It's Kind of a Funny Story

Vizzini, Ned. It’s Kind of a Funny Story. New York: Hyperion, 2006.

Audience: High School, 15+

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Teen Contemporary Literature 

Topics of Focus: Mental Illness, Teenage Depression, Coming of Age

Red Flags: Teen Sexuality, Alcohol Use, Drug Use

 

Are you a pot smoking, greasy-headed, hormonal, depressed teenager? Well if you are, then this is probably the book for you. Although simply written, the author truly captures the young adolescent mind and the taboo characters within a mental hospital, to make it an honest comparable novel. The author, Ned Vizzini, spent a few weeks in a mental hospital himself,  conducting the perfect research for this heart-warming, yet miserably- truthful, story.

The whole book revolves around a 16-year-old boy named Craig, who has many big problems. You know, like how his best friend is dating the girl of his dreams, or how he smokes too much weed, or maybe even how he has a B average at a very academically difficult school. Because of Craig’s issues, his mind gets wrapped into the thought basis of depression. After days of wanting to kill himself, he decides that he just might go through with it. But, when he gets to the bridge where he’s about to take the leap of faith, his mind stops. No, he doesn’t want to die; he just wants help, and somehow he ends up at a mental hospital in New York City.  The story continues to go on, introducing absurdly weird characters from the hospital, including a young girl his age, who he seamlessly falls in love with because of her deep views on the world. Being a teenager is definitely hard in its own strange way, and this novel presents it through a laugh-out-loud, accurate tale.

Although you don’t need to be an absolute genius to read this book, you may have to acquire some sensitivity towards young depression, and possibly what the boy-mind thinks about; sex. It’s a great book to gift to an adolescent attempting to get rid of their fears and desiring some comparable connection. 

Annotation by Biz Anderson

Dharma Punx

Levine, Noah. Dharma Punx. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2004.

Audience: Anyone recovering from an addiction, running through a rebellious faze, interested in meditation, or interested in the punk rock movement.

Genre: A memoir or autobiography

Topics of Focus: Rebellion, addiction and addiction recovery, the punk rock movement, meditation, religion, finding a balance in life.

Red Flags: Alcoholism, violence, drugs, profanity, nudity, un-detailed sexy-time, suicide, death.

Noah Levine wrote this book using very truthful, blunt, and sometimes harsh language. If you are easily offended by profanity, this may not be the book for you. Dharma Punx is about Noah Levine’s life, starting from how he enveloped himself in negative situations by drinking, using drugs, and fighting; to how he came clean and fixed his life through spiritual practices. This book completely engulfs you into its ardent pages as you decipher the intense thoughts, moments, and emotions that they bear. It shows you very detailed descriptions of the hectic and in-depth experiences that Noah stumbled through as he tried to find his own path amidst the anger, panic, and confusion that made up his world.

This would be a good book to read if a teacher was searching for examples of different varieties of controversial issues to bring to discussion within a class. I would recommend this book for any classes focusing on psychology, controversial issues, or recent history. However, be aware of the fact that it contains strong language and many very negative scenarios; I would not use this book in a class of under-aged students without reading it, and discussing with each of the students and the students’ parents before hand.

Anyone who is interested in seeing through the eyes of someone who was a part of the punk rock movement, or would like to read about how meditation or religion could affect some people positively, should read this book. His book could help someone, who is willing to read and listen to advice, solve a harsh problem in their life. It’s a realistic book about the history of a real person’s life, not a metaphorical book about how someone could change their life.

Annotation by Aria Peterson

Fight Club

Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: Henry Holt, 1996.

Audience: A must read for anyone and everyone. (*Note: May not be suitable for children, but they should read it anyway.)
Genre: Apocalyptic Fantasy
Topics of Focus: Action, fighting, apocalypse, romance, consumerism.
Red Flags: Violence, mild language, references to sex/pornography, references to unapproved behavior in the workplace such as urinating in an improper receptacle, as well as other bodily fluids being dispensed in a non-traditionally unacceptable way, where there is a risk that a person of a higher societal status might consume something that has been contaminated by such acts.

“The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club. The second rule of fight club is, you do not talk about fight club.”

These are the first two rules of fight club, an underground group of men who hold controlled fighting matches in the basement of a bar. They don’t fight because of arguments, or because one is smaller than the other, they fight because they can. For the hell of it.

The man who starts the first fight club has no name, except the fake ones he puts on name tags that he wears to various support groups. Groups like Remaining Men Together, for testicular cancer. Or one for blood parasites. Or brain parasites. The list goes on. Our anonymous main character has none of these ailments or afflictions. The only disease he can truthfully say he has is insomnia. He has found the best way for him to sleep is to surround himself with people who think he is dying. Every night. Without these various support groups, he will not sleep. So, when another fake support group attender named Marla Singer shows up, it becomes worthless to him. That is when he decides to start fight club, with the help of a man named Tyler Durden.

Fight club is a place where men can escape from the stresses of everyday life and let all their anger out into one task: beating the crap out of each other. What starts as a way for men surrounded by consumerism to feel liberated from societal norms quickly turns into a way of life. With Tyler Durden as their leader, they go beyond fighting in the basement of a bar to carrying out various missions designed to cause mass mayhem.

Annotation by Ian Jorgensen

Everlost

Shusterman, Neal.  Everlost. New York:  Simon & Shuster, 2006. 

Audience:  12 +, Grade level 7

Genre:  suspense, paranormal fiction

Topics of Focus: the difference between the living world and the spiritual world. Friendship. Obsessive disorder.  

Red Flags:  NONE

An unstable soul makes any person unhappy. A complete change, you lost everything that once ‘felt real,’ Emotions, hunger, thirst and even tiredness aren’t a part of your life anymore. Everything you once knew, even your name, is forever lost. You can’t always hold on to most precious memories. You have become a ghost, which means the thing that you once were when you were living is completely lost now.  

Allie and Nick are “green souls,” eager to find the way out of this torturous world of the dead, but their souls don’t exactly get to the bright white light at the end of the tunnel. Instead, they are stuck in a world between life and death, called the Everlost. Not exactly beautiful place but absolutely way better than Hell or being stuck in the center of the world. (This happens when you stand too long on a living surface. Don’t stand around too long or you will eventually sink to the center of Earth.) You can’t come back to life. 

Allie and Nick are about to take on a journey that no ghost has ever taken before and never will. It is said that there is one person who knows this world as if she had created it herself--Mary Hightower, the self-proclaimed leader, ruler, queen of all the children to the Everlost. Mary is a kid herself, a teenager, 15 years old to be more exact. Only a year older than Nick but the same age as Allie. She has a tower for her and hundreds of lost children souls. When Nick finds Mary he feels as if he has found a home, but Allie is not so sure if she’s willing to spend the rest of her life stuck between two worlds.

Annotation by Juan Ramirez

Henry IV: Part One

Shakespeare, William. Henry IV, Part One.  New York: New American Library, 1963. 

Audience:  12+

Genre: Drama

Topics of Focus:  War, Kingship, Chivalry, Intergenerational Conflict, Duty, Honor, Taverns.

Red Flags:  Violence, Bawdy Humor, Sack Consumption, Falstaff.

William Shakespeare is known primarily as the world’s greatest playwright and poet. Henry IV. Pt. One is a wonderful example of this virtuoso’s history plays, a sequence primarily representing the period of English History from Richard II to Richard III, with the exceptions of King John and King Henry VIII. One of the cardinal virtues of this play is Shakespeare’s outstanding juxtaposition of the life of the taverns, centered around the debauched knight Sir John Falstaff, literature’s greatest comic character, the man the incomparable Dr. Johnson called “[U]imitated, inimitable Falstaff…”  with the chivalry, honor, and military prowess of the Northern Rebels, led by the choleric Hotspur, and to a lesser extent with the austere, formal dignity of the court, with the embattled Henry IV at its apex.

The play begins with the postponement of Henry’s planned crusade to Palestine due to current political conditions in England, represented shortly after by the King’s argument with Worcester and Hotspur, setting the inevitable military confrontation, consummated at the end of the play, in motion. Shakespeare does not linger at court, however, and we are quickly introduced to the Prince Hal and Sir Jack, along with an assortment of other bottom-feeding fish, as they plan to rob pilgrims and travelers. After some glorious scenes in the taverns, Price Hal’s promise to his father to reform honorably fight, and other political intrigue with the rebels, we come to the final battle, the point where the different realms come together. Falstaff is, quite unsurprisingly, cowardly; Hotspur is both valiant and killed; and Prince Harry surpasses the general expectation by killing the Northern Rebel, foreshadowing his abandonment of low-living and eventual semi-apotheosis to the status of England’s hero king. The play ends with a decision to continue the struggle against the Rebels. This play should be read, or preferably, seen, by everyone, as it is both enlightening and spectacularly entertaining. 

Annotation by Jacob Logan-Baer

Speak

Anderson, Laurie Halsey.   Speak.   New York:  Penguin, 1999.

 

Audience:  Young Adult, 14+

Genre:  Teen Problem Novel

Topics of Focus:  teen Issues, relationships, rape

Red Flags:  Date rape, domestic violence

Before you read speak, be aware of the fact that there is violence in the book.   It deals with difficult subject matter. 

Melinda is a freshman in high school who loses some friends because she called the police while attending a summer party.   The story explores her first year in high school as she tries to deal with what happened.

The author did a good job writing this book, especially with her descriptions.   This would be a book that teachers might read as a class so that people could give their opinions on how they felt while reading it.   After I finished Speak, I didn’t think it was exciting.   It talks about situations where people’s feelings have been hurt.  It explores a very difficult topic of acquaintance rape and victim blaming.

Annotation by Shay Johnson

Anatomy of a Boyfriend

Snadowksy, Daria. Anatomy of a Boyfriend. New York: Delacorte Press, 2007.

 

Anatomy of a Boyfriend is a book that is intended for the love struck teenager. It is about a nerdy science girl in her senior year of high school who has the "hots" for the track star of her best friend’s school. Dominique, the main character, goes to a private school in Florida where her mom teaches math. She is the star of the Science Quiz team and is planning to major in premed in college. Until one night at the students vs. teachers football game at her best friend’s school, she meets Wes, the track star.  Dominique’s best friend Amy used to be on the track team and has no problem talking to Wes. Since Dominique has the “hots” for Wes, Amy’s main goal is to hook them up and have her best friend lose her virginity. Dominique and Wes hit it off really well and start dating. College is the least of their problems until the day comes that Wes gets accepted to his dream school in NYC. This is far from Florida, let alone Tulane, where Dominique is accepted.

This book is truly meant to be a young adult piece of literature and a very strong teenage girl read filled with lovey-dovey situations.  Any teenage girl would fall in love with the book, until the very end. Where it ends with nothing but a sentence that leaves you out to dry. 

Annotation by Summer Fogel

She's Come Undone

Lamb, Wally. She’s Come Undone. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.


Audience: Mature Audiences, 15+
Genre: General Fiction
Topics of Focus: Life Struggles, Mental Illness, Coming of Age, Emotional Liberation, Self Discovery, Women
Red Flags: Drug Use, Profanity, Sexual Intercourse & Assault, Suicide Attempt, Abuse, Abortion

Award-winning author Wally Lamb begins his writing career on a serious note with his emotional first novel, She’s Come Undone. From ages 4 to 40, this tale follows the difficult life of Dolores Price. Her story starts in 1956, when her family receives the Emerson television set that would soon cause her life to unravel.

Shortly after receiving the TV, Dolores’s handsome, but immature, father leaves the family. And so begins a series of devastating events. For support, Dolores and her mother move into the uptight home of her Catholic grandmother in Rhode Island. Here Dolores meets a family of characters that would force her to bid her childhood goodbye. The wise-mouthed, yet wounded, girl comforts herself with food and television. By the time young adulthood rolls around, Dolores is 257 pounds, and life is no kinder to her. Determined to rise above her experiences, she struggles through her unbelievably rocky life and pushes onward toward self-discovery and healing.

Though this story brings forth a pinch of hope for Dolores, her painful experiences may drag the reader down with her. Her dismal attitude may also be off-putting and dislikeable. Therefore, for those who are looking for a light, comical, or one-dimensional read, this novel is not recommended.

Still, for as dark as She’s Come Undone may be at times, it remains a fascinating read that will interest select readers. The tale portrays such intimate and relatable moments as a woman, so personal that it comes as a surprise that the author is male. Nevertheless, Dolores’s struggles are universal, something every gender can all make connections to.

Annotation by Anna Zine

Long Hard Road Out of Hell

Manson, Marilyn.  The long hard road out of Hell.  New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

       

 Audience:  Age 15+, Music fans,

Genre:  Biography, Comedy,

Topics of Focus:  Life, Music, Goth culture,   

Red Flags:  Sexual content, Drug use, Brief violence, Profanity

When people think about Marilyn Manson, they often have a lot to say. In his book, The long hard road out of Hell, he tells about his life, starting when he was a child spying on his sexually- twisted grandpa with the help of his cousin.  He continues into his adult life being one of the most influential, hated, loved, and judged shock-rock artists.

In the book, he talks about his home life, his early music inspirations, his borderline pathetic start as a musician in southern Florida, his religion, and all of the hate he received along the way. Despite the fact that there are many heavy topics presented throughout the book, Manson doesn’t fail to add in his quirky humor that kept me laughing the whole time. I think it would be near impossible to get bored with this book, even if you don’t like the topics he chose to write about.

Teachers and librarians everywhere should have this book because it opens minds and talks about things most people don’t dare bring to light. It would be hard to study this book in a mainstream classroom because of the situations Manson was put in throughout his life and the way he experienced them is so different than what most people are comfortable with. I think this book is great to independently read because then you can take your time and really think over what you’re taking in. 

Annotation by Sarah Schlough

Bloodline

Cary, Kate, Bloodline.  New York: Penguin Group, 2005. 

Audience:  Teen 14+

Genre:  Horror

Topics of Focus: Vampires & World War 1

Red Flags: Gore

Imagine a world where unrealistic monsters that you believed were not real were actually walking among you. For John Shaw that was the case. In this book the main character John Shaw is fighting in the trenches in World War One. While in his army camp, he hears his fellow soldiers talking about a beast in the trenches. Little does he know the beast is someone he trusts and would die for, his captain, Quincey Harker. During the war John is injured and sent home to the hospital in his hometown. While in recovery, he has strange dreams and hallucinations that he cannot control. A week passes and Quincey comes to visit him and everything starts to come undone in John’s life. Lily who is John’s sister falls madly in love with Quincey and disappears from home. John then realizes that the situation at hand is life or death.

This book is a very exciting read, especially if you have read Dracula by Bram Stoker. This book reminds me of the sequel in a sense, and while reading you make so many connections between each of the characters. The mood of this book is dark but intriguing. It’s one of the books you can’t put down after reading, and once you’ve finished the book, you want to read more. I feel the way the book is written makes it very unique because it uses diary entries and letters so you get to feel what the characters are feeling. If you like horror novels with a bit of a mystery to them, then this is the book for you.  

Annotation by Sammi Jacobsen