Weekend Pick for December 20, 2024

Weekend Pick for December 20, 2024

Lesley Roessing

​If you haven\t met Lesley Roessing yet, let me introduce you. Lesley is a former middle school and high school ELA teacher, a K-8 charter school literary consultant, a Writing Project director and instructor of teacher education, including courses on Adolescent Literature, and shares recommendations and reviews of her reading on her website at https://www.literacywithlesley.com/book-reviews.html. She has written books on literacy for teachers and school librarians, such as Talking Tests: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs across the Curriculum.​

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One Last Chance to Live by Francisco Stork

​I first “met” Francisco Stork when reading The Memory of Light on my search for books about characters facing mental illnesses. I then read Marcelo in the Real World, Disappeared and its sequel Illegal, On the Hook, and I Am Not Alone.  Stork’s writing is fresh and his characters memorable. He writes about meaningful topics – illegal immigration, gang life, revenge, mental health, social justice, and respect—self-respect and respect for others. Teachers, parents, and librarians will appreciate that he can explore these topics—with genuine, true-to-life adolescent characters—without the use of profanity, proving that “realistic” is not the same as “necessary.”

Francisco Stork

​My favorite novel, other than The Memory of Light, is his most recent One Last Chance to Live. Readers will come to care about, and hurt for and with, Nico, an aspiring teen writer, who becomes obsessed with discovering his fellow writer and close friend (although he wished for more than that) Rosario’s recent death. He needs to find out what happened and why she gave up her dream after finally finishing her book of short stories. He wants to find out if and how their high school writing teacher is involved and how his recent dream of death is tied to Rosario’s death.
 
Meanwhile Nico’s mother becomes seriously ill with cancer and his 10-year-old half-brother is becoming involved with the local gang. Nico is looking at a future which may be hopeless, which may be how Rosario felt, but a future in which he will need to take charge.

​This is a story of hope and hopelessness, family, love, hate, and acceptance; it is the story of finding meaning in our actions.
Hope you'll enjoy your weekend with this great novel.