Cynthia Skinner

English 112B

Prof. Warner

April 26, 2006

Annotated Bibliography

More Real than Real

 

            Contemporary realistic fiction is a genre of novels that should be a part of every young adult�s reading. Their reading should, of course, never be limited, but realistic fiction offers a variety of novels that can help young adults view the world sensibly. This sort of novel is a vital one because �young people will have a better chance to be happy if the have realistic expectations� (Donelson and Nilsen, 117) and realistic fiction can help provide that.

According to Literature for Today�s Young Adults, the modern problem novel does this in four ways. The first is in the character selection, the second is setting, third is the use of everyday language, and finally, the mode. The character choice provides individuals from a variety of economical and social backgrounds which connects to the setting because these characters come from not just suburban homes, they also come from difficult backgrounds and tough places to live. To bring these two key elements together and make them believable authors use conversational language. That is, they use dialogue to express the way people really talk. The fourth element, mode, refers to the attitude or type of novel. Traditionally, young adult fiction was based on romantic or comical notions and was meant to set a standard of behavior for middle class teenagers, but the attitudes towards these novels changed with the shift in attention that the tragic and ironic novels began to receive.

The novels within this genre that I chose to look closely at for this project were books that focused on mental and physical challenges. Physical challenges can range from birth defects to car or sport accidents. Mental challenges can include dealing with those physical challenges as well as mental disabilities or a mental state, such as being suicidal. These two types are closely intertwined as a physical problem can affect a person�s mentality and a mental issue can manifest itself into physical problems. Even though sex is not necessarily a problem, it can create problems and can lead to both physical and mental trauma such as in the cases of rape, pregnancy, difficulty with intimacy, and sexual orientation. These novels are also tackling issues such as �disease, incest, and child abuse� (Donelson and Nilsen, 130).

Not only do these novels deal with topics that are possibly still taboo to some people, they allow teenagers who read them to see a point of view that they perhaps might not have seen. It also creates a way for teenagers to think about the consequences of their actions and question their moral standings and what they might do in the same situation as a protagonist in a novel. They may ask, �Would I have an abortion if I were to get pregnant?� or �How would I help a suicidal friend or myself?� These questions can open up discussion on these very important topics and if read in a classroom or with a parent, these novels can help teenagers see the world in a realistic way and perhaps they can feel comforted that there is help if they need it. Novels in this genre open up the door for communication on tough subjects and shed light to the fact that there is a struggle in life and there isn�t always a happy ending, but there is a way to move on.

 

Young Adult Novels dealing with Physical and Mental Challenges

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers (1999). Book Talk

handout by Lindsey Marino. Class presentation for Eng 112B: March 2006.

 

            Entering high school is hard enough, but when your friends and everyone else hates you, it�s even harder. Melinda Sordino called the cops at an end of the summer party, so now she has no one. There is one thing about Melinda at that party that she cannot bring herself to talk about, or even think about. If she can forget about what happens, it may mean it never happened at all. The problem is that there is a reminder from that night walking the halls of her high school. Not even her thoughts are safe. Speak takes the reader on a journey through Melinda�s first year of high school, through her own thoughts and feelings. Will Melinda be able to face what happened that night and finally speak out?

 

Bennet, Cherie. Life in the Fat Lane. Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (1998).

Summary taken from Warner, Mary L., Adolescents in the Search for Meaning. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2006.

 

            Lara is 16 and everything in her life seems to be perfect; she�s the perfect weight and size, she�s dating a perfect guy, and she has the opportunity, though only a junior, to become homecoming queen. Lara is also in a very dysfunctional family, though she isn�t truly aware of the dysfunction until she develops a rare syndrome, Axell-Crowne, which causes her to gain an inordinate amount of weight. Now her mother, obsessed with physical beauty, and her father, who thinks all Lara needs is willpower, practically disown her. Lara also experiences the taunts and ridicule that others who are overweight face and she no longer wants to be Lara.

 

Crutcher, Chris. The Crazy Horse Electric Game. Publisher: Dell Publishing (1987). Book Talk

handout by Sarah Elsner. Class presentation for Eng 112B: March 8, 2006.

 

            Sixteen year old Willy Weaver is the athletic hero of Coho, Montana. After miraculously catching the winning play of the championship baseball game against The Crazy Horse Electric team, Willy feels on top of the world. He has a wonderful girlfriend, goofy yet faithful friends, and loving and motivating parents. Suddenly tragedy strikes leaving Willy terribly handicapped. Depressed and tired of being a burden to his friends and family Willy runs away to Oakland, CA. Upon arriving in Oakland, Willy is confronted by a street gang which beats him up and takes all of his money. He is rescued and taken in by Lacey Casteel, a bus driver by day and pimp by night. Lacey enrolls Willy in a special school and Willy works on rehabilitating himself and move forward with his life, learning that he can�t change the past.

 

Fleischman, Paul. Whirligig. Publisher: Laurel Leaf Library (1999). Summary taken from

http://www.forbesbookclub.com/bookpage.asp?prod_cd=I2W3Y

 

Brent Bishop longs to have the popular Brianna strolling around school on his arm. But when she rejects him at a classmate's party, Brent's hopes for popularity are instantly shattered. Devastated, he tries to destroy himself in a car crash ... but instead kills an innocent girl named Lea. Instead of sending him to jail, Lea's parents challenge Brent to create four whirligig's modeled on a picture of Lea and position them at the four corners of the United States. Lea's mother hopes that the whirligig that used to delight Lea will be a fitting memorial for her precious daughter. She sends Brent off with an unlimited bus ticket, a few piece of wood, and the tools to memorialize Lea. On his mission to preserve his victim's memory, Brent ultimately rediscovers his own love of life.

 

Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Publisher: Doubleday (2003).

Book Talk handout by Joanna Boletsi. Class presentation for Eng 112B: March 15, 2006.

 

Christopher is a 15 year old teenager who lives in Swindon, a provincial town in the United Kingdom, with his father. His mother is no longer with them. He has Asperger�s Syndrome, a form of autism. He is a master in math and science and obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, but finds it hard to understand other people and their feelings. It is night time when he discovers a dead dog, Wellington, on a neighbor�s lawn and decides to solve the mystery [of who killed the dog] and record his efforts by writing a detective story. But the more he unearths the more the mystery deepens for both Christopher and the people in his immediate environment.

 

Kerr, M.E. Night Kites. Publisher: Demco Media (September 1987). Summary taken from

Warner, Mary L., Adolescents in the Search for Meaning. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2006.

 

The narrator is Erick Rudd, now 17. His family story includes a brother, Pete, ten years older than Erick, who develops AIDS. Erick himself is an average 17-year-old with friends like Jack Case (also 17) who are exploring the world of sexuality and, for a good part of the novel, bemoaning their lack of sexual activity. At the heart of this book are a young man�s struggle and his parents� struggle to accept an older brother who is �different� and whose difference has brought him into contact with a deadly disease.

 

 

McCormick, Patricia. Cut. Front Street (2000) Summary taken from Donelson, Kenneth

L., and Alleen Nilsen. Literature for Today's Young Adults. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc, 2005.

This picture of life in a mental-health facility for teenagers is far from pretty with its constant smell of vomit, its lack of privacy, and the hostility and sadness of the patients. Callie, a girl who secretly cuts herself, is the narrator.

 

Mickle, Shelly Fraser. The Turning Hour. Publisher: River City Publishing (2004). Book Talk

handout by Nicole Mangiardi. Class presentation for Eng 112B: March 2006.

 

The Turning Hour explores teen despair, weaving the viewpoints of Bergin, a high school senior, with that of her mother, Leslie, to unravel the mystery of why Bergin, in the middle of her senior year, attempts suicide and then struggles to regain a life she can value. Peopled with characters that could live in anyone�s neighborhood�two husbands struggling to understand themselves and the women they love, an African-American psychiatrist with a secret of her own, a stepbrother who looks at the world with �amazed� grace, two senior citizen geldings who don�t know much about horse whispering but understand a little about cussing, and a pig who lives behind an azalea�this is a mesmerizing novel about beating the blues and learning how to take care of one�s own life.

 

Philbrick, Rodman. Freak the Mighty. Publisher: Scholastic Inc. (1993). Book Talk handout by

Elizabeth Joesten. Class presentation for Eng 112B: April 5, 2006.

 

            Max is the town reject. He�s too large for his age, has been labeled as Learning Disabled and is stuck dealing with the pain of his father being in prison for murdering his mother. Kevin was born with a disease that stunts his bone growth. He is unusually small for his age but his brain more than makes up for it. His intelligence�[has] earned him a place outside of the junior high social spectrum. The two forge an unlikely but deep friendship. They meld together becoming one unit calling themselves Freak the Mighty. But through Kevin, Max learns much more about himself, about what it truly means to be strong and about having dreams that beat the odds.

 

Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins (2000) Summary taken from Donelson, Kenneth

L., and Alleen Nilsen. Literature for Today's Young Adults. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc, 2005.

Fourteen year old Shawn McDaniel thinks his father is planning to kill him, a suspicion that readers gradually grow to share in this story of a boy who is born with cerebral palsy.

Morphine. �Cure for Pain.� Cure for Pain Album. Produced by Kolderie, Paul Q. (1993).

Lyrics taken from http://www.go2lyrics.com/M/Morphine/257465.html

 

Where is the ritual?
And tell me where, where is the taste?
Where is the sacrifice?
And tell me where, where is the faith?

Someday there'll be a cure for pain
That's the day I throw my drugs away
When they find a cure for pain

Where is the cave where the wise woman went?
And tell me where, where's all that money that I spent?

I propose a toast
To my self control
You see it crawlin helpless on the floor

Someday there'll be a cure for pain
That's the day I throw my drugs away
When they find a cure for pain
Find a cure for
Find a cure for pain

 

Works Cited

Donelson, Kenneth L., and Alleen Nilsen. Literature for Today's Young Adults. 7th ed.

Boston: Pearson Education, Inc, 2005.