Since the last time we were assigned to write blogs, we have covered some really interesting books. I enjoyed reading the books that I had no idea existed. Since we are almost done with our reading list, it is safe for me to say that Briar rose, Speak, and Bud not Buddy, were some of my favorites. Speak was a book that made me think about my highschool experience. There were a lot of students who chose to be outsiders, and even though I wasnt the one terrorizing them, I could have been the one to make a diffrence in their life, with a few waves, words, or smiles. I thought of all the students i know who bit their nails down to the bleeding points. My mom said its a sign of nervousness. I think its a sign of sadness. I will definintly pay more attention to my children than Melinda's parents paid to her. I think they were neglegent, not just because she snuck out and they didnt know, but because she was being teased at school, acting different, dressing different, and not speaking and they didnt even try to peace it together.
I found doing it interesting because it gave off a since of what teenage boys are thinking in their head, or a sense of what goes on in their mind. Also, becuase im sure that it happens at least once at everyschool, I started trying to imagine which one of my highschool teachers would be most likely to flirt or persue a student teacher realtionship.
Our latest book Deliver us from Evie, although I am not finished, was hard for me to place. From the way some things are described I got a feeling that the story is set in the early eighties, and then the talk of cassette tapes and song titles makes me think early, while some other words seem 1998ish. WHatever time frame, there was no talk of cell phones so who knows, I found it interesting because i dont know much about farm life, and I have never heard homosexuality described in a manner for children or teenagers. The subject was definitly carefully discussed. While reading, I was upset with the mother for telling the father the way she did because I thought that She sort of promised Evie she would lie for her, but I was more upset with the father for giving up the great father daughter relationship they had, because of her sexual preference. I think it would be interesting to ask the author why she chose to structure the story the way she did, and if it reflects events from her life.
3 comments:
I agree that I have enjoyed the last few books on our reading list, but I will say that even though "Deliver us from Evie" is about stereotypes and how one girl overcomes them, I have not enjoyed this book at all. I felt that in trying to break down a stereotype, Kerr created another that directly affected me. In the first few pages, Evie, Parr and their family openly create a stereotype for the eldest brother's girlfriend, affectionalty named Anna Banana. They called her basically a dumb blonde, sorority girl whose parents pay for everything. I was offended by this because I am a blonde sorority girl, who pays for as much as she can and is trying her best in college. One thing I do agree with in the book is how her parents blindsighted Evie in the way they now act around her. Even though, Evie is a lesbian and has a different sexual prefrence it is no a reason to disown her altogether. I agree with the lead blogger that this book is difficult to place the time, but I do think that even if it was in present day, the Mid-west as far as I know is still not very accepting of sexual prefrence differenced.
"Doing it" was on of my favorite books of the semester. It was a fresh approach to the ideals of males when it comes to the act of sex. I enjoyed it very much, but id did feel like I had to hide it in the classes I would read in because of the cover. It is a very provocative cover, and I had many people ask me about this book.
I also enjoyed "Speak". I enjoyed this book so much, I emailed my 16 year old cousin about it. She told me that she had to read "Speak" as her summer reading assignment for her freshman year in high school. I feel that "Speak" is a perfect book for high schoolers to read. Maybe as a cautionary tale, maybe as an uplifting ideal for incoming freshmen.
I haven't started Deliver Us yet, just picked it up from the library so my comments are solely based on Doint It and Speak. I hated Doing It, not just because of the contect, which I found to be way too explicit in some parts and offensive to women, but I also did not like the way the author would change his narrative perspective. He would write from the "all knowing" voice like Kittle talked about then he would change to the I-perspective and each time he would be a different person. I found this confusing felt like it detracted from the book's overall tone and cohesiveness. I would have to go back to the beginning of the chapter, read the name again to remind myself who he was writing/talking as. I also don't appreciate this writing style as I don't feel like a good author can know so much intimate details about so many of the book's characters, it's just not beleivable to me. I know that he's the author and he made up all the characters but for the author to be inside the head of all the characters like that seemed like it takes away from the central ones. Additionally I found the book's overall mysogynistic theme insulting. There were the occasional humorous parts, like the cancerous vein, but I truly don't have the desire to be inside the head of the hormone overloaded adolescent male (and yes of course this tainted my point of view).
I found Speak, however, to be a very interesting and intriguing book. It made me remember what it felt like to be in high school (where as Doing It reminded me more of a Sex and the City episode- I knew no girls like Kackie or Deborah) and to see the quiet, reserved or even outcast ones. I felt sympathy towards her, I cared for her and was happy when she finally started to speak again and I felt her pain of isolation. I despised her friends for turning on her and found myself hoping I was not like one of them in my younger years. I really agree with Forever in that I think her parents were neglectful- terribly neglectful. They were given warning signs the size of a small planet regarding their daughter's current state of mind but chose to ignore them. I know it's hard to speak to your children but it's well worth the effort and absolutely necessary to help raise a well socially adaptive productive mentally healthy adult. The book has made me more aware of my relationship with my daughter and more vigilant regarding our communication patterns. I feel that any good book gets the reader thinking and I still find myself replaying the book in my mind.
Speak was one of my favorite books we have read so far. I think the author did a good job describing the life of teenages and the kind of riticule they face on a daily basis. I also thought that Melinda's parents were very naive and neglegent as well. Melinda showed some definite signs of unhappiness and all they really did was yell at her and tell her she had to do better in school and in life. If my daughter went from a 3. something GPA to a 2 or 1. something, I would get the feeling that something was not right. I hope that when I have kids someday, they will feel comfortable enough to tell me everything.
Doing It was a whole other story. I work with teenagers and I found some parts in the book a little disturbing to read because I couldn't help thinking that some of our teenage boys probably think in the same way. However, I did try to put myself back in high school and think about the guys I hung around with and what kind of things came out of their mouths. I think that the author did a good job of getting inside the heads of teenage boys. It was definitely interesting to get a high school boy's perspective on life. I don't know if I would like to revisit that mind set though :)
Deliver Us From Evie is one of the books that I did not get to finish. Even though it is short, I found myself reading Doing It a lot more often to finish it and ran out of time for Deliver Us From Evie. The first part that I read about was pretty interesting though. I have a gay cousin and he was not able to "come out" to the family for almost 10 years. We all had a feeling he was gay, but it was really sad to know that he didn't think we would accept him if he told us sooner. While reading this book, I compared it to what my cousin had to go through. I found Evie to be a very strong character with good values and a strong personality. I liked that she was herself in the beginning and totally carefree and hard-working. From the discussions in class, I found out that when she met Patsy that she started to change more to try and impress Patsy. It threw me for a loop to realize that Patsy had feelings for Evie as well because of the person her father was. Not that I think because your dad is rich you can't be gay, but because she seemed to be the girl that all the guys were after. I am sad to hear that once Evie came out of the closet that her dad was not willing to accept her because I liked the bond that they had. As for Patsy's dad, I didn't really care what his opinion was.
I have enjoyed reading this books because I have not heard of most of them either. In fact, when I bought them, I decided that I was going to keep them and have my kids read someday. Except for Zipes of course.
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