Weekend Pick for June 14, 2024
 | Our Weekend Pick contributor in June is Dr. Shelly Shaffer, an Associate Professor of Literacy at Eastern Washington University. Dr. Shaffer loves sharing books she’s read and her passion for anything Young Adult. She is happiest curled up with a book and her bulldogs. Wide Awake Now by David Levithan (2024) Wide Awake Now (2024) is an update of David Levithan’s 2004 novel, Wide Awake. While Wide Awake (2004) is set in a futuristic 2024, the characters in Wide Awake Now (2024) live in a realistic 2024. |
| In this new novel, the characters speak of true events that have occurred in United States society and politics during the last 20 years. It’s a place where Donald Trump and Barack Obama have served as President and where the COVID-19 pandemic shook the world. It’s a reality where a huge divide between Democrats and Republicans exists, where neighbors dislike (or even hate) neighbors when their beliefs don’t align, where love and kindness have virtually disappeared from U.S. society. Levithan imagines a 2024 where love and kindness are gaining traction. Tired of the bullying and hate, many Americans have turned to religion. They have begun to rethink their beliefs about politics and God’s role in their lives. Like some marginalized groups of the past, they disempower their opponents by remaking hateful language. They take words that have been demonized and make them their own. They remake Christian values and popularize God and love. |  |
 David Levithan | In true David Levithan style (think Boy Meets Boy), Wide Awake Now tells the story of a more ideal world, where the 2024 election results with a gay, Jewish man (Klein) winning the electoral college and popular vote (by more than 5 million votes). Yet, in recent American style, the losing side challenges the election results and claims that illegal votes have been cast. The battle for Kansas begins after the election has been called; the election hangs in the balance of Klein winning by a thin margin (1,000 votes (Levithan, 2004) or 76,000 votes (Levithan, 2024)), and both sides seem to be willing to do whatever it takes. Klein calls on his supporters to take a stand, and Levithan’s story follows Jimmy and Duncan as they, along with nearly 2 million others, make an exodus to Kansas’ state capitol in Topeka to protest the shady recount. Klein’s opponent also asks his supporters to come to his support. Readers fear the worst since recent protests have often led to violence. And, Levithan’s characters are, indeed, faced with violence and fear and must decide whether to risk their safety for democracy. Levithan’s novel exemplifies a protest novel, asking readers to consider what they are willing to do in order to ensure a fair election process is followed by our leaders. |
Levithan’s new novel contains many differences from the original novel, though the changes are subtle. The revision includes rewritten paragraphs and added details. Where the original novel was more general and vague, the new novel includes specific details that relate to true events that have happened since the original was published. For example, on page 5 in the original novel, Leviathan wrote: "I’d heard so many people talk about it, about what it meant to know you had the same rights as everyone else, making anything possible. I knew that this time it was just the Presidency, and that Stein was likely to become more moderate to get along with Congress "(Levithan, 2006, p. 5).
In the rewrite, Leviathan adds details that are specific to recent history. He writes:
 | I’d heard so many older people talk about it, about what it meant to know you had the same right as everyone else. I wasn’t alive when Obama was elected, either, and instead came to consciousness at a time when there was a bigot on the megaphone, dividing the country further and showing us right into a pandemic. I spend sixth grade at home, barely learning and never seeing my friends. Even when the bigot with the megaphone lost his election, things didn’t get much better. We were still in a pandemic. People yelled at each other more and more, in no small part because they could yell from their bedrooms instead of having to actually leave the house to do it face to face. This past election was absolutely brutal. But the brutality of it was an issue itself, and I think finally enough people were like, This is not how we should be. Enough of us believed we had to unplug the hate machine before it destroyed us all. I understood that now that Steing had won, he was likely to become more moderate to get along with Congress… --Levithan, 2024, p. 5-6 |
| Throughout the new book, there are instances of additional details and clarity. Though I have a copy of the paperback original and a hardback of the new novel, the additional details added 40 pages to the book. This additional detail really adds to the book and creates strong connections for today’s readers who experienced both the COVID-19 pandemic and the divisiveness that is currently plaguing the United States. Readers will appreciate the resolution of the book and hope for a brighter future where conflicts can be resolved and humanity wins. The world that Levithan imagines for us demonstrates that we can grow and learn from our current conflicts. Readers hope that, like Levithan’s 2024 world, kindness and love can triumph over hate and division. |  |
Happy reading and come back for more suggestions next Friday,
Leilya
Leilya
RSS Feed