boarding schools to become bone-marrow factories.

This is the horrific reality for Frenchie, the main character of the novel. Frenchie is living in the wild, fleeing from recruiters who want to take him to the marrow stealing factories. Frenchie is alone since the recruiters caught up with he and his brother, capturing his brother. Frenchie is sure that his brother has been killed, so he hides and runs. On the run, Frenchie meets a group of other First Nation dreamers, and they band together to survive this dystopian world.

CHERIE DIMALINE

In the second novel, Hunting by Stars (2021), Dimaline continues Frenchie’s story in the world of this futuristic Canadian nightmare. This book digs deeper into Frenchie’s identity and roots, and readers can clearly see that Frenchie still has everything to live for--a family that he’s found on his own, that he can always count on, and that he will do anything to protect.

The Marrow Thieves

This duology is a must-read. It brings the abuses toward First Nation Peoples to the forefront and shows the selfish extremes that some people will go to for their own survival. Both novels have been honored with awards in both the United States and Canada. Looking for a spin on dystopia that critically examines the history of abuses toward Indigenous people, environmental disaster, and a great adventure? These are the books for you.

This selection concludes July weekend picks. We thank Dr. Shelly Shaffer and her students for the wonderful suggestions and enriching our lives with more YA novels.

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Weekend Pick for July 22, 2022

7/22/2022

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Weekend Pick for July 22, 2022

Another weekend pick from an amazing Shelly Shaffer. Embark on a self-discovery journey with Ava Dellaira and her characters. Happy reading!

From Ava Dellaira, In Search of Us takes readers on a journey to Los Angeles, California. Angie, a mixed-race seventeen-year-old, has had little to no relationship with any extended family outside of her mother Marilyn. Marilyn is a hardworking, single, White mother—with a traumatic backstory she doesn’t understand. Angie knows something is missing from her life—and her father’s side of the family might hold the key to her identity.

The book is written as a parallel story told from the viewpoints of this mother and daughter pair. There is a seventeen year gap between the storylines, with Marilyn’s story almost always being told in flashbacks from seventeen years earlier—before Angie was born. Angie’s story, on the other hand, takes place in present day. For readers, learning about Marilyn’s teen life helps to fill in the storyline, at times becoming dramatic irony as we know things that Angie doesn’t know yet.

Angie is in search of the truth about her father, who is a mystery to her—having been told that both her father and his brother (Angie’s uncle) died in a car accident before Angie was born. But Angie’s mom, Marilyn, is trying to protect Angie from the past by making a fresh start in New Mexico.

When Angie finds photographs of her teenage mother and father on the beach, she becomes even more curious about her mother’s past. She discovers that her uncle, a man named Justin, might actually be alive—she hopes (dreams) that her dad might also be living in Los Angeles and that she might be able to have a relationship with him. She talks her ex-boyfriend into driving her from Albuquerque to LA in search of her uncle—and the truth about her dad.

Readers will be thrown for a loop—like I was—when Angie’s mom finally tells the truth about why she lied to Angie for all those years.

This is a story of racism, White privilege, and tragedy that robs a young woman of a relationship with her paternal relatives for over seventeen years. But it’s also a story of hope and healing as Angie and her mom, Marilyn, find a new start. This book hit me in the gut when I finally learned the truth—as I’m sure it did to Angie as well. I love gritty, realistic books that help me to learn and grown as a person. This book did just that.

I listened to it on audiobook, and I recommend that experience, as well. The audiobook was excellent.

Till next week,
Shelly

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Weekend Pick for July 15, 2022

7/15/2022

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Weekend Pick for July 15, 2022

While it is still too hot to spend days outside, you may want to get cozy with a book somewhere in the shade. Shelly Shaffer continues to suggest new gems to our summer reading list. Welcome to her weekend pick for mid-July!

Dr. Shelly Shaffer

I started off the year reading Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels. After seeing that a Netflix series based on the books was being released, and I became interested. I knew that I hadn’t read them yet, but when YA books are turned into movies or Netflix series, I am always intrigued.

I began searching my library shelves to see if I owned any of the books. I actually found that I owned two of the books already (Shadow and Bone and Crooked Kingdom), so I knew I had to quickly purchase the other five. I started reading Shadow and Bone, finishing it within a day, and moved on to the second book I owned, which was NOT in order of the series--Crooked Kingdom. Spoiler alert! For this series, it’s much better to read the books in order, since it’s hard to follow the characters and chronology if you read them out of order.

The Grishaverse, which is the world Bardugo creates in the series, came to life in these books. With strong worldbuilding, readers are able to step into the world of magic and science and superstition—and fall in love with the characters and story taking place there. A helpful map can be found in the peritext of each book, and this helps readers to follow the journeys of main character, Alina Starkov, as well as her friends (and enemies).

Leigh Bardugo

I quickly fell in love with Alina. She is a very likeable character, who is willing to sacrifice herself, and her powers, if that’s what it takes to save Ravka. Though she is sometimes swept up in the glitz and glamour she finds herself in once her powers are discovered, she manages to hold onto her beliefs and values. Alina is vulnerable—as an orphan of the realm, and when Alina discovers that she’s actually a Grisha, with unique powers that no other Grisha possesses, she immediately discovers that there are people in the world who want her power and will do anything to control her.

In the companion series, Six of Crows, Bardugo expands the Grishaverse across the sea to Ketterdam, a kingdom rules by capitalism and greed. Characters in Ketterdam interact with some of the characters from Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising, but the stories taking place with characters Kaz Brekker and crew of daring outlaws take readers on adventures that create ripples across the Grishaverse.

In the third part of the series, Bardugo takes us yet to another part of the Grishaverse to Fjerda and the characters must confront extremism, superstitions, and a possible genocide. This stunning conclusion to the series is amazing.

I read the entire series in less than two weeks, and I would recommend it to lovers of fantasy, Netflix, books that build on one another, and strong female characters. Though not recently released (Rule of Wolves--the final book—came out in March 2021), Bardugo does not disappoint with this series.

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Weekend Pick for July 8, 2022

7/8/2022

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Weekend Pick for July 8, 2022

The heat is on this month, so it's a great idea to hide in the comfort of your cooled place with a nice book. We have another suggestion—a beautiful story of teenage love—offered to you by Megen Gray, who is also Dr. Shelly Shaffer’s student. Megen briefly introduces the novel below.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
This book tells the story of two teens who fall in love, teens who don't believe in the love stories like Romeo and Juliet. Yet, that is what they are—a Romeo and Juliet, without the death part. This book reminded me of the good parts of high school and falling in love. I wish I could reread this book for the first time over and over again just to experience Eleanor and Park's story for the first time.

Megen Gray

Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park received the 2013 Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Best Fiction Book and the Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2013, among other awards. It was also named a 2014 Michael L. Printz Honor Book. The novel is set in the 1980s and draws on important cultural artifacts of the time (e.g., cassette tapes, the WalkMan, comic books), some of these may not be even known by today's adolescents.

You may read more about the novel and its use in the ELA classroom in M. Cook and L. Pitre's Exploring Relationships and Connections with Others: Teaching Universal Themes Through Young Adult Novels (2021).

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Weekend Pick for July 1, 2022

7/1/2022

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Weekend Pick for July 1, 2022

The guest-contributor of July Weekend Picks is Dr. Shelly Shaffer and her students. Welcome, Shelly, and thank you for all you do to teach, research, and promote Young Adult Literature!

Dr. Shelly Shaffer

Dr. Shelly Shaffer is Associate Professor of Literacy in the School of Education at Eastern Washington University. She co-edited the book Contending with Gun Violence in the English Language Classroom (Shaffer, Rumohr-Voskuil, & Bickmore, 2019) focused on teaching strategies for addressing (and talking about) gun violence. In addition, she has written several book chapters focusing on pedagogy related to YA literature in secondary ELA, social studies, math, and science classrooms. She teaches YA literature to preservice and MED students, and her current scholarly interests are teaching Young Adult Literature, research in the teaching of YAL, critical literacy, YA literature in the content area, and reading motivation.

McKenna Russell

-he first July Weekend Pick is suggested by Dr. Shaffer's student McKenna Russell. This novel has been featured in Dr. Bickmore's Wednesday a couple of times already, but McKenna's choice demonstrates that the book is worth reading. This novel has been a book club reading in at least three groups I know. So if someone didn't get to it yet, it might be time to pick up and read. Here is a little teaser for you.

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

This book is about an 18 year-old woman named Daunis Fontaine. She is an amazing hockey player and proud Native American. She has a little bit of a complicated family life that unfolds throughout the story. She is on a journey to find some answers on a recent scandal going on in her hometown while working with a man who she doesn’t really know all that well, yet she starts to fall in love with. This is a very well written story that provides a lot of good insight on the Ojibwe Native American culture. It includes traditions, rituals, stories, and examples of the Ojibwe community of Native Americans. Angeline Boulley is a very clever author that demonstrates the best ways of keeping a reader on their toes while leaving questions open for some wonder and thought. She portrays Daunis really well and all of the characters throughout the book. She makes sure to include all of the important aspects to a great story.

Angeline Boulley

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Weekend Pick for July 29, 2022

Weekend Pick for July 29, 2022

Weekend Pick for July 22, 2022

Weekend Pick for July 22, 2022

Weekend Pick for July 15, 2022

Weekend Pick for July 15, 2022

Weekend Pick for July 8, 2022

Weekend Pick for July 8, 2022

Weekend Pick for July 1, 2022

Weekend Pick for July 1, 2022

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