BANG- SHARON G. FLAKE

As a teacher, I have always had a special interest in kids that Donalyn Miller describes as "dormant readers." You know them-- those kids that for whatever reason, just don't read. I'm pretty good at matching kids with books, but this year, there are a couple of sixth grade girls with whom, well, let's just say, with whom (is that proper grammar) I have not experienced a lot of success. They just don't read. Yet.

Last week, I came across these girls in the hall. They were huddled together over a book. "Whatcha reading?" I asked, trying to keep the excitement/glee out of my voice.

They held up the cover. "BANG!" they said. BANG was a book I had never seen.

"Any good?" I said, trying again to maintain an even voice.

"Yeah," they both exclaimed simultaneously.

I looked at the front cover, "I never heard of this book," I said. "Can I read it when you are done?"

"There are more in there," M said, and went back into the classroom to fetch one for me. And so for the past week, we have had our own informal reading club on the playground. The girls ask me how much I have read. What I think. How I think the book will end. And I have loved every minute of it.

BANG is the story of an urban teen named Mann, whose younger brother had been the victim of a gun battle while he was playing on their front porch two years earlier. Mann's parents have retreated into their canyons of grief and Mann is pretty much left to try to process things on his own. He turns to his best friend Kee-lee, the oldest son of a single parent. Mann and Kee-lee, both very talented artists, paint pictures, smoke marijuana, and keep track of the number of people who have been shot in their neighborhood. Mann's father, desperately afraid of losing his remaining son, decides he will help his son and Kee-lee become men. Drawing on African tribal customs, he sends the two on a journey that quickly becomes fatal.

BANG made me incredibly sad. I was saddened by the way grief shredded Mann's family, and especially how it impacted Mann's father. Second, I was saddened by Mann and Kee-lee, two super artistic kids who could make something of their lives; they remind me of way too many kids I teach and know. They have so, so, so much talent and so, so, so much promise, and they have to overcome so, so, so many barriers stand to grow into the shining stars they could be. I was also sad that it was a book where so many of my kids could see themselves.

At the same time, I think it's a book that might be incredibly appealing to urban adolescents. I'm going to try to get my boys to read it this summer.

WARNING: This is definitely YA-- probably not appropriate much below sixth grade.

100 DAYS AND 99 NIGHTS- Alan Madison

Esmerelda (Esme)  Swishback McCarther is a second grade girl who has a little brother, Ike; a biggish brown dog, Napoleon; and a "bedzoo" of stuffed animals that she rearranges alphabetically every morning (boy, do I wish this child lived at my house!) Each chapter begins with the story of one of these stuffed animals. 

Esmerelda's dad, August Aloysius McCarther the third, is a sergeant in the U.S. Army, as was his father, and his father's father. Inevitably, he is sent on a tour of duty (100 days and 99 mights) and Esme and Ike, along with their mother, try to hold down the fort at home. 

 Madison does a masterful job capturing the feelings of Esmerelda and her brother, "The first days were easier for me…But then, as the days began to fall like raindrops, I couldn't keep running between them and pretending I was not getting wet. So, as each day got easier for Ike because he had gotten used to being soaked, it got worse for me. Soon I was drenched and shivering…"

100 DAYS AND 99 NIGHTS is one of those books you want to have around, well, just because you never know when a kid might need it. 

WINTERGIRLS- Laurie Halse Anderson

Just finished reading an ARC of WINTERGIRLS (actual publication date- March 19). All I can say is WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!  Laurie Halse Anderson is an amazing author! I want to buy copies of this book for my niece (and every other teenage girl I know! This is an amazing story!

WINTERGIRLS is narrated by Lia, an upper middle class senior in high school. Lia has been hospitalized twice for anorexia, and is still deep in the throes of this horrific disease. She lives with her father, a college history professor and author who wants to believe Lia is fine, her stepmother, and her nine-year-old stepsister, Emma. Her mother, from whom she is semi-estranged, is a cardiac surgeon. 

When the book opens, Lia has just received the news that Cassie, her long-time best friend, has been found dead in a motel room. Lia and Cassie have been estranged for several months, but the night she died, Cassie called Lia's cell phone 33 times. Lia did not answer any of these calls. 

Cassie, it turns out, has died of complications related to years of bulemia. She and Lia have supported each other's eating disorders for years and years. Now Lia must battle demons of guilt. Why didn't she answer the phone when her friend called? Why did she discourage her friend from seeking help for her struggles? Why did the two girls challenge each other to see who could be the thinnest? As the last one alive, is  Lia really the winner of this challenge?

Laurie Halse Anderson has done an amazing job capturing the voice of an anorexic. She captures Lia's steep descent into a dark, frozen place where there are no feelings, and consequently no hurt. Maybe more importantly, she captures that one moment when Lia decides to come back from this dark forest, to a place of light and hope.

 I know this book is going to be a huge hit when it comes out. I imagine thousands and thousands of girls reading it and somehow finding the courage to fight their own demons. I am going to mail my copy to my sweet niece tomorrow. I'm going to buy copies for my sons' high school and middle school teachers. It's a book every teenage girl needs to have available.