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Unabridged Podcast January 2019 Book Club - Justina Ireland's Dread Nation

1/6/2019

Quick Summary: This is a novel set during the time period of the American civil war, but in the story, during the war, the soldiers become the undead, and through bites, they contaminated more people. In the years that follow, teens of color are put into combat schools to learn to be attendants for wealthy white people. Jane McKeene is a teen participating in the combat training program, but when she is abruptly shipped off to a settlement out west, she discovers even more challenges in their unstable world.
My Take: I loved this novel. I wasn't sure how I would feel about it because "zombie books" aren't typically my favorite, but I adored Jane's forthright, courageous character from the beginning, and I was captivated by the horrendous circumstances put in place by the white, privileged people in power in the society.
My conclusion: This is a powerful read - fast moving with rich characters and complex circumstances. Jane McKeene is one of my all-time favorite YA characters - she's clever, sassy, and determined. Most importantly, I love the way that Justina Ireland provides insightful commentary on the ways that American culture has systemically and mercilessly oppressed people groups in order to further the causes of the few privileged people within the society (who use their privilege to maintain the hegemonic social structure) and the fierce bravery of those who stand against that structure. 4/5 stars.
Favorite Quotes:

“It’s a cruel, cruel world. And the people are the worst part.” - While the society was being overtaken by the shamblers (their term for the undead), it's clear throughout the book that the evil and corruption plaguing them lies within those in power, not the undead.
“The day I came squealing and squalling into the world was the first time someone tried to kill me. I guess it should have been obvious to everyone right then that I wasn't going to have a normal life.” - I loved Jane's perspective and sense of humor throughout the novel. She understood the complexities and cruelties of the world around her, and while she did not sit passively by and accept the status quo, she also did not begrudge her life. She accepted it with courage, levity, and determination, and she forged onward toward a better future.

What I added to my TBR list: Jen talked about Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go, and that reminded me that all three of those books are on my shelf (thanks to Green Valley Book Fair!) and await my reading of them. Maybe I'll tackle them in 2019 - this year I'm really focusing on The Unread Shelf project and reading what I own.
Teaching Tips: This would be an awesome book to use for lit circles. It is a great read for teens and would work well in any class from grades 9-12 (and could be handled by some middle school students as well). As far as lit circles go, this book could be in a group with other books about the civil war era, but it could also fit nicely with books about oppression, justice, and the power of young people to change the world around them.
Podcast Highlights: I particularly loved the discussion about Jane as a protagonist who is more complex and real than many of the female teen protagonists we see in dystopian or apocalyptic YA novels. I think Sara was right that Jane is more real and richer in depth than many of the female protagonists in YA novels.

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Unabridged Highlights: Global Read Aloud Books

9/17/2018

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Quick Summary: In this episode, we discussed three of the choices for Global Read Aloud this year. If you're unfamiliar with Global Read Aloud, it is a movement focused on connecting classrooms around the world through shared reading experiences. Below are the summaries we wrote for each of the novels we discuss in the podcast.

Samira Ahmed's Love, Hate and Other Filters: Maya Aziz is an aspiring filmmaker, a senior in high school who is balancing determining her own future with pleasing her traditional Indian immigrant parents. This novel addresses her crush on a white classmate, Phil; her potential relationship with Kareem, a boy from her own Muslim culture; and the prejudice that follows an act of terrorism that has a huge impact on Maya’s (and her parents’) consideration of her identity.
Aisha Saeed's Amal Unbound: Amal is a twelve-year-old girl in a small village in Pakistan. As the oldest sibling with a new baby on the way, she has many responsibilities to her family. As those pressures build and her time in school, a place of refuge for her, decreases, she feels increasingly distraught. A momentary loss of composure in the village marketplace causes a major shift in her life circumstances, forcing her into a life of indentured servitude for the local landlord who oversees the village. As her world spirals out of control, she has to struggle to decide who she will be and how she will move forward.
Alan Gratz's Refugee: This story examines the lives of three different refugees coming from different time periods and circumstances-- Josef is a Jewish boy fleeing from Nazi Germany, Isabel is a Cuban girl fleeing the Castro regime in 1994, and Mahmoud is a Syrian boy escaping war-torn Aleppo in 2015. Refugee is the story of the journey each of these young people take with their families in search of refuge from political persecution in their own countries.

My Take: While I enjoyed aspects of all three of these novels, I loved Refugee the most. I found all three of the story lines totally captivating, and I love a book with multiple narrators. What I most appreciated is the way that Gratz uses the different storylines to break down some misconceptions and negative attitudes that people seem to have toward refugees. I also loved Amal Unbound and so appreciated the insight Ahmed gave into life in a Pakistani village. I appreciated the way Ahmed revealed the complex cultural dynamics that lead toward girls being uneducated and the way she highlighted the brave steps girls around Pakistan are taking to change the culture and their larger world.
My conclusions:

Love, Hate and Other Filters - 3 out of 5 stars
Amal Unbound - 5 out of 5 stars
Refugee - 5 out of 5 stars

Teaching Tips: All three of these novels would work well in the classroom. Love, Hate, and Other Filters would be a great lit circle book and could be taught with other books about hate crimes, terrorism, or second generation experiences. Amal Unbound is a quick, powerful read and could definitely be read whole class as it is fascinating and moves quickly. We're planning to teach Refugee whole class with our tenth grade students. However, having done some read aloud with them so far this year, we've realized that Refugee is likely going to be too much to get through with read aloud alone. We're planning to get enough copies for the students so that we can read parts aloud but then let them read by themselves in between the sections we'll read together.
Podcast Highlights: It was so fun to discuss all three of these books with Jen and Sara, and I loved hearing their perspectives.

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Unabridged Podcast Episode 27: Robin Benway's Far from the Tree

6/6/2018

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Quick Summary: It is a story about 3 siblings, separated at birth by either adoption or being placed in foster care, finding each other in their teens and navigating the complicated relationships in their lives: both adoptive and biological. The book is told through multiple perspectives, alternating through each sibling’s point of view. Grace just gave up her own daughter, after getting pregnant at 16, and discovers that she has two biological siblings she’s never known about. She reaches out to Maya, who is dealing with her own parents’ struggles and always feeling a little bit on the outside. Together, they find Joaquin, who has spent his life bouncing through the foster care system. As the book progresses, these three siblings discover each other while also learning more about themselves, their biological mother and the connections they never expected to experience.

My Take: Benway did an amazing job of exploring so many different angles and perspectives on what it means to be family. She integrated some hard truths about adoption, racial dynamics, and tensions between adopted children and both their birth mother/ parents and their adopted parents, but she houses those truths in tenderness and compassion. It's a powerful story, and I love the narration from three different, distinct siblings.
My conclusion: Overall, I absolutely loved this novel. Benway took on so many issues with her characters, and each narrator's voice was unique and so lovable. I did struggle a with the plausibility of some of the events, but that did not stop the overall impact of the novel. 4/5 stars.
What I added to my TBR list: Jen's pick, Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert, sounds like an awesome book, and it sounds like it hits on issues of family and race dynamics that I find fascinating and important to consider in our society.
Teaching Tips: This would work so well as a lit circle choice. It's a powerful read for students but would be a little long to move through whole class. However, the issues this book raises (such as what constitutes a family, why mothers opt to give up babies, and how to navigate relationships) would work so well with a wide array of other complementary books.
Podcast Highlights: I so loved the points that were made about adoption and the difficulty of giving up a baby because I think that highlights the issues that Benway raises about why mothers have to make those hard choices. I also loved the discussion we had about siblings and the amazing dynamics of sibling relationships.

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Unabridged Episode 19: Emily X. R. Pan's The Astonishing Color of After

5/10/2018

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The Astonishing Color of After, by Emily X. R. Pan, chronicles the journey of Leigh Chen Sanders as she goes to her mother’s homeland, Taiwan, in order to bring about some resolution for her mother (and herself) after her mother’s suicide. Shortly after her mother’s death, Leigh discovers that her mother has become a beautiful red bird, and she pursues the bird, which takes Leigh on a journey into the collective past of her family.

My Take: This book was stunningly beautiful. I also found it deeply painful to read. For a large portion of the book, I was worried that there was no hope for redemption or peace. The premise makes it clear that there is no hope for Leigh's mom (at least in her bodily form on this earth) as she has already succumbed to suicide as the book opens. However, I was completely captivated, and I found the twists and turns and magical realism that Pan weaves so smoothly into the text to be both compelling and comforting.
My conclusion: This was a stunning novel. Throughout much of the novel, I felt like I couldn't imagine feeling hopeful by the end, but it is remarkably uplifting considering the heavy content and premise. It was captivating, eloquent, and artistic. In short, I loved it. I was teary throughout much of it, but I found it cathartic and hopeful. Well done, Ms. Pan. I look forward to more works by this talented author. 5/5 stars.
Favorite Quotes: The memorable, gorgeous quotes are endless. I was taking photos of pages to capture the passages, and I truly felt that I could have photographed every page. I cannot believe this is Pan's first novel! Here are a few of the ones I loved.

This is the mother I want to remember. This joy. The way her glow filled a room. Her playfulness, her love of good food, her bright and bouncing laughter. [...] I stand there with my feet rooted into the carpet of that memory, watching until my ribs crunch together and pulverize my heart and send the heat of my missing everywhere. The grief spills out of me sepia dark. - In one of Pan's many brilliant artistic choices, she makes it possible for Leigh to relive memories, even ones that don't belong to her. Leigh is able to rediscover powerful components of the past that help her better understand the present and future. Pan captures the essence of grief with a clarity that's frighteningly accurate for those who've experienced it firsthand.
I would always remember my fourteenth birthday with perfect clarity, because it was one of the first times I realized that there might be something truly wrong with my mother. She cared that it was my birthday, but it wasn't enough to blow aside the storm. In the shadowy master bedroom, with lights off and curtains drawn, she spiraled all the way down. Her body was silent, but her darkness was louder than anything. Our home shrank to the size of a dollhouse, and the walls pressed up against me so that I couldn't breathe or speak or hear anything but her despair. - Pan depicts the ins and outs of depression and the way it can affect a whole family. She also captures what that experience is like for a teenager only beginning to understand the profound circumference of its shadow.
"They blame me. They think if I never come to America, if I never meet you, Jingling would be alive. Why everything always my fault? Maybe I blame them. They ate lunch with her the day she died. They should see how sick she was. Why everything my fault? Why not their fault? They will never meet Leigh. They will never hurt her like they hurt me." - Through Leigh's journey to Taiwan and the memories that she discovers, she learns about the way that family members can impact each other throughout generations and can shape each other's lives. I so loved Leigh's discovery of Waipo and Waigong and their histories, and I love how that expanded and enriched her view of the world -- even though they were two people who had caused her mother tremendous pain.

What I added to my TBR list: I'd read both of the other recommendations, Toni Morrison's Beloved and Laurie Halse Anderson's The Impossible Knife of Memory, but I love both passionately and wanted to mention here how great both of those reads are.
Teaching Tips: This novel would be a great choice for lit circles, and it would work well with other works about grief, coping with loss, family dynamics, cross-cultural families, and second generation Americans.

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Unabridged Episode 15: Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone

4/10/2018

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Quick Summary: Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone is a YA fantasy novel the centers on three characters who live in Orisha, a fantasy world loosely based on the author’s Nigerian heritage. This world that has lost its connection to magic. Zélie is one of the maji, individuals blessed with a connection to the gods who could do magic. The other two narrators are siblings, the children of the king who killed an entire generation of maji and who banished magic from the kingdom. Amari, the princess, has quietly struggled to meet her parents’ expectations through a lifetime of trying to fit in and to resist her desire to leave the castle. Inan, the prince, has done everything his father wanted, becoming a captain in the military who will enforce magic’s banishment. All three characters struggle with conflicts that have no easy answers, particularly as they come to know each other and their unique, hidden challenges.

My Take: Man, I loved this book so very much, and it was really tough to realize that I'll have to wait a long time for the next book to be released. I was enthralled by Zélie from the start--I loved her stubbornness and her loyalty to Tzain and her father. Her dedication to her mother's memory was powerful, and I appreciated the struggle she had throughout the novel to reconcile the damage magic could do with the way that it could give power to the powerless. I found Amari's and Inan's perspectives intriguing as well, and I appreciated the way that all of their lives wound together as the novel progressed.
My conclusion: I'm a fantasy lover in general, and I've been long overdue for a great fantasy read. I had extremely high expectations for this novel and could not wait for it to be released. Often, it's tough for a novel to live up to those expectations, but in so many ways, I thought that Adeyemi delivers. Adeyemi manages to tell a phenomenal story that is compelling and gripping while also making it a socially conscious commentary on the struggles within our contemporary society. That is hard work, but she pulls it off with finesse and seeming ease. 5/5 stars.
Favorite Quotes:

"I teach you to be warriors in the garden so that you will never be gardeners in the war." - Mama Agba is such an amazing character. Her wisdom and composure make her immediately lovable. Her teaching philosophy, particularly when contrasted with Saran, shows that not all warriors are evil and not all are taught to harm others.
"I'm the very monster I hunt." - Inan's determination to deny his magic is painful to witness, but his misguided loyalty to his nation shows the mistakes people make all too often when misled by faulty logic and damaging ideology.

NOTE -- THE NEXT QUOTE CONTAINS A SPOILER!!!!!! Pick up at the bold below to skip the spoiler.

"Air dies inside my chest as Zu looks down, small hands gripping the arrow's shaft. The young girl with a smile too wide for her face pulls against the weapon, speared with Orïsha's hate." - Although she was a minor character, Zu was such a phenomenal part of the story. I loved the way she led her people--with tenderness, compassion, and quiet certainty-- and the way that leadership contrasted Saran's awful regime. Her death (like many other parts of the book) highlights Adeyemi's social commentary on the senseless violence happening in our society today and the way that innocent victims are being murdered by people in positions of power simply because of ignorance, racism, fear, and hate.

YOU'RE SAFE READING HERE TO AVOID THE SPOILER!
What I added to my TBR list: I was so interested in the text that Sara shared, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba. With that kind of recommendation, I want to make sure that I read it soon! I also love Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison so very much. Jen sharing that one made me want to read it again.
Teaching Tips: This novel would be a great option for lit circles. As we discuss in the podcast, it would work well as an option along side of other socially conscious books that are taking on issues such as racism and police brutality more directly with realistic fiction. I love how this book takes a different angle on these complex issues our society is facing.
Podcast Highlights: I so appreciated what Jen said about Amari's quiet strength, and I thought Sara's commentary about the backstory she created for Saran was fascinating. I most especially appreciated how we all found different things about the book interesting, but despite those various perspectives, we each loved it. That speaks to the strengths of the novel. I can't believe it's Adeyemi's first novel! I'm so looking forward to the rest of the series.